Asterisk Magazine

3,000 languages are dying, but more are being invented

3,000 languages are dying, but more are being invented

Factory Logic

Factory Logic

A Brief History of the History of Science Leviathans, air pumps, Manhattan Project, a physicist at every dinner party, and more.

A Brief History of the History of Science

The Sweet Lesson of Neuroscience Scientists once hoped that studying the brain would teach us how to build AI. Now, one AI researcher may have something to teach us about the brain.

The Sweet Lesson of Neuroscience

Rethinking High-School Science Fairs America’s earliest science fairs gave students the chance to do independent research. Today, they’re a competitive gloss to glorified internships. It’s time for a new format.

Rethinking High-School Science Fairs

AI After Drug Development Coming up with drug candidates isn’t the bottleneck on finding new treatments. Can AI help with the things that are?

AI After Drug Development

Seeing Like a Sedan

Seeing Like a Sedan

The Fight For Slow And Boring Research As federal research funding shrinks, scientists are looking to other sources of support. Can they learn to sell their work without selling out?

The Fight For Slow And Boring Research

Where's My Orbital Habitat? NASA has always balanced the fantastical against the sensible. What happens when the scales start to tip?

Where's My Orbital Habitat?

Reputation (FDA's Version) Can the agency that invented modern drug development survive so many assaults on its reputation? A former FDA insider reads an 800-page book to find out.

Reputation (FDA's Version)

Ideas Aren't Getting Harder to Find

Ideas Aren't Getting Harder to Find

Reading Lolita in the Barracks What does it take to turn South Korea's mandatory military service into a literary retreat?

Reading Lolita in the Barracks

Jung's Memories Jung was born 150 years ago. In a special anniversary edition of his biography, all we can see is his shadow

Jung's Memories

The First Prophet of Abundance David Lilienthal’s account of his years running the Tennessee Valley Authority can read like the Abundance of 1944. We still have a lot to learn from what the book says — and from what it leaves out.

The First Prophet of Abundance

Can You Just Do Things? A conversation about how agency is gained, used, and misused. And also love, drugs, and the Enneagram.

Can You Just Do Things?

Common Ground between AI 2027 & AI as Normal Technology AI 2027 and AI as Normal Technology were both published in April of this year.

Common Ground between AI 2027 & AI as Normal Technology

The Perplexing Appeal of The Telepathy Tapes

The Perplexing Appeal of The Telepathy Tapes

A Conversation on AI and Wealth Distribution

A Conversation on AI and Wealth Distribution

Is the Internet Making Culture Worse? The decline of criticism might explain the sense that our culture is stagnating. How can we bring it back?

Is the Internet Making Culture Worse?

You Aren't in the DSM Five editions on, the DSM shoulders more responsibilities than it was ever intended for. How did we get here?

You Aren't in the DSM

We're hiring a Managing Editor! Come work at the magazine that tries to put the scene and subcultures of America’s West Coast in conversation with themselves, each other, and everybody else.

We're hiring a Managing Editor!

The China Tech Canon How does the paideía of the Chinese tech elite differ from their counterparts in Silicon Valley?

The China Tech Canon

How Co-Ops Electrified America In the 1930s, private utilities balked at the task of bringing electricity to rural America. A New Deal agency figured out how to do it more quickly and more cheaply than anyone expected.

How Co-Ops Electrified America

Tripping Alone The clinical model of psychedelic therapy has become the default way to trip. What might we be missing as a result?

Tripping Alone

Why the U.S. is Behind in the AI "Race"

Why the U.S. is Behind in the AI "Race"

Why Governments Can't Count Counting every citizen is one of the most basic functions of the state. For much of the world, it remains extraordinarily difficult.

Why Governments Can't Count

The Demons of Non-Denoms Religion in America was once the domain of institutions. How did it grow to be dominated by cults of personality — and what can the process tell us about the rest of American culture?

The Demons of Non-Denoms

Introducing Asterisk's AI Fellows We’d like you to meet our first AI Fellows cohort.

Introducing Asterisk's AI Fellows

GDP: We Really Don’t Know How Good We Have It Everyone loves the hockey stick graph of long-run economic growth. For some, it's the basis of an entire worldview. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t add up.

GDP: We Really Don’t Know How Good We Have It

Nine Rules for Managing Humans Managing Nuclear Reactors

Nine Rules for Managing Humans Managing Nuclear Reactors