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Outstanding Moments from the Second Day

The second day of TED kicked off with one of my favorite people, Oliver Sacks, the neurological anthropologist, who did not disappoint as he discussed how 10% of visually impaired or blind people suffer from visual hallucinations, but only about 1% ever talk about them. 

This was followed by a unique presentation by JoAnn Kuchera-Morin who invented a machine called the AlloSphere, which is a huge dome that allows the viewer to stand inside an atom and experience it from the inside. 

Next, Ed Ulbrich from Digital Domain pulled back the veil on how Benjamin Button was created. It was an amazing process that included phosphorescent paint, three-dimensional busts of different actors, and amazing acting from Brad Pitt. I was stunned to find out that the entire first hour of the movie was totally created on computer and did not involve a living, breathing Brad Pitt at all!  

My favorite speech of the conference was delivered by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the novel, Eat Pray Love, who asked the burning question that all creative people ask: "Is my best work behind me?"

Architect Daniel Libeskind, designer of the New World Trade Center Building, gave a highly-energized lecture on what constitutes good architectural design. I didn’t agree with all of his ideas. 

I also liked Shai Agassi’s discussion on the future of automotive transportation and why all electric cars make sense...if you have a comprehensive plan on how to make it work on a massive scale.  

I completely enjoyed actress Sarah Jones’ presentation, which was done in the voices of several of her characters. Sarah is best known for her one-woman show, Bridge & Tunnel.

Now onto the TED Prize winners. Every year, three people are awarded money to help them pursue their dream. This year, the winners were: SETI Astronomer Jill Tarter who wants to pursue the possibility of extra-terrestrial life in our universe; Oceanographer Sylvia Earle who wants to create protected areas of the ocean; and, finally, South American composer Jose Antonio Abreu who wants to bring his system of organizing youth orchestras to the USA. All three were powerful, but Abreu’s results in South America are incredible. The day closed with a live performance from Caracas, Venezuela and one of Abreu’s youth orchestras—and it was absolutely breathtaking. 

A great day filled with thought-provoking concepts, incredible performances and great dialogues with other TEDsters. 

Onward to tomorrow!!!

Outstanding Moments from the First Day

The opening main tent at TED 2009 was a quick reminder of why I’m so deeply fortunate to be invited to this event. As the walk-in music faded, I sat at the edge of my seat in anticipation of what was to come...I was not disappointed.

The day began with a powerful question from futurist/economist Juan Enriquez on the current state of the global economic crises—“When we are dancing in the flames, what can we do next?” 

I also learned from P.W. Singer about the current state of robotic warfare where a soldier sitting in a cubicle in San Diego is guiding robots to hunt and destroy targets in Iraq and Afghanistan...in real time! Real war fought as a video game—his presentation was exciting and at the same time terrifying, because guess what? Terrorists have many of the same robotic weapons in the form of unmanned rockets.

Bill Gates talked about how his Foundation is working on eradicating malaria and improving our educational system by making teachers great.

I was very excited about Tim Berners-Lee’s presentation describing how the future of the Internet lies in Linked Data, which may change the face of how we will access all the world’s information. 

There were many presentations about the environment, alternative energy sources and transportation initiatives which all did a fantastic job of depressing me about the near-term future of the planet. And Al Gore unexpectedly appeared on the agenda and delivered a passionate, yet terrifying, presentation on the rapidly melting polar ice caps, though he did try to put a hopeful spin on it. 

I think the highlight of this day was probably a sneak peak at an amazing movie being produced by Jake Eberts (but created by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud) called Oceans. This preview offered an incredible look at the majesty, diversity and wonder of the ocean’s creatures. It was absolutely poetic and moving. 

Regina Spektor completed the session with a solo performance of a few of her current hits. Though she is shy and sensitive, her songs are powerful and personal. 

What I felt at the end of this session is that anything is possible. Mankind can explore the outer reaches of the universe, unravel the mysteries of DNA, create music that captures the soul, and build soaring architectural wonders — so, we should be able to figure out how to save the planet!   

Maybe tomorrow that answer will be revealed...

Another Day at TED 2009

OK, quick update, because I only have a few minutes in between sessions... 

Let’s start with the stars and get that out of the way. Yes, they're all here. Goldie, Meg Ryan (she’s little!), Forest Whitaker, Ben Affleck, Kurt Russell, Daryl Hannah (she's still hot), and Robin Williams. 

Ok here is the real update...

TED University was produced in a new format—so, rather than rotating through classes, attendees sat in an auditorium and the professors rotated through. Good format. Loved the guy who started TOMS Shoes, who has proven that good works are good business. Also loved Jim McCarthy, who proved that live performances are much more valuable today than 20 years ago. I learned how to make cheese, why technology is developing exponentially (as explained by Ray Kurzweil), and how the 9 rules of rock climbing can help you be successful in life. We also heard from the inventor of a game designed to contribute towards saving the world and tips on "how to keep your edge" from an Ad Exec who went to the top, back to the bottom, and back to the top again. 

