TED Community » Anna Hoffmann

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• TEDCred score: +5.20 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: What makes a good conversation? What draws you in and engages you? Let's build TED-capacity by sharing what we're learning with each other.

  Nov 1 2011: A good conversation is one that I am really taking part in, by sharing and expressing something or by listening/reading with interest and openess. This conversation seems to be one of those. Hi Pradee, Frans, Tanzi, Lezlie, Christopher, Linda and Muhammad! Nice to meet you here :-)

• A reply on Conversation: How could we relate to the world around us without the concept of time?

  Jun 13 2011: Oh, the Tralfamadorians! Hello past reading experience, nice to see you again!
  It feels, though, that if you want to be treated with respect, not seen as a crazy dreamer, you are supposed to believe in time as a straight line. They say your life starts when the sperm meets the egg and ends when your brain shuts down. I can't believe that, and never will. Which makes me uncomfortable in some situations, but what to do?

• A comment on Conversation: What is freedom?

  Jun 13 2011: I have heard that freedom is our very essence.
  
  But I think we are afraid of ourselves and the power we have when we express that.
  
  I am afraid...

• A comment on Conversation: Thinking in Thought, Not in Language

  Jun 13 2011: Hi Ian,
  What is a thought?
  I am not sure. Many things go on inside. (If you ever tried meditating zen style,you would know.) Body sensations, emotions, inner images and inner sounds. And some of those sounds are words. If you are a mathematician some of your images might be mathematical symbols. Numbers and math are also a kind of language. If you are a musician, you might hear inner music = a kind of language. Etc..
  Our brains many times take input it gets from outside and creates something new by reshaping it. I do not know if it ever creates something out of nothing. If it does, maybe the existence itself is a something, created out of nothing...
  
  Maybe every conscious process in the brain, that is not a pure sensory reaction, is a thought? And maybe language (verbal, body language, signs, music, math etc) is that process expressed and shared?

• A comment on Conversation: War. Do we really understand the consequences of it?

  Apr 28 2011: The outer war is a reflection of the inner war.
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: Who do you trust more to help you understand world events, the press, politicians or your friends/family, or someone/something else? Why?

  Apr 28 2011: It sounds selfish, but you can also see it as being responsible. If everyone really looked after him- or herself in the most optimal way, instead of meddling with other people, a lot would be easier. True happiness and wellbeing is contagious and overflowing. A fulfilled individual contributes to mankind's wellbeing just by setting an example.

• A reply on Conversation: Don't agree: Language skills reveal real genius, English is no more than a tool for them.

  Apr 10 2011: I agree with you Nichola, about that the change and evolution of language is a inevitable. But maybe because my native tongue is such a small language, I believe in the power of professional translation.
  Basic skills in a foreign language (and a little beyond basic, too), are something any intelligent person can acquire. But in order to really be a master of that language you need to be born with a certain gift, as with any great talent. If someone who has an idea first have to struggle with writing it in a foreign language (English) and then has only readers, who also might know English only as a second language, the whole meaning of that idea might be lost! The world needs more understanding, not more misunderstanding. And a really good translator can help an idea to spread much faster!
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How would you like to be remembered?

  Apr 9 2011: I have trouble putting it in words, so I try again:
  With a smile.
  As a fragrance or a song.
  As a friend.
  I would like who ever remembered me to feel loved.
  
  As a passing wind tickling them and making them laugh.

• A comment on Conversation: Is fighting for religion any different from a generic form of fighting for supremacy with respect to territory or resources?

  Apr 9 2011: In order to question something, use critical thinking, one must know something. As science is dividing into so may different branches, different subjects to study, different fields, people are desperately seeking something whole in contrast, connections instead of divisions. The old political ideas have also become fragmented, diverse. So the place left to look for some holistic, whole approach to existence, is religion.
  Even though religions also are dividing into new sects and movements, what they deal with is all and everything.... And they are interested in YOU, as an individual.
  So we might just need to develop a new religion that all humans can share and that does not oppose critical thinking. One that can be used as a firm base to stand or sit on while asking your question.....(until the next earthquake...)

• A comment on Conversation: About science....

  Apr 9 2011: I think it is good to keep a healthy balance, between your interest in what scientists have to say about a certain subject on one hand and just listening to your own inner voice (trusting your gut feeling or whatever word you want to use for making your own decisions) without asking somebody else on the other hand.
  
  This is a TED talk on this:
  
  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/noreena_hertz_how_to_use_experts_and_when_not_to.html