Themes What's Next in Tech

The contemplation and, often, introduction of new technology is integral to TED: you might say it's embedded in our genetic code.

Computer scientist Jeff Han intends to reinvent computing by replacing traditional point-click user interfaces with dynamic touch screens. Robert Full wants to enhance transit and robotics by studying the motion of animals whose system of locomotion can adapt to nearly any surface. And Juan Enriquez discusses oil energy -- derived, ultimately, from ancient plants -- and wonders why we can't develop methods to "grow" energy as efficiently as we grow wheat.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demonstrates his powerful new software, Photosynth, which fuses digital photographs from unrelated sources into fluid, three-dimensional tapestries of real environments. Alan Russell wants to use bioengineered tissue to regenerate damaged body parts. And Chris Anderson of WIRED discusses how emerging technologies -- matched with the right business model -- can make an impact of perhaps surprising magnitude.

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