TED Community » Eric Chen

About Me

Location:
United States, Falmouth, ME
Current organization:
Kids Helping Kids
Current role:
Student
Gender:
Male
Areas of expertise:
Environmentalism
Languages:
English, Chinese, Taiwanese, Spanish

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Environmentalism, The United Nations, Medical Research

Comments

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  • A reply on Conversation: Can we ever know how another person "senses" the world?

    Feb 20 2012: I agree with you that this technology could be incredibly dangerous. In a recent practice debate at school we discussed whether the technology used in Inception would be moral or not. The ultimate conclusion was that the human mind is above all else because it is the only thing that we can keep entirely to ourselves. Of course, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs places physiological needs first but that is beside the point that the privacy of the mind should not be violated.
    If used for the purposes of gaining information, then yes, I certainly agree that this technology is a bad idea. However, if used to achieve a greater sense of understanding between humans… well, that could be a very good thing. We have to consider which of the options outweighs the others, taking particular notice to whether the dangers justify the possible good.

  • A comment on Conversation: Can we ever know how another person "senses" the world?

    Feb 19 2012: From skimming this page I see that most people took the stance that we can never know how another person senses the world. However, I don't see how we can be so sure that this is impossible: We can never actually know the extent of our knowledge. For example, in the middle ages, who would have thought that we could actually travel to the moon or sequence our own DNA? My assumption is very few, if any. Expansion of knowledge is hypothetically limitless.
    We sense things only because a certain number of parameters exist in our bodies - our nervous system, more precisely - and the cells in this system react in generally the same way from human to human. Let's not forget that the DNA across humans is actually very similar. Furthermore it is actually very similar to the DNA of other organisms.
    I would say that we do have the ability to perceive the world as another person does; for example, what if some day we could take a machine like an EEG and connect it between two people, causing the electrical impulses to travel between the two people. I am positive that this achievement would be extremely difficult, but I am not at all convinced that it is impossible.

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