Our social identity is important for our sense of self-worth. But the very concept of social identity implies the exclusion of everyone else. In the political realm, that exclusion can quickly turn into oppression, but also resistance and rebellion, argues …
Although its allure and longevity is undeniable, the idea of infinite parallel universes –the multiverse - is untested and could never be tested. In this way it is unscientific in the barest sense, despite continuing to find supporters among serious, …
The real significance of new AI technology is not that machines can be like humans but that humans are prone to deception, argues Simone Natale. In the last few weeks, the official Twitter account of the Perseverance Mars Rover, a car-sized robot …
There is a paradox at the heart of our corruption discourse. The concept only makes sense in opposition to something pure and untainted, yet our contemporary political culture shies away from articulating such moral and political ideals. Only when we face …
Not only is it time to abandon psychiatric diagnosis, but it is time to move beyond the medicalised perspective of ‘mental health’. A new framework for understanding how we all cope with distress - the power threat meaning framework - can lead the way to …
If I clone myself what relation does the clone have to me? And what does this tell me about what makes me – me? My clone is not my self. It will be different in personality, cognition, as well as its place in space-time. This difference can help us to …
We know that every life contains a good deal of suffering. However, what counts is how we respond to it. Schopenhauer recommends a limiting of desire and resignation from life. While Nietzsche recommends an artistic response to the tragedy of life and an …
Loneliness has increased over lockdown. However, in our technological, hyper-social world, we are never truly alone in the modern world. To gain the treasures of solitude we must become more comfortable with ourselves and less reliant on distractions that …
Visual evidence provides the gold standard of truth. So it is that the news or documentary footage has an uncanny ability to take us in, presenting the illusion of an eyewitness experience, even though it is always a construction and not the truth. The …
‘Refugees’ have become a political football, a moral calling and a constant source of sensationalist news stories. But the identity of these people – university professors, electricians, mothers, sports enthusiasts – is often deliberately avoided. Hearing …
Is our personal identity just the particular make up of our physical bodies at a particular point in time? And if so, would a teletransporter that replicated our physical bodies on Mars preserve our personal identity? Thought experiments and transhumanist …
The idea that the universe constantly splits into alternate realities has had a surprisingly warm reception in science, philosophy and popular literature. But this baroque solution to the unique problems of quantum mechanics is simply not good science. Not …
Our identity is not just about our internal memories, beliefs, hopes and fears. We are made up equally of our environment, of things outside ourselves – for example, by how we react to people and places. With this in mind, the dream of uploading ourselves …
With alternative coins flourishing and Central Banks designing their own digital currencies, there is a potential hard-backed currency which cannot be ignored: carbon. Using carbon to back a global currency would redistribute wealth, incentivize low carbon …
As tanks assemble on Russia’s border with Ukraine, fears of outright war on the edge of Europe are mounting, with some incendiary language from officials in Moscow hailing ‘the end of Ukraine’. The region has been a hotspot ever since Russia annexed the …
The idea of an infinite number of worlds - each containing all the possibilities presented in our own world - might initially seem bizarre. Certainly David K. Lewis had a hard time convincing his fellow philosophers of his theory. But its application to …
Art that is grounded in close observation of the everyday – think grey-washed British films, the flawed characters formed in gritty cities and ‘ kitchen sink’ paintings – has much to recommend it. Lukács, the Hungarian philosopher and critic, contrasted it …
Physics is stagnating. We haven’t had any significant, new theoretical breakthroughs in decades. Do we need a radically new way of understanding the universe? If we treat the world as a neural network which is in the process of learning, then we can better …
Uncovering the ontology of NFTs - the artwork-cryptocurrency crossovers being sold for millions - reveals a profound uncertainty about their nature, and the rights they confer. But beyond this ambiguity, will the vast sums of cash (or cryptocurrency) being …
Technological advancement has increased exponentially. However, biological evolution continues to move slowly. Are our animal selves dangerously out-of-sync with the progress made in the digital world? We must, perhaps counter-intuitively, use the …
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