Productivity in the Age of Mixed Reality

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In the past few years we’ve witnessed the launch of more than a dozen HMDs (Head Mounted Displays). Several of them are already available in large numbers. HMDs focused on entertainment (Oculus, Vive) rely on taking over visual perception completely via Virtual Reality. HMDs focused on productivity (HoloLens) mix real life with computer generated imagery drawn upon a transparent display. There are other combinations and means of mixing visual information, so all of this technology has recently been put under the umbrella term Mixed Reality.

This post concerns the productivity aspects of Mixed Reality. It’s a topic I’ve been meaning to play with for more than a year. I find it quite fitting to debut the Futurology^ section on Mentatul with this text, especially since just as I was preparing to write, I stumbled upon the following news (this has to be the work of a muse):

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-trials-hololens-technologies-construction,33490.html^

The purpose behind any post in the Futurology^ category is to launch a wild, boundless speculation regarding what the future holds regarding a certain concept. To get things going, here are some of the things I imagine can be accomplished in the future (productivity-wise) using Mixed Reality.

I’ll list my ideas chronologically, starting with the first things that came to my mind back when I read about what Google Glass can do. Feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments below. With your approval I may integrate these in the article, giving proper credit.

  • Workers are busy adding the finishing touches to a building. Using an HMD similar to a pair of glasses (like HoloLens for instance), they see the position of all other workers, as if they would see through walls. All wiring and pipes are also drawn in their exact positions inside the walls as the user looks around.
    All workers see directions pointing them towards the location of the next task. Let’s take for example the installation of a network socket. The worker is helped to locate all tools required for the task. After the task is completed, a test immediately shows if the connection is successful. If it is not, the worker can simply look around through the walls and see where to go and fix the connection.
  • Operators of large machinery are assisted in anything they do by architectural plans projected over real life terrain. Machines are integrated with this projection and “snap” automatically to the highlighted locations, needing only rough supervision. Of course, operators will soon become completely unnecessary because…
  • Architects are allowed to control and direct robots directly from their office. Work done in CAD applications, after passing several simulations and authorizations, is downloadable by robots that simply print out the structures. Architects are able to use Mixed Reality to fly around the construction site from the comfort of their homes. This technology can be used to construct human-ready colonies as well as mining stations anywhere in the solar system.
  • Before AI becomes sufficiently advanced to perform all these tasks, humans are recruited to supervise the operation of these robots (as is already done in the mining industry^). Gamers might find employment opportunities in a future that relies on a person’s multi-tasking skill, quick reflexes and ability to channel one’s mind into an alternate reality. Think of it as a huge real time strategy game where a gamer controls an army of construction robots.
  • Taking this to the next step, humans supervise self-driving vehicles that are stuck for some reason or require human intervention. Planes, boats and anything that moves is accessible in a “first person” view.
  • The security implications of all that I’ve written are enormously hugely massively gargantuan, and that’s an understatement. However, quantum cryptography might address this issue.
  • Repair manuals are displayed onto a device as the user is fixing it (this tech already on its way!^). With a good system in place for spare parts management, this enables any reasonably handy person to fix almost anything. Of course, this means that the religion of Consumerism^ should give up on one of its founding principles: planned obsolescence.
  • Taking this one step further, in times of crisis when a hospital is not accessible, simple surgical programs can help lightly trained individuals to perform tasks that would normally be beyond their capability.

The Futurology Disclaimer: I do not claim that my ideas are original. I’m sure these suggestions are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved, but hopefully they’ve scratched enough to get anybody inspired to come up with more. I’m also sure many of these ideas are already being worked on by several organizations. If any of the ideas listed by anybody on this page are original and will benefit any organization, I expect credit to be given where it’s due.

Version history:

2017-02-08 – 1.0 – Written.

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Boys Need Extra Empathy Lessons

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The fact that empathy is a career-enhancing skill should give parents enough reason to instill it in their children. The fact that empathy can also stimulate a social group’s technological progress through increased collaboration and innovation should give governments enough reason to implement it throughout the educational system.

