“Martha Wells created one of the most iconic characters in 21st-century science fiction: Murderbot, reluctant savior of humanity. Then she faced an existential threat of her own.”
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Posted inEditor's Pick
From Silicon to Slime
“Claire L. Evans on imagination as a form of computation, and the endless entanglement of our biological reality.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Build a Human
“A forensics company tells cops it can use DNA to predict a suspect’s face. Scientists worry the tool will deepen racial bias.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs
“No, aliens haven’t visited the Earth. Why are so many smart people insisting otherwise?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art
“To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.”
Posted inReading List
Kingdom of Funga: A Mycelial Reading List on a Strange and Surreal World Around Us
Seven stories celebrating the mystery and power of fungi.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Growing Old Online
“Millennials, the first generation to be online as kids, are starting to feel like we’ve aged out. Is there a way to age gracefully on the internet?”
Posted inNonfiction
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, our editors recommend notable features and essays by Katie Barnes, Rachel Handler, Alex Hawkins, Lila Shapiro, and Raksha Vasudevan.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Neal Stephenson Finally Takes on Global Warming
“His superscience this time isn’t a metaverse or a space colony. It’s engineering to address an imminent threat. After a few years of unrelenting wildfires, hurricanes, disease outbreaks, and other natural disasters linked directly or indirectly to climate change, the idea that the world’s preeminent technologists might take up the cause where policymakers seem to […]
