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Jason Pontin

Editor in Chief/Publisher, MIT's Technology Review

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"Why Can't We Solve Big Problems?"

I'll be giving a TED U Talk in Longbeach at the end of the month. I'll be asking "Why Can't We Solve Big Problems?" I think that blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard.

I'd love to know what the TED Community thinks our difficulties are - or, even if the idea is true at all.

Here's a URL to the story I wrote in MIT Technology Review on the subject: http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429690/why-we-cant-solve-big-problems/

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    Bushy Van Eck

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    Mar 10 2013: I believe when we talk of Big Problems many of us think society rather than technology. Oprah comments to many of her guests " if everything is so good why doesn't it look like it"? It is becoming more evident there is a movement by capable people to make a difference on the Micro level. So although we may not feel we are solving the big problems we are a movement taking place in the world. Remember without differences we would mean nothing. We all have the gift of Freewill to make a difference and leave our fingerprint. Solving the Big Problem may not be as important as what choices we make as individuals to help make the world a better place. The true gift is that we can all make a difference at any given moment by respecting each other and our differences.

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