It wasn’t our intention that humanity becomes the planet’s greatest evolutionary force; yet the fact that we are confronts us with an urgent and difficult question. Some species can adapt but, for many, the pace of change is too great. Should we try to save them by intervening in their evolution?

This short from the Metropolitan Museum of Art reconstructs a ceremonial shield made by the Moche people of modern-day Peru, several centuries before the Inca Empire began to dominate the region @metmuseum.org

We already record much of our lives. But our memory and sense of self could be enhanced by recording even more, and creating so-called lifelogs that capture as many experiences as feasible

Should you never make promises you don’t intend to keep? This brief animation directed by Sarah Stroud lays out a complex scenario where a dying woman asks for and receives promises and explores what philosophers like John Locke, David Hume and John Rawls say about the ethics of breaking your word

Without peasants, the global economy could not function, and our natural systems would collapse. Life still depends on the peasantry, and we are all affected by the fact that it is today in an acute crisis

The transformation of American public opinion on same-sex marriage is a remarkable and rapid shifts in moral consciousness ever recorded. Since the late 1980s, public approval of the practice climbed from 11 per cent to 70 per cent. What explains this? And how is it in part a puzzle about democracy?

In this short, filmmakers Boloh Miranda and Elizabeth Swanson Andi capture Nina Gualinga, a Kichwa activist, reflecting on the forms of extractivism and commodification imposed on her people from the world beyond it @theguardian.com

Why the fast track to a life well lived is feeling grateful #WorldGratitudeDay

Measurement in quantum mechanics has always had a mystery: how does a possibility become reality? And why does quantum mechanics need phenomenology?

In this video from the American Museum of Natural History, the astronomer and curator Jackie Faherty discusses how the contours of the night sky as we know it will dramatically alter millions of years in the future

Economics often treats corporate behaviour as driven solely by profit and competition, but, as this Essay explores, deep-rooted ethical traditions can shape even the most technical financial policies

🌋 Excited to share my new essay in Aeon: one of the most underappreciated global risks isn’t an asteroid or supervolcano—it’s the eruptions we don’t see coming:

In partnership with The Writers Project of Ghana and the British Council, Aeon Media is hosting an intensive writing workshop for anyone looking to master the art of the nonfiction essay. If you're based in Ghana and would like to participate, please email [email protected] aeon.co

This excerpt from the BAFTA-winning documentary Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack follows a death-defying English handyman named Fred Dibnah (1938-2004) as he, like a cheery Sisyphus, takes on a job he had deliberately attempted to overbid to avoid – dismantling a massive industrial chimney brick by brick

By 1768, Joseph Wright of Derby had gained widespread praise for his new candlelight paintings. So why was he overlooked by the founders of the Royal Academy? Was it his depictions of science that went against tradition, or were there other factors at play?

The Big Bang - is it a theory in crisis? @jimbaggott.bsky.social @aeon.co ‬⁩ aeon.co/essays/why-m...

The science of volcanoes and their relationship with the climate is hard to keep up with. Why do some volcanoes give us little warning before they blow? Are we ignoring the next big eruption?

Archival VHS footage from the post-Soviet era documents a shifting world, with poignant echoes in the present moment in this film directed by Max Rykov @nobudge.bsky.social buff.ly/gsO6KeH

How do you cope when the person you love becomes a stranger? Read the journey of Katie Brandt, who navigated the devastating reality of her husband’s FTD diagnosis and transformed her grief into a mission to support other caregivers

This short video provides a richly detailed visual rendering of a profound moment: a nematode worm’s egg cell resetting the biological clock to zero through self-fertilisation

David Hume helped to divide what we now call ‘literature’ from what we now call ‘philosophy’. He did so by posing a devastating challenge to a literary tool that had long been used to practise philosophy: the character sketch

‘There are people who have everything and have achieved nothing. But then there are people who have nothing and have achieved a lot.’ Wilkin, 12, is growing up in a sugar mill town in the Dominican Republic. Hear his thoughts on joy, poverty and baseball in this video by PDA Films

Although it tells a remarkable story, the current Big Bang theory leaves us with many unanswered questions, and recent astronomical observations threaten to undermine it completely. @jimbaggott.bsky.social

On International Literacy Day, we’re revisiting this Essay on why English spelling system is so weird and unpredictable, and how it’s more about quirks of timing and technology rather than the mix of languages #InternationalLiteracyDay

A shrub meant to end hunger now chokes Kenya’s farmlands. It’s a parable of how visions of progress can outgrow their promises

Always a joy to work with Jay Griffiths. Her unique understanding of our relationship to nature shines through this essay. @aeon.co aeon.co/essays/why-w...

