2126 CE.
On your morning commute, the bus automatically reroutes to conserve energy. A message flashes: “Approved by the transit board, August 12.” Riders groan about the detour but know they voted for this policy.
Parks are watched, but not policed. Sensors measure water use and animal life, and the data gets published openly. Communities decide how to care for the land — its water and habitats — following stewardship principles shaped by long-standing Indigenous knowledges. They count birds, chart air quality, and measure soil moisture. The information appears on public boards so kids can use it for school projects and gardeners can time plantings. No one’s face gets scanned.
Neighborhood health clinics make decisions based on data that patients volunteer. It gets pooled into a regulated commons for public health — only with consent, and anyone can change their mind at any time. Forecasting tools like these databases help doctors detect illness early, but no one gets denied care for refusing to share their symptoms.
Work is coordinated through open systems. Unions, cities, and companies built them together. In the garment cooperative, an ... Continue Reading »
Is it time for a new ‘theory of everything’?
World-renowned physicist Stephen Wolfram explains his theory that the universe may be built from simple computational rules. He describes space as a giant network made of tiny “atoms of space,” constantly updating in ways that create time, gravity, quantum mechanics, and the laws of physics. He also introduces the Ruliad: the space of all possible computations. Ultimately, Wolfram argues that reality may be far more complex than we can see, shaped by both the universe and how we observe it.
This video Objective reality only exists because other people do is featured on Big Think.
Continue Reading »
Have you ever thought about the energetic explosions that occasionally occur — both within our own galaxy and in galaxies all across the Universe — and wondered, “where did all that energy come from?” Throughout human history, what seemed to be new stars have populated our sky at random:
suddenly appearing as if from nowhere,
brightening and reaching a peak magnitude,
and then slowly fading away to become invisible to the eye once again.
Since the advent of the telescope, we’ve learned that these events, collectively referred to as supernovae, are common, and most frequently correspond to the cataclysmic death of a massive star as its central core collapses.
Even though these supernova events can shine brilliantly, with typical intrinsic brightnesses that are about the equivalent of ten billion suns, that only represents a tiny amount of the energy liberated during a core-collapse event: between 0.1% and 1% of the total energy generated. A whopping 99% of that supernova event’s energy is practically invisible: emitted in the form of neutrinos, a ghostly species of particle that interacts so rarely, the theorist who invented it quipped, ... Continue Reading »
Back in 2015, humanity detected our first gravitational wave event.
GW150914 was the first ever direct detection and proof of the existence of gravitational waves. The waveform, detected by both LIGO observatories, Hanford and Livingston, matched the predictions of general relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent “ringdown” of the single resulting black hole.
Credit: Aurore Simonnet/LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Now, in 2026, we’re up to 390 confirmed detections.
This up-to-date “Eagle plot” of the black holes and neutron stars detected through gravitational wave mergers (orange and blue) and through electromagnetic signals (yellow and red) show the present status of known black holes and neutron stars under 250 solar masses. Just 11 years ago, there were no known gravitational wave events, but today, in June of 2026, there are 390 confirmed events, representing 780 pre-merger and 390 post-merger objects.
Credit: LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA / Aaron Geller / Northwestern
Most correspond to merging pairs of black holes, some at quite high masses.
This illustration shows the results of numerical simulations ... Continue Reading »
In order for stars to form, you need the right ingredients to make it happen: gravity, mass, time, and of course the right type of matter in the form of baryons. Shortly after the Big Bang, the Universe had plenty of them, but they were all very simple: protons, deuterons, helium-3 and helium-4 nuclei, and a tiny bit of lithium-7. These nuclei, made out of protons and neutrons, were all that the Universe gave us to work with prior to the formation of stars. But, in clumps of material small and large, from individual star clusters to enormous galaxy cluster scales and everything in between, these baryons went to work and, across the Universe over the past 13.8 billion years, created sextillions of stars within the observable Universe.
In a very real way, the story of how we ourselves came to be is the story of how baryons evolved, matured, and wound up deducing our own cosmic history. Yet so many mysteries about that process still remain, from the baryon life cycles within galaxies to identifying the right conditions to trigger ... Continue Reading »
There’s a particular kind of disappointment that only a good filmmaker can deliver, and Disclosure Day is steeped in it. This isn’t a bad movie, exactly. It’s something more frustrating: a missed opportunity, made by a director standing on the most fertile ground and for some reason refusing to dig.
