We’re all looking for ways to become better, smarter and wiser versions of ourselves. In a spectacularly eclectic Session 7, six speakers share their hard-won wisdom on educating, listening — and even twerking — their way towards a more inclusive world, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. The event: TEDMonterey: Session 7, hosted by […]
By Kate Torgovnick, Morton Bast, Thu-Huong Ha The future. When it comes down to it, it’s not about flying cars, flashy robots, jetpacks, or awesome sunglasses. It’s about the little things we can do to advance healthcare, better education, create opportunities, improve connections between each other, and make lives just a little bit easier. In […]
Shanghai. New York. Tehran. Tokyo. Today, dozens of cities worldwide are each home to many millions of people. But those masses of humanity might not exist in such tight quarters if not for John Snow. (No, not that Jon Snow. This John Snow.) Snow was a 19th-century English doctor who’s credited with proving that cholera, […]
Steven Johnson’s new book, Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age, tackles subjects ranging from underground music video makers to New York’s 311 telephone service to the planning of the French railway system to Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger and the “miracle on the Hudson.” His point? That new solutions to old problems are […]
People often credit their ideas to individual “Eureka!” moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the “liquid networks” of London’s coffee houses to Charles Darwin’s long, slow hunch to today’s high-velocity web. (Recorded at TEDGlobal, July 2010 in Oxford, England. Duration: 17:46) [ted id=961] Watch […]
TEDTalks favorite Steven Johnson has been guestblogging at boingboing.net — and this post will resonate with anyone who is cooped up indoors with a small child this season: The case against Candy Land. The essay (and the discussion afterward) touches on the nature of play, the utter futility of the game Battleship, and the idea […]
Outside.in’s Steven Johnson says the Web is like a city: built by many people, completely controlled by no one, intricately interconnected and yet functioning as many independent parts. While disaster strikes in one place, elsewhere, life goes on. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:36.) Watch Steven Johnson’s 2003 talk on TED.com, where you […]
Author Steven Johnson takes us on a 10-minute tour of The Ghost Map, his book about a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities and modern society. Get TED delivered:Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>Subscribe to the iTunes video podcastSubscribe to the iTunes audio podcastGet updates […]
Steven Johnson (TED2003) has wowed us at TED in the past, and his books never fail to intrigue and delight. His latest, Everything Bad is Good for You offers a provocative new lens through which to ponder the impact of modern culture. General assumptions among the cognoscenti: (1) Mass culture is dumbing us down (2) […]