The Conversation – Canada – Page 72

September 29, 2025

What’s still needed after the Pope’s residential schools apology? Sustained action, humility and heart

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Tiffany Dionne Prete, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, University of Lethbridge

As we observe National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is relevant to remember the late Pope Francis.

As the first Latin American and Jesuit Pope, his leadership was marked by efforts to face difficult issues, including those affecting Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

One of the most significant moments of his papacy for this country was his historic public apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the Indian Residential School system. This apology was long-awaited by Survivors, their families and Indigenous communities across Canada.

As the actions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) demonstrated, and as the Pope and many others noted during his visit and since that time, reconciliation is not a single event. It is a long and difficult process requiring sustained action, humility and heart.

Reclaiming with Elders

I am a member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Treaty 7 territory. My work focuses on reclaiming and reinterpreting the history of the Stolen Children Era alongside Blood Tribe Elders who are residential school Survivors. Through archival research and community partnerships, I examine the colonial policies behind multiple models of schooling imposed on Indigenous children, and how these systems operated.

For more than 150 years, First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their families and placed in institutions aimed at erasing their identities, cultures and languages. These schools inflicted deep emotional, physical, sexual and spiritual harm.

The trauma of these events has created a legacy that reverberates through generations as intergenerational trauma. The first such school, the Mohawk Institute, opened its doors in 1831. The last, the Gordon Residential School, closed in 1996.

Brave testimonies

In the 1980s, Survivors began to come forward in growing numbers to share the horrors they endured. Though many were initially met with disbelief, their collective voices grew stronger.

Brave testimonies by Survivors like Nora Bernard and many others ultimately led to the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action suit in Canadian history.

As the truth emerged, formal apologies began to follow from various denominations: the United Church of Canada in 1986 and again in 1998; the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, 2019 and 2022; and the Presbyterian Church in 1994.

Noticeable absence was papal apology

Catholic religious orders or dioceses offered apologies (for example, the Oblate apology in 1991), but noticeably absent for many years was an apology from the highest leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a federal apology following the settlement agreement in 2007.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released 94 Calls to Action, which were concrete policy recommendations meant to guide Canada toward reconciliation. Call to Action No. 58 specifically called upon the Pope to issue an apology on Canadian soil to survivors, their families and communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the abuses that took place in residential schools.

Clear action plans?

It was not until July 25, 2022, that Pope Francis formally issued the apology, during a historic visit to Maskwacis, Alberta.

Reactions to the apology have been mixed. For some, it marked a long-overdue acknowledgment, becoming a symbolic step toward healing. For others, it fell short.

Critics noted that Pope Francis spoke of the abuses as being carried out by “members of the church” rather than clearly naming the institutional role of the Roman Catholic Church itself. He also failed to explicitly name all forms of abuse, omitting mention of the sexual and spiritual violence that Survivors so courageously brought to light.

Perhaps most importantly, his apology lacked a clear action plan for justice, reparations or long-term reconciliation.

There have been some signs of progress. For example:

The Canadian Catholic Church launched a $30 million Indigenous Reconciliation Fund, a not-for-profit charity with an independent board and members comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, to support initiatives related to: healing and reconciliation for communities and families; culture and language revitalization; education and community building; and dialogues for promoting Indigenous spirituality and culture.
Some funds have supported Indigenous languages and customs in Catholic services or communities; these point to existing or possible emerging practices of churches with Indigenous members that incorporate Indigenous ceremony.
The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in 2023 — an important but symbolic move rejecting the colonial-era justification for land dispossession.

Some Catholics are involved in networks concerned with genuine listening, creating a “culture of encounter” or church governance that is more open, inclusive and accountable.

But many questions remain. For example:

While there has been some progress accessing church records, significant records remain hard to locate. For example, I am still looking for the intake and discharge ledgers for most of the schools that my People attended. In my experience working with different archives across Canada, some archivists are more forthcoming than others about their material and processes — for example, about whether archival finding aids detail restricted material.
The church has yet to return Indigenous artifacts held in the Vatican Museums.
Many Survivors still wait for explicit financial reparations beyond the $30 million fund.

Christine Jamieson, associate professor of theological studies, has noted there is work to be done around addressing ongoing “spiritual violence” against Indigenous traditions by the Catholic Church and other Christian churches. How churches respond to Indigenous knowledge and theories of knowlege has implications for ethical research, education and religious practices. The TRC’s Calls to Action No. 59 and No. 60 are about church parties to the IRS Settlement Agreement developing ongoing education strategies and curriculum.

Sustained action, humility and heart

As Sen. Murray Sinclair once wisely noted: “It took seven generations to create the harm through the residential schools. It will take a few generations to turn it around.”

Pope Francis took a first step. The path ahead continues to call for sustained honesty, accountability and commitment from Catholic leaders in Canada and in Rome.

Let us hope that work continues to not only build upon Pope Francis’s initial steps, but to have the courage to speak the truth plainly, act with integrity and walk alongside Indigenous Peoples in the ongoing work of meaningful, lasting reconciliation.

This is a commitment that must endure for generations. May this moment be the seed from which true and lasting transformation can continue to grow.

Tiffany Dionne Prete does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What’s still needed after the Pope’s residential schools apology? Sustained action, humility and heart – https://theconversation.com/whats-still-needed-after-the-popes-residential-schools-apology-sustained-action-humility-and-heart-255166

September 28, 2025

Generative AI might end up being worthless — and that could be a good thing

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Fenwick McKelvey, Associate Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy, Concordia University

In the rush to cash in on the generative artificial intelligence gold rush, one possible outcome of AI’s future rarely gets discussed: what if the technology never works well enough to replace your co-workers, companies fail to use AI well or most AI startups simply fail?

Current estimates suggest big AI firms face a US$800 billion dollar revenue shortfall.

So far, genAI’s productivity gains are minimal and mostly for programmers and copywriters. GenAI does some neat, helpful things, but it’s not yet the engine of a new economy.

It’s not a bad future, but it’s different from the one currently driving news headlines. And it’s a future that doesn’t fit the narrative AI firms want to tell. Hype fuels new rounds of investment promising massive future profits.

Maybe genAI will turn out to be worthless, and maybe that’s fine.

Indispensable or indefensible?

