Intelligence
Is technology making life better or worse? Whose lives is it making it better, and whose lives is it making worse?
Featuring interviews with Tressie McMillan Cottom and Fred Turner, and articles on algorithmic austerity, robo-debt collection, and more.
The Story of a New Brain
A new generation of brain scanners promise to upgrade your mind’s operating system and optimize your neural circuits. Results may vary.
The Madness of the Crowd
A decade ago, the internet was praised for empowering the smart, collaborative crowd. Now it’s blamed for unleashing the stupid, malicious mob. What happened?
JavaScript is for Girls
Decades ago, men kicked women out of the programming profession just as it was taking off. Now that women are fighting their way back in, men are finding new ways to protect their status.
Dr. Robot
New software is industrializing medicine by turning doctors into data entry clerks—and making them suicidally depressed in the process.
The Smart, the Stupid, and the Catastrophically Scary: An Interview with an Anonymous Data Scientist
A long conversation with a veteran data scientist on AI, deep learning, FinTech, and the future.
From Tinder to Transference: A Roundtable on Technology and Psychology with Jamieson Webster, Alex Kriss, Carlene MacMillan, and Marcus Coelen
How does technology affect emotional intelligence? Do the tools we use make us happier, sadder, dumber, smarter? Are those even the right questions to ask? We asked four mental health professionals to tell us about the role that technology plays in their practice, and in the inner lives of their patients.
Building the Virtual Wall
The US government is pouring millions into automating border enforcement. It’s a good story for tech journalists, a lucrative opportunity for defense contractors, and bad for everyone else.
With art by Rebecca Lieberman.