Ideas worth spreading

The interspecies internet? An idea in progress

789,666 views | Diana Reiss, Peter Gabriel, Neil Gershenfeld and Vint Cerf • TED2013

Apes, dolphins and elephants are animals with remarkable communication skills. Could the internet be expanded to include sentient species like them? A new and developing idea from a panel of four great thinkers -- dolphin researcher Diana Reiss, musician Peter Gabriel, internet of things visionary Neil Gershenfeld and Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet.

Apes, dolphins and elephants are animals with remarkable communication skills. Could the internet be expanded to include sentient species like them? A new and developing idea from a panel of four great thinkers -- dolphin researcher Diana Reiss, musician Peter Gabriel, internet of things visionary Neil Gershenfeld and Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speakers

Diana Reiss

Cognitive psychologist

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Diana Reiss studies animal cognition, and has found that bottlenose dolphins (and Asian elephants) can recognize themselves in the mirror.

Peter Gabriel

Musician, activist

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Peter Gabriel writes incredible songs but, as the co-founder of WITNESS and TheElders.org, is also a powerful human rights advocate.

Neil Gershenfeld

Neil Gershenfeld

Physicist, personal fab pioneer

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As Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, Neil Gershenfeld explores the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds.

Vint Cerf

Computer scientist

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Vint Cerf, now the chief Internet evangelist at Google, helped lay the foundations for the internet as we know it more than 30 years ago.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.