CATEGORIES

Flo Crivello Says A.I. Will Be Bigger Than the Internet
Reason magazine

Flo Crivello Says A.I. Will Be Bigger Than the Internet

Flo Crivello is the founder and CEO of Lindy, a software company that has created an executive assistant powered by artificial intelligence (A.I.). Lindy can take care of your calendar, perform basic email correspondence, book travel, and take notes during meetings. The long-run goal is to automate as much work as possible and free up time for tasks that only humans can do.

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2 mins  |
July 2023
Adam Smith's Sly American Proposal
Reason magazine

Adam Smith's Sly American Proposal

SOMETIMES A PROPOSAL IS A LESSON IN DISGUISE.

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10 mins  |
July 2023
Marketplaces Find a Way
Reason magazine

Marketplaces Find a Way

THOUGH HISTORY HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN KIND, BUTCHERS, BREWERS, AND BAKERS STILL THRIVE AT URBAN MARKETS.

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8 mins  |
July 2023
Adam Smith's Quiet Christianity
Reason magazine

Adam Smith's Quiet Christianity

THE SCOTTISH THINKER’S FAMOUS FRIENDSHIP WITH DAVID HUME DEMONSTRATES HIS LIBERALISM, NOT HIS ATHEISM.

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8 mins  |
July 2023
Adam Smith Understood That We Need Each Other
Reason magazine

Adam Smith Understood That We Need Each Other

THE THINKER’S VIEWS OF HUMAN SYMPATHY, BENEFICENCE, JUSTICE, AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR STILL RESONATE.

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10+ mins  |
July 2023
GADGETS AND GIZMOS THAT INSPIRED ADAM SMITH
Reason magazine

GADGETS AND GIZMOS THAT INSPIRED ADAM SMITH

MEDITATIONS ON THE DANGEROUS, ALLURING BEAUTY OF INTRICATE SYSTEMS

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6 mins  |
July 2023
Why America Needs To Be 'Open to Debate
Reason magazine

Why America Needs To Be 'Open to Debate

Clea Conner on the need for healthy conflict

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10+ mins  |
May 2023
Proposition: Cats Are More Libertarian Than Dogs
Reason magazine

Proposition: Cats Are More Libertarian Than Dogs

Cats, like libertarians, think for themselves.

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4 mins  |
May 2023
FAILING TO REFORM SOCIAL SECURITY MEANS MANDATORY CUTS
Reason magazine

FAILING TO REFORM SOCIAL SECURITY MEANS MANDATORY CUTS

WHEN PRESIDENT JOE Biden sparred with Republicans during his State of the Union address in February, he vowed to veto any attempt at cutting Social Security benefits. Yet the budget proposal he unveiled in March lacked a plan to avert the mandatory Social Security benefit cuts that are quickly approaching.

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2 mins  |
June 2023
THE BIOMEDICAL TESTING REVOLUTION
Reason magazine

THE BIOMEDICAL TESTING REVOLUTION

“CANCER SIGNAL NOT detected.” That was the happy finding of my Galleri multicancer early detection (MCED) blood test from the Silicon Valley biotech company GRAIL. The Galleri test presages an emerging wave of new precision biomedical tests produced by a panoply of biotech startups.

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2 mins  |
June 2023
Diana Alvarez Knows She's 'Doing the Right Thing' Running a D.C. Smoke Shop
Reason magazine

Diana Alvarez Knows She's 'Doing the Right Thing' Running a D.C. Smoke Shop

Diana Alvarez’s son always wanted to go to college, so she started working in a smoke shop to earn some extra cash.

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2 mins  |
June 2023
Fighting the Feds in the American South
Reason magazine

Fighting the Feds in the American South

JEFFERSON COWIE IS a prodigious researcher who often shows sensitivity to historical complexities, and his narrative skills shine. The Vanderbilt historian’s latest book, Freedom’s Dominion, is readable and often provocative. But it superimposes a dubious thesis about Southern his tory over the facts, arguing that “land dispossession, slavery, power, and oppression do not stand in contrast to freedom— they are expressions of it.”

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5 mins  |
June 2023
Who Owns Your Brain Data?
Reason magazine

Who Owns Your Brain Data?

WE ARE RAPIDLY heading toward a world of brain transparency, in which scientists, doctors, governments, and companies may peer into our brains and minds at will,” Duke University bioethicist Nita A. Farahany declares in The Battle for Your Brain. As a defense against this neuro surveillance, her timely book argues for a right to cognitive liberty that includes “mental privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination”—a right that allows us to track and hack our own brains but bars us from trespassing on other minds.

