Bird flu, infected cows and playwright Henrik Ibsen
Is the next pandemic on its way? The dramatic spread of bird flu in American cattle is very concerning.
Kurt Cobb
AI + synthetic biology: What could possibly go wrong?
Modern humans have come to believe that new technology is better and also benign. The downsides of AI and synthetic biology are already visible. Now, they are being combined.
Your order, please?
What if we presented possible options for future human developments—let’s say human population as a solid example—and pretend it’s a menu from which we get to choose.
PFAS – Poisoned for Eternity? (documentary film review)
The film explores how these synthetic “forever chemicals”–widely used in products such as nonstick cookware, firefighting foams and waterproof clothing–have infiltrated soil, water and everyday products
Single point of failure: Hurricane Helene and high-tech’s low-tech vulnerability
Supply chain problems keep popping up as industries fail to recognize their vulnerabilities. A little-known and critical vulnerability for the tech industry just made itself visible in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Evidence, please?
Modernity (even if defining starting 10,000 years ago) is a short-lived phase that will self-terminate—likely starting this century.
Memory in the age of the utterly now: The precarious state of the Internet Archive
Memory is how we orient ourselves in time and space. In the age of the internet the repositories of memory are exceedingly vulnerable.
Just the clash of opinions or different facts? Facing the epistemological divide
Differing opinions are not the primary thing dividing us.
Going bananas: Why the approach to the latest banana blight misses the point
The ongoing “banana apocalypse” shows us how vulnerable our agricultural methods are making our food supply.
From Plato to AI: Are we losing our minds?
Each step in human evolution has brought inventions that threaten to weaken our innate abilities.
Not if, but when: The coming North Atlantic deep freeze
In the next few decades, climate change is likely to have a counterintuitive effect on the North Atlantic and northern Europe when a major ocean current which brings heat from the tropics is projected to shut down.
Dark oxygen: We don’t know what we don’t know
The discovery of oxygen production in the deep ocean without light (and therefore without photosynthesis) is upending ideas about the evolution of life and origins of oxygen in the atmosphere.