Why Everything Actually Adds Up

A number of things are currently deteriorating in ways that do not seem connected. Many professionals are quietly losing income without being laid off. The AI revolution is supposedly transformative, yet productivity barely moves. House prices in big cities keep rising even as people feel poorer. Voters drift towards authoritarian and anti-system parties.

Looked at separately, each of these developments has a tidy explanation. Looked at together, they tell a single story.
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Why Our Definition of “Intelligence” Is Deeply Parochial

Human beings have always taken their own minds as the reference point for what intelligence is and what intelligence ought to be. For centuries we have praised the abilities that separate the “clever” from the “stupid”: mathematics, literature, abstract reasoning, the mastery of symbolic systems. These have become the gold standards, the abilities through which we judge ourselves and each other.
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Forward to the Past

Whenever futurists sketched daily life after the robots, they drew silver jumpsuits, food pills, and homes that looked like airport lounges. But the more I think about it, the less likely that seems. The real future is not about speeding up everything until it’s frictionless. It’s about slowing down, because suddenly we can afford to. Not financially – temporally.
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I wish I could speak Akkadian

Imagine saying to a machine: I wish I could speak Akkadian. And instead of a blank stare, it nods politely and begins surrounding you with a world in which Akkadian is normal. Cartoons chatter in it, bedtime stories arrive in it, recipes explain themselves in it. Before long, you’re dreaming in the tongue of Babylon.

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No More Piles

When I first wrote about domestic robots in Three-Armed Spot, I argued that we didn’t need humanoid butlers, but a practical, Spot-like creature with three arms to do the dirty work. I still believe that. But let’s imagine we’ve already got it. What changes then?

The first thing that disappears is the pile. For centuries, piles have structured our homes: the laundry pile in the basket, the dishes pile in the sink, the stack of papers and unopened letters by the front door. We pile things because we batch work. Continue reading “No More Piles”

The Tragedy of Modern Education

A century ago, schools were brutal, rigid places. Latin declensions were drilled into unwilling heads, children forced to sit still for hours, individuality met with suspicion. The “normal” kids—those brimming with life, energy, and emotional spontaneity—hated school. The system wasn’t designed for them.

It was designed for a very different kind of mind.

The ideal student of that older system was intensely focused, rule-bound, and capable of sustained abstraction. In today’s language, a student who might score moderately high on autism or ADHD scales. The old system rewarded those who could sit alone, concentrate deeply, and endure solitude for the sake of mastering Latin grammar or solving geometric puzzles.

But today, we’ve swung dramatically the other way. Modern schools cater to the masses, emphasising collaboration, emotional intelligence, and social fluency over solitary genius. The “odd” kids—those restless, obsessive, or socially awkward—are seen as problems to be fixed, disorders to medicate.

We risk drugging away the very minds that could have driven tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
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Flothensburgh: Could AI Spark a New Renaissance?

Throughout history, certain places have acted as catalysts for intellectual and cultural explosions. Athens during the time of Socrates, Florence during the Renaissance, and Edinburgh in the 18th and 19th centuries all produced an outsized number of geniuses, reshaping the world in the process.

The question is: Can we recreate those conditions today?
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Demolish, Rebuild, Repeat: The Future of Home Sweet Home

The concept of robots transforming the way we build and live is as exciting as it is transformative. House-building robots, such as the 3D printers already being deployed, show the potential to revolutionise construction. Yet, while these machines are undeniably impressive, they often rely on concrete, a material with a heavy carbon footprint. Concrete production accounts for a significant proportion of global CO₂ emissions, primarily due to the energy-intensive process of producing cement. This reliance poses a challenge: how can we embrace the convenience and efficiency of these technologies while aligning them with a sustainable vision for the future?
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Turning Rubbish into a High-Tech Treasure Hunt

When we think about how artificial intelligence and robotics might change our lives, we often leap to dramatic visions of self-driving cars, robot chefs, or AI assistants managing our every whim. Yet some of the most exciting possibilities might come from areas we rarely consider. Take litter sorting, for instance. At present, people across Europe are tearing their hair out over recycling. Six bins, endless rules, and still, most of us get it wrong. It’s hardly a recipe for success.
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