6+ day, 20+ hour ago   (1624+ words) The universe seems to be fine-tuned for life. Were nature’s constants even slightly different, life wouldn’t exist. To explain this, scientists reach for bizarre ideas, like an infinite multiverse. But physicist and technologist Jeff Shainline thinks we’ve been missing a…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (298+ words) We are not low creatures. This is what I have been thinking this week. Even though humanity often does, at its worst, act as low creatures. Some act like vultures, cackling over the dead. Or snakes, who strike to kill…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (1613+ words) We tend to think we live in a shared reality, with differences in how we experience the world attributed to differences in perspective. But according to philosopher and founder of social epistemology, Steve Fuller, this is a radical mistake. Breakthroughs…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (1589+ words) Roger Penrose argued that human thought does things no computer can, so the mind must make use of non-computable quantum mechanics. The idea remains fringe. Most scientists think that in warm, wet environments like the brain, quantum states collapse into…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (491+ words) These cookies are necessary to the core functionality of our website and some of its features, such as access to secure areas. These cookies collect information that can help us understand how our websites are being used. This information can…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (255+ words) These cookies are necessary to the core functionality of our website and some of its features, such as access to secure areas. These cookies collect information that can help us understand how our websites are being used. This information can…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (148+ words) Mathematics is often mistaken for a discipline of quick calculations and precise answers. Yet mathematics is not fundamentally about arithmetic. At its deepest level, mathematics is an exercise of world-building. Thinkers from Russell and Whitehead to Frege found themselves in…...