Dec 6 2009: This is some great discussion here. I just want to side with Max on this and say that Tim had no punch in his presentation. It was all set-up and self-talk and no new idea. "It's not how you do things, it's what you do." Really? Really? You got on a TED for that?!??!?
Dec 6 2009: To nay-sayers, Phil only had 6 minutes to talk. 6 minutes. Could you get across a new idea like time-perspective in 6 mins with no "loose ends?"
Anyway, all theories like this are noble in their efforts, but all seem to come under the genre of spiritual belief, namely, that having a generally positive attitude (being in the condition to WORK positively toward solutions) is beneficial to not only the organism and the society, but to the whole of existence. I agree with this, but let's call it what it is and stop defining it and dissecting it. Do we need Zimbardo to know that all play and no work makes Jack kind of a jerk for not helping out, and therefore makes him less liked and, in the final summation of things, less happy?
Dec 6 2009: A resource based economy is our world's only real chance at achieving full freedom for everyone. The Venus Project seems stalled, but more start ups are carrying on the idea. We need to do away with the faulty system that got us here so far, we've done away with all the other useless vestiges of the past. Now it's Capitalism's turn. The idea that humans should compete with each other is barbaric and anachronistic. If we are so enlightened and so much better than all other animals, why can't we learn to love and cooperate?
I suppose some stuffy 55 year old CEO Republican will disagree, but will he say anything that reflects the world you want your great grandchildren to live in?
Nov 30 2009: Yeah he's smart and all, but check out Joshua Klein's talk about the intelligence of crows for something REALLY important, not just games and presentations.
Nov 30 2009: Outstanding. Now, she just needed to mention that about 6 people own all the major networks and stations and those people are OBVIOUSLY in the pocket of big business AKA the government. You don't hear about other countries because journalism is being crushed by rich people who don't want you to know more. Don't misunderstand me: not all rich people are evil, but when was the last time you saw a poor politician? Check out Zeitgeist's section on banking and the Federal Reserve for more. Support HR1207 !
Nov 30 2009: I wonder if you think all progress is zero-sum when you eat fruit out of season, get medical attention, or sleep in a warm bed, in a warm house. Surely our products and manufacturing have thus far been poorly designed and are only adding to the world's pollution and problems, but once we can overthrow this incumbent business system and generate food and shelter for all that works with nature, progress will be a definite 1.
Nov 30 2009: Way to really dig into the poor guy on his completely ubiquitous error (all americans say "Chawcer.") And it was a tiny aside in his talk. How vain of you! Although, I must relent, being the knowledge junkie I am, and knowing how gleefully you must have typed out your imperious correction reminds me of wanting to rip into people for saying stupid things. And your knowledge has furthered my understanding of the world. How good of you to share it.
Nov 22 2009: Your post is full of misinformation. Wikipedia has only a few hundred volunteers and exactly one employee. Most articles are well done. Just look up anything you know about and read. It's all accurate stuff.
Nov 22 2009: Maybe this talk left a little to be desired, as described below, but this was one talk that had me reading every comment, soaking in opinions and ideas, really listening to the people "around" me, instead of racing to slam my own comment down and show everyone how smart and trenchant my thoughts can be.
Also, look up Natural Capitalism. And if you can handle that talk, look up Zeitgeist. :)
Nov 17 2009: This was a little painful. His accent didn't help, and his products were somewhat useless...Call me with a living air filter that can work through the whole house, then you'll have a good product. I didn't understand the dB at all. Why the hell would you ever want a ball around you playing white noise?
Nov 11 2009: I notice 2 things happen on a TED board that don't happen on , say, YouTube.
1. People talk almost entirely in generalizations, abstractions, and theory, rarely pinning down what they mean with concrete examples.
2. People rarely insult or fight with each other. Rather, they disagree.
I believe the first has the wonderful effect of the second, however it leaves a lackluster Oomph that comes from true change in thought, leading to a change in action.
Example - If I want to buy a hammer in my zip code, I have 3 options: Walmart, Lowe's, or Home Depot. I do not have the option of buying from a responsible company because the big ones bought or sold them out. "Sinking Spring Hardware" doesn't exist because the people around me chose to buy from the big box stores because its cheaper or more convenient. I had no say. Same with a loaf of bread, bag of sugar, etc. etc. etc. How is that a free market?
BTW for more look up "natural capitalism" and "adbusters"
Nov 8 2009: We are all interconnected. Unfortunately most Republicans think of it more like being chained to a drowning man, or one who simply refuses to swim.
If all of life were swimming to the shore to stay alive, when you reached the shore would you dry off and relax or help the rest in?
Nov 8 2009: Excellent summation. I agree, and would add that talking in the abstract for 12 minutes didn't work for my freshman year History prof, and it didn't work for this guy.
