Today, we begin to write a whole new chapter for the TED Prize. There are three key shifts: + Historically, the TED Prize was awarded to individuals who then made a wish. Starting in 2013, it will be awarded to individuals with a big wish already in mind. + Individuals can self-nominate or nominate someone […]
Brief: People are similar to any good idea. It goes through an adventure to become mature. Director’s statement: “We drew a character with a massive pile of hair containing bits of his world. We see bits and pieces of his widening and deepening life until we reach his older self.’ – Hobson-Chant Direction and Illustration: […]
Click to watch the session-opening animation The balance between “long-term” and “short-term” has become a critical focal point of discussion in many fields, from the economy to the environment. In fact, accusing someone of short-term thinking is probably the quickest way to start a brawl. In this session, we attempt to focus on the far-off, […]
Robert Legato’s life is about perception. He is a two-time Oscar winner for his visual effects magic, and in this spectacularly visual talk he dissects some of his most famous effects, showing how they use the brain’s processes to create the effect of reality. Apollo 13 Working on this, he discovered something about how our brains work: “When we’re […]
A vast gulf in care Vikram Patel asks us to imagine two men who live in the same town. They have the same education, the same jobs, and everything else the same. Both present at a hospital with chest pains — but one is treated and one is not. Why? The second one has a […]
Wayne McGregor bounds onto stage wearing a tracksuit. “I’m passionate about creativity,” says the choreographer excitedly. “And it’s something you can teach. You can find out something about your own cognitive habits and use that as a point of departure to misbehave beautifully.” McGregor, who runs his own company, Random Dance, is here to choreograph and […]
Ruby Wax bounds onto the stage with a beaming smile and a glint in her eye. Then she says firmly, “One in four people have mental illness.” She looks down at the audience mischievously. She counts out. “You, sir, with the weird teeth. It’s you.” She points behind him. “That whole row isn’t right. Hi. […]
A professor with schizophrenia Elyn Saks has chronic schizophrenia, and she is a professor of law, psychology and psychiatry at USC. She might have spent her life in the back ward of a hospital, but that’s not what happened. She starts by telling of the time when Dr. White, her doctor after she graduated from law school, was getting […]
Brief: An idea multiplies and becomes open when you play with it. Director’s statement: “I like to bring out the growth of inspiration. How a new idea inspires others to think differently and let their mind generate ideas.” — Kim Demane CREDITS: Direction, Illustration and Animation: Kim Demane http://www.kimdemane.se/ Music: Lili Labass Agency: WE ARE […]
A reformed computational neuroscientist, professor Read Montague takes the stage and admits he’s nervous. Then he asks the audience to put their hands up if they think they have a behavioral superpower. “Oh! I actually see hands! TED really is a superconference.” Montague is here to talk about people, relationships, and brains. As he tells […]
Click to watch the session-opening animation We’re going through a revolution is neuroscience and psychology, gaining new insights into how the brain works, and what happens when parts go wrong. All that insight is producing applications in a crucial area: understanding mental illness. And that understanding is one that holds the promise of removing the […]
“I’ve never seen color and I don’t know what color looks like. I come from a grayscale world,” says artist Neil Harbisson, to gasps from the audience. Yet this is not an “oh me miserum” story. Instead, Harbisson is here to tell us that in 2003, he started a collaborative project to create an electronic eye to […]
Think about the things you use every day — and about the people who make them. Leslie Chang is a journalist who has spent years in China to talk to the workers who make the products we use, voices that have been missing from much of the discussion about labor, global markets and exploitation. “This […]
Gerard Senehi is a performer of tiny miracles or, if you’re looking for a more formal job title, a mentalist. A mentalist is someone who blows people’s minds by doing things that just can’t be explained through science or reason and Gerard is exactly that. Be it his hands-off approach to smoking a cigarette, his […]
Anthropologist and academic Gabriella Coleman starts her talk with a simple-sounding question: “Who is Anonymous?” She promptly confesses that even after “exhilarating and extremely frustrating” years of studying the group, she still finds this question difficult to answer. First of all, it’s not an organization with one or even a few leaders at the helm. It’s a […]
What’s going wrong with democracy? Iavan Krastev is a political scientist to speak about crisis in Europe. Not, in his words, an inspiring topic. And he’s here to talk about some of the problems with openness, in contrast to most of the talks. “You people in the church of TED,” says Krastev, “are very optimistic. You believe […]