The Post-Coronavirus World of Business, Education and Digital Lives
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COVID-19 is the biggest shock to our lives in decades. Its effects will be felt long after the pandemic and crisis have passed. Clearly the economy will take a major hit with a long recovery looming ahead. Some industries like tourism, transportation, and hospitality will be particularly affected. In the long-term, consequences ...
Around the World
I've lived in four totally different cities in four different countries. This is my tribute to each of them. Also please make sure to visit my wife's website which features many more pictures from our travels and my reviews in TripAdvisor (mostly of restaurants).
Porto by Ricardo Magalhães
I was born in Porto, Portugal, and lived there for over two decades, even if ...
How to Become a Scientist
If you are a student considering a career in science then this essay is for you; it gives a glimpse of what scientists do and how to become one.
"First passion, then training." — Edward O. Wilson in Letters to a Young Scientist
Becoming a scientist, or aspiring to be one, usually derives from a natural curiosity about ...
Cryobiology and Cryonics
Cryobiology is the science that studies the preservation of biological materials by cooling them to cryogenic temperatures. Fear of the inevitable death led many people to sign up for cryonics, the cryopreservation of people after they die in hope they can be brought back to life in the future. Here, I review the history of cryonics, the ...
Exobiology
Of all the mysteries of the universe, the possibility of meeting other intelligent species must be the most provocative. It would be the most important event in the History of humankind to establish contact with other intelligent species. One question, as I debate below, I whether we would survive.
Cosmological Time and Civilization
Geological time is in the ...
The One-Man Rule
As it becomes more difficult to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction, we must control the users of such weapons--even if it implies a loss of privacy.
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated 1,800 kilograms of explosives in Oklahoma City, killing 168 persons (Fig. 1). With the help of two collaborators, a single ...
What Am I?
In this essay on the theory of identity, I debate the essence of the individual, the existence of what can be called a soul and whether we can lose our soul due to technological or medical interventions.
Each day that passes, millions of cells die within our bodies and millions of new cells are formed. Our cellular composition is not ...
>H: The Sky Is the Limit
"Humanity looks to me like a magnificent beginning but not the final word." — Freeman Dyson
Introduction to Transhumanism
A significant fraction of humans live in horrible conditions. Hunger, death, crime, violence, disease, social injustice, and poverty are part of many people's lives while others spend millions in weapons to kill everyone on the planet. Even the richest ...
An Alien’s Report on the Human Species
Greetings, Commander, Lord of the Kawiridy. As you requested, I infiltrated earth and, after eight years of studies, I can offer you my report on the ruling species of the planet, the carbon-based humans, also known as Man and Homo sapiens. As a psychohistorian, my report focuses on the social and psychological aspects of humans, not ...
Open Peer Review
"Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas the source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all human change, improvement and progress." — Theodore Levitt
Although peer review in science is plagued by elitism, bias, and abuse, it is deemed by many as essential to scientific process. Ironically, peer review has ...