Steven Spielberg has spent his career circling the idea of first contact with aliens. The closest comparison here is 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the comparison is not kind to the new film. In Close Encounters, the government is secretly working toward contact, while ordinary civilians, struck by visions they can’t explain, get pulled into the orbit of an enormous, cosmic project. The film breathes a beautiful rhythm of mystery, reveal, and renewed mystery. The secretive authorities turn out to be, in their own way, the good guys. And the civilians at the center — above all, Richard Dreyfuss, the film’s protagonist — risk everything to reach the mountaintop in the finale. They have agency. They earn the encounter.
Disclosure Day throws nearly all of that away. The government ... Continue Reading »
After unpacking my bag in the bedroom I’d call home for the next month, part two of my European spring trip, I went downstairs. My friend and travel companion sat at the kitchen table, eyes on her phone. Without looking up, she held out a paperback.
“Here,” she said, glancing up as I took the book. “I bought this at the airport. I think you’ll love it.”
I examined the cover. It carried a minimalist hand-drawn portrait, the subject unmistakably a hare in profile, with long, spindly ears, a dusky coat, and a single hazel eye. The title, Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, was set against its slender snout. I opened it, skimmed a paragraph, thrummed the pages, took in the font and generous spacing, then flipped it over to read the back.
I thanked her, but kept my real reaction to myself. Though it seemed like something I’d enjoy, I probably wouldn’t get around to it. Thanks to the Libby app, I already had half a dozen e-books waiting for me. I considered myself something of a Libby maestra, constantly orchestrating its ... Continue Reading »
When we look out across the Universe, we see objects at all different distances. The planets we see all exist only within our own Solar System: right in our cosmic backyard. The stars that we see exist primarily within our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and can be up to tens of thousands of light-years distant. Our nearest galaxies are under a million light-years away, but the farthest ones that have been identified are over 33 billion light-years away. And when we look at the oldest, most distant signal we can access, the light of the cosmic microwave background, we know it sits at a surface located 46.1 billion light-years away: the farthest thing we can see.
While there are a great many uncertainties about many things in the cosmos — including the size of the full Universe beyond the limits of what’s observable — the size of the observable Universe isn’t just known precisely today, but all throughout cosmic history: at any moment over the past 13.8 billion years. But how do we know this so well, and what is ... Continue Reading »
Psychologist Paul Bloom has spent his career studying the parts of human nature we often feel uncomfortable examining: why loneliness feels like starvation, why people are drawn to behaving poorly, why revenge feels righteous until it destroys everything.
Bloom argues that the US doesn’t actually have a loneliness epidemic, it has a solitude epidemic, one being accelerated by AI companionship.
This video The psychology of perversion, revenge, and AI companionship is featured on Big Think.
Continue Reading »
This Big Think issue is a collection of stories about the American instinct to opt out, to pack up and go, to tell the boss, “I’d prefer not to.”
Continue Reading »
2126 CE.
On your morning commute, the bus automatically reroutes to conserve energy. A message flashes: “Approved by the transit board, August 12.” Riders groan about the detour but know they voted for this policy.
Parks are watched, but not policed. Sensors measure water use and animal life, and the data gets published openly. Communities decide how to care for the land — its water and habitats — following stewardship principles shaped by long-standing Indigenous knowledges. They count birds, chart air quality, and measure soil moisture. The information appears on public boards so kids can use it for school projects and gardeners can time plantings. No one’s face gets scanned.
Neighborhood health clinics make decisions based on data that patients volunteer. It gets pooled into a regulated commons for public health — only with consent, and anyone can change their mind at any time. Forecasting tools like these databases help doctors detect illness early, but no one gets denied care for refusing to share their symptoms.
Work is coordinated through open systems. Unions, cities, and companies built them together. In the garment cooperative, an ... 
Have you ever thought about the energetic explosions that occasionally occur — both within our own galaxy and in galaxies all across the Universe — and wondered, “where did all that energy come from?” Throughout human history, what seemed to be new stars have populated our sky at random:
suddenly appearing as if from nowhere,
brightening and reaching a peak magnitude,
and then slowly fading away to become invisible to the eye once again.
Since the advent of the telescope, we’ve learned that these events, collectively referred to as supernovae, are common, and most frequently correspond to the cataclysmic death of a massive star as its central core collapses.
Even though these supernova events can shine brilliantly, with typical intrinsic brightnesses that are about the equivalent of ten billion suns, that only represents a tiny amount of the energy liberated during a core-collapse event: between 0.1% and 1% of the total energy generated. A whopping 99% of that supernova event’s energy is practically invisible: emitted in the form of neutrinos, a ghostly species of particle that interacts so rarely, the theorist who invented it quipped, ... 
