Asked 10 random questions, the philosopher and author shares the strangest thing he’s done for love, his famous hair and his fears for the future of the moon Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Your latest book is called Who Owns the Moon. Who owns the moon? Well, nobody does and that’s part of the problem. Billions are being invested in exploiting the moon, because there are some very valuable resources there that are in short supply back on this planet. There will be great technological spin offs when there’s settlement on the moon. But I wrote the book because I feel that the regu ..read more

Founded in 2005 and lauded by Silicon Valley, the Nick Bostrom’s centre for studying existential risk warned about AI but also gave rise to cultish ideas such as effective altruism Two weeks ago it was quietly announced that the Future of Humanity Institute, the renowned multidisciplinary research centre in Oxford, no longer had a future. It shut down without warning on 16 April. Initially there was just a brief statement on its website stating it had closed and that its research may continue elsewhere within and outside the university. The institute, which was dedicated to studying existentia ..read more

In the past 10 years the idea that trees communicate with and look after each other has gained widespread currency. But have these claims outstripped the evidence? There are a lot of humans. Teeming is perhaps an unkind word, but when 8 billion people cram themselves on to a planet that, three centuries before, held less than a tenth of that number, it seems apt. Eight billion hot-breathed individuals, downloading apps and piling into buses and shoving their plasticky waste into bins – it is a stupefying and occasionally sickening thought. And yet, humans are not Earth’s chief occupants. Trees ..read more

Controversial US philosopher who sought to understand and explain the science of the mind Daniel Dennett, who has died aged 82, was a controversial philosopher whose writing on consciousness, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and evolutionary psychology helped shift Anglo-American philosophy from its focus on language and concepts towards a coalition with science. His naturalistic account of consciousness, purged as far as possible of first-person agency and qualitative experience, has been popular outside academia and hotly opposed by many within it ..read more

Nick Bostrom’s Future of Humanity Institute closed this week in what Swedish-born philosopher says was ‘death by bureaucracy’ Oxford University this week shut down an academic institute run by one of Elon Musk’s favorite philosophers. The Future of Humanity Institute, dedicated to the long-termism movement and other Silicon Valley-endorsed ideas such as effective altruism, closed this week after 19 years of operation. Musk had donated £1m to the FIH in 2015 through a sister organization to research the threat of artificial intelligence. He had also boosted the ideas of its leader for nearly a ..read more

Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy at the New School, condemned killings in Gaza carried out by the Israeli military A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces. Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research in New York, said she had been cancelled by the university, which has withdrawn its invitation to the Albertus Magnus Professorship ..read more

Readers respond to Alex Blasdel’s long read on the studies of brain activity immediately after death Alex Blasdel’s long read contains some fascinating facts and speculations (The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense, 2 April). However, it is odd to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences – physicalist, parapsychological and spiritualist. While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of “kooks and grifters”, many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are ..read more

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Is it possible to think about nothing? Surely our consciousness is always whirring away. Paul Lambert, Southampton Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com ..read more

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Is it possible to think about nothing? Surely our consciousness is always whirring away. Paul Lambert, Southampton Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday ..read more

Early risers know only too well the smug satisfaction of getting up and getting going. But what if you’re more of an owl than a lark? Here’s how to change your body clock and seize the day I can’t actually remember when I first started thinking of myself as a “morning person”. When I was in my 20s, the only time I saw a sunrise was if I stayed up all night – I had a series of jobs that let me stroll from bed to work in about 15 minutes. If I ever did overtime it was until one or two in the morning, trying to string together words on a combination of tea, beer and deadline adrenaline. Fast forw ..read more