saturdays with ted: jonathan haidt and ursus wehrli

I have recently begun reading Jonathan Haidt's The Happy Hypothesis -- which I am finding to be quite engaging -- and I went online to discover this website YourMorals.org. After registering my name, I began to take a few psychology surveys, the first of which happened to relate to Haidt's Ted talk on conservative and liberal morals. (According to the study, liberals tend to value justice and have a higher openness to experience, whereas conservative value loyalty.) Here, Haidt opens with the following anecdote:

Suppose that two American friends are traveling together in Italy, and when they come face to face with Michelangelo's David, they both freeze dead in their tracks. The first guy -- let's call him Adam -- is transfixed by the beauty of the human form. The second guy -- we'll call him Bill -- is transfixed by embarrassment at staring at the thing in the middle. My question is, which of these men voted for George Bush and which voted for Al Gore?

Interestingly, Haidt makes the connection that most Tedsters are liberal, and this becomes a problem because all of these individual thinkers actually become a team working towards the same goal. We need to have diversity. And in speaking to this liberal audience, he consciously points out that people who think that the half of America who voted for Bush are either dumb or super religious are blinded by the trappings of their own close-mindedness. In an engaging lecture, he goes on to discuss the 'first draft' of the moral mind, the five moral foundations of psychology (harm/care, fairness/reciprocity, ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity), and how these five foundations work.


And now for some humor... Ursus Wehrli "shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art -- by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size." As someone who isn't the biggest fan of modern art, I find Wehrli to be very funny (on Jasper Jones: "He was practicing with his ruler.") and the images he uses are fantastic. His re-constructed works are actually aesthetically pleasing, mostly because -- as a person who values logic and reason -- I appreciate structure and order.

Comedian and cabaret artist Ursus Wehrli is the author of Tidying Up Art, a visionary manifesto that yearns toward a more rational, more organized and cleaner form of modern art. In deconstructing the work of Paul Klee, Jaspen Johns and other masters into its component parts, organized by color and size, Wehrli posits a more perfect art world.

After the talk, Wehrli notes that he will autograph his book for anyone "using the name of any artist." Ha, what wit. And if you don't want to stick around for the whole 15 minutes (though it goes by quickly, trust me), skip ahead to the 12:28 mark, where Wehrli reorganizes a Jackson Pollack work.

saturdays with ted: david griffin and patricia burchat

David Griffin is the photo director for National Geographic (hence why he starts off with one of Frank McCurry's famous photographs), and he uses some really fantastic photos to show how we use images to tell and share stories. I particularly liked his comparison of the pigmy picture to Degas' ballerinas. Griffin points out that we remember moments via a flashbulb memory, where our minds create still images in order for our brains to connect a story. I love his section of amateur photographs; images tell a story. One of my favorite photographs is the baboons at a watering hole because it looks like a family vacation. By the way, if you have a soft spot for penguins, you might want to skip the leopard seals at the end... although the story behind one particularly curious leopard seal is really kind of cute. I advise everyone to check out his breathtaking blog, Editor's Pick. (February 2008, 14:59)

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Patricia Burchat studies the structure and distribution of dark matter (26% of the universe!) and dark energy (70% of the universe!). These mysterious ingredients can't be measured in conventional ways, yet form a quarter of the mass of our universe. It's amazing how much we don't know... even galaxy clusters and an ever-expanding universe blow my mind. By the way, the expansion of space is speeding up, and no one can explain why. Something new to worry about. The Einstein ring is particularly noteworthy, the notion that there is a cone of possible galaxies due to light deflecting off of dark matter. Because Burchat is so enthusiastic about her topic (she seems to be constantly catching her breath), it's easy to be seduced by this science. (February 2008, 16:09)

saturdays with ted: dean ornish and chris jordan

Sadly, I will not be posting a Saturdays with Ted post every Saturday anymore. I will still post talks that I find interesting, but this will not be a regular Saturday occurrence anymore. If you wish to venture into Ted territory on your own (and I strongly recommend that you do), please visit the Ted.com website.


From Ted.com:

Dean Ornish shares new research that shows how adopting healthy lifestyle habits can affect a person at a genetic level. For instance, he says, when you live healthier, eat better, exercise, and love more, your brain cells actually increase.

