TED Community » C Medansky

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• TEDCred score: +7.80 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Paul Zak: Trust, morality -- and oxytocin?

  Apr 14 2013: Oxytocin is currently being tested on CHILDREN ages 3-17 with Autistic Disorder (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01308749). There is not a single published study on the long-term behavioral effects of multiple doses of oxytocin in animals or humans. Karen Bales, behavioral neuroscientist at UC Davis, cautions, “There’s been this quick leap from looking at a single dose of oxytocin in healthy adults to trying to give it to children with autism whose brains are still developing.” #BigPharma
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  A comment on Talk: Beau Lotto + Amy O�Toole: Science is for everyone, kids included

  Dec 6 2012: Thank you so much! This is absolutely my favorite TED talk to date.
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  A comment on Talk: Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal

  Sep 16 2012: We currently produce enough food worldwide to meet the daily needs of 11.5 billion people—No one should be painfully hungry! We must simply switch our attitudes and behavior toward global cooperation and mutual responsibility. “Efficient solutions exist along the whole food chain, for reducing total amounts of food lost and wasted. Actions should not only be directed towards isolated parts of the chain, since what is done (or not done) in one part has effects in others.” SIK, SAVE FOOD! 2011
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  A comment on Conversation: Do games really make a better world?

  Aug 15 2012: Social play behavior in animals as well as human history suggests that games are essential to growth and development. As noted in Jane McGonigal’s book, the first written history of human game play was a survival strategy against famine resulting in an epic win—the people not only survived the famine, but also developed a highly sophisticated culture of art, agriculture, and urban planning. While we cannot simply sail off to another land to escape today’s global crisis, there is nevertheless growing speculation about the socio-political impact of the “exodus to the virtual world” away from the traditional, material-based economy. If games are clues to the future, as Bernard Suits suggests, perhaps the potential that game play offers for increasing community engagement is the key. Most gamers never read a game manual preferring social exchange to being spoon-fed the rules and game play offers a tremendous opportunity for gamers to connect with one another and practice reciprocity and cooperation, a far better global survival strategy than our current system, which increasingly prioritizes individualism and competition.
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  A comment on Talk: Rory Sutherland: Perspective is everything

  May 8 2012: As Rory Sutherland pointed out, “Where economists make the fundamental mistake is they think that money is money.” Indeed, many economists today are expressing concern over the consumer sentiment that is impacting the financial system. What the economists are calling the “consumer sentiment” is actually the influence of the human attitude on the economy. This influence is, in fact, the defining factor, because the economy is a reflection of society’s relationships. Because the relationships have become different – global, the economy must now account for people’s complete interconnectedness. The Nielsen Global Social Responsibility Report March 2012 confirms that two thirds (66%) of consumers around the world say they prefer to buy products and services from companies that have implemented programs to give back to society and nearly half (46 percent) of the socially-conscious consumers are willing to pay extra for products and services from these companies. Economists should understand that in the future, those who will succeed and win are the ones that build business for the common good.
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  A reply on Conversation: In your opinion, what should the purpose of education be?

  Dec 28 2011: Thanks Mark! In answer to your question: YES, I positively accept that potential as the potential to love, potential to empathize, potential to play, create, to be happy, to spread happiness, to be sensitive to the needs of our planet, and agree with Jeremy Rifkin (The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis) that distributed and collaborative learning experiences that foster critical thinking skills and greater empathic engagement go hand-in-hand with curricula emphasizing the interconnectedness of life and geochemical processes, preparing our children to think and act as part of a global family in a shared biosphere.
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  A reply on Conversation: In your opinion, what should the purpose of education be?

  Dec 28 2011: Who is a good question—we must first of all recognize who or what constitutes education. About the age of seven, a child becomes acutely susceptible to suggestion of the values and ideas implicit in society; therefore, we must rethink our programs and systems of education (including the media) in order to provide an appropriate quality education that will enable all children to fulfill their potential and contribute to building a sustainable and just global society.
  
  “Education must simultaneously provide maps of a complex world in constant turmoil and the compass that will enable people to find their way in it.” (Delors Report, Learning: the Treasure Within)
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  A comment on Conversation: In your opinion, what should the purpose of education be?

  Dec 27 2011: Great conversation and I am very happy for the opportunity to read though all the ideas here.
  
  I certainly agree that our modern education system derived from perpetuating the values of industrialism; the problem is that while basic literacy prepares workers for a position within the industry it does not concern itself with the special abilities that exist in each child allowing them to develop and contribute to society as is best for them.
  
  Although education and literacy are distinct, the emphasis must always be on education. The elements of literacy should be integrated throughout the day in a social manner through music, theatre, games and in the form of group discussions where the educators’ job is to assist students in transitioning from topic to topic and students learn how the various disciplines are tied into the whole picture of reality.
  
  The purpose of education should be to prepare children for life, nourishing the potential in every child so that each may connect and contribute his/her unique ideas and abilities to society.

• A comment on Talk: Paul Zak: Trust, morality -- and oxytocin?

  Nov 2 2011: Wait a minute….Paul Zak says: the change in oxytocin “predicted” their feelings of empathy. Isn’t it rather that their feelings of empathy “predicted” the change in oxytocin? Thus, the practical application would be to increase our feelings of empathy from the bottom up by strengthening the social connections among humanity.

• A comment on Conversation: I believe the right to an education is a basic human right..what can we do to make that a reality?

  Oct 15 2011: We need to provide a virtual educational environment for children all over the world where – an environment that facilitates their development as well as the opportunity to realize their enormous potential! Through guided education and activities with other children, they will gain an understanding of themselves and the world as well the opportunity to realize that they can improve humanity with their actions and intentions.