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
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
The turn-of-the-century energy transition dazzled the nation — while concealing segregation, extraction, and ruin.
David E. Nye | Jul 2
Surrogacy, embryo disputes, and synthetic gametes raise profound, unanswered questions about liberty and equality.
I. Glenn Cohen | Jun 29
The same technology that’s ruining essay writing as a pedagogical tool can help students learn how to reason via conversations.
David Weinberger | Jan 20
Tracing cybernetics in China from Norbert Wiener’s visit to Qian Xuesen’s systems thinking and Mao’s “electronic revolution.”
Wang Hongzhe | translated by Allen Young | Nov 3, 2025
A rare sound recording of the ivory-billed woodpecker became both a touchstone for conservationists and the center of a scientific debate that continues to this day.
Joeri Bruyninckx | Apr 10, 2025
Elon Musk's Hyperloop Alpha is another overhyped venture, recycling 200-year-old dreams and exaggerated claims of innovation.
Vaclav Smil | Jan 21, 2025
Hawking’s refusal to upgrade his communication system preserved a voice that became iconic, not just for its sound, but for the profound identity it conveyed.
Sarah A. Bell | Dec 24, 2024
