Sting
Sting gives a presentation on the early life he spent in a shipyard and the way it would eventually come to influence his music as he found inspiration in the lives of his fellow shipyard workers. He also talks about his upcoming Broadway musical and presents several selections from the work.
The fact is, whether you’re a rock star or whether you’re a welder in a shipyard, or a tribesman in the upper Amazon, or the queen of England, at the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat.
Ray Kurzweil
Kurzweil tells about the evolution of the neocortex in mammals and how this part of the brain has helped to expand our way of thinking and reasoning beyond the point that our earlier ancestors would have been capable of. Now the neocortex is about to evolve again and he theorizes over what this new growth will bring about.
And so, over the next few decades, we’re going to do it again. We’re going to again expand our neocortex, only this time we won’t be limited by a fixed architecture of enclosure. It’ll be expanded without limit. That additional quantity will again be the enabling factor for another qualitative leap in culture and technology.
Dan Gilbert
Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, presents a talk on what he calls the “end of history illusion”. He believes that much in the same way as humans can be deceived by optical illusions, so too can we be deceived on what will make us happy in our future. He speculates that we are not as capable of predicting what will lead us to our own bliss as we think we are.
Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been. The one constant in our life is change.
Robert Full
Full, UC Berkeley biologist, gives a talk on his studies of various animals including cockroaches, crabs and geckos and how they can help us to engineer more efficient robots in the future.
My engineering colleague at Berkeley designed with his students a novel manufacturing technique where you essentially origami the exoskeleton, you laser cut it, laminate it, and you fold it up into a robot. They even have some of the behaviors of the cockroaches. So they can use their smart, compliant body to transition up a wall in a very simple way.
Yoruba Richen
Richen, a filmaker that focuses on the feminist, LGBT & African American communities, presents a talk on the similarities between the gay rights and civil rights movements. Despite the tensions that can be found between the two, she argues that they are in fact very similar and that both movements need to work together towards a common cause and continue to push one another forward towards a better future.
So as these movements continue on, and as freedom struggles around the world continue on, let’s remember that not only are they interconnected, but they must support and enhance each other for us to be truly victorious.
On My Way performance
Michele performs On My Way on The Ellen Show from her album Louder.
Keren Elazari
Elazari, a cybersecurity expert, talks about the growth of hackers from being cyberpunk protagonists to being a kind of anonymous vigilante. She talks about the unintentional good that hackers are causing by pointing out the weaknesses in internet security so that a stronger, healthier deterrent can be built.
They just can’t see something broken in the world and leave it be. They are compelled to either exploit it or try and change it, and so they find the vulnerable aspects in our rapidly changing world. They make us, they force us to fix things or demand something better, and I think we need them to do just that, because after all, it is not information that wants to be free, it’s us.
Will Potter
Will Potter, an investigative journalist, tells of the day he decided to take part in a peaceful protest against animal testing only to find himself arrested and how that day inspired him to delve deeper into a world where peaceful protest is considered terrorism.
Dostoevsky wrote that the whole work of man is to prove he’s a man and not a piano key. Over and over throughout history, people in power have used fear to silence the truth and to silence dissent. It’s time we strike a new note.
AJ Jacobs
Jacobs gives a humorous talk on discovering his ancestry through various genealogy sites and finding that we are all linked – no matter how distantly. He invites his audience to the biggest family reunion ever as he discusses the relations he has found along the way.
And my cousin, of course, the actor Kevin Bacon who is my first cousin’s twice removed’s wife’s niece’s husband’s first cousin once removed’s niece’s husband. So six degrees of Kevin Bacon, plus or minus several degrees.
Anne Curzan
Curzan, a professor of English at the University of Michigan and a historian of the English language, gives a talk on what makes a word “real” and who has the authority to make modern slang words “real” in the English language. As the language continues to evolve, Curzan explains how modern words are taken and placed into the dictionary as a “real” word.
Dictionaries are a wonderful guide and resource, but there is no objective dictionary authority out there that is the final arbiter about what words mean. If a community of speakers is using a word and knows what it means, it’s real. That word might be slangy, that word might be informal, that word might be a word that you think is illogical or unnecessary, but that word that we’re using, that word is real.
Billy Collins
Collins presents two very different poems inspired by what he believes a dog might be thinking.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s been a spate of books that have come out lately contemplating or speculating on the cognition and emotional life of dogs. Do they think, do they feel and, if so, how? So this afternoon, in my limited time, I wanted to take the guesswork out of a lot of that by introducing you to two dogs, both of whom have taken the command “speak” quite literally.
Shaka Senghor
My journey is a unique journey, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Anybody can have a transformation if we create the space for that to happen. So what I’m asking today is that you envision a world where men and women aren’t held hostage to their pasts, where misdeeds and mistakes don’t define you for the rest of your life. I think collectively, we can create that reality, and I hope you do too.
Lorrie Faith Cranor
Cranor discusses her time spent studying online security and user passwords. She talks about a study that she conducted wherein she discovered a common pattern and habit among password-creators that could easily threaten their internet security.
So I know a lot of these TED Talks are inspirational and they make you think about nice, happy things, but when you’re creating your password, try to think about something else.
Ze Frank
Frank, an online comedian and web artist, presents a talk on the question “Are you human?” In it he asks his audience to raise their hands to a series of personal questions to judge whether they can indeed consider themselves “human”.
Have you ever lost the ability to imagine a future without a person that no longer was in your life? Have you ever looked back on that event with the sad smile of autumn and the realization that futures will happen regardless? Congratulations. You have now completed the test. You are all human.
Loca performance
Shakira performs Loca on Dancing With The Stars to promote her album Sale El Sol.
![Shakira - Loca [Dancing With The Stars 2010] HD](https://newslines.org/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FsdIpJqQ4lL4%2F0.jpg)
Not A Bad Thing performance
Timberlake performs Not A Bad Thing on The Tonight Show Staring Jimmy Fallon to promote The 20/20 Experience.
Talk Dirty performance
Derulo performs Talk Dirty on Dancing With The Stars to promote his album Talk Dirty.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsLMOX–qF8
Heart Attack performance
Iglesias performs Heart Attack on the Today show from his album Sex and Love.
Sara Lewis
Lewis, a scientist and professor at Tufts University, gives her audience a glimpse into the lives of fireflies. In her lecture she discusses the strange nature of firefly behavior: including elaborate flash dances, predatory eavesdropping and deceit, and the female “firefly vampire”.
The luminous displays are actually the silent love songs of male fireflies. They’re flying and flashing their hearts out. I still find it very romantic.
Nicholas Negroponte
Negroponte, founder of MIT Media Lab, leads a talk on the last 30 years of technology. He also introduces his newest project – “One Laptop per Child”. Negroponte states that he has a desire to create wireless laptop computers that cost around $100 and see that they are given out to children in developing countries.
We aim to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
