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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

Hand-drawn diagram titled “Free-Form Discrete H’Texts” showing a map with two-way links and a flowchart with one-way links.

essay

Future of technology

A linkless internet

In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum

Collin Jennings

A DNA double helix with overlapping images: lined pages, the printed pages of an old book, and a painted portrait of a woman that is the Mona Lisa, all on a black background.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

The ‘cloud’ requires heaps of energy to stay aloft. Could synthetic DNA be the answer?

12 minutes

A young woman and a man, both dressed formally, sit at a table with an electronic device in front of them. The woman is engaging with the device, which has several buttons and dials, while the man observes attentively. The setting appears to be an office or classroom. The image is in black and white.

essay

Technology and the self

Tomorrow people

For the entire 20th century, it had felt like telepathy was just around the corner. Why is that especially true now?

Roger Luckhurst

A circular space station with solar panels and lights orbiting above a planetary surface.

video

Space exploration

Mind-bending speed is the only way to reach the stars – here are three ways to do it

5 minutes

Abstract night scene with vibrant colours; glowing trees line the horizon under a dark sky with a bright, distorted moon.

video

Film and visual culture

An augmented-reality filter reveals the hidden movements all around us

7 minutes

The International Space Station is seen at an angle through a window against the darkness of space

essay

Space exploration

The skyhook solution

Space junk surrounds Earth, posing a dangerous threat. But there is a way to turn the debris into opportunity

Angelos Alfatzis

Aerial view of a river winding through a lush green valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains with a few red marked spots.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

A scientist’s poor eyesight helped fuel a revolution in computer ‘vision’

9 minutes

Silhouetted man standing by a large window with a view of Saturn’s rings in a dimly lit, elegant restaurant.

video

Future of technology

Is this the future of space travel? Take a luxury ‘cruise’ across the solar system

6 minutes

Human figures beneath a glass dome watch the launch of a rocket from the surface of Mars

essay

Space exploration

The final ethical frontier

Earthbound exploration was plagued with colonialism, exploitation and extraction. Can we hope to make space any different?

Philip Ball

Surreal artwork of a woman submerged in water with fish swimming around her, her head inside an aquarium-like structure and her hair flowing upwards.

video

Future of technology

Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us

23 minutes

essay

Music

Give the drummer some

As AI drum machines embrace humanising imperfections, what does this mean for ‘real’ drummers and the soul of music?

Jack Stilgoe

Abstract artwork generated by AI with bold swirls and lines in red, black, yellow, blue, and white, creating a dynamic and vibrant pattern.

video

Film and visual culture

With human help, AIs are generating a new aesthetics. The results are trippy

9 minutes

Photo of a chair and a striped pole, with the overlaid text “IS THIS ART?” and the possible answers “YES NO YES NO NO”.

video

Art

What does an AI make of what it sees in a contemporary art museum?

15 minutes

Illustration of a farm with grazing cows, pineapples, strawberries, tomatoes, banana trees, a river, and a bird in the sky.

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future

7 minutes

Illustration of a person on a toilet, holding a spade, sitting atop a mound of vegetables with a tractor in the background.

essay

The environment

The power of shit

Our excrement is a natural, renewable and sustainable resource – if only we can overcome our visceral disgust of it

Lina Zeldovich

Abstract digital art of a person drinking while sitting on a sofa, created with glowing orange, pink and purple dots on a black background.

video

Technology and the self

When an AI rejects him for life insurance, Mitch wonders if he can escape his fate

7 minutes

Aerial view of a concrete area with colourful staggered beams, sections of white paint, and black tyre marks forming circular patterns.

essay

Future of technology

Learn from machine learning

The world is a black box full of extreme specificity: it might be predictable but that doesn’t mean it is understandable

David Weinberger

Landscape painting featuring George Washington standing near modern-day hikers and deer by a lake, with trees, mountains and bright sky.

essay

Stories and literature

The cliché writes back

Machine-written literature might offend your tastes but until the dawn of Romanticism most writers were just as formulaic

Yohei Igarashi

A woman with red hair speaking into a headset mic on stage wearing a black top and gold necklace against a dark background.

video

Computing and artificial intelligence

Algorithms are sensitive. People are specific. We should exploit their respective strengths

36 minutes

Abstract digital art depicting a woman’s head and icons representing interests and hobbies, including a pie chart and a folder, in yellow and grey.

video

Future of technology

Tech companies shroud their algorithms in secrecy. It’s time to pry open the black box

4 minutes

A jet fighter monument on a pedestal in a snowy park during winter, with a person walking nearby and trees in the background.

essay

Future of technology

How vulnerable is the world?

Sooner or later a technology capable of wiping out human civilisation might be invented. How far would we go to stop it?

Nick Bostrom & Matthew van der Merwe

Photo of a video conference with multiple participants, a serious man in glasses centred, other participants also unsmiling.

essay

Technology and the self

Zoom and gloom

Sitting in a videoconference is a uniformly crap experience. Instead of corroding our humanity, let’s design tools to enhance it

Robert O’Toole

Cartoon hands holding blue lollypops, with several floating smiley faces against a blue gradient background.

video

Technology and the self

A handful of executives control the ‘attention economy’. Time for attentive resistance

4 minutes

Aerial photo of a large rocket on a mobile platform at a space launch facility, surrounded by water and greenery, leading to the ocean.

essay

The future

Where did the grandeur go?

Superlative things were done in the past century by marshalling thousands of people in the service of a vision of the future

Martin Parker