Free genAI services, and cheap subscription services like ChatGPT and Gemini, cost a lot of money to run. Right now, however, there are growing questions about just how AI firms are going to make any money.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been candid about how much money his firm spends, once quipping that every time ChatGPT says “please” or “thank you,” it costs the firms millions. Exactly how much OpenAI loses per chat is anyone’s guess, but Altman has also said even paid pro accounts lose money because of the high computing costs that come with each query.

Like many startups, genAI firms have followed the classic playbook: burn through money to attract and lock-in users with a killer product they can’t afford to miss out on. But most tech giants have not succeeded by creating high-cost products, but rather by making low-cost products users can’t quit, largely funded by advertising.

When companies try to find new value, the result is what journalist and author Cory Doctorow coined “enshittification,” or the gradual decline of platforms over time. In this case, enshittification means the number of ads increase to make up the loss of offering the free service.

OpenAI is considering bringing ads to ChatGPT, though the company says it is being “very thoughtful and tasteful” about how this is done.

It’s too soon to tell whether this playbook will work for genAI. There is a possibility that advertising might not generate enough revenue to justify the massive spending needed to power it. That is because genAI is becoming something of a liability.

The hidden costs of AI models

Another looming problem for genAI is copyright. Most AI firms are either being sued for using content without permission or entering costly contracts to licences content.

GenAI has “learned” in a lot of dubious ways, including reading copyrighted books and scraping nearly anything said online. One model can recall “from memory” 42 per cent of the first Harry Potter novel.

Firms face a big financial headache of lobbying to exempt themselves from copyright woes and paying off publishers and creators to protect their models, which might end up a liability no matter what.

American AI startup Anthrophic tried to pay authors around US$3,000 dollars per book to train its models, adding up to proposed settlement that added up to US$1.5 billion dollars. But it was quickly thrown out by the courts for being too simple. Anthrophic’s current valuation of US$183 billion might get eaten up pretty quick in lawsuits.

The end result of all this is that AI is just too expensive to be owned, and is becoming something like a toxic asset: something that is useful but not valuable in and of itself.

Cheap or free genAI

Meta, perhaps strategically, has released its genAI model, Llama, as open source. Whether this was meant to upset its competitors or signal a different ethical stance, it means anyone with a decent computer can run their own local version of Llama for free.

Open AI models are another corporate strategy to lock in market share, with curious side effects. They are not as advanced as Gemini or ChatGPT, but they are good enough, and they are free (or at least cheaper than commercial models).

Open models upset the high valuations being placed on AI firms. Chinese firm DeepSeek momentarily tanked AI stocks when it released an open model that performed as well as the commercial models. DeepSeek’s motives are murky, but it’s success contributes to growing doubts about whether genAI is as valuable as assumed.

Open models — these by-products of industrial competition — are ubiquitous and getting easier to access. With enough success, commercial AI firms might be hard pressed to sell their services against free alternatives.

Investors could also become more skeptical of commercial AI, which could potentially dry up the taps of seed money. Even if open access models also end up being sued into oblivion, it will be much harder to remove them from the internet.

Can AI ever be owned?

The idea of genAI being worthless might recognize knowledge is intangibly valuable. The best genAI models are trained off the world’s knowledge — so much information that the true price may be impossible to calculate.

Ironically, these efforts by AI firms to capture and commercialize the world’s knowledge might be the thing damning their products; a resource so valuable a price cannot be attached. These systems may be so indebted to collective intellectual labour such that their outputs cannot truly be owned.

If genAI can’t generate sustainable profits, the consequences will likely be mixed. Creators pursuing deals with AI firms may be out of luck; there will be no big cheques from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google if their models are liabilities.

Progress on genAI could stall, too, leaving consumers with “good enough” tools that are free to use. In that scenario, AI firms may become less important, the technology a little less powerful — and that might be perfectly OK. Users would still benefit from accessible, functional tools while being spared from another round of overhyped pitches doomed to fail.

The threat of AI being worth less than anticipated might be the best defence against the growing power of big tech today. If the business case for generative AI proves unsustainable, what better place for such an empire to crumble than on the balance sheets?

Fenwick McKelvey receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec.

– ref. Generative AI might end up being worthless — and that could be a good thing – https://theconversation.com/generative-ai-might-end-up-being-worthless-and-that-could-be-a-good-thing-266046

September 28, 2025

How alcohol contributes to the epidemic of liver disease

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Timothy Naimi, Director, Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research; Professor, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria

Research has revealed a steep increase in liver disease in recent years. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence of health harms from alcohol, including drinking at levels that were previously considered “moderate.” These developments make a persuasive case for viewing alcohol consumption from a public health perspective.

As an internal medicine physician and alcohol epidemiologist, I’m interested in the overlap between liver disease and alcohol use among patients and in the general population. As it turns out, these topics are closely related, but maybe in surprising ways.

The liver is essential: humans need it to live. The liver contributes to metabolism and food storage, produces proteins that help with blood clotting and plays a vital role in the immune system.

At the cellular level, alcohol is a toxic substance that is metabolized (broken down) primarily in the liver. When the dose of alcohol is too high, liver cells become inflamed and damaged (liver inflammation is called hepatitis).

Over time, inflamed or damaged cells are replaced by fibrosis, which is the replacement of normal liver tissue with scar tissue, resulting in cirrhosis, or severe scarring and liver dysfunction. Cirrhosis can be fatal on its own and can also lead to liver cancer.

How does alcohol contribute to liver disease?

Liver disease caused by alcohol is referred to as alcohol-related liver disease or ALD, previously called alcoholic liver disease. The heaviest drinkers, often those who have alcohol use disorder (AUD), can develop cirrhosis and liver failure.

But alcohol-related liver disease does not only affect people with AUD/heavy drinking. A growing body of evidence suggests chronic alcohol use at lower levels may also impact liver function and lead to disease, particularly among those with other risk factors for liver disease.

Patterns of alcohol consumption are also important, including among those who may not consume high amounts of alcohol on average. For example, binge drinking (defined as men consuming five or more drinks or women consuming four or more drinks per occasion) is a pattern of consumption that is very damaging to the liver because it results in high blood alcohol concentrations.

Binge drinking can be harmful to the liver, even among people who don’t drink very much on average or don’t have an alcohol use disorder.

Why are deaths from liver disease increasing?

Deaths from liver disease have been increasing dramatically in Canada and the United States over the past two decades. A key factor is increased alcohol consumption during the same period, but this has been trending down over the past couple of years. Between 2016 and 2022, Canadian deaths from alcohol-caused liver disease increased by 22 per cent.

