The accelerating growth of technology has brought opportunities to the blind but has also created barriers, says Ray Kurzweil. “At the end of this first decade of this new century, everyone will be on-line all the time with very high speed, wireless communication woven into their clothing. Within a couple of decades, we will have established new high bandwidth pathways of communication directly to and from our brains. Will this represent a great enabler for blind students and workers or a new set of obstructions?” Former National Federation of the Blind president Dr. Kenneth Jernigan’s vision of “the world’s first world-class research and training institute for the blind” should help.… read more

Many people are ill-equipped to handle uncertainty. But the study of smart heuristics shows that there are strategies people actually use to make good decisions that deal openly with uncertainties, rather than denying their existence.… read more