Mary Martin

Power is making one description seem more real or natural than others.

our preoccupation with facts – the information that links us to each other – perhaps causes us to disregard other ways of understanding meaning in our relationships, such as touch, intuition and facial expressions.

One of the most honest accounts I’ve encountered of humanity’s relationship with nonhuman animals comes from political theorist Dinesh Wadiwel, who describes it as a state of war — not a metaphorical war, but a literal one, in which we are the aggressors. If you were an alien who knew nothing about our species, you might expect a civilization that... See more

But great technological innovations always come with tradeoffs, and the shift to AI therapy has deeper implications than 1 million mental health professionals potentially losing their jobs. AI therapists, when normalized, have the potential to reshape how we understand intimacy, vulnerability, and what it means to connect.

While the same laws of physics reign over Earth’s smallest and largest species, the balance of forces shifts with size. Intermolecular forces flex beneath the feet of water striders on a pond, capillary forces shoot water impossibly upward through a plant’s thin roots, and electrostatic forces can ensnare any oppositely charged flecks that lie in... See more

Physically speaking, humans are a middling mammal with an odd hair pattern, a badly evolved back, and a mouth that no longer fits all our adult teeth. All of which is why we really like brains.