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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

Black and white photograph depicts a flood with rising water levels in a residential area. Strong currents and waves are visible, and houses in the background are partially submerged. Floodwater covers much of the landscape, with a lone tree and partial wooden structure in the foreground.

essay

The future

The disruption nexus

Moments of crisis, such as our own, are great opportunities for historic change, but only under highly specific conditions

Roman Krznaric

A doorway within a metallic-like surface surrounded by hazard tape leads to a low-lit tunnel

essay

The future

Prehistory in the atomic age

To understand the terrifying futures unleashed by nuclear weapons, we urgently need to return to the deep past

Maria Stavrinaki

A tree with exposed roots growing from an eroded cliffside, with dense foliage in the background.

essay

Computing and artificial intelligence

Frontier AI ethics

Generative agents will change our society in weird, wonderful and worrying ways. Can philosophy help us get a grip on them?

Seth Lazar

A couple lying on grass on a hill nearby an American listening station in Berlin

essay

Metaphysics

What awaits us?

Humanity’s future remains as unthinkable as the still-uncolonised galaxy or the enduring mystery of our own births and deaths

Jennifer Banks

A measure for depth of water stands upright in a dried up landscape that was formerly a lake

essay

Information and communication

Beware climate populism

The most ardent deniers of anthropogenic climate change today will become the climate conspiracy theorists of tomorrow

Ákos Szegőfi

Spacecraft approaching a large, rocky asteroid in the dark expanse of outer space, with a distant star shining in the background.

essay

Space exploration

Capturing the cosmos

When self-replicating craft bring life to the far Universe, a religious cult, not science, is likely to be the driving force

Jay Olson

Illustration of a foetus inside a red orb, floating in space with a small satellite nearby against a starry galaxy background.

video

Space exploration

Would children born beyond Earth ever be able to return to humanity’s home planet?

5 minutes

A cityscape view with reflections of people on windows and a dramatic cloudy sky in the background.

essay

Earth science and climate

Deep warming

Even if we ‘solve’ global warming, we face an older, slower problem. Waste heat could radically alter Earth’s future

Mark Buchanan

Image of Saturn’s rings and its largest moon, Titan, with cloud cover, as captured from space.

video

Space exploration

Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets

31 minutes

A man and woman with glasses examine a small device in a room with artwork on the walls and a brick feature.

video

The future

What’s the healthiest way to handle a creeping feeling that the world is ending?

15 minutes

A man sits in a cluttered office filled with books and papers, holding an open book. A globe and more books are behind him on shelves.

video

Stories and literature

Solaris and beyond – Stanisław Lem’s antidotes to the bores of American sci-fi

7 minutes

A person stands on a Land Rover, looking through binoculars, with a sign reading “ELEPHANTS HAVE RIGHT OF WAY” in the background.

essay

Animals and humans

Against human exceptionalism

In a tight spot, you’d probably intuit that a human life outweighs an animal’s. There are good arguments why that’s wrong

Jeff Sebo

Scarecrow figures in yellow protective suits on a desolate sandy landscape under a cloudy sky, with industrial smoke in the distance.

essay

Thinkers and theories

Against longtermism

It started as a fringe philosophical theory about humanity’s future. It’s now richly funded and increasingly dangerous

Émile P Torres

Diffusion MRI scan showing a colourful fibre tract map of the human brain, highlighting neural pathways with a black background.

essay

Neuroscience

Am I my connectome?

Each human brain possesses a unique, intricate pattern of 86 billion neurons. If science can map it, immortality beckons

Phil Jaekl

A deserted city street flanked by tall buildings, leading to a large historic building in the background under a clear sky.

essay

Complexity

Uncertain times

The pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity – seeing human society as a complex system opens a better future for us all

Jessica Flack & Melanie Mitchell

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

Three lab technicians in masks and white coats working together in a laboratory, seen through a glass partition.

essay

Philosophy of science

The good scientist

Science is the one culture that all humans share. What would it mean to create a scientifically literate future together?

Martin Rees

A painting depicting soldiers surrounding an injured officer on a battlefield, with smoke and chaos in the background.

essay

History

Are there laws of history?

Historians believe that the past is irreducibly complex and the future wildly unpredictable. Scientists disagree. Who’s right?

Amanda Rees

A quantum computer’s golden, intricate hardware with wires and components against a dark background, partially visible.

essay

The future

At the limits of thought

Science today stands at a crossroads: will its progress be driven by human minds or by the machines that we’ve created?

David C Krakauer

Painting of Superman in various dynamic poses facing enemies and helping people. A blonde woman is observing with a large machine.

essay

Stories and literature

Supermensch

Superman et al were invented amid feverish eugenic speculation: what does the superhero craze say about our own times?

Iwan Rhys Morus

A person with half their face painted to resemble an animal’s face against a dark background.

video

Film and visual culture

Our biological past and our technological future play out on a single human face

1 minute

video

Progress and modernity

Smart homes, bountiful oceans and casual sexism: the future as envisaged from 1967

26 minutes

Painting of a waterfall at night with colourful streaks resembling meteors falling on the water against a dark sky in the background.

essay

The future

The end of us

Only since the Enlightenment have we been able to imagine humans going extinct. Is it a sign of our maturity as a species?

Thomas Moynihan

A Hello Kitty-themed bullet train launch, featuring a Hello Kitty mascot and a railway staff member waving beside the train.

idea

Film and visual culture

Why the power of cute is colonising our world

Simon May