Society

The dark forest hypothesis is the conjecture that many alien civilizations exist throughout the universe, but they are both silent and hostile, maintaining their undetectability for fear of being destroyed by another hostile and undetected civilization.[1] It is one of many possible explanations of the Fermi paradox, which contrasts the lack of contact with alien life with the potential for such contact. The hypothesis derives its name from Liu Cixin's 2008 novel The Dark Forest,[2] although the concept predates the novel.[3][4]

Why the dark forests of the internet — podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels — are growing, and why might that pose a problem

These people share conspiracy theories to promote conflict, cause chaos, recruit and radicalize potential followers, make money, harass, or even just to get attention.

Keeping a gun can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Politicians need to get realistic about what it will take to protect Social Security.

When millions of people are under evacuation orders, logistical issues arise.

You know what your mom would say, right? This week, we got an above average number of useless negative comments. A project was described as looking like a “turd” – for the record I love the hacker’…

Noam Chomsky's savage review of B. F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, published in The New York Review of Books in 1971, is sometimes credited as the coup de grâce to behaviorism – its widely-read condemnation of that particular strand of psychology (alongside what Chomsky argued were its political ramifications) published

The bureau shamefully allowed itself to be used as a prop in political theater, orchestrated by the Trump administration

From cutting social services to changing election rules, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare has pushed his agenda with an uncompromising approach. His term offers a rare look at what happens when hard-liners exert influence in a battleground county.

The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less’

Edith 'Biddy' Lanchester was an English socialist, feminist and suffragette. She became well known in 1895 when her family had her incarcerated in an asylum for planning to live with her lover, who was an Irish, working-class labourer. Lanchester later became secretary to Eleanor Marx.

The long read: From football clubs to water companies, music catalogues to care homes, private equity has infiltrated almost every facet of modern life in its endless search to maximise profits

An election skeptic challenged hundreds of voter registrations, including one for a voting rights activist. A county official is dealing with the mess.

The long read: Every informed observer agrees that food waste and loss must be reduced if we are to feed all humans. What’s stopping us?

Friends,

The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death By George Monbiot, published on monbiot.com, 4th October 2023 Tourism sells to you the story of what it has taken away. It markets the “traditional” and “unchanging” and, in doing so, changes it. As the old joke…

Understand AI for what it is, not what it might become.

Some just want to promote conflict, cause chaos, or even just get attention.

As executives flee with warnings of danger, the company says it will plow ahead.

Those of us old enough to remember BBS servers or even rainbow banners often go down the nostalgia hole about how the internet was better “back in the day” than it is now as a handful o…

In How and why to write letters to voters I discussed Vote Forward, my favorite way for those of us who aren’t in swing states to reach out to voters in swing states. The site works really we…