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Future War
Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War? by Dexter Filkins - With global conflicts increasingly shaped by drones and A.I., the American military risks losing its dominance
Putin has Redrawn the World - But Not the Way He Wanted by Allan Little - We are living in new and more dangerous times
The AI-Powered, Totally Autonomous Future of War Is Here by Will Knight - Ships without crews. Self-directed drone swarms. How a US Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and artificial intelligence to prepare for the next age of conflict
How Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine by C.J. Chivers - Outnumbered and desperate, the nation began hacking cheap consumer drones with explosives — bringing a brutal new form of violence to 21st-century warfare
AI Warfare Becomes Real for US Military With Project Maven by Katrina Manson - US military operators started out skeptical about AI, but now they are the ones developing and using Project Maven to identify targets on the battlefield
How an Entire Nation Became Russia’s Test Lab for Cyberwar by Andy Greenberg - Blackouts in Ukraine were just a trial run. Russian hackers are learning to sabotage infrastructure—and the US could be next
The Incredible Rise of North Korea’s Hacking Army by Ed Caesar - The country’s cyber forces have raked in billions of dollars for the regime by pulling off schemes ranging from A.T.M. heists to cryptocurrency thefts. Can they be stopped?
The Age of American Naval Dominance Is Over by Jerry Hendrix - The United States has ceded the oceans to its enemies. We can no longer take freedom of the seas for granted
How the US Created a World of Endless War by Samuel Moyn - In 2008, many of Barack Obama’s supporters hoped he would bring the global war on terror to a close. Instead, he expanded it.
Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic by Ben Taub - For years, Russia has been using the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, which borders its nuclear stronghold, as a laboratory, testing intelligence operations there before replicating them across Europe
This Giant Microwave May Change the Future of War by Sam Dean - The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Now the company has to deliver.
Plus check out our full list of 50 Great Articles about War
15 Great Articles about Progress
GDP by Oliver Kim - We really don’t know how good we have it
How Humanity Gave Itself an Extra Life by Steven Johnson - Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered — but so did activism.
The Real Reason Humans are the Dominant Species by Justin Rowlatt and Laurence Knight - Energy is the key to humanity’s world domination
The Birth of Religion by Charles C. Mann - We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization.
The Case Against Civilization by John Lanchester - Did our hunter-gatherer ancestors have it better?
The Worst Mistake in History by Jared Diamond - Archaeology is demolishing the belief that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress
Beyond the !Kung by Manvir Singh - A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale
A History of Violence by Steven Pinker - Believe it or not—and I know most people do not—violence has been in decline over long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence
Money ? Happiness. QED. by Bill McKibben - The formula for human well-being used to be simple: Make money, get happy. So why is the old axiom suddenly turning on us?
What We Get Wrong about Technology by Tim Harford - Forget flying cars or humanoid robots, the most disruptive inventions are often cheap, simple and easy to overlook
How the System Works by Charles C. Mann - An essay series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life — and what happens if we don’t maintain them
The Golden Quarter by Michael Hanlon - Some of our greatest cultural and technological achievements took place between 1945 and 1971. Why has progress stalled?
Why the Age of American Progress Ended by Derek Thompson - Invention alone can’t change the world; what matters is what happens next
We Should Fix Climate Change — but We Should Not Regret It by Thomas R. Wells - Climate change is a huge and urgent problem. It is natural to suppose that it is therefore a terrible mistake, an unforced error that we should regret and try to prevent ever happening again.
On the Importance of Staring Directly Into the Sun by Adam Mastroianni - There’s something very weird about the timeline of scientific discoveries
The Third Magic by Noah Smith - A meditation on history, science, and AI
The Best of the Best Ofs
Links by Albert Chu’s Best of 2025
The Sunday Long Read’s Best of 2025
David Brooks’ Best Nonfiction Essays of the Year
The 2025 National Magazine Award Finalists
The Best of the Guardian Long Read in 2025
The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2025
The Atlantic’s Most Read Stories of 2025
Links I Would Gchat You’s 20 Best Links of 2025
5 Great Essays about Death
How to Practice by Ann Patchett - I wanted to get rid of my possessions, because possessions stood between me and death
If My Dying Daughter Could Face Her Mortality, Why Couldn’t the Rest of Us? by Sarah Wildman - She turned to me and asked, “What if this is the best I ever feel again?” Three hundred and seventy-six days later, she was dead.
