Cycles of Change

A farmer plants a seed that responds blindly to water and soil. The farmer controls every condition by deciding when to water and harvest. The relationship remains clear while the farmer thinks and the seed grows. Imagine the seed begins to learn by studying the soil and tracking the clouds. It [...]

By the middle of the twenty-first century, human thought will likely split along three distinct paths. The swift union of computer systems with human biology poses profound choices for mental growth, bodily health, and social life. Some groups will seek deep brain chips, others will pick flexible [...]

For decades, the personal computer remained anchored to an office desk. Big metal towers, thick monitors, and tangled bundles of cables defined the daily workspace. When touch tablets first entered the market, most people viewed them as basic media screens. They were handy for reading books and [...]

For centuries, artistic expression stood as the exclusive home of human thought. A painter mixing oils on a wooden palette, a poet writing lines in a notebook, or a jazz quartet playing under dim lights showed deep human feeling. We believed that while machines could weave cloth or stamp car doors, [...]

The combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence has the potential to change many aspects of life, from the way people work to how they interact with the world. However, it also creates new social challenges that demand attention now, before the technology becomes widespread. [...]