Great start! Oh, and I had dinner last night with a Bolivian guy who works on disarming Korea’s nuclear power, a car designer, a National Geographic photographer, and Benjamin Zander...yes, that guy. It was an upbeat chat. I then went to see a music group called Naturally 7 that blew everyone away. 

More to come...

TED 2009 - Day Two

Sorry All...

There is no chance to write a blog update today.  My day started at 7 am and went to 11:30pm with a couple of water breaks.  Forget breakfast or lunch — there was no time! I will fill you in on the details when I get a chance.

TED 2009 - Day One Arrivals...

Flying at 36,000 feet and cruising the internet!!! God, I love technology...when it works. American Airlines has internet service during the flight. It's called Gogo Inflight — and it actually works! For about $12.00, you can cruise the net, get mail, chat on IM, grab files, etc. And it’s pretty fast as well (2000 kbps download speed and around 285 kbps upload speed!) 

Can't wait to see the new facility for TED 2009. The event has moved to Long Beach from its longtime home in Monterey. I know the new location will be more comfortable for attendees, as the Monterey auditorium only had seats for around 400 or so people. The rest watched the conference in multiple lounges around the facility on plasmas. I just hope the vibe is the same. Monterey was very laid back. With Long Beach being closer to L.A., I am concerned about the Hollywood stars that will want to attend, beyond the regulars like Meg Ryan, Goldie Hawn, Forest Whitaker and Robin Williams. 

There also seems to be a big increase in attendees this year. The previous conferences I went to had about 1,000-1,100 people in attendance. This year the number has ballooned to 1,450, including staff and speakers. The auditorium is larger, so that should help to create a new energy...let’s just hope it holds the same intimate feel of Monterey. 

This is the 25th Anniversary of the TED Conference and the theme this year is called, “The Great Unveiling.” Never one to look back, here is what curator Chris Anderson has to say about this year’s event: 

“It's TED's 25th Anniversary. But instead of looking back, we're looking forward. Everyone on the program will be premiering something: a thrilling discovery, a revolutionary idea, a powerful invention, a spectacular piece of art, a first-time performance. We'll share undiscovered talent and shed new light on names you know. And then, of course, there's another great unveiling: our new home in Long Beach, California, and our new simulcast home in Palm Springs, California.”   

The line up is exciting and includes: Bill Gates; Tim Berners-Lee (Yes, he was one of the guys that invented the internet); singer, Regina Spektor; neurlogist/author, Oliver Sacks (who, as you know, I love); architect, Daniel Libeskind; performance artist, Sarah Jones; music legend, Herbie Hancock; and many others. 

TED will have all of the usual stuff…great speakers, interesting attendees, cool parties, amazing sponsors and TED Wish recipients, but this year they have also added a new twist — TED Fellows. Here is a little more information on this new program: 

“The TED Fellows program helps world-changing innovators from around the globe become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Fellows are drawn from many disciplines that reflect the diversity of TED's members: technology, entertainment, design, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, business and more.” 

Sounds cool, right? Here are a few of the 40 Fellows that are attending this year:

• The creator of the first African online ad network and the African equivalent of The Huffington Post
• A New Zealand physicist who discovered the hidden mathematical patterns of warfare
• The founder of an international women's inventor network
• An Indian design researcher dedicated to improving the lives of children
• A Korean-American actress whose one-woman show tells the story of a North Korean spy

TED University starts this afternoon and I can't wait to get started! More to come when I arrive...

 

TED 2008 – The Final Day

How Dare We Be Optimistic?

The day began with a bang as young researcher, Johnny Lee, was invited to take the stage for 3 minutes to share his two inventions that were made famous on YouTube.  His first idea showed how, with the help of a $40 Wii game controller and a piece of free software that he designed, anyone can turn their PC into an electronic whiteboard. His second invention took some infra red glasses and turned a PC into a 3D game controller. He had the venture capitalists in the audience frothing at the mouth.

The Second 3-minute talk came from the developer of a piece of collaborative idea generation software called Kluster. He showed how within the 72 hours of TED, attendees and online participants contributed ideas for creating a game from inception through prototype. Most impressive was that he showed an actual metal prototype including game pieces playing cards etc.

World-renowned economist, Paul Collier talked about how pulling the world’s bottom billion impoverished people up not only makes economic sense, but is attainable. As proof he cited that America did exactly this after WWII in Europe. He showed how the four-step process (aid, trade, security and governance) made this happen and it could make it happen again.

Nellie McKay then took to the stage with her unique brand of music.  Part Blossom Dearie, part Woody Guthrie, she shocked the audience with searing, satirical lyrics. The primary takeaway is that Nellie is a bundle of nervous energy and is much more comfortable singing on stage than talking to a live audience. I confirmed this during a chat with her after the performance.

