TED Community » Emily McManus

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• TEDCred score: +405.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: If you could choose any historical figure to give a TED Talk, who would it be and why?

  Apr 11 2013: Great answer! I actually signed in to this conversation to say Ben Franklin, but you've made such a wonderful case that I will let yours stand, and pick a new speaker ...

• A comment on Conversation: Rupert Sheldrake's TEDx talk: Detailing the issues

  Mar 9 2013: Hi all --
  
  After extending this conversation for an additional day, I'm just sending a quick reminder that it'll close in about 5 hours.
  
  And to say an early THANK YOU -- this has been a truly fascinating conversation to be part of. I've read every word and so have some of my coworkers. We won't be able to make a decision that pleases every single flavor of opinion on this thread, but: You have been heard.
  
  And in fact, the quality of this conversation has inspired some of my coworkers to think about an interesting new project for TED.com (stay tuned...).
  
  Until the clock runs out, please keep chiming in -- especially if you have a new twist to consider, like reine de violettes' fascinating opinion on American communication methods earlier today: http://www.ted.com/conversations/16894/rupert_sheldrake_s_tedx_talk.html?c=618581

• A reply on Conversation: Rupert Sheldrake's TEDx talk: Detailing the issues

  Mar 8 2013: Good morning, reine! Can you expand on your comment about Americans? Very interested in hearing more.
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  A comment on Conversation: Live Q&A at 3:00PM Eastern: Why do the choices we make about the seafood we eat play a part in a complex and interconnected ecosystem?

  Jan 3 2013: Hey Maria! So, my New Year's resolution (which I made in public, foolishly) was to try not to eat fish at all, inspired by Sylvia Earle. But I am really struggling, both because fish is really delicious and because it's such a healthy food.
  My question for you is: Have you ever felt that same urge, just to abandon fish altogether?

• A reply on Conversation: Why does Ted censor its talks?

  Dec 30 2012: Hi Harley,
  
  Thanks for your comment, and I'm glad you're looking at TEDWeekends. Amber's work is based on data and observation. You'll notice that within the same weekly feature, there's an essay from a scientist who disagrees with her. The feature is a place for all kinds of fact-supported views to meet, clash and build on one another in an interesting discourse. Disagreement is the key ingredient in making better ideas!
  
  TED has hosted debates before -- check out this pro-/con-nuclear energy debate:
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/debate_does_the_world_need_nuclear_energy.html
  
  ... and this blog post rounding up a few other speakers who don't agree, including an interesting debate about humanity's future:
  
  http://blog.ted.com/2012/08/06/ted-speakers-who-disagree-with-each-other/
  
  Curious what you think of these debates, and how they might be more effective.
  
  We do our best to show several sides of important issues, so I don't believe that TED promotes transhumanism above all other ideas. I work here, and I'm just as human as ever, sadly. No robot third arm for me, much as I would appreciate one to reach things on high shelves.
  
  If you want to watch a talk that's an antidote to transhumanism utopianism (I use the word advisedly, because personally I don't think we're merging with robots anytime soon), here's a talk on beautiful human values -- the kind you don't get from a machine:
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/giles_duley_when_a_reporter_becomes_the_story.html
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  A reply on Conversation: Why does Ted censor its talks?

  Dec 21 2012: I hear you. Here's where I'm coming from, and we're not that far apart:
  
  Science is about adding to the world's stock of knowledge, by patient data gathering and analysis that holds up to review and replication. Sometimes, adding to the world's knowledge means rewriting what we thought we knew. And sometimes … that's really annoying! We want science to tell us hard-and-fast truths that don't change. So when "they" tell us that, for instance, coffee is bad for us and red wine is good, and then a year later it comes out that coffee is good for us and red wine bad … it's baffling, and it's tempting to retreat to simpler explanations.
  
  One of our hopes at TED is to help make the scientific process more understandable and open. New developments are happening all the time, but school textbooks are only revised (if you're lucky) every 10-15 years … meanwhile, the daily headlines are filled with miracle cures and sensationalism around new discoveries. It's hard to know what is true. But behind the hype is an amazing ongoing story of people working day in day out to understand the world better by gathering facts, sharing them with a community that helps test them, and then telling their stories.
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  A comment on Conversation: Why does Ted censor its talks?

  Dec 19 2012: Thanks for writing. The talk was pulled because it contains a significant number of inaccurate statements and outdated interpretations of ancient history and archeology -- a field that is, ironically, constantly changing as new research happens.
  When a new archeological site is discovered, the problem isn't that it was "not permitted to exist" when you were learning ancient history. It's that archeologists didn't know much about it then -- Gobekli Tepe, for instance, has only been under excavation since 1994. Archeology moves forward all the time, in amazing ways! New sites are found, new interpretations are happening, new technologies revolutionize the field ... for example, did you know that until the 1990s and early 2000s, we had an incomplete understanding of Mayan script -- and all we knew was their number system? Since the recent deciphering of almost the full Mayan script, the astronomical preoccupation attributed to Mayan writings has been largely discredited. Most of the numbers found in the Mayan script are now believed to be dates of births, coronations and wars.
  We have great TED Talks about people using satellite imaging to discover ancient sites, to 3D-scan ancient monuments and learn more about their structure, even to learn about ancient humans by studying the plaque on their teeth! So much is happening -- this is really a golden age of learning about humanity's history.
  If you're curious, reach out to your local university and see if there's a course in modern archeology, or an e-course from iTunes U. There's so much really cool stuff being discovered with new techniques (like satellite scans) as well as good old patient fieldwork.

• A reply on Conversation: Join TED Speakers John Bohannon and Carl Flink Monday, 12/17 to delve into the super-awkward world of "The Facts of Life"!

  Dec 17 2012: Benno, that's a fascinating point -- why do we seem to be having this conversation earlier and earlier?

• A reply on Conversation: Join TED Speakers John Bohannon and Carl Flink Monday, 12/17 to delve into the super-awkward world of "The Facts of Life"!

  Dec 17 2012: Agreed, this is pure pseudoscience. Didn't you read my letter??
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  A comment on Conversation: Join TED Speakers John Bohannon and Carl Flink Monday, 12/17 to delve into the super-awkward world of "The Facts of Life"!

  Dec 17 2012: As a kid I'm sure we had specific conversations about it, but my truly memorable sex-ed moment was, in fact, an overnight campout at the local abortion clinic with the local girls from my very progressive 70s neighborhood. In one room, there was an endless videotape loop of an internal exam, and plenty of helpful 70s ladies who were eager to explain it to me.
  GAHHHHH.