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5 mins  |
June 2023
MARC ANDREESSEN ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE
Reason magazine

MARC ANDREESSEN ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE

Is the A.I. breakthrough for real this time?

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10+ mins  |
June 2023
ZEROT AMERICA
Reason magazine

ZEROT AMERICA

SECRECY IS THE DEGRADED CURRENCY OF THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT.

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10 mins  |
June 2023
The Most Hated Person on Campus
Reason magazine

The Most Hated Person on Campus

HOW A SHAKY ALLEGATION IGNITED A FRENZY AND DESTROYED A YOUNG WOMAN'S LIFE

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10+ mins  |
June 2023
WILL 2024 BRING THE RETURN OF THE NEOCONS?
Reason magazine

WILL 2024 BRING THE RETURN OF THE NEOCONS?

THE GOP NOMINEE CAN FORGE A HUMBLER PATHOR TURN BACK TO FAILED NEOCONSERVATISM.

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10+ mins  |
June 2023
THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM IS MOSTLY MEANINGLESS
Reason magazine

THE LEFT-RIGHT SPECTRUM IS MOSTLY MEANINGLESS

THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE DOESN'T FIT ON A SIMPLE MAP.

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10+ mins  |
June 2023
Storks Don't Take Orders From the State
Reason magazine

Storks Don't Take Orders From the State

FALLING BIRTHRATES, PRO-NATALIST POLICIES, AND THE LIMITS OF POPULATION CONTROL

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10+ mins  |
June 2023
Where's Your Adderall?
Reason magazine

Where's Your Adderall?

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, prescriptions for Adderall, the stimulant medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), skyrocketed.

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2 mins  |
April 2023
A.I. Is Here
Reason magazine

A.I. Is Here

ChatGPT can create everything from novel dad jokes to fairly well-written computer code. At my prompting, it wrote a serviceable sonnet describing Gilgamesh’s failed quest for immortality.

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3 mins  |
April 2023
THE EXPENSIVE SEDUCTIVE NOSTALGIA OF FIELD OF DREAMS
Reason magazine

THE EXPENSIVE SEDUCTIVE NOSTALGIA OF FIELD OF DREAMS

WHY ARE SO MANY FILMGOERS AND POLITICIANS EAGER TO PROP UP BASEBALL'S BOONDOGGLES?

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10+ mins  |
May 2023
PUBLIC UNIONS VS.THE PUBLIC GOOD
Reason magazine

PUBLIC UNIONS VS.THE PUBLIC GOOD

ELECTED LEADERS COME AND GO, BUT PUBLIC UNIONS JUST SAY NO.

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10+ mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WORLD
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE WORLD

AFFIRMATIVE: Optimism Is the Rational Approach

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4 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: BITCOIN IS THE FUTURE! OF FREE EXCHANGE
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: BITCOIN IS THE FUTURE! OF FREE EXCHANGE

AFFIRMATIVE: Bitcoin Is an Effective Tool for Liberty

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7 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: MENTALLY ILL HOMELESS PEOPLE MUST BE LOCKED UP FOR PUBLIC SAFETY
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: MENTALLY ILL HOMELESS PEOPLE MUST BE LOCKED UP FOR PUBLIC SAFETY

AFFIRMATIVE: Choosing the Streets Over Shelters Is Dangerous for Everyone

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6 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: THE U.S. SHOULD INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE DEFENSE OF UKRAINE
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: THE U.S. SHOULD INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE DEFENSE OF UKRAINE

AFFIRMATIVE: Ukraine's Liberal Democracy Deserves Our Aid

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5 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: THE E.U. WAS A MISTAKE
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: THE E.U. WAS A MISTAKE

AFFIRMATIVE: Small States Are Best, and the E.U. Is Huge

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6 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: TO PRESERVE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, GOVERNMENT MUST AFFIRMATIVELY INTERVENE IN THE CULTURE WAR
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: TO PRESERVE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, GOVERNMENT MUST AFFIRMATIVELY INTERVENE IN THE CULTURE WAR

AFFIRMATIVE: You May Not Be Interested in the Culture War, But the Culture War Is Interested in You

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9 mins  |
May 2023
PROPOSITION: DEMOCRACY IS THE WORST FORM OF GOVERNMENT EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS
Reason magazine

PROPOSITION: DEMOCRACY IS THE WORST FORM OF GOVERNMENT EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS

AFFIRMATIVE:  When We Are Governed, Ballots Are Best

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6 mins  |
May 2023