10 January 2009

Get to know Steven Pinker

In tomorrow's New York Times Magazine, online today, there's a very in-depth story about Steven Pinker -- My Genome, My Self: Steven Pinker Gets to the Bottom of His Own Genetic Code. Pinker, along with nine other volunteers, had his genes sequenced last year as part of the Personal Genome Project. He learned many, many things about himself. But the process left him wondering more than ever: How did my genes help make me what I am?

Read the whole story >>

Photo: Jeff Riedel for The New York Times

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26 September 2008

Chalk it up to the Blank Slate: Steven Pinker on TED.com

Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits and abilities. Here, Pinker talks about why some people found this idea incredibly upsetting. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 22:42.)

Watch Steven Pinker's 2003 talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 300+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about how we learn.

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01 May 2008

Vote for your favorite public intellectuals

Not to be outdone by the Time 100, the journals Foreign Policy and Prospect have together released a list of the Top 100 public intellectuals -- with voting. Many TEDTalks favorites appear on the list, and you can help choose the eventual top 20 by voting for your very own top 5. From Foreign Policy's site:

Although the men and women on this list are some of the world’s most sophisticated thinkers, the criteria to make the list could not be more simple. Candidates must be living and still active in public life. They must have shown distinction in their particular field as well as an ability to influence wider debate, often far beyond the borders of their own country.

TEDTalks speakers on this top 100 list include George Ayittey, Steven Pinker, Neil Gershenfeld, Malcolm Gladwell, Craig Venter, Al Gore, Richard Dawkins, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Larry Lessig, Steven Levitt, E.O. Wilson, Dan Dennett and Bjorn Lomborg -- and look for upcoming TEDTalks from others on this list, including Paul Collier, who spoke at TED2008 about "the bottom billion."

See the full list of 100 >>

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02 January 2008

Edge question 2008: What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Many TEDTalks speakers have answered the 2008 Edge Foundation question: What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Among the more than 160 essays from leading thinkers -- scientists, philosophers, artists -- look for Wired's Chris Anderson, Nick Bostrom, Stewart Brand, Richard Dawkins, Aubrey de Grey, Juan Enriquez, Helen Fisher, Neil Gershenfeld, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Goleman, Kevin Kelly, Steven Pinker, Carolyn Porco, Martin Rees, Michael Shermer and Craig Venter. Block out some time to sample these -- it's an addictive read.

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11 September 2007

The stuff of thought, the myth of violence: Steven Pinker on TED.com

This week, Steven Pinker releases his latest book, The Stuff of Thought, about language as a window onto human nature. We present two TEDTalks from Steve Pinker: his 2005 talk at Oxford, in which he offers the TEDGlobal audience an exclusive preview of the book, and his most recent talk, at TED2007, where he previews his next topic: violence.

From TEDGlobal 2005: The stuff of thought. In an exclusive preview of his latest book, Steven Pinker looks at language as a window onto human nature. In both what we say and how we say it, we're communicating much more than we realize. (Recorded July 2005 in Oxford, England. Duration: 17:41.)

From TED2007: A brief history of violence. In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence and the ways we perceive it. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we've come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 19:27.)

Watch Steven Pinker's talks on TED.com, where you can download them, rate them, comment and find other talks and performances.

Read more about Steven Pinker on TED.com.

NEW: Read the transcripts >>

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07 March 2007

TED2007: Day one wrap-up

Quotes of the day:

Cassini imaging team head Carolyn Porco: "So there are possibly liquid water, organic materials and excessive heat on Saturn and its moons. Which means that Saturn could be a place were life is possible. If we can demonstrate that Genesis has happened not once (Earth) but twice (Saturn)  then we can infer that it has happened hundreds of thousands of times across the solar system. If we can demonstrate that Genesis has happened not once [on Earth] but twice [including Saturn] in the solar system, then by inference that means it has occurred a staggering number of times across the universe in its 13.7 billion year history".

