Alas! I may or may not have already posted today... about 10 minutes ago... but my last post got me thinking about TED talks and now I cannot help but continue to procrastinate on my Italian homework and gush about my love of spreading knowledge and of sharing information!
What a wonder to be alive RIGHT NOW, TODAY, and to have the opportunity to learn SO much at any given moment!! We have an unlimited amount of knowledge right at our fingertips if only we are willing to open up it and embrace it.
I had a conversation with my Grandmother roughly two years ago and I recall talking to her about television. She told me that when she was growing up during the Dirty Thirties many people living on her street were in extreme want and truly suffering. However, her father worked for Coca Cola and apparently no matter how hard things got people could always afford a Coke. So, as it turned out, her parents were the first in the neighborhood to purchase a television set. She told me she remembered sitting there--surrounded by all the neighborhood children--watching TV for the first time, and thinking "Wow, I don't think it could ever get any better than this!". Its strange, I feel the same way about technology now... I go to 3D movies and carry around my lightweight laptop, and cannot imagine how "they" (the omniscient, infallible and anonymous "they") will ever outdo what "they" have already done... and then "they" do. Its amazing.
We are so limitless in our ambition and in our thirst to take everything just a step farther. That is the one thing that I love most and hate most about human beings: our insatiable curiosity. A book I read recently by a historian, Ronald Wright, pointed out that in the last 1,000 (give or take) years human beings have not evolved physically, however our technology and knowledge base has. So although we consider ourselves far superior to our "primitive" ancestors who hunted and gathered and subsisted directly off the land, in truth we are the exact same people--who perhaps have run a little faster than our legs can carry us. After all, we have made some extreme and astounding discoveries, but in the same breath we often make those discoveries without addressing the possibility that they may generate just as much harm as they do good. Its an awful paradox... Something Wright refers to as a "Progress Trap"... Furthermore, when it comes down to it and the current (extremely flawed and largely broken) food system collapses... we will wish we were still those people who knew how to grow food and survive off the land like those "primitive" ancestors of ours. Its predicted that by 2050 the world's population will have increased by 2-2.5 billion people and 80% of the global population will be living in urban areas. Which means we will have a population of roughly 9 billion who are depending on less than 20% of the population to produce our food. A recipe (pun INTENDED) for disaster.
I could argue these points for hours and days (and believe you me I may still just go ahead and do that in the future) but it turns out its after midnight and I have a test tomorrow that I should have been studying for three hours ago so here is my rant about TED (who is Ted really??) and that will be it from me... for now!
Ken Robinson, has given one of the most popular TED talks to date, its about education and the way we embrace and cultivate knowledge. He presents an absolutely vital perspective in truly understanding what it means to "know": http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html. Its an amazing talk.... I was lucky enough to be able to attend TEDxHalifax a few weeks ago, it was absolutely inspiring. We were allowed the opportunity to hear from such people as a brilliant marine biologist considering the culture of whales (Hal Whitehead... he is so wonderful I have heard him lecture many times and its always such a treat); a remarkable cancer researcher who has discovered a new way to fight the disease; and a neuroscientist who has developed technology by which to provide medical care via satellite communication systems. That is not even including all kinds of local musically and artistically inclined individuals who rendered the audience speechless with their vast array of talent. Seriously, anyone who is looking to inspire change or even just hoping for a chance to expand their knowledge base, look into upcoming TED talks in your area or even just hit up the site, its such a good way to spend twenty minutes.
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray Love): http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
Chimamanda Adichie (Author): http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Aimee Mullins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ0iMulicgg
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking it is stupid" - Albert Einstein
Keep it Real, Keep it Green
Shauna
No comments:
Post a Comment