Nov 7 2009: You can't expect every dime in the world to be spent on furthering humanity. In fact, I would argue it doesn't take one penny to solve humanity. Do you think the spainiards were like, "Columbus is so elitist, wasting all this precious money and time trying to find a new route to India."
Nov 7 2009: What the hell are you talking about? Move poor people to space? Like the California Gold Rush? What? "Only when the supressed [sic] know they have a choice will they be able to stop being poor." Like the homeless guy on the corner is thinking, "Hmm, if I could only get into space, then all my problems would be solved."
Thanks for the fun at your expense. I loved this X prize presentation, btw. If I had $10M to put up I'd do it to replace animal testing.
Nov 7 2009: Boy I hope he had planned on talking about something else because that had NOTHING to do with TED. I see he managed to plug his new movie though. Ha.
Nov 7 2009: Many homeless people have undiagnosed mental health conditions and addictions. Anyone who chooses to be homeless for the adventure is being irresponsible. Living in a vehicle while you work is not homelessness. Having no home is having no one, not one person that cares about you, and that feeling can be achieved in the mind regardless of the external circumstances.
Nov 7 2009: I think she was saying that other people looked at her as worthless, and THAT'S why she became depressed. It only took a little time to live in another social role to understand the power that role has over the emotions.
Nov 6 2009: Just wait until there's millions of little suicide-bomber robots everywhere taking over the world, all responding to the remote in David Rockefeller's bunker.
Nov 6 2009: I would have laughed if those little asian kids would have turned to the camera and said, "Yeah, but it's still not better than going outside." Hahahaha.
I think every tech invention is learning to glom itself onto its educational possibilities while ignoring the further drift into virtual "reality."
Nov 6 2009: It won't be long before we get this device small enough to be injected into the forehead. Mark of the Beast anyone? Step right up!
Also remember every step you remove people from interacting with each other and impose a filtered medium between them, you remove humanity and make of all existence a value judgment coldly decided from the left brain.
Nov 6 2009: Excellent. Simply proper and beautiful response. I would only add that humans have an infinite capacity to love, and we should exercise it often.
Oct 29 2009: I'm a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Counselor for a growing apartment-based residence village. I've worked in the field for 7 years and it certainly seems that everyone is different. The slight chemical and attitudinal difference from person to person varies the effect of the drug. I would say there's a bell curve of experiences, with standard deviations just like any science.
Incidentally, Helen Fisher wrote The Anatomy of Love, the required text for Human Development and Family studies 250, a class I took my senior year at Penn State with a girl whom I absolutely adored, and who would not completely requite my love. It was a bittersweet semester, our semi-love burning strong in my heart and only half of hers, while learning about how love got to be this way. I remember the sweet little moments of her on my lap, or when, running down the street, caught in the rain, laughing, we stopped under an awning, I didn't hold her face and kiss her, like I should have, like love wanted me to.
Oct 29 2009: Great start, and then I got lost. 10th grade Geometry wasn't enough to get me through all the long-winded proofs. But TED should try someone else who can give us all a reason to study math again.
Oct 25 2009: It's amazing that we are evolving into one being, that each of us turn out to be cells performing all the same functions that microbes do to push a thing both in us and around us to life. And this being will need an immune system to fight the viruses.
Oct 25 2009: I'm not sure where people get their sense of fair. Some people are born in royalty, and some die on a filthy street. Life isn't fair, and isn't in our best interest to make it more fair?
The only people I hear cry about relocation of wealth honestly believe they are more worthy of life. Of course hard work should be rewarded, but making it about money cheapens life. All hard work is ultimately brought to the whole. Every great man in history had something on his mind other than money.
Oct 25 2009: The posts here don't seem to get past the whole Innovation vs. Traditional work. It's the contribution from the consumer that creates a stronger network of companies.
Oct 25 2009: All these "walls" coming down are also signs of America's importing of goods and exporting of labor..."growth" is a euphemism for "growth of the US"
Oct 25 2009: Outliers stressed the importance of opportunity and the ever-changing zeitgeist, Alain seems more focused on how we as humans should process that.
By the way, anyone with a rich dad will be the first to tell you they earned their keep.
Oct 23 2009: What's all this talk about nuclear energy? Can't we just get some solar panels up in space the size of 100 football fields and call it a day?
Oct 22 2009: Good points on all counts. This is only a slight, readily obsolete technology this guy is trying to sell us. Sure it would save some people, but this guy wants the money. See the gleam in his eye? The practiced ethos of his dying children?
How about you do this for free, like Salk or Schweitzer or Einstein or King.
Oct 22 2009: If you really want to help Sub-Saharan Africa, why don't you build the glasses factory in Sub-Saharan Africa? Hire their managers, their workers, and give them the profits. If you're not willing to do that, then what's in it for you?
Oct 22 2009: Michelle sounds like a high school valedictorian. This takes all the menace out of the clips of her I see on the conspiracy movies like The Freedom movie, Kymatica, and The Obama Deception.
