As we go through our lives -- driving cars, exploring the Internet, studying the world around us -- it is hard to imagine that we're related to Earth's other animals. It's even a stretch to see what connects us with the rest of the chordates, a group of about 50,000 species including the vertebrates like fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds, ...

PBS Nova, Evolution pt6: The Mind's Big Bang documentary.

While our closest animal relatives have been swinging from the trees, humans have built a world that is vastly more complex. What are the defining features that have allowed us to do this? Are we special, and separate from all other animals, or are we just an especially successful mammal?

While our closest animal relatives have been swinging from the trees, humans have built a world that is vastly more complex. What are the defining features that have allowed us to do this? Are we special, and separate from all other animals, or are we just an especially successful mammal?

Where does technology end and our idea of God begin? Human beings evolved to perceive a distinction between 'ourselves' and our 'technology'. Increasingly though, our technological achievements are becoming extensions of our bodies, our identities and our minds, forcing the realm of the human out and into the world of synthetic form. The less ...

Yuletide, Christmas, Hanukkah, Oshogatsu - a world of names for a time of year about something. A time to reflect on our heritage, our faith, our future and our very existence. A time to recognise our roots. With this in mind I have collected together a series of tools for those of us inclined to non-theistic beliefs. Perhaps in reflecting on ...

Far from being extracts from the extreme end of science fiction, the idea that we may one day give sentient machines the kind of rights traditionally reserved for humans is raised in a British government-commissioned report which claims to be an extensive look into the future. Visions of the status of robots around 2056 have emerged from one of ...