The highlight of the conference was Al Gore. A conference regular, he premiered his follow-up slide show to An Inconvenient Truth. In it he echoed the thoughts of Paul Collier and said that we need to apply a global vision to the energy crisis. His message was so strong that I have included unedited text, free of my interpretation.

“There is a bridge between the climate crisis and the crisis of extreme poverty in our world. We have to find a unified Earth theory. The struggles of climate change and extreme poverty and diseases are connected to the problems of overconsumption, wastefulness, and economic transformation. We have to approach this as a unified challenge. Local, regional, global conflicts: each level requires a different allocation of resource, organizational model, etc. The climate crisis is the rare and strategic global conflict, we have to organize our response accordingly. What we do with the poorest countries matters to all of us. We have to act. Since that post-war economic boom, one aspect of the engine of economic growth was a pattern of consumption that morphed into overconsumption. The solution to the climate crisis requires that we replace that engine -- consumption without overconsumption. We need a worldwide movement. But the political will needs to be mobilized in order to mobilize the resources.
The majority of Americans now think that climate change is a problem, that warming is real. But there still isn't a sense of urgency. (He shows a video -- a frame at left -- with elephants falling from the sky, "every year the US emits CO2 the equivalent weight of 1.2 billion elephants: It's time to stop ignoring the 1.2 billion elephants in the room").

Solution: put a price on carbon. We need a CO2 tax, revenue-neutral, to replace taxation on employment, which was invented by Bismarck and some things have changed since. In the poor world we have to integrate responses to poverty with solutions to the climate crisis.
We heard a couple of days ago about the value of making individual heroism so commonplace that it becomes banal routine. What we need is another hero generation. Those of us who are alive in the US today, but also in the rest of the world, have to somehow understand that history has presented us with a choice. Just as Jill Taylor was figuring out how to save her life while she was distracted by the amazing stroke that she was witnessing.  We now have a culture of distraction but we have a planetary emergency.

We need to find a way to create a sense of generational mission. We have the capacity to do it. I'm optimistic, because I do feel very deeply that the kind of moving spirit that is celebrated in so many of the sessions that we've all been moved by here is alive in all of us. I believe we have the capacity at moments of great challenge to set aside the causes of distraction and rise to the historic challenges. Sometimes I hear people respond to the disturbing facts of the climate crisis by saying "this is so terrible, what a burden". Let's reframe that: how many generations in all of human history have had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts, a challenge that can pull from us more that we knew we could do. We ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generation about which 1000 years from now orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying: they were the ones that found within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future. Let's do that."

TED Curator Chris Anderson asks Gore whether he is excited by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's environmental plans.

Gore: We should feel grateful that both of them and John McCain, all three have a position on the climate challenge, have offered leadership and an approach very different from the current administration. But the campaign dialog -- often sponsored by the "clean coal" industry btw -- has not laid the basis for the kind of bold initiative that is really needed. They're saying the right things, and whoever of them is elected may do the right things. But when I came back from Kyoto in 1997 with a great feeling, and then confronted the US Senate and only a handful were willing to ratify that treaty: whatever the politicians say needs to be alongside what people say. The climate challenge is part of the fabric of our life. Changing the pattern is beyond anything we've done in the past. Change light bulbs, but change the politics too. I do believe that between now and November it is possible that the debate will get bolder. We can change things, actively. What's needed really is a higher level of consciousness, and it's hard to create, but it's coming. As the Africans say: if you want to go quickly go alone, if you want to go far go together. We have to go far quickly.

The Audience was deeply supportive of Gore’s position and reacted with long applause.

The final session of the day began with a music video by Wil.I.M from the Black Eyed Peas called Yes We Can. It is so strong that it may push Obama directly into the White House.  Click here to view the video.

This opening video was followed by a talk from ecologist John Francis, who decided after seeing two tankers collide in San Francisco Bay, spilling all their oil, that he would not talk for an entire day and never enter a vehicle that used gas again. That one day turned into 17 years without a single word or a gas-fueled ride. During that time, he also walked across the country making stops along the way to earn his PhD in oil spills. Then after 17 years, he was so moved by attending Earth Day in Washington, he decided to speak again.

Stefan Sagmeister followed this with an impressive display of art based on musings from his personal diary. This art was staged throughout the world. His statements were large, simple and meaningful. I plan to do more research on his work. 

One of the best presentations of the conference came from Jonathan Haidt. He made a compelling case for the differences between conservatives and liberals based upon data that he gathered from an in-depth study. He focused on five values and showed how conservatives are not evil and are, in fact, broader in their needs than liberals.  His point is that by understanding the other point of view we can work together to create a better future.  To learn more about this go to www.yourmorals.org.

The Raspyini Brothers shared some of their crazy brand of humor live from Aspen, which lightened up the day for a few minutes.

