TED 2005

The annual TED conference took place February 23-26, 2005 in Monterey, California. Despite the fact that the word “Technology” figures prominently in the TED acronym (i.e. ‘Technology-Entertainment-Design’), there was not much to report on with respect to technology and/or gadgets. The closest that the conference came to anything gadget-y was speaker Robert E. Fischell. Although he did not unveil anything new at TED 2005, he is well known for past work on things like pacemakers, insulin pumps and satellite attitude detection systems … some of which could qualify as gadgets. Eminent speakers included James D. Watson, he of DNA fame, as well as string theorist Brian Greene, who is also the author of “The Elegant Universe”. Ray Kurzweil unveiled his new book, entitled “The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology”. The book predicts a point in the near future when virtual reality becomes more important than actual reality, and articial intelligence surpasses the human brain. Kurzweil is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a winner of the Lemelson-MIT Prize and recipient of the National Medal of Technology. Also speaking was Elon Musk, a co-founder of PayPal, and now of SpaceX. SpaceX is working on a number of cheap rockets, but has higher ambitions, such as development of :

• Space Elevator - a long cable along which astronauts winch themselves into space.
• Astrotels – a series of tourist “motels” in the Earth-Mars corridor.
• Permanent Mars Colonies. Robots would precede humans and land on Mars to generate fuel, oxygen and supplies. An irreverent view of an American colony on Mars is depicted below …

All-in-all, an impressive assemblage of intellectual overcapacity. The San Francisco Chronicle provides a good summary of the 50 speakers and the timbre of the enclave at the following link: Meeting of minds in Monterey. A modest Gadgetmaniac proposal : as noted above, this event is the called the TED conference … even though there was very little Technology or Design in evidence this year. Out of consideration for truth-in-advertising, perhaps TED should re-acronymize themselves to MAE – “Mostly Art & Entertainment” … to reflect the preponderance of artsy types, both as speakers and in the audience . TED home page. Robert E. Fischell. James D. Watson. Brian Greene. SpaceX.

Related posts:

1. TED Highlights
2. TED2007 Conference
3. TEDTalks – now on Video
4. TED2008
5. Scientists say: Go Directly to Mars…Skip the Moon