The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell - The story of a couple who died on a scalding hike with their one-year-old daughter
I Nearly Died Drowning. Here’s What it’s Like to Survive. by Maggie Slepian - On coming to terms with a near-death experience
A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing? by Jia Tolentino - What the death of a health-insurance C.E.O. means to America.
Plus click through for the full list of 30 Great Articles about Death
Artificial Intelligence
What Is Claude? by Gideon Lewis-Kraus - Researchers at the company are trying to understand their A.I. system’s mind—examining its neurons, running it through psychology experiments, and putting it on the therapy couch
America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs by Josh Tyrangiel - Does anyone have a plan for what happens next?
Friend or Faux? by Josh Dzieza - What do you love when you fall for AI?
To Stay in Her Home, She Let In an A.I. Robot by Eli Saslow - At 85, Jan Worrell lived alone on a remote corner of the Washington coast. Could ElliQ become her companion?
The AI Doomsday Machine Is Closer to Reality Than You Think by Michael Hirsh - The Pentagon is racing to integrate AI into its weapons system to keep up with China and Russia. Where will that lead?
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Anonymous - Does the world really need another ‘The Case For Why AI Could Be Dangerous’ essay?
We Did the Math on AI’s Energy Footprint by James O’Donnell and Casey Crownhart - The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next
You Sound Like ChatGPT by Sara Parker - AI isn’t just impacting how we write — it’s changing how we speak and interact with others. And there’s only more to come.
Why Does A.I. Write Like That? by Sam Kriss - Chatbots have developed a distinctive — and grating — voice
A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally. by Bill Wasik - The technology’s ability to read and summarize text is already making it a useful tool for scholarship. How will it change the stories we tell about the past?
The Great Fiction of AI by Josh Dzieza - The strange world of high-speed semi-automated genre fiction
AI Will Not Make You Rich by Jerry Neumann - The disruption is real. It’s also predictable.
This Is How the AI Bubble Bursts by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Stephen Henriques - The tangle of AI deals among tech giants could be signs of dangerous overinvestment in the developing technology
Click through for more great writing about AI.
150 Great Articles & Essays
We’ve updated our list of the 150 best classic and new articles and essays to read online. Click through for stacks of the very best writing from around the net.
8 Great Articles about Rich People
People With Parents With Money by Various Authors - 14 adults come clean about the down payments, allowances, and tuition payments that make their New York lives feasible
Why it Pays to be Privileged by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison - Within Britain’s elite occupations, the advantages of class are still mistaken for talent
Billionaires Are Not Like Us by Alex Morris - They have fantasies of going to Mars, transhumanism, and superhuman AI. How the heck does someone get this way? And what does it mean for the rest of us?
The Haves and the Have-Yachts by Evan Osnos - Luxury ships attract outrage and political scrutiny. The ultra-rich are buying them in record numbers.
Survival of the Richest by Douglas Rushkoff - The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind
Private Schools Have Become Truly Obscene by Caitlin Flanagan - Elite schools breed entitlement, entrench inequality
The Airport-Lounge Wars by Zach Helfand - When you’re waiting for a flight, what’s the difference between out there and in here?
The Fake Poor Bride by Xochitl Gonzalez - Confessions of a wedding planner
Plus check out our 50 Great Articles about Money.
150 Great Articles and Essays from 2025
Click through for a huge collection of the net’s best journalism and nonfiction from 2025
40 Classic Articles that Became Films
Click through for a huge collection of cinematic nonfiction
About The Electric Typewriter
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