is an adapted transcript of a talk delivered by ServiceSpace founder, Nipun Mehta, at the 2017 Wisdom Together conference in Munich, Germany] Today I want to talk about this very interesting tension between algorithms and love. While algorithms are a set of recipes, or a set of instructions, that help us filter data on the outside, it is our intuition that helps us with a lot of data on the inside. Now, that intrinsic data doesn't have the same kind of boundaries as extrinsic data, so holding theme together makes for a very interesting tension -- that I want to explore today. Many years ago, I saw a movie called “Minority Report”. Tom Cruise opens in his da... posted on Aug 17 2017 (22,160 reads)

in NY in the 1980s for 10 years. Source: various online news releases. Not every artist feels compelled to tackle vexing issues in a direct visual statement. At least for now, I am one of them. However, this doesn't necessarily mean remaining silent. I've chosen to be involved in hands-on action for immigrant members of my community. But those who do choose to give public voice to their concerns and resist the wrongs they perceive approach their art projects in individual ways. The images I've gathered reveal how certain artists have responded to the conditions they know about through personal experience or learn about through the news as well as friends, relatives, and coll... posted on Mar 16 2018 (8,002 reads)

I was in college, my boss drove me to a meeting. He had trouble finding a parking place—and, when he realized we were going to be late, pulled into a handicapped parking spot. As we got out of the car, he turned to me, grinned, and started limping. I fully knew that what he did was wrong. And I said nothing.  My failure to call out my boss is hardly unique. Yet like most people, if you’d asked me beforehand if I’d have the courage to do the right thing—to confront someone who uses a racist slur or engages in derogatory behavior—I would have said yes. But in reality, most of us fail to step up when actually facing such a situation. Why?  ... posted on Dec 3 2020 (9,177 reads)

I think the situation is changing. It would be ridiculous to claim that we know how we make consciousness in our brains, but we certainly can begin to approach the question, and we can begin to see the shape of a solution.  And one more wonder to celebrate is the fact that we have imaging technologies that now allow us to go inside the human brain and be able to do, for example, what you're seeing right now. These are images that come from Hanna Damasio's lab, and which show you, in a living brain, the reconstruction of that brain. And this is a person who is alive. This is not a person ... posted on Aug 15 2021 (8,754 reads)

burnout is on the rise, according to several surveys. People are feeling emotionally exhausted, detached from their work and colleagues, and less productive and efficacious. This makes them more likely to suffer health consequences, need sick days, and quit their jobs. Not too surprisingly, burnout has become even more prevalent during the pandemic, particularly among health care professionals, causing widespread concern. But, while many employers recognize the problem, they often don’t recognize the solutions, says journalist Jennifer Moss, author of the new book The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It. ... posted on Nov 22 2021 (5,401 reads)

imagination is a magical garden where all plants and creatures find their Eden. Her stories, detailed images, and colours reveal a hidden depth, a reflection of a timeless soul, rich with experience, empathy, love and generosity.” —Paul Destrooper, Artistic Director, Ballet Victoria All photographs by Stefan Cremers.  My winter garden is quiet and lovely, with snow piled onto the shrubs and outlining the trees. For me, this is a time for resting and reflection, reading, drawing, and planning next year’s garden. Gardening has always been a part of my life. As a child, I spent summers playing in my grandfather’s stately and formal gar... posted on Dec 9 2021 (6,833 reads)

is inevitable. Romances end, loved ones die, friends let us down. These experiences might be universal, but their impact can still be devastating. 
This is what science journalist Florence Williams discovered after her husband of 25 years unexpectedly asked for a divorce. William found herself in a daze, shocked and miserable, and even ill. 
 “Physically, I felt like my body had been plugged into a faulty electrical socket,” she writes. “In addition to weight loss, I’d stopped sleeping. I was getting sick: My pancreas wasn’t working right. It was hard to think straight.” To help understand what was happening to her, she t... posted on Apr 13 2022 (7,863 reads)

you willing to believe that you are wrong about something? I was attending a lecture called “Civil Conversation in an Angry Age” by philosopher David Smith, and he offered a prescription for bridging divides that began with this question. “Is it safe to assume all 63 of us are wrong about something right now?” Smith asked the virtual, pandemic-era class. In Zoom squares on my screen, heads considered, then nodded. “I think so, because we’ve been wrong about so many things before,” he continued. But there’s a problem: We don’t know what we’re wrong about. “That simple observation, ‘I’m wrong, I ju... posted on Apr 30 2022 (9,185 reads)

Chandler Allen’s creativity is on display. She’s come up with a new way to provide funding for art supplies in urban public schools, promote the importance of art education for all kids, and beautify office buildings at the same time. Here’s how it works: Allen’s organization, Fresh Artists, invites students in grades K-12 to donate the use of their artwork for large-scale reproduction. Businesses and organizations that make donations to Fresh Artists receive images of the artwork for their offices. In turn, Fresh Artists uses the donations to buy art supplies for Philadelphia’s most under-resourced schools. Allen calls it “lateral philanthr... posted on Dec 5 2010 (6,142 reads)

