TED Community » Daniel Seiser

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Agricultural innovation, genetics, fully automated improve music, controlling population growth, and science fiction/fantasy.

An idea worth spreading

We know that if we could just properly utilize the carbon that we have in our atmosphere, it would greatly improve our Earth. We can do it with agrichar... so economically; eventually it will be essential to swap a lot of our more uselss mineral mass with the mass of the carbon dioxide of the planet Venus. ! ! ! Please someone, just think about this.

Talk to me about

People who want to do agrichar with the goal of transforming so called desert regions that have enough rainfall to sustain plants in earth enriched with terra preta. Also, random music generation.

People don't know that I'm good at

Coming up with greatly undervalued ideas for making money and improving the world.

My TED Story

For years I've been googling for other intelligent people with great ideas. 19 Jan 2012, discovered TED.

Comments

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• A reply on Conversation: Hypothetically, If you became a leader in a post apocalyptic world how would you teach unity and tolerance to diverse demographics?

  Feb 12 2012: I think American pride could certainly get carried over in such a scenario. Even if we lost government I think if people found a way to band together to choose to be happy, then we would have adapted. I also like the idea of people becoming masters over their own niche of science or craft. I think I'd start an actual alchemist's guild or something like that. Develop some special effects that could just scare the beejeebies outta some uneducated bumming scavenger types.

• A reply on Conversation: Hypothetically, If you became a leader in a post apocalyptic world how would you teach unity and tolerance to diverse demographics?

  Feb 12 2012: Yes, that actually strikes something with me. Most of all, I think that wherever the next great world leaders come from, in future times of crisis, they will probably have to rely on the lessons of the past and be innovative enough to adapt these lessons to new challenges. I think it would still be someone extremely charismatic, but of necessity, highly analytical. In my opinion that would make a good leader.

• A comment on Conversation: Would you eat "in vitro" meat?

  Feb 3 2012: I would like to take a few lines to tell you all how amazing this technology is. I am in agreement with Henk. It is a lot like the next phase of evolution in agriculture. I don't see any downside for vegetarians or anyone else for that matter. There is a lot of American backlash to the amount of available nutrition in modern countries. How short sighted. Unless you belong to one of these privileged countries you don't have the option of not eating meat. Is there a growing trend of people not eating meat? Arguably no. It's not really even close to catching up to the world's population growth. Listen to me. The world needs more meat in the worst possible way. Call it a genetic disorder of ours.
  
  I don't necessarily see it as being overly energy wasting either. It just depends on how well they can get it to grow. We'll see. It will need some heat optimally, so they'll insulate; and the circulation of broth is needed to nourish the cells; but it won't need the most energy wasting thing to grow which is light. If it passes taste tests, the value of the yields would be greater than the expenditures. We should never ignore or consider genetic innovation a waste of time and talent. It will always be something new and terrifying to antiprogressives, but progress isn't such a bad thing. Did you know there is also some attempt to genetically produce faster growing trees? What do we need to help these? Political bandwidth for policy on economic support, until it's economically sustainable.
  
  So just love the idea guys. Or stay outta the way. It's absolutely brilliant in my opinion. Do you think no one reads these conversations? Genetic innovations can give us the ability to save our world one day. What is needed is a good promotion after this research comes to fruition. So I hope everyone tells McDonalds to start making all their hamburgers this way. Frankenfood is just a buzz word that doesn't describe anything about the technology except that it is in fact technology.

• A reply on Conversation: Why is Democracy too easily perverted?

  Feb 1 2012: I guess I would then point out that democracy is the more complex machine (or is it like a more complex game?). I think you are actually saying that democracy is a deliberate effort against our own nature. That nature is to stratify ourselves within the larger group, allowing a few individuals with some small advantage to derive inordinately greater power from the rest. It's sort of interesting that we call it corruption, but really it is the nature that exists ubiquitously without democracy. And what we're trying to do within democracy is to engineer our leadership to be a product of higher ideals and not nature, if that is actually possible. And you've reminded us that without democracy people are left to balance that difference of power naturally, as mob rule versus the monarch, nobility, regime, or dictator. I just think that the shortcomings of democracy have to do with that complexity. It's more subject to destructive mistakes that undermine it. It's fragile. Institutions and social norms are somewhat on the flaky, subjective side. However, we should not casually cast aside democracy any time soon.
  
  We are now at a time in the world like no other. Now the thing about technology is that it is also subject, as any resource is, to be controlled by those in power . Democracy has given us more progress and therefore more technology. Now just think, if we lost democracy now, the advantaged few could use that technology inordinately better than the masses to subjugate them far worse than they have ever been in our human history. The question is will we decide ourselves to evolve above this older model as a species, or will it be like old school, survival of the fittest? However, the next phase of this natural, natural-selection would seem to be promoting our technology and not our species. Biologically, we may be done with evolution; it no longer competes with technology. If that's the case, losing democracy would be a step backwards for us despite all our advances.

