TEDBlog October, 2011 Archive
14 October 2011
TED Books: Now on the Nook
Reading TED Books just became even easier. All current titles are now available on Barnes and Noble’s e-reader, the Nook. Future titles will be, too. TED Books are readable on Amazon’s Kindle as well as any device that uses the Kindle app (Mac, Windows, Android and Blackberry, among them). They are also available at Apple’s iBookstore, and are $2.99 each.
14 October 2011
My mushroom burial suit: Jae Rhim Lee on TED.com
Here’s a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally — using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you’ll ever see … (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 7:30.)
Watch Jae Rhim Lee’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
Learn more about Jae Rhim Lee’s Infinity Burial Project >>
14 October 2011
Fellows Friday with Anab Jain
Interactive Fellows Friday Feature:
Join the conversation by answering Fellows’ weekly questions via Facebook. This week, Anab asks:
As unmanned drones, trading algorithms and sophisticated prostheses blur the distinction between man and machine, what, if anything, does it mean to be human?
Click here to respond!
How would you describe the work that you do at your revolutionary design studio, Superflux?
We are living in extremely uncertain times. Things are changing rapidly, and everyone is racing to come to terms with the changes being wrought on our society, economy, and culture. As a multidisciplinary collaborative design practice, we at Superflux are in a strong position to help facilitate that process. We’re particularly interested in emerging technologies, and the ways they interface with everyday life.
In the past, your projects have included imagining futures with synthetic bees and wi-fi enabled pets. What’s one of the most exciting things you’re currently working on?
We have been working with Newcastle’s Dr. Patrick Degenaar and his team of neuroprostheticists, who are using the technology of optogenetics to restore sight to those with degenerative visual impairment. We’ve been approaching this project both as designers, and as people interested in exploring the broader implications of new technologies.
In the proposed optogenetic retinal prosthesis, a virus is injected into the eye of a visually impaired person, infecting the cells with a light-sensitive protein. A wearable headset fires pulses of light at these sensitised cells, mimicking the “neural song” the healthy eye uses to communicate with the brain. This artificial song is then interpreted as “vision” by the brain’s imaging centers.
While much of this work is still at the research stage, there is one specific anecdote that highlights the value of incorporating a design approach at this early stage. The researchers have been testing some of their image augmentation concepts with a selection of visually impaired people with a condition in which the “resolution” of their vision is similar to the vision that will be possible with the first generation of these optogenetic retinal prostheses. The researchers learned that a simplified, cartoon-style vision might help participants be able to function more effectively. But the participants found the experience uncanny, often admitting that they’d “rather be blind than have my world look like that.”
So while the technology is exciting, the scientists were approaching their project from a very data-centric, strictly operational direction. As designers, we find ourselves thinking a lot about the emotional experience of such radical technologies, wondering what it might feel like to have your body modified to interface better with a machine, what it might mean to have prosthetic or augmented vision, and what the technology’s operating system and interface might look like. How will it affect the way users relate to other people and, more generally, to their world?
13 October 2011
How to spot a liar: Pamela Meyer on TED.com
On any given day we’re lied to from 10 to 200 times, and the clues to detect those lie can be subtle and counter-intuitive. Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting, shows the manners and “hotspots” used by those trained to recognize deception — and she argues honesty is a value worth preserving. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 10:52.)
Watch Pamela Meyer’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
12 October 2011
The day I turned down Tim Berners-Lee: Ian Ritchie on TED.com
Imagine it’s late 1990, and you’ve just met a nice young man named Tim Berners-Lee, who starts telling you about his proposed system called the World Wide Web. Ian Ritchie was there. And … he didn’t buy it. A short story about information, connectivity and learning from mistakes. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 5:42.)
Watch Ian Ritchie’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
12 October 2011
Oil-spill cleanup tech wins million-dollar X Challenge
First announced at TEDxOilSpill last spring, during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge was a $1.4 million competition to goose development of new technology to clean oil off the surface of seawater.
This week, the X Foundation announced a winner and runner-up. As reported in National Geographic:
Team Elastec, an Illinois-based veteran company in the oil spill cleanup business, developed giant grooved discs that skimmed oil more than three times better than the industry standard to capture the $1 million top prize.
Second prize of $300,000 went to Norway’s Team Nofi, which deployed V-shaped flexible boom to capture 2,712 gallons (10,266 liters) per minute and an efficiency of 83 percent. None of the other teams achieved the competition minimum recovery rate, so the $100,000 third prize was not awarded, and will be returned to the X PRIZE Foundation for further contests focused on marine and ocean environmental issues.
As we watched TEDxOilSpill, knowing that a few hundred miles away, millions of gallons of spilled oil were being cleaned up with straw and fire, it was thrilling to think that better methods were in development than this:
As TEDxOilSpill organizer Nate Mook tells the TED Blog: “This is the perfect example of Ideas Worth Spreading turning into tangible action that can change the world. With oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, it started as an idea to incentivize the development of new, innovative technologies to combat oil spills. Within weeks, the Oil Cleanup X Challenge was announced at TEDxOilSpill. We are excited to see the year-long competition come to a close with the winner taking home $1 million and runner-up $300,000. The new innovations far exceed the current standard of oil cleanup technology and will surely change the industry, and environment, for the better.”
Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TEDxOilSpill Expedition
For another intriguing cleanup technology, read this Motherboard.tv report on TED Fellow Cesar Harada and his startup, Protei >>
10 October 2011
TEDTalks: Now on Dailymotion
We’re thrilled to announce that TEDTalks are now available on Dailymotion — one of Europe’s most popular video sites — with subtitles in English, French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese where available.
Dailymotion’s TED channel features curated playlists of great talks on music, news & politics, medical wonders … and a special playlist for college students with a few surprises.
Jump onto Dailymotion and start browsing at www.dailymotion.com/TED … or on Dailymotion in Spanish … or Dailymotion in French … Dailymotion in Turkish … Dailymotion in German …
And let us know what you think! Comment here, email to contact@ted.com, or tweet to @TEDNews.
10 October 2011
What are babies really thinking? Alison Gopnik on TED.com
“Babies and young children are like the R&D division of the human species,” says psychologist Alison Gopnik. Her research explores the sophisticated intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Duration: 18:29.)
Watch Alison Gopnik’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
07 October 2011
“Is the internet, not formal education, the great equalizer?” Join this TED Conversation
It’s a big question: ”Is the internet, not formal education, the great equalizer?” — and it’s been generating lively discussions in our TED Conversations community. If you’ve been thinking about this too, sign in to TED.com and join the debate; it’s on for another 24 hours.
Responses range from :
“The internet is a powerful tool in self-education. I personally am only in university because I need an Honors/ PhD to do research, but when I actually study, I prefer searching the internet or reading books and journal articles as opposed to relying on lectures…” (Reply or comment >>)
“There are tons of good sources available — just look at KhanAcademy.org and Openculture.com. But how would someone know to look there? That is one part of the internet literacy puzzle.” (Reply or comment >>)
to:
“The Internet is a phenomenal tool but I expect that, certainly at this point, it is the opposite to an equalizer, especially versus a formal education.” (Reply or comment >>)
“Formal education and the Internet are not necessarily analogues. The Internet is a tool for dispersing and interacting with information, while a formal education can be a myriad of programs created by humans for any number of purposes.” (Reply or comment >>)
What do you think? Join the conversation >>
07 October 2011
Fellows Friday with Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz
Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz’s eye-popping magazines and celebrated festivals are creating “pathways to coexistence and tolerance.”Interactive Fellows Friday Feature:
Join the conversation by answering Fellows’ weekly questions via Facebook. This week, Lope asks:
What do organized communities achieve more efficiently than government? What could they achieve?
Click here to respond!
What made you decide to move your Gopher Illustrated Magazine operations from Caracas, Venezuela to Austin, Texas?
The previous publishing endeavor in which I was involved was Plátanoverde magazine, a publication that is almost ten years old. The aim of Plátanoverde was to showcase emerging South American artists to a Venezuelan audience. After traveling extensively for almost a decade through the Latin American region, and, in parallel, consuming English-language media (magazines in particular), I realized my next dream project was to bring a modern perspective of Latin America to English-speaking audiences. My partner, Michelle, and I started the Gopher Project, and The Gopher Illustrated Magazine, with that in mind.
To that end, and after living in Caracas, Venezuela for over a decade, Michelle and I moved the project to Austin about a year ago. In a very short space of time, we’ve become a part of the cultural landscape of the city. My in-depth, hands-on approach as a journalist and cultural manager means that I try to immerse myself in where I am, and to be an active part of the community. Michelle and I have devoted a lot of time to understanding this city and seeing it from as many different approaches as possible. We spend a lot of time talking and collaborating with people from different fields in the arts but also with people involved in journalism, advertising, entrepreneurship, science, research and social work. We try to keep our agenda very busy, meeting different people, so we gain a more holistic perspective.
Do you think that a holistic, immersive approach to culture is important?
I believe that the arts and culture are pathways to coexistence and tolerance. I think that fostering tolerance is particularly important right now in the U.S., with its growing diversity. Over 50 million people in the US are Hispanic/Latino — roughly 18 percent of the population. In the last ten years, it was this demographic that made up 85 percent of the population growth in the US. So I think the challenges facing this country now and in the future, and those pertaining to the multiple facets of a Hispanic/Latino identity, need to be addressed — – not only through top-down policies, but also through work, media, and other initiatives that each of us can enjoy.
I remember a particular moment in my life when the power of culture really hit home. As a kid growing up in South America I would listen to music in English — rock, electronic, hip-hop, whatever. And then one day I heard this amazing record, and I found out that it was from my own country, Venezuela. I remember understanding that not only was it good in itself, but that it was something I could find pride in — I was part of it, in a sense, because it was a product of my country.
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