LETTER FROM
THE EDITOR
choose not to take over at all, leaving a confused car in command.”
What’s more, Nass has found
that as we have become more attached to our gadgets, we increasingly expect machines to be in tune
with our moods and feelings. Which
raises a potentially frightening
question: We can trust the cars, but
can we trust our own instincts?
In our Voices section, Dr. Rock
Positano underscores another instance in which we present hazards
to ourselves — distracted walking.
While the subject is often treated
humorously over social media, Dr.
Positano — the director of the Nonsurgical Foot and Ankle Service at
the Hospital for Special Surgery in
New York — says we should be giving it the same serious attention
we give to the use of cell phones in
cars. Case in point: Researchers at
the University of Washington monitored Seattle’s intersections, and
discovered that pedestrians who
texted were four times less likely to
look before crossing streets, stay in
crosswalks, or obey traffic signals.
Elsewhere in the issue, Jaweed
Kaleem highlights “Death Over
Dinner,” a dinner party trend popping up around the world. The
HUFFINGTON
09.29.13
concept: to bring friends and
strangers together through discussions about life and death.
As Michael Hebb, the Seattlebased artist who founded “Death
For Dinner,” puts it, “This is what
We can trust the
cars, but can we trust
our own instincts?”
the table does well. It’s a good
place to have difficult conversations.” Participants like Laura
Sweet, who hosted a dinner party
on her apartment building’s roof,
are finding that frank conversations about death can be refreshing and enlightening. As she put
it, “people hesitated to leave and
said they could talk about this for
days. I don’t use the word magical
much, but this evening was.”
Finally, we continue our focus on
The Third Metric by examining the
lasting scars that socioeconomic
stress can inflict on the
most vulnerable among us.
ARIANNA