Future-gazing

Vox · 2026-10-25

Can Machines Be War Criminals?

by Kylie Jones

If an algorithm targets a school, who stands trial for the war crime?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-24

Entanglement Builds Space-Time. Now “Magic” Gives It Gravity.

by Charlie Wood

If space is made of quantum particles, what makes it bend under the weight of a star?

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-10-24

Against Against Handover

by Scott Alexander

If a machine could run a country without corruption, would it matter that it isn't human?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-23

India and Pakistan Have Forgotten the Most Enduring Lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Sushant Singh

When does firing missiles at a nuclear-armed neighbor start to feel like a safe bet?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-22

Did China Overestimate the Geopolitical Returns of Its Latin America Strategy?

by Juan Fernando Herrera Ramos

Does building another country's roads and railways actually buy a say in its future?

War on the Rocks · 2026-10-22

Tehran is a Different Beast Now

by Cole Bucy

How do you end a war when the surviving leaders assume they're already dead?

The Conversation · 2026-10-22

Indian Gen Z ‘cockroach’ Protesters Aim to Upend Assumptions About Democracy – and Populism – in Modi’s India

by Amrita Basu, Professor of Political Science, and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College

Vox · 2026-10-21

How Pakistan Became Trump’s Most Surprising Ally

by Joshua Keating

How did Pakistan become the only country that can get Washington and Tehran in the same room?

The Paris Review Daily · 2026-10-20

The Uncanny Catharsis of the AI Emomercial

by Jean Garnett

Why is an algorithm the only one willing to admit how much getting older hurts?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-20

The Race for Hydrogen Fuel Has Taken These Scientists to the Arctic Seafloor. But Can They Unlock Its Secrets Before It's Too Late?

Could a microbe on the Arctic seafloor survive long enough to change how the world uses energy?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-19

AI Proved the Quasi-Riemann Hypothesis. What Happens Now?

by Konstantin Kakaes

If a machine solves a 160-year-old math problem, does it count before a human understands the proof?

The Conversation · 2026-10-19

Americans Want Electric Cars – They Just Can’t Find Them

by John Paul Helveston, Associate Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, George Washington University

If sales only show what's on the lot, how do you know what drivers actually want?

The UnPopulist · 2026-10-18

Even Perfect Liberal Governance Could Not Have Stopped Reactionary Populism

by Jonathan Rauch

When voters start asking whose country it is, does a strong economy even matter?

Just Security · 2026-10-18

The Mythos of Digital Sovereignty

by Bulelani Jili

If a country has to rent its digital defenses from a tech company, who is actually in charge?

Noema · 2026-10-18

We Are Already Post-Human

by Nathan Gardels

If people can no longer survive without their devices, are they already part machine?

Smithsonian Magazine · 2026-10-18

Dam Removals Are Bringing Fish Back Across the Northeastern United States, Striking Down One Tiny Barrier at a Time

When an old mill dam comes down, how quickly does a town remember its own river?

The Conversation · 2026-10-17

Learning Without a Brain – How Bacteria Store Memories and Remember the Past Like Artificial Neural Networks

by Shiladitya Banerjee, Associate Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology

How exactly does a single cell hold onto a memory without a brain?

STAT News · 2026-10-17

As White House Shifts Focus Toward AI and Tech, U.S. Science Leaders Defend Role of the American University

by Megan Molteni

If the government gives its science budget to tech companies, who pays for curiosity?

Works in Progress · 2026-10-16

Porcelain

by Works in Progress

How did the fragile clay of ancient teacups become the strongest surface in the kitchen?

Vox · 2026-10-16

Why Your Health Insurance is Dropping GLP-1 Coverage

by Dylan Scott

Vox · 2026-10-15

The Surprisingly Hopeful Quest to Fix Concrete

by Sara Herschander

What happens when the concrete beneath a city starts pulling carbon from the air?

STAT News · 2026-10-15

Opinion: We Think a Baby’s Gut Microbiome Could Be Key to Lifelong Brain Health

by Holly Baines and George Vradenburg

Just Security · 2026-10-15

How Generative AI is Scaling Transnational Repression

by Kate Pundyk

How does an AI turn an exile's digital life into a map for hunting them across borders?

Just Security · 2026-10-13

Boots Off Ballots: Troops and Elections, in Practice

by Dan Herman

New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs · 2026-10-12

The Good-Hang Economy

by Dan Brooks

If the future of comedy is just hanging out, what happens to the punchline?

