Public discourse is in an accelerating downward spiral of coarse insult, free-flying contempt and general meanness. We will surely soon reach bottom, an inevitably inarticulate resting place where we quit wasting words and just mutely flip each other off. Since bemoaning our uncivil culture is almost as prevalent as incivility itself, let me forgo any ritual handwringing.

As a society we revel in stories of successful individuals that risked it all and won big. It’s so often the rags to riches, starving artist or the struggling entrepreneur that catches the headlines. Outside the world of start-up mythology however it’s more commonly risk aversion that keeps the world of business ticking over.

This documentary explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.

Religion does not help us to explain nature. It did what it could in pre-scientific times, but that job was properly unseated by science. Most religious laypeople and even clergy agree: Pope John Paul II declared in 1996 that evolution is a fact and Catholics should get over it. No doubt some extreme anti-scientific thinking lives on in such places as Ken Ham’s Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it has become a fringe position. Most mainstream religious people accept a version of Galileo’s division of labour: ‘The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.’

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, many of us have kept saying we can’t wait for things to get back to normal. We want to be able to go out again, see our friends, and be in public places without feeling like we’re risking our health or that of others. Now that Covid-19 case counts have gone down and restrictions are starting to lift, it seems we’re at last on the path back to some semblance of normalcy. But as recent events have shown, the status quo before the pandemic wasn’t all that great for large swathes of the population, both in the US and around the world.

When Alexa replied to my question about the weather by tacking on “Have a nice day,” I immediately shot back “You too,” and then stared into space, slightly embarrassed. I also found myself spontaneously shouting words of encouragement to “Robbie” my Roomba vacuum as I saw him passing down the hallway.

As a data scientist and professor at Marquette University, Shion Guha knows computer science isn’t just about math. There are “lots and lots of issues” with artificial intelligence (AI), he says. He lists plenty of examples of AI that have had unintended consequences, from hiring filters to criminal sentencing decisions made by privately designed software.

Pilots of unmanned combat drones are experiencing a new kind of moral dissonance, writes Adam Henschke.

What's the difference between plagiarism and ghostwriting in scholarship and science, where much hinges on issues of originality and reputation?

The long read: It is sold as a force that can help us cope with the ravages of capitalism, but with its inward focus, mindful meditation may be the enemy of activism

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by a Guantanamo Bay captive against his perpetual detention, even though war on terrorism has no end in sight. By Kevin Gosztola.

Hundreds of Google staffers met on Friday and discussed what activists allege is a frequent consequence of criticizing the company: Retaliation. By Mark Bergen, Josh Eidelson.

American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. By Jack Poulson.

Imagine you are at a child’s funeral. The child is yours. The air is numb with silence. An ache so deep you can barely breathe moves through you, until it bursts and you cry out loud. Somebody passes a tissue; another rests his hand on your shoulder. In time, your eyes run out of tears. But now there is a hole in your heart in the shape of a child, and it feels like it will never heal. Maybe it shouldn’t, you think to yourself. You lost a child. This stays with you. It’s supposed to stay with you. How should we grieve when someone close to us dies? Should we wail and gnash our teeth? Should we swallow our pain?

A computer tool used by police to predict which people are likely to reoffend has come under scrutiny from one force’s ethics committee, who said there were a lot of “unanswered questions” and concerns about potential bias.

When I attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2002-3, the leadership training was excellent. It included discussion of the British Army’s values and the laws of armed conflict. However, I received no ethics training for the occasions when neither values nor laws would fully prepare me to make complex moral decisions in faraway fields populated by people with very different cultural norms.

Scientists restore some activity within the brains of dead pigs, raising hopes it could lead to new therapies for stroke and other conditions.

The arrest Thursday of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities, embraced by the Ecuadorian, British and U.S. governments, in the seizure of Assange are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by corporate states and the global ruling elite will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power will be hunted down, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms in solitary confinement.

With billions of hours of YouTube content viewed daily, this social media network is a key enabler for anti-vaxxers to espouse anti-vaccination sentiments.  According to a new study published in Vaccine on April 3, 2019, much of this content is meant to influence or reinforce public opinion on a variety of topics, including vaccines.

What a week for Facebook. The news blitz began over the weekend, as the company responded to multiple recent controversies, from livestreaming to disappearing blog posts. Then on Wednesday, security researchers at UpGuard found that two different third-party apps left more than 540 million Facebook records unprotected in the cloud. On Friday, we reported that Facebook had been letting cybercrime groups operate in plain sight. It never ends.