Forecasting

Destroyer of Worlds

By Elaine Scarry, Eric Schlosser, Lydia Millet, Mohammed Hanif, Rachel Bronson, Theodore Postol,

In February 1947, Harper’s Magazine published Henry L. Stimson’s “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb.” As secretary of war, Stimson had served as the chief military adviser to President…

Safety in Numbers

By Gary Greenberg,

I went to fetch some new chickens the other day. The birds were Rhode Island Reds, homely and reliable, and so meek that it took the breeder and me only…

Church Going

By Garry Wills,

From The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis, by Garry Wills, out this month from Viking. Wills holds the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Chair at Emory and is…

Come With Us If You Want to Live

By Sam Frank,

“Just by a quick show of hands, has anyone heard of a D.A.O. or an agent before?” asked Jonathan Mohan. He was in his mid-twenties and wore a beige Bitcoin…

Imagine There’s No Oil

By Bryant Urstadt,

On a Friday last fall, I headed to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to learn more about oil depletion and the imminent collapse of industrial civilization. I was on my way to…