The Latest from Big Think

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Two stylized figures sit on opposite sides of a floating, stacked cube structure amidst swirling, colorful circular patterns representing an AI reality.
AI psychosis may be the most visible example of something much bigger and stranger.
A digital collage featuring a Renaissance-style portrait of a woman partially obscured by large, pixelated blocks of black-and-white computer code.
From robot dog fights to Victorian graveyards, historian Thomas Moynihan journeys into the city’s new avant-garde.
Portrait of a smiling man in a rust-colored button-down shirt that looks like a pangram of warm autumnal tones.
Max Spero discusses how AI detection has changed, the future of online trust, and why we’re in “a time of norm-building.”
A tall, precarious stack of books reminiscent of the Library of Babel, set against a grainy, multi-colored background with digital glitch artifacts.
Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel was full of content but short on meaning. He wasn’t the first author to grapple with the challenges of our AI age.
A headshot of a woman with curly, dark hair featuring a gray streak, looking directly at the camera against a dark background.
“How could AI fit into a world in which everyone has the ability to have a joyful life? That is the fundamental question that I am interested in answering.”
A human fetus inside the amniotic sac, attached to the placenta, against a black background.
AI may exhibit consciousness, empathy, or curiosity, but only humans must find their place in the world.
Portrait of three people against a background of green, brown, and blue pixelated squares.
As AI does more of our thinking for us, what should we work hardest to keep?
The printed Declaration of Independence, beginning with the title “In Congress, July 4, 1776.”
With people’s educations and careers on the line, can we afford to replace human judgment with blind probability?
A human profile silhouette composed of a collage of technological, historical, and scientific objects against a starry night sky.
The debate gets clearer when you split it into three questions.
Yellow book cover titled “Unspeakable” by Christina Wing, featuring a black speech bubble and the subtitle, “The Taboo Topics We Avoid and How to Talk About Difficult Conversations.”.
With the right preparation and follow-through, anyone can get better at having difficult conversations.
An visualization of dark matter across the universe
The biggest question most often asked about dark matter is whether it exists. But astrophysically, we've long moved on to the next step.
Book cover for “Envy” by Stacy S. Kim, PhD, with bold pink text, green snakes symbolizing envy, purple flowers, and the subtitle: “Why wanting what they have is the key to getting what you want.”.
Envy gets a bad rap, but it can be a powerful source of self-knowledge.
A crowd of protestors wearing Guy Fawkes masks hold signs during a demonstration.
In hindsight, it's not surprising that a film about the power of political symbols became a powerful political symbol in its own right.
A Martian Moons eXploration probe with gold-colored insulation and solar panels flies in front of Mars, with the cratered moon Phobos visible in the distance.
JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission has just launched. The origin of Phobos and Deimos are at stake, with samples returning home soon.
Four side-by-side panels showing the same area of space with increasing magnification, moving from a wide view of the Milky Way to a detailed infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The right kind of telescope can get us to our central black hole. But it took something extra to go all the way to seeing its event horizon.
A large radio telescope dish surrounded by forested hills and several supporting towers beneath a cloudy sky, searching for signals from a distant starless gas cloud.
While we now actively listen for aliens, we've never made an intentional long-term broadcast ourselves. What signal should we ideally send?
A surreal collage of AI micro-dramas showing a person lying on a floor near a table, surrounded by floating cutouts of people, animals, food, and digital interface icons against a white background.
I thought China’s AI video boom was driven by creativity, innovation, and tech diffusion. I was wrong.
Two people at a green table with tea, a glass of water, and small cakes.
People might be taking the advice of “be a good listener” a little too far.
Book cover of “Bogland” by Merritt R. Turetsky, featuring illustrations of bogland plants, mosses, and a dragonfly against a light brown background.
Peatlands preserve thousands of years of ecological history beneath our feet. Now, a warming climate is transforming that record with startling speed.
einstein general relativity curved spacetime
General relativity is incredibly difficult, both physically and mathematically. But all theorists need to learn it. Here's how to grok it.