But alcohol isn’t the only key contributor to the rise in deaths from liver disease. Another is the rise of a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD.

Despite the complicated name, MASLD is a type of liver disease that is caused by the same metabolic disturbances that have accompanied the rise of overweight and obesity coupled with inadequate physical activity. This is the same set of risk factors that have led to the increase in diabetes. So one can conceive of MASLD as the liver equivalent of diabetes.

Hepatis C, which is a blood-borne viral infection that can be acquired through injection drug use and needle sharing, is another important contributor to liver disease and cirrhosis.

Even though medical terminology has historically differentiated between alcohol and non-alcohol-related liver diseases, alcohol contributes to the progression of supposedly non-alcoholic liver disease, including MASLD and hepatitis C.

My colleagues and I studied patients with MASLD from the U.S.-based Framingham Heart Study. We found that even among non-heavy drinkers, there was a dose-dependent relationship between the amount of alcohol use and the severity of both liver inflammation and fibrosis.

Similarly, even low levels of alcohol use can hasten the development of liver cirrhosis among those with hepatitis C. For example, research has shown that in patients with hepatitis C, there is an 11 per cent increase in risk of cirrhosis with each one-drink increase in average drinks per day.

Preventing and reducing alcohol-caused harms to the liver

Beyond providing medical care for individual patients with known liver disease, steps need to be taken upstream within the health system. These include screening around alcohol use in primary care, counselling interventions for those with risky drinking habits and treatment for those with alcohol use disorders. To do this effectively, there needs to be more resources available for all of these interventions.

However, treating individuals does not address the larger public health issue: measures are needed to lower alcohol consumption at the population level.

This is a cornerstone of preventing and reducing liver disease and its resulting disability, hospitalizations and death. And the most effective way to reduce alcohol consumption is through alcohol control policies that:

Make alcohol more expensive (for example, alcohol taxes and minimum prices);
Less available (such as restrictions on hours of sale, or the number of locations that sell alcohol), or
Less desirable socially (such as limits on advertising and marketing or sports sponsorships).

In previous research, we found that states with 10 per cent stronger or more restrictive alcohol policies had lower ALD mortality rates. Furthermore, states that increased restrictiveness by even five per cent showed subsequent reductions in ALD.

Liver harm caused by alcohol is a public health problem. Collectively, we need to take better care of our livers by taking steps to reduce alcohol consumption in the population.

Timothy Naimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How alcohol contributes to the epidemic of liver disease – https://theconversation.com/how-alcohol-contributes-to-the-epidemic-of-liver-disease-262902

September 28, 2025

Acting with one mind: Gwich’in lessons for truth and reconciliation

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Crystal Gail Fraser, Associate Professor, Dept. of History, Classics, & Religion and the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta

In the early 1920s, on the banks of the Peel River next to the community of Fort McPherson in the Northwest Territories, Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich’in) families gathered in grief. Anglican missionaries were loading children, some as young as two, onto boats bound for the St. Peter’s Indian Residential School in Hay River, close to 2,000 kilometres away by water.

Teetł’it Gwich’in Elder Mary Effie Snowshoe recalled this moment as a “sad story” passed down from her parents. At the centre of it stood Chief Julius Salu. Having lost his daughter to the school earlier that year, Salu declared:

“No more. Nobody is to send their children away again. If anybody is threatened that they are going to go to court over their children, I’m going to be there. If anybody is going to go to jail for this, I’m taking it.”

This was not only an act of defiance but an expression of guut’àii — a Gwich’in principle often translated as “acting with one mind,” or collective strength. Guut’àii reflects the ethic of strength, protection and collective governance that guided our families through the residential school era.

Today, as residential school denialism grows louder in Canada — guut’àii offers lessons for how to resist.

The same strength that sustained our families a century ago can guide us in facing the current assault on truth.

Strength in a northern context

In my book, By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, I argue that strength is an important way to understand northern experiences of residential schooling. Strength was not about individual toughness but about kinship, collective responsibility and ancestral knowledge. But this doesn’t mean the system was not genocidal, or that children didn’t endure violent, prison-like conditions.

The North complicates and sharpens this idea in the following ways:

Distance. Given the far reach of Inuvik’s residential schools — Grollier and Stringer Halls — many children travelled thousands of kilometres. Strength meant writing letters, protecting siblings and holding onto language under isolation.
A multi-nation student body. Dinjii Zhuh, Inuvialuit, Métis, Inuit, Sahtú, Dënesųłįne, and Tłı̨chǫ, Cree, and others lived together. They built solidarity that later fuelled pan-Indigenous political movements in the 1970s. There are a number of Survivor memoirs that outline these stories, including by Stephen Kakfwi, Antoine Mountain and Nick Sibbeston. I also document in By Strength, We Are Still Here how students’ cross-cultural alliances shaped the development of pan-northern activism.
Timing. While southern schools were closing, the North became a testing ground for new institutions into the 1950s and 60s, and until the closure of Grollier Hall in 1996.

Naming genocide

Residential schools were not well-intentioned mistakes. They were designed to destroy Indigenous families, governance structures and societies by targeting children. The United Nations definition of genocide includes “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Canadian Indian residential schools fit this definition.

Survivors’ testimony, collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), is evidence of both harm and strength. As scholar Eve Tuck reminds us, research should not be “damage-centred,” but no damage does not mean no pain. To speak of strength is to hold both truths — genocide and survival — together.

Denialism today

Despite overwhelming historical evidence — the most important being Survivor experiences — as historian Sean Carleton and anthropology graduate student Benjamin Kucher recently wrote, residential schools denialism is increasingly visible in public debate. My contribution here is to show how Gwich’in teachings of strength (guut’àii) offer a framework for resisting it.

Denialists claim that schools weren’t that bad, that the number of missing children is exaggerated, or that Survivors are lying. Others minimize the past by saying times were different. These narratives are not neutral — they undermine Indigenous testimony and weaken public commitments to truth and reconciliation.

How strength resists denialism

Here is where Gwich’in teachings matter.

Strength reframes Survivors not as passive victims but as key advocates of governance and solidarity. Chief Salu’s declaration, mentioned above, is proof of refusal.

Agency under duress is not consent. Acts of solidarity inside institutions of genocide do not absolve those institutions — they indict them. Strength resists denialism by showing how Indigenous Peoples fought to hold communities together, even in the face of attempted destruction.