The Diplomat · 2026-10-12

AI and the Risk to Democracy

by Mercy A. Kuo

Can a machine ever be safe if the government controlling it answers to no one?

Vox · 2026-10-10

Is This the Cure for Alzheimer’s?

by Dylan Scott

Could connecting a lymph node to a vein actually reverse years of memory loss?

The Atlantic · 2026-10-08

The End of Reading is Here

by Rose Horowitch

What happens to a culture when the books survive but the readers disappear?

Asterisk · 2026-10-08

What Will Happen to Indian IT?

If a machine can write code and answer phones, what happens to the world's back office?

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-07

As AI Closed in on ‘Unique Games’ Proof, Researchers Raced to Beat the Machines

by Ben Brubaker

Vox · 2026-10-06

America’s Tallest, Most Spectacular Trees Are Getting…heat Stroke?

by Neel Dhanesha

What happens to a thousand-year-old tree when it gets too hot to breathe?

ProPublica · 2026-10-06

Our Reporter Spent 10 Weeks Gambling on DraftKings. Here Are 5 Things He Learned.

War on the Rocks · 2026-10-05

The AI-Assisted Strategic Own Goal in the Kill Chain

by Dan Summers

If a machine picks a target in seconds, who decides if the strike is actually wise?

The Hindu · 2026-10-05

Scientists at IAV, Keralam Develop Dengue Early Warning System to Forecast Trends

Quanta Magazine · 2026-10-05

Is AI the End of Math as We Know It?

by Jordana Cepelewicz

When a machine skips straight to the answer, who is left to understand the math?

Works in Progress · 2026-10-05

Mosquitoes Are a Choice

by Maya Rosen

STAT News · 2026-10-03

Opinion: I Treated Heat Stroke at the NYC Marathon. Marathons Need to Prepare for a Climate-changed World

by Vibhu Krishna

The Conversation · 2026-10-03

As Private Equity, Politics and Prediction Markets Reshape Sports, is the Press Box up to the Task?

by Alex Volonte, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in Journalism Studies, University of Florida

Who follows the money when a sports team becomes a billion-dollar investment?

Aeon · 2026-10-01

Reason is More Than a Tool

by Sasha Mudd

If a machine can find the fastest route, who decides if the destination is worth reaching?

Scroll.in · 2026-10-01

What Fish Can Teach Us About AI: Reflections on Reading ‘What a Fish Knows’ Alongside ‘Scary Smart

by John Kurien

If people can't recognize the mind of a fish, how will they understand a thinking machine?

The Diplomat · 2026-09-30

Why is Brazil so Interested in ASEAN?

by Matheus Bruno

When the world's biggest economies turn inward, who buys Brazil's soybeans, oil, and airplanes?

Aeon · 2026-09-29

Don’t Use the ‘C-word’

by Matthew R Cooperberg

The Atlantic · 2026-09-29

Another Symptom of Growing Isolation

by Olga Khazan

What happens to your mind when you can go an entire day without saying a word?

War on the Rocks · 2026-09-28

The Gulf Arab States Need a Shield Built for Limited Trust

by Mohammed Alotaibi

How do you build a shared military shield with neighbors you don't actually trust?

Psyche · 2026-09-28

The Way We Talk to Bots Matters Even if They Aren’t Conscious

by HennyGe Wichers

Does snapping at a machine change how you talk to the people in your life?

Vox · 2026-09-28

Is It “microcheating,” or Just Being Online?

by Jonquilyn Hill

If liking a photo counts as cheating, what happens to ordinary friendship?

The Diplomat · 2026-09-28

The Militarization of Outer Space: Chinese Infrastructure in the Global South

by Ana Soliz de Stange

How do satellite antennas in Argentina and Namibia change who controls the future of space?

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-09-28

Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later

by Scott Alexander

What happens when the dirt beneath a house becomes more valuable than the house itself?

Noahpinion · 2026-09-27

Where’s the “intelligence Explosion”?

by Ramez Naam

If an artificial intelligence can write its own code, what stops it from improving forever?

Vox · 2026-09-26

Can You Spend Your Way Out of Loneliness?

by Allie Volpe

Compact · 2026-09-26

How ‘Boys Love’ Conquered Asia

by R. Taggart Murphy

How did a Thai show about boys falling in love quietly draw a billion viewers?

