Pearson plans to sell its textbooks as NFTs
Educational publisher’s move into non-fungible tokens is intended to claw back some of the income lost to secondhand sales
‘We risk being ruled by dangerous binaries’ – Mohsin Hamid on our increasing polarisation
As we embrace the binary thinking of digital technology the divisions between us are growing ever starker. Can fiction help us imagine a different future?
Influence Empire by Lulu Chen review – the story of China’s Tencent
A fascinating study of the tech giant and its symbiotic relationship with the Chinese government
From Hitchhiker’s Paranoid Android to Wall-E: why are pop culture robots so sad?
‘Sentient’ AI seems to shoulder the weight of the world. Maybe we humans want it that way
The big idea: should we worry about sentient AI?
A Google employee raised the alarm about a chatbot he believes is conscious. A philosopher asks if he was right to do so
How to read: a guide to getting more out of the experience
Most of us can read, but is there a way to do it better? Faster? With more comprehension or even … joy?
Mike George obituary
Writer and campaigner on social justice and the environment who developed the understanding of consumer vulnerability
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets review – confessions of a content moderator
This Dutch novel takes aim at the depersonalising corrosiveness of the internet, but becomes laboured
‘After lockdown, things exploded’ – how TikTok triggered a books revolution
Have teenagers taken control of publishing? With some authors notching up a billion views, we look at how TikTok is electrifying the world of books – creating bestsellers, reviving classics and rescuing neglected genres
Beyond our ‘ape-brained meat sacks’: can transhumanism save our species?
The 21st century will be make or break for humanity, says Oxford University transhumanist Elise Bohan. If we get it right, she thinks we might find something better
Seen and Unseen review: George Floyd, Black Twitter and the fight for racial justice
Marc Lamont Hill and Todd Brewster’s brilliant book considers the history of communications technology in a racist society
An ethical problem aired for online travellers by Airbnb
The travel site is trying a new approach to ease problems of over-tourism
Unchain Me review – Dostoevsky inspires secret mission on the streets of Brighton
dreamthinkspeak’s timely new production on inequality and abuse of political power offers its audience a choice: complicity or compliance?
Richard Moore obituary
Bike rider who turned to journalism and co-created the Cycling Podcast, an instant hit listened to by millions
The big idea: should we get rid of the scientific paper?
As a format it’s slow, encourages hype, and is difficult to correct. A radical overhaul of publishing could make science better