Philosophy

Philosophy

Examine life’s biggest questions, from ethics to existence, with curiosity and critical thinking.

Illustration of a person holding a cup while selecting a book from a shelf filled with various colorful book spines.
Revisiting the year’s noteworthy nonfiction.
quantum communications
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe is simply that it, and everything in it, exists. But what's the reason why?
A person with a shaved head, beard, and blue-framed glasses—reminiscent of Demis Hassabis—looks at the camera with their hand resting on their face against a dark background.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
spooky action quantum
We think of physical reality as what objectively exists, independent of any observer. But relativity and quantum physics say otherwise.
Illustration of a human head made of cracked material with bandages, set against a cloudy sky background.
25mins
"The big question then is why are most people resilient and why are some people not resilient?"
Illustration featuring a brain, a profile of a man resting his face on his hand, a sketch of a head, and brain scan images in purple and green tones.
Neuroscience isn’t dissolving philosophy’s hardest problems — it’s forcing us to rethink where they live.
Simon Squibb, a middle-aged man in a blue shirt, stands outdoors in an urban setting, holding a small microphone with his arms crossed.
British entrepreneur Simon Squibb made his fortune and retired — then amassed legions of followers by giving away sharp business advice for free.
Aerial view of a river delta with branching waterways, shaped by natural intelligence, flowing into the sea and surrounded by green and brown land.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
A person in a red sweater sits on a stool in front of a white backdrop in a bright room with plants, a colorful rug, and a table with a lamp.
7mins
Members
“The problem with cognitive scripts is when we use them to make more important decisions in our lives, we let our choices be driven by those stories that we have internalized that tell us how we're supposed to behave in a certain situation.”
A man stands on stage before an audience, with a backdrop reading "A Night of Awe & Wonder" and the John Templeton Foundation logo.
Big Think and the John Templeton Foundation gathered scientists, artists, and storytellers in Los Angeles to explore the power of awe.
A silhouette of a child stands on a sunlit path in a dense, dark forest with tall trees and foliage surrounding the scene.
19mins
David S. Goyer explains how paying attention to mystery, and not brushing it aside, became the foundation for the way he builds stories, characters, and worlds.
A colorful map of the United States with state boundaries replaced by regions labeled with various unrelated names and entities.
In post-apocalyptic fiction, imagined futures turn today’s political and cultural tensions into geography.
A silver space pen with its cap removed appears to write swirling white lines against a blue, starry background.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
A woman with straight black hair, wearing a black turtleneck, poses against a blue-to-white gradient background.
There are two sides to the AI debate, and both are perpetuating the idea that AI is “inevitable, all-powerful, and deserves to be controlled by a tiny group of people,” says the Empire of AI author.
A classical-style stone bust with curly hair is shown with a cloth blindfold covering its eyes, set against a solid black background. The image has a yellow tint.
47mins
“The problem is in our information. Humans, yes, we are generally good and wise, but if you give good people bad information, they make bad decisions.”
A petri dish containing smart slime mold with branching vein-like structures, viewed from above against a black background.
As we crank up our search for more powerful AI, maybe we should slow down and reimagine the shape and language of intelligence itself.
Digital artwork of a humanoid figure with a distorted, glitch-like effect and swirling, contour-like lines against a dark, pixelated background, reminiscent of the innovative AI art explorations by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.
Researcher and Google CTO Blaise Agüera y Arcas joins us to discuss his new book, "What Is Intelligence?"
A person wearing a light-colored cloak stands in a dense, green forest, surrounded by tall trees and moss-covered ground—an ideal setting for quiet reflection and systems thinking.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.