TED2010, final day. It didn’t disappoint.
First up was the amazing mathematician, Benoit Mandelbrot. Far far too clever for me to understand what he was on about but it seems he basically invented whole varieties of mathematics all on his own in a fifty year career. He is into fractals, and replication of simplicity into complexity. And showed us some pretty amazing examples of replicated simplicity becoming complex – but all I seem to be able to recall is cauliflower.
The chemist George Whitesides gave us his own theories of complexity and simplicity through a talk on how he thought the world could solve complex problems through the application of simplicity. Basically we can apply simple principles to solving complex problems – such as the example of the internet; and infinitely complex web of connections that is based on the purest and simplest binary code. He showed us ways this works to solve problems of HIV diagnosis in Africa.
Phillip K Howard (author of ‘life without lawyers’) then presented a wonderful talk showing how litigation culture is killing American healthcare, education and government. Pretty scary, but ultimately enlightening. Did you know that lawsuits cost the US healthcare system $200bn a year; the cost of providing healthcare for free to all Americans? The central thesis was that we must judge laws based upon their impact on all society rather than the individual – to avoid the paralysis of litigation and the culture of eliminating risk at the expense of the common good. One of the highlights of the week – and a massive standing ovation at the end.
Chip Conley took us all through a new way of measuring a nation’s health – moving away from GDP to GNH (Gross National Happiness). It has been done in over 40 countries now, and seems to be working. Based on the model implemented by the 17 year old King of Bhutan. Basically stop thinking about having what you want, and start wanting what you have. More at www.chipconley.com
James Cameron (of Avatar & Titanic) film was pretty cool talking through his philosophy on what makes good leadership, and full of good anecdotes. The best being that he only pitched Titanic to the studios (‘Romeo & Juliet on a boat’) so he could fulfill his personal dreams of underwater exploration!
John Kasaona spoke of the heart warming and encouraging conservation projects that seem to be working brilliantly in Namibia. All based on a counter-intuitive but massively successful method of making ex-poachers rangers. Simple when you think about it – they know the land, they know the animals, right? Loads more here: www.irdnc.org.na
Then onto Sir Ken Robinson, easily the best talk of the whole of TED2010; on the way we need to fundamentally overhaul the education system from a manufacturing model of conformity to an agricultural model of nurturing. We must eliminate the twin terrors of linearity and conformity. “The current education system dislocates people from their natural talents” and we must create the conditions for children’s talents can flourish. Absolutely amazing and can’t wait for the talk to go up. All of it is in his book “The Element” that he kindly signed for me yesterday and I’m halfway through already.
I forgot to mention this amazing demo I saw yesterday from Blaize Aguera Y Arcas of the latest technology of bing maps from Microsoft. Pretty amazing, watch it here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera.html
So that’s it from TED2010. Met some amazing people, have a few interesting project leads, a bag full of business cards, a head full of ridiculous ideas and lots of free gifts.
Until next year.
