From childcare to elder care to teaching, the labor that sustains society goes undercompensated. A nationalized care economy would change that.
Elizabeth Gregory | Aug 10
Children once learned by taking things apart. Today’s devices do not provide that rewarding activity — and the cognitive consequences may be considerable.
Frank C. Keil | Aug 6
In “From the Earth to the Moon,” scientific advancement is treated as destiny — but no one quite asks why.
Malka Older | Aug 3
Decades before recommendation algorithms, video stores served as social hubs where conversation and camaraderie became a form of taste-making.
Joshua M. Greenberg | Jul 30
After three years studying the community, I came to see that the real question isn't what technology can do, but what it asks us to give up.
Lindsay Ems | Jul 27
Computerized rooms, telework stations, and child-soothing technologies sold a seductive illusion that automation could solve the problems of maternal care.
Hannah Zeavin | Jul 24
Fraudsters have long told stories of imprisoned nobles and hidden fortunes, with desperate pleas for help. Email simply gave their messages a perfect medium.
Finn Brunton | Jul 20
Oceanographers have quietly used lost cargo to build the most precise maps of ocean currents ever created.
Alexander Klose | Jul 16
In trying to understand how we make better choices, I found an unlikely guide in the Renaissance architect’s experiments with linear perspective.
Elspeth Kirkman | Jul 13
Long before AI, teaching machines promised to make education more efficient. Their forgotten history reveals why that dream keeps falling short.
The Editors | Jul 9
Efforts to revive the thylacine and woolly mammoth are forcing conservationists to face a long-overdue debate over what kind of natural world we want to build.
Taylor Dotson | Jul 6
The turn-of-the-century energy transition dazzled the nation — while concealing segregation, extraction, and ruin.
David E. Nye | Jul 2
