Shifting Relationships to Self + Others: Perspectives from Neuroscience and Tech

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Robert Waldinger and Linda Stone, sharing perspectives from neuroscience and tech to address questions about our shifting relationships to ourselves and others around us.

What does it mean to be connected in the digital world? Do these advancements shift our fundamental definitions of 'happiness' and 'fulfillment'? How does technology help or hinder our ability to build meaningful relationships in an age of ubiquitous social networks and viral interest in quantified self? How should these changes affect the tech we engineer and design?

We're SUPER lucky to be hearing from two amazing speakers. Robert Waldinger (http://bit.ly/TED-happiness) is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen priest. He is a Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School, and he is the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development--over 75 years and ongoing, it's one of the longest and most complete studies of adult life ever conducted. Professor Waldinger's TED talk has garnered over 16,000,000 views as it weaves cutting-edge science with old wisdom to get at fundamental questions--what relationships tie us together, which relationships keep us individually healthy, and what makes a good life?

Linda Stone (https://lindastone.net/about/) is a thought leader focused on our relationship to technology and how it can impair or evolve our relationships to ourselves. She served in leadership roles early in Microsoft and Apple and has stayed in the technology space since. She's part of the TED Catalyst Advisory Group and MIT Media Lab Advisory Board. Linda has explored, since the early days of tech, the impact of technology on our attention and coined the terms "continuous partial attention," "screen apnea," and "email apnea." Today, Linda is exploring a set of ideas she refers to as Essential Self technology; wise body supported by helpful technology.

After talks, we'll open the floor to hear from each other--share ideas and work, find new collaborators... it's about relationships after all :)

See you all soon!