What’s at stake

Denialism affects how Canadians respond to families still searching for missing children. Demanding “proof” through exhumations ignores the overwhelming evidence already available and pressures communities to move at unsafe speeds.

Surveys show that while Canadians broadly support reconciliation, many still lack meaningful knowledge of residential schools. A 2024 Ipsos poll found that 75 per cent of Canadians believe governments should do more to recognize this legacy.

A 2023 Innovative Research survey found that while 73 per cent of Canadians report being familiar with residential schools, knowledge drops when specific questions are asked. Despite the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action, this knowledge gap creates fertile ground for denialist propaganda.

The good news is that readers do not have to look far for ways to learn and act. For example, the TRC Calls to Action continue as an ongoing initiative, as do the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Readers could also consult resources like 150 Acts of Reconciliation or the vast collection of online resources at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Dinjii Zhuh strength as a guide forward

What would it mean to confront denialism with guut’àii — acting with one mind?

It would mean centring Survivors’ voices, supporting families with resources and time and refusing to separate stories of suffering from stories of collective strength. It would mean teaching Canadians Indigenous strength is not just survival but structural transformation.

Children who endured residential schools sometimes went on to live full lives and, by Canadian standards, have successful careers. This was despite the system, not because of it. This was because of Indigenous forms of strength, like guut’àii.

This ethic also shapes my forthcoming book with anthropologist Sara Komarnisky, Talk Treaty to Me: Understanding the Basics of Treaties and Land in Canada, which helps Canadians understand the treaties that continue to govern our shared lives. Treaties, like guut’àii, are about collective responsibility — commitments made “with one mind” that remain central to our future together.

Refusing isolation, insisting on truth

When Chief Salu promised to go to jail for his people, he modelled what it means to act with one mind. His words remind us that the history of residential schools is not only a history of harm, but also a history of strength and collective governance.

By standing with Survivors, supporting Indigenous-led truth-telling and rejecting denialism, we can ensure Canada’s future is built on honesty, justice and respect.

Strength is not just survival. It is how Indigenous Peoples have always transformed oppression into collective action, and how we will face denialism today.

Crystal Gail Fraser receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Acting with one mind: Gwich’in lessons for truth and reconciliation – https://theconversation.com/acting-with-one-mind-gwichin-lessons-for-truth-and-reconciliation-262826

September 25, 2025

Gen Z protests brought about change in Nepal via the powers — and perils — of social media

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Luna KC, Assistant Professor, Global and International Studies, University of Northern British Columbia

Youth protesters in Nepal are in the global spotlight for their angry response to the government’s sweeping social media ban in an apparent attempt to silence their dissent. The government’s actions ignited mass protests — led largely by Gen Z, a cohort made up of young people born between 1997 and 2012.

The Gen Z movement represents a turning point for Nepal politics. The protesters had three key demands: end corruption, end nepotism and reform the country’s political systems.

Their uprising led to the resignation of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and several government ministers. Sushila Karki was then appointed interim prime minister, and the protests have since died down.

Why is the Gen Z protest unique?

Nepal’s Gen Z movement is different from other movements in Nepal.

First, it is led by young people. Second, social media is their main means of communicating their dissent and their agenda.

These protesters are angry that working-class young people are struggling to meet basic everyday needs (food, shelter, jobs, health care, etc.) and facing rising inequality, discrimination and poverty.

That’s in contrast to the children and grandchildren of Nepal’s high-profile elite politicians, accused by the protesters of living in the lap of luxury. Gen Z protesters have demanded information about the source of income of Nepal’s ultra-rich politicians and their families, and called for a thorough investigation.

A segment on how Nepal’s Gen Z protesters targeted #nepokids. (Sky News)

Why are Gen Zs so frustrated?

For a long time, Nepal, with a population of 29.5 million, has been trapped in a poverty cycle. It is ranked 143rd globally in the Human Development Index (2024).

The unemployment rate in 2024 for youth aged 15-24 was 20.82 per cent, and it’s growing. Reports also suggest that more than 1,500 adults leave the country every day in search of work.

In 2021, the Nepal census found that 7.1 per cent of the population was working outside the country and has a median age of 28.

In 2023, Nepali workers sent remittances of US$11 billion back home. In fact, estimates suggest that almost 25 per cent of Nepal’s GDP is from remittances.

There is also growing concern about Nepali worker deaths as people take dangerous jobs; more than 700 workers died from 2018 to 2019 Gen Z frustrations are linked to how their parents leave the country in search of work and do the most high-risk and lowest-paid jobs abroad, which they believe is in stark contrast to the lives of #NepoBabies and #NepoKids.

Gen Z’s digital tactics

Some Gen Z social media users tracked the accounts (on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook) of the children and grandchildren of ultra-rich politicians and shared or reposted images and videos of their luxurious lifestyles.

That included photos taken on high-end vacations in Europe, shopping for designer brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Cartier, as well as their stays in family properties worth billions.

Social media engagement surged on posts with these images and with hashtags that included #Nepobaby, #NepoKids, #PoliticiansNepoBabyNepal and #Corruption.

Some Gen Zs also made short videos on TikTok and Facebook highlighting corruption, inequality, poverty and nepotism; those videos also went viral.

All of these issues resonated with many Nepali Gen Zs, spurring them to join the protest movement.

Social media ban

Before Sept. 8, Gen Z’s protests were peaceful and mostly took place online. But when the government instituted a ban on social media, Gen Z erupted, with many claiming that the decision was aimed at silencing their voices.

Gen Z is the social media generation, and the ban was regarded as a violation of their rights. They soon took their demands to the streets from the screen, calling for the resignation of the prime minister.

The protest turned into a battlefield as police killed 19 school-aged students on the same day; hundreds were also injured. As of now, the Gen Z protester death toll is 72.

Aftermath

The prime minister resigned on Sept. 9, but the situation further worsened. Protesters burned down key government buildings, including parliament and court buildings, private businesses, banks and the homes of politicians and business people across the country.

After a series of talks between the chief of the Nepal army, Ashok Raj Sigdel, Nepali President Ram Chadra Poudel and Gen Z leader Sudan Gurung, an interim six-month government was formed. Karki was appointed the first female prime minister of the country.

The interim cabinet’s priorities include the upcoming election in March 2026, tackling corruption, investigating the killings of Gen Z protesters as well as the destruction of public and private property.

The power and perils of social media

Before the Nepal protests, dissenting youth in countries that include Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar have used social media to air their grievances.

