Aeon is a magazine of ideas and culture. Visit aeon.co for more.
In today’s Essay, the creative writer Wes Brown explores the combined grief of losing his father and confronting his own aging through vivid description of his defeats on the jiu jitsu mat
What kind of strength did I chase with a cojones cheat code? | Aeon EssaysMy father’s death sent me to the jiu-jitsu mat. Then came defeat, low testosterone and the lure of a chemical cheat codebuff.lyDespite its imposing stature and importance to ecosystems, the northern cassowary of New Guinea is rarely seen in the wild. This short film documents the ornithologist Yoki Hadiprakarsa and wildlife photographer Tim Laman’s eight-month search for the elusive bird
Scientists and locals unite to film a large, elusive New Guinean bird | Aeon VideosJoin the search for the elusive cassowary, a big bird that plays an outsized role in maintaining its rainforest homebuff.lyWho gets to decide what counts as philosophy? In this Essay, non-Western philosophy lecturer Takeshi Morisato explores how Black and Asian philosophy is diminished by Anglo-European thought tradition
Epistemic convergence in the study of world philosophies | Aeon EssaysBlack philosophers now feature on Western curricula, but the European tradition diminishes their radicalism into reassurancebuff.lyA dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’. An Essay by @carlosfnorena.bsky.social
Uncovering a global ancient history beyond Greece and Rome | Aeon EssaysA dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world’aeon.coRooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalism. An Essay by Sofia Cándano
Anthropophagy art flips the cannibal worries of colonialism | Aeon EssaysRooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalismaeon.coWritten by the neuroscientist Stephani Sunderland, this in-depth profile of the pioneering pain scientist Allan Basbaum charts a lifetime of tireless work finding the origins of chronic pain – and his quest to stop it in its tracks
A researcher’s 50-year hunt for the source of chronic pain | Aeon EssaysAllan Basbaum has spent 50 years searching the nervous system for the places where pain begins – and where it can be stoppedbuff.lyIn 1928, the Brazilian artist Oswald de Andrade called on Brazilian artists to engage in cultural cannibalism – devouring, digesting and recomposing European culture instead of reproducing it. This richly illustrated history traces the profound impact of this 'anthrophagic' method
Anthropophagy art flips the cannibal worries of colonialism | Aeon EssaysRooted in Brazilian modernism, anthropophagy devours and transforms culture, subverting colonial fears of cannibalismbuff.ly
Ancient history has gone global. This is surely the most exciting development in the field in the last 30 years! But what "global antiquity" is and how we should study it—and why anyone should care—are all open (and challenging) questions. Some thoughts on all of this for @aeon.co.
aeon.coFor the biologist Michael Levin, intelligence is the capacity to pursue goals, and it exists on a continuum that ranges from cells to humans. In this short documentary, Levin provides fascinating examples what this can look like
Why we should think of intelligence in terms of goals, not brains | Aeon VideosInside the lab of a biologist who is seeking to understand intelligence by focusing on problem-solving, not neuronsbuff.ly‘A Marxist before Marx, an anarchist before anarchism, an evolutionist before Darwin.’ Mostly forgotten by mainstream culture, the rural French priest Jean Meslier’s work was visionary and radical – and has outlasted attempts to erase him from history
The rural French priest who preached atheism to the people | Aeon EssaysJean Meslier, a rural French priest, argued that religion is designed to produce subjects who will automatically obeybuff.lyThe ‘worst’ and ‘best possible’ job at once: what it’s like to dedicate your life to documenting crimes against humanity.
A Filipino journalist on the ‘terrible privilege’ of bearing witness | Aeon VideosThe ‘worst’ and ‘best possible’ job at once: what it’s like to dedicate your life to documenting crimes against humanityaeon.coTech titans claim the science fiction genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future. An Essay by @alirizataskale.bsky.social
Silicon Valley has a science fiction problem | Aeon EssaysTech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better futureaeon.coIn today’s Essay, the science writer Ananya Palivela explores the history of astronomers' obsession with Venus and what it reveals about science.
Why has Venus obsessed so many astronomers? | Aeon EssaysEvery 122 years, Venus crosses the Sun as a black and fleeting teardrop, kindling the awe of all those who dare to knowbuff.ly
Tech billionaires didn’t misread science fiction. They performed an edit: keeping the frontier, the visionary, the chrome; cutting the public institution, the collective, and the warning. Every. Single. Time. My new piece is now up in Aeon.
Aeon MagazineTech billionaires like to claim their work is inspired by science fiction, but in truth, they are using its ‘chrome-plated aesthetic’ as a fig leaf to further what the social theorist Ali Rıza Taşkale labels ‘reactionary futurism’
Over the last 90 years, vast swathes of Louisiana’s coastline have disappeared. In the short documentary ‘What Remains’, the filmmaker Pavoo Hanninen captures a simple yet effective effort to preserve and restore this coast: recycling oyster shells
How oyster cultivation protects Louisiana’s fragile coastline | Aeon VideosIn an ingenious restoration project, the humble oyster shell is transformed into a powerful tool to halt coastal erosionbuff.lyAt the turn of the 20th century, there was more than just coffee brewing in the cafés of central Europe – from the Modernist movement in Vienna to political turmoil in Belgrade, two coffee cultures were on a collision course that would light the fuse for the First World War
Vienna’s cafés inspired poets. Belgrade’s bred dissent | Aeon EssaysWhile Vienna’s coffeehouses bred modernism, in Belgrade’s kafanas grew conspiracy and rage. Their clash consumed Europebuff.lyIn this Aeon Exclusive Video, the animator Aurelijus Čiupas ponders his purpose as a conjurer of images amid the rapid rise of AI tech with seemingly infinite image creation capacities
An animator ponders his purpose amid an AI’s infinite possibilities | Aeon VideosWhat does it mean to make art in the age of inexhaustible AIs? An animator ponders his purpose and reclaims some controlbuff.ly
A couple of years ago I started wondering why I was spending so much time on hobbies cosplaying obsolete jobs. This is a go at an answer: I'm in the grips of *skill nostalgia*, and the problem is to avoid it becoming reactionary. It turns out John Ruskin (??) has the answer aeon.co/essays/the-r...
A few years ago, my mum started ghosting me, without ever explaining why. I’ve written a piece for @aeon.co about how this estrangement created an odd kind of amnesia. It explores the role family narratives play in our identity - and what happens when they crumble aeon.co/essays/when-...
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