Inside a Fusion Startup’s Insane, Top-Secret Opening Ceremony
So the race is on to engineer an efficient surrounding for fusion. One of Fuse’s ideas is to get a bunch of big capacitors to discharge at once, thus kick-starting …
longreads
Tim Cook Wants Apple to Literally Save Your Life
Every time I visit the Apple Park campus, my mind flashes to a tour I took months before construction was finished, when there was dust on the terrazzo floors and …
The Whole Story of How Humans Evolved From Great Apes
More than 2 million years ago, a mutation reduced the power of the chewing muscles in human ancestors. That may indicate they were doing more food preparation, but also possibly …
Relevant! Relevant! Relevant! At 50, Microsoft Is an AI Giant, Open-Source Lover, and as Bad as Ever
No question about it: Nadella’s Microsoft is a triumph. Finally, in the 2020s, Microsoft has centered on the most innovative tech since the PC itself. And though revenues from AI …
Get in, Loser—We’re Chasing a Waymo Into the Future
A third-generation San Franciscan, Gabe says he grew up playing with Nancy Pelosi’s kids and went to high school with Gavin Newsom, and now he’s a driver the way they’re …
Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve
.jpg "Trae Stephens Has Built AI Weapons and Worked for Donald Trump. As He Sees It, Jesus Would Approve")
When I wrote about Anduril in 2018, the company explicitly said it wouldn’t build lethal weapons. Now you are building fighter planes, underwater drones, and other deadly weapons of war. …
After Shark Tank, Mark Cuban Just Wants to Break Shit—Especially the Prescription Drug Industry
What do you mean by that? Because your insurance company, whoever it may be, uses a PBM, a pharmacy benefit manager. The PBM has negotiated with a pharmacy what the …
The World’s Biggest Bitcoin Mine Is Rattling This Texas Oil Town
The previous October, Sawicky organized a weeklong protest alongside environmental activist group Greenpeace and brandished various anti-bitcoin signs at anyone who entered the Riot facility. Only a few other people …
The Green Economy Is Hungry for Copper—and People Are Stealing, Fighting, and Dying to Feed It
.jpg "The Green Economy Is Hungry for Copper—and People Are Stealing, Fighting, and Dying to Feed It")
Moqadi Mokoena had been feeling uneasy all day. When he’d left his home on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, for his job as a security guard, he’d had to …
She’s the New Face of Climate Activism—and She’s Carrying a Pickax
By the time I arrive in Lezay my clothes are damp with sweat, my head foggy. I find hundreds of Les Soulèvements de la Terre’s supporters in a field on …