Aeon Magazine
@aeon.co
Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. Visit aeon.co for more.
‘Glaciers in Icelandic history were in the context of eternity,’ explains the Icelandic writer and environmental activist Andri Snær Magnason. Today’s Video explores the rapid decline of these ice caps and what it means for Magnason’s connection to his family history
As glaciers melt, a writer considers what stories can do that data cannot | Aeon Videos
Retracing his grandparents’ journey to Iceland’s Vatnajökull glacier, a writer draws on storytelling to grasp climate change
buff.ly
The growth of AI means the imposition of its values at the expense of Indigenous frameworks or non-Western perspectives. In today’s Essay, Fainos Mangena discusses what an AI built on the the Hunhu/Ubuntu ethical framework of sub-Saharan Africa might look like
An AI for Africa would be built on Hunhu/Ubuntu ethics | Aeon Essays
Western-developed AI rides roughshod over Ubuntu values of connection and community that animate African ethical life
buff.ly
Thucydides’s ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ is often misunderstood, being invoked both as a critique and a justification in international relations. This essay explores the irony of this tendency and why his work is just as relevant to today
Thucydides’ account of war is as timely as it is misunderstood | Aeon Essays
Far from thinking that ‘might makes right’, the great historian’s analysis of war identifies a vice common to all states
buff.ly
Here’s a piece I wrote for @aeon.co on some of the themes of my book: aeon.co/essays/are-w... #HistIR
aeon.co
When early humans first painted cave walls, they began to find out who they really were: our minds emerged from our images. An Essay by J F Martel
Humans did not invent art. It was the other way around | Aeon Essays
When early humans first painted cave walls, they began to find out who they really were: our minds emerged from our images
aeon.co
Black philosophers now feature on Western curricula, but the European tradition diminishes their radicalism into reassurance. An Essay by @takeshimorisato.bsky.social
Epistemic convergence in the study of world philosophies | Aeon Essays
Black philosophers now feature on Western curricula, but the European tradition diminishes their radicalism into reassurance
aeon.co
As @janeijking.com argues in this Essay, technocracy lies at the heart of the legitimacy crisis that international organisations face today. The problem is not expertise, but the technocratic use of expert advice
Are we witnessing the end of the technocratic international? | Aeon Essays
Through international organisations, they wield power under the pretence of simply following the experts. Don’t believe them
buff.ly
Today’s Video, ‘Mud Below, Sun Above’ explores the informal workforce of elderly women keeping Vietnam's devastating pollution at bay
The workforce of elderly women recycling what Vietnam throws away | Aeon Videos
Meet Bể, part of Vietnam’s vital but overlooked network of recyclers – a workforce predominantly made up of elderly women
buff.ly
In this exceptional Essay, J F Martel argues that humans didn’t invent art at all. Instead, it was the other way around: art invented humanity. Drawing on illuminating examples, Martel offers a rich exploration into what art reveals to us about ourselves and the world
Humans did not invent art. It was the other way around | Aeon Essays
When early humans first painted cave walls, they began to find out who they really were: our minds emerged from our images
buff.ly
The US artist Ani Liu works with ‘culturally loaded bodily materials’ such as sperm and breast milk to contemplate ingrained ideas about gender. This short film follows Liu as she develops new work that raises pressing questions at the intersection of the human body and technology
Transforming scientific enquiry and human bodies into visceral art | Aeon Videos
Blending her identities as a scientist, artist and mother, Ani Liu contemplates how power and control shape the body in her taboo-breaking artworks
buff.ly
Watch today’s Video to learn how to spot whether a claim is actually scientific or, merely trying to sound the part
Three handy tools for separating pseudoscience from the real deal | Aeon Videos
We are living in a golden age of pseudoscience. Here are three helpful tools for separating science from its imitator
buff.ly
In today’s Essay, the creative writer Wes Brown explores the combined grief of losing his father and confronting his own aging through vivid description of his defeats on the jiu jitsu mat
What kind of strength did I chase with a cojones cheat code? | Aeon Essays
My father’s death sent me to the jiu-jitsu mat. Then came defeat, low testosterone and the lure of a chemical cheat code
buff.ly
Despite its imposing stature and importance to ecosystems, the northern cassowary of New Guinea is rarely seen in the wild. This short film documents the ornithologist Yoki Hadiprakarsa and wildlife photographer Tim Laman’s eight-month search for the elusive bird
Scientists and locals unite to film a large, elusive New Guinean bird | Aeon Videos
Join the search for the elusive cassowary, a big bird that plays an outsized role in maintaining its rainforest home
buff.ly
Who gets to decide what counts as philosophy? In this Essay, non-Western philosophy lecturer Takeshi Morisato explores how Black and Asian philosophy is diminished by Anglo-European thought tradition
Epistemic convergence in the study of world philosophies | Aeon Essays
Black philosophers now feature on Western curricula, but the European tradition diminishes their radicalism into reassurance
