essay
History of technology
Ingenious librarians
A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it
Monica Westin
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
essay
Cities
The haunted city
The city, for all its mechanical speed, artificial light and industrialisation, is the most uncanny of human habitats
Azania Imtiaz Khatri-Patel
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
What’s it like to chat with an AI that mimics you? Uncanny conversations with Replika
13 minutes
idea
Automation and robotics
Robogamis are the real heirs of terminators and transformers
Jamie Paik
video
Space exploration
How 3D-printing robots will get Mars home-ready for our arrival
5 minutes
idea
Automation and robotics
Sure, it can backflip – but can a robot hold down a desk job?
Amy LaViers
essay
Automation and robotics
Robot says: Whatever
What stands in the way of all-powerful AI isn’t a lack of smarts: it’s that computers can’t have needs, cravings or desires
Margaret Boden
video
Automation and robotics
Human as a process: What awaits us in the coming age of bio-enhancement?
3 minutes
idea
Automation and robotics
Robot cognition requires machines that both think and feel
Luiz Pessoa
video
Automation and robotics
The tiny robot that could wriggle its way across the perilous terrain of the human body
3 minutes
idea
Automation and robotics
Science has outgrown the human mind and its limited capacities
Ahmed Alkhateeb
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
Raising good robots
We already have a way to teach morals to alien intelligences: it’s called parenting. Can we apply the same methods to robots?
Regina Rini
idea
Computing and artificial intelligence
The body is the missing link for truly intelligent machines
Ben Medlock
video
Automation and robotics
Dance dance automation: music from the factory floor
8 minutes
video
History of technology
The last day of hot metal press before computers come in at The New York Times
29 minutes
essay
Information and communication
In proof we trust
Blockchain technology will revolutionise far more than money: it will change your life. Here’s how it actually works
Dominic Frisby
essay
Philosophy of mind
Consciousness creep
Our machines could become self-aware without our knowing it. We need a better way to define and test for consciousness
George Musser
video
Automation and robotics
If we are what we do, how can we stay human in an era of automation?
7 minutes
idea
Ethics
We have greater moral obligations to robots than to humans
Eric Schwitzgebel
video
Design and fashion
Rustic automata – a world built out of spare parts powered by solar energy
9 minutes
video
Cognition and intelligence
How do you get a robot to seem more like a human? You make it a liar robot
4 minutes
video
Bioethics
The mini robots that may show how to ‘programme’ cells for improved performance
4 minutes
video
History of science
A chess-playing machine hoax that beat the best and helped inspire the computer
10 minutes