TED Community » Tom Hall

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: The Middle East

  Jul 17 2012: I agree with Dean. accept with the fact "one of those crazy bastards will push the button" If you remember from history class, so far (and hopefully forever) the US has been the only one crazy enough to push the button.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: The Middle East

  Jul 17 2012: They have been fighting over the 'holy' land for thousands of years now. The only way the fighting will ever stop is if people can finally learn to accept that everyone has a right to believe what they want as long as they're not affecting anyone else negatively.
  
  Unfortunately, when you've had it drilled into your head by your parents from birth that your religion is right and the other is wrong, it's very hard to change your way of thinking. Neither religion is more correct/valuable than the other, and they need to learn that. Personally I see no reason why they can't learn to love one another and live in peace like their religions teach.
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Todd Humphreys: How to fool a GPS

  Jul 17 2012: "our modern society is almost blindly reliant on GPS" so true, and it's not just GPS... We're so reliant on computers, cell phones, e readers, the internet, etc.Our current reliance on technology always reminds me of the famous Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough at Last"...
  
  For those who are not familiar with it, "Time Enough At Last" deals with a man named Henry Bemis who, through odd circumstance, finds himself being the last man on earth. With no one else left to bother him, he finally has all the time he needs to read all the books he's always wanted. That is until he breaks his glasses.
  
  He has all the books he's ever wanted but the medium he needs to access them (his glasses) is lost.
  
  With us relying more and more on technology for our activities, we seem to be weening off of the traditional medium. People now get around using GPS instead of maps, read digital ebooks over traditional books, use the internet and cell phones to communicate over letters and face to face. With our further reliance on technology, we are closer and closer to becoming Bemis. We are only a lightning strike, a faulty switch, a human error or a natural disaster away from becoming Henry Bemis at the end of the world. If there is ever an event, such as a massive solar flare, that disrupts satellites and electronic equipment worldwide; we would be left in the dark. All of our information is being stored digitally, and if something ever happened to it, we might not even have physical copies to rely on. We could be sent back to the dark ages.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

  Jul 17 2012: great speech. Great topic as well. I feel like he could have been talking about anything and it would have been a great speech. Such an enjoyable public speaker.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: List 5 books that you consider must-reads

  Jul 13 2012: 1. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan
  2. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan (He was so passionate about science)
  3. A Brief History of Time and/or A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking (very interesting/thought provoking)
  4. Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern (actually quite heartwarming)
  5. Any of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams (This man had an amazing imagination, and his books deliver some great satire)
  
  The first 3 I've always loved because I find science and the cosmos infinitely interesting, and love to learn about that kind of stuff. The last 2 I think are just really entertaining.

• A comment on Conversation: What would you want your last words to be?

  Jul 12 2012: "It's ok, I've done this before." or "I wonder where the mother bear is..."
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: Fill in the Blank - What the World needs now is __________ ?

  Jul 12 2012: People to stop fighting over religious beliefs.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Seth Shostak: ET is (probably) out there -- get ready

  Jul 12 2012: even if we were too late and the civilization was already gone, it would still be awesome. It would be kind of disheartening that we would never be able to communicate/visit with them or anything of that nature. Nevertheless, it would still prove that we're not alone, and that would be outstanding.

• A reply on Talk: Seth Shostak: ET is (probably) out there -- get ready

  Jul 11 2012: SETI is searching for intelligent life by scanning the skies for radio transmissions from elsewhere. While finding transmissions left over from some now extinct civilization could be a possibility, any life not yet evolved enough will not be sending out any transmissions to pick up. As for finding microscopic/less evolved life, I'm not quite sure how they could do that.