On October 14, All Souls Church in New York City will host a live conversation between MIT professor and bestselling author Sherry Turkle and mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn. The event celebrates Turkle's new book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, published September 29 by Little, Brown and Company. The discussion, produced by Steve Stein and WisdomFeed Publishing, marks the third time Turkle and Kabat-Zinn have conversed, following two online episodes of the StreetSmart Wisdom Podcast. This time, they will meet in person at 80th Street and Lexington Avenue, bringing their dialogue to street level before a live audience and via livestream.
The significance of this event lies in its timing and focus. As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves beyond mere information and productivity tools, it increasingly enters the deeply human territory of companionship, empathy, advice, loneliness and relationships. Turkle's book examines what happens when people turn to machines not simply to accomplish tasks, but for forms of companionship, counsel and emotional connection once associated with human relationships. The conversation between Turkle and Kabat-Zinn promises to delve into these urgent questions, combining Turkle's decades of research into our evolving relationship with technology and Kabat-Zinn's decades of work on mindfulness, awareness and presence.
During their first StreetSmart Wisdom conversation, Turkle described the urgency of the moment: "This is a break the glass moment. How are we going to govern? How are we going to think about the challenge we face?" Kabat-Zinn approached the same moment through the relationship between the digital world and our analog humanity: "What is happening now is the convergence of the analog and the digital in such a way that we had best... realize the full dimensionality and potential of the analog world before... we lose it to... fake empathy from machines." Those questions are at the heart of Turkle's new book.
In that earlier conversation, Turkle posed a question that has become increasingly central as conversational AI enters everyday life: "The question for me is, is pretend empathy enough? And how do we as people who have this extraordinary gift for real empathy because of... the arc of a human life... How do we connect?" These are not abstract concerns. As AI companions and chatbots become more sophisticated, they risk substituting genuine human connection with simulated empathy, potentially altering how individuals relate to one another and to themselves.
The October 14 event will bring these issues to a public forum, offering attendees and livestream viewers a chance to engage with two leading thinkers on technology and mindfulness. Turkle will sign copies of Artificial Intimacy following the program. WisdomFeed Publishing extends special thanks to All Souls for opening its sanctuary to this conversation and the New York community. For information and registration, visit https://wisdomfeed.thrivecart.com/artificial-intimacy/.
This conversation matters because it confronts a growing cultural shift: the blurring line between human and machine intimacy. As Turkle and Kabat-Zinn argue, the stakes are high. How society navigates the rise of artificial intimacy will shape the future of human connection, empathy and what it means to be human in a digital age.
