Ari N. Schulman

Austin

Editor at The New Atlantis

Editor @tnajournal ~ The mundane, observed, became the romantic ~ The trouble with science: https://t.co/wtvcg6JH8Y

Articles

We Must Steward, Not Subjugate Nor Worship AI

Mar 14, 2025 | thenewatlantis.com | Ari N. Schulman |M. Anthony Mills

Sign in or Subscribe Now for audio version Part 3 of “Will AI Be Alive?”For now and for the near future, there is and will be no moral difference between deleting the code for an AI and deleting some old videos to free up hard drive space. But if we march through the orders of magnitude and go on to create artificial life, or even a compelling imitation thereof, then our attitudes both will and ought to shift.
If the Reagan Airport crash was “waiting to happen,” why didn’t anyone stop it?

Feb 11, 2025 | thenewatlantis.com | Ari N. Schulman

Sign in or Subscribe Now for audio version If you study air and space disasters, you will notice a recurring pattern: there are often well-placed observers who know almost immediately what went wrong. Sometimes those observers had even been warning that a disaster exactly like that was coming — that it was just a matter of time.
What Comes Next in the Information Wars?

Nov 22, 2024 | aei.org | Eli Lake |Ari N. Schulman |Christine Rosen |M. Anthony Mills

The 2024 election revealed significant shifts in how Americans seek information, whom they trust, and how they determine the truthfulness and integrity of the information they consume. What does this mean for our political culture and social cohesion in the years to come? Do we need to move beyond discussing “misinformation” and “disinformation” and devise new frameworks for understanding how social media platforms and other emerging technologies influence the information environment?
‘Men could become genetic mothers, women could be fathers’: The next technology after IVF could change the way we view parenthood gender

Sep 18, 2024 | geneticliteracyproject.org | Ari N. Schulman

Ari Schulman | New York Times | September 18, 2024 Credit:: purposedrivenlawyers.com Consider in vitro gametogenesis, or I.V.G., a technology under development that would allow the creation of eggs or sperm from ordinary body tissue, like skin cells. Men could become genetic mothers, women could be fathers, and people could be the offspring of one, three, four or any number of parents. Credit: leaps.org The first baby born via I.V.G. is most likely still a ways off — one researcher predicts...
The world isn’t ready for what comes after IVF

Sep 9, 2024 | startribune.com | Ari N. Schulman

But once a technology like IVG enters the public view, will the sentiment about reproductive technologies stay settled? After all, Americans sometimes make surprising turns against technologies they once embraced, and we are in the mood for backlash today. Disenchanted with smartphones for kids, social media, nuclear power and processed food, Americans’ former faith in technology to solve the oldest human frustrations has recently frayed.
The World Isn't Ready for What Comes After I.V.F.

Sep 9, 2024 | nytimes.com | Ari N. Schulman

There was immediate backlash when Alabama's Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos created through in vitro fertilization qualified as children under the state's wrongful death law. But it was a backlash as much from the right as from the left: The state's overwhelmingly Republican government took just weeks to pass a law to shield fertility clinics from liability when embryos are damaged or destroyed. As a cultural question, it seemed the fight over I.V.F. was over before it began.
Tech ethics needs a breakthrough. The Amish have it.

Aug 14, 2024 | thenewatlantis.com | Louise Liebeskind |Ari N. Schulman |M. Anthony Mills

Sign in or Subscribe Now for audio version “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” We were doomed. All we could do was crash resources into space programs and get a few thousand of our best and brightest into orbit before a hard rain of meteors destroyed all life on the surface of the Earth.
The selfishness of effective altruism

Jul 2, 2024 | thenewatlantis.com | Ari N. Schulman

Effective altruism asked us to do more good by becoming less human. Sign in or Subscribe Now for audio version Shouldn’t charity serve the needs of recipients, not givers? Isn’t it better to do more good than less? Shouldn’t there be some way to measure that? Effective altruism is the philosophy that answers “yes” to all these questions. Put this way, it sounds entirely innocuous.
If You Build It, Will They Come?

Apr 12, 2024 | thenewatlantis.com | Joseph Lawler |Ari N. Schulman |Adam White |Christine Rosen

Sign in or Subscribe Now for audio version Interstate 35 through Austin, Texas, is the most congested stretch of road in the fastest-growing city in one of the sprawliest states in the country. Yet the Texas Department of Transportation’s plan to expand the highway starting this year faces opposition from a well-organized contingent of local activists.
Is Climate Change to Blame for Natural Disasters? The Science and Politics of Extreme Weather

Apr 4, 2024 | aei.org | Shuting Pomerleau |Ari N. Schulman |M. Anthony Mills |Roger Pielke Jr

When natural disasters happen, climate change is often blamed as a culprit. But attribution research actually shows that infrastructure, institutions, and technology are more important factors in how costly weather is to human communities. This panel will examine the tension between the rhetoric and reality of extreme-weather attribution and what this means for policymaking and the future of regions most vulnerable to climate extremes. Submit questions to or on Twitter with #AskAEIClimate.