No. 51Winter 2017
No. 51
Winter 2017
Special Issue
Information, Matter, and Life
Why Information Matters
Luciano Floridi on what philosophy and computer science can contribute to each other
The Limits of Information
Daniel N. Robinson on the gaps between scientific explanation and human experience
The Time of Our Lives
Raymond Tallis on physics, consciousness, and the arrow of information
What Is It Like to Know?
Ari N. Schulman on why we talk in circles about experience
Evolution and the Purposes of Life
Stephen L. Talbott on biology's unasked questions about the goal-directed activities of organisms
The Use and Abuse of ‘Information’ in Biology
Murillo Pagnotta on why there is more to biological development than genes
Mind Games
Charles T. Rubin on the film Ex Machina and breathing life into matter
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No. 52Spring 2017
No. 52
Spring 2017
Essays
Growing Pains
Paul W. Hruz, Lawrence S. Mayer, and Paul R. McHugh on problems with puberty suppression in treating gender dysphoria
Making Technological Miracles
Mark P. Mills defends the value of curiosity-driven science and proposes a new way to think about R&D
Darwin Made Me Do It
Michael Ruse on how the process of evolution gave us moral instincts but the theory of evolution undermines moral reasoning
On the Origin of Cooperation
Kevin N. Laland on how culture and nature worked together so we can work together
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Pop Goes the Physics
David Kordahl on what’s left out of Sean Carroll’s The Big Picture
ADD for All
Joseph E. Davis on Big Pharma, overdiagnosis, and the questions unasked about medicalization
Whose Motivation? Which Good?
James K. A. Smith on Christian Smith’s strawman of social science
Toward a More Human Medicine
Aaron Rothstein on doctors, parts, and persons
Grit, Gus, and Glory
George Weigel on restoring the reputation of a test pilot, astronaut, and unsung American hero
On the Shelf
Short reviews of books on the opioid epidemic, the crisis of authority, Silicon Valley, the “new eugenics,” and more
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No. 53Summer/Fall 2017
No. 53
Summer/Fall 2017
Correspondence
Must Science Be Useful?
Scientists and policy experts respond to Daniel Sarewitz’s “Saving Science”
Essays
The Undeath of Cinema
Alexi Sargeant on digital acting from beyond the grave
Wokeness and Myth on Campus
Alan Jacobs on why “free exchange of ideas” fails as a response to campus protest
Quantum Poetics
Samuel Matlack on why physics can’t get rid of metaphor
The Evangelist of Molecular Biology
Algis Valiunas on James D. Watson and his unfinished quest to master genetic destiny
Reviews and Reconsiderations
The Illusionist
David Bentley Hart on Daniel Dennett’s mindless materialism
Till Tomorrow
Adam Roberts on why farmers are the original time travelers
The Moral Case for High-Tech Weapons
Merav Ceren asks whether Israeli military innovation has made war more just
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No. 54Winter 2018
No. 54
Winter 2018
Essays
Algorithmic Injustice
Tafari Mbadiwe on how to keep criminal sentencing algorithms from entrenching racial inequality
Shakespeare’s Worlds of Science
Natalie Elliot on cosmic and atomic upheaval in Hamlet, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet
The University the King Built
Waleed Al-Shobakky reports on a Saudi experiment to solve the West’s science malaise — and become a global research powerhouse
The Idea Incarnate
Kirsten A. Hall on when our thoughts run away from us
Responsible Frankensteins?
Brendan P. Foht on the conceit that embryo researchers can play God, but ethically
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Disenchantment, Actually
Doug Sikkema on how myths, true or false, shape the conditions of our experience
The Political Path to GPS
Anthony Paletta describes how war and peace forged the universal map
Lives of the Immortalists
Olga Rachello on the human stories of people who don’t want to be human
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No. 55Spring 2018
No. 55
Spring 2018
Essays
Google.gov
Adam J. White on whether growing calls to break up Google distract from a quiet alignment between “smart” government and the universal information engine
The Tech Backlash We Really Need
L. M. Sacasas on why Silicon Valley will only be strengthened by its present scandals unless we ask deeper questions
For the Love of Mars
James Poulos on why settling the Red Planet would lift us from our antihuman malaise
Richard Feynman and the Pleasure Principle
Algis Valiunas on how a cerebral hedonist became a scientific hero
Faith and the Fear of Death
Jonathan Jong on confronting our mortality from the lab and the altar
Encounter in the Vale
Jonathan Mosedale recounts a story of hiking, frailty, and glimpsing the divine
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Did Thomas Kuhn Kill Truth?
