Fix Your Tech Neck, Roaming Humanoid Surgeons and Who Decides Your University? with Mel Palleschi, Jag Sharma and Matt Webster - E117
Our phones are reshaping our bodies. Not just mentally, not just metaphorically… LITERALLY reshaping them.
This week on Disconnected, special guest Mel Palleschi helps us dive into how tech is moving closer to us, ruining our necks and grip strength, choosing our university paths, and performing live surgery from across the globe.
This episode of Disconnected covers:
How tech is physically reshaping our bodies, and moving closer to them
AI as a new gatekeeper in university choices
Ethics and inequality in AI‑mediated education and healthcare
Humanoid robots and the future of surgery
Episode Highlights:
“Our phones may be physically changing our bodies, and I don't mean in some distant evolutionary case, I mean right now.” - 5:00 - Jag Sharma
“Even if these effects are relatively small for each person across an entire generation, we could be looking at a potential dumbing down of society.” - 7:40 - Jag Sharma
“Technology doesn't only change what we think; it changes what we repeatedly do, and whatever we do repeatedly eventually changes us.” - 8:40 - Jag Sharma
“Ambient technology blurs that boundary… you may gradually stop noticing that your own life is being mediated by technology at all.” - 11:15 - Jag Sharma
“Snap wouldn't be obsessed with pushing these if they didn't see a screenless future… they're going for the next thing, which is when we look up from our screens.” - 15:40 - Matt Webster
“It was one thing when you held your phone up to record people. It’s another thing where you just can’t tell they’re recording at all.” - 17:15 - Mel Palleschi
“I don’t love the idea of my kids having a phone, especially too early… I also wouldn’t love it if it was just always so easily accessible like that, like wearable tech.” - 23:45 - Mel Palleschi
“This is a hot topic in my world of student marketing… ChatGPT and chatbots are quietly replacing Google and even parents and teachers as the first stop for choosing a university.” - 28:35 - Mel Palleschi
“The opportunity for universities does seem to be clear: they have to make official information easier for AI to find.” - 40:30 - Mel Palleschi
“Universities think they need to persuade two audiences: the student and the algorithm advising them, potentially three audiences if we include the parents.” - 46:35 - Jag Sharma
Links & references:
Matt Webster:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwwebster/
Mel Palleschi
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpalleschi/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hubbublabs/
Jag Sharma: