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Nicholas Agar

Nicholas Agar

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Nicholas Agar is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and the author of How to Be Human in the Digital Economy (MIT Press, 2019). 

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  1. Should Humanities Professors Be Automated?
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    Should Humanities Professors Be Automated?

    Sep 22, 2022 Nicholas Agar considers the implications of recent successes with AI-generated academic research and writing.

  2. Finding Purpose in the Humanities
    agar6_Bernd Weißbrodpicture alliance via Getty Images_university Bernd Weißbrodpicture alliance via Getty Images

    Finding Purpose in the Humanities

    Dec 9, 2021 Nicholas Agar calls for educators to adapt to post-millennial reality by abolishing the traditional term paper.

  3. An Interview with Nicholas Agar
    A man looks at a smartphone Thanasak Wanichpan/Getty Images

    An Interview with Nicholas Agar

    May 26, 2020 Nicholas Agar emphasizes the importance of unchosen social interactions, warns that technology cannot replace them, and wonders whether COVID-19 is enough of a shock to improve the lives of poor people in the long term.

  4. The Horizon Bias in Human Innovation
    agar4_MARK RALSTONAFP via Getty Images_jeffbezosspace Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

    The Horizon Bias in Human Innovation

    May 1, 2020 Nicholas Agar warns against allowing technological advances to inflate our expectations of forthcoming breakthroughs.

  5. Automating Segregation
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    Automating Segregation

    Oct 28, 2019 Nicholas Agar worries that involuntary social interactions will be one of the casualties of the digital economy.

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    Accounting for Casino Capitalism

    Hans-Werner Sinn draws parallels between recent bank collapses and the late-nineteenth-century “founders’ crash.”
  2. zadek25_ FABRICE COFFRINIAFP via Getty Images_creditsuisseUBS Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
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    Who Should Be Bailed Out Next?

    Simon Zadek urges rich-country governments to aid debt-distressed poor countries as urgently as they have their failing banks.
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    The Population Boon

    Beniamino Callegari & Per Espen Stoknes correct popular myths about the threat of demographic growth to sustainable development.
  4. songwe8_NIPAH DENNISAFP via Getty Images_ghana NIPAH DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
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    Where Is the Global South’s Rescue Brigade?

    Vera Songwe decries the unequal responses to liquidity crises in Silicon Valley compared to the developing world.
  5. slaughter96_melitasGetty Images_cooperative melitas/Getty Images
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    Beyond Industrial Policy

    Anne-Marie Slaughter & Elizabeth Garlow

    The emerging breed of industrial policies, which emphasize production, fair wages, and localism, could serve as the basis for post-neoliberal economies. But to tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century and ensure a sustainable future, we need a policy framework that recognizes the value of human connection.

     make the case for an economic strategy that prioritizes shared prosperity over competition.
  6. afrasmussen17_TOFIK BABAYEVAFP via Getty Images_armeniaazerbaijanconflict Tofik Babayev/AFP via Getty Images
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    The Other Conflict on Europe’s Doorstep

    Anders Fogh Rasmussen warns that Azerbaijan may be preparing to renew its military aggression against neighboring Armenia.
  7. varoufakis101_Justin SullivanGetty Images_svb Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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    Let the Banks Burn

    Yanis Varoufakis

    The banking system we take for granted is unfixable. The good news is that we no longer need to rely on any private, rent-seeking, socially destabilizing network of banks, at least not the way we have so far.

     shows why the current private system is unfixable – and why we don’t need to tolerate it anymore.
  8. roach151_ TIMOTHY A. CLARYAFP via Getty Images)_svb collapse TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
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    How China Benefits from Another US Banking Crisis

    Stephen S. Roach thinks America’s latest financial trouble will reinforce a narrative of terminal national decline.
  9. op_schell1_Andrea VerdelliGetty Images_xijinping Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images
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    Xi Jinping’s Chinese Tragedy

    Orville Schell interviewed by Irena Grudzińska Gross about the country's increasingly worrisome trajectory, both at home and abroad.

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