Problems of power resist
solution. As other aspects of our lives have been entirely transformed for the
better—the ability to communicate with each other, for example—just a little
over a tenth of the world lives in a full democracy, and democratization has
stalled or reversed in many parts of the world. Why is power a hard problem?
Maybe because it is necessary but dangerous, intimate but foreign—a
tangled externality, and possibly the very first one.

Sign up for the free Nautilus newsletter:
science and culture for people who love beautiful writing.
-
Celebrating the Relationship Between Science and Illustration
A conversation with Society of Illustrators executive director Arabelle Liepold -
The Extraordinary, Imperiled Science at the End of the Earth
Firing experts in Antarctica couldn’t come at a worse time -
Breaking a Cycle of Apocalypse
John Larison’s new novel The Ancients suggests some societies are built for cataclysm -
An Earthy Fallen Star
The strange mushroom that puffs life into forests around the world. -
Inside an Exploded Star
Cassiopeia A gets a close-up.