The keynote speaker for the closing session was Bob Geldof. Well known for his creation of Band-Aid and Live-Aid, Bob told the story of how he became involved. It all started after seeing a 6 o’clock news report that showed the UK throwing out food, while in Africa 30,000,000 people were dying of starvation.  He believes that rock and roll is the universal language, so he grabbed some friends and created a movement.  His focus now is even larger.  After learning that a number of cultures have recently been eliminated from the earth, he wants to chronicle and log mankind so that no more cultures become extinct and forgotten.  No small thinker.

Day 3

How Do We Create?

Being a creative person, this is the session that I was anticipating the most. It did not let me down. The program began with a talk from John Knoll, head of special effects at Industrial Light and Magic. He showed how they create incredible effects seen in movies like Star Wars and The Pirates Of the Caribbean. Good speaker with lots of clips.

Designer Yves Behar followed him. He’s best known as the industrial designer for the Herman Miller Leaf Lamp and the Jawbone Bluetooth phone. As a designer he works in conjunction with companies and product people so that the design of the product ultimately reflects the soul of the company or the brand.

The next speaker Robert Long amazed the audience by demonstrating that origami has come a long way since paper airplanes and incorporates mathematics to assemble breath taking designs.

Amy Tan, author of the Joy Luck Club and many others, totally blew me away. While many in the audience may have been confused by her combination of humor, insight, honesty and tradition, it was clear to me that her process for writing masterpieces includes a large amount of luck, accident and serendipity. 

The next segment was probably the best for most TEDsters. It included MIT technology musicologist Tod Machover and Dan Ellsey. First, Tod shared all he is doing with music programs at MIT in terms of world and youth inclusion. He then brought out Dan Ellsey who is severely disabled by cerebral palsy. Tod and MIT have created software for Dan to not only allow him to create and compose music, but also communicate how he is performing it. It was inspiring and brought the house down.

What’s Out There?

Particle Physicist Brian Cox offered an enthusiastic description of what his science means for lay people. His latest project in Switzerland – building a proton accelerator – will be completed in six months and may answer questions on how the universe began.

Bob Ballard is a seasoned corporate speaker. He knows how to work an audience, which he played like a violin here at TED. The audience was amazed and transformed as Bob told his story on how outer space is funded 1,000 times more than explorations of the ocean. He showed great images and motivated the audience to a standing ovation.

Another speaker who stunned the audience was biologist Paul Stamets who showed the audience that fungi (mushrooms) might be able to change the world.  He covered their illustrious past, their role in the balance of the environment today and their possibilities for the future.

Joshua Klein was challenged to kill all of the annoying crows in the world. Instead, he is committed to training them to be useful like cleaning up litter etc.

The next presentation by Richard Preston made the case for preserving and studying the California redwood trees – diameters can reach 35 feet and heights can exceed 300 feet!

What Will Tomorrow Bring?

This segment kicked off with a talk by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the book The Black Swan. He believes that accidents can and do happen in business and you can’t predict the economic future. He cites Google and Viagra as perfect examples – each grew due to accidents.

Futurist, Peter Schwartz made a case that we should be positive about the future of the world rather than negative. He believes that there will be no major world war in the near term (due to economic reasons) and there will be global economic growth with the population leveling off a bit. He also believes that bioindustrial technology offers solutions for the future of the economy that will fuel growth.

Sue Goldie is a public health expert who offered too many facts. She did let us know that we can make a difference in diseases like HIV, HEP and HPV with little effort if we recognize the economic loss by not helping.

Walter Isaacson talked about the importance of the narrative. Unfortunately much of the crowd left because his talk was broadcast from Aspen. It also didn’t help that it was the last talk before the break. He simply did not capture the audience in Monterey.

What Stirs Us?
This session started slow and ended with a bang. Author and researcher Helen Fisher used far too many quotes and snippets from history to talk about the deep and emotional meaning of love. The audience did, however, like her breezy style and that she would attack the problem from a chemical point of view, putting love to the test in an MRI machine.

National Geographic editor, David Griffin, offered no new insight into the importance of photography in the world. He did point out that in the context of an editorial it can create a unique narrative story. He showed amazing National Geographic photography that is always worth the price of admission.

Storyteller and writer Chris Abani told stories of abuse and inspiration from his native Africa where he was on death row twice in his young life.  His conclusion was that it is only through compassion that we as a race can succeed.

The final speaker was corporate guy Ben Zander. The conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, he is often difficult to relate to because of his pompous and needy style. At TED, however, he did a very good job communicating the importance of classical music. He knows how to “work” an audience from his many corporate gigs and he did just that by getting the audience to sing Beethoven’s Ninth while he paraded across the stage conducting.