Read Jay's new essay published by @aeon.co magazine here: aeon.co/essays/why-w...

From the Aeon archive, ‘0107 – b moll’ by the Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Kondo features layers of nighttime images of Tokyo trains, exploring some of the contrasts – physical togetherness and emotional solitude, natural darkness and artificial light – of his bustling home city

Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. What can adults do to help them to believe that the future will be better?

In this short film, Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland, two throat singers from the remote Inuit village of Kangirsuk in northern Québec, face off in a friendly katajjaq duel

‘Through the sounds of nature, we may move into the fullness of what it is to be a person.’ Why we should listen to the great animal orchestra

From the Aeon archive, ‘Mountain Man’ captures the life of a glaciologist in Bhutan, the only person permitted to climb the country’s sacred mountains. With unique access to the sublime scenes, the Bhutanese director Arun Bhattarai creates a film that mirrors the mountains’ quiet power and beauty

In this piece for Aeon, I argue that, while nanotechnology is now a very real and mature field, a popular early vision of it was an example of what I am calling an "oneiric technology": a fantasy of the sort that Silicon Valley loves. aeon.co/essays/no-su...

Science writer @philipcball.bsky.social calls nanotech an ‘oneiric technology’: a technology that quite probably cannot exist, but fulfils a deep-rooted dream, or a nightmare, or both. Read his Essay here:

My piece on Schopenhauer and happiness for @aeon.co has been re-featured as part of a ‘from the archives’ series of essays that led to books. (There’s a little extra addendum at the end.) Thanks again to @nigelwarburton.bsky.social for commissioning it in the first place.

Imagine if we hadn’t been conditioned to believe that our true self is something fixed and inborn. Would it reduce human life to a meaningless chaos of wandering without purpose? Or could it be more peaceful, more adaptable, and more exciting?

Directed by the UK filmmaker Jessica Bishopp, this poignant coming-of-age documentary from the Aeon archive captures Birta and Selma at a pivotal moment of adolescence as they navigate their own uncertain futures and meditates on the precarious nature of home

Frenetic camerawork and kinetic editing catapult us across New York City in filmmaker Steven Siegel’s experimental documentary from 1986

From this Essay on the peculiar pain of loneliness, Olivia Laing went on to have great success with their book, ‘The Lonely City’ (2016). Read the Essay here buff.ly/1JJFITu

The Sophia Club is coming to Germany! Join us for a special event exploring embodied knowledge with speakers @opheliaderoy.bsky.social and Bernd Brabec in Heidelberg as part of Enjoy Jazz festival. Get tickets here:

What sort of evidence could actually show whether AI can feel? This Essay from the archive suggests we look at how animals do. From this Essay, Jonathan Birch went on to have success with his book ‘The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI’ (2024)

From the Aeon archive, this feature-length documentary North Putnam by Joel Fendelman follows a year at a rural Indiana public school district, providing an honest view of one small slice of the United States where many live below the poverty line – and especially the challenges educators face

This week we’re celebrating Essays from the Aeon archive that have led to successful books. From this Essay, Sarah Smarsh went on to have success with her book, Bone of the Bone (2024)

From this Essay on Henri Bergson and laughter published in 2020, Emily Herring (@emilyherring.bsky.social) went on to have success with her book, ‘Herald of a Restless World’ (2024). Read the Essay here:

This week we’re celebrating Essays from the Aeon archive that have led to successful books. From this Essay, Amy Liptrot went on to have success with her book, The Outrun (2015), which later became a film

In this work, the animator Nelson Armstrong adapts images painted onto pottery by Western Arrarnta artists from the centre of Australia into lush moving visuals capturing life in this remote, beauteous landscape

Life is a moral catastrophe. To exist is to be unavoidably complicit in an order that is entirely evil. What are we to do about this moral fact? Should we retire from existence as quickly and as peacefully as possible? Or is there another way?

Can colour be understood geometrically? If so, what’s the best way to map it out, capturing the variables of hue, brightness and saturation? This video by ScienceClic traces humanity’s ongoing quest to map colour and reveals why a perfect model may never exist

On World Senior Citizen‘s Day, we’re revisiting this article on why we should all ask our elders about how best to live. They have one thing that the rest of us do not: they have lived their lives #WorldSeniorCitizensDay

Data has created a new and paradoxical social order: the promise of emancipation is made possible by classifying everything buff.ly/PAqIygo