For a little difference of opinion, check out Ken Robinson's "Do schools kill creativity?"
Oct 22 2009: How many of us are willing to invest our very beings into this more moral world? Most of us work a job we at best tolerate, and work 3 months out of the year to pay Rockefeller, et al, for "our money." Bankrupt bankers get bonuses, teachers go on strike for Christ's sake!
The only hope is that a leader emerges to take us back to our original virtue: love. Ever try really forgiving someone you hate? I am really forgiving them? It feels like life surges into you. It feels like energy from thought. Something from nothing.
Oct 21 2009: Why the fake applause at 17:50? This guy was hilarious and a great speaker. I thought I was going to hate him but "processing" countries sounds better than making the Middle East a parking lot. Now that we have the concept, are we going to use it, or just market it that way?
Oct 21 2009: I was disappointed to see animal experimentation is still around, furthering the war effort of all things. It is an atrocity to torture in the hopes than one could avoid torture. Let's develop technology that removes animals from our laboratories and factories.
Oh and holy crap that was chilling. Real life Terminators walking around is NOT a good idea. Not because robots are bad, but because a few people could control an army of soulless soldiers. I bet David Rockefeller has about 10,000 already.
Oct 21 2009: Are you serious about the pigeons? Did you not generalize the idea? Do you want me to show it to the crow, and the crow can tell you? lol jk, no seriously, all animals could be given a specific task, ie. currently little dogs are cute teddy bears, pitbulls are home defense. Scavenging animals are begging to be our bio-waste disposal system for free. The best part is that we have to be smart enough to teach it to them. The vending machine is a huge leap forward. Can we try this with trash now? Really the investment would simply be to cover current landfills with a netting and little vending machines all along the top of it. Rats, roaches and bacteria would help digest the filth and every year you scrape out the bottom for the most potent organic soil. Bio-processing will help save us all, not to mention animals working with humans in symbiosis is a great big answer to a great big question.
My heart felt huge and I had to skip down to the Add a Comment box right away skipping all the conversation, which I hate to do because thats part of the TED.com experience, but this thought of simply LIVING WITH all the animals instead of against them made me nearly cry. How shallow that we cannot learn the language of a being so direct in its intention, so replete with eager life.
Animals as extensions of our consciousness, adapted to us if we are willing to be stewards.
Symbiosis = sustainability.
Oct 21 2009: This speech is simply outstanding. Many of its themes are sadly replicated in the other TED talk she gave, but still resounding.
I contribute the idea of peaceful revolution as often as I can. And to put a physical point to it, I work towards self-sustainability: less wasteful travel, less purchasing, less use of resources, and most importantly smarter use of resources. When you buy something, make it count. Its like casting a vote for a way of life every time you pay for something, and you count for 1,000 votes every time you work for something.
Oct 21 2009: Actually, your rant about the disparate beliefs of people in general has inspired me to do a little more than I was. I have been trying to go more vegetarian (ethical reasons) and I walk to work and recycle, but these aren't enough and I know it. I am going to ramp up my efforts, join a cause, and visit Adbusters.com often. The "divine inspiration" you are so hoping for, for me, was partly you.
Oct 20 2009: An attempt to find common ground in this discussion: If the religious did not panic at the discovery of "germs" , ie. wash food, refrigerate it, and dispose of waste properly, then why would one step "deeper" into our physical material matter? You can still have the "spiritual" right to whatever you want, since what you're technically calling a "soul" is "unknowable" ie. what science hasn't found yet.
Bonus Idea: If Christians believe God is real and Athiests believe he's not, and both have uncompromising faith, an emotion linked to the physical world as DNA software, then we would be left with a being that could do the impossible: both exist and not exist.
Oct 18 2009: Electricity is as "free" as we want it to be. All the money spent on fossil fuel burning could now be pushed into solar, wind, water, etc, but its still not. Next year's cars all run on gas.
A gas tax and a toll road would amount to the exact same thing.
Burning gas driving on a road = using a car.
X Y = using a car.
increasing x or y increases the "penalty" for driving.
Let's skip all this and take a lesson from our circulatory system. Small cars on monorails distributed throughout the world as arteries, veins, capillaries, and so on. Monorails use magnets (zero friction) and could have solar tops or panels lining the tracks ("free energy")
Combine with the technology locusts have to never crash into each other and you have the perfect transportation system. Now you just have to convince Big Oil, Insurance companies, and all the dullard backwardists that hate anything new.
Oct 18 2009: Look up the TED talk on Biomimicry. Locusts have technology that allows them to never crash into each other, even in thick swarms. That kind of sensory information will abolish "car insurance."
Oct 18 2009: All this to say people want more enjoyment and less work? That makes life simpler? I wonder if his parents were simple people when he was an infant. His argument amounts to hedonism, which always erodes humanity to the degree to which it ignores unnecessary suffering. I think we would all enjoy life better with our neighbors and fellow humans living a more meaningful life. Co-operation and empathy, friendship and unity, are the hum of the universe.
