Showing posts with label TED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TED. Show all posts
Using Idle Time For Good
The first part of this TED talk surprised me.
It's amazing to think that some of the reCaptchas I have filled in have helped digitize books.
To know that information is not only captured from print media and stored for future reference in a different format is great, but the fact that everyday people are participating in that effort unknowingly is amazing.
Oh, and someday I hope to learn Spanish while translating the web.
Where Do Creative Ideas Come From?
Elizabeth Gilbert at TED: Reassigning Creativity's Origins
My favorite portions:
Creativity is Imitation. Indeed.
(HT: Jon Acuff)
My favorite portions:
(8:00 through 11:00) - "And then the Renaissance came and we had this big idea, and the big idea was ‘let’s put the individual human being at the center of the universe’, above all gods and mysteries, and there’s no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine. And it’s the beginning of rational humanism, and people started to believe that creativity came completely from the self of the individual.”...I haven't read a thing she has written, but it sounds like this lady is wrestling with the idea that God is the source of all creativity. Perhaps she has learned this, or is learning this, and is using this platform to begin a conversation with fellow creatives about the source of her creativity.
And I got to tell you, I think that was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person, to believe that he or she is the vessel, the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche. It’s like asking someone to swallow the sun. It just completely warps and distorts egos and it creates all these unmanageable expectations about performance...
And if this is true, and I think that it is true, then the question becomes ‘What now?’.
…
Maybe go back to some more ancient understanding about the relationship between humans and the creative mystery... But the question that I kind of want to pose is, you know, ‘Why not?’. Why not think about it this way? Because it makes as much sense as anything else I have ever heard in terms of explaining the utter maddening capriciousness of the creative process.
(12:00) - You know, even I have had work or ideas come through me from a source that I honestly cannot identify. And what is that thing?
(17:00) – And maybe nobody will ever chant God’s name again as he spins, and what is he then to do with the rest of his life? This is hard. This is one of the most painful reconciliations to make in a creative life. But maybe it doesn’t have to be quite so full of anguish. If you never happened to believe, in the first place, that the most extraordinary aspects of your being came from you, but maybe if you just believed that they were on loan to you, from some unimaginable source for some exquisite portion of your life to be passed along when you’re finished, with somebody else. And you know, if we start to think about it this way, it starts to change everything.
Creativity is Imitation. Indeed.
(HT: Jon Acuff)
Does Universal Morality Exist?
Sam Harris at the TED conference: Science Can Answer Moral Questions
I found this talk quite interesting. I had literally no idea who Sam Harris is while watching this video, but I have since learned that he is an avowed atheist who has written some fairly popular books critical of Christian faith. While I would fully disagree with his false opinion that there is no God, I do agree with quite a bit of what he said in this talk.
It sounded to me a lot like this scientist/philosopher was imploring the educated people in the room to finally admit that there is such a thing as absolute morality, which in my mind is a reflection of the fact that there is absolute truth. Perhaps in his endeavors to convince fellow scientists to begin expressing their beliefs in firm statements of truth, Mr. Harris will be granted the understanding that these universal moral truths have an Author who created the universe in which they exist.
This article nicely captured these points from the talk:
I found this talk quite interesting. I had literally no idea who Sam Harris is while watching this video, but I have since learned that he is an avowed atheist who has written some fairly popular books critical of Christian faith. While I would fully disagree with his false opinion that there is no God, I do agree with quite a bit of what he said in this talk.
It sounded to me a lot like this scientist/philosopher was imploring the educated people in the room to finally admit that there is such a thing as absolute morality, which in my mind is a reflection of the fact that there is absolute truth. Perhaps in his endeavors to convince fellow scientists to begin expressing their beliefs in firm statements of truth, Mr. Harris will be granted the understanding that these universal moral truths have an Author who created the universe in which they exist.
This article nicely captured these points from the talk:
We should not feel constrained to assert what we think is an objective truth — that such behavior is wrong — for fear that it will be taken as subjective meddling or demagoguery, Harris argued. There is a moral imperative not to hold one’s tongue but rather to speak out.(HT: Abraham Piper)
...
We can no longer respect and tolerate vast differences of opinion of what constitutes basic humanity any more than we can take seriously different opinions about how disease spreads or what it takes to make buildings and airplanes safe, Harris insisted.
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