Solving the Mystery of Whose Laughter Is On the Golden Record
Forty years ago, the sound of a human cackle was blasted out into the cosmos—but who is the person laughing? And why did the track disappear from official recordings?
What Interacting With Robots Might Reveal About Human Nature
The most urgent question for people is not whether machines will take their jobs, but how machines will change the way they behave in society.
Parents Share How They Protect Their Kids Online
Advice for anyone trying to figure out how to balance the perils of the digital world with its benefits.
DARPA's Ex-Leader's Speculative Dream of Mind-Melding Empathy
Arati Prabhakar imagines a neurologically enhanced future where everyone’s brains are connected.
The NSA Confronts a Problem of Its Own Making
Recent cyberattacks show what happens when America’s secret-keepers can’t keep their secrets.
The iPhone Is Dead. Long Live the Rectangle
Ten years later, smartphones have been fully domesticated.
If Buddhist Monks Trained AI
Monks take on the trolley problem, a classic moral dilemma that has big implications for driverless cars.
The iPhone Was Inevitable
Apple changed the world when it launched the iPhone 10 years ago, but the technological march toward computers in everyone’s pockets began long before that.
Where Not to Use Your Phone
The kitchen, the bedroom, and other places should be off-limits to devices, says psychologist Sherry Turkle.
Advertising That Exploits Our Deepest Insecurities
What are the implications of ads that know our search histories?
What Do You Tell Your Kids About Online Privacy?
A call for parents to share the values and practices that they instill around digital life–and their fears about what could go wrong.
Is the Problem With Tech Companies That They're Companies?
A Stanford professor argues that a profit imperative is in tension with the needs of a democratic society.
For Google, Everything Is a Popularity Contest
The limits of the search giant's philosophy
EU Hits Google With Record $2.7 Billion Antitrust Fine
The tech giant says it will consider an appeal.
Who Gets to Use Facebook's Rainbow 'Pride' Reaction?
An analysis to see if the algorithms behind the new emoji contribute to political bubbles in America
Why Would Anyone Fear a Self-Driving Car?
An advocate for the technology argues that the leap of faith it demands is one that Americans have already made.
RIP Gchat
A eulogy for a simpler age of internet messaging
The Mars Robot Making Decisions on Its Own
Thanks to artificial-intelligence software, the Curiosity rover can target rocks without human input.
How Wheelchair Accessibility Ramped Up
Ramps evolved from a Greek tool for dragging ships to the front lines of disability activism. An Object Lesson.
Fixing Uber Will Require More Than Ousting Its Leader
The company’s problems extend well beyond its former CEO, Travis Kalanick.
/media/img/mt/2017/06/gtrends_bigger-1/original.gif)