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Philosophy
One of the most quoted lines in philosophy is completely misused and misunderstood
We don't learn from history because we can't learn from history.
9 min
Your brain: the most important sex organ in the body
“The sexual excitation system is the accelerator or the gas pedal, and it notices all the sex-related information in the environment.”
3 min
Stress is inevitable, but suffering isn’t. 3 experts explain.
A physician, a psychologist, and a mindfulness teacher explain what stress does to your body and mind, and how to use it to get smarter and stronger.
Unlikely Collaborators
Science’s answer to the ultimate question: Where do we come from?
Questions about our origins, biologically, chemically, and cosmically, are the most profound ones we can ask. Here are today's best answers.
“Mirror life” and the recurring nightmare of scientific apocalypse
The fear of unleashing forces beyond control has haunted science for centuries.
Finding organics on Mars means absolutely nothing for life
The red planet, Mars, may once have been teeming with life, just as Earth is today. Finding "organics" on Mars, however, doesn't mean life.
Cosmism: The 19th-century movement to reach space and immortality
In revolutionary Russia, a group of forward-thinking philosophers offered an alternative to both futurism and communism.
1 min
Become stronger: Jumpstart your anti-fragile systems
“There's research showing that people who are curious, who ask questions, are not just happier, they're not just more successful, they also live longer.”
Why your attention keeps slipping away (and how to get it back)
Strengthen your focus like a muscle.
32 min
Inside the mind of a white-collar criminal
“Fraud is a trillion dollar problem, about $5 trillion today with that number increasingly rising annually.”
Ian McEwan: “Tourism is a wonderful spectacle of mass derangement.”
Here are three ways to do it better.
AI will never be a shortcut to wisdom
Real understanding, argues Jeff DeGraff, doesn’t come from outputs — it comes from practice.
3 min
Fearing death keeps us from living. 3 experts explain.
Biologist Tyler Volk PhD, psychiatrist Bruce Greyson MD, and palliative care physician BJ Miller MD, reveal how confronting mortality can improve the way we live.
Unlikely Collaborators
Centuries before Stephen Hawking, an isolated priest imagined black holes
In this excerpt from "Facing Infinity," Jonas Enander examines how John Michell conceived of "dark stars," or massive bodies with enough gravity to trap light, all the way back in 1783.
Why your intuition, imagination, and emotion will outlast AI
A dialogue with Angus Fletcher — author of the bestseller "Primal Intelligence" — exploring the unique engines of human progress.
7 min
True free speech, explained in 6 minutes
Free speech can amplify hatred, but it also protects the fight against it. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama explains.
Inside my study of the world’s oldest companies
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
12 min
Michio Kaku: Why we don’t even rank on the Kardashev scale
"We're stuck at type zero. But what would it take to move between universes? What would it take to enter a black hole? What would it take to break the light barrier?"
The Sun is fainter than the Moon, at least in gamma-rays
Across all wavelengths of light, the Sun is brighter than the Moon. Until we went to the highest energies and saw a gamma-ray surprise.
7 min
How our expectations shape what we see, hear, and feel
A neuroscientist, a psychologist, and a psychotherapist discuss how emotions are stories built from old experiences.
Unlikely Collaborators
NASA to needlessly kill Juno mission to Jupiter this month
The Juno spacecraft, orbiting and imaging Jupiter since 2016, is still succeeding. Without a further extension, the mission now faces death.
Africa wants its true size on the world map
The African Union argues that the Mercator projection distorts the continent, both in size and global attention.
Will AI create more jobs than it replaces?
The predictions of evolutionary theorists and current advances in “multimodal AI” offer strong clues to the future of employment.
See the whole Universe at once in this unique logarithmic view
As we look to larger cosmic scales, we get a broader view of the expansive cosmic forest, eventually revealing the grandest views of all.
Ask Ethan: Is dark energy no longer a cosmological constant?
The Universe isn't just expanding; the expansion is accelerating. If different methods yield incompatible results, is dark energy evolving?
What the forest can teach us about resilience
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
8 min
The history of natural selection, in 7 minutes
“The idea of evolution by natural selection is, for me, probably the most beautiful idea in biology.”
3 min
3 experts explain how to escape the happiness paradox
Happiness researchers Robert Waldinger MD, Tal Ben-Shahar PhD, and Peter Baumann explain why the happiest people aren’t happy all the time.
Unlikely Collaborators