Odilon Redon, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1888

• Get In, Weirdos

  The Editors

  If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that at some point in your life, someone has called you weird. You probably have some weird beliefs, or at least you’ve considered them. You may think of yourself as a weird person — in fact, it may be a point of pride. 

• interview

  The Future of American Foreign Aid

  Todd Moss Katie Auth

  USAID has been slashed, and it is unclear what shape its successor will take. How might American foreign assistance be restructured to maintain critical functions? And how should we think about its future?

• interview

  The Science of Woo

  Kati Devaney

  A conversation about neuroscience, meditation, and the many paths to insight.

• interview

  Are AIs People?

  Rob Long Kathleen Finlinson

  Every year, AI models get better at thinking. Could they possibly be capable of feeling? And if they are, how would we know?

• The Case for Insect Consciousness

  Bob Fischer

  The evidence that insects feel pain is mounting, however we approach the issue.

• Automating Math

  Adam Marblestone

  Computers can already help verify proofs. One day soon, AI may be able to come up with new ones.

• Can We Build a Five Gigawatt Data Center?

  Lynette Bye

  By 2030, leading AI labs will need data centers so massive they will require the power equivalent of some of America’s largest cities. Will they be able to find it?

• Greening the Solar System

  Edwin Kite Robin Wordsworth

  A future where life flourishes beyond Earth is closer than you think. How, precisely, will we get there?

• A Defense of Weird Research

  Deena Mousa Lauren Gilbert

  Government-funded scientific research may appear strange or impractical, but it has repeatedly yielded scientific breakthroughs — and continues to pay for itself many times over.

• The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing

  Jake Eaton

  Why do some people find certain sounds intolerable? And why has it taken so long for scientists to get even a preliminary answer?

• We Can, Must, and Will Simulate Nematode Brains

  Michael Skuhersky

  Scientists have spent over 25 years trying — and failing — to build computer simulations of the smallest brain we know. Today, we finally have the tools to pull it off.

• Deros and the Ur-Abduction

  Scott Alexander

  What do Atlantean dwarves, witch trials, and tractor beams have in common?

• Where Babies Come From

  Sam Kriss

  It’s more complicated than you may think.

• Where the Wild Things Aren’t

  Agnes Callard

  We tell our children that weirdness is a blessing in disguise. That’s our fantasy, not theirs.

• Yes, Shrimp Matter

  Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla

  What made a private equity analyst decide to devote his life to tiny aquatic crustaceans?

• interview

  Does Abundance Start at Home?

  Kelsey Piper Jasmine Sun

  Kelsey Piper and Jasmine Sun talk about microschools, whether localism is the enemy of Abundance, and why Chinese bureaucrats are like Growth PMs.