8th Feb
Future War
Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War? by Dexter Filkins - With global conflicts increasingly shaped by drones and A.I., the American military risks losing its dominance
Putin has Redrawn the World - But Not the Way He Wanted by Allan Little - We are living in new and more dangerous times
The AI-Powered, Totally Autonomous Future of War Is Here by Will Knight - Ships without crews. Self-directed drone swarms. How a US Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and artificial intelligence to prepare for the next age of conflict
How Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine by C.J. Chivers - Outnumbered and desperate, the nation began hacking cheap consumer drones with explosives — bringing a brutal new form of violence to 21st-century warfare
AI Warfare Becomes Real for US Military With Project Maven by Katrina Manson - US military operators started out skeptical about AI, but now they are the ones developing and using Project Maven to identify targets on the battlefield
How an Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar by Andy Greenberg - Blackouts in Ukraine were just a trial run. Russian hackers are learning to sabotage infrastructure—and the US could be next
The Incredible Rise of North Korea’s Hacking Army by Ed Caesar - The country’s cyber forces have raked in billions of dollars for the regime by pulling off schemes ranging from A.T.M. heists to cryptocurrency thefts. Can they be stopped?
The Age of American Naval Dominance Is Over by Jerry Hendrix - The United States has ceded the oceans to its enemies. We can no longer take freedom of the seas for granted
How the US Created a World of Endless War by Samuel Moyn - In 2008, many of Barack Obama’s supporters hoped he would bring the global war on terror to a close. Instead, he expanded it.
Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic by Ben Taub - For years, Russia has been using the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, which borders its nuclear stronghold, as a laboratory, testing intelligence operations there before replicating them across Europe
This Giant Microwave May Change the Future of War by Sam Dean - The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Now the company has to deliver.
Plus check out our full list of 50 Great Articles about War
17th Jan
15 Great Articles about Progress
GDP by Oliver Kim - We really don’t know how good we have it
How Humanity Gave Itself an Extra Life by Steven Johnson - Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered — but so did activism.
The Real Reason Humans are the Dominant Species by Justin Rowlatt and Laurence Knight - Energy is the key to humanity’s world domination
The Birth of Religion by Charles C. Mann - We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization.
The Case Against Civilization by John Lanchester - Did our hunter-gatherer ancestors have it better?
The Worst Mistake in History by Jared Diamond - Archaeology is demolishing the belief that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress
Beyond the !Kung by Manvir Singh - A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale
A History of Violence by Steven Pinker - Believe it or not—and I know most people do not—violence has been in decline over long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence
Money ? Happiness. QED. by Bill McKibben - The formula for human well-being used to be simple: Make money, get happy. So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us?
What We Get Wrong about Technology by Tim Harford - Forget flying cars or humanoid robots, the most disruptive inventions are often cheap, simple and easy to overlook
How the System Works by Charles C. Mann - An essay series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life — and what happens if we don’t maintain them
The Golden Quarter by Michael Hanlon - Some of our greatest cultural and technological achievements took place between 1945 and 1971. Why has progress stalled?
Why the Age of American Progress Ended by Derek Thompson - Invention alone can’t change the world; what matters is what happens next
We Should Fix Climate Change — but We Should Not Regret It by Thomas R. Wells - Climate change is a huge and urgent problem. It is natural to suppose that it is therefore a terrible mistake, an unforced error that we should regret and try to prevent ever happening again.
On the Importance of Staring Directly Into the Sun by Adam Mastroianni - There’s something very weird about the timeline of scientific discoveries
The Third Magic by Noah Smith - A meditation on history, science, and AI
13th May
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