Society

Capitalism turns all technological breakthroughs into nightmare fuel. Can artificial intelligence escape its grasp?

My previous three essays have been step-by-step demonstrations of my thinking — each applies specific examples in detail, tailored to specific topics. To answer Andrew Kemle’s question (“Is there a self left to talk about?”) I want a general way of articulating myself. It will hardly be comprehensive, but if I can at least sketch...

The Poverty of Right-Libertarian Cliches Right-libertarians, it seems, have a love affair with Garrett Hardin and his so-called “tragedy of the commons.” It’s a principle to which they return, time and again. But as a foundation, it is historically illiterate; and the structure which they erect upon it is conceptually incoherent. Take, for example, Saul...

The Biden administration is encouraging ordinary U.S. citizens to help resettle refugees, via the newly launched sponsorship program Welcome Corps in partnership with non-profit organizations.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, about the pros and cons of the Biden administration's new refugee resettlement program.

Open access // by Benoît Bréville (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, March 2024)

In fact, AI's weaknesses are what powers all these emerging roles for tech profesionals.

We’ve noted for decades how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide,” the U.S. doesn’t truly know where broadband is or isn’t available. The FCC’s past broad…

With hundreds of thousands dead or wounded and still no end in sight, the Ukraine-Russia war has shown the Pentagon that its calculations must evolve.

They went and finally killed Vice for real this time. Look at the shit-eating way these bosses always talk. Media news: In a memo, Vice CEO Bruce Dixon says the company will lay off hundreds of employees and stop publishing on the https://t.co/JeDcdfTJsW website. pic.twitter.com/

Vice is laying off hundreds of staff and will no longer publish at Vice.com. The outcome of the company's spectacular rise (it was valued at more than $5bn in 2017)…

Fireside this week! We’ll pick up looking at some of the successes of Hellenistic armies next week. Percy, having found a use for some of my books. And of course, less I miss a chance to note…

If you haven’t heard of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s playbook for staffing the next Trump administration, I suggest you read up on it right away. Project 2025 is an action plan for how to use the most extreme versions of the unitary executive theory to weaponize the federal government into an instrument of authoritarian […]

The unholy alliance of Jesus and Ayn Rand

Reddit user: "It's not just you, ChatGPT is having a stroke."

Read to the end for a black cat eating a whole rotisserie chicken while Mamma Mia by ABBA plays in the background

Excerpts from a Q&A with bestselling degrowth author Kohei Saito.

The federal government’s dysfunction leaves immigrant-friendly cities feeling overwhelmed.

In recent months, many politicians and media outlets have focused on the "migrant crisis" in various cities, supposedly…

Bailing out a critical Massachusetts hospital chain should come with some consequences for the financial operators who put them in that position.

AI doesn’t change basic ethical principles. But the scale at which it operates introduces new problems.