The field of health care has experienced expansive progress in the past decades. But at the same time, the practice of medicine has become increasingly dehumanized. Doctors have less time to spend with their patients, which means more misdiagnoses and other mistakes. On top of that, human practitioners are prone to error. There are around […]
Is Big Data Coming For You?
Welcome to the Big Data economy, where companies extract value from the study of how you behave online. The algorithms these companies use can be tools that help us google information or choose which show to binge on Netflix. But they can also perpetuate inequity and harm—and will divide the world if we allow them […]
Let’s Avoid the Robot Uprising
If we’ve learned one thing from movies and television, it’s that the robot uprising is going to be rough for us humans. Machines made of metal tend to have an advantage over old-fashioned flesh and blood. Who among us has time to meet an army of murderous computers on some apocalyptic battlefield? Don’t we already […]
The Dark Truth Behind AI
What is artificial intelligence? If you ask someone on the street, they might mention Apple’s Siri or Tesla’s cars. But the real answer is far more complicated. Examining the origins of AI and its pitfalls, writer and academic Kate Crawford wants people to know that the AI industry depends on cheap human labor to do […]
You’re Being Watched
Every second of every day, big companies are spying on you (and everyone else). They know where you live, what you purchase, and who you care about. They know your address and your search engine history. And they’re getting better at influencing your behavior, based on what they know about your past. Unfortunately, it will […]
Food = Medicine
Most of the time, we don’t give much thought to how food and mental health are intertwined. But many of us have experienced how easy it is to eat junk food (or lose our appetites) when we’re busy or stressed. The connection is there, even if we rarely reflect on it. Just as mental health issues can influence […]
Don’t Sell Yourself Short
The universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old. So it’s understandable if, as puny humans, we think of ourselves as relatively inconsequential. Our physical bodies are very small compared to the vastness of the universe. The Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek has a different perspective. He points out that each individual contains about 10 […]
How Elon Musk Built SpaceX
In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX with $100 million of his own money. Musk had a very ambitious goal for the first privately funded rocket company in the world: to send humankind to Mars. Musk wanted to hire people who were as passionate as he was. They worked hard, but they also got along well, […]
Bill Gates Needs Your Help
By 2050, the effects of climate change could be as deadly as COVID-19 has been. We dump 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases a year into the atmosphere. If we want to avoid a climate disaster, we need to get that number down to zero. Fast. Here’s the problem: greenhouse gases are involved in the […]
How to Stay Sharp
Great news from the forefront of neuroscience: brain decline and memory loss can be prevented, and even reversed. A gradual decline in the brain’s hardware is a normal part of the aging process. The organ shrinks, its folds become more prominent, and its blood vessels harden. But we can maintain (and in some cases, enhance) […]