You will have two natural observations while watching this: one, that a healthy lifestyle is obviously going to have more benefits than a non-healthy lifestyle, and two, you can't really change your genes, despite what Ornish says. You could also very well agree that your genes are not your fate (as explored in Gattaca). Nevertheless, his research is interesting (half of guys who smoke are impotent), and you will note that marijuana is in the "makes brain bigger" category. Not surprisingly, alcohol decreases brain cells... It's a lot of knowledge in just three minutes. (March 2008, 3:10)


From Ted.com:

Photographer Chris Jordan trains his eye on American consumption. His 2003-05 series "Intolerable Beauty" examines the hypnotic allure of the sheer amount of stuff we make and consume every day: cliffs of baled scrap, small cities of shipping containers, endless grids of mass-produced goods. [...] His latest series of photographs, "Running the Numbers," gives dramatic life to statistics of US consumption. Often-heard factoids like "We use 2 million plastic bottles every 5 minutes" become a chilling sea of plastic that stretches beyond our horizon.

This talk will seriously make you think twice about paper cups, prison inmates, and breast implants. This series is along the same vein as that movie Paper Clips, where children collect 6 million paper clips to get an understanding of the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust, but Jordan's photographs are more aesthetically relevant to their topics. The breast implant photograph, for instance, is comprised of naked Barbie dolls arranged in a way that, when panned outwards, reveal the shadows and curvature of nipples and breasts. Very interesting series. (February 2008, 11:14)

saturdays with ted: helen fisher and keith barry

Helen Fisher, author of Anatomy of Love and Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love, is an anthropologist who studies gender differences and the evolution of human emotions. In the talk above, she investigates romantic love -- its evolution, its biochemical foundations, and its importance to human society -- and how it informs and transforms the way we understand ourselves. From Ted.com:

"Fisher describes love as a universal human drive (stronger than the sex drive; stronger than thirst or hunger; stronger perhaps than the will to live), and her many areas of inquiry shed light on timeless human mysteries, like why we choose one partner over another. Almost unique among scientists, Fisher explores the science of love without losing a sense of romance: Her work frequently invokes poetry, literature and art -- along with scientific findings -- helping us appreciate our love affair with love itself."

The first section of her talk looks at the brain in love (why people would die for love), and then she continues to discuss suffering and elation in romantic love, our addiction to love, and how we choose who we love. Personally, I really enjoyed this talk because she intertwines myths and poems into her discussion, and she makes Walt Whitman seem crazy for wanting to die for love. It is strange that in every culture people would die for love, especially since people fall out of love so easily. I would've died for you last week when I loved you, but not this week because you broke up with me. Umm... (February 2008, 15:56)


Keith Barry does brain magic, which includes driving a car at full speed blindfolded, hypnosis/mind control and mindreading. The most interesting "brain magic" for me involve a trick with a glass Coke bottle and a game of "where's the spike beneath the paper cups?" He's quite charismatic, and although some of his tricks aren't exactly awe-inspiring, they are interesting. I would not trust someone who crushes my hand on cups that potentially have a spike in them. Why his volunteer trusted him is the most intriguing part... (February 2004, 19:49)

saturdays with ted: arthur benjamin and dan gilbert

Arthur Benjamin is a mathemagician, combining his loves of math and magic. He performs high-speed calculations -- like knowing what day you were born (which is a trick with an equation, but it's impressive nonetheless) and multiplying multi-digit numbers -- and his geek-inspired jokes are quite adorable. He shares the secrets of his mental calculations in a book he co-authored with Michael Shermer called Secrets of Mental Math. (December 2007, 15:15)


Dan Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist who stumbled upon his life's purpose when he had to sign up for a psychology class when a creative writing class was full. Since then, he has continued his research on happiness at his Hedonic Psychology Laboratory. In this talk, Gilbert talks about synthetic happiness, how we misjude what actually makes us happy. He uses examples from a newspaper to support this, like a politician who lost everything and said "it was for the best." Gilbert also analyzes how freedom of choice actually traps us into false happiness. We are constantly finding ways to be happy -- rather, to be content -- with what we don't like, and that this synthetic happiness works to our disadvantage. Unlike some people I know, this talk is incredibly interesting and often humorous. Gilbert is an engaging speaker, and his research is accessible. His photography class experiment really makes the 21-minute talk worth it. (February 2004, 21:28)

saturdays with ted: j.j. abrams and rives

J.J. Abrams, best known as the creator of Felicity, Alias, and Lost, discusses "mystery boxes," a concept that has fueled his innovative creativity throughout his career. Although Abrams seems a bit out of place at Ted, once he starts talking about magic and his belief in the possibilities of imagination, he reminds you why dreams are just as important as science. His talk is quite infectious, mostly because he talks like an excited ten-year-old fanboy, and he reveals a shocking secret about a scene from Mission Impossibe III (which involves sensory deception), and he talks about my favorite scene from Jaws (which, by the way, does not involve sharks). He discusses his art, his love for his line of work, and most importantly, the significance of human imagination. "A blank page is like a mystery box." Indeed, Mr. Abrams, indeed. (January 2008, 18:02)




