by Hélène Blanc

for “Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)”

by Shalinder Matharu

for “How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree”

by Nicolás Ortega

for “Humanity’s Endgame”

by Seba Cestaro

for “How We Became Captives Of Social Media”

by Beatrice Caciotti

for “A Third Path For AI Beyond The US-China Binary”

by Dadu Shin

for “The Languages Lost To Climate Change” in Noema Magazine Issue VI, Fall 2025

by LIMN

for “Why AI Is A Philosophical Rupture”

by Kate Banazi

for “AI Is Evolving — And Changing Our Understanding Of Intelligence” in Noema Magazine Issue VI, Fall 2025

by Jonathan Zawada

for “The New Planetary Nationalism” in Noema Magazine Issue VI, Fall 2025

by Satwika Kresna

for “The Future Of Space Is More Than Human”

Other Top Picks By Noema’s Editors

The post Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2025 appeared first on NOEMA.

The Last Days Of Social Media

Social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.

by James O’Sullivan

A Third Path For AI Beyond The US-China Binary

What if the future of AI isn’t defined by Washington or Beijing, but by improvisation elsewhere?

by Dang Nguyen

Why Science Hasn’t Solved Consciousness (Yet)

To understand life, we must stop treating organisms like machines and minds like code.

by Adam Frank

The Unseen Fury Of Solar Storms

Lurking in every space weather forecaster’s mind is the hypothetical big one, a solar storm so huge it could bring our networked, planetary civilization to its knees.

by Henry Wismayer

From Statecraft To Soulcraft

How the world’s illiberal powers like Russia, China and increasingly the U.S. rule through their visions of the good life.

by Alexandre Lefebvre

The Languages Lost To Climate Change

Climate catastrophes and biodiversity loss are endangering languages across the globe.

by Julia Webster Ayuso

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology without safeguards can be misused.

by Joe Zadeh

The Moral Authority Of Animals

For millennia before we showed up on the scene, social animals — those living in societies and cooperating for survival — had been creating cultures imbued with ethics.

by Jay Griffiths

Welcome To The New Warring States

Today’s global turbulence has echoes in Chinese history.

by Hui Huang

Signs Of Life In A Desert Of Death

In the dry and fiery deserts of Central Asia, among the mythical sites of both the first human and the end of all days, I found evidence that life restores itself even on the bleakest edge of ecological apocalypse.

by Nick Hunt

Other Top Picks By Noema’s Editors

Feature Philosophy & Culture

Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2025

Noema editors

Feature Technology & the Human

Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2024

Noema editors

Feature Climate Crisis

Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2023

Noema editors

The post Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2025 appeared first on NOEMA.

by Brindha Kumar

for “Living In A Lucid Dream”

by Fenna Schilling

for “The Space Of Possible Minds”

by Luis López (Mallet)

for “A Digital Twin Might Just Save Your Life” in Noema Magazine Issue V, Fall 2024

by Chloe Karayiannis

for “Your AI Breaks It? You Buy It.“

by Alex Valentina

for “The Rise Of The Bee Bandits“

by Finn Berenbroek

for “The Secret, Magical Life Of Lithium”

by Noah Campeau

for “We Need To Rewild The Internet” in Noema Magazine Issue V, Fall 2024

by Setu Choudhary

for “The Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think“

by Jim Linear

for “Making ‘Food Out Of Thin Air’”

by m0 studio

for “Why We Fear Diverse Intelligence Like AI”

Favorites From Previous Years

The post Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2024 appeared first on NOEMA.

We Need To Rewild The Internet

The internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture. But we can revitalize it using lessons learned by ecologists.

by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon

A Single Small Map Is Enough For A Lifetime

What if this bog-standard corner of England is actually full of adventure, nature, wildness, surprises, silence, perspective — if only I bothered to go out and look?

by Alastair Humphreys

AI Could Actually Help Rebuild The Middle Class

AI doesn’t have to be a job destroyer. It offers us the opportunity to extend expertise to a larger set of workers.

by David Autor

The Secret, Magical Life Of Lithium

One of the oldest, scarcest elements in the universe has given us treatments for mental illness, ovenproof casserole dishes and electric cars. But how much do we really know about lithium?

by Jacob Baynham

Living In A Lucid Dream

Recent research on lucid dreams suggests that consciousness exists along a spectrum between sleep and waking, between hallucination and revelation, between dreamworlds and reality.