February 29, 2008

TED Day 1 - Ted University

It started with Ted U where I attended 5 classes, all taught by TEDsters.  I started by taking a class called Genetics for Smarties. The bottom line behind this class was that you can get your DNA tested fairly easily today. You can get all kinds of background information about your own health predispositions as well as know your past ancestry and it can be done fairly cheaply. All it takes is a little spit. Go to https://www.23andme.com where you can discover that your unique genetic signature is a combination of your parents' – and theirs is a mixture of their own parents'. 23andMe can help you trace the inheritance...

I then attended a class about The Power of Music where the teacher was the CEO of EliasArts  which, as it turns out, was an old acquaintance of mine and the composer of one of the best music CDs that I have ever heard called The Prayer Cycle.

Martin Pazzani, the instructor, went on to talk about one of my favorite subjects – the power of music as a healing force. We started a discussion about Dr. Oliver Sachs who wrote the book, Musicophilia.

This was exciting to me because I will be working with Dr. Sachs shortly on a project for the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation about the power of Parkinson’s and creativity.

My favorite class was The Power of Making Ideas Visual. This was taught by Tom Wujec, who is a fellow at Autodesk Company, which makes tons of tools for visualizing ideas of all sorts. He talked about the death of PPT and why it should stay dead and what tools could and should be used for creative people to visualize and organize ideas.

I attended one dud that had a great title – I Am an Advertising Guy and I Feel Sick. Basically, it was a guy talking about how he was sick of being in advertising and wanted to work on social awareness stuff.

My last class was great and talked about How Anyone Can Get in to See Anyone. The teacher, Sunny Bates, put a simple thought on the table… you can get to see anyone as long as you follow some simple rules. You need to understand and be clear about what your intention is and why that is important to the person that you want to see. You need to research this person and find out what they are passionate about. You need to find people who can help you connect with that person – trusted partners if you will.

TED 2008 - The Big Questions

The theme behind the conference was The Big Questions. Is beauty truth? What is life? Will evil prevail? How can we change the world? How do we create? What’s out there? What will tomorrow bring? What stirs us? How dare we be optimistic?! The opening session focused on What is Our Place in the Universe? No small question, but it could not have been a more dramatic opening for TED ‘08. The session opened with paleontologist Louise Leakey, who is the granddaughter and daughter of the famous Leakey family. While her talk was marred with nerves and some technical issues, it was good. She showed us that Homo Sapiens is one small species in the chain of life and that we have evolved from apes regardless of what some schoolroom stories would have you believe. Her main topic was that even though we have evolved, we as a species have not lost the aggressive characteristic that has allowed us to flourish. She also told us that we are in massive trouble because we have overpopulated the planet with our species and that will ultimately destroy us. Her final thesis was that our species is the only one that has the ability to make choices and that we choose to be aggressive, pollute the planet and destroy our environment.

Wade Davis, Anthropologist. His main point was that even though we think that we are more evolved than previous cultures, those cultures are valid and are a direct connection to our past. Look at Polynesia, where they can read vibrations in the waves or at the Incas, who believe that by praying every day they can cleanse the earth. Whether it is the Buddhists who believe that all life is suffering or Peruvians who believe that the earth is a living creature, there are other cultures that have rich traditions connected to the past in a very real way. These cultures offer their own answers to the question What Does it Mean to Be Alive and Live on This Planet and What Is Important?

Artist Chris Jordan, while out of place in this session, offered a compelling story of how we can translate data into art. Chris takes common data, like how many people will die from cancer caused by cigarettes and turns it into art. For example 65,000 teens start to smoke each month. He then takes 65,000 cigarettes and turns them into a piece of art to make the point about how many kids that really is. The point is made clearly and dramatically in all of his art.

The highlight of this conference (and last year’s for that matter) was the surprise appearance of physicist Stephen Hawking via a preshot videoconference that was taped an hour before the doors opened. Hawking is basically the Einstein of our generation and unequivocally answered the questions that we all ask every day.

Was the universe created with the big bang? He told us that the universe can create itself out of nothing and that we have data to show that we know the actual beginning of the universe.

Is it possible that there is life on other planets? Not likely because the life of a planet is roughly 10 billion years and life on earth was created in a tiny window of ½ billion years. That is very young within the span of a planet and we would know if that applied to other planets within our universe. If there were other civilizations we would have heard from them by now…so it is not likely.

What do we need to do to survive as a species?  Since we are unique in the universe as a species, we need to try to survive, but the problem is that we cannot control our own growth and will kill the planet. We are too aggressive due to our genetic code and may kill ourselves off. We may not survive 100 years and that to survive we need to look to space.

I was pretty much taken out at the knees by Hawking, who, because of his disability, can take as many as 7–10 minutes to create two short sentences. The fact that he “talked” for nearly 20 minutes blew me away.

The follow-up to Hawking was a Neural Anatomist named Jill Bolte Taylor. She brought the house down with the recounting of her stroke. This clearly delineated the difference between the left brain and the right brain, which was at the core of her life-long studies. She described the differences between the two sides of the brain and made it come alive while we all experienced her having a stroke. Her tears were authentic and her story amazed the audience into a standing ovation that lasted for minutes.

