Society

Understanding what makes Tokyo so special is noticing the aspects of Tokyo’s urban design that make the city so easy to be in.

Segmentation, Signaling and Stratification

Romney was born a line-cutter, but even a jaded Democrat, if he waits long enough, can realize that Obama wants us to be the line

It is good to make powerful people participate in public systems.

In a recent salary-focused poll conducted by researchers at The University of Wisconsin–Madison, 75% of respondents indicated that, yes, they think employees should be paid. While a majority of respondents were pro paying employees, the poll was still met with mixed reactions, with some indi

A group of experts met to discuss the images that have best captured — and changed — the world since 1955.

Rebuilding American infrastructure requires a focus on common sense ways to address common needs through a new political consensus.

Every person has their own idea of the things that keep them alive, and conversely, the things that slowly drain their lives away. Finding…

Fable, the studio behind the viral AI-generated 'South Park' clips, has announced a streaming platform that allows users to create their own content.

Fable Studio, a San Francisco-based startup that gained fame for demonstrating the ability to create an episode of South Park with a brief prompt, is making headlines …

The study made some strong remarks about the kind of people who would modify their car's exhaust. If psychopathy and sadism aren't bad enough, apparently loud truck owners would do even worse.

How power, technology, and opportunity have come together to gouge consumers

First in a series of guest-blogging posts.

In a digital landscape overrun by algorithms and A.I., we need human guides to help us decide what’s worth paying attention to.

Interviews with people in remote communities challenge widely held perception that money buys happiness

A secret question hovers over us, a sense of disappointment, a broken promise we were given as children about what our adult world was supposed to be like. I am referring not to the standard false…

The Price of Utopia - a thread It has been 54 years since 1970. Life is certainly different today than it was in 1970. Personal computers and smart phones, for one, are ubiquitous now. But would daily life for many people around the world, but especially in the capitalist core of North America and Europe, be all that unrecognizable? If we looked back a similar span of time from 1970, we’d find ourselves in 1916. I’d venture to guess that someone in 1916 would be more overwhelmed by the changes apparent by 1970, than a person from 1970 would be by 2024. The mass adoption of the personal automobile and recreational air travel; space travel and atomic physics; televisions and telephones; birth control and antibiotics—it feels, on some level, that things changed much more and faster and then…slowed down. 1/8

Rest of World spoke to 50 older workers around the world who see gig work as a lifeline — or a last resort.

The artist and musician Holly Herndon explores the promise — and complications — of collaborating with A.I.

There is an election in the UK. Here is what a new government should do.

Friday evening, I had the privilege of watching my fifth group of seniors cross the stage in a very boisterous auditorium at the Emirates Palace. They were...

Tiny percentage of users make X miss the spot

People need their own AIs. Personally and collectively. We won’t get them from Anthropic, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Meta, or Microsoft. Not even from Apple. All those companies will want to prov…

“I think that the charge that men have become emasculated by the competence of women is both depressing and untrue.”