Technology

The Virtue of Scientific Thinking

Scientists have discarded the moral authority that previously accrued to their vocation.

  • Steven Shapin

All Tech Is Social

Concerns about the harms of new devices obscure the ways in which people have long adapted to technologies.

  • Claude S. Fischer

Of Maggots and Brain Scans

Brain images are ubiquitous and compelling, but the science behind them is not.

  • Anne Fausto-Sterling

Don’t Lose Track: Here’s What’s Going On with the NSA

The newest report sees nothing illegal about warrantless collection of Americans’ international calls and e-mails.

  • Elizabeth Goitein

SCOTUS Protects ‘The Privacies of Life’

At last, a unanimous Supreme Court decision in which the Justices agree with… me.

  • Reed Hundt

Are We Really “Alone Together”?

Middle-class Americans have alternatively immersed themselves in and withdrawn from public urban spaces.

  • Claude S. Fischer

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India’s Big Brother Project

The World's Largest Biometrics Identity Program

  • Malavika Jayaram

Saving Privacy

Framing surveillance as a tradeoff between privacy and security is a dead end for democracy.

  • Reed Hundt
with responses from
  • Richard M. Stallman
  • Marvin Ammori & Adam Kern
  • Archon Fung
  • Rebecca MacKinnon
  • Jennifer Granick
  • Frank Pasquale
  • Jeremy K. Kessler
  • Bruce Schneier
  • Evgeny Morozov

Nate Silver’s Data Narratives

Data can give a sense of scale to political debate.

  • Andrew Mayersohn

Letting Go of Normal

It is easy, but wrong, to see development in terms of ‘genes for X’ or a nature/nurture balance.

  • Anne Fausto-Sterling

Dogs Are Not People

Why are we so desperate to assume animals must be like us?

  • Colin Dayan

Inventing the Social Network

Social media is only the latest development in a long history of community support.

  • Claude S. Fischer

Exhuming Equality: The Forensics of Human Rights

All around the world, we are digging up the dead.

  • Adam Rosenblatt

A Case for Climate Engineering

Keith explores a challenging proposal; climate engineering is no silver bullet.

  • David Keith

Video: The World After Snowden

Toward Distributed Security in Cyberspace

  • Ronald Deibert

Your Body, Their Property

Who owns human tissues?

  • Osagie K. Obasogie

The Truth About GMOs

Genetically modified foods are safe for humans and pose no special environmental risk. Yet there are serious policy questions to consider.

  • Pamela Ronald
with responses from
  • Marc Gunther
  • Greg Jaffe
  • Margaret Mellon
  • Rosamond Naylor
  • Robert Paarlberg
  • Nina Fedoroff
  • Tim Burrack
  • Jennie Schmidt
  • Jack Heinemann

Can Science Deliver the Benefits of Religion?

New research shows that a scientific worldview helps people cope with feelings of powerlessness and the anxieties of mortality.

  • Tania Lombrozo

What’s Wrong with Technological Fixes?

Evgeny Morozov answers questions about his new book, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism.

  • Evgeny Morozov
  • Terry Winograd

Are MOOCs Good for Students?

The push for online learning is bad for literacy and bad for democracy.

  • Thomas Leddy

Much Ado About MOOCs

We should examine the potential of online learning with an open mind.

  • Rob Reich

The Potential of Online Learning

We should avoid absolute judgments about MOOCs and assess the mix of possibilities they offer.

  • William G. Bowen

On Being an Octopus

Nothing stretches our thinking about the mind the way an octopus does.

  • Peter Godfrey-Smith

Getting Smarter

Why are human beings becoming more intelligent?

  • Claude S. Fischer
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