Society

No gods, no masters — no rights, no duties, nothing?

PSL is a startup studio and early-stage venture capital fund in Seattle, WA.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was accepted by the General Assembly as Resolution 217 during its third session on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. Of the 58 members of the United Nations at the time, 48 voted in favour, none against, eight abstained, and two did not vote.

No.307 — Why the world cannot afford the rich ⊗ The information grey goo ⊗ AI “deathbots” are helping people in China grieve

Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places poorly served by polling stations.

Journalism as we knew it is washing away. But the story is bigger than journalism alone, and bigger than a story alone can tell. (Image borrowed from the brilliant Despair.com.) We who care about j…

In economics, a common-pool resource (CPR) is a type of good consisting of a natural or human-made resource system (e.g. an irrigation system or fishing grounds), whose size or characteristics makes it costly, but not impossible, to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use. Unlike pure public goods, common pool resources face problems of congestion or overuse, because they are subtractable. A common-pool resource typically consists of a core resource (e.g. water or fish), which defines the stock variable, while providing a limited quantity of extractable fringe units, which defines the flow variable. While the core resource is to be protected or nurtured in order to allow for its continuous exploitation, the fringe units can be harvested or consumed.[1]

The Santa Barbara News-Press was born in 1868 and died in 2023 at age 155. Its glory years ran from 1932 until 2000, when the New York Times sold it to Wendy McCaw, who rode it to hell. That ride b…

The earth contains a lot of titanium - it’s the ninth most abundant element in the earth’s crust. By mass, there’s more titanium in the earth’s crust than carbon by a factor of nearly 30, and more titanium than copper by a factor of nearly 100. But despite its abundance, it's only recently that civilization has been able to use titanium as a metal (titanium dioxide has been in use somewhat longer as a paint pigment). Because titanium so readily bonds with oxygen and other elements, it doesn’t occur at all in metallic form in nature.

She was a star engineer who warned that messy AI can spread racism. Google brought her in. Then it forced her out. Can Big Tech take criticism from within?

Timnit Gebru is a leader among those examining the societal impacts of the technology. She had also criticized the company's diversity efforts.

Google for Startups Black Founders Fund welcomes 50 new entrepreneurs and Alphabet fulfills its $100 million commitment to Black\u002Dled VCs.

A Reddit thread reveals the careers deemed most unethical and shameful, from lawyers enabling injustice to the paparazzi ecosystem

"They say in thirty years, a burger and fries could cost $16, a vacation $12,400, and a basic car $65,000," leads a 1996 ad for financial services company TIAA (then…

Old people are always complaining about how things were harder when they were young. Walking to school in the snow, uphill both ways, that whole thing. So forgive me as I embark on what initially m…

Watch hundreds of teenagers grow up into adults – and see how their lives turn out

Behind students' increasing pull toward extracurriculars

No. Social justice requires restructuring the systems perpetuating inequities.

In 1942, aboard ship and heading for war, a young sailor—my uncle—wrote a letter home, describing and defining the principles he was fighting for.

Why do we fear being lied to? Because we don’t like others manipulating our beliefs. But our fear of being misled by false news pales by comparison to our fear of suffering total “mind-control”, such as depicted in the films

Dear valued faculty, In light of the recent budget cuts, the university administration thought it would be helpful to clarify a few things about ou...

Today we’re releasing our 2023 U.S. Economic Impact Report with a focus on how small and medium\u002Dsized businesses are using generative AI.

A new SEC filing details all the ways that Trump Media thinks Donald Trump himself could be a major risk to the company.

These kids aren’t lazy. We’re failing them.

An appliance used to be a machine. Now it’s a bureaucracy.