Developing the ideas he laid out in his 2005 talk at TED — where he asked, “What does technology want?” — Kevin Kelly posts a fascinating essay in the latest edition of Edge.org. He suggests that we can think of technology as another kingdom of life — call it the technium. And that, like all […]
For all those who, seeing the first "100-dollar laptops," have wondered "when can I get one?" the answer is: sooner than expected. One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said this week during a speech in Geneva, Switzerland, that a retail version of the laptop may be commercially available in September 2007, according to a […]
So you walk down the street and suddenly the wall to your left starts sprouting flowers, drawings and other animations. You slow down to watch closely, and the animations slow down, too. That’s because you’re controlling them. Although you may not realize it immediately, motion sensors and a camera have locked on to you and […]
At TED, we make a job of scouring the world for ideas worth sharing and for speakers able to share them in the most compelling ways. So we pay attention when somebody delivers a great speech. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs certainly did so when, last January, he introduced the iPhone at the annual Macworld […]
The last “Bill Moyers Journal“, the weekly report on PBS, featured a long interview (video – transcript) by Moyers with biologist and TED Prize 2007 winner EO Wilson. The focus was very much on Wilson’s career — “No one in our time has added more to our understanding of Earth’s ecology than Ed Wilson” is […]
British biogerontologist, computer scientist and twice TED speaker Aubrey de Grey has just finished a book, "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime", where he details his controversial claim that "we could defeat aging". Cheat sheet: Aubrey went on stage at TEDGLOBAL05 (video) and then at TED06 saying (I’m […]
Extending the discussions at TEDGLOBAL2007 in Tanzania and the conversation that’s currently taking place online, Ethan Zuckerman has a must-read post on the economic growth of Africa as exemplified by the very fast growth of mobile telephony across the continent — there are currently nearly 120 million subscribers to cell phones. That growth has been […]
NYTimes tech columnist and TED06 speaker David Pogue has been testing the Apple iPhone, which will hit stores tomorrow Friday in the US, and he shows it all on video, feature by feature, dressed with classic Pogue fun. Or you can read his article. Summary: “much of the hype and some of the criticisms are […]
In an extended run at the Film Forum in New York City (and now playing in Philadelphia), the film Manufactured Landscapes is in the spirit of Edward Burtynsky’s 2005 TED Prize wishes: to show the world the size, the devastation, the sheer astonishingness of the industrial landscapes we have created — and to create a […]
TED partner Google has allowed for the first time a journalist (Saul Hansell from the NYT) to spend a day with engineer Amit Shingal and his "search-quality team" — the people responsible for the very secret mathematical formulas that decide which web pages best answer each user’s query. It’s a delicate act, a mix of […]
After a security breach crashed his two crucial blogs, AfriGadget and White African, on Thursday morning, blogger Erik Hersman lost his voice for the conclusion of TEDGlobal. But now he’s back up, and we’re catching up with him: From “Finally! A Mobile Payment System for Africa!“: Yesterday’s talk by Herman Chinery-Hesse was one of the […]
Two final sessions, “Leadership and Truth” and “Ideas Worth Spreading,” brought together economists, activists and the president of Tanzania. And the big ideas keep coming. Mweshi reports: Salim Amin is asking every African and those interested in the continent to help his for-Africa by-Africa 24-hour news channel, A24, come to fruition. With 900 million people […]
“This started as a grassroots movement. It happened without foreign investment, without government aid. It happened against the odds.” — Filmmaker Franco Sacchi on Nollywood, Nigeria’s $250M/year industry “There’s no such thing as African science. There’s no such thing as American science. Science is science.” — Entrepreneur Moses Makayoto “The US today could not have […]
The after-lunch and evening sessions, “Connecting the Continent” and “The Campfire,” were about communication and forming bonds. Mweshi rounds up the early afternoon session, starting with Héctor Ruiz, the chair of AMD, speaking on AMD’s 50×15 initiative: AMD’s 50×15 initiative is a business venture and not a charity, it’s focused on simple, accessible, and human-centric […]
Beijing-based blogger Jennifer Brea is one of 100 Fellows attending TEDGlobal. She’s the Francophonia editor for Global Voices, and a prolific and powerful blogger about Africa. I love what she wrote about rethinking media coverage of Africa. Just an excerpt below. Read the full post here. The first day’s speakers–Euvin Naidoo, Andrew Mwenda, Carol Pineau, […]
TEDGlobal’s attending bloggers offer great roundups of the two morning sessions, called “Tales of Invention” and “Health and Heroism.” Africa abounds in creative energy and innovation, a point made yesterday by Kwabena Boahen and elaborated today by two panels of inventors and health workers. As always, Ethan Zuckerman has the speaker-by-speaker accounts. Mweshi writes about […]