Oct 12 2009: wow that was pretty depressing austin. Don't you think it a bit precious, dare I say, irresponsible, to give yourself a huge mid-life vacation when people are starving? (and animals are tortured to feed them!)
Oct 12 2009: I agree! Evolution would only be "helped" so far into the future as we could see ie. the current diseases we don't want our children to have, the emotional disturbance we want to rid ourselves of. The ways in which the world changes would not be reflected in our self-adaptations. Of course we could just take them as they come.
As far as overpopulation is concerned, why wouldn't the next step be genetic software that bypasses oxygen, atmospheric regulation, etc. The rich would basically have SuperChildren. Let's hope they don't get an army of them going before we can all get in on the action.
Btw, it's clear that any new technology described at TED could be used for good or evil, so stop with all the posts about whether the idea is good for the world or not. It's about whether the rich or incredibly intelligent (the ones with access to the new information) want to share it. The only doomsday scenario is an elite few having a power so strong the many cannot revolt.Superman II?
Oct 12 2009: Absolutely fascinating. Juan Enriquez is leading us into a future of possibilities we never thought could happen.
Now, can we make sure that no one uses this information to try to take power away from the masses. As it is every invention has become a "mascot" of its era, a sacred cow that is heretical to overthrow, a tool that we pigeon-hole into one purpose. A hammer can build a house or smash a skull; what will the rich and powerful do with genes as software? Heal all diseases? Create zombie-armies? Or simply charge us, at interest, for the code we are born with? When knowledge becomes more powerful than money, money will try to buy it.
Oct 12 2009: Biomimicry will only catch on when the current economic system is separated from government. How can inventors change the world now that a few people hold the media and laws in their hands. Once Rockefeller and his cronies realized that oil laws media equals never-ending riches (until the oil runs out,) it was all over for our dreams of progress. We see this as the new business model of our time - crush others or buy them out until you have a monopoly, then change laws to make monopolies ok, then market to the public that your company is just another company striving to bring the best products to the market place. Ask yourself why we all aren't driving electric or solar cars. They've been around for decades.....Biomimicry will thrive after the revolution.
Oct 12 2009: This talk made very little sense. It was rambling and flighty, unfocused and ambiguous. Yes, I get that part of it is being comfortable with ambiguity, but we should sit back and let Chinese villages have their own brand of superstitious justice where an accident results in relatives banishment? No wonder I've never read an Amy Tan book... This is a good talk for people who are either too rigid and need some loosening up, or spacey-hippie chicks who wear scarves in their hair. This was the first TED talk that completely lost me. Go ahead, gimme a thumbs down because I didn't like it, even though I'm sharing my thoughts in the spirit of communication.
Oct 11 2009: Malcolm Gladwell covers this in Tipping Point, that you should market to "Mavens," people who are interested in specific products and get excited about it with others. People like "remarkable" things? Didn't Piaget cover this 60 years ago with the children's tendency to look at "novel" things? I like his other talk about Tribes better.
Oct 11 2009: Do not blame the tool or new knowledge: A hammer can build a house or smash a skull. Its all what "Tribes" do. And more and more it will be what tribes do (or don't do) with their money. Keep in mind you can't tax the sun or wind (yet.)
Oct 11 2009: Look at Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping point" for a lesson on "stickiness" of an idea. Its as simple as showing Blue's Clues 5 times a week- the same episode. It makes it "sticky."
Oct 11 2009: I think anyone who takes another's idea and tries to refute its certainty is performing a redundant service, in that modern science takes as its basis that nothing is truly known, just slowly discovered. Religion is the paragon of certainty, which they enjoy calling "faith." These "tribes" are simply the next thought about humanity in a most-likely never-ending succession of thoughts about humanity. What would ancient priests say of Galileo, or Stephen Hawking? What would Hammurabi think of the Geneva convention? We are ancient ourselves to the vast future that lies before us, and if one thing is absolute, it is change.
Oct 11 2009: you can't "prevent" youngsters from taking drugs any more than you can stop adults. Drugs are a part of society that is meant to be explained to youth, and yes, even experimented with and sometimes even used regularly, as in the case of medical marijuana. The youth have a right to all knowledge as their minds deserve all that we can offer them. I certainly don't advocate giving children drugs, but EXPLAINING them without judgment and allowing children to make up their own minds is key. Think of learning to play an instrument, or negotiate with friends...these are much higher processes, processes that require a child to think for himself and have all available options in his mind simultaneously, and THEN make the right choice. Now that would be one quality human.
