Isaac Asimov

Frank McNally on Jonathan Swift, Japanese Christians, and the bombing of Nagasaki

Net Results: Sci-fi, spandex and the wonders of WorldCon

Science fiction convention in Dublin zapped visitors with lively and intense intelligence

It is rare to hear anybody arguing for the inherent inferiority of popular fiction

Tóibín’s error when discussing the prose in genre fiction was to move from ‘I just get bored’ to ‘it’s blank, it’s nothing’

‘It’s showtime’ for Apple, but what does that mean for consumers?

The iPhone maker has grown more attached to practices that some argue are unfair

Apple ready to unveil big bet on television

The question is whether media companies will sign up to its TV platform

‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’: 40 years on

Douglas Adams’s novel is still a hilarious map to life’s terrain

Ethical as well as technological challenges to robotics and AI

What ‘rights’ have artificial intelligence objects, and can you embed a conscience?

We can’t terminate killer robots – it’s already too late

Telling international arms traders they can’t make killer robots is like telling soft-drinks makers that they can’t make orangeade

Is the importance of female role models in science overstated?

Study concluded that the concept of role models in the sciences is far more complex than we might think

Could robots go beyond taking our jobs to running our world?

Fear of superintelligent AI has prompted new guidelines that propose close regulation

Can a robot sin?

Artificial intelligence raises very big ethical questions

The Geopolitics of Deep Oceans review: fathoming the new frontier

John Hannigan’s highly readable survey of mankind and the oceans tackles deep-sea mining, superpower rivalries, global warming and popular culture

Watch this space: Four Co Clare students win Nasa prize

St Flannan’s pupils beat more than 4,000 others in space settlement design contest

Sex robots should be banned, expert tells Web Summit

We’re losing our sense of humanity, warns robotics expert

It’s Back to the Future day: time for a reality check?

From fingerprint technology to flying cars, just how accurate were the trilogy of films' predictions?

Innovation Talk: ‘Killer robot’ headlines mask workers’ anxiety about jobs

Perhaps more than any other technology, robotisation and automation threaten to reshape society, and we better have some ideas as to how we will adapt to that changed landscape