Ai and Robots

When I showed up at New York’s Judson Church in 1994 at least some of the wonderful congregants there were puzzled that I put so much emphasis on economic justice. They had called an openly gay…

Facebook and Elon Musk have recently announced ventures that could transform what it means to be human. The potential is enormous—but so are the risks.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog asks: “Does the internet dream of itself?”

Presidential candidates currently fall into two camps. In the first, you have about 20 Republican and Democratic front-runners who have received political endorsements or significant national…

The following essay contains some minor spoilers. – eds. Imagine a world where robots look, act, and function like human beings, minus consciousness or free will. They’ve been programmed to take over…

The cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter is well known for his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, his brilliant writing about language and identity, and for his classic, Pulitzer Prize…

Artificial intelligence is taking over—at least in Hollywood. In 2013, there was Spike Jonze’s acclaimed Her. This year, there’s been Chappie and Ex Machina, both centered on the trials and triumphs…

Talking transhumanism with R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell.

There are places you never expect to be in life. For me, this was certainly one of them…

The paranoid few who seem genuinely disturbed by the possibility of the coming end of the world may be responding the most reasonably to current events. Or not. This ambiguity is at the heart of Jeff Nichols’ recent film Take Shelter. The film explores whether its protagonist is crazy, or a prophet, or both.