Here’s an article that explains exactly why empathy is so important, complete with the necessary explanations to drive the point home:

https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/25/why-its-imperative-to-teach-empathy-to-boys/^

Even though we evolved emotionally quite a bit in the past centuries our society continues to often exhibit a severe lack of empathy, especially when it comes to the male demographic. Perhaps it’s time for governments to realize that empathic men are more useful than those whose emotions were twisted in order to condition them to become obedient soldiers, ready to slaughter each other to fill somebody’s coffers. Perhaps that made sense last century, but we’re past the point where we can survive a third world war, so any investment in that sort of competition is a recipe for social bankruptcy.

I insist on the government aspect because it is the fastest and most efficient way to implement such changes. Government controls standardized education. Education is what forms not only our children, but future parents as well. It is of critical importance that future parents are empathic, so that the children to come develop in a proper environment both at home and at school.

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Catholic Church Introduces “SalveAtion” Digital Assistant

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Faced with the prospect of ever-decreasing popularity, the old religions are starting to take serious measures in order to catch up. Taking some cues from the world’s fastest growing religion, Consumerism^, the Catholic Church has launched a promising new product.

“SalveAtion is one part virtual church and one part shop”, declared father Pepe Monezi, archcoder of the application. “We’re streaming an ever-increasing number of sermons. Faithful Catholics will receive in-app currency when sharing religious content on popular social networks or when convincing their friends or relatives to join our religion. The app also provides an instant baptism service. All you need is to do is say ‘Hello Salvation, please christen me’. Converting has never been easier.”

The Church’s newly established Digital Deliverance department is in charge with developing the application under the leadership of archbishop Dominicus Panteos. We asked the archbishop for more details about the in-app currency:

“Our digital currency is the innoCent. The faithful will be able to gather innoCents by doing good deeds, listening and sharing sermons and convincing others to install SalveAtion and baptize themselves. Of course, innoCents can also be purchased with real money.”

Naturally, we became curious what can be purchased with innoCents via the application. Sure enough, the Catholic Church seems well prepared for bringing itself in the third millennium and has provided us with a list of services the faithful can enjoy, along with an example voice command that can optionally be used to activate said functionality.

  • “Hello Salvation, Washy my sins” begins an online confession with Washy, a virtual priest with a library of more than 2000 soothing phrases and 300 inventive suggestions for acts of contrition. The user needs at least 100 innoCents for the command to work. Otherwise, a “Be more innocent” error message will be spoken or displayed on screen.
  • “Hello Salvation, lift me up” sends a request for a favorable mention during the prayer of the nearest local priest. Cost: 200.
  • “I actually liked Benedict”. Cap with ex-Pope Benedict’s printed signature: 600.
  • “Helpdesk my sins”. Online confession through our Helpdesk: 999.
  • “Make me a bit pure”. Forgiveness of minor sin: 1500.
  • “I like to show off”. Poster signed by a genuine Vatican priest: 2000.
  • “Do me like in the church”. Online confession with a genuine priest: 3000.
  • “I want to get stoned”. Pebble from the gardens of the Vatican (transport not included): 5000.
  • “Make me really pure”. Forgiveness of major sin: 15000.
  • “I need more fame”. Mention of your name in the monthly “May These Faithful Be Redeemed” public statement, available on the Vatican’s website: 18000.
  • “Bling me up”. Flower bouquet from the gardens of the Vatican (transport not included, limited availability): 25000.
  • “Put in a good word for me”. Favorable mention during prayer in a random church in Italy: 35000.
  • “I ain’t no saint”. Submit your name for the monthly Virtual Canonization lottery. Winners’ e-mail addresses will be added in the application’s “Hall of Saints”. To add realism to the canonization, the user’s account will be purged from the database, so better do this when you have an exact number of innoCents. Cost: 52137.
  • “Hello Pope”. Ask the Pope a question (answer not guaranteed): 82000.
  • “Hello God”. Ask God a question (answer not guaranteed): 250500.

 

 

 

This text has been published in the “Satire” category for a good reason.

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Consumerism as Religion

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A certain sense of achievement can arise following the break with organized religion. Many people rightly feel they have been freed from a prison of outdated practices and mentalities. Yet, the human need for belonging and confirmation has not disappeared. Neither has the inventive human spirit, always ready to prey upon its own in the quest for profit.

Consumerism is defined as a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. The way this behavior spreads and elevates its status in society is surprisingly similar with religious traditions. This text is about some rather amusing parallels that all but indicate that consumerism is taking advantage of the power void left by fall from grace of organized religion.

