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Learn to Love Engineers
New books by Dan Wang and Hu Anyan depict ‘both the achievements and the costs of China’s technological rise,’ and why Americans should take note.
Science & Technology
"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein
Science on Ice
Neil Shubin’s stories of polar exploration tell us about the losses ahead.
The Mysterious Eugenics of Aesthetic Taste
In the 11th essay in the Legacies of Eugenics series, Michael Rossi shows how American scientists and artists used their discovery of racial ‘types’ to buttress eugenicist notions of aesthetic taste.
The Globalization of US Healthcare
Eram Alam’s new book uncovers the ways that immigrant physicians have propped up the American medical system.
Energy from Heaven, Not from Hell
Bill McKibben makes the case for combating the climate crisis by transitioning from fossil fuels to solar power.
The Womb and the Web
Isabel Davis considers Amanda Hess’s new book about bringing a baby into a world of smart technology and data harvesting.
Is There Anything “Artificial” About Artificial Intelligence?
Julien Crockett speaks with Blaise Agüera y Arcas about the various ways that LLMs keep surprising scientists and how our definition of intelligence should be more complex than people generally think.
Giant Platforms of Shit
Dave Mandl catches a whiff of Cory Doctorow’s anatomy of platform “enshittification.”
The Return of the Luddites
Erik J. Larson considers “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna.
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
Power Hangs by a Literal Thread
Ian Kumekawa dives into Samanth Subramanian’s “The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World.”
A Network of Global Incinerators
Rob Arcand reviews Hito Steyerl’s new essay collection, “Medium Hot: Images in the Age of Heat.”
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