Essays

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Longform Essays written by serious and creative thinkers on philosophy, psychology, science, society and culture

Black and white photo of a street scene with a heated discussion involving a traffic officer and men near cars.

essayPolitical philosophy

Guarding the guardians

Good institutions are social technologies that scale trust from personal relations to entire nations. How do they work?

Julien Lie-Panis

Two figures in flowing robes standing amidst partially submerged bodies in a dark, eerie landscape.

essayStories and literature

Subverting hell

In their visions of the underworld Dante and Milton were truly subversive, incorporating predecessors into their own repudiation

Charlie Ericson

Painting of a vibrant futuristic city with lush greenery, people and colourful signs, featuring advanced architecture and technology.

essayArchitecture

Compost modernity!

The vision of solarpunk: joining nature with technology in vibrantly inclusive ways to create a world that truly blooms

Yogi Hale Hendlin

Video of orcas swimming underwater displaying distinctive black-and-white patterns in a serene blue ocean environment.

essayBiology

Orcas and ourselves

Sea pandas or sadistic killers? These enigmatic creatures invite contradictory labels that say far more about us than them

Jason Colby

Photo of a truck on a narrow bridge with people balancing and pushing it under a clear sky.

essayHuman evolution

How selfish are we?

An age-old debate about human nature is being energised with new findings on the tightrope of cooperation and competition

Jonathan R Goodman

A person in a garden facing a traditional Japanese building with a curved roof across a pond, surrounded by trees and bushes.

essayComparative philosophy

Between being and emptiness

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature

Takeshi Morisato

essayNeuroscience

Can you rewire your brain?

The metaphor of rewiring offers an ideal of engineered precision. But the brain is more like a forest than a circuit board

Peter Lukacs

Two children on a bike passing a group of people standing outside a large metal gate with buildings in the background.

essayWork

Victims and villains

In Southeast Asia’s scam compounds, workers are being enslaved but the boundary between victim and perpetrator is blurred

Ivan Franceschini & Ling Li

Two boys in colourful clothes standing beside a large painting of an elderly woman in a gold frame.

essayEconomics

Is inherited wealth bad?

Despite associations with the idle rich, the fact that inheritances are rising is a sign of a healthy, growing economy

Daniel Waldenström

Engraving showing a view of the Portuguese town of Cacheo with a fort, trees and sailing ships on a river.

essayGlobal history

A lesson in coexistence

The 17th-century town Cacheu was a hub of West African and European cultures, languages and beliefs (and run by women)

Toby Green

A baseball with red stitching on a black background partially lit from the top left corner.

essayPhysics

Playing in flatland

Physicists believe a third class of particles – anyons – could exist, but only in 2D. What kind of existence is that?

Elay Shech

Photo of two silhouettes walking by fountains with bokeh effect in the foreground, Arc de Triomphe in the background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Computers can’t surprise

As AI’s endless clichés continue to encroach on human art, the true uniqueness of our creativity is becoming ever clearer

Richard Beard