In search of conscious robots (Wired)
by Meghan O’Gieblyn
We like books and movies about conscious, self-aware robots, but how could humans build anything like that when we don’t understand our own consciousness? Maybe we just need to create space for the robots to figure it out for themselves.

Attack of the killer tortoise (Gizmodo)
by Isaac Schultz
Like something out of an avian horror movie, a giant tortoise pursued, killed, and ate a baby tern—very slowly—and a camera caught the whole thing. Maybe the reptiles aren’t as herbivorous as we thought.

What we can learn from Costa Rican healthcare (The New Yorker)
by Atul Gawande
Health and wealth tend to go together, but Costa Rica has health outcomes that outshine much richer countries. Part of the secret is not handling only one patient at a time.

Tracing Black America through the generations (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
by Rosalind Bentley
In the years after the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau helped many formerly enslaved people get married, open bank accounts, and enroll in school. Now, the bureau’s records are online and available for Americans who want to trace their ancestry.

Celebrating the humble index (Prospect Magazine)
by Michael Delgado
Has the internet sapped our will to read and absorb information in a slower, more deliberate way? Once upon a time, people wondered the same thing about the index, a powerful, often ignored piece of information technology.

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