DM Are consciousness and sentience synonyms? Please don't be anthropocentric in your answer(s)! No, they're not synonyms — though they're deeply entangled, and the conflation is itself a revealing symptom of the anthropocentrism you're wisely flagging. Sentience is generally the more basic, evolutionarily ancient capacity: the ability to have subjective experience  — particularly to feel, to register valence (pleasant/unpleasant), to suffer or flourish in some phenomenal sens

Understanding the difference between love and limerence can be tricky, but it’s necessary for lasting happiness.

Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores why our sense of time may be incredibly misleading, including the idea that past, present, and future might all exist at once.

What happens when even college students can’t do math anymore?

An AI crash could bring down the economy. Some in the tech world think that’s the price of progress.

For eons, the Earth has been talking to us. New technology allows us to listen.

Techies compare notes on how long their fleet of virtual interns can labor away without making a mistake

China’s evolution into an “electrostate” may help insulate it from spiking oil prices.

And why you should hire them to survive in a world of chaos.

The race to power AI is already remaking the physical world.

The spread of fake imagery of the Iran war is helping make the question Is this real? all but unanswerable.

A new framework suggests that bursts of neural chaos could be the fingerprints of a conscious mind at work. Excerpt: “I really think that a lot of progress could be made in cognitive neuroscience and maybe biology in general if we accept that there are some things that make a difference but that are not directly measurable,” says Froese. “It seems like that is common practice in science anyway, there are many cases in physics where we have very indirect evidence of things mak

There's a huge difference between a Department of "Defense," versus a Department of "War." Related: Under scrutiny, finally. Also related

Where we are right now re: A.I,, and what likely happens next

Scientists are studying a mechanism that helps tell the brain to stop scratching

The technology is increasing the speed, density and complexity of work rather than reducing it, new analysis shows

From Epstein’s associates to Jack Dorsey to David Ellison, the rich and powerful share a seeming disregard for proper English.

Joining forces with small competitors has long been a way for established players to tap into innovation. Three new hybrid models offer a more practical approach.

Why are so many coders so happy after coding their roles away?

With the rapid integration of AI tools across industries and increasing questions about who and what comprises a workforce, the task of religious inclusion in the workplace persists, perhaps contrary to common assumptions.