Entertainment has always been instrumental to innovation in computing. Gamers are hungry for newer and faster graphics, sounds and interfaces—and, while the adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it"...

Despite high-profile success stories like Deep Blue's chess victory over Garry Kasparov in 1997, the artificial intelligence project has been a tale of failure ever since its inception in the 1950s,...

This morning, in a radical experiment that's set to make my life both better and more expensive, I took a different route to work. I live in Brighton (where my wife works) and work in leafy...

Internet statistics offer a beguiling mixture of detail and imprecision. Endless data about individual web users' habits lies at our fingertips, yet considerable confusion awaits anyone who wants to...

You might have thought that the editor of a magazine called the Idler would find the social networking website Facebook a wonderful addition to his time-sink toolbox. Yet writing in the Guardian the...

Our big think-piece for Christmas is a portrait of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, by the doctor, writer and general polymath Raymond Tallis. Tallis believes that Parmenides's model of a...

Some of the most memorable, appalling statistics in history are those of the accidental genocides wrought by human exploration. After its introduction to Central America by the conquistadors in 1520,...

England have lost on penalties at five of the nine last major international football championships. So here's some interesting news for whoever picks up the poisoned chalice from Steve...

Like many web users, I'm a frequent user of the variously reliable wonders of wikipedia (not least as a topic for blog posts). Or rather, I'm a frequent user of the English version. For there are a...