Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.The thorny thought experiment has been turned into a real experiment — one that physicists use to probe the physics…

It’s hard to change people’s beliefs about free will. So, it can feel like a relief to realize that even when you can change people’s beliefs, it seems to make no moral difference…

Zombies are supposed to be capable of asking any question about the nature of experience. It’s worth wondering, though, how a person or machine devoid of experience could reflect…

My father, Sloan Wilson, wrote novels that would help define 1950s America. I loved and admired him, but the prospect of following in the footsteps of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit…

I could stridently insist that natural selection is the only way that complex life can evolve, but that’s not strictly true. We can already design computers that can learn and reason…

As economic inequality increased in many wealthy nations in recent years, a debate has developed around the question of whether inequality is bad for national economies—and bad for…

When he was a boy, Mark Solms obsessed over big existential questions. What happens when I die? What makes me who I am? He went on to study neuroscience but soon discovered that neuropsychology…

In the past quarter century, enrollment in college English departments has sunk like the Pequod in Moby Dick. Meanwhile enrollment in science programs has skyrocketed. It’s understandable.…

It’s encouraging to know that merely paying attention to the details of your environment can make you a little more rational.Illustration by yulianas / ShutterstockWould you like…

Reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine’s Abstractions blog.Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and bump into each other in the hypothetical multiverse,…