Now’s the Time to Go Screen-Free

Tired of Zoom calls and virtual meet-ups? Just turn everything off.

By Mo Lotman | April 30, 2020 | Cognition, Community, Family, Society, Well-Being | Attention, Calm, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Community, Connection, Focus, Screen Sabbath, Screens

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Paper’s Revenge: Handwritten Letters Are Making a Comeback

Millenials are opening stationery stores, and pen pal clubs are on the rise.

By Susan Abram | May 15, 2019 | Community, Culture, Relationships | Cards, Connection, Correspondence, Handwriting, Letter Writers Alliance, Letters, Paper, Pen Pals, Stationery, Writing

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Podcast #27: Robert Lustig on Biochemistry and Health

Author and endocrinologist Robert Lustig explains the neurochemical difference between happiness and pleasure and how it’s been exploited to make so many of us fat, addicted, and depressed. Then, he reminds us how to reclaim our health.

By Mo Lotman | February 27, 2019 | Cognition, Environment, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Podcasts, Well-Being | Academia, Addiction, Adolescence, Alcohol, Amino Acids, Aristotle, ATP, Availability, Behavior, Biochemistry, Caffiene, Calories, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Cavities, Cell Death, Child Development, Chronic Metabolic Disease, Chronic Renal Disease, Clinicians, Cocaine, Computers, Connection, Connectivity, Contentment, Contribute, Coping, Cortisol, Dementia, Dentistry, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Dieticians, Doctors, Dopamine, Drugs, Dyslipidemia, Endocrinology, Enjoyment, Environment, Exercise, Exposure, Facebook, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Flow, Food, Food System, Fructose, Giving, Glucose, Happiness, Health Care, Heroin, Hypertension, Hypothalamus, Information, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Marketing, Metabolic Syndrome, Metabolism, Mindfulness, Mirror Neurons, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Money, Multitasking, music, Myelin, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, OCD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Opioids, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Philanthropy, Pleasure, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, Prefrontal Cortex, Processed Food, Profit, Propaganda, Quantification, Refining, Regulation, Religion, Reward, Sales, Seizures, Seratonin, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Social Security, Stimulation, Substance Abuse, Substances, Sugar, Suicide, Taking, Taylorism, Technology, Tolerance, Tryptophane, Utilitarianism

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Podcast #23: David Bosworth on Conscientious Thinking

Author and cultural critic David Bosworth discusses America’s myth of individualism and how it feeds a digital culture that ironically infantilizes its users and demands constant approval from strangers.

By Mo Lotman | December 12, 2018 | Culture, Ethics, Philosophy, Podcasts, Relationships, Society | "Momism", Accumulation, Affiliation, Atomization, Common Sense, Connection, Conscience, Convenience, Corporations, Descartes, Ethics, Idiot Savant, Individualism, Infantilization, Internet, Malls, MIT Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, Profit, Science, Smartphones, Superficiality, surveillance, Thomas Paine, University of Washington, Value, Virtue, Wikipedia

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A Call for Ideas

Publisher Mo Lotman looks for ideas and suggestions as he embarks on a nationwide trip this summer.

By Mo Lotman | June 20, 2018 | Community, Culture, Society | Connection, Ideas, Silicon Valley, travel

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The Informed Preference for Permanence (Principles of Technoskepticism, Part Three)

Our technological mindset leads to an “enforced impermanence” as the new is always prioritized over the old. The resultant rootlessness and churn contributes to a sense of disequilibrium while keeping us apart from the steadying forces of tradition and wisdom.

By David A. J. Reynolds | March 21, 2018 | Agriculture, Philosophy, Society | Agribusiness, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, C.S. Lewis, Capitalism, Change, Chronological Snobbery, Communism, Connection, Culture, Czechoslovakia, Despoliation, Disequilibrium, Disorientation, Ecology, Edmund Burke, Family Farms, Farming, Fashion, Groundedness, Heritage, History, Impermanence, Inheritance, Inhumanity, Jan Patočka, Machines, Manipulation, Meaning, Michael Hanby, Michael Oakeshott, Modernity, Modernization, Nature, Newness, Obsolescence, Permanence, Presence, Presentism, Productivity, Reality, Roger Kimball, Roger Scruton, Soil, Stability, Standing Reserve, T.S. Eliot, Time, Tradition, Vaclav Havel, Value, Wisdom

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Google’s Smart Reply: Convenience Over Connection

Gmail offers users canned responses to emails, based on AI interpretations of the contents and the user’s typical writing style. This convenience, unknown to the recipient, comes at a social cost.

By Samantha Maxwell | December 20, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Ethics, Relationships, Society | Automation, Communication, Connection, Connectivity, Convenience, Conversation, Email, Friendship, Gmail, Google, Love, relationships, Smart Reply, Social Interaction, Speed

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