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COSM

Discovery Institute

July 11, 2019

Artificial Intelligence, Discovery Institute, Economics, Technology

The COSM Conference is a premier national summit on the converging future of technology. Held in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, COSM highlights the interplay between global innovations and the pullulating Seattle scene of some of the world’s leading tech companies confronting the fastest moving opportunities. Focusing on the “systems of the world” competing to shape our economy and society, the mission of the conference …

We Need to Bring Back Real Debates in America

Bruce Chapman

June 26, 2019

Citizen Leadership

The televised Democratic presidential sound byte pageants will not be true debates by any realistic standard. They are reminiscent of the 2016 Republican primaries that started with 16 candidates preening on a platform and enduring “gotcha” questions by reporters/moderators trying to get themselves into the news story. Until the nominee field narrows, these shows are almost a parody of real debates in the Lincoln-Douglas or Oxford Union manner. That’s too bad. We need to bring back real debates in America, and not just among candidates. Name the issue (climate change, foreign interference in our elections, abortion, immigration, tariffs, privacy online, the future of artificial intelligence, the meaning of “free speech,” whatever): Americans are badly divided. Since media and politicians often operate in inward-looking communities, they tend to ignore or distort views that differ from their own. In this environment, mere calls for greater civility don’t work. What can work is facing issues straight on and together. Read More ›

Black Graduation Hats placed on open books

Education System Not Getting Better, Only More Expensive

Donald Nielsen

June 17, 2019

Education

As Ben Franklin was leaving Independence Hall after the adoption of our Constitution, a lady asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?” He replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Read More ›

An Addiction Crisis Disguised as a Housing Crisis

Christopher Rufo

June 13, 2019

Economics

By latest count, some 109,089 men and women are sleeping on the streets of major cities in California, Oregon, and Washington. The homelessness crisis in these cities has generated headlines and speculation about “root causes.” Progressive political activists allege that tech companies have inflated housing costs and forced middle-class people onto the streets. Declaring that “no two people living on Skid Row . . . ended up there for the same reasons,” Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, for his part, blames a housing shortage, stagnant wages, cuts to mental health services, domestic and sexual abuse, shortcomings in criminal justice, and a lack of resources for veterans. These factors may all have played a role, but the most pervasive cause of West Coast homelessness is clear: heroin, fentanyl, and synthetic opioids. Read More ›

Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture Launches Provocative New YouTube Series Titled “Science Uprising”

Discovery Institute

June 5, 2019

Intelligent Design

“This is unlike any film project we’ve done before,” said Discovery Institute vice president John. G. West. “Science Uprising directly confronts the false views of science held by the growing number of science popularizers like Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.” The episodes are 6-8 minutes long each and address issues such as the existence of an immaterial mind, the Read More ›

Far More Than a Culture War Rages in America

Scott S. Powell

June 1, 2019

Religion and Civic Life

America’s two greatest presidents, Washington and Lincoln, both believed that the ultimate threat to the United States wouldn’t come from abroad in the form of a foreign enemy but rather from within. In his Farewell Address, Washington warned of the dangers of “party passion,” and the “disposition to retaliate… [giving] ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens… facility to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country…sometimes even with popularity…” Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” On another occasion he said, “…if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” Read More ›

Darwin Devolves Book Party

Michael J. Behe

May 27, 2019

Discovery Institute, Intelligent Design

While Stephen Colbert has called Michael J. Behe the “Father of Intelligent Design,” Behe’s arguments have been called “close to heretical” by the New York Times Book Review, and Richard Dawkins has publicly taken him to task for his “maverick” views. Wherever he goes, Behe makes waves, but has remained singularly focused on doing rigorous scientific analysis that points to controversial but incredible results that other scientists won’t touch. Read More ›

Christopher Rufo on Fox News

Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Economics

Chris Rufo was featured in a Fox News piece this week on Seattle’s Homeless Crisis and why locals seem to be reaching a breaking point with the city’s lax or non-existent enforcement policies.

Smith a Hit in Poland

Discovery Institute

May 24, 2019

Human Exceptionalism

Discovery Senior Fellow Wesley Smith’s book, The Culture of Death, has now been translated into Polish and was the center of attention at his addresses this week to a conference on bioethics and to another gathering of 1000 doctors in Krakow. Wesley was interviewed by at least three print media, featured in a book review and hosted on TV and Read More ›

Huawei Is an Asset, Not a Threat

George Gilder

May 20, 2019

Economics, Technology

Among the world’s most inspiring business voices is Ren Zhengfei, founder-philosopher of Huawei, the disruptive and now condemned Chinese telecom-equipment company. Vilified as a cat’s-paw of the Chinese government, Mr. Ren has decided to place his trust in America’s legal system and launch a court challenge to the U.S. government’s campaign against his company—and family. His daughter, Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, is fighting extradition to the U.S. from Canada on murky charges that she helped financial institutions violate American sanctions on Iran. She has been under house arrest in Vancouver, British Columbia, since December. Read More ›