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No. 66

Fall 2021

Manufacturing Consensus

Science needs conformity — but not the kind it has right now.

M. Anthony Mills

How to Fix Social Media

A century ago, new media tech brought fake news, privacy woes, and censorship fights — and American democracy tamed it. It’s time for new legislation that revives the wisdom of that era.

Nuclear Dread as Memento Mori

Activist Michael Shellenberger on “coming to peace with this radical technology”

Michael Shellenberger

Walmart, But for Space

Cheapness isn’t just about rockets — it will change the design of everything we send up.

The Invention of Slavery

Lincoln on whether technology makes us free

What Is the CDC?

Eleven ways of looking at the troubled agency

Modernity and the Fall

One weird trick to re-enchant the world

Statistics as Storytelling

America’s defining cultural artifact is the economics white paper.

All Pathology, All the Time

What ails a culture that sees illness everywhere?

Joseph E. Davis

Summer 2021

Libidinal Liberalism

Does banning bad behavior just make it worse?

Just Say No to Human–Monkey Chimeras

The biotech industry wants to set its own rules on a disturbing new practice. This time, we can’t trust them to act responsibly.

Redpilling and the Regime

Claiming to be a daring outsider who speaks forbidden truths has become a standard trope. Can it still threaten the establishment?

Geoff Shullenberger

Dance Till We Die

Why Covid security theater failed

Enough About “We”

When sci-fi needs a little less sci and a little more fi

Dying, But Not Alone

We can’t escape the social dimension of choosing how we die.

Spring 2021

Chasing the Sun

The extraordinary story of two Pacific voyages of discovery a thousand years apart

Why We Can’t Leave Nature Alone

We shouldn’t be so bashful about tinkering with the environment to save it.

Welcoming Our New Robot Overlords

How warnings of AI doom gave way to primal fear of primates posting

Our aim is a culture in which science and technology work for, not on, human beings.

About Us Explore Projects

Staying Human

A More Natural Science

On the Modern Project

The Technological Condition

Mind & Human Nature

A More Political Science

Beyond Earth

The Good Earth

The Practice of Science

The Coronavirus Pandemic

March 25, 2021

A Victory for Scientific Pragmatism

In an emergency, the “gold” standard of evidence may not be the wise one.

Arturo Casadevall, Michael J. Joyner, Nigel Paneth

January 8, 2021

Visiting Grandparents Is Essential

The triumph of the economic in the vaccine priority debate

Brandon McGinley

June 5, 2020

Tribalism Comes for Pandemic Science

Can our polarized country act on provisional knowledge?

How We Reason About Covid Tradeoffs

Our pandemic decisions should be about defending the dignity of suffering people, not choosing between lives and money.

January 8, 2021

Visiting Grandparents Is Essential

The triumph of the economic in the vaccine priority debate

Brandon McGinley

Covid-19 - Levin - Tribalism - banner 1500w

June 5, 2020

Tribalism Comes for Pandemic Science

Can our polarized country act on provisional knowledge?

How We Reason About Covid Tradeoffs

Our pandemic decisions should be about defending the dignity of suffering people, not choosing between lives and money.

Featured Collections

Special Series

Recovering the Organism

Symposium | Spring 2019

The Ruin of the Digital Town Square

From the Archives

After Climate Despair

The hope for a global conversion to austerity has failed to stop climate change. What comes next?

Winter/Spring 2013

Do Elephants Have Souls?

On the evidence for non-human intelligence, awareness, and emotion

Shop Class as Soulcraft

The case for the manual trades

Matthew B. Crawford

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

Biotechnology and the pursuit of perfection

The Human Explorer

Why sending robots is not enough

How Can I Possibly Be Free?

Why the neuroscientific case against free will is wrong

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