Rives, who interestingly writes children's pop-up books, is a master storyteller, creating lyrical poetry with words. In the first video, he talks about strange occurrences at 4am. It's quite funny, but only because ridiculous conspiracy theories (and aren't they all ridiculous?) amuse me. (July 2007, 9:16) The second video is closer to his Def Jam Poetry (watch Dirty Talk or Kite), and he performs a truly wonderful poem called "If I Controlled the Internet." He has some pretty good ideas, and his delivery reminds me of George Carlin's "Modern Man" sketch (possibly the most brilliant execution of language), and I wouldn't mind if Rives had control of the internet for a few days. (December 2006, 4:15)

saturdays with ted: stephen petranek, blaise aguera y arcas, and a.j. jacobs

Blaise Aguera y Arcas takes you through a mind-blowing photosynthesis demo. Can you imagine having Dickens's entire Bleak House as a single text? What about overlapping images from Google that recreate Notre Dame as a 3D model? This is virtual reality; you can see Paris without ever having been there. He is challenging "the limits of screen real estate" and takes you on a microscopic pixelated journey through the future of computer imagery. You can check out the Photosynth demo here. (March 2007, 7:42)


From Ted.com:

Stephen Petranek was the editor-in-chief of Discover magazine when he became fascinated by the dangers that face the human race. He has become an eloquent advocate for making policy decisions based on an unflinching look at our worst fears. Although his apocalyptic predictions may seem dire and inevitable, he argues precisely the opposite, and presents plausible goals that will defuse most of these catastrophes. Just in case that isn't enough, he makes the case for humankind adopting a forward-looking policy of space exploration and colonization to get us out of here alive. For the first time in history, he argues, humans can control many of the threats to survival both on and off the planet.

Stephen Petranek looks at ten ways the world could end: depression, aliens (oh, I wish), eco-collapse, particle accelerator mishap (creating little black holes and then expecting them to evaporate, what?), biotech mishap, pole reversal, solar flare, epidemic, rogue black hole (10 million dead stars in the Milky Way?!?), and asteroids. (My vote hopes for a black hole. Wouldn't that be interesting?) If you don't want to watch all 29 minutes, you can skip to labeled sections of the talk. But I do recommend watching the whole thing because his candid look at our world's inevitable demise is often humorous. (February 2002, 29:54)


A.J. Jacobs combines journalism and performance art. He takes on humanist experiments, like being entirely honest for a month or reading the entire encyclopedia (which he catalogued in his book The Know-It All, offering snippets and insights into the words he learned). His latest experiment is living biblically, which involves living by 700+ laws of the Bible, from the mundane and obvious ("I can go a year without killing someone") to the quotidian vices (like gossiping or lying). He even took the law "be fruitful and multiple" law seriously by impregnating his wife, who later gave birth to twins. He came to one conclusion, among others, that suggests that if one changes their behavior, they can change their cognitive functions. If you act like a better person, you will become a better person. (It's the Hamlet dilemma -- is man defined by his thoughts or his actions? More and more evidence seems to point towards actions...) And he's starting a movement of Reverent Agnosticism. How interesting. You can read about some of the rules here. (December 2005, 17:40)

saturdays with ted: brian greene and barry schwartz

Recently, I have become obsessed with the Ted Conference and its blog. The website and blog both have videos of the talks presented at the conferences (even dating back a few years), and it's so wonderful that these talks are available to the public in such an accessible format. If I had the $6,000 required for one year's membership, I would pay it in a heartbeat. But, for now, I'll settle for these engaging talks online. I've decided to share a few videos that I find particularly interesting in a series of posts I call "Saturdays with Ted." Hopefully this will be more optimistic and educational than those Tuesdays with Morrie...


Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, discusses String Theory, the idea that "miniscule strands of vibrating strings of energy in 11 dimensions create every particule and force in the universe." It is the first theory of everything, mathematically describing the now-cohesive laws of natural forces and matter (like quarks and leptons). On a basic and fundamental level, Greene explains the theory and the possibility of 11 dimensions (10 in space, 1 in time) and how the supercollider at CERN may be a way of testing this hypothesis. (February 2005, 19:05)


Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, explains why more is really less. He argues that our lives need a metamorphical fishbowl because, without it, the so-called freedom is paralysing. For the most part, I agree with Schwartz. I think people forget that, at any given moment, we really only have two choices: to either do something or not do it. We just have a lot of things to either do or not do, and that is where choice because difficult. But Western tradition likes to give us freedom of choice, and with so many choices, we often don't make a choice or are unhappy with that choice because we think that there is something better out there -- which is referred to as a "missed opportunity." Very interesting talk and one that could greatly benefit everyone. (July 2005, 19:48)