The place João Bordalo calls home: Tag ted

Your Sixth Sense

bordalix — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:31:00 -0500

Are we in the future already and someone forgot to tell me? The following video from TED demos a device, named Sixth Sense, which takes us to the future, today. The Sixth Sense device does not use any breakthrough technology (actually you can try to build one for 350 USD), but the interaction and functionalities on it made me wonder. I want one of these:

RSS readers should click here to watch the video.

Siftables, the toy blocks that think

bordalix — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:50:00 -0600

This is one of those breakthrough ideas you have in a lifetime: Siftables. This is Human Computer Interface like you never seen before. The first time I saw this video, my jaw dropped, so I had to watch it again. As an appetizer, here is what they say at the TED website:

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Watch the video and start thinking about the possibilities:

RSS readers should click here to watch the video.

Why twitter?

bordalix — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:27:00 -0600

Who better than the CEO of Odeo (Twitter creators) to explain the cause for the growth of Twitter:

Exploring happiness

bordalix — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:19:00 -0600

The Black Swam by Nassim Taleb, and Darwinian Politics by Paul Rubin, were two books that changed my view of the world and humanity (for better, I think).

Today I found an amazing Ted Talk, by Dan Gilbert, titled "Exploring the frontier of happiness", which gave me a lot of helpful insights (and it toke me only 33 minutes). Dan speaks about our inability to estimate odds and value, and how than has an impact on our daily life. A must see:

RSS readers should click here to watch the video.

Brain hemispheres

bordalix — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:56:00 -0500

Another great Ted talk, this time from neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor which had a great opportunity for a brain scientist:

One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another

It's a very strong, emotional story, explaining the differences between our right and left brain hemispheres, told in the first person.

The paradox of choice

bordalix — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:23:00 -0600

Via Daring Fireball, another great presentation from TED, by Barry Schwartz:

Barry Schwartz studies the relationship between economics and psychology, delivering startling insights into modern life. His latest book, The Paradox of Choice, argues that the abundance of choice in today’s western world leads not to happiness but psychological distress.

So, if you 20 minutos to spare, watch it:

Ideas worth spreading

bordalix — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:27:00 -0600

When I saw (and wrote about) the Gapminder presentation, I found TED. And it changed my life. So, what is TED?

TED Conference

As stated in Wikipedia (and I quote):

TED (short for Technology Entertainment Design) is an annual conference in Monterrey, California that describes itself as a global community of remarkable people and remarkable ideas, which is debated by those who see it as a self-congratulatory meeting of wealthy attendees. Its content is extremely broad, including science, art, business, global issues, architecture, music, and comedy. Speakers are from a variety of communities. Speakers have included Jane Goodall, Freeman Dyson, Bill Gates, Billy Graham, Bono, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Richard Dawkins, and Steve Pinker.

And quoting the TED site:

TED was born in 1984 out of the observation by Richard Saul Wurman of a powerful convergence between Technology, Entertainment and Design. The first TED included the public unveiling of the Macintosh computer and the Sony compact disc, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals and AI guru Marvin Minsky outlined his powerful new model of the mind. Several influential members of the burgeoning ‘digerati’ community were also there, including Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand.

The punchline is "Ideas worth spreading", and that summarize it all. The talks from the TED Conference 2006 are available online, and have a great impact. My favorites so far (I haven’t watched them all yet) are:

David Pogue - very funny talk on usability and design. Interfaces must be designed simply and intuitively for multitudes to use.
Sir Ken Robinson - a session on creativity in the education system. If we don't value and reward creativity in our young people, we're wasting skills and talents.
Malcolm Gladwell - in this talk, filmed at TED2004, he explains what every business can learn from spaghetti sauce.
Han Rosling - an amazing talk about Gapminder. Priceless!

TED 2007 will start on the 7th of March. Until them, TED will be posting one new talk in the website each week, to download or watch online. For best effect, plan to listen to at least three, start to finish. They have a cumulative effect...

ChangeThis

Following the path of "Ideas worth spreading", ChangeThis is a new website by/for optimistic people. As stated in the website (and I quote):

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. We're on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds.

Some of the manifestos are very interesting, and there is a lot to choose from.

So, choose your format (video or PDF) and start refreshing your brain with ideas worth spreading.