Roy Gould Astrophysicist. Roy Gould and Microsoft's Curtis Wong gave the world an astonishing sneak preview of Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope – a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes from all over the world and the heavens, and weaves them together holistically to build a comprehensive view of our universe. This is amazing stuff. It launches in a month or so. Look for it.
The next segment of the program was titled, What Is Our Place in the Universe?

Particle Physicist Pat Burchat talked about what this area is and why we should care about it as she described that space is actually getting larger and it continues to expand at a rapidly increasing pace.

A highlight of the conference for me was when comedian John Hodgman took the stage. You all know him as the PC guy in the Mac spots but he is a great stand-up comedian in his own right and told stories of his relationships with UFO’s.

Next up was Paleontologist Peter Ward, who made a great case for how we could use hydrogen sulfide (that is the stuff that kills people) to lower the body temperature of accident, heart attack and stroke victims, effectively freezing them until they can get help. You saw a bit of this with the story of the football player who was thought to be paralyzed but because a trainer lowered his body temperature dramatically immediately after the injury, he was able to recover.

An Indian spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar told us about the importance of breathing and the only interesting fact was that if you find yourself breathing out of the left nostril, the right side of your brain is engaged. Conversely, if you’re breathing out of the right nostril, the left side is engaged. Hmm!!!

The day was capped off with another surprise visit from a star, Robin Williams. He opened up a BBC recording of an unscheduled event with a panel of experts discussing the impact the news has on us and what the best sources are for accurate information. Believe me he was the highlight of the event with his riffing on everything. I can’t wait for you to see that when it is posted on TED.com.

Day 2 Started with the Segment What is Life?

The session opened with Craig Venter. Yes, he is the guy that mapped the human genome! Yes, many call him God because he can create and manipulate life though he answered that concern by telling the audience that he is only manipulating life that already exists. Even so, he showed the audience how he can create an organism by manipulating genes. The big story here is that he is trying to create an organism that “eats” CO2 and creates energy for the planet at the same time. It sounds like science fiction but he said that they are actually very close to doing it. This would obviously begin to fix the earth’s largest problem right now, global warming, fixing it with a biological solution.

The next speaker, Paul Rothemund, echoed that theme by showing us how cells can be programmed like computer software. He showed the audience DNA origami that he created that looked like the smiley face we have all come to hate. Bottom line is that he uses computer technology to manipulate DNA to build organisms with fewer genes.

The next speaker, Susan Blackmore, made a simple, yet interesting case that memes have defined humankind from the beginning. She believes that because humans copy humans, we learned to make fire, build weapons, create a play. Wikipedia defines A meme (pronounced mehm or meem) as consisting “of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture and ethnicity.” Controversial in science, she made an interesting case for Darwinism.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is an eloquent historian who brought us closely inside the tortured lives of Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Baines Johnson. She is an amazing storyteller who offered a portrait of Lincoln as a depressed man who survived because of his love of Shakespeare and learning. You will have to wait for the talk to come out to see what the full story is.

The next Segment was titled - Is Beauty Truth?

Though the main speaker was ill, it sounds like Nancy Etcoff’s book, The Survival of the Prettiest may be a not-to-miss read.

Unfortunately, Nancy could not make it and the session instead opened with designer Isaac Mizrahi who was clearly out of place, ill-prepared and nervous in front of this audience. His talk was supposed to reveal his process but instead, he rolled clips from his TV show and cabaret act. While entertaining, he was a waste of time in this environment.

Thomas Krens followed him and he, while better prepared, offered no great insight into the subject but instead used the time to promote what the Guggenheim is doing to grow itself around the world. He spent a few minutes describing the role of the museum in the modern world but that seemed off-topic as well. I felt that he basically read his PPT slides.

The next segment had the original TED owner, Richard Saul Wurman, back on the stage after a six-year absence. It is clear that his charm was in having fun, his brashness and his self-indulgence. He is very different from Chris Anderson, the current curator of TED, who is more interested in making a difference in the world. Chris is quiet, demure and philosophical. It was an interesting interview between the two who have had an acrimonious relationship since the sale six years ago. I liked the guy’s attitude a lot.

Garrett Lisi, another Particle Physicist surfs, lives in a van, works totally on his own with little or no support. He offered his theory of quantum mechanics and the most basic parts of the atom that he calls e8 (very complicated). While an accelerator is being completed in the next couple of months to test his idea, the world will have to wait to see if his theory is true.

The next session, Will Evil Prevail?, took the audience on a darker journey. Dr. Philip Zimbardo opened the session with an exploration into why people turn evil. He feels that it is not that there are a few bad apples, but that barrel is bad. He showed horrifying scenes from the Abu Ghraib prison of physical abuse, sexual abuse, beatings etc. – and these were perpetrated by Americans. How did this happen? He shared that it is systemic and situational. He called it The Lucifer Effect where the mind can make us villains. He showed studies where normal people turned evil in certain situations. Basically he told us that power without oversight is a formula for evil.

