TED Community » Thomas Hotz

More About Me

I'm passionate about

music, art, philosophy, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, psychology, sociology, architecture, theoretical physics, spirituality, Buddhism

An idea worth spreading

Even before I discovered Buddhism, I determined that the meaning of life is suffering. Not the horrific, pitiful, depressing suffering that is usually associated with the word "suffering", but rather simply a striving or a struggle for balance. If you look at anything, whether it is an atom or the vast universe or a human being or the earth, it doesn't matter, everything is striving for balance. Let's say an atom is unstable (i.e. doesn't have the perfect number of electron(s) to balance its protons), it will attach itself to another atom that is also unstable and share electron(s), which results in a molecule. But say the circumstances change and that molecule heats up, it may be more stable for the molecule to separate. Now this is one analogy, but similar analogies can be created for anything. Though as it goes, circumstances change, balance is not forever. It is impossible to achieve perfect balance, which is why suffering is the meaning of life, not the definition.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What if we could control and utilize every aspect of our bodies?

  Jul 16 2011: I think this is an interesting idea. We shouldn't have complete control, but I wonder if our organs we're both voluntary and involuntary, much like the lungs.
  It's hard to imagine the impact because your organs balance your system and respond to any effects in the body. I don't know if it would result in healthier people or not in that regard. Though, if we had a better understanding of our bodies we would definitely would live more proper.

• A comment on Conversation: A conversation with Shell: How can we create a future where every city has reliable energy, clean water and enough to eat?

  Jul 14 2011: As far as the energy goes, nuclear has to be in place, at least for a long time now. Though it is expensive to build a plant and dispose of the material, nuclear needs to provide the minimal usage of energy for the city so there are no black outs. Also a plus is that it nuclear directly does not have carbon emissions, the mining for the uranium ore is what causes the carbon emissions.
  Wind energy and solar energy is at the grace of the weather, aka it isn't dispatchable. The key to harnessing these energy sources is to store it. Storages systems include hydro-pump reservoirs, thermal storage, pressure reservoirs, etc.
  With the coming dominance of wind, solar, and hydro electricity (green energies), the implementation of these storage systems will have to required by every infrastructure. Also cities will have to create large storage systems to provide to the whole grid.
  As technology evolves, becomes more efficient, and more reliable, these could potentially take over nuclear and coal. As this point, we will be a society that runs on pure green clean electricity.
  So I say invest in electricity storage systems, and try to figure out how to make them more efficient, more dispatchable, higher capacity, and of course cheaper. This will be the key to becoming a society that runs on 100 percent green energy sources.
  As far as everything else goes, that is at the prejudice of the bureaucrats.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Where do you think consciousness comes from?

  Jul 12 2011: Simone, I do believe you are on the right track here, that consciousness is really just based on bodily sensations. But I feel we are stemming away from this understanding and trying to define consciousness in philosophical terms when we can really just apply our basic understanding of anatomy.
  
  The way I kind of think of it is like this, when we are born our senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste) are being triggered, though our brain at that point has no real perception on what is happening. We quickly begin to make associations with these senses, for example we see an object in front of us at which our hands touch, we now have connected our sight and touch to perceive and understand the object before us. Over time, these associations become normal and our brain/body develop a consciousness or perception of our world, hidden somewhere amongst the network of neurons in our brain/body. This leads to a profound understanding of the world that leads us to ask why about things that aren't tangible.
  
  There doesn't need to be this spiritual sense in us that defines our consciousness. Our consciousness is a collection of memories and perceptions hidden in the brain/body that are interconnected with our senses.

• A comment on Talk: Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes

  Jul 7 2011: Its the little things in life that are so important.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: What is your definition of personal success?

  Jul 7 2011: I believe Bob Dylan put it well, "A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."
  
  For most people, what you want to "do" is reach some goal, and the goal can really be anything. To add to Bob Dylan, I would say success is being conscious of your goal, being conscious of the steps to reach that goal, and applying focus and attention to each one of those steps.
  
  Now, I see a trend upon the comments that success is happiness, but how do we achieve happiness? And the answer is focus. Your life is the sum of what you focus on. If you can skillfully manage your attention toward your goal, you will find happiness and fulfillment. That is my definition of personal success.
  
  Live the focused life.

• A comment on Conversation: Is the generation in education getting less intelligent than the ones before them or smarter?

  Jul 6 2011: This is a very hard question for me to answer. There's a difference between intelligence and being smart. Intelligence is your wealth of knowledge. Smart corresponds how hard-working you are or how efficient you are with your time. I think it fair to say that generations before us worked harder, but nowadays there's such an abundance of knowledge that anyone with a real interest in something is going to absorb it. With every new generation comes an iteration of intelligence, or in other words, knowledge is passed on generation after generation in some form. But I don't know, I almost believe that every single person is the most intelligent person in their own life. Put a man in another man's shoes and life becomes stressful. This is very subjective question to answer.

• A comment on Conversation: What is the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher?

  Jul 6 2011: I believe any teacher is a good teacher. Obviously, they have a wealth of knowledge in their subject that is at the prejudice of the student to tap into. But what really makes a teacher great, I mean superb, is in their ability to engage their students. Like a great TV show, after each episode, it should leave a cliff hanger, leaving the viewer wanting more, perhaps to the point they go on to research more about the show (i.e. director, time period, themes, behind the scenes, etc.). The same goes for a great teacher. If a teacher can leave their students with a desire after each lecture to go further into the subject, that will spark a focused interest in the subject, which leads to in depth understanding, which leads to creative intelligence. Now, this is an art that not all teacher can learn. It would be cliche to say that ENTHUSIASM is important, which it is, but I believe its more about drawing clear pictures of the subject through real life analogies, drawing comparisons through similar subject matter, incorporate/compare information from pass lectures, allow/aspire conversation, use ridiculous props, give timely examples, etc. Now, these don't need to be long and thorough examples and analogies, but simply short pauses to be creative with the subject matter. In most cases when a student goes to class, they see/hear ones and zeros, they are not understanding. Creativity is intelligence. Engage your students through enthusiasm, conversation, analogies, and spark imagination.
  
  We think as we were taught.