Mary Martin

new study examines the potential of artificial intelligence to shift chronic pain treatment from opioids to mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Utilizing machine learning to analyze extensive patient data, the study aims to predict which patients will benefit most from MBSR, a critical step towards personalized medicine.

A popular narrative now casts all living entities as ‘machines’ built by genes, as Richard Dawkins called them. For Mayr, biology was unique among the sciences precisely because its objects of study possessed a program that encoded apparent purpose, design and agency into what they do. On this view, agency doesn’t actually manifest in the moment of... See more

Friends without friction

Companion chatbots may weaken our ability to navigate conflict and difference—unless we make key design choices, says a new report

A new study reveals that regardless of task difficulty, people’s minds increasingly wander with time, reaching a 50% distraction rate towards the end of activities. Analyzing over 10,000 participants in 68 studies, the research found no significant difference in distraction levels across various tasks. This phenomenon persists even without external... See more

This is why the idea that speech is violence is so dangerous. It tells the members of a generation already beset by anxiety and depression that the world is a far more violent and threatening place than it really is. It tells them that words, ideas, and speakers can literally kill them. Even worse: At a time of rapidly rising political polarization... See more

LY Corporation has been digging through the data for Pokémon Sleep, and the overall results show that users have been resting easy and well since the app came out.