Regina Saphier TED Long Beach 2012 Day 1

Long Beach, CA Time is in the Pacific Time Zone in the United States of America (USA).

US Pacific Standard Time (PST) is 8 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT-8).

For Budapest, Hungary local time, add 9 hours to each time in the program.

…

Here we are again, this is major TED event #6 that I am live blogging online. I must say, every time the first stream of a major TED conference starts, I feel something special… it is the feeling of gratitude that I have the opportunity to be part of this amazing event live. This year I decided to change my habit of speaker by speaker notes and I am going to start writing session summaries, because you can find an amazing speaker by speaker key idea stream on twitter in a micro blog form directly happening during the major TED events by TEDNews.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

11:00 – 12:45

Session 1: The Observatory
Hosted by Chris Anderson

Brian Greene, Physicist
Sarah Parcak, Space archaeologist, TED Fellow
Paul Gilding, Writer
Peter Diamandis, Futurist
Susan Cain, Author, Quiet revolutionary

Brian explained how humanity went from the idea of the universe to the idea of a multiverse, how we first assumed that the expansion was slowing, and now we know that the expansion is speeding up… that the Big Bang might have produced several universes instead of only one. And he pointed out that a very long time from now scientists would look into a much darker and more static space and would draw very different conclusions, so we might just as well be doing the same, as some of the information is already gone. And from space time we go to space archeology: Sarah talked about the fact that she was able to show from space that 99% of Egypt’s archaeological sites remain to be uncovered. Paul told us to be afraid and act before the big crisis hits, because the Earth is full, while Peter gave us an optimistic talk about what is possible today with technology, that solar is now more available and so water would also be more available, and that the future depends on the DIY innovators, NOT governments. Susan is an introvert, she wrote a book about the importance of introverts in our societies and she introduced us to the term: endovert (people between introverts and extroverts…)

2:15 – 4:00

Session 2: The Parlor
Hosted by June Cohen

Quixotic, Performance ensemble
Andrew Stanton, Filmmaker
Reuben Margolin, Kinetic sculptor
Billy Collins, Poet
Michael Tilson Thomas, Musician, Conductor

This session is a bit harder to describe, because we witnessed some stunning performances… dance with light by Quixotic… emotional and visual storytelling by Andrew… hypnotic and even dancing sculptures by Reuben… funny poems by Billy

… and some music history by Michael.

Budapest by Billy Collins

5:00 – 6:45

Session 3: The Dinner Party
Hosted by Chris Anderson

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein + Steven Pinker, Philosopher, Novelist & Linguist, Psychologist
Jonathan Haidt, Social psychologist
Atul Gawande, Surgeon and journalist
Julie Burstein, Writer and radio producer

I am sorry to say, but the “dinner table” experiment is turning this session into something rather artificial… Rebecca and Steven are not actors, so the fluidity of their over rehearsed and rigid talk is missing and we are unable to reach flow… I am unable to pay attention to their content. You do not talk like this at a dinner table… talking away from the table, managing a memorized dialog with your spouse… I hope not… such smart people looking so silly… Sir Ken Robinson and Therese (Lady) Robinson would be much better at such TED stage performance.

After Rebecca and Steven finish the rigid part of the session, the “real” dinner party starts (no food for the body, only for the mind)… a bit better to watch, but there is not enough space and time for the discussions to unfold… The experience remains awkward.

More speakers appear while guests sit at the table: Julie spoke about creativity in all things we do… Atul spoke about the importance of such simple things as checklists in health care; in one of his projects he introduced a simple checklist in several hospitals around the world and while complications went down by 35%, death rates decreased by 47%! That is amazing! He says we need pit crews of medical professionals. The best care is often the least expensive, while some medical treatments are understandably very costly. When Atul sits down at the dinner table, Sir Ken Robinson tells him about his funny experience at a pathology conference: He was offered a free autopsy. You know, people give you what they can… Jonathan talks about the tendency that most people feel spiritual. He says that the self melting away is a key to our human evolution. He say that you can also feel sacred alone, but it is more meaningful in a group. I disagree. Leaders often need to first experience the melting self alone to be able to become spiritual leaders. It helps to be part of effectively cooperative groups if you want to reach higher social goals. We are “homo duplex” as Emil Durkheim called humans.