science fiction

Philosopher Nick Bostrom is surprisingly cheerful for someone who has spent so much time worrying about ways that humanity might destroy itself. In photographs he often looks deadly serious, perhaps appropriately haunted by the…

Walk me through your own decision to do this—to use Orchid’s technology on yourself.I mean, I started the company because I wanted to test my own embryos.Because of your mom, or because of who you are as a person?Both. Reproduction is…

On Wednesday, author David Brin announced that Vernor Vinge, sci-fi author, former professor, and father of the technological singularity concept, died from Parkinson's disease at age 79 on March 20, 2024, in La Jolla, California. The…

Science fiction, for decades, has been about predicting the future—and warning against it. Even as Star Trek envisioned the wonders of flip phones and iPads, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash warned of the dystopian nature of the…

I don’t know how many, and I don’t know who they are until a text stimulates them. There’s one text that keeps getting tossed in my direction, which is King Lear.I would love to see you in Lear.But should I do it? I’m not sure that I…

In Isaac Asimov’s classic science fiction story “Robbie,” the Weston family owns a robot who serves as a nursemaid and companion for their precocious preteen daughter, Gloria. Gloria and the robot Robbie are friends; their relationship…

Kim Kardashian’s newest range of products, launched in late 2022—post SKIMS shapewear, post SKKN facewear—is a menacing set of raw concrete forms for storing bathroom products: a gray tissue box, Q-tip tin, wastebasket. Dry, brutal, and…

What about cyber entities who operate below some arbitrary level of ability? We can demand that they be vouched for by some entity who is ranked higher, and who has a Soul Kernel based in physical reality. (I leave theological…