From Google's Think Quarterly, a special issue on people. Karsten Weber (BTU Cottbus): What is it Like to Encounter an Autonomous Artificial Agent? From Policy Review, Jacob Mchangama on the sordid origin of hate-speech laws; and Jay Cost on an unusually clear policy choice on Election 2010: Nationalism through commerce versus egalitarianism through redistribution. From Utne Reader, a special section on 25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World 2011. The Spectator’s Spectacular Blunder: It is hard to think of a bigger cock-up than the one the magazine’s editor has just made. Errata: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s metaphorical pile-ups, hollow analyses, and factual inaccuracies have garnered him three Pulitzer Prizes, and frighteningly unchecked power. Applied Classics: How Greek philosophy can solve America’s budget crisis. Meet the new Social Darwinists: Newt, Mitt and other GOP candidates are peddling policies based on this discredited justification for inequality. James Marshall Crotty on why Republicans embrace simpletons and how it hurts America. Wikileaks Expose: Yasha Levine on the Kochs, neocons and covert regime change ops. The reluctant celebrities: Two quiet, celebrity-shy professors have reached the top of the economics field — with work that goes far beyond the profession’s usual labels. Building a better bug: Can scientists beat malaria by reengineering the mosquito? A look at Ms. readers’ 100 best non-fiction books of all time.
