Issue_76
14 articles-
The Strange Physics of How Babies Talk
Different arrangements of words can be likened to microstates in statistical mechanics—the total set of ways a system’s constituent particles can be configured.Photo illustration by Khomich Yauheni / Shutterstock Like all new parents, I must sound like a kook when I babble along with my 9-month-old daughter. That’s okay: It delights her. I sometimes ask […] -
Why Campaigns to Change Language Often Backfire
Opponents of the phrase “car accident” argue that language is intertwined with accountability.Photograph by Alan Poulson Photography / Shutterstock In the first decades of the 20th century, people around the world began succumbing to an entirely new cause of mortality. These new deaths, due to the dangers of the automobile, soon became accepted as a […] -
How Freedom Divides
An expert on animal societies on what sets human societies apart. -
Would You Survive a Merger with AI?
The cost of brain enhancement may be your identity. -
Making a Future Among the Stars
Elon Musk has helped to advance self-driving electric cars and an implantable brain-machine interface, but when he greeted the crowd in Boca Chica, he said, gesturing at Starship, “This is the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen.”Photograph by SpaceX In Boca Chica, Texas, presenting SpaceX’s latest prototype vehicle, Starship, Elon Musk remembered how, 11 years […]
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Why Symbols Aren’t Forever
The removal of cultural emblems is not the erasure of history but part of it.
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Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another
A linguist exposes the inner truths about language.
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Mind the Gap Between Science and Religion
Scientists should respect the limits of their discipline. Photo illustration by Triff / ShutterstockHave you heard that we may be living in a computer simulation? Or that our universe is only one of infinitely many parallel worlds in which you live every possible variation of your life? Or that the laws of nature derive from […]
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Language Both Enraptures and Deceives Us
An interview with linguist and writer Julie Sedivy. -
The Communication We Share with Apes
Hand gestures signal the emergence of human language. -
When Words Fail
Where our minds go when words let us down.