English

A Dutch artist friend of mine, Daan Samson, has created a series of installations he calls “prosperity biotopes”. Though executed in various mediums, they share a unifying theme: the harmony of pristine nature and cutting-edge technology. At his exhibition in Amsterdam, I spotted ants scuttling on an ant plant alongside a sleek steel Nespresso milk frother, its presence as enigmatic as… Lees verder »The Future Used to Be Better. How We Lost Our Belief in Progress

Picture a computer that surpasses human intelligence on every level and can interact with the real world. Should you be terrified of such a machine? To answer that question, there’s one crucial detail to consider: Did this computer evolve through natural selection? The reason is simple: Natural selection is a brutally competitive process that tends to produce creatures that are… Lees verder »The Selfish Machine: Will Humanity Be Subjugated by Superintelligent AIs?

What will the next major world event be? It’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future, as an old Danish proverb says (variously attributed to Niels Bohr or Yogi Berra or Mark Twain). But here’s one thing I can predict with great confidence: whatever happens, the event will soon spark a range of conspiracy theories gainsaying the official version of events. Some people… Lees verder »The Conspiracy Generator: How to Turn Any News Story Into a Conspiracy Theory in a Matter of Seconds

In memory of Dan Dennett (1942-2024) (From now on new posts in English will be published on my Substack, please subscribe there to receive my newsletter.) Dan Dennett didn’t believe in the myth of the solitary, individual genius, the person who figures it all out by himself (in the mythology, it’s always a male). In his evolutionary worldview, design always… Lees verder »Farewell to a Beautiful Mind

If life is better than ever before, why does the world seem so depressing? Have we just lived through one of the best years in human history? As we look at 2023 through the rearview mirror, I think that’s a defensible claim. In fact, the same thing could have been said at the end of pretty much every year since the beginning of the… Lees verder »The Seven Laws of Pessimism

Imagine you could choose a moment to be born, and you were offered three options: a century ago, half a century ago, or right now. Let’s assume that, behind your veil of ignorance, you don’t know in advance where on earth you’ll end up. Which era would you choose? Of course the thought experiment is not entirely fair, because we… Lees verder »Today is the best moment to be born (despite climate change)