David Kordahl reviews filmmaker Errol Morris’s new book on whether the philosopher of science threw an ashtray at his head
The Joy of Cryptozoology
Clare Coffey on the Jersey Devil and the psychology of conspiracy theories
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No. 56Summer/Fall 2018
No. 56
Summer/Fall 2018
Correspondence
Why Do We Think We Are Disenchanted?
Debating The Myth of Disenchantment by Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm
Moon Direct
Robert Zubrin offers a purpose-driven plan to open the lunar frontier
The Return of the Space Visionaries
Rand Simberg on how space tycoons are bringing back the dream of truly settling the “high frontier” — and how policy can catch up
Lost on Mars
Micah Meadowcroft on why space colonization will disappoint you
Essays
How Facebook Deforms Us
L. M. Sacasas on the too-savvy idea that strengthening our social fabric can fix the platform that’s destroying it
What Happened to Bioethics?
Yuval Levin on why biomedical research doesn’t roil national politics anymore — and the thin hope offered by the last time it did
Jonas Salk, the People’s Scientist
Algis Valiunas on how the man who vanquished polio won the public’s love but never the respect of his peers
Why Data Is Never Raw
Nick Barrowman on the seductive myth of information free of human judgment
Time to Log Off
Ian Marcus Corbin on being online and recognizing inhumane arrangements for what they are
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No. 57Winter 2019
No. 57
Winter 2019
Essays
How Tech Utopia Fostered Tyranny
Jon Askonas argues that authoritarians’ love for digital technology is no fluke — it’s a product of Silicon Valley’s “smart” paternalism
Will Climate Change the Courts?
David A. Murray on the “children’s climate crusade” and the coming global campaign to transform the courts
While Bioethics Fiddles
Brendan P. Foht on the frivolous games academic ethicists play while baby manufacturing draws near
The Most Dangerous Possible German
Algis Valiunas on the ambiguous legacy of Werner Heisenberg, quantum genius and would-be inventor of the Nazi A-bomb
Robotic Souls
Charles T. Rubin asks what debates over machine consciousness mean for how we regard ourselves
Jihadi Digital Natives
P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking on how ISIS liked and posted its way to power
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Netflix and Nil
James Poulos on why being online turns us into nihilists
Make Physics Real Again
David Guaspari on why so many physicists have shrugged off the paradoxes of quantum mechanics
Modernity’s Spell
Clare Coffey on why debunking mesmerism only made it stronger
Steven Weinberg Glimpses the Promised Land
David Kordahl on how the sage of physics quarrels with politics and philosophy — and dreams of science’s last day
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No. 58Spring 2019
No. 58
Spring 2019
Essays
After Technopoly
Alan Jacobs on why getting beyond rationalism requires the return of myth
Our Uneasy Tranquility
Heather Zeiger asks whether the rising use of anti-anxiety pills should have us worried
Why Science Can’t Break the GMO Stalemate
Tess Doezema argues that studies won’t settle a debate about technocracy itself
Can Chess Survive Artificial Intelligence?
Yoni Wilkenfeld on how computers take the error out of human chess — and the adventure
The Inescapable Town Square
L. M. Sacasas on how social media combines the worst parts of past eras of communication
Preserving Real-Life Childhood
Naomi Schaefer Riley on why decency online requires raising kids who know life offline
How Not to Regulate Social Media
Shoshana Weissmann on proposed privacy and bot laws that would do more harm than good
The Four Facebooks
Nolen Gertz on misinformation, manipulation, dependency, and distraction
Do You Know Who Your ‘Friends’ Are?
