Suppose engineers invent a computer chip that performs the same calculation using half as much electricity. The obvious conclusion is that electricity consumption should fall. Now suppose that cheaper computation makes it economical to put...
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Ice presents a small everyday mystery. A cold pavement can be dangerously slippery even when the air temperature is far below freezing, while many other crystalline solids are perfectly easy...
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Modern elections are designed to look ordinary. Voters enter a booth, mark a choice, deposit a ballot and wait for arithmetic to produce a winner. In medieval and early modern Europe, choosi...
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Look down at a computer keyboard and you are looking at a museum whose exhibits still work. Some keys preserve decisions made by nineteenth-century typewriter manufacturers. Others carry sym...
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Why AI Doesn’t Really Understand the World (But Reconstructs It) When people talk to ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI assistant, they often say: “It understands everything.” The truth is mo...
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When Was SEO Born? A Brief History and Its Evolution into Modern Search Strategy Search Engine Optimization — better known as SEO — is one of the most influential forces shaping the interne...
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The Conclave: History, Meaning, and Rituals of the Papal Election The conclave is one of the most solemn and mysterious events of the Catholic Church. Whenever a pope dies or resigns, the...
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"So, who came up with this whole 'conclave' thing? It sounds like a pretty intense way to choose a new Pope!" You're right, the conclave is a pretty unique and intense process! It wasn't...
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