Oct 11 2009: I think focusing on Action turns aspirations to actions. "Happy" and "value" are not fundamental to the discussion. Nazi Germany achieved Stage 5 by changing the immediate environment (Europe) using their values (aryan power.) Of course we only want to call "good" causes Stage 5 activity, but a group of people ACTING toward a common goal that focuses on CHANGING THE WORLD IN WHICH THEY ARE ACTING is the highest human cooperation. Now whether their actions are "happy" or not is certainly subjective, but maybe that's why we should only focus on ideas that benefit ALL of life, and not just our tiny corner of it, which brings us back to Stage 3.
Oct 11 2009: This was outstanding. In my work as a psychiatric rehabilitation counselor I am faced with stage 1 and 2 constantly, and it's informing and precise to know they need to just be nudged to the next level, not to world leader material. Counselors have a habit of discounting people for their lack of motivation, when in fact the language is aimed over their head in terms of stages.
It's funny how new material knowledge invigorates my will to help them; That learning keeps the wheel of action turning.
Sep 30 2009: His humor is a little wooden...I would have liked more statistics and specifics about the growing "trend" of slowness.
I'd break it up a little: Some things should be done quickly and easily - such as the production of grains and vegetables- because they are both necessary for human survival and still needed in the world.
Unnecessary things would be the highly debatable group. Cell phone? Sports car? Diamond mining? Meat?
Sep 30 2009: The only poem to ever bring tears to my eyes is Who Learns My Lesson Complete? by Walt Whitman. Here's the line: "And that my soul embraces you this hour, and we affect each other without ever seeing each other, and never perhaps to see each other, is every bit as wonderful."
In reading those words I felt his presence, across more than a century, and I felt somehow loved and cherished and more able to exist. It made all the difference to know that something like that was there, not waiting for me, not rushing to catch up to me. It felt like a truth.
Sep 29 2009: Fantastic. Thousands of hours and risks taken for an instant's worth of human being. Excellent presentation in all ways, only I wish it could have been longer. I also paused it to google/wikipedia "CIA covert public diplomacy" - which led me to the Iran-Contra scandal I remember as a kid, Nicaragua and the Contras, Alhurra TV, which I could not find even a single clip of, which led me to the Smith-Mundt Act (The US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948) which prohibits US-produced foreign propaganda from being disseminated in the US! Anything that gets me interested in learning is better than any presentation of mere facts.
Sep 26 2009: I'm glad I read further and found someone more eloquent than me before I angrily spouted off some common-ground evoking standpoint that could close of the distance between religion and science. Remember Nintendo? Consider religion 8-bit morality: It is grainy, has glitches, and only represents truth as well as its ancient stories. Now the 16-bit morality of Darwin and the 32-bit truths of Peter Singer are leading the way for the best of us to make a new, more efficient and knowledgeable morality system.
Sep 26 2009: It will be interesting once science, (an old biologist/comedian once said of frogs and comedy), can dissect a cell without killing it. I understand the apprehension of many Tedsters at jumping to a highly stylized "Pixar"-based biology paradigm simply because computer graphics have improved, but I think the fear is unfounded. Learning is a process of always coming to a slightly better approximation of the truth, and that means never settling on what the "truth" is. Unless, of course, its already beautiful.
Sep 26 2009: So how can we reflect other people's humanity? I didn't like how he said "Sometimes its just enough to know that it is difficult." In the context of killing a goat, it seemed to excuse animal abuse in the service of social tradition. Yes, I know that's not how he meant it, but as a soundbyte it could be misconstrued. I would have liked it more with examples of my first question.
Sep 25 2009: poorly thought out response. If animals and humans have nothing in common psychologically, then why are so many experiments on animals warranted?
Sep 24 2009: Perhaps the aggressiveness you sensed came from the urgency he felt at getting this "perfect." (The little psychological joke at the end) and the judgmental tone is of one who sees the next great injustice that must be stopped: Abuse of power.
Sep 24 2009: Astounding. I work with people with mental illness and this is the most important information we could have. Training people to become independent is a process of creating success that is first praised, then internalized. But it is the creating of success that is key. Simply punishing the unwanted behavior just defeats them, Using negativity to generate a desired outcome is like giving someone directions to your house by starting, "I don't live in China. I don't live in Haiti. I don't live on Oak St., etc."
By the way this information disseminated to every animal shelter and school in the country would most likely make kill shelters extinct.
I will research Ian Dunbar faithfully, as I have BF Skinner, Fritz Perls, Carl Rodgers, and Irvin Yalom.
Sep 24 2009: I think Nicolas needs another way of thinking of it. Instead of getting an immediate benefit, say, from the nutrients of the apple, you get a latent benefit, you create the condition of fairness and generosity, which in turn, is a more beneficial environment for both giver and receiver. It is delayed gratification, as well as a "birth" of true human connectedness and morality. I say birth in that elements and conditions meet to create something greater than their sum; the way when you open a coconut, you do not find a coconut tree inside.
Sep 23 2009: talking to the global consciousness is perhaps the most existential way of all to deal with loss and death. Before mass media I suppose prayer and meditation were the best things. It makes sense that religion took off while the internet and science in general were "fermenting."
Sep 23 2009: exporting violence. That's a brilliant idea entangled with the simple idea that the less people have, the less they have to lose. How many suicide bombers are wealthy or even middle class? How many American suicides are wealthy or middle class?
Will animal rights have to wait in line behind Gay rights? The expanding circle reached a tipping point in the 60s...can we keep it up and deliver these sentient, feeling animals from their egregious fate? With years of meat-consumption already in us, can we reverse the habit and put animal treatment over animal taste?
Sep 22 2009: Ever wonder how biased wikipedia is on the pages for CitiGroup, Chase Manhattan, or the Federal Reserve? Ever try to Youtube or Google these? How can you know what is being censored?
When information becomes more powerful than money, money will try to buy it. Chad Hurley, inventor of Youtube, who went to Twin Valley high school 5 miles from my house, sold Youtube for over 1 billion dollars. Why do you think it was worth so much? What would have been on it if it was still owned by "no-one"?
Sep 22 2009: It would be difficult to convince me that the majority of videos shared on thepiratebay are actually helpful to individuals or society, if you were to define help existentially.
Sep 22 2009: I think it odd that no one on here took it seriously. Sperm cannot live at body temperature, which is the precise reason men's testicles hang outside of their bodies. Studies found reduced sperm counts and heat-induced infertility in frequent Jacuzzi users, pilots, professional drivers, and ...bartenders, for some reason.
Sep 22 2009: This was excellent. The main action I take from this is to have as many forms of communication that I can -CB Radio, walkie-talkie, etc. - and develop a strong group of friends who believe in freedom, live near one another, and support each other as self-sustainably as possible. Almost sounds like a cult...but if we all come to that conclusion, out of love and concern for each other's well-being, is it a cult, or a new evolution of man?
by the way there is a south park episode about this very idea that government can subvert opposition simply by allowing it and then altering it slightly. Funny that a show so low-brow could contain such a trenchant message. And funny that the only thing that really comes up when I googled to try to find a clip of it was a short still frame with audio commentary by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the show's creators, discussing how certain they are of the government's non-involvement in conspiracies.
Sep 19 2009: Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant, best response! This is an evolution and should be nurtured as such, not a mere "paradigm shift." Imagine the slaves, or the poor workers who toiled 16 hour days, 7 days a week until the 40-hour/week labor laws were passed. It isn't something to debate in our environment now, and likewise with this.
Sep 19 2009: I work with people with mental illnesses. Schizophrenia, affective disorders, and BPD, many exhibiting blunted or disregulated motivation systems, all respond to autonomy. On the front lines of this disease mastery and purpose are rarely taught; they are expected to come intrinsically from the person and thus the person is dismissed out of hand as a troublemaker, faker, "Axis II", or any number of unbecoming traits projected onto the person by the counselor.
Fascinating talk. TED delivers our future, and it looks amazing. Lets all do our human part to accept each other and technology can one day do the rest.
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Anyway, all theories like this are noble in their efforts, but all seem to come under the genre of spiritual belief, namely, that having a generally positive attitude (being in the condition to WORK positively toward solutions) is beneficial to not only the organism and the society, but to the whole of existence. I agree with this, but let's call it what it is and stop defining it and dissecting it. Do we need Zimbardo to know that all play and no work makes Jack kind of a jerk for not helping out, and therefore makes him less liked and, in the final summation of things, less happy?
And was Phil talking about success or happiness?
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I suppose some stuffy 55 year old CEO Republican will disagree, but will he say anything that reflects the world you want your great grandchildren to live in?
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Also, look up Natural Capitalism. And if you can handle that talk, look up Zeitgeist. :)
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1. People talk almost entirely in generalizations, abstractions, and theory, rarely pinning down what they mean with concrete examples.
2. People rarely insult or fight with each other. Rather, they disagree.
I believe the first has the wonderful effect of the second, however it leaves a lackluster Oomph that comes from true change in thought, leading to a change in action.
Example - If I want to buy a hammer in my zip code, I have 3 options: Walmart, Lowe's, or Home Depot. I do not have the option of buying from a responsible company because the big ones bought or sold them out. "Sinking Spring Hardware" doesn't exist because the people around me chose to buy from the big box stores because its cheaper or more convenient. I had no say. Same with a loaf of bread, bag of sugar, etc. etc. etc. How is that a free market?
BTW for more look up "natural capitalism" and "adbusters"
A comment on Talk: Jane Poynter: Life in Biosphere 2
If all of life were swimming to the shore to stay alive, when you reached the shore would you dry off and relax or help the rest in?
A reply on Talk: Lee Smolin on science and democracy
Throw in examples, for Christ's sake!
