Consciousness
A Theory of Consciousness Can Help Build a Theory of Everything
Neuroscience is weighing in on physics’ biggest questions.
Is Quantum Theory About Reality or What We Know?
Physicists know how to use quantum theory—your phone and computer give plenty of evidence of that. But knowing how to use it is a far cry from fully understanding the world the theory describes—or even what the various mathematical devices scientists use in the theory are supposed to mean. One such mathematical object, whose status […]
How to Solve Oncology’s Labor Crisis
Cancer doctors are overworked, retire early, and attract fewer recruits than other specialties, leaving the rising cancer-patient population vulnerable. Here’s what must be done.Photograph by Ghislain & Marie David de Lossy / Getty Images I watched a man die today. We were “rounding” when we were summoned to his room. He was struggling to breathe, […]
You Can’t Upload Your “Self” Into Virtual Reality
Thomas Metzinger on the nature of subjective experience.
Why Doesn’t Ancient Fiction Talk About Feelings?
Literature’s evolution has reflected and spurred the growing complexity of society.
If Bugs Are Sentient, Should We Eat Them?
The ethics of eating insects.
We Need Conscious Robots
How introspection and imagination make robots better.
Color Is a Dance Between Your Brain and the World
When Robbert Dijkgraaf was a little boy, growing up in the Netherlands, he’d play in his home attic after school, often with a friend. It was dark inside except for the light streaming in from one window. One time, they closed the shades so only a sliver of photons could pass through. Robbert, holding […]
Why Poverty Is Like a Disease
Emerging science is putting the lie to American meritocracy.
The Kekulé Problem
Where did language come from?
