TED Community » Colin Smith

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Social justice and the end of American imperialist foreign policy. I am also very passionate about the advancement of the spaceflight and of research into physics, energy engineering, and neuroscience

An idea worth spreading

The resources on planet Earth can be thought of a closed loop system. That means that when one person or group of people get very wealthy, many others become impoverished. This is obvious if you pick almost any populated area in the world at random. We have the developed world taking the resources from the lands of the underdeveloped world because of a technological advantage. This is nothing new, it has been happening for centuries already. Is this right? We know that this is a natural occurrence, it makes sense even from an evolutionary standpoint, but is it ethical? Don't we have the basic beliefs engrained in all of us that all humans are created equal? I think that the idea that the pursuit of profit and capitalism is the biggest problem creator in our world and as people of the developed world we have an obligation to do right by our fellow man and end this. If you are a fellow idealist, don't be discouraged. We can change the world if we unite and only stand for positive change.

Talk to me about

Sociology, History of the Human Race, Geopolitical Sciences, Economics, Structural Mechanics, Energy Engineering, Climate Change, Spaceflight

People don't know that I'm good at

Playing the violin.
I am also working on my skills as a digital DJ and producer using Ableton Live 8. So if you know any good tutorials on anything Digital Audio Production drop me a line!

Comments

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• A comment on Conversation: Rampant pursuit of economic development Versus dramatic degradation of social values. Are they related?

  Oct 27 2011: Is that really what happens in China?? That is really messed up, I had no idea I've never been there. That disheartens me, sounds like humanity is harder to come by.

• A reply on Talk: Henry Markram: A brain in a supercomputer

  Oct 25 2011: Certainly, I mean think about it. Your thoughts, memories and reactions to various stimuli are called Conciousness, right? We know that none of those things in your conciousness happen without an electrical event in your neurons. So technically every time we see an electrical event we know something just happened in your conciousness.
  Now here's the kicker, how do you match each electrical event with something we can explain. What the Rosetta Stone that will allow us to understand the language of our neural networks? As you can see, we've got a good deal of science to do.

• A reply on Conversation: Western Extremism On the Rise?

  Aug 6 2011: Well although I may have sounded like that I don't think cultural diversity is a bad thing. In fact I am one of the biggest proponents of equalizing the global economy so that all cultures beliefs and lifestyles can exist in equality and without the fear of being trampled by a wealthier or more dominant culture. What I am saying is that at this point the "culturalists" are all taking their individual ideals too far. Whenever someone has an idea they naturally want to spread it to the world and try to subdue all differing opinions and that's what I want to end. I want to draw not just geographical borders but intellectual borders so that we can not only live in peace but also think in peace. And right now I just feel like everyone is totally and utterly abusing their right to free thinking by letting their ideological frustration turn into violence. Don't get me wrong though I hold my country, The United States of America, fully and completely responsible for 99.99999% of all the world's fighting and if I were able to assume the presidency for one day I would attempt to completely dismantle the entire US Military in one day before getting impeached. Someone has to take the first step to ending this cycle of violence and I think it should be us.
  At that point we can celebrate and promote religion even though I feel like they are just fairy tales to help us deal with the inability to grasp the cosmic perspective. Believe me, I find all different types of Religious faiths to be fascinating and many of which inspire me greatly and I want to make sure everyone can believe what truly inspires them and helps them feel like they have a place in the universe. For me that happens to be mathematics but I am fully aware that others need a more emotionally based theory of life to help them get through their lives. However I won't tolerate religious friction that turns into violence and gets people killed and wastes money. In the end, they are just stories, no one needs to die.

• A comment on Conversation: Western Extremism On the Rise?

  Aug 4 2011: Yes what you say is undboubtably fact. Now the question is what do we do about it?
  I like to ask the question why does extremism exist? I am no expert on U.S.-Arab relations but I think the reasons are economic, religious, cultural, and ideological. Christian extremists don't realize that they are a prime example of exactly what they don't like about extremist Muslims. Both sides argue that there is a God. Which is possible, but this "God" is characterized by each culture in a culturally-tailored way. In other words we invented this God in our heads. No doubt, there certainly is a full account of all the secrets of the universe and why/how we as humans got here, but as science has uncovered since the Bible and Quaran were written, those books do not have said secrets. They have good stories that sound appealing to us and CLAIM to give you all the secrets of the universe if you just simply believe the words on the page. Well isn't that convinent. That might actually work if we didn't have 5 million differing opinions on this topic and thus the solution becomes clear. People who are all separately convinced on the validity of preposterous claims of spiritual grandeur by various prophets throughout history are going to get set in their ways and start fighting when there is a disagreement. SOLUTION: stop trying to believe convinent fairy tales and go get a degree in physics, engineering, cosmology, sociology, biochemistry, materials science, neuroscience, biomedical sciences, or anything else that will help our understanding of the universe from a FACTUAL standpoint rather than a culturally polarized SPECULATIVE standpoint. Do we all agree the Earth is a sphere yet? Well if we don't we should. Cuz its a damn sphere and I'm sorry for your soul if we need to argue about that. But that's basically how far I feel like I need to go with some of the Christians I talk to. It's like they have no ability to reason. At all, we need help coming together. Science is the way to go.

• A comment on Conversation: How do end the prolonged war in Afghanistan? Is the withdrawal of US troops premature?

  Aug 1 2011: I think what you are saying is absolutely right. It is our responsibility to end this but the reason it is still continuing is because of the conservative voters in my country. The idea that pervades the American collective conciousness is "Fight to defend American Freedom". If you don't support the war then you are not a true patriot. Well I will be the first to tell you that if patriotism means invading other people's land and shattering their lives and futures to support "Freedom" then I am not a patriot. And I have no desire to be one. If you are familiar with American history these people who are largely responsible for the strife in your homeland are the descendents of those who supported ownership of Slaves and later, the Segregation and persecution of Blacks in the American South. I have a deep hatred for them and their bigotry. They are arrogant and ignorant, very deadly combination. Not only do they procreate and continue their biggoted and old fashioned, closed minded heratige, they spread their ideals through their christian religion and through their corporate news media (FOX) to influence other people in America and abroad to think the way they do. They vote for conservative leaders like George Bush and Sarah Palin and those leaders support the Imperialist foreign policy that you are suffering the effects of. The people who support this war have mostly never left the American south, so they think the world is as peaceful and prosperous as their homeland is. Plus they are unintelligent and will believe anything their beloved conservative heroes tell them on television. The battle for Afghanistan can only be won if we can take the fight to their minds. If we can finally explain to them that their ideals are evil and that they must be stopped. They are ardent, ignorant, staunch and stubborn people so it will not be easy but you must know Mohammad, the conservatives do not speak for all Americans. I am your ally in this fight and I will do what I can.