It is not length of life, but depth of life.Ralph Waldo Emerson

October 2015

  • Virtual Reality at The UN

    True, I don’t know much about virtual reality, but usages like the one suggested by the movie “Her” makes me queasy, wondering if our very humanity is being mechanized. But as is the case with most people, my fears and opinions do not always match the reality. You can imagine how intrigued—and I admit glad—I was to read that the UN headquarters had used virtual reality to draw attention to and create better grasp of the refugee problem. A group affiliated with the UN Millennium Campaign had made a special film—using a girl in the Za’atary refugee camp on the Jordan-Syrian borders, one of the largest refugee camps and one that houses some 80,000 Syrian refugees. Heads of states and delegates were able to view the virtual reality film and get a sense of presence of what’s it’s like to be there. Later a portal was set up where heads of state and delegates could have anonymous conversations with people in those refugee camps. It was at first thought that the portal would be there temporarily and it may now be permanent. Other portals are being set in in D.C and San Francisco. The idea is that there’s a difference between pity and empathy, and that such methods are conducive to a unique understanding which policy makers often need.
    As far as the UN was concerned it was all very successful, so much so it drew the attention of ADWEEK, the advertising magazine which wrote about it and suggested that it was an instance tech-minded marketers could learn from. So now I have a new set of fears and concerns.

  • People-Skills Wanted

    Like many I keep wondering if our use of technology is replacing human skills and making them redundant. The mere idea that this may not be quite so makes me, and hopefully others, stop and take notice. The idea comes from a paper “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market” by David Deming who is Assistant Professor of economics at Harvard, a paper being given a more public airing by being the subject of an article in the online site fivethirtyeight.com. The paper comes from research that points out that until fairly recently, one needed hard skills in order to have (more…)

  • Medical Ethics

    According to an essay in the Annals of Internal Medicine, some surgeons are grossly disrespectful to their female patients while they lay unconscious on the operating table. Groping as well as making unsavory remarks or gestures, were reported in an essay by an anonymous writer who had witnessed them. In an editorial the editors explained the dilemmas behind publishing a piece which may place the profession in an unflattering light and perhaps affect the trust of patients, but ultimately felt that transparency was more important. They felt that perhaps exposing the behavior (more…)

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