The Diplomat · 2026-09-25

Long Night Over Hualien: the China Threat Through the Eyes of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples

by Rafael Baptista

How do you prepare for the next invasion when you're still living under the last one?

The Independent · 2026-09-25

Benin Bets on Turning Its Cotton Crop Into Clothes at Home

by Rodney Muhumuza

Noema · 2026-09-25

Now Entering: the Era of Bleh

by Aaron Horwath

If every company outsources its thinking to the same machine, what is actually left to sell?

Africa Is a Country · 2026-09-25

Too Big to Regulate

by Ayoola Babalola

Noema · 2026-09-24

Let the People Set the Pace of Frontier AI

by Hélène Landemore

If the people building artificial intelligence are asking to slow down, why are they still racing?

The Atlantic · 2026-09-24

A New Generation of Moms Who Get High

by Sarah Levy

If a mother gets high to stay patient with her kids, is she really being present?

Works in Progress · 2026-09-23

The 1970s Law Holding Back Modern Biotechnology

by Niko McCarty

If a microbe can eat plastic, why is it regulated like a toxic chemical?

STAT News · 2026-09-23

Opinion: the Science on Relieving Cancer Symptoms is Clear. Why Isn’t Insurance Paying?

by Lorenzo Cohen

If doctors know how to ease the daily toll of cancer, why is relief still a luxury?

The Conversation · 2026-09-22

Your Robotic Vacuum is a Witness: What Home Robots Mean for Evidence, Privacy and the Law

by Jihun Joun, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Forensics, Arizona State University

What happens in court when the machine that cleans the floor is also watching the room?

The Conversation · 2026-09-21

At an Old Steel Site in Pittsburgh, Bacteria Evolved to Survive – and Eat – Industrial Pollution

by Catherine Armbruster, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

When industrial waste sits in the soil for a century, what evolves to eat it?

Psyche · 2026-09-21

Terminal Lucidity: When Dying Dementia Patients Regain Awareness

by Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston

If a dying brain can suddenly find a lost memory, where was that memory hiding?

The Diplomat · 2026-09-21

Will Southeast Asia Actually Benefit From Its AI Boom?

by Gerald Mako

What does a country actually gain from hosting the massive physical machines that run AI?

The Diplomat · 2026-09-20

Asia’s Migrant Workers Need Protection From Gulf Wars

by Md Obaidullah

Scroll.in · 2026-09-20

How AI Could Influence Our Understanding of Mathematics: a Computer Scientist-novelist’s Reflections

by Anil Menon

If a machine takes over the proofs, is the mathematician finally free to play?

The Conversation · 2026-09-20

Professional Gaming is Brutal on the Body – Inside the Growing Field of Treating Esports Injuries

by Erica D. Henn, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Exercise Science, Temple University

Why do the injuries of professional gamers look so much like those of concert pianists?

The American Prospect · 2026-09-20

The New Majority Makers

by David Dayen

If a district is evenly split, does a candidate actually have to run as a moderate?

Works in Progress · 2026-09-19

Why Housing Reforms Keep Failing

by Works in Progress

If forcing a neighborhood to accept new housing backfires, what makes the neighbors finally say yes?

Eurozine · 2026-09-19

Greening and Blueing

by Sarah Waring

What happens when a city tears up the concrete and lets the rain soak in?

The Conversation · 2026-09-19

How the American Revolt Against Flock Cameras Mirrors the Boston Tea Party of 1773

by G. Patrick O'Brien, Assistant Professor of History, University of Tampa

When does smashing a surveillance camera become an act of patriotism?

Noema · 2026-09-18

A New Form of Life

by William Haseltine

If a machine can reproduce, adapt, and consume energy, is it actually alive?

Psyche · 2026-09-18

The Thinking Style That Makes People Vulnerable to Extremism

by Leor Zmigrod

Why are people who struggle to adapt when the rules change so vulnerable to extremism?

The Conversation · 2026-09-17

Dads Today Talk More Freely with Their Teens About Sex and Relationships

by Jennifer M. Grossman, Senior Research Scientist in Family, Sexuality and Communication, Wellesley College

How do fathers learn to talk to their teens about sex when their own dads stayed silent?

The Atlantic · 2026-09-16

The Election Deniers’ Long Game

by Toluse Olorunnipa

The Atlantic · 2026-09-15

AI is Already Making Us Less Human

by David Brooks

When people start treating machines like friends, what happens to the way they treat each other?

