Declassified Documents Detail the FBI's Surveillance of a Libertarian Sci-Fi Author
Vernor Vinge, who mocked the surveillance state in his writing, was investigated for alleged connections to socialist Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
Future
Pablos Holman on AI, the Future, and Why the World Needs More Energy
"We've made enough energy for all the people in the West and north of the equator, but we just haven't finished the job," says the author of Deep Future.
Feds Pump the Brakes on Autonomous Trucks
An obscure federal rule is slowing the self-driving revolution.
The Depopulation Bomb
What if the challenge for humanity’s future is not too many people on a crowded planet, but too few people to sustain the progress that the world needs?
Review: Arena Magazine Is Embracing Capitalism and the Future
"Our mainstream media is hell-bent on tearing down the future before we can get too good a glimpse," the publisher wrote in the debut issue.
We Still Live in the Physical World
The digital world has not effaced our humanity, no matter what social critics like Christine Rosen say.
The Fantastical Scenarios of Yuval Noah Harari: From the Roman Past to the AI Future
In his haste to cram complex events into crisp little episodes, the historian passes over inconvenient details.
Stephen Wolfram on the Powerful Unpredictability of AI
A physicist considers whether artificial intelligence can fix science, regulation, and innovation.
The Best of Reason: The Future of AI Is Helping Us Discover the Past
Historical teaching and research are being revamped by AI.
The Future of AI Is Helping Us Discover the Past
Historical teaching and research are being revamped by AI.
Is AI Like the Internet, or Something Stranger?
David Brin, Robin Hanson, Mike Godwin, and others describe the future of artificial intelligence.
We Can't Imagine the Future of AI
Introducing Reason's artificial intelligence issue
How 1990s Libertarians Laid the Groundwork for Cryptocurrency
Economist Friedrich Hayek inspired an early foray into electronic cash.
Review: Cyberpunk 2077 Explores Another Lawless Dystopia
In the game's Phantom Liberty expansion, those who make the laws rarely follow them.
We Absolutely Do Not Need an FDA for AI
If our best and brightest technologists and theorists are struggling to see the way forward for AI, what makes anyone think politicians are going to get there first?
The Best of Reason: The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once
Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.
The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once
Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.
Review: Unstable Is a Futurist Comedy
A biotech lab led by a lightly fictionalized alternate version of Rob Lowe works to save the world.
Is Debating Debt Policy Actually Terrorism?
The fight over the debt ceiling has foreshadowed how the policy debates of the presidential election cycle are likely to go.
Adam Smith Has Something for Everyone
From the American Founders to communist meme creators, people have long claimed Smith's endorsement for their ideas.
TikTok Goes From Silly to Serious
The Chinese app has become a magnet for every possible cultural concern.
Don't Just Hire 'Better Cops.' Punish the Bad Ones.
Convincing law enforcement officers that those who do wrong will suffer consequences is by far the most powerful tool for changing police behavior in the long run.
Government Keeps Meddling With Private Company Decisions
In the Twitter Files, every conversation with a government official contains the same warning: You can do it happily, or we’ll make you.
Is There a Future for the City of Tomorrow?
The consequences of our obsession with urban dystopias and utopias
James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water Is a Can-You-Believe-It Spectacle That Looks to the Future
Also, there are battle whales.
Review: Buckminster Fuller Helped Inspire Our Future
The new book Inventor of the Future prefers to show him as a credit hog.
Help Create the Future by Supporting Reason!
For 54 years, we've been reporting on what comes next and how to expand "free minds and free markets."
The Labor Market Is Broken
Employment is an ultimatum game, where playing along might get workers less than employers, but refusing to play gets everyone zero.
Andy Weir Is Looking Forward to the Space Boom
Weir's books take seriously the limits of human knowledge and planning when it comes to space travel.
What We Owe the Future Is Liberalism
What does "longtermism" offer those of us who favor limited government and free markets?
It's Been 50 Years Since Humans Walked on the Moon
The last time there was a manned mission to the moon, Pong had just been released on Atari.
Robert Heinlein's Dream of Private Space Travel Is Coming True
A new generation of companies has made space travel affordable.
Throwing Money at the IRS Won't Fix Its Problems
Can the government turn $80 billion into $204 billion? Probably not.
Artificial Intelligence Will Change Jobs—For the Better
Rather than being replaced by A.I., humans should plan to work with it.
The New Abortion Prohibition Era
We already know what happens when governments try to impose prohibitions: messy, deadly black markets.
Does Google's LaMDA Artificial Intelligence Program Have a Soul?
The future of techno-animism in a world filled with machine intelligence.
You're Wrong About Disinformation
People believe and say things that aren't true all of the time, of course. But efforts by public officials to combat them may well make things worse, not better.
Artist Agnieszka Pilat: 'I Didn't Realize People Still Think Socialism Is a Good Idea.'
Born in communist Poland and disgusted by Silicon Valley communists, Pilat is making "heroic portraits of machines" and defending Ayn Rand.
Why a Wealth Tax Is a Bad Idea
Billionaires are better at figuring out what to do with their money than the government will ever be.
Canceling Putin, Canceling Russians
Which boycotts, cancellations, and sanctions are defensible and well-targeted against the state actors who are responsible for the attack on Ukraine?
How Robots Will Transform the 2020s
The service bot will revolutionize warehouses, hospitals, farms, and maybe your home.
Why Can't We Build Anything?
The issue has never been a lack of funds for infrastructure; it's that the money frequently ends up getting spent on something else via a highly politicized decision-making process.
Defending Armed Self-Defense
It's easy for many people to see the harm that guns are involved in every day in America, but much harder for them to see the harm that gun prohibition causes.
Against the Education Status Quo
After doing the jobs of teacher, coach, and cafeteria monitor for more than a year, many parents resented being told to sit down and shut up.