This talk was followed by one with Irwin Redlener who answered the question, Are We at Risk for a Nuclear Attack? The answer was a resounding yes and he went on to prove how and why it could happen and further offered us solutions for how to survive if we are trapped in a nuclear explosion.

Samantha Power wondered how there could be an endangered species list but not an endangered humans list when she saw the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda that never even hit the front page of the news. Today, there is a movement that “presses the red button” anytime atrocities occur on the globe.

The TED prize segment that was streamed globally for the first time, shared the dreams of writer David Eggers. He has started a revolution in community-based tutoring centers, making education local and implored that everyone join in. Go to www.onceuponaschool.org to check it out.

Neil Turok, Theoretical Physicist, has an idea of creating science-learning centers throughout Africa so that Africans can help their own country. It is an interesting idea. Go to www.tedwishes.org to learn more.

The final wish was from former nun, Karen Armstrong, who wants to create a charter of compassion where we can all see a set of compassionate guidelines for how we should live rather than the current religious model that uses scripture from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths as weapons.

February 28, 2008 -- Ted 2008

On My Way

I am on my way back to Monterey, CA for the TED ‘08 Conference and I am truly excited about the next few days.  Last year when I arrived, I did not know what to expect and found it to be an amazing educational, inspirational and “mind-blowing” experience.  I can only hope that this year will be as incredible. 

For those who are new to this blog, the TED conference is a 4-day conference dedicated to the latest developments in the areas of Technology, Entertainment and Design.  TED attracts over 1,400 of some of the most interesting people in the world – from CEOs of major corporations like Google and YouTube to activists like Al Gore and John Doerr.  There are also a ton of celebrities who attend, including: Cameron Diaz, Forest Whitaker, Darryl Hannah, Matt Groening and many more.  It is an eclectic mix.  Security is very tight and no press is allowed, though some TED members blog from the conference which is encouraged.  The agenda is designed to allow speakers a maximum of 18 minutes to speak and, yes, they are timed and cut off if they try to exceed the limit.  There are lots of conversation breaks to share what you just saw with others and there are breakfasts, lunches and parties that are topic-specific offered by sponsors. 

TED is a nonstop “learn-a-thon,” dedicated to changing the world, appreciating great design and making a difference.  And believe me, this audience does not just think they can make a small difference in the world, they believe and are committed to achieving major worldwide changes like fixing global warming, designing cities that are better for living, developing global disaster early-warning systems and using science and technology to eradicate disease and elongate life for everyone on the planet.  They have a lot of money as a foundation, so they also fund initiatives called TED Dreams – where a member expresses a personal dream and then other members join in to help that person realize the dream through their own contributions and networking. 

There are a lot of movers and shakers from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design, which are, after all, what TED stands for.  These include CEOs, founders, investment bankers, internet company heads, telecommunications executives, designers, producers, authors, artists, musicians…smart people, caring people, interested people, active citizens. Some attendees who I chatted with last year felt that the conference seems to be gravitating a bit closer to global causes like the environment, saving animals and the future of the planet and humankind’s role in that future.  Personally, I enjoy the additions of science, history, politics and physics to the agenda, but I can understand their concern.   

New this year is the addition of TED Aspen.  This is a smaller version of TED that is being held in Aspen, CO.  The two sites are being linked via videoconferencing technology, so I will be very curious to see how that experience goes  over with the attendees.  In Monterey, only 400 attendees can fit into the main theater so the rest of the attendees watch the event from a completely unique lounge located below the auditorium which is set up to include each and every kind of seating style possible, including beds with monitors located above them.

As I think back to last year many memories rush back into my head.  First of all, Monterey is a quaint and pretty little beach town south of L.A.  It is quiet and lazy with small shops that line the streets.  The Portola Hotel where I stayed is pretty basic.  The rooms are comfortable and it has an OK bar.  It is attached to the Convention Center where the daily sessions happen, so it is very convenient. 

Upon arrival last year, I received a bright red TED rollerboard carry-on FILLED with all kinds of interesting giveaways from the TED sponsors.  This was not the usual crapola meeting swag by the way.  It included USB speakers, books, movies, CDs, a copy of Windows Vista and tons of cool gadgets and gizmos that kept me busy for weeks after the conference.

The registration area is also home to some of the event sponsors comprised of everyone from BMW, Lexus, Microsoft, SONY, Autodesk, Nokia and many, many other big names down to makers of fine chocolate and the latest technology communications devices. 

I started off by attending TED University, a series of weird 10 minute classes about everything from the world’s best websites to seeing the latest in web 2.0 developments.  This is a fun introduction to some of the attendees who teach the classes and a great way to meet people.

