What’s better then bringing together some of the worlds most creative, intelligent people, mixing them together, discussing forward-thinking ideas and watching these world changing concepts come to life? The TED conference is an extraordinary mix of concepts and talent, and if you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s a quick summary from the official website:
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
Attendees and speakers are among the likes of Al Gore, Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, Nicholas Negroponte, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other notable individuals from various fields. It’s interesting to consider what it’d be like to wander the halls of this conference, striking up conversation with any of these individuals. Imagine the cross-pollination that takes place in such a setting.
While TED is a private event, any person with an internet connection can benefit from the content provided each year. I’ve been listening to the TEDtalks series on their website at http://www.ted.com, and thoroughly enjoying the concepts discussed. You can listen, free of charge, to talks on subjects such as…
- Humanity’s Origins (Louise Leakey)
- A computer that works like a brain (Kwabena Boahen)
- Positive psychology (Martin Seligman)
- Technology, faith and suffering (Billy Graham)
- Studies of the brain in love (Helen Fisher)
- A year of living biblically (A.J. Jacobs)
- The study of biology to make animation (Torsten Reil)
- Institutions vs collaboration (Clay Shirky)
- One laptop per child project (Nicholas Negroponte)
- Engineering and evolution (Robert Full)
- Birth of the computer (George Dyson)
- The worldwide web of belief and ritual (Wade Davis)
- Memes and “temes” (Susan Blackmore)
- Designing objects that tell stories (Yves Behar)
- 6 ways mushrooms can save the world (Paul Stamets)
- String theory (Brian Greene)
- The new open-source economics (Yochai Benkler)
- Creativity (Amy Tan)
- CERN’s supercollider (Brian Cox)
- Connecting the world (Hector Ruiz)
- Germ domestication (Paul Ewald)
- Big questions about the universe (Stephen Hawking)
- Scanning the brain in real time (Christopher deCharms)
- New thinking on the climate crises (Al Gore)
- Rethinking the music video (Jakob Trollback)
- On the verge of creating a synthetic life (Craig Venter)
- As a young rebel (Frank Gehry)
- Building uniqueness (Moshe Safdie)
- Collaboration (Howard Rheingold)
- The mystery box (J.J. Abrams)
- Compassion (Daniel Goleman)
- Thinking deep on design (Philippe Starck)
- How the law is strangling creativity (Larry Lessig)
- Beauty and truth in physics (Murray Gell-Mann)
- The habits of happiness (Matthieu Ricard)
- Our mobile phones (Jan Chipchase)
- Building “self aware” robots (Hod Lipson)
- And a lot more…
You can view these and other talks by going to http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks. Also, I recently watched a DVD entitled “The Future We Will Create,” which is an excellent overview of the TED conference, showing speaker highlights from a past year. I’d highly recommend checking out this DVD if you’re interested in learning more about the conference, as well as hearing some interesting ideas.
Add New Comment
Viewing 1 Comment
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
I am a huge fan of the TED Conference. On my list of things to do within the next 5 years is to attend a live TED Conference. Heard it is pretty expensive and pretty hard to get into, but I've got a feeling everything will work out.
First heard about your site after listening to your conversation on the Another Runner podcast. Congratulations on the marathon. Awesome. I am actually headed to San Francisco for work in a couple of weeks, and was hoping you could pass along some good running routes. I am staying downtown at the JW Marriott, and not too familiar with the city. I pretty much have 1 day all to myself, so if you have any suggestions on must see or do activities please let me know. Thanks and have a GREAT weekend,
Rich Scott
Prairieville, LA
Add New Comment