Alisa Miller
3 minute talk
How does the news shape the way we see the world - you must check out World Mapper which shows the world maps based on data other than land mass. In this instance, the maps here show how "big" other countries look in terms of media coverage.
Key takeaway: Covering Britney is cheaper.
(By the way, it was longer than 3 minutes, but WELL worth it!)
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Craig Venter
Genetics pioneer
We've been digitizing life for 20 years through mapping the human genome. Can we regenerate life or generate new life out of the digital world? It's very difficult to generate DNA and the longer a chain you build, the more the errors. So now they're trying to replicate bacteria. But if they build it, how do they "boot it up"? The idea is that they create a chain, take another bacteria and insert the chain into that bacteria's genome and then the bacteria "boots up" as the one they are trying to create.
20 million genes discovered to date - these genes are the design components of the future.
They're working on software to design species digitally -- I'm sure it's more complex than the slide suggests, but it's hard to grasp designing a species via pull-down menu.
Their goals as Craig says are "fairly modest" - replace the petrol-chemical industry, become a major source of energy, improve vaccines, etc.
What bugs me about this is that it's difficult to follow with complex slides. I'm still brewing over yesterday's comment about the "female physicist" in a previous TED session who was "incomprehensible." But instead of the argument that resulted from that presentation, Chris Anderson sat down with Venter and said "help me understand."
Someone just posed that they are also a very dangerous organization due to the weaponization possibilities of this technology. Venter seems to believe (backed by Pew study) that few people want to use this technology to do harm. But who defines harm? Maybe there aren't terrorists who will want to do this (not now, anyway), but what about government use? I don't believe that all of those uses will be peaceful or "good."
$100 million year budget, 70% funded by the government.
What can the TED community do to help? We need to educate people and not stop because we're fearful of what the technology can do.
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Paul Rothemund
DNA origamist
What goes into the definition of life -- lots of questions, but basically it involves computation. And small changes (mutations) can result in very meaningful changes. He's comparing the parts of molecules in terms of machinery and hardware -- molecular computers.
He says Venter is asking what's the smallest sequence I can create to replicate an organism? That's the same as "what's the smallest program I can build to replicate Word?"
Current DNA nanostructure building is very elegant but time consuming. His process, DNA origami, can "be done in your kitchen." Short strands of DNA attach in to long strands in different places so that it pulls the long chain into a series of double helixes. These are often rectangular in shape but can be manipulated into different shapes based on what short strands you use and where they attach.
Cool - student in China built a DNA origami chain that looks like China.
But what is the use? DNA origami doesn't scale -- you can't build a human. What it can do is algorithmic self-assembly of tiles. The tiles become the program and the patterns they form are the output. And computer program can be translated into a tile pattern that counts. Please don't ask me to explain how it does it because I just can't. Of course, it counts, but like Alex when he was 2, it skips numbers. "At least it counts up," he says.
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Dean Ornish
medical researcher
We're learning how powerful and dynamic lifestyle changes can be. Walking for 3hrs per week can actually increase your brain neurogenisis. Things that build cells - chocolate, tea, blueberries, stress management. Decrease cells - too much alcohol, sugar, etc.
Lifestyle changes can even turn on helpful genes,
Our genes are not our fate -- we can impact predisposition by making lifestyle changes like eating less fat and sugar, not smoking.
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Susan Blackwell
memecist, psychologist
Humans are the Pandorian species.
The theory of memes is founded on principle of universal Darwinism. It's much if-if-if-then -- the evolutionary algorithm of variation, selection and heredity. With those you must get evolution or "design out of chaos without the aid of mind." Genes are the first replicator - powerful and selfish replicator s(they will replicate if they can regardless of consequences). Another replicator is culture -- we replicate behaviors we see.
A meme is not an idea - just information that is copied. TED is a great meme-fest.
A curious meme - you go to a hotel and see lots of things, including the neatly folded toilet paper end. Who thought this up and how has it spread? But it has indeed spread across the world. Blackmore shows photos of folded toilet paper ends all around the world.
We are the meme machines -- we propagate memes. (Sometimes pretty quickly I think.) We are the second replicator.
She's seeing new memes - technological memes - technomemes. Technology is on the cusp of becoming the third replicator.
Drake equation - number of communicative civilizations. He included intelligence as a factor, but Blackmore says it is less important than the replicators. Her equation computes the fractions of planets in the galaxy that have first, second and third replicators with the fraction of a planet's life for which the third replicator survives.
But new replicators are dangerous to produce -- simple example is that babies with bigger brains are harder to give birth to.
We think we created the internet for our own benefit, but meme theory says that techno-memes (temes) replicated themselves and we were just the ve
hicle for replication.
This is the first talk I've heard on meme theory, though I've read about it, and now I have a much better view of it's so controversial.
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Christopher DeCharms
You can mimic what you can see - soon you will be able to program your brain states. Through non-invasive MRI to see real time what our brains are doing as we think, move, feel, etc. We can watch brain activity, then select areas to control. For instance, chronic pain patients can see their brain activity and repath activity to reduce pain.
The big question - our generation is the first to be able to do this -- where will we take it?
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David Hoffman
filmaker
Nine days ago he had a fire - his archive of films, books, everything -- gone. Was he his things, he asks? Wanting to take something good from something bad, he's digging it out, wondering if there's something new and better to see in the burned objects. He's working on this idea of life as bits and pieces.
Each person's tragedy is just that to them, but Fred just commented to me and I'm sitting with the thought of how much tragedy exists in the world as children die every day, violent acts are committed, people
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Doris Kerns Goodwin
I've heard her speak a few times and I'm struck at how detailed her stories are - compelling not in their delivery but in their richness. This is a bit different because she's talking about how the richest lives are ones that strike a balance between work, love and play.
There's no way to convey the details she relays about how Lincoln persevered through tragedy, many defeats and remain true to his convictions, had the foresight and courage to build a cabinet from not just allies but detractors and competitors. If you haven't read Team of Rivals, consider it.
Goodwin says that learning to keep score of a baseball game and then relaying the game events taught her an appreciation of history and story telling. She always brings tears to my eyes when she talks about her love of baseball and its connection to her growing up, her father, her sons.
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