bigthink.com
Every bigthink.com story we have translated and published, newest first. · 170 stories
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AI hasn’t taken my writing job — but it is living rent-free in my head
When a growing chorus of readers and critics accused Jamir Nazir, winner of the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize, of using AI to w
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10 perspectives that divide the AI world
In November 2022, I took on a writing assignment that, looking back, may have had a bigger impact on my life than any other: interview ChatG
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AI is forcing us to reckon with a 400-year-old problem
Like much modern fantasy, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series features magical objects. Each book in the trilogy is named after one;
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8 rules for navigating a difficult conversation
Make no mistake: Having a conversation around a topic we’ve been conditioned not to talk about is very much a skill. It’s coachable, and if
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Are we asking the wrong questions about dark matter?
Whenever the topic of dark matter comes up, the most common question that people wonder about it is whether this mysterious, hypothetical su
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The idea of a “permanent underclass” started as a meme. It’s tapping real anxieties in Silicon Valley.
A rationalist blog forum popular in the Bay Area, LessWrong is known for its sprawling, hyper-logical takes on everything from AI research t
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The surprising upside of envy, the emotion we’re taught to hide
There was a distinct moment when I stopped being a happy-go-lucky little girl, one who could play for hours alone at the bathroom sink with
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How “V for Vendetta” popularized one of the 21st century’s most iconic symbols
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MMX mission to reveal the origins of the Martian moons
It was way back in the 1600s — immediately following the invention of the telescope — that moons around planets other than Earth were discov
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How to experience more of reality
What is reality? People have debated this for centuries. Is reality objective — something definite that exists independent of us? Or is it s
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The ultimate key to unlocking the heart of the Milky Way
At the centers of galaxies, supermassive black holes reside. This image of the central region of galaxy Messier 87 comes in the X-ray, via N
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Ask Ethan: What should humanity’s message to the Universe be?
One of the greatest open questions in all of the Universe today is just how abundant intelligent alien life is right at this very moment. We
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Mimetic desire, social contagion, and the fight for your true self
In 1936, a shipyard worker in Hamburg kept his arms folded while hundreds of men around him raised theirs for Hitler. Luke Burgis, author of
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China is mass-producing slop at a scale the world has never seen
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How to become a great conversationalist
A while back, I was at a party in London where a friend introduced me to an actress who had just been in a big theater production. I was exc
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The ancient environmental archive hidden beneath a northern bog
I need to move on and find my field plots, but pausing here has caused my feet to sink. They are now completely buried by peat; only my shin
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What total darkness reveals about who you really are
Could removing light be a key to discovering who you really are? That’s one idea behind dark retreats*, an experience that’s about as close
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Current AI is not conscious
Is today’s AI conscious? Philosopher Ned Block says no, and he’s not alone in finding the question harder than it looks. In this Mini Philos
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Einstein’s general relativity equations: explained in plain English
Although Albert Einstein is a legendary figure in science for a large number of reasons — including E = mc², the photoelectric effect, and t
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Exploring a world full of minds in Los Angeles
After witnessing the horrors of World War I, the naturalist Henry Beston retreated to a tiny cabin on the dunes of Cape Cod in search of a p
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Before Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe imagined the Space Age
It may be tempting to dismiss out of hand the notion that Edgar Allan Poe — popularly conceived of today as an almost mythic figure cloaked
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Naturalness: a useful principle, but not an absolute rule
There are two classes of problems that physicists often talk about that might leave you thinking, “geez, a physicist can never be satisfied,
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Why your cat is the best philosopher
A young girl looks out of the classroom window. It’s the end of the day, and she’s bored. She spots a goldfinch land on the ground outside.
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City walls conquered the ancient world and then disappeared. Why?
Ancient cities — the kind we know of more through archaeology than written history — tend to have a bunch of features that set them apart fr
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