Eve Bowen

In our October 17 issue, Verlyn Klinkenborg writes about the ocean: “a complex overlapping and interweaving of structures, systems, forces, internal waves, and feedback loops, many of them defined by tiny variations in the salinity, temperature, or density of seawater”; the largest part of the Earth’s surface area; a metaphor for depth, mystery, and the infinite; and the origin of all life.

“It is well established that digital privacy exists only at the discretion of the companies that mediate our online engagement,” writes Sue Halpern in our 60th Anniversary Issue. “But what happens when those companies, an employer, school administrators, or the government has access to our thoughts—or what they interpret to be our thoughts—before they are articulated or shared? What if they can ‘see’ into our brains?” The question, as Halpern demonstrates, isn’t far-fetched.