A study has shown how social media plays a role in empowering youth, amplifying marginal voices and building transnational solidarity. Examples include some of the most popular global social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #MahsaAmini.

But its role in protest movements can also be problematic.

Amid the Gen Z protests in Nepal, reports of disinformation and misinformation are spreading. A video claiming 35 human skeletons were found in a store was posted on Sept. 13 by a Facebook user with 63,000 followers, fuelling panic among the protesters. The claim was determined to be false.

Gen Z protesters in Nepal and beyond are clearly having some success in bringing about social and political change. But with the growth of artificial intelligence, creating fake content is no longer difficult, and false information can proliferate quickly amid this generation.

Luna KC does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Gen Z protests brought about change in Nepal via the powers — and perils — of social media – https://theconversation.com/gen-z-protests-brought-about-change-in-nepal-via-the-powers-and-perils-of-social-media-265365

September 25, 2025

Cars versus kids: How resistance to change limits children’s right to the city

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Patricia Collins, Associate Professor, Queen’s University, Ontario

Many Canadians over the age of 40 likely remember spending their childhoods playing on the street and moving around their communities on their own or with friends. And, according to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11, cities should in fact be places where all residents, including children, can thrive — they have as much right to occupy and use urban streets as motorists do.

However, children today are less active and independently mobile and aren’t engaging in as much outdoor free play.

In Canada, a major reason for this trend is that we’ve deprived children of their right to the city, including the freedom to safely play and move about on the streets near their homes and schools without the need for adult supervision.

Innovative interventions such as School Streets are critically needed. School Streets are temporary, car-free zones created in front of schools during peak drop-off and pick-up times to improve student safety and encourage walking and cycling

Yet, our research has found that they often face stiff resistance. By closing streets adjacent to schools to cars, School Streets confront drivers with a reimagined and restructured public space they may not be ready to embrace.

Planning cities for cars, not kids

The stripping of children’s rights to the city is a centuries-old project in North America.

Prior to the mass production of the automobile, children could often be found playing on city streets. But as automobile ownership became commonplace, growing numbers of children were being injured and killed by motorists.

Rather than limit where automobiles could travel, urban planners and public health officials advocated for the creation of other places for children to play, hidden away from traffic, such as neighbourhood parks.

This automobile-centric approach to city planning created a societal shift in attitudes about the kinds of spaces considered appropriate for kids to play and move about. Consequently, we now view it as normal not to see or hear children on city streets.

By disempowering children in terms of where they can go in cities, our society has developed assumptions that children are not sufficiently responsible or competent to navigate their communities.

Children’s mobility in car-centric cities

Ironically, as we have become more fearful of allowing children to move about freely, driving children to their destinations has increased in response to this fear. We have largely confined children’s movement in cities to vehicles.

Consequently, we now face an immense societal challenge in enabling children to move independently in their communities, particularly in spaces commonly occupied by children, like outside of primary schools.

In terms of the journey to school, research has shown that risky driving behaviours by parents during morning drop-off times — like letting them out in unsafe areas, obstructing views, making U-turns and speeding — are commonplace.

These behaviours are associated with an increased risk of children being struck by motorists. Hazardous conditions around schools, combined with widespread perceptions that children do not belong on the street and are incapable of getting to school on their own, reinforce the already low rates of walking or bicycling to school among children in Canada.

Innovating cities for children

School Streets can address both issues: reducing the real dangers posed by automobiles in spaces occupied by children while also helping all citizens reimagine how, and by whom, streets can be used.

Typically implemented by municipal governments or not-for-profits, School Streets enable children to come and go safely from school. Though they’re common in many European cities, their uptake in Canada has been slower.

From 2020 to 2024, we led a study entitled Levelling the Playing Fields, in which we systematically evaluated School Street interventions operating in Kingston, Ont. and Montréal. The findings from this study helped launch the National Active School Street Initiative (NASSI).

Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, NASSI helps Canadian cities learn about and implement School Streets. Through NASSI, year-long School Streets were launched in September 2025 in Kingston, Mississauga, Ont. and Vancouver.

In September 2026, additional year-long School Streets are expected to launch in Kingston, Mississauga, Vancouver and Montréal, while four-week pilots are planned for Ottawa, Peterborough, Ont., Markham, Ont., Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary.

Reactions to innovating cities for children

Launching and sustaining School Streets requires support from a broad range of people, including municipal councillors and staff, school administrators, teachers, parents, residents, and police departments.

In our work in Kingston and Montréal, we encountered many champions of School Streets whose support was instrumental in launching and sustaining these interventions. However, we also faced resistance to varying degrees. In some cases, this resistance came after interventions were launched, and in other cases, it was sufficient to prevent the intervention from launching at all.

Rather than acknowledging the benefits School Streets could offer, the resistance was often framed around risks to children — precisely the problem School Streets aim to address.

We were told that School Streets would diminish children’s awareness of road safety, put children at risk of being run over by rogue motorists and was inherently risky because children don’t belong on the street. We suspect these arguments were not truly about risks to children, but rather an unwillingness to share power, space and opportunities with children in urban settings.

We also heard a range of arguments shaped by what’s known as motonormativity — a form of unconscious bias in automobile-centric societies that assumes car usage as a universal norm and aligns solutions with the needs of motorists.

In this vein, we heard that School Streets excluded children whose parents needed to drive their child to school; that residents and visitors would be unacceptably delayed by the street closure; that school staff would be deprived of nearby parking; that children occupying the street would be too noisy and cause damage to parked vehicles; and that automobile congestion would be pushed to other streets.

The most troubling argument made against School Streets was that there were more deserving children in other neighbourhoods, presenting a thinly veiled Not-In-My-Backyard attitude.

School Streets are intended to enable children to reclaim their right to the city. Many members of our society, however, are not yet ready to afford children these rights because they conflict with strongly held perceptions about the places children are meant to occupy.

For the Levelling the Playing Fields Study, Patricia Collins received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (project grant number PJT-175153). For the National Active School Streets Initiative, Patricia Collins receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Patricia Collins was previously affiliated with Kingston Coalition for Active Transportation, a not-for-profit group that was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the School Streets in Kingston. She is no longer a member of that group.

