Members Eric Cavalcanti

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  • More about me

  • I'm passionate about

    People and Ideas.

  • An idea worth spreading

    The concept of citizenship will one day be seen to be as absurd as the concepts of absolutist monarchy or slavery. They are all official discrimination of people based on ancestry. Those concepts had evolutionary reasons for having become successful strategies for development in the world so far, but they are not necessary forms of organisation of the global society.

    The governments of the world should pledge to work towards treating every human being as having the same rights and responsibilities as any other, to be free to live and work wherever they please. Of course this dream has huge practical barriers to realisation. Actively and cooperatively working towards eliminating those barriers would be the fastest way to realise true global democracy.

    The internet is allowing people to break international barriers and engage directly in global debates. We are at a historical moment of change in how we understand and practice democracy. Let us seize the opportunity!

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  • TEDCred score: +9

    TEDCred gives you a total score on all your comments on TED.com.

  • A reply on Talk: Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

    Jun 25 2009: Do you mean this talk will only positively impact "freelance writers and humorists turned accidental science journalists"?

    A specific audience? Who's not interested in orgasm? :)

  • A reply on Talk: Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

    Jun 25 2009: I don't see the title as a diversion; she did deliver something like what I was generally expecting --- though of course I didn't really expect the actual facts she presented. I would be disappointed if her talk was just a cheap self-help guide on how to please your partner.
  • +2

    A reply on Talk: Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm

    Jun 25 2009: Adam, it was never meant to be serious. It was meant to be whimsical from start to end. What's wrong with that? She is a journalist, she isn't trying to defend ideas in a "serious" academic field, she is trying to communicate something to the public. I see her work as an "enlightened" form of entertainment. Something that makes you laugh and then makes you think. A bit like the Ig-nobel prizes.
  • +4

    A comment on Talk: Diane Benscoter on how cults rewire the brain

    Jun 17 2009: Interesting talk. Particularly this part:

    "These ideas can infect and do the most damage to someone who has compromised immune system".

    Following through with this analogy, the vaccine that will correct this immune system imbalance, as Benscoter mentions by the end of her talk, is education. Not only of Science, but in this case especially Philosophy and History. Philosophy teaches us that there are always multiple views on any subject, and we should never take any particular one as an absolute truth. History teaches us that those who are most dogmatic in their beliefs tend to be responsible for the greatest atrocities.

  • A comment on Talk: Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria "talk"

    Apr 11 2009: Amazing! Very interesting talk and excellent speaker!
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