The Greatest Show on Earth
Awesome lecture by Richard Dawkins.
Awesome lecture by Richard Dawkins.
Jeremy Rifkin on the evolution of human empathy. Awesome video. I guarantee you'll love it!
This FORA.tv video presents us with the latest from Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Her latest book, Nomad - From Islam to America, promises to be yet another bestseller.
A former member of the Dutch parliament and longtime human rights advocate, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has lived in constant threat for her outspoken beliefs and collaboration with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was murdered by a radical Islamist).Her journey continues as she discusses starting her new life in America, reconciling with her Islamic past, and learning to adapt to Western values.
Neuroscientist and fiction writer David Eagleman presents "Six Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilization."Civilizations always think they're immortal, Eagleman says, but they nearly always perish, leaving "nothing but ruins and scattered genetics." It takes luck and new technology to survive. We may be particularly lucky to have Internet technology to help manage the six requirements of a durable civilization:1. "Try not to cough on one another." More humans have died from epidemics than from all famines and wars. Disease precipitated the fall of Greece, Rome, and the civilizations of the Americas. People used to bunch up around the infected, which pushed local disease into universal plague. Now we can head that off with Net telepresence, telemedicine, and medical alert networks. All businesses should develop a work-from-home capability for their workforce.2. "Don't lose things." As proved by the destruction of the Alexandria Library and of the literature of Mayans and Minoans, "knowledge is hard won but easily lost." Plumbing disappeared for a thousand years when Rome fell. Inoculation was invented in China and India 700 years before Europeans rediscovered it. These days Michelangelo's David has been safely digitized in detail. Eagleman has direct access to all the literature he needs via PubMed, JSTOR, and Google Books. "Distribute, don't reinvent."3. "Tell each other faster." Don't let natural disasters cascade. The Minoans perished for lack of the kind of tsunami alert system we now have. Countless Haitians in the recent earthquake were saved by Ushahidi.com, which aggregated cellphone field reports in real time.4. "Mitigate tyranny." The USSR's collapse was made inevitable by state-controlled media and state-mandated mistakes such as Lysenkoism, which forced a wrong theory of wheat farming on 13 time zones, and starved millions. Now crowd-sourced cellphone users can sleuth out vote tampering. We should reward companies that stand up against censorship, as Google has done in China.5. "Get more brains involved in solving problems." Undertapping human capital endangers the future. Open courseware from colleges is making higher education universally accessible. Crowd-sourced problem solving is being advanced by sites such as PatientsLikeMe, Foldit (protein folding), and Cstart (moon exploration). Perhaps the next step is "society sourcing."6. "Try not to run out of energy." When energy expenditure outweighs energy return, collapse ensues. Email saves trees and trucking. Online shopping is a net energy gain, with UPS optimizing delivery routes and never turning left. We need to expand the ability to hold meetings and conferences online.But if the Net is so crucial, what happens if the Net goes down? It may have to go down a few times before we learn how to defend it properly, before we catch on that civilization depends on it for survival.
Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, is the person most often called "the father of the Internet." His contributions have been recognized repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.The Churchill Club catches up with Cerf to hear his take on what new opportunities and services today's ever-faster Internet technologies will spawn and what may stand in their way. Cerf is interviewed by Jessica Vascellaro, tech reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
World leaders and CEOs at the Davos 2010 World Economic Forum participate in a panel called Rethinking how to feed the world. The panel discusses the challenges facing global food production and possible solutions that will increase yield and support agricultural producers worldwide.
The panel is moderated by Prannoy Roy, Chairman, New Delhi Television (NDTV), India, and panelists included: Jakaya M. Kikwete, William H. Gates III, Ellen Kullman, Nguyen Tan Dung, Patricia A. Woertz, Prannoy Roy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweal.
Okay, second FORA.tv video. And the second post in a row with a question for a title. Also, the second very interesting one.
Jacob Needleman talks about his latest book, What Is God?. In this deeply personal work, religious scholar and philosopher Needleman cuts a clear path through today’s debates over the existence of God, illuminating an entirely new way of approaching the question of how to understand a higher power.
Needleman is the author of Money and the Meaning of Life.
