It’s difficult to talk about the future. So many of the technologies and scientific breakthroughs that appear to be on the horizon may never come to fruition or will be markedly different than we imagined them. (Hoverboards, anyone?) And the conversations about any development with a science-fiction flavor tend to be polarized: A new technology will save the planet and make us all rich! No, it will doom the environment and dislodge women’s uteruses! That’s why Future Tense has created Futurography. Future Tense is conceived as the citizen’s guide to the future, a place to explore emerging technologies and their implications for policy and society. But we decided it was time to get a little more fundamental. Futurography combines the storytelling techniques of journalism and the instructive capacity of a massive open online course, or MOOC, in an effort to educate readers about the technologies that will define tomorrow.

June 2016: Self-Driving Cars

• Your Self-Driving Car Cheat Sheet
• Should Humans Turn In Their Driver’s Licenses?
• The Ethical Quandary of Self-Driving Cars
• When the Trial Lawyers Come for the Robot Cars
• Get Ready for the World of Driverless, Electric, Shared Cars
• Why Do We Blame Humans When Automation Fails?
• Can Self-Driving Cars Share the Road With Old-School Vehicles?
• The Self-Driving Car Generation Gap
• What Would Self-Driving Cars Mean for Women in Saudi Arabia?
• Why Are People So Bad at Assessing the Risks of Self-Driving Cars?
• Hostile Takeovers
• Why Police Might Pull Over Self-Driving Cars
• The Autonomous Vehicle Revolution Will Be Underwhelming
• Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Self-Driving Cars?
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Self-Driving Cars
• More coming soon!

May 2016: Drones

• Your Drone Cheat Sheet
• Do Drones Have to Be Creepy?
• The Rise of Nonviolent Drones
• The Six Biggest Misconceptions About Drones
• What Can Consumer Drones Actually See?
• Enough With the “Sunbathing Teenager” Gambit
• Drones Aren’t Planes
• How to Fly a Drone Without Being a Jerk
• If You Fly a Drone, So Can Police
• What Adult Swim’s “Fartcopter” Tells Us About Drones
• Quiz: How Much Do You Really Know About Drones?
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Drones
• What Slate Readers Think About Drones

April 2016: Artificial Intelligence

• Your Artificial Intelligence Cheat Sheet
• What’s the Deal With Artificial Intelligence Killing Humans?
• Killer Robots on the Battlefield
• Why It’s a Mistake To Compare A.I. with Human Intelligence
• The Challenge of Determining Whether an A.I. Is Sentient
• Event:  The Terminator and Artificial Intelligence
• Let Artificial Intelligence Evolve
• Why You Can’t Teach Human Values To Artificial Intelligence
• Stuart Russell Interviewed on A.I. and Human Values
• Short Story: “Mika Model” by Paolo Bacigalupi
• When a Robot Kills, Is It Murder or Product Liability?
• The Threats That Artificial Intelligence Researchers Actually Worry About
• Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Killer A.I.?
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Artificial Intelligence
• What Slate Readers Think About Artificial Intelligence

March 2016: Cyberwar

• What’s the Deal With Cyberwar?
• Your Cyberwar Cheat Sheet
• Cyberwar Is Just as Complex as Conventional Warfare
• Inside the NSA’s Shockingly Successful Simulated Hack of the U.S. Military
• A Brief Guide to the Weapons of Cyberconflict
• The Fuzzy International Rules for War in Cyberspace
• Cyberweapons Aren’t Like Nuclear Weapons
• Will We Ever Solve Cybersecurity’s “Attribution Problem?”
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Cyberwar
• Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Cyberwar?
• What Slate Readers Think About the State of Cyberwar

February 2016: Algorithms

• What’s the Deal With Algorithms?
• Your Algorithms Cheat Sheet
• How to Bring Better Ethics to Data Science
• How to Teach Yourself about Algorithms
• How to Hold Governments Accountable for the Algorithms They Use
• How Algorithms Are Changing the Ways We Argue
• A Close Look at Four Government Algorithms Designed to Stop Waste and Fraud
• Algorithms Can Make Good Co-Workers
• Algorithms Are Like Kirk, Not Spock
• What Do We Not Want Algorithms to Do for Us?
• Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Algorithms?
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Algorithms
• What Slate Readers Think About the Power of Algorithms

January 2016: Geoengineering

• What’s the Deal with Geoengineering?
• Your Geoengineering Cheat Sheet
• The Two Questions You Should Ask Yourself About Climate Change
• What Experiments to Block Out the Sun Can’t Tell Us
• Geoengineering’s Moral Hazard Problem
• Why We Should Research Solar Geoengineering Now
• Interactive: How Geoengineering Could Affect the Global Climate
• One Way Geoengineering Might Get Started
• These Two Experts Answered Your Burning Geoengineering Questions
• Why Sci-Fi Writers Stay Away From Geoengineering
• The Good, Bad, and Ugly Approaches to Geoengineering
• Video: Three Slightly Crazy Plans Geoengineers Have to Save the World From Global Warming
• Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Geoengineering?
• Survey: Tell Us What You Think About Geoengineering
• What Slate Readers Think About Geoengineering
• Event: The Planet Remade, with Oliver Morton