Nobel prize of physics Murray Gell-Mann: "In fundamental physics, beauty is a very successful criterion for choosing the right theory".

Psychologist Steven Pinker: "The truth is that our ancestors were far more violent that we are, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful times in history".

Computer scientist Jeff Han: "We basically have to un-teach people what they have learned so far about computing, and convince them that they can use several fingers, that several people can work on the screen at once".

Architect Philippe Starck: "I believe in general that my job is absolutely useless; but now, after Carolyn and these guys, I feel like shit".

Statistician Hans Rosling: "Bring me my sword!" (Rosling is a serious demographer but he is also -- another deadly serious activity -- one of the few sword-swallowers active in Sweden, and he ends his speech swallowing a Swedish bayonette).

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22 November 2005

Steven Pinker on Jews and genetics

What to make of recent research positing that 'selective breeding' over the last two milennia has resulted in superior intelligence (and rare genetic diseases) among Ashkenazi — or Eastern European — Jews? The unpublished study has been backed up, shot down and certainly hyped. If you're looking for insight — and you're in New York — you're in luck. Steven Pinker (who shies not from controversy) will give his take in a Dec. 1st lecture titled Jews, Genes and Intelligence. Another TED veteran, Noah Feldman, will moderate. And we'll report back.

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27 October 2005

On Communicating

A special report from Forbes.com covers the broad topic of Communicating in some interesting ways: from the origins of language in chimps to alien contact to the latest computer interfaces (including the SUI, or Straw-like User Interface, which lets you experience the sensations of drinking). Many TED voices here (Steven Pinker, Jane Goodall, Ray Kurzweil, James Surowiecki), and a few gems -- if you're willing to dig for them -- including an entertaining bit on 10 Things you Communicate Unintentionally.

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23 October 2005

Huge story... largely ignored

Given that everyone's top wish, politicians and bimbos alike, is supposed to be "world peace," you'd think that when a detailed, intensely-researched, highly credible report is published suggesting spectacular progress in that direction, it would be front-page news in the media.

You'd be wrong.

The Human Security Report 2005 published last week included the following astonishing, not-to-say exhilarating findings.
- The number of armed conflicts has declined by more than 40% since 1992. The deadliest conflicts (those with 1000 or more battle-deaths) dropped by 80%.
- The number of military coups and attempted coups has declined by some 60% since 1963. In 1963, there were 25 coups or attempted coups; in 2004, there were 10. All failed.
- Most armed conflicts now take place in the poorest countries in the world, but as incomes rise the risk of war declines.
- The period since the end of World War II is the longest interval without wars between the major powers in hundreds of years.
- Most of the world's conflicts are now concentrated in Africa. But even here there are signs of hope. Between 2002 and 2003 (the last year for which there is data) the number of armed conflicts in Africa dropped from 41 to 35.
- Wars have become dramatically less deadly over the past five decades. The average number of people reported killed per conflict per year in 1950 was 38,000; in 2002 it was just 600, a decline of 98%.

Of course there's still plenty of horror in the world, but good news should be celebrated, especially as there are pointers in the report as to how the situation can be improved further. One of the drivers of the reduction may have been a four-fold increase in UN peace-keeping missions. The total cost of these missions? The same as one-month of the US war in Iraq. Go figure.

"The wars that dominated the headlines in the 1990s were real - and brutal enough," the study says. "But the global media have largely ignored the 100-odd conflicts that have quietly ended since 1988."

The global media also, of course, largely ignored the report. Chances are this is the first you've heard of it.  I'm getting more and more angry about this...  the strange, unspoken, self-reinforcing alliance between media and public, which results in such a distorted world image being created. Drama, celebrity and parochialism inevitably trump insight, reason, and the global view. 

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13 October 2005

The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists

When Tom Rielly pointed out the prevalence of hirsute speakers at TEDGlobal (with a wink toward Steven Pinker and Aubrey DeGrey), we didn’t realize there was an organized movement behind it ...

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