Ashley May on why treating others well online requires defining our relationships
The Distance Between Us
Micah Meadowcroft on why we act badly when we don’t speak face-to-face
The Emergent Order of Twitter
Andy Smarick on why the platform should be fixed from the bottom up, not the top down
Imagine All the People
James Poulos on how the fantasies of the TV era created the disaster of social media
Making Friends of Trolls
Caitrin Keiper on finding familiar faces behind the black mirror
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No. 59Summer 2019
No. 59
Summer 2019
Essays
The New Kinship Engineering
Brendan P. Foht on why three-parent babies are being created not to prevent disease but to manufacture genetic relationships
In Search of Lost Time on YouTube
Laurence Scott on how the platform takes us to places where we ache to go again
First, Take No Stand
Aaron Kheriaty shows how on assisted suicide, the medical profession ducks behind “neutrality”
Crusoe at the Crossroads
Kirsten A. Hall on Robinson Crusoe, Lost, and why we keep returning to mysterious islands where science blurs with the supernatural
Analog Anchors for the Online Adrift
Ian Marcus Corbin on how Moleskine sells durability to ephemeral selves
NASA’s Next 50 Years
Robert Zubrin argues that a half-century after Apollo, it’s time for a real, and different, mission for our space agency
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Tell Him Something Pretty
Robert Herritt on Deadwood's lowly view of reason
Einstein in Athens
Benjamin Liebeskind on how modern physics is unwittingly echoing Aristotle, and still has much to learn from him
All Activities Monitored
Jon Askonas on how military drone surveillance is quietly creeping into policing, business, and everyday life
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No. 60Fall 2019
No. 60
Fall 2019
Essays
After Climate Despair
Matt Frost argues for energy abundance in a warming world
Reviving Expertise in a Populist Age
Zach Graves and M. Anthony Mills on why a Congress wary of technocracy defers to bureaucrats
Custodians of the Body
Alan Rubenstein on how our organ donation regime strikes the right balance between generosity to the living and respect for the dead
The Mars Decision
Robert Zubrin on how to show that American democracy can still do great things
Reviews and Reconsiderations
On the Monster Beat
Clare Coffey on why the civic needs the weird
Enlightenment Later
Kent Anhari on whether reason will survive rationalism
The Ancients’ Tech Anxiety
Charles T. Rubin on the shallowness of reading mythology as sci-fi
We All Wear Tinfoil Hats Now
Geoff Shullenberger on how fears of mind control went from paranoid delusion to conventional wisdom
Trouble for Hedgehogs
Michael M. Rosen asks whether generalists are due for a comeback
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No. 61Winter 2020
No. 61
Winter 2020
Essays
The Analog City and the Digital City
L. M. Sacasas on how online life breaks the old political order
The Science Before the War
M. Anthony Mills and Mark P. Mills on how the technological feats of World War II grew out of curiosity-driven research
Eat Me, Drink Me, Like Me
Tara Isabella Burton asks whether love in the attention economy is unreal
Turing and the Uncomputable
Algis Valiunas on logic come to life
Reviews and Reconsiderations
Must Growth Doom the Planet?
Ted Nordhaus argues that in an age of stagnation, calls to limit growth miss the real problems we face.
Do We Want Dystopia?
Stefan Beck on nightmare tech as the fulfillment of warped desire
The Mathematician and the Mystic
David Guaspari on Simone Weil, her brother André, and truths that do not converge
Why We Choose Surveillance Capitalism
Michael M. Rosen argues that Americans don’t care about privacy as much as they say
Inventing the Universe
David Kordahl asks whether quantum physicists are making things up as they go along
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No. 62Fall 2020
No. 62
Fall 2020
Correspondence
In What Sense Abundant?