This is not to say that consumerism has any of the spiritual virtues that religion often promotes. That’s exactly the problem – consumerism is an economic tool that is capitalizing on an intimate need. It’s the wrong cure for something that isn’t even a problem. And it’s proving to be increasingly costly for the future of our ecosystem and thus, our quality of life in the coming decades and centuries.

Before we continue, it’s important to note that this text is not against commerce and certainly not against spending or making money. We all need to sustain ourselves. We have to trade. Companies need to make their products known. However, thanks to consumerism, the principle of “profit trumps quality and ethics” has entered a phase of dangerous, accelerated spread.

Parallels

In the past few thousands of years we’ve been quite busy building various places of worship. This hasn’t changed with consumerism. There is a new type of building that has become not only popular but paramount to the faithful in almost any city touched by this new “religion”.

The shopping mall is where consumerism is preached to both those that are already converted and to those that haven’t yet become faithful shoppers. Here, people are busier than they’ve ever been in churches because the shops ensure there is some tangible value associated with the ritualistic visit.

Sound shopping advice
The image above is a perfect example of consumerist indoctrination. What sort of person goes to a clothing store every day? The consumerist faithful, of course.

While religions split into opposing organizations, cults and sects, in consumerism we have companies. These are headed by a sort of bishop known as the CEO or the president – which is sometimes worshiped like some sort of saint. Most respectable companies have a unique “brand identity”, represented by images, slogans and even vague principles. Everything is carefully chosen to provide maximum marketing value with a minimum of transparency and accountability.

Corporate followers are encouraged to wear and disseminate this illusory identity wherever they go. The new breed of faithful has less fervor than those that believe in the gods of old, which is probably good, because it would get pretty chaotic when fans of clothing brand X engage in holy war with those of brand Y. Even so, intense rivalries continue to exist. In what is a fortunate ideological regression, the fanboy has taken the place of the crusader.

Consumerist faithful sometimes undergo pilgrimages to far-away shopping meccas – large cities that host veritable mall-cathedrals. For the most part, this venture is preoccupied with gaining status rather than the acquisition of items with reasonable value. As with any pilgrimage, the result is internal satisfaction. Unlike spiritual journeys however, shopping satisfaction stems from a sense of advancement through society rather than personal evolution.

It’s perfectly fine for people to go out of their way to search and find products they love, including traveling to other countries. But for the consumerist worshiper, this is not a necessity anymore. It has become a habit, a social obligation and sometimes an unrecognized burden.

Social restructuring

If consumerism were to have a creed, this would be planned obsolescence – a well-honed method of transforming value into junk as soon as possible. This is how consumerism funds its spread through the world. A vast amount of profit is generated by a system that takes resources absorbed from the earth, digests them in factories, puts them through the retail distribution system and then flushes everything as quickly as possible into landfills.

A significant part of the profit this organism produces is invested into evangelism. This goes way beyond advertisement. Huge sums are invested into opening new markets. This doesn’t mean only adapting and inventing products for those markets, but also modifying the cultural norms there. Sometimes social reformation takes decades of carefully planned reprogramming via mass-media, but the families behind the biggest names in manufacturing operate on a generational scale. For these pragmatic financial strategists, a century is a rather short time to accomplish the goal of economic supremacy.

A good example of social restructuring is the need to keep in pace with the latest fashion. People weren’t obsessed with perpetually upgrading their smartphones some years ago. But through clever marketing, based on merciless psychological manipulation, cultural norms were reformed. It’ll be “interesting” to see how the arrival of smart appliances and mainstream robotics will shape the commercial landscape.

Divide and conquer

Reward mechanisms in the brain mean that shopping can offer a quick – but very superficial – fix to other issues, either psychological or emotional. In consumerism, happiness is found in four bags loaded with products, deliverance is obtained through status. People educated in this economic environment find material substitutes for various emotional needs such as security or spiritual comfort. Unfortunately, there are few things indeed that are more insubstantial for one’s personal growth than substance itself.

The rampant, almost obsessive individualism that characterizes many societies –especially in the Western world – is a fertile soil for the consumerist dogma. It is quite likely that this was the intent in the first place. A divided society where people feel alone and disconnected is the perfect marketplace for all manners of fake medicine. Ripped from the support of true connection and friendship, many people wander meaninglessly across bland webpages whose only purpose is to guide them to the next shop.

