The New Atlantis

Current Issue

No. 72

Spring 2023

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Rational Magic

Why a Silicon Valley culture that was once obsessed with reason is going woo

Tara Isabella Burton

What Was the Fact?

Here lies a beloved friend of social harmony (ca. 1500–2000). It was nice while it lasted.

Jon Askonas

Out of the Wild

Why we can’t rid nature of us

Samuel Matlack

What Does “Scientific Progress” Mean, Anyway?

Three ways we think about science flourishing — or getting stuck

M. Anthony Mills

The Demise of the Garage Inventor

How Hollywood forgot the tinkering dad

Joseph Joyce

Selling the Drama

A eulogy for “humdog,” the poster who led a tech backlash in the days of dial-up

Katherine Dee

Why Were They Dropped?

The revisionist historians who cast doubt on why Truman made his fateful decision

Algis Valiunas

Nature, Toothless and Declawed

Martha Nussbaum’s dubious case for animals as liberal subjects

Clare Coffey

Fusion and the Holy Grail

Choosing poorly on the miracle technology

Tristan Abbey

Digital Appeasement

“Meganets,” the melodramatic new excuse for giving up against digital oppression without a fight

Bonnie Kristian

Human Resources

Why Soylent Green was more prophetic than it seems

David Polansky

Shallowfakes

The danger of exaggerating the AI disinfo threat

James R. Ostrowski

Winter 2023

No Other Options

Newly revealed documents depict a Canadian euthanasia regime that efficiently ushers the vulnerable to a “beautiful” death.

Alexander Raikin

Driven Apart

Contrary to the myth of the open road, in real adulthood we go somewhere and get there slow.

Clare Coffey

Arcs of Life

A just society does not kill suffering people, it shares their burden.

Matthew Loftus

The Long Delay Is Nearly Over

After a half-century of going nowhere, in 2022 American space travel got moving again. Here’s what changed — and how to make it stick.

Alex Dubin

Who’s Afraid of Cowardice?

We’re brain-fried on superhero fistfights. It’s time to learn from heroes who run away.

Adam Roberts

Can There Be a Conservative Futurism?

The retreat from time is not a winning answer to our tech malaise.

John Ehrett

Phoneless, Carless, Friendless

An essay trio by Clare Coffey on living under lonelytech when you can’t beat the system

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Fall 2022

Bacon Bacon Shakespeare Spy

One brilliant madwoman’s quest to show that the Bard’s works were secretly penned by the father of science, at war with his own creation

Sam Kahn

The Secret Life of Leftovers

Cheese, curry, beer: We can thank our ancestors who put food scraps to creative use. What we’re leaving our children is garbage.

Nat Watkins

Kitty Eats the Internet

Cat memes fill a gaping void in our online lives.

Antón Barba-Kay

Middle Seat to the Moon

How to keep the thrill alive once billionaires make space travel routine

Charles T. Rubin

A Nuclear Renaissance?

Stalled for decades, U.S. atomic power seems set for a comeback. Here’s what it’ll take to get it right this time.

Thomas Hochman and Nate Hochman

How to Search for Life on Mars

First, stop refusing to look.

Robert Zubrin, Steven Benner, Jan Špaček

Summer 2022

How Stewart Made Tucker

A world of authentic, post-spin journalism: The dream Jon Stewart spent a decade making real is now America’s waking nightmare. What did he get so wrong?

Jon Askonas

Unsustainable Alarmism

The crisis mindset is a finite resource — and we’ve exhausted it. From Covid to climate change, we need a new way to manage chronic problems.

Taylor Dotson

Power Metals

Can the U.S. wrest control of rare-earth elements back from China?

Tristan Abbey

Was Fusionism a Fluke?

Why technocratic tyranny made allies of traditionalism and libertarianism

Howe Whitman, III

Stuck Between Climate Doom and Denial

The failure of a mega-popular critique of climate science shows why we need a third option in the debate.

Roger Pielke, Jr.

The Supergenius at the End of the World

In Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi, democracy is an obstacle to Muskian great men saving us all.

David Polansky

Special Series: “Reality: A Post-Mortem”

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

About Us Explore Projects

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A More Natural Science

On the Modern Project

The Technological Condition

Mind & Human Nature

A More Political Science

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Featured Collections

Special Series

Recovering the Organism

Symposium | Winter 2022

Debating the “Public Interest” Online

Responses to “How to Fix Social Media” by Nicholas Carr

From the Archives

Fall 2019

After Climate Despair

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

Matt Frost

Winter/Spring 2013

Do Elephants Have Souls?

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

Caitrin Keiper

Summer 2006

Shop Class as Soulcraft

The case for the manual trades

Matthew B. Crawford

Spring 2003

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

Biotechnology and the pursuit of perfection

Leon R. Kass

Winter 2004

The Human Explorer

Why sending robots is not enough

Robert Zubrin

Summer 2010

How Can I Possibly Be Free?

Why the neuroscientific case against free will is wrong

Raymond Tallis