“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.” — Mary Shelley Dear Readers, “It’s alive! It’s alive!” These blood-curdling words, spoken by Dr. Victor Frankenstein after a feverish lightning storm infused life in his creature’s lifeless body, are among the…

“It’s worth remembering that it is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.” — HM Queen Elizabeth II ­­­Dear Readers,‍ We are going to depart from our usual format in light of the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. There are some…

“The actual state of our knowledge is always provisional and…there must be, beyond what is actually known, immense new regions to discover.” — Louie de Broglie Dear Readers, As summer comes to a close and schools begin returning to session, we bring you back to France one last time, on…

“Discovery is a child’s privilege. He ignores the silent and flawless consensus that is part of the air we breathe — the consensus of all the people who are, or are reputed to be, reasonable.” — Alexander Grothendieck Dear Readers, Sometimes, while in the research phase of this missive, we…

“As technology accumulates and people in more parts of the planet become interdependent, the hatred between them tends to decrease, for the simple reason that you can’t kill someone and trade with him too.” — Steven A. Pinker Dear Readers, Is the world flat yet? In 2005, to much acclaim…

“Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’ I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counterclockwise.” — Grace Hopper Dear Readers, Preparing this missive every week is a humbling act, as the process involves…

“The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.” — Tim Berners-Lee Dear Readers, While we are going about our day-to-day routines, lurking in the background is a debate whose winner in the coming months, or perhaps…

“This century is the equal in scientific progress of all the centuries that went before it, and I don’t see any slowing down.” — Claude E. Shannon Dear Readers, There’s a great story about Claude E. Shannon, the eminent mathematician regarded as the father of information technology, that was recently…

“The world would be a better place if more engineers, like me, hated technology. The stuff I design, if I’m successful, nobody will ever notice.” — Radia J. Perlman Dear Readers, We received warm feedback regarding our introduction last week which featured the Simulation Hypothesis, first posited by Nick Bostrom…