Apr 28 2013: I have read the comments regarding the speech of Melinda. I come from Europe, Germany. I must say, that it needs a catholic to really estimate the words of Melinda. Be it structured or not structured; be it an emotional and less scientific speech. For me, its the first "outing" of a person of public interest getting the topic to the point. And even more important - the gates family is known to go to the people needing help and the Gates are living the humanistic / humanitarian ideas..this is all I know about these guys (since I am coming from Germany). Am I wrong? Cheers - Martin
PS. I am NOT a fan of Microsoft Products - no more! But I know to esteem the engagement of Gates!
Apr 28 2013: A great speech for me. melinda is putting into words what all my friends (be it women or men) are thinking about birthcontrol. Is it "The gates family" against the pope? Anyway...in my opinion its a remarkable speech of a very engaged and emphatic woman!!
Martin
PS. I am not a windows fan!
Oct 1 2012: This is how science should be brought to normal people (like me) . Fascinating, moving and from the first to the last minute thrilling stuff. I have now a new perspective, thanks to this great contribution to TED.
Sep 29 2012: I think our future is as bright or dark as is has always been in the history of mankind. Like our organism / immune system always adapted to new threats, our society will adapt and overcome problems of civilisation. Looking into history there was always an up and down (dialectical principal). In 1988 nobody in Germany would have bet one dollar on the "end of the cold war" and the falling of the iron wall. . In 1975 (at least in Germany) nobody would have dared to believe, that our rivers will recover to the quality of today (drink water quality) or that wolves or eagles would return to our forests.One more argument - there is a platonic dialogue (I think it is the Gorgias dialogue) dated 500 b.C. where the old men are sitting together on the market place, when a young guy was strolling by. The old men where starting to complain about his outfit, where telling stories how few respect the youth is paying to the older people, and that all the old virtues will go down the drain. This makes me think, that cultural pessimism is as old as mankind, and it always came better than suspected ;-)
Sep 24 2012: Reading your contributing carefully I just recognize. It seems that You are raising a subject (which is more to the point than my comment :-) )
In German we have an expression "Achtsamkeit" - the translation might be "mindfulness". A term (I looked it up in Google) which is in our days quite related to psychological subjects, meditation an so on.
But once it was a good German word with a lot of context ...diligence, empathy, situational correct behaviour, ability to listen and so on. I do not really know the context of mindfulness in Your language, or which attributes are connected to this word. I understand your comment describing a phenomenon, which is largely discussed in the German society particulalry in the context od education, primary school curricula / syllabus. All in all - I think you helped at least me, in getting one aspect to the point.
I am new here and I do not know, whether this forum is meant to start dialogues/discussion as well, or just a collection of opinions of the participants - I will find out :-)
Sep 23 2012: Thanks John - I totally agree.... and I agree with Rhona. Its not the amount of information - the kids growing up need the right information. Which is not a million of kilobytes. Which is more related to culture, understanding and knowing to use the data to the better of the human beings. Not just learn to process Gigabytes. For that we are not designed (this is as u write "Computerintelligence"), and this will not contribute to our social or personal evolution!
Sep 23 2012: I totally agree with your thesis. I can imagine that there are countries or regions where parents influence their kids with the parents prejudices or limited view to the world. However (again from a German perspective) the major problem I see is "parents do not educate at all anymore". This statement is based on the experience two friend of are telling me (they are teachers in the primary school).
Coming back to my subject - parents are not going out with their kids, in a forest, or in the nature, or reading the newspapers to them (like my grandpa did) or explaining them how to handle the internet and the information giver there...etc andsoon. My thesis was - that the amount of data / information is not the "problem" - but the lack of caring and diligent education and parents. And in this point we agree I think.
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A comment on Talk: Melinda Gates: Let's put birth control back on the agenda
PS. I am NOT a fan of Microsoft Products - no more! But I know to esteem the engagement of Gates!
A comment on Talk: Melinda Gates: Let's put birth control back on the agenda
Martin
PS. I am not a windows fan!
A comment on Talk: Carolyn Porco: This is Saturn
A comment on Conversation: Do you believe that our future is bright, if yes, why and if not, why not?
A reply on Conversation: Human beings need one generation to adopt to new developments i.e. to show "significant evolution"
In German we have an expression "Achtsamkeit" - the translation might be "mindfulness". A term (I looked it up in Google) which is in our days quite related to psychological subjects, meditation an so on.
But once it was a good German word with a lot of context ...diligence, empathy, situational correct behaviour, ability to listen and so on. I do not really know the context of mindfulness in Your language, or which attributes are connected to this word. I understand your comment describing a phenomenon, which is largely discussed in the German society particulalry in the context od education, primary school curricula / syllabus. All in all - I think you helped at least me, in getting one aspect to the point.
I am new here and I do not know, whether this forum is meant to start dialogues/discussion as well, or just a collection of opinions of the participants - I will find out :-)
A reply on Conversation: Human beings need one generation to adopt to new developments i.e. to show "significant evolution"
A reply on Conversation: Human beings need one generation to adopt to new developments i.e. to show "significant evolution"
Coming back to my subject - parents are not going out with their kids, in a forest, or in the nature, or reading the newspapers to them (like my grandpa did) or explaining them how to handle the internet and the information giver there...etc andsoon. My thesis was - that the amount of data / information is not the "problem" - but the lack of caring and diligent education and parents. And in this point we agree I think.