TED Community » Michael Wang

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• TEDCred score: +10.20 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: Could you grow a house?

  Nov 11 2012: That sounds awesome

• A comment on Conversation: Could you grow a house?

  Nov 11 2012: If your definition of a house is somewhere comfortable to live, then throughout history nature has provided many a person a house.
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  A comment on Talk: Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

  Nov 10 2012: There is so much that is right in this talk but I think something is missing.
  
  Sebastion starts off saying that we are more than our genes. What he is inferring is that human life and the way we feel is dictated by more than just our genes. Genes are a part of it but not the whole story.
  
  He then says that the we are our connectomes. That when the connectome dies, then we are truly dead. I believe this is where Sebastion jumps too quickly to his conclusion (scientists always seem to make this mistake, but that's another conversation). I am going to say that the connectome is also a part of it but not the whole story.
  
  The example below is my best attempt at trying to explain myself here.
  
  If what Sebastion says is true, then hypothetically if an advanced alien life form was capable of re-creating my connectome (and the rest of my body) back on it's home planet then when that creation wakes up it would be "me".
  
  It will wake up and think it's me. It will have all of my memories. It might do exactly what I would do. But the real me would still be dead on Earth.
  
  So the questions I ask myself, do I believe that I am just some kind of machine? That I am just a mix of physical properties? Well maybe...
  
  But there is something inside of me that rejects that notion. Maybe it's arrogance. Maybe one of the properties of the machine that I am doesn't allow me to believe I really am a machine. It could be a lot of things.
  
  But I think we are more than that. For sure it's incredibly complicated. Whatever it is I hope it's awesome. I believe it's closer to spirit than machinery.
  
  There will be many more scientists to come in future generations trying to figure out "What is life?" They will continue to uncover one more layer at a time. I won't live to see the day they figure it out completely. I'm not so sure that they ever will.

• A comment on Conversation: In ten words or less, what is a question no one (yet) knows the answer to?

  Dec 11 2011: What is the maximum potential of a human being? How about the human race?
  
  Here is my fantasy scenario. Humans exist on Earth for another one million years. Technology has become so evolved that it can not even be seen anymore. Underlying our vision of the natural world is a layer of nano-type technology which supports daily life as we know it. This technology interacts with us without even needing an interface. The human mind and body is entirely compatible with this invisible support system. Not only is our environment enhanced but due to vast new libraries of information the mind and body itself has reached a level where it functions at an exponentially greater level then in AD 2000. Information and understanding is transferred Matrix style so that a wide body of skills can be attained in a lifetime (Assuming that we can even die). Anyone from our current time looking at this world might think they are looking into a scene of Lord of the Rings where Elves are running around the forest performing magic. One might even think they got teleported back in time to some mystical era rather than ahead. In reality it is a highly evolved, technological society, fully integrated with nature, whose residents have unlocked many of the secrets that this universe still has stored away today.
  
  Ending note: Slowly fantasy is becoming a reality. Maybe one million years in the future things like magic, dragons, and superheroes will really exist. Albeit through a natural evolution of technology and application.
  
  LOL
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  A comment on Talk: Jake Shimabukuro plays "Bohemian Rhapsody"

  Jan 30 2011: Thanks man. This was an awesome way to start off my Sunday morning. Now to make a pot of tea.
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  A reply on Talk: Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

  Sep 29 2010: Mr. Perez that is a great comment! Haha! Imagine that. How many times have I said that the molecules in my body don't even know that they create me. The jokes on me! And what would that say about our molecules? Am I a collection of beings? Funny stuff to think about.
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  A comment on Talk: Inge Missmahl brings peace to the minds of Afghanistan

  Sep 29 2010: I just want to throw this out there. I am not a fan of the we vs. them mentality. Everyone has their own set of circumstances and I hate that many people will walk away from this video feeling sorry for "them" because they are not like "us." Truly, we are all damaged. Keep in mind their plight would not have been brought about if it were not for the help of other nations. And the people of those nations did nothing while their governments did this (queue the excuses). I am one of those people. And like I said, they don't need to get to "our level." We all need help. If we don't realize that, we will just continue to cause suffering to others. Would it be so unrealistic to rename this "Inge Missmahl brings peace to the minds of Afghanistan after the trampling they received from the countries the counselors are now coming from." This is not hate towards anyone, merely constructive criticism. And another reason to leave them alone!
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  A comment on Talk: Inge Missmahl brings peace to the minds of Afghanistan

  Sep 29 2010: After this talk I realize that my current way of thinking about nations and what brings them up and down is off. I'm too focused on politics, economics, geography, you name it. What I'm not focused on is the people. Now every country has people. And they're not so different from any other people. In a society that loves to compare differences, maybe it's easy to overlook. Maybe I'm just blind. What I am trying to say is that what we need in the world is to believe in the people. Because at the end of the day that is what is going to trigger all the political, economical, cultural, etc...change. As far as I know revolutions against tyranny are started by the people. Open source works so well because of the people. I am daydreaming about the power that comes from the cycle of billions of people living and dying, and how the institutions we create are so powerless against that. I hope that is true. The future is truly in the children and one of our only real jobs is to raise them right.
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  A comment on Talk: John Wooden: the difference between winning and succeeding

  Aug 25 2010: No written word, no spoken plea,
  Can teach our youth what they should be,
  Nor all the books on all the shelves,
  It’s what the teachers are themselves.

• A reply on Talk: Deborah Gordon: The emergent genius of ant colonies

  Feb 15 2010: The Bible is one of those topics that can even get TEDsters in stereotype mode. To me that is sad because I believe that there is a wealth of information about human psychology in the Bible. And the wisdom and knowledge that can be gleaned is part of what society is sorely missing. Think of religion as a whole or eastern philosophy and medicine. Things that much of the “western world” (I don't like the term either, but you know what I mean) may consider stale, or old, contain millennium of empirical data and human observation.