Technology
Will there ever be a reliable lie detector?
For as long as we have been human we have looked for some way of telling when we are being…
How to watch YouTube on your TV – and why you should
According to Pliny the Elder, Scipio Aemilianus was the first man to shave daily. The origin of the name Boeing…
The Aesopian language of algospeak
To evade algorithms that hunt down forbidden words, users of platforms like TikTok employ cryptic synonyms. So deadbecomes unalive, and…
What’s the right way to pronounce ‘gif’?
The man who invented gifs, Stephen Wilhite, has died, aged 74. Controversy survives him – over how to pronounce the…
How to post a parcel without leaving your house
Here’s a useful tip. Go to the Royal Mail websiteand you can ask your postman to collect letters or parcels…
The untimely death of the landline
The premature death of the home phone
The algorithm myth: why the bots won't take over
The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer on how to stay ahead of the algorithms
The ghosts that could come back to haunt Blair
I’m picturing Sir Tony Blair enjoying a fitting of his Garter robes after watching Boris Johnson stagger through PMQs. ‘I’m…
My Orwellian battle with Vodafone
After launching an investigation into my missing phone, Vodafone informed me it could not deal with me any further until…
Will our future lives be like a video game?
A few years ago, the software company Owlchemy Labs released a computer game called Job Simulator. Its premise was simple.…
Why cash is still king to me
In defence of hard cash
The tyranny of the smart phone
‘Can I ask you why you don’t want a smart phone?’ said the chirpy manager, as I stood blinking in…
My strange encounter with foot fetishists
My strange encounter with the foot fetishists
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Twitter ban is nothing to celebrate
Marjorie Taylor Greene is nuttier than M&M World. Not your garden-variety conservative, or even a conservative at all, but a…
The hypocrisy of Elon Musk
Tesla’s sleek, if expensive, electric cars are leading the battle against climate change. Its batteries are moving renewable energy into the…
Reality check: could our universe be a simulation?
The philosopher David Chalmers on whether the universe is a simulation
Sense and sensibility: Steven Pinker and Rory Sutherland on reason vs instinct
Steven Pinker and Rory Sutherland on reason vs instinct
Everyone should be sick in the street once
I learned a great deal at university, about half of it from a man called Raymond Foulk. Ray was not…
A tale of bitter brotherly rivalry
For early humans there was no distinction between spirit and matter. There was no idea of self; no barrier between…
Are we ready for the metaverse?
Prepare for the ‘metaverse’
New tactics are needed for the wars of the future
The strategic bankruptcy of the West has twice so far this century demanded that our brave soldiers risk their bodies…
The problem with online property searches
In 1966, the legendary adman David Ogilvy set out to buy a home in France. He boarded a transatlantic liner…
Why is it so hard to live without a mobile phone?
Why is it so hard to live without a mobile phone?
The case for road pricing
Thornton Wilder remarked that there are individuals who fall in love with an idea long before its appointed rendezvous with…
The problem with ‘David’s law’
Two members of parliament have been killed in the past five and a half years. This, one long-serving MP laments,…
