In Memory of the Spanish Flu
The origins of the virus are disputed. Researchers have pointed to China, Austria and France.
Ben Sixsmith
· 7 min read
The Empathy Gap in Tech: Interview with a Software Engineer
The tech industry more broadly is rarely discussed in terms of friendliness towards those with high functioning autism, such as Gideon.
Claire Lehmann
· 15 min read
Plenty of Room for AI-nxiety
Things change once we leave the world of infallible humans who can create a perfectly benevolent general intelligence.
Christopher Reuenthal
· 10 min read
Utilitarianism’s Missing Dimensions
According to the ethical theory of utilitarianism, refusing to push the strange man is unethical. In both scenarios, the ethical action is to sacrifice one to save five.
Erik Parens
· 11 min read
Where Did We Come From? An Astonishing Hypothesis
The possibility that non-life became life over a million or so years, rather than hundreds of millions of years, is astonishing.
Geoffrey Lehmann
· 19 min read
Free Speech Leftists Still Exist
The perception, understandably, follows that the right is in favor of free expression, and the left has become wholly illiberal.
Alexander Blum
· 7 min read
Why No One Cares About Feminist Theory
At this point, we must really pause to ask ourselves how feminist theory is leaking into popular culture, and the reason is that it’s activism-driven scholarship.
James Lindsay
· 10 min read
Serwer Error: Misunderstanding Trump Voters
A little over a month ago, the Atlantic published a long article by senior editor Adam Serwer entitled “The Nationalist’s Delusion.” The essay provoked considerable discussion and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell described it as “mandatory reading.” Serwer challenges the narrative that Trump’s unlikely electoral triumph was propelled
Zach Goldberg
· 7 min read
Books to Read in 2018
Enlightenment Now, Steven Pinker “Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases…” Read more at Amazon. The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt “The generation now coming of age has been taught three
Quillette
· 4 min read
Femen’s Inna Shevchenko: Fear of Causing Offense Has Cost Too Many Innocent Lives
Her life story presents a challenge to religious communities. Do they want to reform [Islam] or give it up?”
Jeffrey Tayler
· 12 min read
Collision with Reality: What Depth Psychology Can Tell us About Victimhood Culture
Personal or collective attitudes that create an invitation to victimhood and infirmity can alter what we expect for ourselves.
Lisa Marchiano
· 11 min read
Direct Democracy and Its Discontents
What is direct democracy? It is a process of political decision-making that puts power directly in the hands of the populace.
Oliver Conolly
· 12 min read
Using the Blockchain to Fight Corruption
Blockchain technology has the power to render the dealings of businesses and nation states into open books, purged of secrecy and the privacy of elite cabals.
Alexander Blum
· 6 min read
The Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement
Technologies arising out of our improved understanding may be developed to enhance IQ and considers some of the ethical questions that gives rise to.
Toby Young
· 7 min read
The Neuroscience of Intelligence: An Interview with Richard Haier
Is it possible to see if someone is high in g by their brain activity on a PET scan or fMRI scan – and if so, what does it look like?
Claire Lehmann
· 8 min read