Back in 2015, humanity detected our first gravitational wave event.
GW150914 was the first ever direct detection and proof of the existence of gravitational waves. The waveform, detected by both LIGO observatories, Hanford and Livingston, matched the predictions of general relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent “ringdown” of the single resulting black hole.
Credit: Aurore Simonnet/LIGO Scientific Collaboration
Now, in 2026, we’re up to 390 confirmed detections.
This up-to-date “Eagle plot” of the black holes and neutron stars detected through gravitational wave mergers (orange and blue) and through electromagnetic signals (yellow and red) show the present status of known black holes and neutron stars under 250 solar masses. Just 11 years ago, there were no known gravitational wave events, but today, in June of 2026, there are 390 confirmed events, representing 780 pre-merger and 390 post-merger objects.
Credit: LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA / Aaron Geller / Northwestern
Most correspond to merging pairs of black holes, some at quite high masses.
This illustration shows the results of numerical simulations ... 
In order for stars to form, you need the right ingredients to make it happen: gravity, mass, time, and of course the right type of matter in the form of baryons. Shortly after the Big Bang, the Universe had plenty of them, but they were all very simple: protons, deuterons, helium-3 and helium-4 nuclei, and a tiny bit of lithium-7. These nuclei, made out of protons and neutrons, were all that the Universe gave us to work with prior to the formation of stars. But, in clumps of material small and large, from individual star clusters to enormous galaxy cluster scales and everything in between, these baryons went to work and, across the Universe over the past 13.8 billion years, created sextillions of stars within the observable Universe.
In a very real way, the story of how we ourselves came to be is the story of how baryons evolved, matured, and wound up deducing our own cosmic history. Yet so many mysteries about that process still remain, from the baryon life cycles within galaxies to identifying the right conditions to trigger ... 
There’s a particular kind of disappointment that only a good filmmaker can deliver, and Disclosure Day is steeped in it. This isn’t a bad movie, exactly. It’s something more frustrating: a missed opportunity, made by a director standing on the most fertile ground and for some reason refusing to dig.
Steven Spielberg has spent his career circling the idea of first contact with aliens. The closest comparison here is 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the comparison is not kind to the new film. In Close Encounters, the government is secretly working toward contact, while ordinary civilians, struck by visions they can’t explain, get pulled into the orbit of an enormous, cosmic project. The film breathes a beautiful rhythm of mystery, reveal, and renewed mystery. The secretive authorities turn out to be, in their own way, the good guys. And the civilians at the center — above all, Richard Dreyfuss, the film’s protagonist — risk everything to reach the mountaintop in the finale. They have agency. They earn the encounter.
Disclosure Day throws nearly all of that away. The government ... 
After unpacking my bag in the bedroom I’d call home for the next month, part two of my European spring trip, I went downstairs. My friend and travel companion sat at the kitchen table, eyes on her phone. Without looking up, she held out a paperback.
“Here,” she said, glancing up as I took the book. “I bought this at the airport. I think you’ll love it.”
I examined the cover. It carried a minimalist hand-drawn portrait, the subject unmistakably a hare in profile, with long, spindly ears, a dusky coat, and a single hazel eye. The title, Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, was set against its slender snout. I opened it, skimmed a paragraph, thrummed the pages, took in the font and generous spacing, then flipped it over to read the back.
I thanked her, but kept my real reaction to myself. Though it seemed like something I’d enjoy, I probably wouldn’t get around to it. Thanks to the Libby app, I already had half a dozen e-books waiting for me. I considered myself something of a Libby maestra, constantly orchestrating its ... 
When we look out across the Universe, we see objects at all different distances. The planets we see all exist only within our own Solar System: right in our cosmic backyard. The stars that we see exist primarily within our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and can be up to tens of thousands of light-years distant. Our nearest galaxies are under a million light-years away, but the farthest ones that have been identified are over 33 billion light-years away. And when we look at the oldest, most distant signal we can access, the light of the cosmic microwave background, we know it sits at a surface located 46.1 billion light-years away: the farthest thing we can see.
While there are a great many uncertainties about many things in the cosmos — including the size of the full Universe beyond the limits of what’s observable — the size of the observable Universe isn’t just known precisely today, but all throughout cosmic history: at any moment over the past 13.8 billion years. But how do we know this so well, and what is ... 
This Big Think issue is a collection of stories about the American instinct to opt out, to pack up and go, to tell the boss, “I’d prefer not to.”