Calm technology

Supporting human experience through life-changing medical decisions and treatments

Reframing problem:

This is about supporting the human experience.

In human experience, meaning matters more than function.

To innovate forms of supporting patients and caregivers, we need to advance forms of bringing meaning into the human experience through treatment decision-making and care planning.

To support the human experience through the treatment journey, we need to intentionally lean into the ways people with cancer reaffirm the purpose of life, and make ongoing survival meaningful.

People cope with the existential crisis of cancer by reevaluating what makes ongoing survival meaningful.

What if we recognize this core human coping strategy as an active ingredient and source of innovative energy for supporting the human experience through cancer treatment planning and care?

Reasons to stay alive are the active ingredients of coping and need to be considered an active resource for supporting human experience through treatment planning and care.

Our relationship with technology is expanding: the experiential potential of adaptive /ML & AI-powered/ technology doesn't end at automating tasks, but it could extend to supporting our emotional and ethical response.

Experience gains meaning when we can see how it is connected to other things that we value.

Adaptive, always-on technologies are becoming less like tools and more like part of our extended mental apparatus.