by Claire L. Evans

The Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think

The rhetoric over “superhuman” AI implicitly erases what’s most important about being human.

by Shannon Vallor

China In 2035

China’s youthful urbanization changed the world. What will happen as the country ages and slows down?

by Jacob Dreyer

A Digital Twin Might Just Save Your Life

Digital twins offer humankind the ability to command virtual replicas of forests, oil fields, cities, supply chains — and even, maybe one day, our very bodies.’

by Joe Zadeh

What Feral Children Can Teach Us About AI

What can we learn about AI from the rare children who grew up untouched by human language or society?

by John Last

The War On Weeds

Pesticides and herbicides made from fossil fuels that are freely available to unwitting consumers poison our land, our bodies and life all around.

by  Laura J. Martin

Favorites From Previous Years

Feature Climate Crisis

Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2023

Noema editors

Feature Philosophy & Culture

Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2023

Noema editors

Feature Philosophy & Culture

Noema’s Top 10 Articles Of 2022

Noema editors

The post Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2024 appeared first on NOEMA.

by yasuo-range

for “The Disappearing Art of Maintenance” in Noema Magazine Issue IV, Fall 2023

by SERIFA

for “The Bold Idea To Move Millions To Climate Havens”

by Rob Juárez

for “There Is No Such Thing As Italian Food” in Noema Magazine Issue IV, Fall 2023

by Petra Cortright

for Noema Magazine cover, Issue IV, Fall 2023

by Jesse Stone

for “Climate Lessons From A Lost Land”

by Facultative Works

for “How Seawater’s Teeming Life May Change Our Own”

by Alex Valentina

for “The Extraordinary Green Promise Of A Tiny Molecule” in Noema Magazine Issue IV, Fall 2023

by Ibrahim Rayintakath

for “The Poetry Of Planetary Identity”

by Kristian Glenn

for “What Is AI Doing To Art?”

by Ibrahim Rayintakath

for “When Victims Become Executioners”

Favorites From Previous Years

The post Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2023 appeared first on NOEMA.

How Modernity Made Us Allergic

Our very old immune systems can’t keep up with modern lifestyles and diets, leading to increases in all sorts of chronic health problems like allergies and obesity.

by Theresa MacPhail

What AI Teaches Us About Good Writing

While AI can speed up the writing process, it doesn’t optimize quality — and it endangers our sense of connection to ourselves and others.

by Laura Hartenberger

Finding Awe Amid Everyday Splendor

A new field of psychology has begun to quantify an age-old intuition: Feeling awe is good for us.

by Henry Wismayer

AI Is Life

Technology is not artificially replacing life — it is life.

by Sara Walker

The World China Is Building

China’s diplomats and tech companies pin their hopes on partnerships in the Global South.

by Jacob Dreyer

The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma

How our culture, politics and technology became infused with a mysterious social phenomenon that everyone can feel but nobody can explain.

by Joe Zadeh

The Seductive Vision Of Green Aviation 

Air travel is profoundly bad for the environment but one of the hardest industries to decarbonize. Can green technologies make a difference before it’s too late?

by Henry Wismayer

The Extraordinary Green Promise Of A Tiny Molecule

Hydrogen produced by renewable energy makes it possible to fully transition to a global green economy. So what’s stopping us from going all in?

by Holly Jean Buck

Degrowth In Japan

Mending the “metabolic rift” of capitalism.

by Nathan Gardels

Artificial General Intelligence Is Already Here

Today’s most advanced AI models have many flaws, but decades from now, they will be recognized as the first true examples of artificial general intelligence.

by Blaise Agüera y Arcas and Peter Norvig

Honorable Mentions

The Sounds Of Invisible Worlds

by Karen Bakker

Like the microscope and the telescope did centuries ago, new technologies to capture and analyze sound are leading to startling discoveries about what the eyes cannot see.

What If Money Expired?

A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?

by Jacob Baynham

Favorites From Previous Years

The post Noema’s Top 10 Reads Of 2023 appeared first on NOEMA.

by Alex William

for “What AI Can Tell Us About Intelligence“

by Luis López (Mallet)

for “Why It’s Time To Uncover The Surprises Hiding In Our DNA“

by Facultative Works

for “How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks Of Birds“

by Noah Campeau

for “What AI Means For Animals” (Issue III: Rupture)

by Sophie Douala

for “All That Is Solid Melts Into Information“

by Stefania Tejada

for “How Black America Fell Out Of Love With Africa“

by Sun Xun

for “China’s Revolution Turns Green“

by Timothée Boubay

for “Keeping Time Into The Great Beyond“

by Uréchi Oguguo

for “How Black America Fell Out Of Love With Africa“

by Vasya Kolotusha

for “How Game Design Principles Can Enhance Democracy“

The post Noema’s Top Artwork Of 2022 appeared first on NOEMA.

Deep Time Sickness

In Mexico, people who are “tocado” — “touched” — reveal that geological traumas, like earthquakes, can destabilize our concepts of health, identity and even time.

by Lachlan Summers

The Surprisingly Sophisticated Mind Of An Insect

Insects appear to be more intelligent and emotionally complex than we give them credit for. Perhaps, new research suggests, they are even conscious.

by Carrie Arnold

All That Is Solid Melts Into Information

The torrent of accelerated time without narrative is disorienting our society and fragmenting community. Art can help put the pieces back together.

a conversation with Byung-Chul Han

The Disappearing Art Of Maintenance

The noble but undervalued craft of maintenance could help preserve modernity’s finest achievements, from public transit systems to power grids, and serve as a useful framework for addressing climate change and other pressing planetary constraints.

by Alex Vuocolo

We Need To Talk About The Carbon Footprints Of The Rich

Dramatically unequal consumption lies at the heart of the climate crisis.

by Genevieve Guenther

The Rise And Fall Of Chimerica

For decades, America gave China a vision of future prosperity. But today, America has mostly ceased to offer a model for China or anywhere else, leaving China’s leaders without a guide as they chart a course into a future filled with potential turmoil.

by Jacob Dreyer

The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence

Supporting transnational worker organizing should be at the center of the fight for “ethical AI.”

by Adrienne Williams, Milagros Miceli and Timnit Gebru

The Clash Of Two Gilded Ages

Despite their great-power rivalry, America and China are more similar than most people think. Both are living through a Gilded Age and struggling to end the excesses of capitalism.

by Yuen Yuen Ang

How Black America Fell Out Of Love With Africa

Contemporary Afro-pessimist intellectuals see no shared identity that can serve as the basis for solidarity between Africans and African Americans.

by Alden Young

Keeping Time Into The Great Beyond

The 10,000-year clock is neither a ‘frightening’ ‘distraction,’ as its critics scorn, nor the ‘admirable objective’ its fans claim. It’s something else — a monument to long-term thinking that can unlock a deeper and more thoughtful spirit of interpretive patience.

by Vincent Ialenti

The post Noema’s Top 10 Articles Of 2022 appeared first on NOEMA.

The Tyranny Of Time

The clock is a useful social tool, but it is also deeply political. It benefits some, marginalizes others and blinds us from a true understanding of our own bodies and the world around us.

by Joe Zadeh

I Would Rather Be Born A Woman In China Than India

The vanity projects and military gadgets that are meant to signal India’s arrival on the global stage are doomed to sputter and die unless the country can improve the abysmal reality of the systematic denial of agency to women.

by Pallavi Aiyar

The Intelligent Forest

Recognizing that forest ecosystems, like societies, have elements of intelligence would help us leave behind the old notion that they are inert and predictable.

by Suzanne Simard

The Thoughts The Civilized Keep

The hype around a new AI language generator reveals the sterility of mainstream thinking on AI today — and indeed on how we think about thinking itself.

by Shannon Vallor

How China Avoided Soviet-Style Collapse

Understanding the shifting balance of social forces, interest groups and political factions is essential to see how China escaped the shock therapy that brought down the Soviet Union.

by Adam Tooze

A Man Of His Time And Ours

Winston Churchill’s views were typical of his place as a member of Britain’s ruling upper class, which, then and now, views dominance as a birthright.

by Priya Satia

A View Of The Future Of Our Data

Welcome to the era of data coalitions.

by Matt Prewitt  

The Last Of The Marsh Arabs

What happens to a community and ecosystem at the nexus of geopolitical tensions and climate change? And can 6,000 years of history save them?

by Leon McCarron, with photography by Emily Garthwaite

The Conscious Universe

The radical idea that everything has elements of consciousness is reemerging and breathing new life into a cold and mechanical cosmos.

by Joe Zadeh

The Long Shadow Of Colonial Science

Museums and gardens must become spaces that help us learn not only about biological life and human history, but also the colonialist and capitalist logic that still governs our everyday lives.

by Sria Chatterjee

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