Joshua Rothman joins Geoffrey Hinton on his island and learns why the neural-network pioneer thinks A.I. systems, like Open AI’s ChatGPT, could grow too smart to remain under our control.
Bill McKibben writes about solar geoengineering, or solar-radiation management (S.R.M.) and why the scientists who study it don’t want anyone to try it.
Africa’s Cold Rush and the Promise of Refrigeration
Nicola Twilley reports from Rwanda on current efforts to establish a refrigerated “cold chain,” meeting with agricultural workers around the country and the African and European experts working for the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES).
Jia Tolentino writes about the overturning of Roe v. Wade after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, the future for abortion rights, and the importance of reproductive justice.
We’ve supersized our capacity to ship stuff across the seas. What can we gather from the junk that washes up on shore? Kathryn Schulz on container-ship mishaps and “Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea,” by Tracey Williams.
Some of Trump’s supporters had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power, Luke Mogelson writes. A chronicle of an attack foretold.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes about the recent anti-police-brutality protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, the sixties riots and the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, and the responsibility of politicians from George W. Bush to Joe Biden.
“Reverse Innovation” Could Save Lives. Why Aren’t We Embracing It?
Tom Vanderbilt writes about “reverse innovation” in medical technology, where solutions devised to overcome the resource constraints in developing countries are then adopted in wealthier countries with the aim of cutting health-care costs.
As public-health officials confront the largest outbreak in the U.S. in decades, they’ve been fighting as much against dangerous ideas as they have against the disease, Nick Paumgarten writes.
