On a tablet, Blaise Agüera y Arcas takes us on a walk through Edinburgh Castle, less than a mile from the TEDGlobal 2013 theater. With a swipe of his finger, we fly through the 15th-century castle — people and objects dissolving as we go — as if we were in a scene from a movie orchestrated by […]
You never would have guessed musical alchemist Elizaveta was fighting strep throat only days before her performance. In Session 2 of TEDGlobal, “Those Flying Things,” she steps out onto a darkened stage in an ethereal white dress and a magnificent lace crown and launches into a long, beautiful and flawless soprano note. Trained in opera performance at […]
Technology thriller author, most recently of the book Kill Decision, Daniel Suarez has been thinking about drones for some time. But as he says, as he stands onstage at TEDGlobal 2013, he’s not here to talk fiction. “I’m here to talk about very real autonomous combat drones,” he says, adding that he doesn’t mean remotely piloted […]
If you’re here from MetaFilter, hi! We’re planning to post this talk in November. –eds Andreas Raptopoulos wants to serve the 1 billion people on Earth with no access to all-season roads — the one-seventh of the world’s population that is too often cut off from critical medicines, supplies and goods. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, […]
At TEDGlobal 2013 environmental systems researcher Lian Pin Koh presents a new and unexpectedly benign use for drones: nature conservation. Nepal has natural landscapes that are beautiful — and in danger. But wildlife conservation is costly, and time- and labor-consuming. Behold: Conservation drones, a new tool being used in Nepal to combat wildlife crime. These […]
“Athletic” is a term we use to describe human beings. But could it also be used to describe a machine? In a demo recorded yesterday in his robot lab at TEDGlobal 2013, systems engineer Raffaello D’Andrea shows us that the answer is yes. He demonstrates with quadcopters, mechanically simple flying robots with four propellers. Their […]
These sprightly opening titles for Session 2 are directed by Sebastien Roux / Superdeux, with collaborators Friends of Mine and Junior Market. Why did they choose 3D robotic animation to open this session on the hopes and fears surrounding drones? As the makers explain, “Flying machines will soon take over the world. Until then, let’s […]
When it comes to drones, a lot of ideas float in the ether. Technologists see potential for flying machines to help us in all sorts of unexpected ways, governments take measures that seem hard and fixed, and meanwhile the media oversimplifies and dramatizes the issue. The conversation on drones is ever changing — especially with […]
Anne-Marie Slaughter, public policy expert and author of the widely read 2012 article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” closes the first session of TEDGlobal with a talk about how she became a woman she never imagined. In 2010, Slaughter, says, “I had the chance to be considered for promotion from my job as […]
Two years ago, as she put her 5-year-old son Aboody to bed, Manal Al-Sharif faced an unexpected question from him: “Mommy, are we bad people?” Earlier in the day, she had noticed bruises on his face. He didn’t want to tell her why. Now, in the evening, he confessed that boys at school had hit him […]
Classical guitar virtuoso Tariq Harb had a surprising major in college: finance. The Jordanian-born musician moved to Canada in 1999 to study at Concordia University. But after a few years in the financial sector, he found himself deeply unfulfilled. He decided to go back to the thing he loved when he was younger — music. Only he […]
Writer and political activist George Monbiot (with only three days’ notice, says Bruno!) joins Session 1: “Moments of Truth.” As a young man, Monbiot went off on adventures in the wild as an investigative ecology journalist. When he returned after six years to his life in Britain, he found himself inundated with the mundane, scratching […]
Steve Howard has spent his life working toward sustainability. So on the TEDGlobal 2013 stage, he explains why he wanted to work for, of all places, Ikea. Howard, who now holds the delightful title of Chief Sustainability Officer at the Scandinavian furniture behemoth, says that the company is dedicated to sustainability because of three numbers: 3. […]
This morning, a group of around 35 protesters showed up outside the Lyceum Theater in Edinburgh to object to the appearance at TEDGlobal of the former Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou. We went over to speak to the protesters, to find out why they were demonstrating and to ask them if they had a […]
The former Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, takes the stage as the first speaker at TEDGlobal 2013. It’s already been a long morning, with a few dozen protesters earlier objecting to his presence in Edinburgh outside the conference center. And Papandreou cuts something of a pensive figure as he tells us he’s set to give […]
This morning, trombonist and composer John Kenny calls TEDGlobal 2013 to attention with the droning, warbling sounds of the carnyx, a Celtic Iron Age vertical trumpet topped with a bell shaped like a boar’s head, with a moving tongue that produces a wild, almost human ululation. Once known throughout Europe as a battle horn and […]