Patrick J. Deneen, Jeffrey Bilbro, and Rich Powell respond to Matt Frost
Essays
Democracy and the Nuclear Stalemate
Taylor Dotson and Michael Bouchey on moving beyond political scientism
The New Net Delusion
Geoff Shullenberger on how 2010’s utopians became 2020’s prophets of doom
Science as Scorekeeping
Brendan Foht on why American political leaders should be players, not spectators
Gratuitous Display
Laurence Scott on the American diner and the viral tip
How We Reason About Covid Tradeoffs
Ben Peterson on why we need to talk more about human dignity
Mending the Healers
Brewer Eberly on whether med school can still offer moral formation
Reviews & Reconsiderations
Saving Ourselves
Tara Isabella Burton on real love as rebellion in TV’s Brave New World
The End of History and the Fast Man
Adam J. White on bidding farewell to America’s car culture — and its democratic virtues
Taking Carbon to Court
Jonathan H. Adler on why a legal victory was not a clear victory for the climate
Promoting the Useful Arts
Michael M. Rosen on why innovators need protection, not planning
Go West, Old Man
John Sexton asks whether we want decline
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No. 63Winter 2021
No. 63
Winter 2021
Introducing “Projects for Renewal”
How to rebuild our culture’s relationship with science and technology
Essays
From Tech Critique to Ways of Living
Alan Jacobs asks: If Neil Postman was right, so what?
Put Not Thy Trust in Nate Silver
Geoff Shullenberger on how simulation replaced reality
Recovering Old Age
Joseph E. Davis and Paul Scherz on retrieving our sense of what aging is for
The Case Against “STEM”
M. Anthony Mills on how blurring the line between science and tech puts both at risk
The Egghead Gap
Caleb Watney on China and why the U.S. needs to recruit international talent
A Scientist’s Mind, A Poet’s Soul
Algis Valiunas on the cosmic vision of Humboldt, the great naturalist-adventurer
Of Forests and Empire
Rebecca Burgess on the view from your Christmas tree
The Coronavirus Pandemic
Disarming Frontline Doctors
Devorah Goldman on how the quest to meet medicine’s “gold standard” puts patients at risk
Little Data, Big Headlines
Aaron Rothstein on overinterpreting Covid studies for clicks
Reviews & Reconsiderations
A Bioethics of the Strong
James Mumford on how liberal bioethics forgot its mandate
Why We Need a Technological Environmentalism
Robert Zubrin argues that saving the planet means going high-tech, not back to nature
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No. 200Fall 2003 - Winter 2030
No. 1Spring 2003
No. 1
Spring 2003
Essays
Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls
Leon R. Kass on biotechnology and the pursuit of perfection
Military Technology and American Culture
Victor Davis Hanson on our character, our weapons, and our role in the world
Liberty, Privacy, and DNA Databases
Christine Rosen on the uses and dangers of genetic fingerprints
The Paradox of Conservative Bioethics
Yuval Levin on taboos, democracy, and the politics of biology
Bioethics and the Character of Human Life
Gilbert Meilaender on mortality, freedom, suffering, and the generations
The Future of Medical Technology
Scott Gottlieb on how the marriage of biology and silicon is transforming medicine
Artificial Intelligence and Human Nature
Charles T. Rubin on the project to make human beings extinct
The Rise and Fall of Sociobiology
Peter A. Lawler on the age’s three great illusions about human nature
State of the Art
Fertility Gone Mad
Pregnancy After Menopause, IVF Birth defects, & More
Bill Gates, the Prince
The Muddled Microsoft Case and Stone-Age Antitrust Laws
Mapping the Mind
Our New Techniques for Scanning the Psyche
HapMap—Revolution or Hype?
The Controversy Surrounding the Next Gene-Mapping Project
Satellites at Risk
The Next Homeland Security Challenge May Be in Space
Are We Ready for Terror?
The Latest Hart-Rudman Report and What It Missed
Oh, Behave!
Britain’s Nuffield Council Weighs in on Behavioral Genetics
Home is Where the Robot is
Vacuum Cleaners, Security Guards, and Old-Age Companions
Chinese Bioethics?
“Voluntary” Eugenics and the Prospects for Reform
The Dust Bites Another One
From Michael Crichton’s Prey to the Department of Nanotechnology
The Animal in Us
The Latest Advances in Xenotransplantation
‘Lift Your Eyes to the Heavens’
President Bush’s remarks on the loss of the space shuttle Columbia
Notes & Briefs
Nuclear Fusion, Censoring Science, Hyper-Healthcare, etc.
