Our memories are precious to us and constitute our sense of self. Why not enhance them by recording all of your life?| Aeon
The idea of nothing pushes at the limits of thought, spawning paradoxes that have long nourished art, philosophy, and science| Aeon | a world of ideas
What the medieval stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe tell us about an advanced African society and its legacy today| Aeon | a world of ideas
When the Taliban captured my city, thousands fled and the rest were severely repressed. But I’ve stayed – and survived| Aeon | a world of ideas
A billion years ago, life made a big leap towards complexity – but what made single-celled organisms stick together?| Aeon | a world of ideas
Warren met his cancer diagnosis with tenacious optimism. But can positive thinking really affect the course of the disease?| Aeon | a world of ideas
As their hateful tattoos are covered up with colourful flowers and birds, three men reflect on catharsis and redemption| Aeon | a world of ideas
In an age of ferocious religious bloodletting, Sebastian Castellio argued that everyone seems like a heretic to someone else| Aeon | a world of ideas
Countless species are dying from human-induced environmental change. Should we use genetic technology to alter and save them?| Aeon | a world of ideas
Watch the exquisite digital restoration of a ceremonial pre-Incan shield, in which the owl is a symbol of war, not wisdom| Aeon | a world of ideas
As the power of AI grows, we need to have evidence of its sentience. That is why we must return to the minds of animals| Aeon
In China, companies that are closer to temples are more generous to shareholders: religion subtly shapes economic behaviour| Aeon
Should you never make promises you don’t intend to keep? What philosophers say about the ethics of breaking your word| Aeon | a world of ideas
Far from being a relic of the past, peasants are vital to feeding the world. They need to be supported, not marginalised| Aeon | a world of ideas
Retracing Mark Twain’s path down the Mississippi, a filmmaker finds himself contemplating what it means to know a river| Aeon | a world of ideas
Same-sex marriage is an astonishing case of progress propelled by democracy, in the face of public spite and misinformation| Aeon | a world of ideas
The role of the conscious observer has posed a stubborn problem for quantum measurement. Phenomenology offers a solution| Aeon | a world of ideas
What does the deep future hold for our night sky? Extraordinary data visualisations of the coming distortions of the Universe| Aeon | a world of ideas
The body is warm, but the brain has gone dark: why the notion of brain death provokes the thorniest of medical dilemmas| Aeon
There are not enough whole-body donations to science. Why don’t people want their death to help the living?| Aeon
The next global disaster may be triggered by a catastrophic eruption. How can we prepare for the fire beneath our feet?| Aeon
‘I didn’t think I’d get the job!’ How the cheery steeplejack Fred Dibnah dismantled an industrial chimney one brick at a time| Aeon | a world of ideas
Joseph Wright of Derby put science at the centre of his art. Eclipsed in his lifetime, his work still burns with radical ideas| Aeon | a world of ideas
Ayahuasca forms part of the resistance to extractivism and commodification for the Kichwa of Sarayuku, Ecuadorian Amazon| Aeon | a world of ideas
Hume distrusted literature and worked to discredit character sketches as legitimate forms of philosophy| Aeon
The current theory for the origin of the Universe is remarkably successful yet full of explanatory holes. Expect surprises| Aeon
A shrub meant to end hunger now chokes Kenya’s farmlands. It’s a parable of how visions of progress can outgrow their promises| Aeon
Corruption is a truly global crisis and the wealth addiction that feeds it is hiding in plain sight| Aeon
Why bystanders are reluctant to report a violent crime or aid a victim, and how they can be taught to step up and help| Aeon
It looks like scientists and philosophers might have made consciousness far more mysterious than it needs to be| Aeon
Too much research is done on Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic students. Can science widen its base?| Aeon
Societal downfalls loom large in history and popular culture but, for the 99 per cent, collapse often had its upsides| Aeon
Life is complicated. In Cameroon, initiated diviners read the messages of spiders to untangle possible futures| Aeon
In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism brought centuries of animosity between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants to an end. Why?| Aeon
In the postwar period it was understood to be the fundamental malaise of modern life. Why aren’t we ‘alienated’ any more?| Aeon
When even a simple stroll down the sidewalk is an exercise in self-loathing, why don’t more women run away to the woods?| Aeon
Diasporas are made of vast constellations of countless people, fused together through memory, meaning – and music| Aeon
What’s a better way to understand human psychology – ‘I think, therefore I am’ or ‘A person is a person through other persons’?| Aeon
When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible. Should we worry?| Aeon
You might have the unconditional love of family and friends and yet feel deep loneliness. Can philosophy explain why?| Aeon
Anger is the emotion that has come to saturate our politics and culture. Philosophy can help us out of this dark vortex| Aeon
Olive oil was revered and cherished by the ancients. But its distinctive peppery taste is really a modern invention| Aeon
For Mary Midgley, the Western philosophical tradition is shaped by the fact that its greatest practitioners were bachelors| Aeon
To lump or to split? Deciding whether an animal is a species or subspecies profoundly influences our conservation priorities| Aeon
All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history| Aeon
First you don’t hear other views. Then you can’t trust them. Your personal information network entraps you just like a cult| Aeon
In awe we hold fast to nature’s strangeness and open up to the unknown. No wonder it’s central to the scientific imagination| Aeon
It started as a fringe philosophical theory about humanity’s future. It’s now richly funded and increasingly dangerous| Aeon
Hibernation allows many animals to time-travel from difficult times to plenty. Could humans learn how to do it too?| Aeon
How a country used myth and mystique to tempt global investors – and seeded a toxic Hindu nationalism in the process| Aeon
Hunter-gatherer societies are highly expert in group deliberation and decision-making which respects both difference and unity| Aeon
You might feel you can trust your gut to tell right from wrong, but the friction of social change shows that you can’t| Aeon
In the liminal time when the brain is dead but organs are kept alive, there is an urgent tenderness to medical care| Aeon
Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer| Aeon
Can a person do evil and yet not actually be evil? What Hannah Arendt meant by ‘the banality of evil’ remains a puzzle| Aeon
In the face of climate crisis it might seem myopic but philosophers from Spinoza to Næss argue it is the only way forward| Aeon
Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest| Aeon
Full of implicit rules and paradoxes, sulking is a marvellous example of intense communication without clear declaration| Aeon
It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok| Aeon
An evolutionary approach to consciousness can resolve the ‘hard problem’ – with radical implications for animal sentience| Aeon
Estranged but not alienated, devout but not obedient, philosophical but not a systematiser, Simone Weil defies conventions| Aeon