book excerpt

How does a data set like the US census deal with people who defy its expectations? How can a data set encompass those its designers never imagined? These…

As the soup collapsed inward toward the center of the solar system, its molecules would be squeezed closer together and the pressure would rise. It would…

The rise of powerful new technology means that humanity must confront the risk of its own demise. The invention of nuclear weaponry, for example, has already…

On a snowy winter day, we were in the library of a charter middle school in Portland, Maine. It was the first of many school visits where we teamed up with…

Sophie Papp and her family had a ritual for the recently departed. Whenever a relative died, she and her brother and cousins would all squeeze into a car and…

When Mark Zuckerberg announced in October 2021 that Facebook was changing its name to Meta Platforms Inc., it made waves well beyond Silicon Valley.…

In the vision of the “frictionless” city that is held by many in tech, where virtually every city service, human interaction, and consumer experience is to…

Back in 2015, before Brexit, before Trump, before Macedonian internet trolls, before QAnon and Covid conspiracy theories, before fake news and alternative…

Radioactive wild boar are invading towns in southern Germany. They take out a man in a wheelchair; they break through fences and roam the roads, shutting…

There was once an orangutan named Ken Allen at the San Diego Zoo who was notorious for carrying out complex escape plans. He found every nut and bolt in his…