Noema · 2026-09-15

A New Kind of Creative Poverty

by Afra Wang

Can a machine programmed to be perfectly polite ever capture the chaos of a human mind?

Defector · 2026-09-15

What Gets Left Out of Math’s New Era?

by Post-Postdoc

What happens to mathematics when machines can write the proofs but cannot ask the questions?

Knowable Magazine · 2026-09-14

Fibermaxxing? Your Microbes (and Your Health) Say Thanks.

by Claudia Steiner

If your body can't digest fiber, what are you feeding when you sit down to eat?

The Bulwark · 2026-09-13

Don’t Look Now, but the Tech Bros Are Losing

by Jacob Bruggeman

The American Prospect · 2026-09-13

Data Center of Attention

by Gabrielle Gurley

When did the artificial intelligence revolution become a fight over local water and electricity?

The Atlantic · 2026-09-13

AI is Running Laps Around Our Political System

by Toluse Olorunnipa

Construction Physics · 2026-09-12

Where Has Construction Automation Been Successful?

by Brian Potter

If a machine can pave a highway, why does it struggle to lay a single brick?

Rest of World · 2026-09-11

U.S. Companies Have an AI Problem. Indian IT Wants to Be the Solution

by Itika Sharma Punit

When artificial intelligence meets decades of old corporate data, who actually has to clean up the mess?

The Bulwark · 2026-09-10

The Holiday From History is Over

by Brian Stewart

How did the world's richest nations convince themselves that military power no longer mattered?

ProPublica · 2026-09-10

Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States with Abortion Bans.

by Agnel Philip

Quanta Magazine · 2026-09-09

AI Has Solved One of Math’s $1 Million Millennium Prize Problems

by Konstantin Kakaes

If ten thousand machines finish a math problem that humans started, whose discovery is it?

Astral Codex Ten · 2026-09-09

God Help Us, Let’s Try to Learn About Mechanistic Interpretability Techniques

by Scott Alexander

If a machine is just a giant list of numbers, why is its mind so hard to read?

The Atlantic · 2026-09-09

Will Taiwan Just Give Up?

by Simon Shuster

The Atlantic · 2026-09-09

You Can Know Too Much About Your Genes

by Elizabeth Bruenig

How do you live with a genetic warning that might not mean anything at all?

Vox · 2026-09-08

When Did Getting Prescriptions Start Feeling Like Online Shopping?

by Dylan Scott

If you can order a prescription with a single click, what happens to the diagnosis?

The Atlantic · 2026-09-08

A Society of Cheats

by John Paul Rollert

The Atlantic · 2026-09-08

OpenAI Wants to Talk About <em>The Federalist Papers</em>

by Matteo Wong

If machines can fight wars and pay taxes, why would a government listen to its citizens?

Vox · 2026-09-08

My Students Think It’s Fine to Cheat with AI. Maybe They’re Onto Something.

by Sigal Samuel

War on the Rocks · 2026-09-07

The Fruit of Patience: How Regional Shifts Ripened Turkey’s Path to Kurdish Reconciliation

by Samuele C. A. Abrami

What happens when an armed movement trades its weapons for promises that aren't written in law?

The Conversation · 2026-09-07

Many Space Missions Are Searching for Life Beyond Earth – but Are We Prepared for the Fallout if They Succeed?

by Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano, Research Fellow for Future Issues and Technology, Nanyang Technological University

What happens on Earth the day a space probe finds a living microbe on another planet?

The Guardian (Long Read) · 2026-09-07

Ping-pong Sponges, ‘black Smokers’ and Floating Somethings: the Secrets of the Deep Sea

by Jacob Mikanowski

What happens when the search for battery metals reaches a world that has never seen the sun?

Rest of World · 2026-09-05

Meta Accepts U.S. Safety Rules While Pitching Softer Tools Abroad

by Ananya Bhattacharya

War on the Rocks · 2026-09-05

A Rulebook for Surprises: Commanding Autonomous Aircraft

by Greg Search

How do you command an autonomous aircraft that is built to surprise you?

The Conversation · 2026-09-05

The Product is the Problem: Why Meta’s $17 Billion Settlement Matters Beyond America

by Robert Muggah, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow na Bosch Academy e Co-fundador, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University

Works in Progress · 2026-09-05

How P-hacking Built the World's Most Expensive Safety Regime

by Ben Southwood

How did a few statistical tricks end up writing the rules for global nuclear safety?