Toward an Encyclopedia Apocalyptica
To a post-apocalyptic population, merely explaining scientific and technological facts about our situation won't help. We'll need a guidebook.
Sean Miller
Sean Miller is the author of Strung Together: The Cultural Currency of String Theory as a Scientific Imaginary, from the University of Michigan Press. He's working on a book about the science versus religion debate.
Must We Sacrifice the Beasts at the Altars of Our Fierce Gods?
Like the Aztecs before us, and despite the sheen of humane treatment, zoos continue to be sites of ritual animal sacrifice.
Consider the Troll
The pressing question isn't so much what a troll is and how he came to be, but what to do when confronted with a troll.
We Have Never Been Human
Within our bodies, single-celled organisms outnumber cells that we identify as human DNA ten to one. We're merely a colony within a colony within a colony.
A Brief Lesson on Poetry for Physicists
Praise for Carlo Rovelli's international bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics has been near universal. Can the reviewers all be wrong? Yes, they can.
E.T. Was Gay
Steven Spielberg’s most child-friendly blockbuster, E.T., primed a generation to be more accepting of homosexuality.
The Biosemiotics of Butterflies: A Conversation With Victoria Alexander
It makes me miserable to see an artist turning himself into a handmaiden of science, using his skill to illustrate (or interpret) scientific concepts. C’mon man, I want to say, don’t make your art about science, use your art to do science.
Where Is the Truth in Our Romance of Popular Physics?
If all the truth of physics is in the math, what kind of storytelling are we lay persons getting when we read popular accounts of physics that are completely stripped of it?
Algorithmic Versus Parodic Mobile App Art
Digital art has been around for almost as long as computers have been. Internet art has existed since the '90s. But due to the mobile app's youth, and the perceived barriers to entry, it's still the Wild West.
How Ethical Are Ad Blockers?
For many netizens, a free Internet would be the apogee of its early techno-utopian vision. Yet the "free internet" rallying cry is one of the latest, greatest manifestations of consumerism.
Why the Apple App Store Needs an “Art” Category
As a pivotal arbiter of culture, Apple should recognize the importance of art by recalibrating "how arts-centered apps are perceived, defined, and discovered in the App Store".