Solutions

Getting rid of consumerism doesn’t mean that companies that depend on it have to suffer. Like I mentioned in a previous article^, economic entities can adapt and invent new ways to compete. What is required is that we, as shoppers, support those companies that embrace sustainable methods. Products that meet such manufacturing conditions will be more expensive, but they will outlast their cheaper alternatives making the investment well worth it.

Consumerism won’t last forever, even if for no other reason that the simple fact that chain reactions, even economic ones, are not sustainable in the long run. The companies that prepare themselves best for the next economy will be those that will rule it. What we can do as members of society is to make everything possible to ensure a soft landing after the inevitable crash that will follow when the consumerist bubble finally bursts. In this case, let’s wish it ends with a whimper, not with a bang.

 

Completing this article’s tragi-comical mood, here’s an awesome video about the craziness on Black Friday. Perhaps the early third millennium shopper does have a crusader’s fervor after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3RDTxVCKC4^

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Parenting – in Three Words

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Parenting advice is a dime a dozen these days. A part of it comes from well conducted studies and centuries of pediatric experience. Sometimes, even more convincing advice comes from a person’s entourage and originates from all sorts of personal experience that parents tend to generalize. This torrent of theories and information falls prey to its own diversity. Conflicting advice becomes commonplace and it can all become very confusing before you know it.

I knew all this way before becoming a parent. I’ve seen the frustration of other parents as they try to combine advice from many different sources. So, when becoming a parent, I gave this matter some serious thought. What if there was no advice at all? What would I do then? I brought it down to these three words which, so far, I’ve found to be a solid foundation for being a good parent: loving, patient, careful.

Be loving. Love can bring out the beauty, humor, playfulness and teaching of almost any situation. Children are amazing at sensing, reacting to and recording feelings. Before they can comprehend speech, this is the way they communicate with their parents, getting information about the world they have entered. Love is a powerful statement that they are safe. This brings the best in any child. Even when a baby is in distress, a loving parent will make the situation much more manageable for both.

Love transpires from every action. Even if a parent is stressed or worried, if the love is there, it will make the other, more negative feelings, much easier for the child to cope with. And besides, it’s important for children to see that their parents can be stressed or worried. These are facts of life on Earth. As long as the love is there, a child will use it as shelter whenever exposure to other feelings becomes overwhelming.

Be patient. Patience is a key ingredient in tackling most difficult situations. It allows one to keep one’s wits about. Love and patience have a synergetic relationship, enhancing and completing each other. The feeling of love stimulates the practice of patience. In turn, patience ensures love has a space to unfold. The disarming innocence and budding intelligence of a child is like a restless sea. Only the patient explorer will find peaceful land.

One of my patience-stimulating tricks is to think about parents who are in a much worse situation than I am in at a given moment. At times, my parents had to wash my (cloth) diapers with melted snow at the light of a candle. Other parents have children with serious issues or are themselves going through difficult struggles. There’s almost always something worse that could happen, so a poo in a freshly changed diaper at 3 AM isn’t such a big deal now is it? At least there was something to poo!

Be careful. There is very little room for error when it comes to children. Fortunately, this is instinctive knowledge. But it never hurts to emphasize this. One mistake can turn a happy childhood into a life-long relationship with the healthcare industry. And I don’t necessarily mean physical harm. Parents have to be careful to everything they expose their children to: environment, food, entertainment, people, chemicals and medicine.

Here’s an example of a recent mistake I’ve made. We recently agreed to perform a blood test for rare diseases on our son. If I were more careful, I’d have read more information about how the blood is extracted. I didn’t, so we went to the test and it turned out that the nurse had to drill with a needle in our son’s hand for more than five minutes while complaining that “they have tiny blood vessels”. It was completely barbaric and unnecessary in my opinion. Maybe children don’t remember what happened to them in their first years, but they are definitely influenced by it. That’s my belief. But because I wasn’t careful, I didn’t even get the chance to act on my belief (and skip the test).

Love, patience, care – that’s the only foundation any parent needs for their child’s education. It’s a foundation that will only allow good parenting advice to be built upon. And the marvelous thing about such a foundation is that it can be used for any undertaking in life and to life itself. Loving, patient, caring people will always go the extra mile, succeed in the final challenge and live to laugh and celebrate the teachings that life brought to them.

