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There is a question that cuts to the heart of how computers actually work, and it almost never gets asked: what did we give up when we chose digital over analog? Analog computers — the kind that were serious engineering tools through the 1960s — do not calculate. They are the calculation. You wire up a circuit whose electrical behavior mirrors the physics of the problem you want to solve. A capacitor naturally integrates. A resistor-inductor pair naturally models a damped oscillator. Want to know the trajectory of an artillery shell? Build a circuit whose voltage behaves like the shell. Read the answer off a meter. The computation happens at the speed of electricity, continuously, the way nature computes things — because you are, in a real sense, running nature. …

The last pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude are among the strangest in modern literature. Melquíades—the ancient gypsy who has haunted the Buendía household for a century—turns out to have written the entire family history before it happened. Every birth, every obsession, every death, encoded in Sanskrit parchments locked in a room while the family lived out the story they did not know was already written. Aureliano Babilonia deciphers the manuscript in the novel’s final moments and reads the history of his own life as it is ending. The text and the event are simultaneous. …

A human brain holds, on average, one lifetime of knowledge, and then it dies. Every technique, every story, every map of the territory accumulated inside it — the name of the plant that heals, the angle of the spear throw, the face of the ancestor — goes with it. Evolution gave us language as a partial fix: knowledge that can be spoken can outlast the speaker, if someone else hears it and repeats it. Oral tradition is the first external memory system. It is also the most fragile: dependent on faithful transmission, distorted by each relay, bounded by the range of a voice and the attention of a listener. …

I. The parable In 1946, Jorge Luis Borges published a six-sentence parable. He attributed it to a fictional traveler — Suárez Miranda — and buried it in El Hacedor, a collection his admirers would later call Dreamtigers. The parable describes an empire whose cartographers, unsatisfied with every previous map, built one at the only scale that could not lie: one province to one province, point for point. The map was complete. It was also useless. Subsequent generations, with more practical priorities, let it decay in the western deserts. …

Let me tell you how this works. I have a thought — usually dense, usually half-formed, sometimes barely grammatical. I write it down in what I call a seed: a compressed file of references, connections, structural intuitions, and emotional register. It is often messy. It is always specific. I know what I want to say; I do not always know how to say it in a way that a reader will want to receive. …

Communication is often seen as a straightforward exchange between an emitter and a receptor—a sender and a receiver. But what if the real issue lies not with the participants but within the system of beliefs that frames the entire exchange? The Power of Belief Over Message At its core, communication depends on a shared understanding of words, concepts, and intentions. However, what often determines the success or failure of a message isn’t its clarity or truth, but the beliefs of the audience. People tend to interpret information in ways that align with their preexisting worldview, often disregarding contradictory evidence. This cognitive bias ensures that even the most carefully crafted messages can be ignored, misinterpreted, or rejected outright. …

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, the ability for systems to communicate efficiently and process massive volumes of data has become paramount. Much like language allowed early humans to build complex societies and advance technology, certain architectures in machine learning are now serving as foundational tools to drive AI progress. One such architecture is the transformer. For approximately 70,000 years, human evolution has been closely tied to advancements in language and cooperation. These abilities allowed us to share knowledge, organize, and innovate, enabling the development of civilizations and technological milestones. Similarly, modern AI systems rely on mechanisms for processing and sharing data. Unlike humans who communicate through spoken and written language, AI systems communicate through algorithms and encoded data. …

Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude offers a vivid moment when José Arcadio Buendía dismisses a fantastical flying carpet, claiming he could achieve superior results with science: “Una tarde se entusiasmaron los muchachos con la estera voladora que pasó veloz al nivel de la ventana del laboratorio llevando al gitano conductor y a varios niños de la aldea que hacían alegres saludos con la mano, y José Arcadio Buendía ni siquiera la miró. «Déjenlos que sueñen», dijo. «Nosotros volaremos mejor que ellos con recursos más científicos que ese miserable sobrecamas.»” …

Henry Kissinger’s name is synonymous with global diplomacy. His legacy spans decades, marked by his role as a strategist, statesman, and, later in life, a thought leader on the challenges shaping humanity’s future. Comparing the brash, image-conscious figure interviewed by Oriana Fallaci in the 1970s to the reflective author of The Age of AI: And Our Human Future reveals a fascinating evolution of thought—one that underscores why Kissinger’s insights remain vital. …

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into every aspect of our lives, a new kind of digital exclusion is emerging—one that goes beyond the traditional concepts of alphabetism and lack of internet access. This exclusion stems from a lack of understanding and ability to interact with AI technologies, creating a modern form of illiteracy: AI illiteracy. In the same way that traditional illiteracy prevents individuals from accessing education, employment, and opportunities, AI illiteracy threatens to leave many people behind in a rapidly evolving world. The widespread adoption of AI tools—from automated customer service bots and predictive algorithms to advanced machine learning models—requires a baseline level of knowledge to utilize effectively and responsibly. Without this understanding, individuals may find themselves excluded not just from using these tools, but from making informed decisions in a society increasingly shaped by AI. …