For the Levelling the Playing Fields project Katherine L. Frohlich received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Funding numer PJT175153. For the NASSI project Katherine Frohlich receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

– ref. Cars versus kids: How resistance to change limits children’s right to the city – https://theconversation.com/cars-versus-kids-how-resistance-to-change-limits-childrens-right-to-the-city-263254

September 25, 2025

The warning signs are clear: We’re heading toward a digital crisis

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Dean Curran, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Calgary

People’s lives are more enmeshed with digital systems than ever before, increasing users’ vulnerability and insecurity. From data leaks like the 2017 Equifax data breach to the more recent cyberattack on British retailer Marks & Spencer, business operations and data on the internet continue to be vulnerable.

There are good reasons to believe that little will be done about these risks until a massive society-wide crisis emerges.

My research suggests that there are significant failures in our current approaches to risk and innovation. Digital technologies remake social life through new technologies, communication platforms and forms of artificial intelligence. All of which, while very powerful, are also highly risky in terms of malfunctioning and vulnerability to being manipulated.

Yet, governments are generally unable to distinguish between what are actually valuable contributions to society and what are intensely socially damaging.

CBC’s The National looks at data breaches.

A massive social experiment

The digital economy includes “those businesses that increasingly rely upon information technology, data and the internet for their business models.” The companies dominating the digital economy continue to undertake a massive social experiment where they keep the lion’s share of the benefits while shunting the risks onto society as a whole.

This could lead to a systemic digital crisis, ranging from a widespread breakdown of basic infrastructure, such as electricity or telecommunications due to a cyberattack, to an attack that modifies existing infrastructure to make it dangerous.

There are significant similarities between the current trajectory of the digital economy and the 2008 financial crisis. In particular, what we are increasingly seeing in the digital world, which we saw in the pre-crisis financial world, is what American sociologist Charles Perrow called “tight coupling.”

Perrow argues that when systems exhibit high levels of interconnection without sufficient redundancy to compensate for failures, it can lead to catastrophic consequences.

Likewise, high levels of complexity are generally considered to make highly interconnected systems riskier. Unanticipated risks and connections can lead to failures cascading across the system.

Increasing interdependence

Our existing digital economy shares many of these characteristics. The digital economy is characterized by a business model that focuses on businesses getting as large as possible as quickly as possible.

The lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis and the current digital economy share both the amplification of interdependency alongside the reduction of redundancy. In the case of finance, this proceeded through massive borrowing to leverage earnings, leaving a smaller ratio of money left to cover any possible losses.

In the digital economy, this need to continually collect data increases interdependencies among datasets, platforms, corporations and networks. This increased interdependency is fundamental to the core business model of the digital economy.

The undermining of redundancy in the digital sphere is manifested in the “move-fast-and-break-things” ethos in which digital companies eliminate or acquire competitors as quickly as possible while eliminating analog alternatives to their own digital networks.

Last, these digital behemoths and their rapid growth increase the complexity of the digital economy and the monopolistic networks that dominate it.

BBC News covers last summer’s flight cancellations.

Obvious warning signs

There is a key difference between the 2008 financial crisis and the contemporary digital economy. Unlike in the lead-up to the crisis, where a partially finance-driven prosperity quieted any obvious warning signs, the warning signs in the digital economy are front and centre for everyone to see.

The 2017 WannaCry and NotPetya malware attacks each caused billions of dollars in damages. More recently, the CrowdStrike failure in 2024 cancelled thousands of flights, and even took television stations off the air. Constant hacks, ransomware attacks and data leakages are warning signs that this is a deeply fragile system.

AI has taken many of these vulnerabilities into overdrive, while adding new risks, such as AI hallucinations and the exponential growth in misinformation. The speed and scale of AI are expected to intensify existing risks to confidentiality, system integrity and availability.

This is potentially the most significant, though unfortunate element in this story. There is massive system risk, yet they are not addressed directly, and the processes heightening these risks continue to accelerate.

This suggests a deeper problem in our politics. While we do have some ability to regulate after the damage is done, we struggle to prevent the next crisis.

Dean Curran received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. The warning signs are clear: We’re heading toward a digital crisis – https://theconversation.com/the-warning-signs-are-clear-were-heading-toward-a-digital-crisis-264529

September 24, 2025

Empathy is under attack — but it remains vital for leadership and connection

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Leda Stawnychko, Associate Professor of Strategy and Organizational Theory, Mount Royal University

Once considered a universal good, empathy now divides as much as it unites. Empathy has long been viewed as a straightforward strength in leadership, but it has recently become a political flashpoint.

Some conservative voices, including billionaire Elon Musk, have criticized empathy, with Musk calling it a “fundamental weakness of western civilization.”

Joe Rigney, a theology fellow at New Saint Andrew’s College in Idaho, has gone further, calling it a “sin”. He argues “untethered empathy” can distort moral judgment because it may lead to people excusing harmful behaviour simply because they sympathize with the person experiencing it.

Few qualities in public life have undergone such a dramatic shift in perception as empathy. Once celebrated as both a marker of moral character and an essential leadership skill, empathy now sits at the centre of polarized debates about governance and policy.

The so-called “war” over empathy reveals not only divided views of leadership but also deeper anxieties about how we connect with one another. These tensions raise important questions about the history, promise, pitfalls and future of empathy.

What is empathy?

The modern term traces back from the German term einfühlung, which was first used in the context of esthetics to describe the emotional response a person feels when imagining themselves moving through a painting, sculpture or scene of natural beauty.

The English term “empathy” was coined in 1908. What began as a way of describing how people relate to art later moved into psychology and leadership as researchers began to study how people identify with the feelings of others.

From there, empathy evolved into a cornerstone skill in business and management to help leaders connect more deeply with others and improve both relationships and performance.

For decades, this was presented as a clear asset. Today, however, that same capacity is viewed by some as a liability rather than a strength.

Why empathy matters

Empathetic leaders can translate this capacity into practical advantage. In organizations, empathy fosters innovation by creating psychological safety — the sense that people feel they can take interpersonal risks, such as sharing ideas without fear of ridicule or retaliation.

Research shows teams learn faster and perform better when people feel safe to speak up. Empathy supports that safety by making listening genuine rather than performative. For example, when leaders regularly ask “What perspectives are we missing?” they signal that speaking up carries little risk. Empathy also strengthens collaboration by enabling leaders to recognize diverse perspectives and weave them into collective problem-solving.

By supporting growth and risk-taking, it reinforces succession pipelines and helps employees step into new responsibilities. Through deep listening and thoughtful responses, empathetic leaders build trust, inspire commitment and help teams remain resilient in the face of change.