A reply on Talk: Peter Diamandis on our next giant leap
A reply on Talk: Peter Diamandis on our next giant leap
A reply on Talk: Peter Diamandis on our next giant leap
A reply on Talk: Peter Diamandis on our next giant leap
Thanks for the fun at your expense. I loved this X prize presentation, btw. If I had $10M to put up I'd do it to replace animal testing.
A comment on Talk: David Hoffman on losing everything
A comment on Talk: Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless
A reply on Talk: Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless
A comment on Talk: Robert Full on engineering and evolution
A comment on Talk: David Merrill demos Siftables
I think every tech invention is learning to glom itself onto its educational possibilities while ignoring the further drift into virtual "reality."
A comment on Talk: Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense
Also remember every step you remove people from interacting with each other and impose a filtered medium between them, you remove humanity and make of all existence a value judgment coldly decided from the left brain.
A reply on Talk: Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense
A reply on Talk: Helen Fisher tells us why we love + cheat
A reply on Talk: Helen Fisher tells us why we love + cheat
Incidentally, Helen Fisher wrote The Anatomy of Love, the required text for Human Development and Family studies 250, a class I took my senior year at Penn State with a girl whom I absolutely adored, and who would not completely requite my love. It was a bittersweet semester, our semi-love burning strong in my heart and only half of hers, while learning about how love got to be this way. I remember the sweet little moments of her on my lap, or when, running down the street, caught in the rain, laughing, we stopped under an awning, I didn't hold her face and kiss her, like I should have, like love wanted me to.
A comment on Talk: Marcus du Sautoy: Symmetry, reality's riddle
A reply on Talk: David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation
A reply on Talk: David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation
A comment on Talk: Ze Frank's nerdcore comedy
A comment on Talk: Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web
A comment on Talk: Howard Rheingold on collaboration
The only people I hear cry about relocation of wealth honestly believe they are more worthy of life. Of course hard work should be rewarded, but making it about money cheapens life. All hard work is ultimately brought to the whole. Every great man in history had something on his mind other than money.
A comment on Talk: Charles Leadbeater on innovation
A comment on Talk: Alex Tabarrok on how ideas trump crises
A reply on Talk: Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success
By the way, anyone with a rich dad will be the first to tell you they earned their keep.
A comment on Talk: Stewart Brand proclaims 4 environmental 'heresies'
A reply on Talk: Michael Pritchard's water filter turns filthy water drinkable
How about you do this for free, like Salk or Schweitzer or Einstein or King.
A comment on Talk: Josh Silver demos adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses
A comment on Talk: Michelle Obama's plea for education
For a little difference of opinion, check out Ken Robinson's "Do schools kill creativity?"
A comment on Talk: Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom
The only hope is that a leader emerges to take us back to our original virtue: love. Ever try really forgiving someone you hate? I am really forgiving them? It feels like life surges into you. It feels like energy from thought. Something from nothing.
A reply on Talk: Thomas Barnett draws a new map for peace
A comment on Talk: Thomas Barnett draws a new map for peace
A comment on Talk: PW Singer on military robots and the future of war
Oh and holy crap that was chilling. Real life Terminators walking around is NOT a good idea. Not because robots are bad, but because a few people could control an army of soulless soldiers. I bet David Rockefeller has about 10,000 already.
A reply on Talk: Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows
A comment on Talk: Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows
My heart felt huge and I had to skip down to the Add a Comment box right away skipping all the conversation, which I hate to do because thats part of the TED.com experience, but this thought of simply LIVING WITH all the animals instead of against them made me nearly cry. How shallow that we cannot learn the language of a being so direct in its intention, so replete with eager life.
Animals as extensions of our consciousness, adapted to us if we are willing to be stewards.
Symbiosis = sustainability.
A comment on Talk: Jane Goodall on what separates us from the apes
I contribute the idea of peaceful revolution as often as I can. And to put a physical point to it, I work towards self-sustainability: less wasteful travel, less purchasing, less use of resources, and most importantly smarter use of resources. When you buy something, make it count. Its like casting a vote for a way of life every time you pay for something, and you count for 1,000 votes every time you work for something.
A reply on Talk: Jane Goodall helps humans and animals live together
A reply on Talk: Juan Enriquez wants to grow energy
A comment on Talk: Craig Venter is on the verge of creating synthetic life
Bonus Idea: If Christians believe God is real and Athiests believe he's not, and both have uncompromising faith, an emotion linked to the physical world as DNA software, then we would be left with a being that could do the impossible: both exist and not exist.
Let's call it a draw and help each other out!
A reply on Talk: Robin Chase on Zipcar and her next big idea
A gas tax and a toll road would amount to the exact same thing.
Burning gas driving on a road = using a car.
X Y = using a car.
increasing x or y increases the "penalty" for driving.
