Archive (Page 2 of 3)

How to Overthrow a Government

I don’t want to live in a world where ISIS is scarier than hackers, especially in 2016. We previously held the title in 2013, ’14, and ’15. And to be honest I was a little bit disappointed when I saw this result. So I thought I’m in my 40s now, there’s a lot of young hackers in the audience, and I’m not going to pass the baton to you guys unless we have that number one spot back in our pile.

Building Your Own Personal Truth

I think we are groping towards this idea of truth. And even the word truth can be defined in multiple different ways. So we are by its very nature dealing with a very slippery topic.

Is Digital Culture Responsible for Post-Truth Politics?

I’m going to argue today that even while we know post-truth politics is having a terrible effect on our political culture and our role as citizens, it’s curiously difficult to combat it because of a set of beliefs about what politics is, and about the Internet and the way it enables ordinary people to have a voice. And these beliefs intersect with a prevailing anti-intellectual anti-elitism which associates knowledge, discernment, and truth with snobbery and power.

Steven Pinker on Genetically Re-engineering Human Nature

There are many changes to our institutions and our norms and our ideas that can reduce or eliminate the risks of nuclear war without what I consider a rather quixotic attempt to change the course of human evolution.

Sean Wilentz on Donald Trump and the Crisis in American Democracy

I don’t think we’ve had anybody quite like Donald Trump before, in terms of the politics of celebrity, which is what I think he’s really about. It’s not simply that he’s rich. We’ve had rich people in politics before. He’s not simply a businessman. We’ve had businessmen in politics before.

Three Advices for Clinton

I think the interesting and most difficult challenge for Mrs. Clinton if she becomes President is how to bring America together.

Roger Berkowitz on Refiguring American Government

The great danger and fear that I have is that in the last fifty to seventy years, power has increasingly concentrated not only in the federal government but in the presidency.

President Trump: The End of American Democracy?

One thing I can say is that I don’t think we know very much about Donald Trump, which is one of the things that’s scary about him but also one of the things that’s exciting about him.

Robert Reich’s Advice for the Next President

The next President is probably going to have to deal with some very difficult economic times. The housing market is starting to look like a bubble. There’s a possibility of that bubble bursting. We’ve been there before.

Peter W. Singer’s Advice for the Next President

If I had to suggest one job for the next President to do for a day, it would be to take on the role of a military spouse whose wife has deployed abroad.