The Best of Noema Magazine

Today’s most advanced AI models have many flaws, but decades from now, they will be recognized as the first true examples of artificial general intelligence.

As humanity nears dangerous points of no return for global temperatures, an optimistic climate scientist sees a potential path forward.

Outdoor cats are considered one of the worst invasive species by ecologists. And humans are bitterly torn over how to respond.

China’s leaders are building a new economy oriented to state-driven technological solutions to the climate crisis. In the process, they aim to construct an entirely different world order that at last…

Despite their great-power rivalry, America and China are more similar than most people think. Both are living through a Gilded Age and struggling to end excesses of capitalism.

How our culture, politics and technology became infused with a mysterious social phenomenon that everyone can feel but nobody can explain.

A Daoist perspective of history imparts a sense of humility on social actors as their power rises and encourages them to avoid the hubris of thinking that historical transformations are driven by some…

«Daoist asymmetric cyclic theory of history as the “principle of reverse movement.”»

China’s diplomats and tech companies pin their hopes on partnerships in the Global South.

Politics, power and one man’s quest to control a ragtag city in Haiti.

Like the microscope and the telescope did centuries ago, new technologies to capture and analyze sound are leading to startling discoveries about what the eyes cannot see.

«In the Kamayurá language, the word anup (“to hear”) also evokes “to comprehend,” in a manner superior to the word tsak (“to see”), which evokes “to understand” only in a narrow analytic sense.»

New interpretations of the laws of thermodynamics suggest the infamous “heat death” hypothesis, which foretells the end of all life and organization in the universe, might not hold.

An explosion of interest in our internal clocks is helping people lead more balanced, productive and longer lives. But will it lead to societal change?

A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?

«Money is abstract, absurd. It’s a belief system, a language, a social contract. Money is trust. But the rules aren’t fixed in stone.”»

The noble but undervalued craft of maintenance could help preserve modernity’s finest achievements, from public transit systems to power grids, and serve as a useful framework for addressing climate…

In Mexico, people who are “tocado” — “touched” — reveal that geological time can emerge through fissures in the land to alter the way we relate to our homes, cities and even ourselves.

While AI can speed up the writing process, it doesn’t optimize quality — and it endangers our sense of connection to ourselves and others.

«Good writers assess the rhetorical context for their writing and make deliberate decisions about where to conform and where to stray»

Our very old immune systems can’t keep up with modern lifestyles and diets, leading to increases in all sorts of chronic health problems like allergies and obesity.

For decades, America gave China a vision of future prosperity. But today, America has mostly ceased to offer a model for China or anywhere else, leaving China’s leaders without a guide as they chart a…