Techno Sapiens

6 min read Happy September, sapiens! My kids are (finally) back to school, and so far, the transition has been shockingly smooth.

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a clinical psychologist, professor, and mom of three who spent the first half of her vacation week blissfully ignoring all email and news. “What important things in my line of work could possibly happen this week?” I thought to myself.

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a clinical psychologist, professor, and mom of three. Thank you to everyone who reached out with kind words about last week’s post (on my son’s superhero obsession and the related science). I did receive multiple messages accusing me of making unsuspecting readers cry, so my apologies, but also, maybe, mission accomplished?

Welcome back to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three kids whose insistence on getting older despite my protests (I mean, really, a full year? At every birthday?!) inspired this essay. Thanks for being here! 6 min read The theme was superheroes. There was a Superman cake. Spiderman plates and napkins. Superhero temporary tattoos.

Welcome back to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three. I live in the Northeast USA, so I am firmly in vacation mode until at least the end of August. My apologies if you live in a place where your children are already back in school (though, maybe, that’s the real vacation?). 3 min read Last week, my husband and I took a short (childless!) vacation to Kennebunkport, Maine, and I returned home with a few observations.

5 min read Happy August, sapiens! Here’s a quick BTS (that’s “behind the scenes”for those of us in ~show business~)1 of how Techno Sapiens gets made: I have an Apple Note that syncs across my phone and laptop. It is called Techno Sapiens Ideas. Throughout the week, I jot down research, news articles, ideas, and stories that I want to remember to share. Once they make it into the newsletter, I delete them.

Hello, sapiens! Today we’ve got a short essay featuring some of my recent musings on AI. As it so happens, this week Substack also announced its new “AI detection tool,” which allows you to scan any post (using, um, AI) for evidence that AI was used to write it. Here, for example, is what it looks like for this post: Substack also now gives writers the option to create a “How I make this” statement.

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three who feels especially human when reflecting on her children’s dinners over the past week. (How many chicken fingers are, actually, too many? Definitely not going to ask AI to answer that.)1 6 min read If you’re here at Techno Sapiens, my guess is that you have spent at least a little bit of time thinking about how to raise kids in the age of AI.

4 min read Hi there, sapiens! How’s your summer going? Here at Techno Sapiens HQ we’re in the midst of a superhero-themed birthday week (month) for my now 5-year-old. We’re talking: superhero costumes, cake, balloons, napkins, temporary tattoos, coloring books, pajamas, shoes, and, of course, this “banner backdrop” I panic-ordered at midnight when I became convinced we didn’t have enough superhero accoutrements. It’s now hanging in our living room. Ah, the joys of parenting.

Welcome to Techno Sapiens! I’m Jacqueline Nesi, a psychologist, professor, and mom of three who, thanks to our sponsors at Light, is embracing a dumbphone summer! [But also, keeping my smartphone for emergencies 🙃]. 6 min read For most of high school, I had a flip phone.