• A comment on Conversation: Energy has affinity

  Feb 1 2012: Reading your idea I think that it is wise to postulate about the energy of the soul. It might not be a concern of mainstream science yet, but it is of concern to individuals. As individuals we might make it science fiction for now(or religion) but a lot of science starts out as science fiction(or religion?). You'll forgive me if I draw on a comparison to the "Matrix". For us, everything we are able to conceive of can be boiled down to data. It's true that we could enter all of our human knowledge into a wedge of silicon. What I'm saying is that data is actually a kind of energy at a certain level of dimensionality. It's in one dimension when it's in the silicon. Computers are still mostly just great storage devices. But for now data translates into much higher function in our much more vast brain protein matrices. Like chemistry molecules, data stores potential that can be released when translated in another medium. We capture all of our concrete science in thought, and now we even capture a lot of the abstract. Math and logic transcend the concrete and lead us to greater truths because our minds have become the next laboratories of the universe. Or if you will, universes unto themselves. Maybe it used be the nucleic acids in the tide pools that the universe used to build new "random" combinations that translate. So, our minds are similar compartments that concentrate data potential, and we have access to greater dimensionality. Think about time. Is it strange to think that later we'll use technology to accelerate this progression to break through other dimensions yet again? We theorize about even recording events backwards in time due to its relativity. Well, if we learned to slice up the past we'd have a permanent record to recreate transient past data we couldn't even deal with before. Perhaps that's the medium where all souls are permanently imprinted like data on a computer. Like I said, science fiction. But playing connect the dots is fun, right?

• A comment on Conversation: Why is Democracy too easily perverted?

  Jan 31 2012: It is so true. And the lesson I take from it is that we all share some of the responsibility in democracy, but we have to be wide awake and loud mouthed so everyone can know what's going on. In the USA we know it is our responsibiity to be involved to some extent in getting laws passed. And in the example of corruption it would be to get laws passed to investigate and punish those who are corrupting it. Primarily I see how some of the wealthy can influence our politics. There are laws enacted to fight it, and if we wanted we could enforce things more. As an american I believe a lot of the time we are suffering under some form of oppression that corruption causes us, but we still don't feel it enough to get outraged. We're really passive that way. Some would say that's a shame, others can't be convinced it's a bad thing. And not all the wealthy are bad either. Remember we are trying also to learn not to persecute those who are innocent. That's where the balance is. Your own two examples are opposites in the system. We've had witch hunts in this country. It's thanks to our own ignorance. What has to take place is some real education about the fundamentals of this form of government. True democracy means everyone has equal power under and over the laws. As far as my own country goes, I really do believe we're getting what we asked for. As much as the people don't care, they don't have control over their own lives. The majority still don't suffer enough to feel it, and the consequences may still be coming. We could lose democracy if we wait too long to act.
  
  When the crowd decided to crucify Jesus, they got what they wanted. It was the wrong thing. They have their blame and if you believe in the divinity of Jesus, then you can be satisfied with what those consequences will be by faith. Secularly, we'd say that those people chose to stay ignorant and a great man whose teachings help us to be better was martyred. Let's not choose to be ignorant. We only hurt ourselves.

• A reply on Conversation: Can't we use Agrichar to fix some larger world concerns? Am I alone on this?

  Jan 31 2012: Yes, I finally had a chance to catch up with the IBI. They are doing the kind of work that has to happen for now I guess. I'm just ready for more of an application for my own backyard that doesn't involve building a huge complex machine from scratch or making my own brick kiln. More than anything, it's a laziness issue. Thanks though, I have to keep track of the "Initiative" as they seem to be the most proactive people.
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: Is autism the result of human brains moving to the next step of neural connectivity? Is this evolution in action?

  Jan 24 2012: I love meetings of the minds that truly sort out who's got the keener sense of intellect. And in true "survival of the fittest" fashion I award points to Miles for the cooler temperament and encourage him to continue expressing insightful verdicts on the human condition. I do actually agree more with you Miles. We can look at this objectively and point out advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes even the seemingly mistaken paths that mother nature takes fit in perfectly with the big picture. Maybe we as a species can't do anything right now to dramatically change the course of our evolution but one day technology will probably breech the gaps. I can't wait to hear more about this, but I hope it's not too far above my reading comprehension.
  
  (*v*) (fatheaded emotionless emoticon) (or is it the ever-wise night-visioned pointy-beaked owl emoticon)?
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: what is your opinion about balance spiritual emotion and intellectual?should we make balance between our spiritual emotion and intellectual?

  Jan 20 2012: I think that our intellect is a part of our spirit. It's a tool that will help us to find happiness. Of course intellect can be used for the opposite when other aspects of the spirit are unbalanced. Right? I think of a person's spirit as the real decision maker because it takes into account the emotions and experience based knowledge. When people who are truly intelligent go looking for religion or inner peace, they are really just looking more closely at their own big picture that in a way can be somewhat subjective, but meets very real emotional and intellectual needs of individuals. Maybe knowledge finally led them to look at themselves that way, but everyone has a spiritual side that should be given attention to in some form.

• A reply on Conversation: Would you eat "in vitro" meat?

  Jan 20 2012: They do say that our population is going to be maximized in the next 50 years and then start declining. It's been a long haul. What will happen after that? Won't we experience the contraction? Everyone says social security will be the problem. Whatever the solutions are, I agree that we'll choose from our available preferences, but will we have the same availability of choices for that efficiency? I don't think we should over-look the benefits of the technology when we can implement it now. I believe whatever we choose can and should be a little more guided than just a natural process. As human beings we can popularize ideas and they shape the course of the world. Being passive about these technological opportunities leaves us open to our greatest shortfalls. The truth is that as long as wildernesses are shrinking world wide, we aren't sustainable. And even if we do promote the technology, if we don't also strongly promote the reason why then we're still heading towards a sterilized planet as a previous comment suggests. It's due to natural selection of our species; the technology we choose is a part of that, but we can be smart about it.
  
  We had a renaissance! What came from this was science and the arts. But most over-looked was freedom of choice and the pursuit of happiness. Hundreds of years later the fight for freedom of choice goes on, but now we need to make more informed decisions. For life to be beautiful one of the things we need is for the world to be beautiful, but we're too busy competing with ourselves everyday and education lacks instilling of values. We need another renaissance now that we have these awesome discussions about technology.