Why science and tech writing is not up to this moment

Dear Reader,

With some admirable exceptions, American science and tech writing is a drag. The world changes but the words stay the same. You know the ones I mean:

… privacy … bias … disparate impact … corporate misbehavior … scientists say … we now know … autonomy … informed consent … misinformation … techbros … DEI … woke … fascism … restoring science to its rightful place …

I’m not here to debunk any of these concepts. But taken together, this mode of thinking has become stifling. It doesn’t get to core questions about what science is or what we are. It diminishes us. It divides us. It offers facts but not truth.

The New Atlantis works in a fundamentally different mode. Our aim is not “communication,” “storytelling,” or “afflicting the comfortable.” It is this: building a culture where science and technology work for, not on, human beings.

Let me first tell you what we believe that culture looks like. It is a culture that:

• understands the core anxiety about technology as the threat of dehumanization.

• fosters a richer discourse about science and tech, asking about dignity, degradation, the obligations between generations, the good life, and meaning and purpose.

• places wiser limits on dehumanizing technologies, research practices, and applications of science.

• resists the temptation to use medicine and biotechnology to conquer human nature, or to regard our bodies as raw material, and instead sees their purpose as caring for the sick while protecting the dignity of every person.

• views science not as a vehicle for putting humanity in its place or revealing what we cherish to be illusory but as an expression of human curiosity and endeavor.

• moves beyond the misguided dreams of making politics subservient to science — or of ridding experts from politics once and for all — and instead creates new institutions, practices, and ways of thinking in which democratic deliberation and scientific expertise inform, guide, and place sound limits upon one another.

• revives confidence in its ability to create new technologies and policies that ameliorate suffering, increase prosperity, strengthen family and communal bonds, counter threats to and from the environment, and open new possibilities for understanding and exploring the universe.

But I also want to show you what it looks like. Call to mind again the Standard American Science Writing Diet — then go take a look at the poster we’ve made for this campaign.

Powerful public thought can elicit many responses: elation, despair, or “take that! ”

But at its best, it can do more than any of that. I still recall what I felt when, as an undergraduate studying computer science and physics, wrestling uneasily with what modern science told us about the world and our place in it, I first encountered The New Atlantis : relief. Put into words, my response was: “Thank you, this is what I was looking for.”

Ordinarily in a letter like this, I would now tell you about X, Y, and Z tangible impact your philanthropic dollar will have if you support our project. I could tell you lots of things like that: the extra big article we could fund, the extra Senate office our work could show up in, our 60% growth in subscribers this past year and how we could beat it next year. These are important markers of our influence.

But my case to you is something deeper than any of this. That response I’m describing is rare in the ideas world. It is powerful. And it is powerful because it is not entirely about tangible outcomes, like moving a poll or passing a ballot initiative. Instead, this power is open-ended.

As I write this, the landscape of American thought is more in flux than at any time in memory. The need for culture-reshaping work is greater than ever before. And so is the opportunity.

Is technology for us or are we for technology? That is the question underlying our present sense of crisis. So stuck are we that The New Atlantis stands nearly alone in saying this is the question.

If you respond to our work with a “thank you” too, you are already a member of a club charged with an important task: helping the country grasp this question and answer it well. Take a look at our 2025 campaign goals and consider what your role means to you.

With thanks for your support and your readership,

Ari Schulman
Editor, The New Atlantis

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