Beyond the workplace, empathy also contributes to broader human flourishing. Findings vary across studies, but empathetic people tend to be happier, form stronger friendships and excel in their work. Health-care patients, employees and romantic partners all report higher satisfaction when empathy is present.

Still, despite its many benefits, empathy is not immune to distortion in workplaces, politics and society at large.

The paradox and politics of empathy

Empathy carries an inherent paradox: people can feel genuine compassion while also recognizing the practical limits of what can realistically be offered.

In workplaces, for example, managers may empathize with employees seeking flexibility while also facing pressure to deliver results. Leaders often face difficult questions about fairness when resources are tight and not everyone’s needs can be met.

In politics, a similar dilemma arises. Leaders may, for example, express concern for refugees fleeing conflict while balancing that compassion against constraints on housing, health care and employment in the host country. Here, empathy can clash with competing obligations.

Beyond these limits, empathy can also be distorted when it lacks ethical grounding. Without self-awareness and judgment, it can lead to compassion fatigue or even be used strategically as a tool of manipulation and control. For example, after a child in Texas died from measles, anti-vaccine influencers used the case to stoke outrage and influence public opinion.

Research on negotiations highlights a related risk. Being able to understand someone else’s perspective can help reveal the other side’s constraints and lead to better deals, but feeling their emotions too deeply can pull negotiators off their strategy.

These concerns echo in the broader culture. Critics of empathy argue it has been politicized or weaponized to enforce conformity, with those who fail to display it toward certain groups being portrayed as weak or immoral.

The future of empathy

Although findings are mixed, some studies suggest that empathy, especially among younger generations, has been in decline over the past few decades.

The reasons for this are debated, ranging from the rise of digital communication to broader social and political polarization. Regardless of the cause, the perception of decline has fuelled renewed interest in its study.

Empathy does not mean blindly agreeing with everyone or absorbing every emotion. It calls for listening with genuine curiosity, asking perspective-seeking questions and creating space for others to share their truths.

Simple practices such as naming emotions, noticing body language or imagining how a situation might feel to someone else can strengthen our capacity to connect.

When practised ethically and with courage, empathy has the potential to extend from private virtue to collective strength, and be used to rebuild trust, bridge divides, sustain communities and keep leadership anchored in humanity.

Leda Stawnychko has received SSHRC funding.

Kris Hans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Empathy is under attack — but it remains vital for leadership and connection – https://theconversation.com/empathy-is-under-attack-but-it-remains-vital-for-leadership-and-connection-265468

September 24, 2025

How researchers are making precision agriculture more affordable

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Samuel Mugo, Professor & Associate Dean, Development, Department of Physical Sciences, MacEwan University

Farmers are under pressure. Fertilizer costs have soared in recent years. Tariffs are increasing equipment costs and cutting Canadian farmers off from key foreign markets. And climate change is bringing its own set of challenges.

Meanwhile, agriculture is also facing calls to reduce emissions. The industry is responsible for about 10 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the federal government has set an ambitious goal: reduce emissions from fertilizer use by 30 per cent by 2030.

Farming is tough even during the best of times. Rising costs and the dangers posed by climate change will only make it even more challenging in the years to come.

That’s where our work comes in. At MacEwan University, through our spin-out company PimaSens, we have developed Agrilo — a low-cost soil testing sensor paired with a smartphone app.

Our goal is simple: give farmers clear, real-time guidance on fertilizer use so they can save money, boost yields and protect the environment.

How the sensor works

Agrilo takes technology we first built in the lab and translates it into an easy-to-use diagnostic tool for the field. Unlike traditional soil testing, which often requires sending samples to a lab and waiting days for results, Agrilo provides answers in minutes.

Farmers collect a small soil sample, react it with a pre-filled solution, place droplets onto a paper-based or vinyl colorimetric sensor, and capture the result using their phone camera. The Agrilo app then interprets the colour change, quantifies nutrient levels, and generates fertilizer recommendations tailored to the field.

Each Agrilo sensor costs about $10 and is designed to detect a specific nutrient or soil property. The full suite includes sensors for: nitrate, phosphate, potassium, pH, sulphur, magnesium, manganese, calcium, boron, iron, natural organic matter, cation exchange capacity and more.

A step-by-step guide to using the Agrilo sensor for real-time soil monitoring. (PimaSens)

Farmers can select the tests most relevant to their crops and soils. These results feed directly into Agrilo’s smartphone app, which analyzes patterns and suggests the most optimal fertilizer adjustments.

This precision is critical. Overuse of fertilizer wastes money and increases greenhouse gases, while underuse limits yields. Getting the balance right improves farm efficiency and protects ecosystems.

With fertilizer shortages, soil degradation accelerating and climate concerns mounting, there is an urgent need for practical solutions that can be deployed quickly and affordably.

For farmers, the value is clear:

● Healthier soil through balanced nutrient application.

● Higher crop yields from optimized fertilizer use.

● Lower costs by reducing waste.

● Reduced environmental harm from nutrient runoff and fertilizer-related emissions.

The research behind the tool

Our sensors and platform have been validated in peer-reviewed research with the Agrilo version simplified for ease of use by farmers. We also hold a provisional patent, with a full filing in progress. This ensures that the innovation is both scientifically sound and protected for scaling.

A man holding a small electronic device labeled Agrilo. — Agrilo was created to be both affordable and accessible.
(Author provided)

Agrilo was created to be both affordable and accessible. Conventional soil testing often costs hundreds of dollars and involves long wait times. Agrilo delivers the same type of data — validated against results from traditional labs — at a fraction of the cost and in real time.

This opens up opportunities not just for Canadian farmers but also for communities worldwide, including schools and small scale farmers in the Global South.

One of the most exciting aspects of Agrilo is its versatility. Beyond the farm, Agrilo doubles as an education platform. In classrooms, students can learn hands-on how soil nutrients affect crops, food security and ecosystems.

Using the same colorimetric sensors as farmers, students can connect textbook science to real-world environmental challenges — making soil chemistry, agriculture and sustainability more tangible.

Globally, fertilizer use has increased by 46 per cent since 1990. About one third of the world’s soils are already degraded, with degradation continuing to accelerate.

By making precision agriculture practical and affordable, we can help address these challenges at scale — showcasing how research developed in Canadian labs can benefit farms, classrooms and communities worldwide.

Looking ahead

Our team is continuing to refine Agrilo. We are already testing the platform with farmers and partners in Canada, Kenya, Costa Rica and beyond.

