TED Community » Kalle Samuelsson

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• A comment on Talk: Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0

  Jan 25 2012: A couple of good points in this talk, although a bit obvious at times (at least for me as a swede since most swedes are atheists/agnostics and still see each other around christmas). What I think Alain got wrong though is the point about art. I think art for art's sake is a progressive idea that brings the ritual of the artwork closer to the one experiencing it, rather than to just surround the object itself. Why does it matter that what you think an artwork is about isn't exactly the same thing as the creator thought? As long as you experience something it's surely worthwhile. It's also often difficult (if not diminishing) for an artist to exactly pinpoint where creativity comes from. I think it has to do with your subconscious being an important part both in creating and experiencing art.
• +6

  A reply on Talk: Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies

  Oct 25 2011: "In other words - are you dying of cancer because you're poorer than others in your society, or are you poorer than others because you have to pay for cancer treatment?"
  
  Doesn't matter which one it is though, does it? In both cases, economic redistribution is for the better.
  
  The most important point of this talk is not that inequality causes all of these problem (although I believe it does to varying extents), but that countries where there's less inequality, there's less problems. People try to find all kinds of ridiculous models to support the theory that inequality is not bad, and that you can't prove a causality. Well, either way, just look at the data.

• A reply on Talk: Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies

  Oct 25 2011: Have you ever been to the Nordic countries? A quick comparison between US statistics for 2002 (http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/foreignborn.htm) and Sweden's statistics for 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Sweden#Sweden_census_2005) shows that Sweden had a higher percentage of foreign born citizens. I grant you, it's not the most ideal comparison, and USA have a longer history of ethnic diversity, but it shows enough not to attribute the Nordic countries' scoring to a homogenous society.
  
  I don't like how most people who disagree with the speaker makes assumptions that more often than not turn out to be untrue, whereas Mr Wilkinson just looks at the data.

• A reply on Talk: Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies

  Oct 25 2011: How can growth of everyone's income increase life expectancy when the first graph shows that there's no correlation between GDP and life expectancy?
  
  Your argument fails if you look at the graph introduced at 11.25. It shows that even the richest in a society enjoy benefits from it being equal.
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  A reply on Talk: Geoffrey West: The surprising math of cities and corporations

  Aug 22 2011: After watching the talk, it doesn't seem to me that the way cities and companies behave is necessarily connected to size. I don't know about Mr West's hypothesis, but here are my thoughts:
  
  Both companies and cities are connected to the economy of scale. The difference thought is that companies have an outspoken goal, and grow thereafter, whereas cities grow fragmentary so to speak. Companies are, as Max pointed out, therefore often organized in a hierarchal manner, which is efficient for pursuing that goal efficiently, but when the environment that the company works in is changing, that way of organizing is less efficient at adapting.
  
  As Geoffrey said, cities will have to be innovative in order to grow, and with the kind of infrastructure a city possesses, the bigger they are, the likelier they are to be innovative. That's why smaller cities collapse (not every city grows, always).
  
  A company that is often cited to let their employees be innovative and act outside of the hierarchal structure is Google, and despite Geoffrey saying that they will collapse, it doesn't seem like it as long as they continue doing that.
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  A reply on Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

  Jun 23 2011: I'm not promoting drug use, but I would like to attempt to answer the questions you ask in an objective manner, with Jill's talk as the basis for my reasoning.
  
  "Is the experience/feeling sustained when you are off the drugs?" - Not the feeling, certainly, but as Jill does still bear her experience with her, a drug user might as well.
  
  "You have to purchase or grow the drugs, so it is costly?" - It certainly costs money, but from there it is not evident to conclude financial drain. Jill says that we can choose between our two brain halves, the one that is concerned with the future and the one that is just here in the present. Whether anyone chooses the experience over the money or the other way around is just giving priority to the present and the future, as with many other purchases.
  
  "Many recreational drugs are illegal...you are putting yourself at risk...does that concern you?" - See above.
  
  "Most recreational drugs cause a dependency. How does it feel to know you have to put a substance in your body to feel better?" - It might be true that most recreational drugs cause a dependency, but it's certainly true that some does not. I don't know what type of drug use has been promoted in this discussion, but having listened to the talk it seems like psychedelic drugs are the ones that come closest to the experience Jill is talking about, and many psychedelic drugs do not cause a physical dependency. They do however affect the brain's own rewarding system that produces feelings of joy, as do any other activity that we like. Furthermore, Jill is talking about how her experience made her feel connected to everything around her. I would imagine that if you feel that way, it wouldn't be a concern to put a substance in your body. That's what we have to do to survive, anyway.
  
  Again, I'm not promoting drug use, but I think it's wrong to assume that drug use is equal to "constant dependency, financial drain, legal and emotional risk".
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Jessi Arrington: Wearing nothing new

  Jun 20 2011: Why are so many missing the point?
  
  This talk isn't about consuming less. Her "confession" is that she is consuming a lot of clothes. Actually, her advise in the end about "not getting emotionally attached" to the clothes you buy is a step towards further consumption.
  This talk isn't about buying second hand clothes. She just says that's what she like to do.
  This talk isn't about dressing up in rainbow colored outfits. She just says that's what she like to do.
  
  She's sharing the story of her interest and call for people to dress the way they want. Maybe everyone does. Not necessarily a lesson to be learned.
  
  I for my part like quality clothes that last long. I often find that the clothes that I get emotionally attached to are the ones that last longest, and those I feel most comfortable wearing.
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  A reply on Talk: Damon Horowitz calls for a "moral operating system"

  Jun 9 2011: Kids can be really mean though.

• A comment on Talk: Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral

  May 21 2011: @ Leo - Ok, my bad.
  
  
  @ Nathali - Well, as an architecture student I've seen many presentations by architects and it seems to me that they more often than not are crammed with renderings of thousands of different projects, but don't really go into detail about any of them. Mr Heatherwick does the same thing here. I think the talk would've benefited from being only about the seed cathedral (which I actually like), which is first of all actually built, and where the architects have thought about an afterlife for the building.
  
  You're heading towards a discussion that has become bigger with the breakthrough of internet. Is architecture only to be presented as a picture and is the picture of sustainability more important than actual sustainability? Almost every architect would answer no, but in their presentations they seem to act otherwise.
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  A reply on Talk: Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral

  May 20 2011: What are you talking about?!? You just ignored modernism and post-modernism by stating that we've used the same architectural concepts for 200 years. The last century was the most diverse in all of human history regarding architectural concepts. If you think that Thomas Heatherwick is the most prophetical architect to emerge in 200 years, you're in for a treat if you take a look in the history books.
  
  Post-modernism has been around since the 60s, environmentalism since the 80s, and even the act of freeriding on an environmentlist wave to gain karma not deserved is starting to get old.
  
  Especially the last project with the highrises shows a shallow view on sustainability to me. There are many problems with building highrises. The construction is very demanding. That is why you never see highrises that gets wider at the top. Pumping water to the top is the largest sustaining cost, and this design increases that cost. Also, light is blocked from reaching down to the landscape created at the bottom. wind is usually a problem around highrises, and it seems to me that this design is even worse than usual skyscrapers in that it's design directs the wind down towards the ground.