buff.ly
A dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’. An Essay by @carlosfnorena.bsky.social
Uncovering a global ancient history beyond Greece and Rome | Aeon Essays
A dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’
aeon.co
Rooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalism. An Essay by Sofia Cándano
Anthropophagy art flips the cannibal worries of colonialism | Aeon Essays
Rooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalism
aeon.co
Written by the neuroscientist Stephani Sunderland, this in-depth profile of the pioneering pain scientist Allan Basbaum charts a lifetime of tireless work finding the origins of chronic pain – and his quest to stop it in its tracks
A researcher’s 50-year hunt for the source of chronic pain | Aeon Essays
Allan Basbaum has spent 50 years searching the nervous system for the places where pain begins – and where it can be stopped
buff.ly
Explore the rich history behind the eclectic houses of the New York City borough of Queens
Tour the eclectic residences of New York’s most diverse borough | Aeon Videos
To the trained eye, the personalised homes of Queens, NYC, evoke everything from a Venetian streetscape to a Chinese temple
buff.ly
In 1928, the Brazilian artist Oswald de Andrade called on Brazilian artists to engage in cultural cannibalism – devouring, digesting and recomposing European culture instead of reproducing it. This richly illustrated history traces the profound impact of this 'anthrophagic' method
Anthropophagy art flips the cannibal worries of colonialism | Aeon Essays
Rooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalism
buff.ly
For the biologist Michael Levin, intelligence is the capacity to pursue goals, and it exists on a continuum that ranges from cells to humans. In this short documentary, Levin provides fascinating examples what this can look like
Why we should think of intelligence in terms of goals, not brains | Aeon Videos
Inside the lab of a biologist who is seeking to understand intelligence by focusing on problem-solving, not neurons
buff.ly
‘A Marxist before Marx, an anarchist before anarchism, an evolutionist before Darwin.’ Mostly forgotten by mainstream culture, the rural French priest Jean Meslier’s work was visionary and radical – and has outlasted attempts to erase him from history
The rural French priest who preached atheism to the people | Aeon Essays
Jean Meslier, a rural French priest, argued that religion is designed to produce subjects who will automatically obey
buff.ly
The ‘worst’ and ‘best possible’ job at once: what it’s like to dedicate your life to documenting crimes against humanity.
A Filipino journalist on the ‘terrible privilege’ of bearing witness | Aeon Videos
The ‘worst’ and ‘best possible’ job at once: what it’s like to dedicate your life to documenting crimes against humanity
aeon.co
Tech titans claim the science fiction genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future. An Essay by @alirizataskale.bsky.social
Silicon Valley has a science fiction problem | Aeon Essays
Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future
aeon.co
In today’s Essay, the science writer Ananya Palivela explores the history of astronomers' obsession with Venus and what it reveals about science.
Why has Venus obsessed so many astronomers? | Aeon Essays
Every 122 years, Venus crosses the Sun as a black and fleeting teardrop, kindling the awe of all those who dare to know
buff.ly
Tech billionaires didn’t misread science fiction. They performed an edit: keeping the frontier, the visionary, the chrome; cutting the public institution, the collective, and the warning. Every. Single. Time. My new piece is now up in Aeon.
Aeon Magazine@aeon.co · 3w agoTech billionaires like to claim their work is inspired by science fiction, but in truth, they are using its ‘chrome-plated aesthetic’ as a fig leaf to further what the social theorist Ali Rıza Taşkale labels ‘reactionary futurism’
Over the last 90 years, vast swathes of Louisiana’s coastline have disappeared. In the short documentary ‘What Remains’, the filmmaker Pavoo Hanninen captures a simple yet effective effort to preserve and restore this coast: recycling oyster shells
How oyster cultivation protects Louisiana’s fragile coastline | Aeon Videos
In an ingenious restoration project, the humble oyster shell is transformed into a powerful tool to halt coastal erosion
buff.ly
At the turn of the 20th century, there was more than just coffee brewing in the cafés of central Europe – from the Modernist movement in Vienna to political turmoil in Belgrade, two coffee cultures were on a collision course that would light the fuse for the First World War
Vienna’s cafés inspired poets. Belgrade’s bred dissent | Aeon Essays
While Vienna’s coffeehouses bred modernism, in Belgrade’s kafanas grew conspiracy and rage. Their clash consumed Europe
buff.ly
In this Aeon Exclusive Video, the animator Aurelijus Čiupas ponders his purpose as a conjurer of images amid the rapid rise of AI tech with seemingly infinite image creation capacities
An animator ponders his purpose amid an AI’s infinite possibilities | Aeon Videos
What does it mean to make art in the age of inexhaustible AIs? An animator ponders his purpose and reclaims some control
buff.ly
A couple of years ago I started wondering why I was spending so much time on hobbies cosplaying obsolete jobs. This is a go at an answer: I'm in the grips of *skill nostalgia*, and the problem is to avoid it becoming reactionary. It turns out John Ruskin (??) has the answer aeon.co/essays/the-r...
