Time for TED (TEDxSeoul)

This week TEDMed is happening in San Diego in California and of course I wish I could be there, however, TEDxSeoul, an even I have been working on for a few months with a great team is priming to hold our first event on November 28th.

We will have onsite realtime translation to English and Korean depending on the language of the speaker and we will be live streaming the event online. I will post more details when we have opened registration but for now if you are interested, follow us on twitter and join our facebook group. 

The video is just a TED teaser which I am sure most of you are familiar with. If you are new to TED, please get watching.

Posted via email from Mark Whiting's posterous

Playing For Change

Last night at TED Global there were a number of good talks but one thing I particularly liked was a video by Mark Johnson. Watch Below.

Making Things and How They Work Together

I just watched this great TED talk by an interesting man named Saul Griffith. My interest here is in a few capacities.

First, Saul speaks about the level of assembly of a few objects, which I have previously discussed as technology density, and compares organic and artificial assembly systems and manufactured solutions. In doing so he considers the advantages of each and contexts in which each would be more suitable. This is of course quite interesting to me as I think there is a significant market for improving human decisions by relying on a wider frame of decision making systems, including naturally inspired ones, and ensuring appropriate use.

Second, Saul shows some example projects including crossover decision making systems. These, I think, are quite neat though obviously far from complete in this talk.

Lastly, in the beginning he mentions project, seemingly names, A Registry of Standard Biological Parts , which offers a good perspective into another notion I have been interested by, which is that of software for the design and development of biologically inclined systems. In my mind this can include things which utilise some or even just one of the key elements of biological systems. A software like this, from my perspective, would help organise the involved ideas and approaches in order to generate short cycle evolution at much higher rates than natural selection would offer. Such a software could also be used to deal with the issues of human perception when trying to solve for the physical parameters when creating objects.

All in all the talk has reinvigorated me to think about a few problems I haven't for some time. As is often the case I am also reminded that the release early release often approach is good in almost every way and I should adopt it more seriously.

Future and Magic

Today I thought about how a big part of the things have made now the future are the things that do what would have been considered magic and are now provided by technology and science. At the same time, I think the other side of the future is undoing all the bad innovation that has lead to the strange world state we are in now. 

For those who have not seen it please watch Future Perfect's TED Talk


Today I had I took a train too and from Daejeon, about 2 hours south of Seoul where I had an interview with KAIST for a PhD. I am not sure if it is the right place for me. 

Korea is still a lot of fun however this evening I realised I had no water. I will have to find a way to get some tomorrow. 

Stupid White People

This is a great TED Talk about cultural diversity. I wish there was a way to stop stupid white people. Good blog too. 

Also, Google has added some more sharing features recently and I am going to start using them a little to see if there is any value. Here is my shared items list so far. 

Using what's there

Recently I started thinking about the prospect of establishing developing relationships with various native species to utilise them as tools for common chores. I thought firs about dirt of floors and how it is likely that there is some little creature that would really like to eat my dirt, but, that I have locked out or banished from my vision. In line with this I started thinking about the design of houses that capitalise on the services that the local native plants animals and insects could provide. Not having much of a background in the area I just brainstormed lightly with the hope of getting into it more scientifically further down the line.



Today, I was looking though the recent TED talks I had not seen and found one which seems to be talking about a similar prospect. Realising what nature is for and letting us and it work together advantageously. I think, the way the idea is presented in this talk, makes it seems so simple and so advantageous that people have forgotten the reason of being. I think that addressing the question of motivation is something which will happen but only slowly, and when it happens, most things will be fixed.

If you have good ideas about this, please comment.

Humble Domination

Take a look at this great TED talk by Ben Dunlap. Please click through to watch if you are on the feed.



I wish I were more humble. I think there seems to be an direct relationship between humbleness and holistic achievement. I don't think I live to achieve, but I would love to imagine I could provide some good on such a broad spectrum.