At the same time, we are building partnerships with schools and international organizations to use Agrilo as both a farming tool and a hands-on educational resource. Several high schools in Alberta have started to try out the Agrilo tool to enhance applied science learning.

Ultimately, our vision is to make precision agriculture accessible to everyone — not just large-scale industrial operations. With the right tools, all farmers can play a critical role in feeding the world sustainably, protecting ecosystems and helping their countries meet their climate goals.

Samuel Mugo is a co-founder of PimaSens. He receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Mohammed Elmorsy is a co-founder of PimaSens. He has received research funding related to this work through Riipen and Alberta Innovates Summer Research Studentships.

– ref. How researchers are making precision agriculture more affordable – https://theconversation.com/how-researchers-are-making-precision-agriculture-more-affordable-265366

September 24, 2025

Space-time doesn’t exist — but it’s a useful framework for understanding our reality

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Daryl Janzen, Observatory Manager and Instructor, Astronomy, University of Saskatchewan

Space-time provides a powerful description of how events happen. ( MARIOLA GROBELSKA/Unsplash), CC BY

Whether space-time exists should neither be controversial nor even conceptually challenging, given the definitions of “space-time,” “events” and “instants.” The idea that space-time exists is no more viable than the outdated belief that the celestial sphere exists: both are observer-centred models that are powerful and convenient for describing the world, but neither represents reality itself.

Yet from the standpoints of modern physics, philosophy, popular science communication and familiar themes in science fiction, stating that space-time does not exist is contentious.

But what would it mean for a world where everything that has ever happened or will happen somehow “exists” now as part of an interwoven fabric?

Events are not locations

It’s easy to imagine past events — like losing a tooth or receiving good news — as existing somewhere. Fictional representations of time travel underscore this: time travellers alter events and disrupt the timeline, as if past and future events were locations one could visit with the right technology.

Philosophers often talk this way too. Eternalism says all events across all time exist. The growing block view suggests the past and present exist while the future will come to be. Presentism says only the present exists, while the past used to exist and the future will when it happens. And general relativity presents a four-dimensional continuum that bends and curves — we tend to imagine that continuum of the events as really existing.

The confusion emerges out of the definition of the word “exist.” With space-time, it’s applied uncritically to a mathematical description of happenings — turning a model into an ontological theory on the nature of being.

Physical theorist Sean Carroll explains presentism and eternalism.

A totality

In physics, space-time is the continuous set of events that happen throughout space and time — from here to the furthest galaxy, from the Big Bang to the far future. It is a four-dimensional map that records and measures where and when everything happens. In physics, an event is an instantaneous occurrence at a specific place and time.

An instant is the three-dimensional collection of spatially separated events that happen “at the same time” (with relativity’s usual caveat that simultaneity depends on one’s relative state of rest).

Space-time is the totality of all events that ever happen.

It’s also our most powerful way of cataloguing the world’s happenings. That cataloguing is indispensable, but the words and concepts we use for it matter.

There are infinitely many points in the three dimensions of space, and at every instant as time passes a unique event occurs at each location.

Positionings throughout time

Physicists describe a car travelling straight at constant speed with a simple space-time diagram: position on one axis, time on the other. Instants stack together to form a two-dimensional space-time. The car’s position is a point within each instant, and those points join to form a worldline — the full record of the car’s position throughout the time interval, whose slope is the car’s speed.

Real motion is far more complex. The car rides along on a rotating Earth orbiting the sun, which orbits the Milky Way as it drifts through the local universe. Plotting the car’s position at every instant ultimately requires four-dimensional space-time.

Space-time is the map of where and when events happen. A worldline is the record of every event that occurs throughout one’s life. The key question is whether the map — or all the events it draws together at once — should be said to exist in the same way that cars, people and the places they go exist.

Objects exist

Consider what “exist” means. Objects, buildings, people, cities, planets, galaxies exist — they are either places or occupy places, enduring there over intervals of time. They persist through changes and can be encountered repeatedly.

Treating occurrences as things that exist smuggles confusion into our language and concepts. When analyzing space-time, do events, instants, worldlines or even space-time as a whole exist in the same sense as places and people? Or is it more accurate to say that events happen in an existing world?

On that view, space-time is the map that records those happenings, allowing us to describe the spatial and temporal relationships between them.

Space-time does not exist

Events do not exist, they happen. Consequently, space-time does not exist. Events happen everywhere throughout the course of existence, and the occurrence of an event is categorically different from the existence of anything — whether object, place or concept.

First, there is no empirical evidence that any past, present or future event “exists” in the way that things in the world around us exist. Verifying the existence of an event as an ongoing object would require something like a time machine to go and observe it now. Even present events cannot be verified as ongoing things that exist.

In contrast, material objects exist. Time-travel paradoxes rest on the false premise that events exist as revisitable locations. Recognizing the categorical difference between occurrence and existence resolves these paradoxes.

Second, this recognition reframes the philosophy of time. Much debate over the past century has treated events as things that exist. Philosophers then focus on their tense properties: is an event past, present or future? Did this one occur earlier or later than that one?

a stencilled pipe spraypainted onto a concrete wall with the words ceci n'est pas une pipe underneath it — A stencil interpretation of René Magritte’s 1929 painting, ‘La Trahison des images,’ in which the artist points out that the representation of an object is not the object itself.
(bixentro/Wikimedia Commons)

These discussions rely on an assumption that events are existent things that bear these properties. From there, it’s a short step to the conclusion that time is unreal or that the passage of time is an illusion, on the identification that the same event can be labelled differently from different standpoints. But the ontological distinction was lost at the start: events don’t exist, they happen. Tense and order are features of how happenings relate within an existing world, not properties of existent objects.

Finally, consider relativity. It is a mathematical theory that describes a four-dimensional space-time continuum, and not a theory about a four-dimensional thing that exists — that, in the course of its own existence, bends and warps due to gravity.

Conceptual clarity

Physics can’t actually describe space-time itself as something that actually exists, nor can it account for any change it might experience as an existing thing.

Space-time provides a powerful description of how events happen: how they are ordered relative to one another, how sequences of events are measured to unfold and how lengths are measured in different reference frames. If we stop saying that events — and space-time — exist, we recover conceptual clarity without sacrificing a single prediction.

Daryl Janzen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Space-time doesn’t exist — but it’s a useful framework for understanding our reality – https://theconversation.com/space-time-doesnt-exist-but-its-a-useful-framework-for-understanding-our-reality-265952