This week on TED.com, Jared Diamond tells the story of collapsing societies, while Rives tells us a short, bittersweet story in smileys. In a TEDTalks classic, blog godmother Mena Trott talks about her founding role in the social media revolution. Newton Aduaka shows clips from his film Ezra, about a child soldier, and the Inventables guys show off some amazing new stuff (imagine a mag-lev waterslide ...).
Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond (the author of Guns, Germs and Steel) talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it. Watch this talk >>
Rives -- star of the new Bravo special "Ironic Iconic America" -- tells a typographical fairy tale that's short and bittersweet. (And it might inspire you to get creative with your own email emoticons ... :) Watch this talk >>
The founding mother of the social media revolution, Movable Type's Mena Trott, talks about the early days of blogging, when she realized that giving regular people the power to share our lives online is the key to building a friendlier, more connected world. Watch this talk >>
Filmmaker Newton Aduaka shows clips from his powerful, lyrical feature film "Ezra," about a child soldier in Sierra Leone. It's a story of Africa that has a universal meaning as a story of lost childhood. Watch this talk >>
The Inventables guys, Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, demo some amazing new materials and how we might use them. Look for squishy magnets, odor-detecting ink, "dry" liquid and a very surprising 10-foot pole. Watch this talk >>
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Some great discussion on Jared Diamond's talk "Why societies collapse":
Nancy Kiang starts with an unfortunately apt quote:
"When the short-term interests of the elites conflict with the long-term interests of society, and the elites insulate themselves from the consequences of failure."
Wow, he said that in 2003 and already predicted today's financial collapse!
Leonard Adams adds:
Very similar in content to theories about the rise and fall of corporations, as their landmarks as corporate offices etc. get built as a testimony shortly before their demise, or in the case of the Pentagon, are finished after the original intent and purpose.
Khaled Alsayyed writes:
Very interesting talk. Except the asteroid worries me a little more than Jared expresses. It seems life is of so much value, so rare to exist, that we try our best to sustain it. I wonder how we would act when we find life elsewhere. Provided humans exist to see that day.
And we're still discussing Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow:
Jerry Kevorkian writes:
This is excellent. It's a zone that I've wondered into many times but never been able to clearly put to words. A very nice representation of a place we all want to be and miss once it is gone.
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Lennart Green: Card magic >> Rumpled and avuncular, Lennart Green performs a set of card tricks you must see to (dis)believe.
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