Ever heard of TED? No, not your next-door neighbor. This TED. Technology, Entertainment, Design. It’s an annual conference where people come together from across the world, across demographics, across careers and dreams to share their ideas with one another in one huge meeting of the minds. Each speaker is challenged to give “the talk of their lives” and to pass on their passion to the audience, however they can.
From science to art to sociology…these speakers hit on almost every conceivable topic, and then a few you might never have conceived of at all. African fractals, anyone? Advances in prosthetics? Deep-space exploration?
It might do you some good to pick out a few topics you disagree with or oppose, just to see what the people say. They might make some points you didn’t consider before and open up your understanding.
A few that caught my eye were Bill Stone’s plans for exploring the oceans of Europa, the demo of Photosynth, which totally re-invisions how we might share visual information, and a breakthrough touchscreen interface for computers that will all may be using someday instead of a keyboard and mouse. Incredible stuff. I could watch it all day.
J.J. Abrams is there as well, talking about his love of unsolved mysteries and how that concept has driven many of his creative endeavors, including Alias, Lost, Cloverfield, etc. Bill Clinton is there, as is Al Gore, and so on. They all talk about the things that drive them through life, the dreams that pull them into the future with hope and an infectious energy.
So much potential here, so many fascinating ideas that could launch your own dreams and stories. Let me know if you uncover anything worth sharing.
I see that smile.