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Z: The least religious generation ever
In an analysis that reads like porn for secularists, Daniel Cox details the degrees to which Gen Z is markedly more secular than any previous generational cohort.
Longtermism: the good, the bad and the ridiculous
Some philosophers stray into religious fantasy when they argue that a far-off utopian scenario supersedes any obligations to the present.
Why AI isn’t an oracle of truth
Reading Time: 5 minutes Big Tech companies eager to find the next big thing have latched onto AI chatbots—but they’re racing ahead of what the tech can actually do.
Reclaiming human agency in how we think about AI
Reading Time: 9 minutes Online panic about AI models like ChatGPT follows a well-travelled path set by impoverished understandings of evolutionary theory. Can we reclaim human agency?
Too many people
Wealthy, well-developed nations are nearing ZPG (zero population growth), which makes life better for everyone.
Perfect empathy: Deep Space Nine and the most fantastical concept in all of fiction
Reading Time: 5 minutes A series that brought the optimism of Star Trek to the threshold of the 21st century ended with the message that empathy is the solution to all conflict. A generation later, that concept is much harder to accept.
Did Krakatoa’s eruption turn Indonesia Muslim?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Starting at 11:05 p.m. on October 11, 2002, three terrorist bombs detonated in quick succession on the picturesque Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, mostly Western tourists, in the teeming bar district. Historians said it had been a very long time coming—119 year
Introducing LA’s newest secular youth group
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I was a teen, there is nothing I would have loved more than to be in a secular youth group. I wasn’t in a religious youth group, but from what I’ve heard, I didn’t miss much besides purity culture, bad Christian rock music, and suppressed teen hormones. But what if there
The deathbed perspective
It’s easy to forget that life is temporary. How would you live differently with that knowledge in front of you?
Anonymity, privacy, transparency, integrity: Do we even know the future we want?
Reading Time: 8 minutes In the late 2000s, research blossomed around our use of online avatars. Did our videogame icons and social media profiles represent our actual selves, our ideal selves, or something else entirely? And did they have a reciprocal impact, a “Proteus effect” that transformed self
Scaling the summit for religious freedom
Reading Time: 3 minutes What do reproductive rights, marriage equality, and gender-affirming care have in common? We know that they are freedoms that conservatives are trying to strip from everyone, but there is one crucial thread tying them all together. They are all under threat because of a group
Are AI art programs ripping off human artists?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Artists erupted in protest when they learned that AI art engines like Stable Diffusion were trained on their copyrighted works. This revelation has ignited a debate about the meaning of fair use.