In an article for Quartz about how robots are being used to help care for the elderly, Corinne Purtill highlights Prof. Sherry Turkle’s work on the impact of using machines to satisfy the human need for emotional connection. Putrill cites Turkle’s argument that using machines creates a new relationship where we “feel connected although we are alone.”
Writing for USA Today, Prof. Barry Posen argues for ending the war in Afghanistan. “It is plain that we have no actual strategic policy in Afghanistan — no plausible purpose other than using taxpayer money, the lives of American soldiers and the deaths of Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire to protect U.S. leaders against the possibility of future blame."
A report co-authored by Prof. Charles Stewart calls for fundamental changes to the U.S. voting system to help ensure security, reports the Associated Press. Stewart noted that funds appropriated by Congress earlier this year to help states improve election security are a "down payment" on what’s needed to update the current voting system.
MIT researchers have found that reducing payments to long-term care hospitals could save the U.S. health care system around $5 billion a year, reports Margot Sanger-Katz for The New York Times. “The history of long-term care hospitals suggests the industry will always innovate ahead of you, and you may actually have to roll up your sleeves and find these pockets of waste,” explains Prof. Amy Finkelstein.
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. Alan Lightman writes about the importance of wasting time. “Our hyperconnected lifestyle, without downtime, threatens our ‘inner selves,’” Lightman explains. “My inner self is that part of me that imagines, that dreams, that explores, that is constantly questioning who I am and what is important to me.”
Prof. Vipin Narang writes for Foreign Affairs about the state of North Korea’s nuclear program following President Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Narang argues that the U.S. should try to “establish a stable deterrence regime rather than pressing for immediate unilateral disarmament, ensuring that nuclear dangers on the Korean Peninsula are managed responsibly.”
Prof. Thomas Levenson participates in a WGBH Living Lab Radio panel discussion about science fiction. “Science fiction is simply literature, Levenson explains. “It might be the leading stream of fiction because we live in a world that is so conditioned by all the ways that both deep scientific ideas and their applications in everyday technology change the way we do everything.”
Prof. Charles Stewart III writes for The Washington Post about a new report from the MIT-run Elections Performance Index (EPI) showing that election administration improved from 2012 to 2016. “The latest EPI shows that we can use objective metrics to chart any policy change aimed at improving voting, and that it’s not as difficult as we thought,” explains Stewart.
In an article for the Pacific Standard about dispelling rumors and conspiracy theories, Nathan Collins highlights research by Prof. Adam Berinsky examining how information sources impact voters. “People speaking against their interests [are] more credible,” Berinsky explains. “What’s more credible: the surgeon general or McDonald’s saying you shouldn’t eat French fries?”
Zofia Niemtus writes for The Guardian about tech startups focused on helping breastfeeding mothers. Niemtus notes that MIT’s second “Make The Breast Pump Not Suck!” hackathon, which focused on marginalized groups in society, resulted in projects like “a pop-up shelf for pumping in unsanitary public places; a lactation kit for use in disaster zones; and a virtual reality app.”
Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Sherry Turkle argues that machines will never be able to replace humans as compassionate companions. “Machines have not known the arc of a human life. They feel nothing of the human loss or love we describe to them,” writes Turkle. “Their conversations about life occupy the realm of the as-if.”
In an interview with Wynne Parry of NBC Mach, Prof. Sherry Turkle expresses concern that household robots can interfere with children learning to understand and connect with one another. “There are skills of listening, of putting oneself in the place of the other, that are required when two human beings try to deeply understand each other,” Turkle explains.
In an article for The Boston Globe, Prof. Thomas Levenson reviews David Quammen’s new book, “The Tangled Tree.” Levenson writes that the book is, “much more than a report on some cool new scientific facts. It is, rather, a source of wonder.”
Writing for WBUR’s Cognoscenti, Amy Carleton, a lecturer in Comparative Media Studies/Writing, highlights three novels that vividly portray the immigrant experience. Carleton writes that the novels are about, “searching and finding, belonging and wanting — the things that define our human experience regardless of our point of origin.”
Prof. Alan Lightman reviews Adam Frank’s new book, “Light of the Stars,” for The New York Times. Lightman writes that Frank suggests, “we can strengthen our resolve to kick our bad environmental habits by viewing our terrestrial civilization from a cosmic perspective.”