A 25-Year-Old Bet about Consciousness Has Finally Been Settled
A brain scientist and a philosopher have resolved a wager on consciousness that was made when Bill Clinton was president
Stories by John Horgan
John Horgan, who has written for Scientific American since 1986, comments on science on his free online journal Cross-Check. He has also posted his books Mind-Body Problems and My Quantum Experiment online. Horgan teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology.
The Beauty at the Heart of a ‘Spooky’ Mystery
Quantum entanglement seems like it shouldn’t be possible, but experiments from 2022 Nobel Prize winners based on John Bell’s work tell us otherwise
‘Longtermism’ Movement Misses the Importance of War
A moral movement called longtermism, which focuses on protecting humanity’s future, dwells too much on artificial intelligence and not enough on war
Should Machines Replace Mathematicians?
A “replication crisis” in mathematics raises questions about the purpose of knowledge
When Things Feel Unreal, Is That a Delusion or an Insight?
The psychiatric syndrome called derealization raises profound moral and philosophical questions
Will War Ever End?
As the war in Ukraine intensifies, rather than prepare for future wars, we should talk about ending war once and for all
Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will?
Superdeterminism, a radical quantum hypothesis, says our “choices” are illusory
Ancient Peoples Teach Us That We Can Create a Better World
A radical retelling of civilization’s origins leads to an expansive vision of human possibility
Does Quantum Mechanics Reveal That Life Is But a Dream?
A radical quantum hypothesis casts doubt on objective reality
Can Quantum Mechanics Quell the Holiday Blues?
Scientists search for hidden variables underpinning our swerving moods and thoughts
Should Big Tech’s Plan for a Metaverse Scare Us?
Tech companies seek to create far more immersive digital environments, possibly mediated by brain implants
An Elbow Injury Exposes the Exorbitant Costs of Health Care
Bills totaling $287,365.08 provide insights into the dysfunctional economics of American medicine
Big Data, Questionable Benefits and My Girlfriend’s Magic Ring
Wearable devices that track our health may do more harm than good
Death, Physics and Wishful Thinking
Fear of mortality might underlie physicists’ fondness for the anthropic principle, multiverses, superdeterminism and other shaky ideas
Is There a Thing, or a Relationship between Things, at the Bottom of Things?
Quantum mechanics inspires us to speculate that interactions between entities, not entities in themselves, are fundamental to reality
Talking to My Daughter Can Be Harder Than Learning Quantum Mechanics
Ordinary human dilemmas are tougher to solve than the most difficult problems of physics and mathematics
What God, Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Have in Common
Theories that try to explain these big metaphysical mysteries fall short, making agnosticism the only sensible stance
What Is a Question?
A 92-year-old essay provokes musings on the nature of knowledge, reality—and uptalk
Quantum Mechanics, Plato’s Cave and the Blind Piranha
Can we ever really know the world?
My Stupid Elbow and the Crisis in Health Care
A lingering hockey injury forces a science writer to reconsider his criticism of American medicine
Science Should Not Try to Absorb Religion and Other Ways of Knowing
Our diverse ways of seeing reality will never, and should never, meld into a monolithic worldview
Can Science Survive the Death of the Universe?
Three physicists envision ways in which the quest for knowledge can last forever
As Its Longest War Comes to an End, the U.S. Should Seek to End All Wars
Along with other nations, we should begin talking about how to put militarism behind us
Will Quantum Computing Ever Live Up to Its Hype?
One expert warns that the field is overpromising, while another says his firm is on the verge of building “useful” machines