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The Great Work

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The concept of a life’s Great Work is often mentioned in association with famous artists, social leaders, scientists and so on. That is simply because the Great Works of these people went on to influence very many others. However, we all have these experiential masterpieces hidden within us, just waiting to be manifested fully. It’s not a matter of fame at all. A Work is Great if even one being is greatly thankful for it.

Life has an infinite amount of potential. Often though, we find ourselves at a crossroads, unsure how to unlock what lies within. And this is where Robin’s book comes in. You can see it as a map for reaching a life’s hidden potential:

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-You-Illusion-Accomplish-Great-ebook/dp/B01MSU561N^

The book’s description resonated deeply with me. I completely agree with the message. As I explained in a previous posting^, I am of the opinion that art is “anything that expresses free will in order to stimulate an intense emotional response”. By reinterpreting the definition of art and celebrating its myriad facets, I share the belief that a Great Work lies within everybody – as an obvious effect of the fact that we are all artists, expressing through our various professions. A scientist turns future-telling into art, a social leader turns communication into art and a good driver weaves speed and safety together into an artful drive.

I am extremely happy to see that this book exists. Having such a wide definition of art also means that I am very encouraging towards people to express their talent in any way they can. I would have loved to take this encouragement I have inside and put it into the perfect words for it to be transmitted. I realized I had this wish only when I learned about this book. I felt like lo and behold, the Universe has been merciful and here it is, a book that encourages and stokes the fire of creation and then some!

I believe we are all not only capable, but are right now completing our Great Works. Life is one’s Great Work. But sometimes, much of it remains under wraps, hidden in the “corner of hope” of our imagination. Let’s shine some light towards that corner and bring out the beauty!

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The Earth without Art Is Just Eh…

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This cute pun is quite old indeed by now, but I praise the anonymous that put forward these most beautiful words. A disarming, naked truth shines with amusement from this simple sentence, a lyrical gem.

Personally, by “art” I do not understand “the arts”, as in: “a rather limited range of accepted creative expression and style”. My definition of art is “anything that expresses free will to draw an intense emotional response”. Food can be art, coming up with a beautiful surprise for a friend can be art.

And when I say “free will”, I mean whatever each being uses as a motivator for actions. We call it “instinct” in other beings in order to separate it from the higher level of consciousness at which we believe ourselves to be. But a wolf has free will even if in its world it has a completely different (wolf-)rationalization than in ours.

From the long lasting to the ephemeral, art has infinite manifestations, just like the Universe that gave it birth. Living this life is the art we are all given time to perform.

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What It Means to Be Holding Space for Someone

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Many of us have problems dealing with friends who are dealing with grief or are acutely or chronically depressed. This wonderful article provides some seriously useful information on the topic.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/what-it-really-means-to-hold-space-for-someone/^

I try to keep a rather neutral tone on the website, or at least try to be open ended about everything I write about. I am also aware that I may be wrong with everything I think about (ahem, ahem, elections USA 2016?^). But in this case, I’m going to seriously ask you to read the article I linked. Come on, you made it this far, go and some extract some invaluable information out of that text.

You don’t even have to read it word for word! It’s good enough if you read most of it. Enjoy! Oh, and if you ever want to thank me, share this post with somebody (couldn’t help it, sorry. Writers have to become popular if they want any sort of chance in life and besides, this is information worth sharing).

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About Zuckerberg’s Global Community Vision

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Two weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of FaceBook, dropped what I consider to be an ideological bombshell on the tech industry and on business in general. It doesn’t even matter what the true intentions behind it are. It grabbed attention and dared to change – at least for a little while – the tune of the global business discourse.

Mark’s Global Community^ post is very well written and published at the ideal time to provide maximum PR value. I’m not surprised that some have even seen it as a sort of political statement. I liked how this article^ from The Guardian explores the text.

Perhaps this is indeed the beginning of the age of corporations governing the planet publicly (rather than from the shadows). If it is, I’d definitely have Mark run the show rather than somebody like Trump. I try to keep a balanced tone on this website but even though I can understand why Trump has become the man he is (given the society that shaped him), I do believe it’s healthier to leave his world ideology behind and advance to something more akin to what Mark is envisioning.