Interview with Dr. Paul R. Fleischman How would you define meditation? First off, I’d like to clarify that whenever I talk about meditation, I’m really talking specifically about my own experiences with a technique called Vipassana, which I learned in 1974 from Mr. S.N. Goenka, and have been teaching since 1986 under his guidance. Meditation is a form of self observation. In Vipassana meditation, the unique feature is to observe oneself at the level of sensation. Or more specifically, it is to cultivate the capacity for relatively constant, thorough observation of the arising and passing of body sensations. Along with that observation is a concurrent unders... posted on Mar 20 2012 (35,042 reads)

relationship between words and their meaning is a fascinating one, and linguists have spent countless years deconstructing it, taking it apart letter by letter, and trying to figure out why there are so many feelings and ideas that we cannot even put words to, and that our languages cannot identify. The idea that words cannot always say everything has been written about extensively -- as Friedrich Nietzsche said, "Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon the absolute truth." No doubt the best book we’ve read that covers the subject is ‘Through The Language Glass’ by Guy Deutscher, which... posted on Aug 31 2013 (168,553 reads)

sourced solutions for girls’ access to education. In our recent digital action campaign, World Pulse asked our community to share their testimonies on the obstacles that stand in the way of girls' dreams. Grassroots voices from all over the world chimed in with lived experiences that illuminate the disturbing statistics: There are currently 66 million girls in the world that should be in school, but are not. Thirteen girls under age 18 will be married in the next 30 seconds. The number one cause of death for girls aged 15-19 is childbirth. Out of more than 350 submissions from over 60 countries, an alternative vision for the future emerged: Global legions of gi... posted on Nov 15 2013 (23,147 reads)

Laura Lavigne, life holds the magic of a treasure hunt. A keeper of small moments, a spreader of joy, a mother, a dreamer, a doer, not to mention a French baker, Laura is a bright splash of color on any canvas. And she’s walked down quite a multifaceted road along the way. In this Awakin Call conversation with Afreen, she shares stories and lessons from her experiences working as a make-up artist to turning down corporate sponsorship, tossing out her well-rehearsed TEDx speech for spontaneity’s sake, and, time and time again, meeting strangers from the heart. Afreen: What drives you? Laura: I think it started when I was really little. I remember telling my parent... posted on Jan 11 2014 (28,903 reads)

visual catalog of the culturally-conditioned imagination. “Children help us to mediate between the ideal and the real,” MoMA curator Juliet Kinchin wrote in her fantastic design history of childhood. Largely responsible for this singular capacity are children’sremarkably metaphor-ready mindswhich transform toys into triggers for imaginative play, imbuing those seemingly simple plastic artifacts and synthetic-furred beings with life and meaning — a hallmark of childhood that cuts across cultural differences, geographies, and socioeconomic status. That’s precisely what photojournalistGabriele Galimberti explores in Toy Stories: Photos of Children from Around ... posted on May 21 2014 (17,121 reads)

we cry, how we know we aren’t dreaming right now, where the universe ends, what books are for, and more answers to deceptively simple yet profound questions. In 2012, I wrote about a lovely book titled Big Questions from Little People & Simple Answers from Great Minds, in which some of today’s greatest scientists, writers, and philosophers answer kids’ most urgent questions, deceptively simple yet profound. It went on to become one of the year’s best books and among readers’ favorites. A few months later, Gemma Elwin Harris, the editor who had envisioned the project, reached out to invite me to participate in the book’s 2013 edition by... posted on Sep 1 2014 (15,596 reads)

hospital to hospital, a 45-minute ride completed in 13 crazy minutes. A few weeks ago, Chennai traffic came to a standstill to allow a donor heart to reach a dying young woman for an urgent transplant. As families, doctors and cops waited with bated breath, this is what went down inside that wailing ambulance. In some ways, it was surprising that any good could ever come of a cadaver, a heart failure and a vehicle with a live heart in its trunk tearing through a crowded city. That it did on June 16, 2014 in Chennai, and that more than 50 people coordinated the whole thing with surreal precision to save a life, could tempt one to use words like ‘miracle’ or ‘... posted on Aug 11 2014 (16,420 reads)

year Maptia.com published a blog post titled ‘11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures’ with illustrations by Ella Sanders, who was interning with them last summer in Morocco. The next morning they woke to a torrent of emails and tweets from thousands upon thousands of people who had commented, shared, or volunteered more suggestions for these untranslatables. We’ll let Ella share the story of what happened next... JONNY (co-founder at Maptia): Hi Ella! Wow, where to even begin... 400 days ago you were interning with us out in Morocco and today you are are holding your very own book that has just been published with Random House, 48 hours before you... posted on May 10 2021 (48,279 reads)

the grace of redefining ourselves and redefining okayness when life throws us its merciless curveballs. “Grief, when it comes, is nothing like we expect it to be,” Joan Didion wrote in her magnificent meditation on the subject. But oftentimes, grief doesn’t exactly come — not with the single-mindedness and unity of action the word implies. Rather, it creeps up — through the backdoor of the psyche, slowly, in quiet baby steps, until it blindsides the heart with a giant’s stomp. And yet it is possible to find between the floorboards a soft light that awakens those parts of us that go half-asleep through the autopilot of life. That’s precisely ... posted on Dec 30 2014 (37,804 reads)

America’s federally-recognized tribes. Matika Wilbur, Darkfeather, Bibiana and Eckos Ancheta (Tulalip), 2014. Inkjet print 16 x 20 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Images of Native Americans made by non-Natives have a problematic history. During the 19th and early 20th centu­ries, ethnographers often used photos to document and romanticize the last traces of the New World’s “dying cul­tures.” Native Americans survived, but the tradition lives on: Posed images and media stereotypes continue to reduce indigenous peoples to vessels for the American imagination. Photographer Matika Wilbur, a member of the Tulalip and Swinom­ish tribes, aims to ch... posted on Sep 11 2015 (14,933 reads)

care of human life and happiness…is the only legitimate object of good government,” —Thomas Jefferson, 1809. Everyone wants to be happy, and increasingly, countries around the world are looking at happiness as an indicator of national well-being and considering happiness in policy making. As this year’s World Happiness Report states, “Happiness is increasingly considered a proper measure of social progress and a goal of public policy.” But what makes people happy, and which countries have the highest levels of happiness? For the World Happiness Report, researchers ranked countries based on factors including healthy life e... posted on Jul 8 2015 (71,476 reads)