TED Community » Atanaa Inquisitive

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• A reply on Talk: Francis Collins: We need better drugs -- now

  Apr 1 2013: There seem to be some government support for drug companies working on 'orphan drugs' (those for very rare conditions). This news article has some information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-21032362

• A reply on Talk: Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

  Mar 29 2013: Maybe we should be cautious about that - I don't think a commercialized TED would be as good.

• A reply on Conversation: Mention one scientific theory you think needs adjustment. Why do you think that way?

  Mar 15 2013: Grace, could you give your definition of the word 'organic' in this context? You do not appear to be using it in a way I am familiar with.

• A comment on Conversation: Can we think without any presumptions?

  Mar 3 2013: Let’s think what it would mean to think without presumptions. At it’s most extreme it would seem to mean “to think only using ideas that are logically justified”. The problem then becomes “Which ideas can be logically justified?”.
  
  There are certain things that we (nearly?) all agree on and depend on as the foundation of out thinking, yet I am unsure can be proved logically from the available evidence. Certainly I would not know how to prove them. For example, “The physical world I experience is real”. I could in theory be a brain in a tank being given artificial stimulation to mimic the real world – or a computer simulation of a brain also being stimulated.
  
  The possibilities seem endless. If that is the case then the process of thinking even a simple thought without presumption would be equally endless and therefore impossible on practical grounds.

• A comment on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Mar 1 2013: Show me a person who meets none of the criteria in the DSM and I will show you one of the most boring people on the planet.

• A reply on Talk: Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud

  Mar 1 2013: I suggest the translation "language learning in the natural environment" or maybe "language learning among native speakers". Though I can't be sure that captures the phrase exactly.

• A comment on Talk: Laurie Santos: A monkey economy as irrational as ours

  Feb 27 2013: It would be interesting to know how widespread these behaviors are in other primates. If all/most others behave in the same way it would add wight to the idea of an ancient origin of the different approaches to gain and loss.
  
  Taking a wider view, I wonder if similar experiments could be done with some none-primate species. Dolphins, octopuses and certain birds all might have enough intelligence.