The Yowl! in the machine
Artificial Intelligence will never be enough. A true machine companion will also need empathy and compassion. (4700 words)
Author: Gene Tracy
Chancellor Professor of Physics at William & Mary
Beware the Orwellian Trap
In which I sidle up to the edge and take a peek down the climate conspiracy rabbit hole. (2800 words)
Bubble, bubble, is oil in trouble? The carbon bubble, Part 1
The stuff in the ground only has value today if investors believe it will be burned tomorrow. What happens if those beliefs start to change? (2500 words)
Gaia shrugged
Our experience of the weather is true, but our knowledge of the climate is objective. Why is that distinction so important? (1900 words)
How much can we afford to forget, if we train machines to remember?
Without food we starve, without energy we huddle in the cold. And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilisations are at risk of falling into a looming dark age. (1400 words)
Bubble, bubble, is oil in trouble? The carbon bubble, Part 2
The technological train of energy market disruption has left the station. How fast will it pick up speed? (3200 words)
Bubble, bubble, is oil in trouble? The carbon bubble, Part 3
How big might the bubble be, and who gets hurt if it pops? The trillion pound gorilla. (2200 words)
The children of Apollo
Rockets are dreams made into fuel and fire. And if we forget to dream, or if we only dream other dreams, we will lose the sky. (2200 words)
We need new stories of the 21st-century university.
For many, our dreaming spires have turned into the stuff of nightmares. Where have things gone wrong? (1400 words)
A return volley
Science fiction — at its best — is always about what it means to be human. (2100 words)
