Automation: On the high-tech path to destruction
Rather than humans becoming enslaved by robots, machines have become the new slave or serf class, with devastating consequences for society and the environment. We desperately need a more humane and sustainable approach to automation.
Read MoreTrump is terrible but Europe and the Middle East have racism too
Rather than humans becoming enslaved by robots, machines have become the new slave or serf class, with devastating consequences for society and the environment. We desperately need a more humane and sustainable approach to automation.
Read MoreLost in ‘know-ware’ land
By Christian Nielsen It is the cypher of the age, the new C-word that the know-ware machine must not detect
Read MoreBelgium’s endless existential identity crisis
As it stumbles from one political crisis to the next, Belgium faces a profound existential threat. But can the slow disintegration of the Belgian state be reversed and, if so, how?
Read MoreThe unlikely demonisation of Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie made a very unlikely target for the fury of conservative Muslims, which is why the opportunistic fatwa issued by a Khomeini in serious decline took the novelist and the world by surprise.
Read MoreThe clash between realpolitik and principled politics
The contrast between the red card from protesters and the red carpet from officials that greeted Mohammed bin Salman on his world tour highlights the growing global battle between a principled grassroots and a ‘pragmatic’ political leadership.
Read MoreTunisia: Freedom and the pursuit of unhappiness
With greater freedom has come greater unhappiness in Tunisia. Behind this apparent paradox is economic hardship and nostalgia for a past that never was.
Read MoreDissenting into the abyss dug by Saudi Arabia
Western inaction against Saudi Arabia is emboldening the region’s regimes to clamp down harder on dissent. But by silencing peaceful and constructive change, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern regimes are paving the way to violent and destructive rage.
Read MorePrisoners of our guilty consciences
The intensifying crackdown on the media and civil society in Egypt leaves Egyptians who are out of the country feeling powerless to help and guilty about the freedoms they enjoy.
Read MoreEgyptian atheists: Caught between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Atheists in Egypt have been enjoying greater public acceptance, but their increased visibility has also resulted in controversy, shrill panic and a growing tide of prosecutions.
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