The Internet Is Destroying Our Collective Attention Span
The length of time our “collective attention” is on any given event has grown shorter, and topics become popular and then drop out of public view at an accelerating rate. It’s no surprise if it feels harder and harder to dwell deeply on any topic.
Why Do Smart People Do Foolish Things?
Intelligence is not the same as critical thinking—and the difference matters. Most intelligence tests fail to capture real-world decision-making and our ability to interact well with others. This is why “smart” people do “dumb” things.
Defeated Chess Champ Garry Kasparov Has Made Peace With AI
For almost two decades after becoming world champion in 1985, Garry Kasparov dominated the game with a ferocious style of play and an equally ferocious swagger. In 1997, at the height of his powers, Kasparov was crushed and cowed by an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue.
How Scientists Imagined And Built An Undersea Utopia For Humans
During the late 1960s many believed revolutionary social and political change was imminent, and Jacques Cousteau was no exception. Soon there would be “undersea parliaments and new nations,” he wrote; “poets, architects, and painters would be needed to give expression” to this “new world.”
The Soviets’ Unbreakable Code
Created at the end of World War II and introduced in 1956, the Fialka replaced the Albatross, a Soviet cipher machine that was itself more complex than the Enigma. By the 1970s, Fialka encryption machines had been widely adopted by Warsaw Pact and other communist nations, and they remained in use until the early 1990s.
The Web We Have To Save
In the past, the web was powerful and serious enough to land me in jail. Today it feels like little more than entertainment. The rich, diverse, free web that I loved — and spent years in an Iranian jail for — is dying. Why is nobody stopping it?
How To Grow From Your Pain
Trauma and hardships are too often a part of life. Most of us live through at least five or six traumatic events in our lifetime. Here’s how to persevere.
Why Apple’s ‘Trash Can’ Was A Colossal Failure
Apple’s 2013 Mac Pro was a classic case of form over function. Pro users were unable to upgrade the “trash can” or customize it to their liking. There were also thermal limitations that Apple didn’t think about with this design. And 6 years after the revolutionary “trash can” design, Apple goes back to the cheese grater design.
Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military Is Preparing For A ‘New Domain Of Warfare’
Today’s advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering have exciting applications in medicine — yet also alarming implications, including for military affairs. China’s national strategy of military-civil fusion has highlighted biology as a priority, and the People’s Liberation Army could be at the forefront of expanding and exploiting this knowledge.
What Would Happen To Your Body If You Only Ate Fruits And Vegetables
Fruits and veggies are good places to find fiber and carbohydrates, but you don’t want to count on them to provide enough of the fat and protein—macronutrients, two of the primary building blocks of your diet—that you need. Fat is necessary for healthy mental function and energy.
Instagram, My Daughter, And Me
What Instagram has allowed me to do is to employ a kind of digital physics, to warp my experience of space and time in my favor. In the offline world, I spend precious hours with her and then she disappears. But online, she is with me again when I post, and then again each time I receive a notification.
Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual For Cops
Palantir is one of the most significant and secretive companies in big data analysis. The company acts as an information management service for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, corporations like JP Morgan and Airbus, and dozens of other local, state, and federal agencies.
MI.MU Gloves: Music Through Movement
MI·MU Gloves are the world’s most advanced wearable musical instrument, for expressive creation, composition and performance. Express yourself through gestures using wearable music technology, connect movement to sound in your own way and discover new forms of expression.
How Long Will Australia Be Livable?
As the country suffers through one of its worst droughts on record, and heat waves shatter temperature records not once but twice within the same summer week, some are asking whether Australians can afford to keep returning to the same parched, scorched landscapes.
Apps Have Changed The Way We Date
The online dating industry is projected to be worth $9 billion by 2025 and according to eHarmony, most people will find a partner via an app or website by 2035. Tinder is one of the most popular swiping apps with more than 5 million subscribers and it’s launched a whole new language of love.
Using Artificial Intelligence To Create Art
Artist Refik Anadol doesn’t work with paintbrushes or clay. Instead, he uses large collections of data and machine learning algorithms to create mesmerizing and dynamic installations.
Scientists Use Recycled Sewage Water To Grow 500-Acre Forest In The Middle Of Egyptian Desert
Serapium Forest is the most prosperous of Egypt’s 36 tracts of land that make up an ambitious program to combat desertification by creating sustainably managed commercial forests fed entirely by wastewater.
How Holograms Are About To Change The World
Holograms have the power to resurrect the dead. Want to see Michael Jackson live in concert? Digital technology can bring him back to life. Within 10 years, DJs will be replaced by holograms, we’ll use them to speak to one another, and they might even take our jobs.
The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign To Reelect The President
After the 2016 election, much was made of the threats posed to American democracy by foreign disinformation. Trump and his domestic allies were beginning to adopt the same tactics of information warfare that have kept the world’s demagogues and strongmen in power.
The Confessions Of Marcus Hutchins, The Hacker Who Saved The Internet
At 22, he saved the internet from what was the worst cyberattack in history: a piece of malware called WannaCry. It was Hutchins who had found and triggered the secret kill switch contained in its code, neutering WannaCry’s global threat immediately. Then he was arrested by the FBI.
Americans Are Going Bankrupt From Getting Sick
Medical debt is a uniquely American phenomenon, a burden that would be unfathomable in many other developed countries. According to a survey in the American Journal of Public Health, nearly 60 percent of people who have filed for bankruptcy said a medical expense contributed to their bankruptcy.