Tech

Is chip manufacturing sustainable? Not yet, but…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images ) Earth Day was April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost […]

Tech

Exploring mind-bending questions about reality and virtual worlds via The Matrix

Enlarge / Virtual worlds might be digital, but they can be as real and meaningful as our physical world, philosopher David Chalmers argues in his new book, Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | David Chalmers) There’s a famous scene in The Matrix where Neo goes to see The […]

Tech

Harken back to the late 1990s with this re-creation of the dialup Internet experience

A demonstration of the late 1990s dialup experience using nearly period-accurate hardware, connecting to modern websites using outdated browsers over a 31.2kbit/s dialup connection. Be forewarned: page loads are in real time. We all found our coping strategies for riding out the pandemic in 2020. Biomedical engineer Gough Liu likes to tinker with tech—particularly vintage tech—and […]

Sport

The NFL’s latest naked cash grab: Selling playoff ticket NFTs

NFTs are the latest craze in the world of crypto. These digital pieces of artwork use blockchain technology to help everyday people like you and I invest in an online setting. Ever since NFTs became a big thing, several athletes, like Tom Brady , Patrick Mahomes and Rob Gronkowski , and a host of others […]