Day 3 at TED is a tricky day. You're high from the previous day and a half. Expectations are pretty big. You're a little sleepy because you're stayed up too late partying catching up on email. You're not *fully* caffenated because the cups at Google Cafe aren't *quite* large enough. Nevertheless, you press on. The following were my highlights of Day 3:
Burt Rutan opened the day. Winner of the $10M X-prize, Burt is passionate about space travel and about the catch-up that the US needs to play. He's also passionate (fanatic, in a good way) about the role that space exploration plays in the dreams of youth.
It's not enough for kids to look forward to a new cell phone with a TV in it. They must look forward to overcoming obstacles. Obstacles like traveling to space. We need to inspire our youth.
Rutan also discusses how the US has experienced a stagnation of commercial, military and space aircraft technology. But he derives hope from a current crop of late 30-something billionaires who are investing in space travel. And there's nothing wrong with the first applications of public space travel being for fun! "The home computer was originally for fun. Look how it underpins our lives now!"
Amy Smith (leader of MIT's D-Lab) gave an incredible talk on the use of low-tech technologies to solve some very low-tech problems. Details of the study she presented are at WorldChanging.com (created a cleaner, more enviro-friendly fuel for home fire cooking in Haiti). To me, the most important thing is that she reminded us that the bulk of the world worries about things like clean water, having enough fuel to cook dinner, having dinner at all. Over half the world lives on $2 a day. They certainly aren't worrying about their Technorati ranking or their Google stats. This is a theme that was brought home time and time again ... we are so f*cking lucky here in the rarefied world of middle-class North America. We live a crazily luxurious life and are incredibly fortunate.
Peter Skillman, Director of New Product Development at Palm, shared results from a low-tech design & innovation exercise he does with groups ranging from kindergardeners to MBA students: build the tallest structure you can that supports a marshmallow with 20 pieces of spaghetti and a yard of masking tape. Kindergardeners have done the best across all groups he's worked with. Why? "Kinders don't waste time with status transactions." They iterate. They experience. They try again.
Joshua Prince-Ramus walked us through the design process that he goes through when designing a building, in particular, the Seattle Public Library (article in the Seattle Times - thanks to LunchOverIP). He also talked about his work on the new Dallas Performing Arts Center. To me, his core message: embracing (rather than whinging about) design contraints actually results in incredible work.
Cliff Stoll (one of my heros ever since I read his book The Cuckoo's Egg ... he showed me that technology is exciting and sexy!) gave a frenetic, mad-scientist-esque presentation about teaching real science to 8th graders. His main message: "If you want to know what the future is going to be like, ask a kindergarden teacher!"
Rob Forbes, founder of Design within Reach, asserted that the first job of design is to serve a social purpose.
Phil Borges, photographer, discussed his work with Bridges, giving youth worldwide a voice with digital storytelling. He showed an incredible film by a young man after his village in Guatemala had been destroyed by a mudslide.
I'd never seen Tony Robbins in person. Truly engaging. Asserted that biography is NOT destiny. Our culture of therapy is focused on the past. What we need to understand is that we fail not because of a lack of resources ($$, time, bad boss) but because of a lack of resourcefulness (creativity, passion, emotion).
Jim Crupi, military strategist, pretty much scared the hell out of all of us. He made the point that "the discussion of war should never just be an intellectual exercise" by starting with a fake news broadcast about a biological agent that had been released in Monterey. He commented that we need to understand that we're all soldiers, particularly if we are producing the tools of war. And the new tools of war are not tanks, but the information applicances and bits of code most of us work on. And, as no surprise particularly vis a vis the Danish cartoon issue, battlefields are moving from the physical to the ideological. To understand the future of war (the tactics that will be used) we need to understand how people create wealth. These will be the targets.
Thank goodness for Julia Sweeney! She performed an excerpt from her upcoming CD Letting Go of God!. Wonderful, heartfelt, hilarious!
Helen Fisher, gender & relationship expert "Romantic love is not an emotion, but a drive. More powerful than the sex drive. People die for love."
Nat Irvin of Future Focus 2020 gave a presentation on the Thrivals - a new demographic of blacks in the US. The most interesting thing about this is that he described a consciousness shift of urban blacks in the US from being victims of oppression to being survivors of struggle. Great metaphor and insight.
The day closed with incredible music from 11 year old violin virtuoso, Sirena Huang. Incredible performer. Charming young lady. Can't wait to hear more from her.
So .. a very busy thought-provoking day. How will I make it thru Day 4? (psst ... of course, I *have* made it through Day 4, so don't worry)
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