Mark’s “manifesto”, as some in the press have called it, is of course rich with positive examples about FaceBook’s achievements. What I really appreciated though is the fact that it acknowledged some serious issues with the website, such as the fact that some people’s posts get censored when they shouldn’t and posts that should be removed are not. Mark’s explanation for this makes a lot of sense: “we’re operating at such a large scale that even a small percent of errors causes a large number of bad experiences.”

Still, FaceBook does censorship. It has a special kind of censorship but it’s still censorship. And I don’t mean this respected author^ getting banned for saying bad things about Trump’s supporters. Perhaps that was a good way to break the circle of insults. What I mean is how FaceBook prevents people from being exposed to other opinions, keeping them inside their comfort zones, blissfully unaware of the storm raging outside. I call this phenomenon ideological clumping. FaceBook engages in this probably because a happy user generates more revenue for the company.

This issue of ideological clumping is addressed in the manifesto so I’m curious how FaceBook will deal with it in the future, especially given the fact that its financial model is based on convincing creatives to pay money in order to get their content in front of their followers. By this I mean how the default follow command on FaceBook only means that a user allows the application’s algorithms to sometimes show posts from a followed person, page or group.

The manifesto also addresses the issue of fake news. The viral spread of misinformation using social media is an intellectual disease that has given Trump more than a few votes – granted, he wasn’t the sole benefactor of this phenomenon. Sadly, this is a problem that Mark & co. will have to work much harder to fix than by writing a goody two shoes manifesto.

Last but not least, FaceBook’s visionary CEO mentions artificial intelligence quite often. Trusting A.I. to do the very hard work of curating content is a risky bet with a lot of unknowns – something he acknowledges, but not strongly enough I think. If A.I. were truly intelligent I’d be more inclined to trust it, but right now, we’re talking about some closed-source (sometimes buggy) algorithms that are controlling the information people are exposed to, not to mention able to shut people up. There’s less intelligence in there than there is manipulation for the advertisers’ interests.

I’m quite sure the company has plenty of ulterior motives when it wants to offer free internet to people. Mark actually made some parallels to television in his text. Well, television was free in many countries if only to make it easier to manipulate the masses. “Connect the world” they say. But FaceBook is not only a tool for change. It’s also an advertisement platform, let’s not forget that. And the kind of product that political parties have to sell is much more dangerous than a brand of bad detergent.

When it’s all said and done, I think that Mark’s step forward volunteering to do what can be done in helping with global problems is a positive example for corporate responsibility. This manifesto was needed and I’m truly happy it’s out there. For this reason, I’m going to give Mark & co. the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what the future holds. So far, score 1 for FaceBook.

Oh, and one more thing. I am really curious to see how other corporations will respond to this and if they even will. I’m thinking especially about Google, whose “do no evil” mantra 5 to 10 years ago was heading the company towards the same style of social action that FaceBook is doing today. But now-a-days Google’s execs seem even more uninspiring than Microsoft’s.

Today FaceBook has something way more powerful than Google: it has people’s lives, not only their web searches. Combine this with a bright CEO that has a very skilled PR team behind him and you get yourself a serious challenger to tech leadership. If Mark showed anything to these behemoths it’s the fact that in the 21st century a CEO is as much a public figure as any politician and perhaps even more needed.

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How Pregnancy Changes the Brain

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Almost any woman withbaby can tell you that they feel that their mind works differently than before. I always attributed this to the fact that during fetal development, the brain has to adapt to an increased amount of work. It’s all the extra that comes from regulating the operation of all the additional bodily functions that are required by the development of a new human being. After birth, the brain has to adjust once again, dealing with the extremely complex social dynamics that are involved in having a new human being around in a group – and the larger the group, the more variables the brain will have to keep track of.

A recent neuroimaging study has found pronounced differences in the physical structure of women’s brains during fetal development and afterwards:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/12/19/pregnancy-changes-the-brain-for-as-long-as-two-years/?utm_term=.824fa427caec^

The fact that these changes occur shouldn’t come as a surprise at all. It’s our body working at its finest, adapting in wonderful ways to the tasks that it has to undertake. I’m happy that scientists have went through the effort to understand more about this important period in a woman’s life and about the changes that occur. Now we have one more reason to be in awe of our body’s amazing complexity.

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