Originally posted December 7, 2010
The thighmaster: neither a thigh, nor master. Discuss.
December 07, 2010
It’s like the SNL skit, Coffee Talk…
Many of us want a forum. Many of us wish that we could gather together a group of intellectuals to discuss topics of interest over a good meal or a glass of wine. We’d like to wrap up our weeks with a conversation about current events, pertinent history or our dreams for the future. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in a few such groups, a sort of “book club” for independent thought. My first experience with this was on the back porch of an old friend’s house, where a few of us gathered regularly to discuss art and philosophy. My second such experience was during my first few years at Caltech when a group of students with quite diverse interests shared a house and hosted a “Sunday Salon”. As the event grew, we decided on weekly themes, planned menus and spent our Sunday evenings talking, cooking and scheming. Both were truly inspirational activities and I think that, in some ways, I’ve been striving for similar experiences ever since.
Dorothy Parker: famous wit and salon participant.
Now I turn to the internet to find my muse and to reach out into the community of “thinkers”.
So let’s talk about TED.
As many of you know, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED began in 1984 as a nonprofit “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading” and has since broadened its scope to include 2 annual conferences in California, a TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, and multiple sites broadcasting the best performances/TEDTalks online for free. The idea is simple: bring together the world’s most passionate thinkers and inspired doers and give them 18 minutes to explain themselves in the most interesting ways possible.
These conferences have captivated the attention of millions of viewers and spawned programs such as the TED Open Translation Project to bring their content to non-English speaking countries, the TED Fellows to support world-changing innovators, and the annual $100,000 TED Prize to enable “One Wish to Change the World”.
Why bring up the TEDtalks now? Well, there are 3 main reasons:
1) The first ever TEDWomen conference starts today, December 7th, 2010 in Washington DC and asks the question, “How are women and girls reshaping the future?” This forum invites both men and women to explore “how women think and work, communicate and collaborate, learn and lead”.
2) An offshoot of the TEDtalks is the independent TEDx program and Caltech will be hosting one on January 14, 2011 focusing on Feynman’s Vision: The Next 50 Years”. I recently applied by submitting a brief essay and was accepted to attend the talks (as well as volunteering for the event itself), so look for future posts on the content of this exciting forum!!!
3) In the spirit of forums, we at ScienceGeist are teaming up with a few other science-minded blogs to delve into the topic of current and future jobs in Chemistry. Multi-site articles will be posted, so check back soon for an interesting discussion!
Much like the TED forum, most successful blogs have a solid readership that contribute in the form of comments, questions, debates and, at times, their own posts. This creates a community, a “cyber-salon” if you will, and we hope that you will join us!
Cheers
~gk