TED Friday Report on Friday
TED Friday
Report on Friday at TED, the Technology Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, an eccentric mix of presentations and performances, celebrities and civilians.
This was a more successful day than yesterday, IMO. The highlights from my point of view:
Robert Full from UC Berkeley discussed his group’s research into animal motion. They’ve been able to make robots that navigate through complex landscapes without requiring a computer brain to match actions to an internal representation. Instead, legs made out of materials that are complexly flexible — just like animal legs — adjust the critter’s movement to the terrain simply because of the shape and nature of the legs themselves. This seems quite similar to Rodney Brooks’ work on getting inner representations out of the AI picture. Full also talked about the mechanism by which geckos can scoot up walls: It turns out that the gecko’s toe pads foliate to such small nodes that molecular Van der Waal forces can overcome gravity. (Was that a look of inspiration I saw in Dean Kamen’s eyes as he thought about he might apply this to wall-climbing Segways? Nah.)
Frans Lanting, a photographer for National Geographic (is there a more evocative job description?) cycled through astonishing photographs of wildlife. You can see a few here.
Jeffrey Katzenberg showed the first 7 minutes of his new animated feature (“Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron”) about wild horses. It puts characters drawn in 2D illustration style into a detailed 3D world. The artwork is beautiful (but familiar) and the movie’s opening tries for the bravura sweep of the opening of The Lion King. The problem is with the writing. The narration is so hackneyed and trite that Matt Damon’s reading can’t save it. And the very first words of the script are just flat out wrong: The star horse intones that the horses have been in the American west forever. Yeah, even before the Spanish brought them?
The late morning session presented a string of humorists (a chuckle of humorists?). Bruce Vilanch told some funny jokes of the Viagra, Shirley Maclaine and Richard Gere and smally furry mammals variety. Emily Levine did a routine that managed to be genuinely funny about philosophical dualism. And MacArthur Genius Ben Katchor deadpanned his way through his arch, illustrated prose-poems that are as willing to be ambiguous as Katzenberg is willing to be trite. Jill Sobule performed again; I had the chance to tell her that I fall more in love with her every day.
Dan Dubins, a CBS News producer, demo’ed software that combines satellite imaging data with geological elevation data so that you can zoom, tilt and pan as if you were flying a space-capable helicopter. Others have produced similar software, but this had more data than I’d seen and, more dramatically, treated the entire experience cinematically, an excellent example of the importance of entertainment in presenting information. Unfortunately, Dubins didn’t give the software’s name, although I thoughtI heard him refer to “earthview.”
Steven Petranik, editor of Discover magazine, ticked off his Top Ten list of ways the world could end suddenly:
| Top Ten Ways the World Could End Suddenly 10. Failure to address the worldwide epidemic of depression 9. Alien invasion 8. Ecosystem collapse 7. Particle accelerator accident produces an uncontrollable black hole 6. Biotech disaster 5. Reversal of the magnetic field 4. Giant solar flares 3. An epidemic 2. Contact with a rogue black hole 1. Giant asteroid |
He wasn’t kidding about any of these. See you in hell.
Amory Lovins talked about the hypercar project, a radically redesigned car that uses hydrogen fuel (producing water as its exhaust) or fuel cells. It reverses most of the principles that have guided car design from the beginning. Most exciting, he has put the design into the public domain so that no one can patent it and many can build them.
Nicholas Negroponte wrapped up the sessions by predicting that in 1-2 years, we will see the development of a “viral telecommunications network” based on 802.11 wirelessness, a single installation serving an entire neighborhood. This will go beyond merely enabling multiple connections to the Internet, Negroponte predicts, resulting in a peer-to-peer network that parallels the current Internet topography. Further, he suggests that establishing wireless networks in areas of strife will enable children to reach past their parents’ stupidity.
He connected this with our culture’s odd idea that at the age of 5 children should stop learning by playing and start learning by facing forward and being taught. Give kids a connected computer and they will teach themselves and others by exploring the Internet. Pointing to his experience building schools in rural Cambodia, he said: “People say it’s not sufficient to give kids computers and connectivity. You know what? It is.”
Damn good stuff.
Finally, the day ended with an astounding set of musical performances. In the first half, Gary Burton, Maokoto Ozone and Julian Lage played. Julian is a prodigy, a 14-year-old with technical expertise and musicality that’s jaw-dropping. I shared an elevator ride with him and his parents and they seemed loving and grounded. Could my impression based on this 45 second experience be wrong? Actually, no, it couldn’t be. You can’t lie in an elevator any more than you can lie down in an elevator.
The second concert featured Herbie Hancock. Astounding.
As a bonus, I ran into Jakob Nielsen, the Usability Guy. I’d long wanted to meet him. By happy coincidence, he was talking with Maryam Mohit, in charge of Amazon’s UI. (She’s on a generous maternity leave. Her 4-month old son is gorgeous.) Very enjoyable discussion, in part about the importance of voice and its relation to authority.
A good day.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
