TED Community » Sonaar Luthra

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Open culture, Transparency, Citizen Journalism, Citizen Science, Circuitry, Sensors, Big Data, Vintage audio equipment, William Blake, Dogs, Marshall McLuhan, and Batman.

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• TEDCred score: +53.60 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +4

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: What I find troubling in healthcare right now is that we're investing billions in treatments that are extremely high-tech and profitable, but that relatively few people need. It's beyond me to decide which diseases and conditions should get the highest priority, but what we keep forgetting is how many more lives could be saved if we put more money into basic care and treatments that already work, and are already in the public domain.

• A comment on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: It was an awesome hour, and we'decided to keep the conversation open for another 24 hours so that more people can share their ideas.
  
  It's been a fantastic coincidence that we're having this conversation on a day where countless people and websites are participating in a protest against SOPA/PIPA - I'm curious as we move into the next stage:
  
  How might embracing open source ideas, technologies, and systems make the world more resilient to conflicts like this one?
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: that would really shake things up wouldn't it? just imagine if any community with the means to build a factory could make its own - it would transform labor conditions! it could even pull people out of poverty if you could guarantee the same product ...
• +8

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: That's the interesting part to me about closed systems: they can be so inefficient when they create competing efforts that could get so much farther, so much faster if they encouraged more collaboration.
• +4

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: Great points Joshua and Warren - I think this cuts to the core of the dilemma we face when we consider the benefits and drawbacks of open source. We can certainly point to plenty of inventions (especially in the medical world) that have been fueled by a proprietary model of development, and it isn't easy to wish that system away when it :does: find ways to solve difficult problems. But perhaps we can consider ways that Open Source doesn't simply mean giving things away for free and getting rid of markets: maybe we can create systems of value that go beyond intellectual property. Maybe in the process of making things open source we can create even :more: value than is possible in closed systems.

• A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: That would be incredible, and overlaps with an issue that's very close to my heart: could putting more information within reach fuel demand for a better quality of life at both a local and global level? It amazes me how abstract climate data remains for average people, it's one of the greatest problems we face and yet, I don't see data driving conversations as often as it could!

• A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: Great point - If you had access to all the innovations in 3d printing that are currently closed, what would you make?
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: That's an excellent point - I find the history of the light bulb really interesting in this respect - so many of the innovations that occurred in its developed only happened after Edison's patent expired and there was room for competition!
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: done: www.makerbot.com
• +6

  A reply on Conversation: If you could open-source one piece of technology, what would you choose and why?

  Jan 18 2012: That's an incredible idea and I think it would introduce a lot more transparency into the scientific process. I'm particularly interested in your mention of increasing collaboration - what kinds of problems do you think need more collaboration in the scientific world?