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Abstract digital art with geometric shapes in various colours, forming the shape of a person’s head and shoulders, featuring black glasses in the centre.

The incompleteness of ethics

Many hope that AI will discover ethical truths. But as Gödel shows, deciding what is right will always be our burden

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Abstract digital art with geometric shapes in various colours, forming the shape of a person’s head and shoulders, featuring black glasses in the centre.

essay

Ethics

The incompleteness of ethics

Many hope that AI will discover ethical truths. But as Gödel shows, deciding what is right will always be our burden

Elad Uzan

Popular this month

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

video

Mathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes

Photo of three people in traditional robes, two holding wooden staffs, standing outside a wooden building in sunlight.

essay

Rituals and celebrations

A life in Zen

Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind

Anshi Zachary Smith

Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

essay

Biology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

Black and white photo of Adolf Hitler greeting two clergymen surrounded by a crowd in front of a Gothic building.

essay

Religion

An unholy alliance

In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism brought centuries of animosity between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants to an end. Why?

Udi Greenberg

A person in a brown coat sitting alone at a picnic table in an autumn park with fallen leaves around.

essay

Consciousness and altered states

A simple shift in focus

Life is often experienced as a demanding, ongoing story. But with a little practice, a new space opens for peaceful presence

James Carmody

Sketch of person holding a pink phone to their ear with minimal facial detail.

video

History

In the face of denial, this film uncovers the hidden scars of Indonesia’s 1998 riots

21 minutes

Painting of ancient Roman ruins with people, cattle and trees under a blue sky with clouds.

essay

Nations and empires

The rewards of ruin

Societal downfalls loom large in history and popular culture but, for the 99 per cent, collapse often had its upsides

Luke Kemp

Illustration of a brain with a tap attached, with yellow liquid flowing out against a grey background.

video

Ethics

What’s an idea worth? How prominent thinkers have understood intellectual property

6 minutes

Illustration of a blue dragonfly, a green leaf insect and a brown butterfly wing on a light background.

video

History of science

Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful

8 minutes

A stork and chicks in a nest on a metal pylon above a grassy landscape with a river in the background.

essay

Animals and humans

To build a nest

Throughout the animal kingdom, the parents of newborns must strive to create snug sanctuaries in a hazardous world

Helen Jukes

Photo of three people in traditional robes, two holding wooden staffs, standing outside a wooden building in sunlight.

essay

Rituals and celebrations

A life in Zen

Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind

Anshi Zachary Smith

Photo of a woman sleeping, resting her head and hand on a large dog, creating a cosy atmosphere.

video

Love and friendship

What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?

13 minutes

Black and white photo of a man in a suit speaking passionately at a podium with microphones.

essay

Biography and memoir

The story of Malcolm X

Alex Haley co-wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X but Haley left out some profound elements of Malcolm’s political thought

Alex White

Photo of a woman wearing sunglasses, gesturing in front of a large stone monument with carved figures.

video

Thinkers and theories

The prison abolitionist who dares to envision a world without ‘unfreedoms’

16 minutes

Photo of a large conference with a speaker on stage in traditional attire and an audience seated facing a large curved screen.

essay

Politics and government

How to run the world

We need new forms of global diplomacy to transcend the current pathetic bargaining of national and commercial interests

David Van Reybrouck

3D heat map graph with peaks in red and valleys in blue showing data variation.

video

Music

A riveting audiovisual dive into what makes sounds harmonious, or not

28 minutes

A round pot encircles a hole in the soil, around the hole are dried leaves, a stone and a stick.

essay

Anthropology

Spider divination

Life is complicated. In Cameroon, initiated diviners read the messages of spiders to untangle possible futures

David Zeitlyn

A crocodile underwater with mouth open wide showing teeth in a cloudy green environment.

essay

The environment

Beyond food and people

Nietzsche shows us how to embrace our connection with nature – without denying its essential conflict, strife and suffering

Nicholas E Low

Photo of two women hugging at an indoor event, one holding a piece of paper

video

Life stages

Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers

15 minutes

Abstract digital art of a web-like cosmic structure with purple and orange filament patterns, resembling a universe simulation.

essay

Cosmology

Rivers of galaxies

What are the largest shapes in the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth

Mark Neyrinck

Illustration of three people, one with wide eyes and mouth open, another holding their head, third timing with a pocket watch.

video

Medicine

Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment

11 minutes

A person in a hospital gown sitting on a bed in a bright patient room, large window and privacy curtain visible.

essay

Human rights and justice

Knowledge and justice

Any legal system that fails to compensate people for epistemic harm is unjust. Their damage must be named and remedied

Mitch Woolery

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

video

Nature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Photo of two polar bears exploring a decaying wooden building, one looks out a window, the other stands on the porch steps.

essay

Animals and humans

Humanlike?

Interpreting the emotional lives of animals requires a subtler and more nuanced understanding of anthropomorphism

Mike Dacey

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essay

Language and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

Photo of a woman in a red coat gazing out a foggy window with a contemplative expression.

video

Progress and modernity

Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities

31 minutes

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essay

Consciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

video

Mathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes