Science

Beyond Science Fiction: What To Think About Brain Stimulations In The Normal Population

Article

Martijn Logtenberg

23/10/2023

14 minutes to read

1969: In a fictional story, Niven describes how Wireheads install devices onto their brains to feel instant gratification. Six decades later, brain stimulation exists. While on the edge of a breakthrough, this article looks into the ethical debate.

Risking Your Future: Why Commercial Genetic Testing Is Disempowering

Article

Martijn Logtenberg

22/05/2023

9 minutes to read

Genetic testing companies, such as 23andMe, commercialise the neoliberal idea of personal responsibility for individuals' health through information on disease risks. This article exposes the underlying assumptions of this claim on risk society.

Unboxing The Black Box Algorithms in healthcare.jpg

What We Gain And Lose By Using Algorithms In Healthcare

Article

Martijn Logtenberg

03/04/2023

10 minutes to read

Algorithms are becoming more common in healthcare. Along with this trend come questions about societal norms on knowledge, trust, and accountability.

Tommaso Venturini on Controversy Mapping

Video

The Editors

19/09/2022

Tommaso Venturini avoided questions about the meaning of 'controversies' and 'Controversy Mapping'. But that's no longer the case. In this video, he explains what 'Controversy Mapping' is and why it is relevant.

Elon Musk's SpaceX: How the 'space race' to Mars adopted The Californian Ideology

Article

Nataliia Vdovychenko

15/11/2021

18 minutes to read

Elon Musk as a media personality and his projects such as SpaceX are the big tech products of the Californian Ideology.

Elizabeth Holmes pictured for Forbes 2014, extracted from Getty Images

The case of Elizabeth Holmes: from Silicon Valley Feminist to Fraud

Article

Lily Francois

21/10/2021

8 minutes to read

Elizabeth Holmes is recently convicted. She was charged by federal authorities for operating a multi-million-dollar scheme. Holmes’ company Theranos went from an innovative tech start-up to the biggest fraud case in Silicon Valley.

The SpaceX mission and why it worries me

Column

Jan Blommaert

01/06/2020

4 minutes to read

Elon Musk's SpaceX operates in a field of power previously reserved for state institutions under public control. Is this a good or a bad thing?

Blinkist: Solving for Reading in the Attention Economy?

Article

Inge van de Ven

11/05/2020

10 minutes to read

Blinkist is an app developed by a software company in Berlin. According to its marketing campaign, it “makes reading books realistic again”. But what kind of reading does it facilitate? I tried the app for a week.