Our professor had given us a very intriguing homework assignment. He gave us various topics about the future with associated links. The links for these topics are extremely outdated. From these links, we are supposed to find up to date information. We also had the choice of finding our own material on other interesting topics of the future as well.
I knew one very special website could help me in my endeavours. This website harbored hundreds of lectures given from renown artists, philosophers, scientists, engineers, and even our own Bill Clinton. These lectures are given every so often at TED conferences held mostly in Monterrey California. This website is called TED.COM. TED stands for technology, entertainment, and design. I have frequented this website many times, and I have never ceased to be amazed. I have spent many countless hours viewing these lectures. This has given me incite into what the real world literally is and where it is actually going. Thus, when I heard about this assignment I knew I could get tons of information from this website.
I started to read the various topics. First and foremost transhumanism stuck out to me right away. I had previously watched a video on TED.COM that was about this exact subject. A brilliant scientist named Juan Enriquez hypothesized that humans would evolve into a new species. A species that was heavily integrated with machines. He called this new species homo evolutis. These species would be better then modern day man to adapt to their environment. For example, with the improvement of hearing aid technology, humans will probably be able to hear better then we can now. The link for this lecture is: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/juan_enriquez_shares_mindboggling_new_science.html
I was also intrigued with a video I saw on TED.COM that elaborated on the intelligence of crows. This video was very profound. I had never thought crows were special (let alone intelligent). The lecturer, Joshua Klein had a huge interest in this overly abundant bird. He showed that crows adapt to their environment better then many other species through an application he called a "crow vending machine". He also stated that crows were cracking nuts by dropping them on streets so that cars could run over the nuts. They would then eat the material inside the nut. They adapted this process because their beaks were not strong enough to crack the nuts. Also, crows were learning from each other. This phenomena spread and crows have been witnessed performing this act in various locations. You might wonder how this has anything to do with the future, but at the end of this lecture Klein suggests that we can one day have a symbiotic relationship with this species. For example, people could train crows to pick up trash. The link for this lecture is: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html.
For my final topic, I picked the creation of synthetic life. Craig Venter played a pivotal role in the human genome project. He gave a speech at TED about being on the verge of creating synthetic life. He explained that DNA could be implanted into " blank cells". These cell would synthesize into what ever the DNA's instructions were. One viewer asked Dr. Venter if this synthetic life has any harmful applications, for example creating a "super bug" they could kill all mankind. Craig Venter did acknowledge this possibility, but explained that there were copious amounts of benefits from creating synthetic life. The link for this site is called:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/craig_venter_is_on_the_verge_of_creating_synthetic_life.html
I was also intrigued with a video I saw on TED.COM that elaborated on the intelligence of crows. This video was very profound. I had never thought crows were special (let alone intelligent). The lecturer, Joshua Klein had a huge interest in this overly abundant bird. He showed that crows adapt to their environment better then many other species through an application he called a "crow vending machine". He also stated that crows were cracking nuts by dropping them on streets so that cars could run over the nuts. They would then eat the material inside the nut. They adapted this process because their beaks were not strong enough to crack the nuts. Also, crows were learning from each other. This phenomena spread and crows have been witnessed performing this act in various locations. You might wonder how this has anything to do with the future, but at the end of this lecture Klein suggests that we can one day have a symbiotic relationship with this species. For example, people could train crows to pick up trash. The link for this lecture is: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html.
For my final topic, I picked the creation of synthetic life. Craig Venter played a pivotal role in the human genome project. He gave a speech at TED about being on the verge of creating synthetic life. He explained that DNA could be implanted into " blank cells". These cell would synthesize into what ever the DNA's instructions were. One viewer asked Dr. Venter if this synthetic life has any harmful applications, for example creating a "super bug" they could kill all mankind. Craig Venter did acknowledge this possibility, but explained that there were copious amounts of benefits from creating synthetic life. The link for this site is called:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/craig_venter_is_on_the_verge_of_creating_synthetic_life.html
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