With over 50 speakers and entertainers in the main tent this year it is hard to pick who I am most excited about seeing, but here is a short list:  Paleontologist, Louise Leakey; Self-proclaimed Expert, John Hodgman; Geneticist, Craig Venter; Investigative Journalist, Steven Emerson; Writer, Amy Tan; Designer, Yves Behar; Physicist and Origami Artist, Robert Lang; The Black Swan Author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb; and Activists, Bob Geldof and Al Gore.

I will try to keep my blog up-to-date with my thoughts throughout the conference but I am no writer and there is not a lot of free time, as you can imagine.  I would recommend that you go to www.ted.com to learn more about this year’s conference in particular.  I will grab the URL’s from some real bloggers so that you can get a few different points of view from the conference from expert bloggers.

That is it for now.  I can’t wait to get started!!!

CD

May Update

OK, so Spring is here and you are clamoring to find out what's new, what's interesting and what's hot.  OK, well sit tight for just one minute, we will get to that...but I need to close out my TED Conference experience first. 

If you read my previous blogs, you know that I think the TED Conference is probably the coolest thing ever.  I cannot communicate the impact, scope, importance, relevance and diversity of the conference with anywhere near the way that listening to one TedTalk can. 

Here is a documentary that you can find at TED.com that I think does a good job of capturing the TED spirit: A Taste Of Ted.

So now that you have enjoyed a taste of what the meeting was like, here is the hot news.  The new TED site is up and live!  And here it is...  TED.  OK, so you need to take an hour or 20 and visit it.  It has a whole new look, feel and interface...and it is totally reorganized by theme, speaker, topic, etc.  It is an amazing interface and props go out to Method, the company that created it. 

The TED mission is to share ideas and to create a better world.  And in that spirit, they are giving away all the TEDTalks that they produce.  And beyond that, you can download the talks to your desktop, drop a talk right into iTunes, share it with others, add it to a blog, add a comment, etc.  Amazing!  In addition, they are now producing them in high definition so the video quality is fantastic.

I am planning to share one or two TedTalks on this site in each posting and I thought that I would start with a short poem by Rives from 2006.   

Who is Rives?  How many poets could cram eBay, Friendster and Monster.com into 3-minute poem worthy of a standing ovation? "If I were in charge of the Internet," Rives says, "You could Mapquest your lover's mood swings / Hang left at cranky / Right at preoccupied / U-turn at silent treatment..."

Enjoy a unique talent.

Rives at TED,  If I controlled The Internet

Here is another Talk that I loved.  Actor Anna Deavere Smith brings the TED audience to their feet as she gives life to a series of quintessential Americans.

Smith transforms herself in and out of character as she embodies legendary author Studs Terkel, followed by convict Paulette Jenkins, a Korean merchant in Los Angeles after the 1992 riots, and finally a rodeo bull rider.

The monologues are drawn verbatim from interviews she conducted for On the Road: A Search for American Character.

Anna Deavere Smith at TED

I also want to let you all know that we at Drury are supporting a TED Wish by filmmaker, Jehane Noujaim. 

Two weeks before the US invasion in Iraq, Jehane went to Qatar, gained access to both Al Jazeera and the US Military's Central Command offices, and caught the onset and outbreak of the Iraqi war on film. The result: Control Room, her controversial, gutsy documentary that lays out the divergent ways the war was reported by the Arabs and the West. Being raised between Egypt and the US, the exploration of culture is one of Jehane's driving forces.

Her reason for making the film: "It's important for everyone, simply as individuals, to try to understand different people and different cultures, but it's especially important for people in the United States because we affect so much of the world beyond our borders.

Before Control Room, Jehane produced and directed Startup.com in association with Pennebaker Hegedus Films. The acclaimed feature-length documentary follows two New Yorkers on the dot.com roller coaster as they attempt to start up govWorks.com, a web site linking citizens and their local governments. Before culture even begins to shift, Jehane is there with her camera, trusting that the story to unfold is one that will change us.

Here is what Jehane has to say about her wish.

"TED encouraged me to just throw a dream out there," Jehane says. And her grand, complex, invigorating dream is becoming real, thanks to the TED community.

Pangea Cinema Day is being planned for May 2008 as a three-hour live event distributed simultaneously around the world, in 100 cities and online. It will be a day of speakers, art, music and dozens of short films selected via a global competition that taps into the power of today's online video revolution. Its motto: "Films for the world, by the world."

Pangea

Working with TED and an incredible Pangea team, Jehane is finalizing plans for the festival and its content, setting up a program of performances and films that will connect with viewers in every part of the world, from desert towns to Times Square. It's a massive plan, with a big dream behind it, and the resources of a committed community to make it happen.

Check out Pangea for more details and how to get involved.

Stay tuned to this blog to learn more about Pangea and how you can participate...and what Drury is doing to help Jehane.

I have lots of other great stuff to share but that is it for now.

Peace.

CD