Let's skip all this and take a lesson from our circulatory system. Small cars on monorails distributed throughout the world as arteries, veins, capillaries, and so on. Monorails use magnets (zero friction) and could have solar tops or panels lining the tracks ("free energy")
Combine with the technology locusts have to never crash into each other and you have the perfect transportation system. Now you just have to convince Big Oil, Insurance companies, and all the dullard backwardists that hate anything new.
A reply on Talk: Robin Chase on Zipcar and her next big idea
A comment on Talk: John Maeda on the simple life
A reply on Talk: Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off
A reply on Talk: Gregory Stock: To upgrade is human
A reply on Talk: Gregory Stock: To upgrade is human
As far as overpopulation is concerned, why wouldn't the next step be genetic software that bypasses oxygen, atmospheric regulation, etc. The rich would basically have SuperChildren. Let's hope they don't get an army of them going before we can all get in on the action.
Btw, it's clear that any new technology described at TED could be used for good or evil, so stop with all the posts about whether the idea is good for the world or not. It's about whether the rich or incredibly intelligent (the ones with access to the new information) want to share it. The only doomsday scenario is an elite few having a power so strong the many cannot revolt.Superman II?
A comment on Talk: Juan Enriquez on genomics and our future
Now, can we make sure that no one uses this information to try to take power away from the masses. As it is every invention has become a "mascot" of its era, a sacred cow that is heretical to overthrow, a tool that we pigeon-hole into one purpose. A hammer can build a house or smash a skull; what will the rich and powerful do with genes as software? Heal all diseases? Create zombie-armies? Or simply charge us, at interest, for the code we are born with? When knowledge becomes more powerful than money, money will try to buy it.
A comment on Talk: Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action
A comment on Talk: Amy Tan on creativity
A comment on Talk: Seth Godin on standing out
A reply on Talk: Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
A reply on Talk: Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
A comment on Talk: Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
A reply on Talk: David Logan on tribal leadership
A reply on Talk: David Logan on tribal leadership
A reply on Talk: David Logan on tribal leadership
A reply on Talk: David Logan on tribal leadership
A comment on Talk: David Logan on tribal leadership
It's funny how new material knowledge invigorates my will to help them; That learning keeps the wheel of action turning.
A comment on Talk: Carl Honore praises slowness
I'd break it up a little: Some things should be done quickly and easily - such as the production of grains and vegetables- because they are both necessary for human survival and still needed in the world.
Unnecessary things would be the highly debatable group. Cell phone? Sports car? Diamond mining? Meat?
A comment on Talk: Lakshmi Pratury on letter-writing
In reading those words I felt his presence, across more than a century, and I felt somehow loved and cherished and more able to exist. It made all the difference to know that something like that was there, not waiting for me, not rushing to catch up to me. It felt like a truth.
A reply on Talk: Emily Levine's theory of everything
A comment on Talk: Taryn Simon photographs secret sites
A reply on Talk: A.J. Jacobs' year of living biblically
A comment on Talk: David Bolinsky animates a cell
A comment on Talk: Chris Abani muses on humanity
A reply on Talk: Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training
A reply on Talk: Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training
A reply on Talk: Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training
A reply on Talk: Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training
A comment on Talk: Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training
By the way this information disseminated to every animal shelter and school in the country would most likely make kill shelters extinct.
I will research Ian Dunbar faithfully, as I have BF Skinner, Fritz Perls, Carl Rodgers, and Irvin Yalom.
A reply on Talk: Robert Wright on optimism
A reply on Talk: Steven Pinker on the myth of violence
A reply on Talk: Steven Pinker on the myth of violence
Will animal rights have to wait in line behind Gay rights? The expanding circle reached a tipping point in the 60s...can we keep it up and deliver these sentient, feeling animals from their egregious fate? With years of meat-consumption already in us, can we reverse the habit and put animal treatment over animal taste?
A reply on Talk: Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
A comment on Talk: Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
When information becomes more powerful than money, money will try to buy it. Chad Hurley, inventor of Youtube, who went to Twin Valley high school 5 miles from my house, sold Youtube for over 1 billion dollars. Why do you think it was worth so much? What would have been on it if it was still owned by "no-one"?
A reply on Talk: Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
A comment on Talk: Yossi Vardi fights local warming
A reply on Talk: Evgeny Morozov: How the Net aids dictatorships
A comment on Talk: Evgeny Morozov: How the Net aids dictatorships
by the way there is a south park episode about this very idea that government can subvert opposition simply by allowing it and then altering it slightly. Funny that a show so low-brow could contain such a trenchant message. And funny that the only thing that really comes up when I googled to try to find a clip of it was a short still frame with audio commentary by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the show's creators, discussing how certain they are of the government's non-involvement in conspiracies.
A reply on Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
A reply on Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
A comment on Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation
Fascinating talk. TED delivers our future, and it looks amazing. Lets all do our human part to accept each other and technology can one day do the rest.
A reply on Talk: Daniel Libeskind's 17 words of architectural inspiration