TED Community » Remington Barrett

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• A reply on Conversation: Corporations that make profit from peace

  May 17 2011: I suppose that I have less faith in man than you Maxime. Although the idea that humanitarians should be adequately rewarded for their deeds is a good one, it is difficult in practice. Just recently we have seen Greg Mortinson's fall from grace, which has sealed the fate of a thousand hopeful girls. Other innovative ventures, such as The Grameen Bank, have yet to be proven, and may in fact push third world communities into debt.
  
  I agree that our system is very broken, but we have to work with the unfortunate truths of human nature. Greed, hubris, impatience, evil, promiscuity, intemperance and laziness are survival mechanisms that are a part of all of us, although some are slowly being bred out of us. In our current system war is economically incentivized, whereas peace is seen as liberal and unsustainable. If this system is flipped on its head, we might just have a chance.

• A reply on Conversation: Has the university lost it's purpose for preparing its students for the future?

  May 16 2011: I agree with Sean. Mary it seems like there is some generalizing going on here. Many universities hinder creativity, many universities are okay with average students and many universities are just there to earn profit. But there are just as many that stay true to their values as an educational institution.
  
  That being said, there is a problem with advanced education. Thousands of new seats have opened up in colleges to deal with the incredible amount of college students that need a place to go. In my opinion, college is wrong for many students. Many other countries favor dedicated apprenticeships over generic college degrees. This is benificial because it teaches through experience, and prevents 'partying' in college (which brings down grades and taints an educational environment). It is truly unfortunate that so many kids are getting mediocre degrees instead of a true education, but this happens because we prefer the university over more avant-garde methods of education.
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  A comment on Conversation: Is crowdsourcing to help solve military conflicts a good idea or just desperate?

  May 16 2011: This really is a very fascinating concept. It seems to me that all of these questions have to do with the delicate balance between military transparency and military secrecy.
  
  On the first question; based on how the U.S. military has handled insurgencies in the Middle East, we can conclude that at the very least the armed forces are somewhat disorganized, fairly lethargic and generally uncomfortable with asymmetric warfare. It was only a few years ago when Petraeus began making progress without force in the north. It seems that the military has lost touch with the ancient military principles that define warfare, but at the same it has failed to evolve past the warfare norm of World War II. I welcome any and all innovative ideas coming out of the U.S. military, though I sometimes wonder whether or not these innovations will ever be adopted.
  
  On the second question; it seems to me that this really has to do with the balance I mentioned above. Internal military analysis or analysis from a dedicated think-tank is valuable because these institutions are able to use the full spectrum of intelligence to make a thorough conclusion. There are a couple possible approaches the military can take with the crowdsourcing. They could censor and redact the hell out of the intelligence, which would protect the integrity of the operations in question, but it would likely produce a lot of dirt. They could do the opposite, but this would have the opposite effect. The crowd sourcing would most likely produce static and one-sided conclusions. It could also produce broad concepts, but both would have to be painstakingly vetted and adapted by the military.
  
  The final question is a bit tougher and I really don't know what might happen. But the idea of peaceful alternatives is very appealing!

• A comment on Conversation: If all countries were developed countries, could the Earth sustain us all?

  May 16 2011: I suppose that I have a rather pragmatic view about the relationship between developed and undeveloped countries. It seems to me that Newton's third law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) applies here; one nation cannot become developed without harming the economy of another developed nation. So it seems to me that if all countries were on the road to becoming developed, the Earth, the world economy and the world's food supplies would all fail to sustain our new way of life. It is unfortunate, but history implies that it is true.
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  A comment on Conversation: Food and restaurant industry and their role in increasing obesity and type 2 diabetes.

  Apr 2 2011: I think a distinction has to be made between restaurants, and commercialized restaurants. Worldwide chefs are realizing that food is an experience, and part of the experience is the incorporation of fresh, local ingreidents into food, proper portion size, etc. This group of culinary pioneers is making good food more accessable, healthier and more genuine. But we still have the problem of Wal-Mart and McDonalds and other chian restaurants that sell highly proccessed, unhealthy foods. Buy locally and you are less likely to get food additives and you will end up getting a much better product.
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  A reply on Talk: Born of Fire

  Mar 23 2011: I also am from Michigan, but I have to agree with David. My father, grandfathers, grandmothers, great-grandfathers, aunts and uncles have collectively worked for all of the Big 3. My grandfather and grandmother worked on the assembly lines and my father was in upper management at GM for 25 years. I can tell you horror stories about how inefficient and lazy the American worker has become. But what is most frightening is that the majority of these workers (and executives) have ZERO pride in what they make. This translates into a car that is as cheap and monotonous as they can make it, and this does not fly with the consumer.
  
  I love this ad, but until Chrysler as a whole realizes what they have done wrong, I will not buy a car from them.

• A comment on Conversation: An alternative form of representation in a legislative body based on our interests and how we engage with the community.

  Mar 18 2011: I have always thought the same thing, especially with what is going on in Wisconsin; why do we not have a system that represents interests and career groups rather than geographic areas? For example, the electorial college does not represent the views of every voter in the country, but rather the consensus of a geographic area, why?
  
  What if a representative had to represent a group of people that they were knowledgable about, say factory workers, in the legislative body? This representative would be grouped with other members of factory worker representatives so that they could push for this group while taking part in normal legislative activities.
  
  When I think about this, there are two major problems that I can see. First, because these representatives would represent the workers similar to the ways that a union does, they would risk corruption, stagnancy or other problems of a similar nature. Second, you have problem that I feel almost every American is aware of; politicians are politicians. Unfortunately it seems that politicians rarely, if ever, accomplish what their constituents as of them and if they do, it is often done incorrectly and inefficiently.

• A reply on Conversation: Dad, why are there so many black people in Detroit?

  Mar 17 2011: I agree with your answer, but I have some questions in response.
  
  If you took a child of every race before they could talk and placed them in a controlled environment where they were ignorant of racial conflict in history, would they still divide along racial lines?
  
  If you took a group of white children and gave some of them many luxuries, while others lacked them, would they divide over economic lines? Would the 'rich' children 'control' the 'poor' children?
  
  Just like Mr. Bigley said; What if history had gone left instead of right?
  
  So, in conclusion; Are they really racial lines, or are they historical-economic-racial lines?

• A comment on Conversation: The world no longer needs students.

  Mar 17 2011: It seems to me that innovation and education are different subjects that sometimes go hand in hand, but sometimes clash. Have you heard the questions of a child? These questions are the essense of innovation. Einstein said something like ' the difference between a child and an adult is that a child is not afraid to ask questions '.
  
  Education in The United States is archaic, and rigid. It produces students who know facts, but do not know ideas. Students who can remember but not think. This lack of critical thinking skills is what sifles innovation.

• A comment on Conversation: The most efficient education

  Mar 17 2011: I have to say that I disagree with you about wrote learning. Although I am only a teenager, I have been a lifelong believer in Carl Rogers' thinking about education, specifically how reasoning is more important than simple facts. Reasoning cannot be learned from a textbook, one cannot improve their critical thinking skills from a textbook just as one cannot improve their social skills from a book. However, I am in no way saying that facts are unimportant but rather that specific and tedious details are useless if the idea is not understood. I think that it is difficult to look in and see the complex relationship here between the school system, labor unions and politicians, which hinders the learning of many students.
  I think that your idea about online educational content is excellent however. The Khan Academy is a great example of this, and I would recommend the TED talk from Salman Khan.