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Dr. James Watson with Woodside’s Dr. Ken Woodrow. (Isn’t that Google’s Larry Page in the backround?)
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Now, I’ve been to Burning Man, the top of the Great Pyramid in Giza and rooted through Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bedroom closet and I can say that the TED Conference ranks right up there. TED means Technology, Entertainment and Design. Once a year about 800 TEDizens descend on Monterey like a bunch of high IQ butterflies and proceed to cross-fertilize. The goal is to teach and to learn about the state of things in the universe and also to explore ways to make the world a better place. When I say state of things I mean all sorts of disciplines from particle physics to architecture, from computer generated art to the theory of moleeds.
There are close to 60 speakers and their talks range from the earth shattering (the current state of genome research) to the trivial (new ways to tie a shoe) from the profane (Roman sexual habits) to the sublime (the music of Thomas Dolby). The conference is curated by Chris Anderson who has molded the conference in his own image, that being of a thoughtful, curious world citizen searching for meaning and grace. A tall order, but TED delivers.
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Chief of research at Sun John Gage on string theory
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To me TED is a mirror. I look at all these creative folks and I wonder how I measure up. Once again I’ve been mistaken for someone of influence. The most I can do here is give you some highlights and direct you to TED.com.
Kevin Kelly was the founding editor of Wired Magazine and he is both tech savvy with his cool tools site kk.org/cooltools and somewhat tech shy. Shy in the sense that he is awed by the grandeur of technology and tries to invite it into his life without it taking over. Kevin has the notion that technology might actually be a 7th Kingdom of life on par with the animal world or fungi. Hey, they said Emperor Norton was crazy. Oh, right he was.
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Jamis MacNiven tells Howard Reingold, author of Smart Mobs that he might squirt himself in the head
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The keynote speaker was James Watson oWatson and Crick double helix fame. Thedissection of the familiar double helix structureallowed us to crawl inside the notion of geneticby decoding them and with this knowledgechanging everything from medicine to foodproduction. Dr. W. may be the most eminent livingscientist for cracking the mysteries of DNA. TheNobel committee thought so when they awardedWatson and Crick the prize in 1961. So it isoaringly funny when you hear him say that heand Crick sat around for a couple of hours andcame up with the secret to life and then went todrink beer. I wish greatness was so simple buafter four days of hanging out with some of themost brilliant people of our age I see it isn’t soeasy.
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Steve Jurvetson (DFJ) explains to Dean Kaman (Segway) and Sergey Brin (Google) the benifits of non wet water
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Craig Venter has taken a good deal of criticismfor his investigation into the genetic code. Hipartner Hamilton Smith was chided for “playingGod.” Ham said, “We don’t play.” But come onmost genetic science isn’t about making goldfishglow in the dark. It is about curing the sick andfeeding everyone. Some critics say thamanipulation of the genes is the Devil’s work bueveryone draws the line to suit himself. Sciencewill out. Science is a life force.
Thomas Dolby has taken such things as thewaveforms of the tsunamis and solar flares andset them to music. I can’t say what he came upwith is too danceable but he is searching for atruth in the rhythms of the universe. Unlike CharleFischer and his theory of Moleeds. Charles claimthat the structure of the universe is a mathematicatruth, called the moleed. This is a pairing of coloreddot’s on a grid with random numbers along theedges. Charles says, “Hey, this is so complex thaI couldn’t possibly make it up.” He has in facmade it up and as you can see on monkeydog.comIt’s actually a tiny cosmic joke.Then there are theunintentional comedians like Ross Lovegrove. Heis an industrial designer who creates lyricadesigns for furniture, containers, architecture andeven cityscapes. One of his “inventions” is a cityfull of solar powered bubble cars without theslightest nod toward reality. In the evening youpark the cars on the end of a stick and it pivots tomount the car, lollypop style, to light the city. Heis a serious designer who got a standing ovationeven though what he said was complete nonsenseBut keep in mind that this crowd is about 75%Apple Computer users in a PC world. Go figure.
Not that it is wrong to dream but shouldn’the dreams be grounded? Perhaps not. Elon Muskcofounded PayPal and with his winnings hafounded SpaceX with the very solid plan to launchthe first payload into orbit with a privately fundedrocket. The subsequent speaker, Graham Hawkssaid that Elon was looking in the wrong directionGraham is the preeminent submarine designer andspends his time looking under the ocean surface
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Pierre Omidyar (eBay) and Danny Hillis (Long Now Foundation) get down with the next BIG idea
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Speaking of grounding, we heard from ThomMann who is called by some, an “architects’architect.” Unfortunately he isn’t a people’sarchitect because his buildings include suchconcepts as elevators that don’t go to your floorforcing you to take the stairs so you will meet newpeople and offices completely underground so thatyou can meet new gophers. He is one of theworld’s most highly respected architects but oneaspect of TED is that you can evaluate thepresenters and make your own judgment aboutthe validity of their proposals. Just as I was aboutto go break Thom’s hands Bill McDonough spokeand he showed us his design for the GapHeadquarters. He brought the buildings up out ofthe ground and put rolling meadows on the roofs.Bill told us that you have to uncover basic truthsto do good architecture and design which he goesinto in depth in his new book Cradle to Cradle.
Part of the conference involved the awardingof a $100,000 prize to each of three people workingto patch up this old planet. Bono of U2 fame wantsto use his prize to help bring a focus to thedesperate problems in Ethiopia.
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The great Matt Groening, creator of
The Simpsons
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Ed Burtynsky was a winner of the TED Prizewith his startling pictures that he just brought backfrom China. These not yet published pictures showthe insides of Chinese factories and citydevelopment giving shape to the dialogue aboutthe growth of China like nothing else I have seen.
Dr. Robert Fischell won the prize too and Ihad the privilege of sitting next to him at one ofthe lunches. Here is a man who invented the insulinpump, the modern pacemaker and the vascularstent. More than that he in is business with his sons and their wives and is still going strong in his mid 70’s with new inventions including a magnetic device which erases migraine headaches.
My award for most bizarre presentation would go to Josh Davis. Josh is a heavily tattooed professor who leapt around the stage like a rock star explaining his computer generated art program. What he said made very little sense to me but I loved the way he said it.
The conference was brought to a close by Eva Vertes. The 19-year-old sophomore is a Princeton student who won the international science fair with her study of the causes of Alzheimer’s. She has very original ideas about the cause and possible cure for cancer. Look forward to seeing her getting the Nobel Prize in a few years.
The message? Live, do good works and don’t forget to leave the shower curtain inside the tub.
Amanda Biggs (has an insulin pump) thanks Dr. Fischell with her friend
(who has two heart stents) wth Kelly Porter who nudged his way into the photo
