Keeping Your Cool

Can tech prevent emotional meltdowns?

Leor Grebler
2 min readMar 30, 2019

I’m wondering if there’s a way for technology to allow us to keep our cool in the worst situations or is the only potential aid it can give is my reducing the situations that can accumulate to a meltdown. Fear of airplane rides, lack of sleep, long line ups, family reunions or goodbyes, lack of certainty about customs… it’s no wonder that any interruption in air travel leads to tirades, yelling matches, and other violence.

Sure, airlines can optimize schedules or reroute passengers, but what about those who are stranded overnight and are forced to wait in long line ups? What about those who have no options?

Can technology intervene when we’re about to go bonkers?

Is there something that an external source can do to diffuse our stress?

Whenever I think of what magic AI could potentially do, I just think about what a considerate human might do to intervene.

What would you tell Michael Douglas’ character in Falling Down to avoid him from flashing a gun because breakfast isn’t being served past 10 AM (or any other grievances)? And on grievances, is the airing of grievances ala Festivus a cleansing activity or one that leads to more frustration and cementing of opinion? Serenity now!

As the meme goes…

But maybe a nudge? Maybe a cookie?

What if face unlock could see that vein popping out of your forehead and show you a puppy?

What if typing or voice conversations were temporarily disabled when your heart went above a certain rate why you were irate?

There’s still a lot of potential in keeping us from acting our worst.

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Leor Grebler
Leor Grebler

Written by Leor Grebler

Independent daily thoughts on all things future, voice technologies and AI. More at http://linkedin.com/in/grebler

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