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Beyond nostalgia: Why America's next chapter demands forward thinking
Yearning to return to a golden age that never existed will not meet the challenges ahead.
'Shut it all down': The ethics and risks of AI
A philosopher and an AI expert explore the potential pitfalls and benefits of artificial intelligence. An ongoing series.
How the Electoral College dies
There is a real chance that future elections will take place without the red-and-blue map of the Electoral College. Here's how it could happen.
The emptying of Florida
Many Floridians currently fleeing Hurricane Milton are unlikely to return. It may be the first big step in the predicted near-emptying of the climate-exposed peninsula.
The problem with eternity
Thinking 500 or 10,000 or a million years in the future is hard enough. Yet some people toss around eternity as if they understand it.
Is the US headed for a cold civil war?
A majority of Americans fear that political violence is imminent. But it may not take quite the form we imagine.
The methadone of the people
It's tempting to imagine a future free of the opium of the people. But there's a new addiction right behind it.
It may be time to accept that we're living in a simulation
New religion incoming.
A theory of future music
A music professor tries to imagine the music of the distant future.
Look up or don’t look up: We probably won’t see the one that gets us
Tick tick, y'all.
Is the sun setting on solitary confinement?
If our system of punishment continues to revolve around deprivation, the future will always include some version of a dark hole in the ground.
The disorienting weirdness of GPT's hallucinations
We just aren't wired to grok this kind of interaction.