TED Talks

I've been going through the archives of TED [Technology, Entertainment, Design] talks (available on the web and as a podcast). Here are my favorites so far:

David Keith, geoengineering to counter-act global warming

It should come as no surprise that, ultimately, we're gonna need to terraform Earth to prevent widespread biological chaos caused by global warming. Dr. Keith prevaricates on the issue, not wanting to sound Strangelovian. It was cool to see reports from the LBJ administration (nearly a half century ago), warning of climate change, and proposing to meet the challenge through technology. Actually, a chemist called Ahrrenius speculated about global warming in the 19th century as a result of industrialization. We've now more than doubled CO₂ concentrations, with no sign of slowing. It's time to have a Manhattan-sized project to tackle the issue as a sort of emergency brake. After all, it's going to take centuries to get out of the atmosphere.

Cliff Stoll

Super-spaz alert! I really like Cliff Stoll, but he's really wild here, making Bill Nye look like a narcoleptic. I didn't know that he interned with Moog, that's pretty cool. Ten years ago, he wrote about a good idea: that we should take computers out of schools and spend that time on social skills and a better-rounded education. That idea didn't really fly. Hopefully, the software they use will get a lot smarter, like the Leapfrog Pentop computer, and some of the intuitive interactive controls demonstrated in another TED talk, by Alan Kay.

George Dyson

Lots of cool but very brief details on Project Orion (the top-secret nuke-powered spaceship). It must have sucked to be a little kid, having your father tell you he's working on a spaceship and is planning a flight to Saturn in a few years, but can't tell you anything else about it!