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X Marks the Spot: This week’s TEDx Talks

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TEDx-3.22

Photo: Bruno Fernandes

Each week, TEDx chooses four of our favorite talkshighlighting just a few of the enlightening speakers from the TEDx community, and its diverse constellation of ideas worth spreading. Below, give this week’s talks a listen.

The roots of good and evil: Simon Baron Cohen at TEDxHousesofParliament
How is it that otherwise intelligent people can inflict such terrible harm upon others? Simon Baron Cohen believes that we should examine the effect of empathy on human behavior, rather than blindly lumping it into abstract categories like “good” and “evil.” (Filmed at TEDxHousesofParliament)

The obsolete know-it-all: Ken Jennings at TEDxSeattleU
Former Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings made his name by knowing lots of stuff. Then came Watson, an IBM supercomputer that defeated Jennings without a childhood of pop culture references and world atlases. At TEDxSeattleU, Jennings wonders whether human knowledge is becoming obsolete, and calls for a future where humans and machines can learn and grow together. (Filmed at TEDxSeattleU)

Debunking the paleo diet: Christina Warinner at TEDxOU
In recent years, the “paleo diet,” a diet based on the perceived eating habits of prehistoric people has become wildly popular. But, says paleontologist Christina Warinner, this diet is based on an incorrect view of how early humans lived. Using modern day research, Warinner traces the roots of the human diet to discover what we can really learn from the food of our ancestors. (Filmed at TEDxOU)

If every kid could code: Clare Sutcliffe at TEDxBrighton
We shouldn’t teach software; we should teach the tools to create it. According to Clare Sutcliff, teaching young kids to code empowers them to be more creative, think critically, and learn from doing and will give students the skills to succeed in high-tech careers later in life. (Filmed at TEDxBrighton)

Below, find some highlights from the TEDx blog this week: