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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • I disliked the video on "...the present self wants to consumer." Then I carried on watching. Hmm...

  • Comment removed

  • lol i think this guy is oblivious to the central banking cartel and hyper inflation.

  • Go the f*ck back to kitchen woman chatting in the background! :@

  • 10:03 The Bankers will use it for Bonuses

  • The future self may never exist so give in to the present

  • Nice talk, but there's a different TED talk on almost the same subject.

    It's about the "experiencing self" vs the "remembering self" by Daniel Kahneman. And to be honest he explains it way better, without rambling on like this guy did.

    Just check: /watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg

  • @Ligermorph This was SUCH AN INTERESTING TED and I appreciate you to sharing it! At the same time I feel compelled to disagree with you because Goldstain's speech focus on a cognitive bias regarding PERCEPTION & DISCIPLINE where as Kahneman is focusing on a cognitive bias regarding EXPERIENCE & HAPPINESS. They are both different, great and well thought TedTalks that deserved every single minute of my attention!!! Thanks for sharing :)

  • @arhabersham You're quite right, those talks are different. I merely meant they're about "almost the same subject", because they both talk about ways to handle problems and shape your 'future self'. And Kahneman was a bit more to the point.

    But they're both great talks and glad you liked it, we can never have too much of a good thing ;-)

  • I wanna try that distribution builder thing, anyone know where I can find it?

  • The programs were completely useless ... I wanted to hear more about the essentials of methods to cope with the future self , not to play with useless programs ... it is a good presentation if we exclude the end

  • Totally disagree! The person you look like in the future doesnt only rely on how you treat your self but also related to the development of the whole human being. For example, I dont think Bill Gates saved a lot when he was young.

  • It got a little boring and low energy after the first half, but overall it was very enlightening. Thumbs up!

  • Um, beginning story doesn't work, i'm leaving now.

  • liked the first half D:

  • Great stuff!

  • Nicolas Cage double...

  • rough crowd.

  • TED - "Manure Is Worth Spreading, This Shit Is Not"

  • Great story teller. Very insightful and interesting presentation.

  • Who is that woman talking in the background for the first few minutes? Shut the fuck up!

  • The savings rate is declining because people do not make enough money to afford to save money. And if they stopped spending the economy will hollow out from lack of demand. Not to mention that over time more and more people eventually hit a "Bernie Madoff" or "Savings & Loan Crisis" or whatever, people are afraid. CEOs talk about how they need predictability, but we have 300 million more regular people who have no predictability and no way to talk about it or fix it.

  • sure. I'll buy that.

  • @minusdotminus; yes. But we have at least a couple hundred years. In about 30-40 computers will be more powerful than our brains. But not replicated. That is... yeah. Not easy.

  • "I am the wall, Russ." - John Lennon

  • @JosephHuntington; not okay.

  • Steve jobs style

  • Ridiculous. I laughed so hard. It's ironic.

  • The Purpose of Life is to appear completely absurd to your friends, family and co-workers. And then to secretly attain brilliance on your own in the quiet hours you use very well. Thus, you make them feel better than you, and you know you're more competent than they. This is a breakthrough that elevates mankind. There is no other.

  • @JosephHuntington Very very wise words my friend; I'm diggin' that!

  • @JosephHuntington 1: Is purpose of life to feel happiness? 2: Is the feeling of superiority happiness? 3: Is the feeling of superiority really true if no one but your self can acknowledge it. 4: The method would not work if u are smart enough to figure out that other people might be using it as well.

  • @RonieIslam8; 1: Purpose is to find something worth your life. 2: The feeling of superiority gives most a primal feeling of accomplishment, even if it is only self realized. 3: Yes, it's a feeling. No validation is expected. 4: 2 and 3 answer 4 if answered from a personal level as opposed to my laboratory perspective.

  • @rampaginwalrus Who told you that finding something to live for is the purpose of life?(I think that is what you meant(poor english)).

  • @RonieIslam8; Philosophical thinking told me. It would be impossible to have everyone with the same goal in life. Everyone has completely different interests. Your goal in life should be to find your personal goal in life, and to pursue it. I was trying to be as vague as possible. The english is fine. You may not understand the way I write very well. I didn't meant purpose in life, just purpose. But I altered it so you'd understand. No offense.

  • @rampaginwalrus Look. You will never find out what the purpose of life is or if there even is one. You might figure out what what purpose would work best for a society to work or through a utilitaristic perspective but there is nothing saying which approach to follow. And secondly your English is fine but I did not want to misunderstand what you wrote with "find something worth your life", which is not that easy to understand due to the poor quality.

  • @RonieIslam8; There is no inherent meaning of life. We aren't special in the cosmic perspective . But many people feel the inherent need for meaning, so I advise people to strive to help people. It's kind of like trying to trick people to trick themselves into being good. They know it's a good idea. But it's not at all easy. So I have to make it sound all poetic and romantic. Which I can be good at.

  • @rampaginwalrus Sounds good ;)

  • @JosephHuntington; the purpose to life should be to be willing to risk anything to see someone, anyone, everyone even; smile. If at the very least. Overall, just make everyone, save yourself, happy. If everyone is trying to make everyone happy, no one could ever be distraught. Obviously this would never work. But it's nice to imagine.

  • @rampaginwalrus i like the idea and am sending you smiles and happiness

  • @JosephHuntington haha you might be crazy

  • was he sponsored by an Insurance company?

  • My future keeps interrupting my present. What a dick

  • What's the point of this....?

  • @leonidasx666 - To make Americans feel like they have a solution to the mess that they have created in US politics and finance. A game to make "you" look old and unhappy might make you save money (i.e., capital needed for investment). Too bad the US is already bankrupt, both financially and morally.

  • @MiranUT Agreed... and thanks, I was really confused with the purpose of this talk.

  • Channel of the future.. Failing to embrace any sort of HD video, and blasting out eardrums with horrendously loud introductions..

    Gotta love it. . .

  • @ChristopherJMyers88 Why would you need a talk in HD? But yeah, the into kinda sucks.

  • Tough crowd.

  • My mom tells everyone when she is about to quit cigarettes :) Effectively using social shame as her commitment device:) She practically smokes whenever she wants

  • That.audience.SUCKED

  • 15:30 haha, I did that to one of my friends one time.

  • snowflakes for the win!

  • My lecturer talked about Odysseus when we studied game theory :)

  • 16min of product placement!

  • i wish this guy would just get to the point, and then STAY on the point!

  • oh! the snow flakes react to my computer’s mouse... great talk by the way

  • so what was the conclusion about commitment devices and losing our self control ?

  • Interesting about the value of sacrificing short term satisfaction with long term benefits.

    It's a bit sad, though, that Daniel Goldstein conveys this by using money as a measure for the degree of happiness. I just don't think it's true that we will feel more content or satisfied or happy the more money we have. Especially not when we get older. We need less money when we are old than when we are young. When we are old we need to feel happy about having done good things.

  • ITS SNOWING!!!:DD

  • Great talk. Reminds me the issues of our local society.

  • Click on the snowflake for some snow :)

  • He isn't the guy who wrote the Power of Now, is he? ;-)

  • oh hey, snowflake slider

  • My present self is sexy and charming, my future self is a tiger. Rawr

  • I agree. The internet is the best possible cure for procrastination.

  • I'm watching YouTube instead of packing for Christmas weekend. I'm going to be late to work. I think my future self and I are enemies...

  • love the talk..

    My present self always tries to crack the commitment devices and it often succeeds :(

  • 00:15

  • @GoreTuzkPT it actually isn't that bad now

  • @GoreTuzkPT bit . ly/sNVnPe this will help you skip to 00:15

  • Fairly interesting talk BUT it didn't really give me anything to take home.

  • Very appropriate talk for right before New Years and making resolutions.

  • youtube is evil syren!!! unplug your cables now

  • Never mind all that, just tie me to the mast!!!

  • Allow nothing to stand between you and the world you live in? I think Buddha already covered that without any "self-denial" wordgames.

  • Let tomorrow take care of tomorrow, today has enough of it's own problems.

    (Doesn't mean that you shouldn't plan, but you need trust divine providence and yourself and not worry about it. )

    This person is appealing to your fears about the future.

  • How about entrepreneurship? Consumer bullshit. You have no faith in your abilities, than life is not worth living at all.

  • The people living in the houses to the left would be those victims of the share market crashes ( shares and derivatives )

  • The Wedding Ring, the most common commitement device.

  • the problem with saving money is the economy mixed with the consumer culture will never work unless you do have self control

  • if this was titled "planning for your retirement", I never would have looked. I hope my "future self" is not this boring!

  • HAL 4 Eva

  • This is very, very odd. A Jew talking about money and wealth. I wasn't expecting that.

  • @42fontenator do u have something against jews?

  • @dirtbikeboyz I knew that was coming......No, I have a problem with anyone with a captive audience talking about a money system as if it is perfect and everlasting, never once mentioning how de-humanizing and miserably corrupt it actually is.

  • @42fontenator well the jew thing was kinda unneeded and ya the way he talks about spending requires self control so idk wat he was getting at other than telling people that he gets paid to study bad spending. that is ironic lol

  • First is trans-humanism then comes post-humanism

  • eh

  • Just the title immediately reminded me of my close friend Harvey who's fond of saying, "I'm not going to worry about that. That's future Harvey's problem."

  • save money now, retire with more money......no shit ?

  • I believe people would still be biased when using the software program at the end, because while both faces will both show despair and happiness, depending where the slider is, people will more likely empathise with the face that looks most like their own, i.e. the younger one.

  • The first TEDtalk I disliked

  • He was way better than that applause granted him.

  • Assuming there won't be any notable treatments/cures for aging when I am old, screw my old self. When you lose your youth, you've got nothing. When you spend your youth saving money, you've got nothing but money. Invest in future generations? Sure. Invest in my aged self? Not a chance.

  • this makes no sense at all why would one save less to spend more? and losing the free life when work time is over.... if someone would do that they would be dumb Rtards. i guess because the vid exists some people actually need education

  • atheists so jealous of religion lol

  • Would the audience members talking, please send me your phone numbers. I'd like to call you and whisper in your ear while you're trying to listen to someone else. Thanks.

  • When I saw picture my reaction whas......." My Good....Steve Jobs is back" :DDDD

  • 15:20 **rolls up sleeves" Anyone else get a Steve Jobs flashback?

  • This is all bunk like all statistics. Who's to say at what level the life experience income is in a constant state which this person is seemingly assuming? This perception is extremely biased to a controlled wage or income which is never a realistic situation. A pauper can strike it rich in a matter of minutes and a mogul can be reduced to shreds instantaneously. Would this persons perception of reality actually change yours, or do you think for yourself?

  • @eatchiles I agree, this talk is bullshit...

  • That's a very long ad.

  • wana be Steve jobs! I see...

  • fear = best motivation?

  • @Lojikish; Love = Best motivation. Fear = Oppression.

  • I guess he'll have to add a MF Global factor to simulate what happens when you lose everything after saving your whole life.

  • Jesus said to sell all of your possessions and give them to the poor, the rich person will not enter paradise, instead of looking for living in comfort why not face hardship and do voluntary work

  • @cristoretornebiblia - Is that what you do?

  • nobody laughed at his jokes!

  • It's kind of a nifty app, but ill-suited to the problem at hand. I'm going to have to give this one a thumbs down.

  • this doesn't consider ulterior factors such as financial crises, natural disasters etc...

  • Why is it that in America, the future is always seems to be about money?

  • @kokopelli314 America had to start from scratch and money is power causing America to quickly become powerful, through business, to stay in the race between other world powers. Money is also used to get things done without the physical activity of one's self. For example I could to buy ingredients to make a meal and cook or I could simply buy a meal nowadays so the reason why money is the future is because it holds power and it decreases human labor with robots being the final step

  • @kokopelli314

    I was just wondering a similar thing myself.

  • what's the app for this?

  • That Homer analogy was absolutely torturous.

  • 1)What the hell am i gunna need money for when im old

    2)Money has nothing to do with spiritual fufillment

  • @brangrah1717 Haha go tell the churches that they don't need any money. That'll be fun.

  • @brangrah1717 1) food, toilet paper, clothes 2) no, money has nothing to do with spiritual fulfillment

  • I was just thinking about this problem today but this is a crap solution for say fast people who put off losing weight our something.

  • I dont have the self discipline to do my homework right now ;) I am watching i TED talk, it is impossible.

  • @Thelizzardcat Your unconscious mind cannot process a negative. Which is the negative word in your first sentence, and which is the negative word in your second sentence? We unconsciously program our-self with our language. The good thing is when you take out the word "don't" in your first sentence you will see that you are on the right track for doing your home work:)

  • What if the future world isn't exactly cooperating with your better future self?

  • but...what? what was I supposed to have taken from that? I understand there is a present and future self within me, but what is there to do? get this software? kinda bogus...

  • I always try to ask myself how I'll feel after I make a decision and try to really go through the emotions of future self whether they are bad or good. From there I chose my path.

  • 'Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason.'

  • Anyone else feel like they were listening to Nicolas Cage?

  • Academic gimickry

  • steve jobs is that u?

  • @FindingMeaning nope chuck testa

  • So....you actually have to go to grad school to come up with this crap??

  • @GetMeThere1 yes what he does may not be the most beneficial to society but what do you do? He obviously enjoys what he does and probably earns quite alot from it. It definitely isn't "crap" because nobody here can deny feeling torn over a decision as if they have 2 sides to them.

  • @ThePostRockProject : A) TED talks are not created merely to provide a venue for people who "earn alot and enjoy what they do." The speakers are expected to have unique insights or information to share.

    B) So, you think that a talk that points out that people have inner conflicts and/or complexities is....substantial? I thought everyone older than eight was aware of those realities.

  • @GetMeThere1 You just proved my point. Everyone including yourself experiences these thoughts, of course its obvious but does that mean we shouldn't discuss it? TED talks are nothing more than what we could find in a simple Google search but people like you and me watch them because a spoken presentation is far more engaging.

  • @ThePostRockProject : "You just proved my point." I think for that, you need to have begun with a point.

  • i think i hear whispers in this talk, freakin me out :P

  • Interesting talk, though he missed a very important point.

    We can be somewhat certain about present events, but the future is so hard to predict, be it related to finances / health / life, whatever - it just seems unworthy to most of us to give up on something we can have now, with the risk of not retaining it sometime later.

  • Bookmarked, +1,

    Very worthy video. One of the best.

  • My present self is enjoying a donut, and my future self will enjoy one, too! My past self decided to lose weight, but since she is in the past who cares what she wanted?

  • @amjPeace Heh heh!! Very good!! :thumbsupicon:

  • heh Allianz Global Investors owe you. Think simple and pay now. Keep cheering!

  • BULLSHIT, buy silver. all in or as an insurance policy 10-20% otherwise you will get burned. trust me ;) or get educated and trust yourself, mike maloney is an awesome wealth cycles ressource. listen to him, read the book. donate the book.

  • First half, very nice. Second half useless

  • @AdamDLDixon

    Agree. The start of the talk had me glued but then I lost interest as he drew the line: No money - no funny!

    A very incompetent "black or white" talk missing external factors - economic, political and social issues that do influence both-selves like bankruptcy, booms and busts, unemployment, including technological; motivation stimulus via non-monetary rewards and many, many more.

  • I hoped he will give us some kind of advice to act like our future-selves :(

  • Nobody? Nobody? Okay, I'll do it. It starts at 00:15

  • I'm going to hire my future self a lawyer.

  • But how could the sailors hear what Odysseus was saying if they had their ears filled with wax? Also, what the fuck are you talking about?

  • This is a well studied area in economics. The talk was a little frustrating at first because it ignored this huge body of work. At one point I was thinking the way chemists describe when biologists draw conclusions too early.

    However, it kind of grew on me and I think it was interesting to hear how the issue is thought about in other fields.

  • It started off well, but his solution to the problem was pretty derp.

  • @frunchzz Have to agree. I suspect most of us are fully capable of imagining our future selves or the consequences of our decisions. It's just that we often _don't want_ to do that because we understand that it would force us to do something against our immediate needs. Or cause us to feel guilt over our failure.

  • After listening to this talk, I imagined myself in a future not too long from now, totally ripped (6-pack abs and all that jazz) in a suit making a presentation about managing patients with a certain disease at a conference I was invited to, and occasionally glancing at my awesome sexy-ass wife in the audience beaming with pride. When I really saw this in so much detail, I went into the gym and just ripped into those dumbbells. Now I can barely feel my arms. Thanks.

  • Another thing to remember, in the end we all die and none of this will matter.

  • @Static172 So everyone should invest in nanotechnology, super AI research and genetic research. Those fields will likely have a result in life extension. If it wasn't for religion we could probably break the mortality escape velocity in our generation. Rather ironic billions of idiots set on eternal life ruin that very prospect for us.

  • @Khyrid; he's speaking as a Nihilist. In the Very end none of this will matter. Although over thinking these things is not a good idea. We are animals. We should just live the way we want in the amount of time we have. Although choosing a more selfless way of life, to me, seems the most rewarding. Furthering humankind in an endeavor to have us survive. All from the basic instinctual desire for the continuation of the species. Imagine.

  • @rampaginwalrus But if we become gods nihilism is obsolete. We could manifest purpose into objective existence.

  • @Khyrid; how boring it would be to be a god... Imagine, for a second. Eternity. The never ending boredom is.... Why would any creature evolved for a life span of 30 years want to live forever? Death is not the enemy. It is the driving force. Maybe, we could do with living a little longer. But, only a little. Anything past 500 years would be terrible. And then we'd have to deal with sustainability, and population and... it's just not worth it. Life is bitter-sweet when it's fragile.

  • @rampaginwalrus How would you know? Immortality is just one of the possible benefits of super AI. Renewable life enjoyability and sustainability could be others. Death IS the enemy. If you're a decent human being, there is no good reason to die just to die. How do you know how your mind would work post technological singularity? I don't think anyone can even begin to imagine what it would be like. We may feel like living millions of years the way we want to live a short time now.

  • @rampaginwalrus Thanks for explaining that up, You're right over thinking this is indeed a bad idea as it is with most of things.I didn't say we should live by this view, rather we should remember.No matter if you are in a deep shit in life or you are the most successful person in the world.

    @Khyrid

    That's great,I only wish to live long enough to see the technological development.

    But,as I meant and as rampaginwalrus explained, will it matter when the whole universe will cease to exist?

  • @Static172 Is it possible a god like being that managed to survive of even a million years could put it self in another dimension or spark another big bang and create a new world to exist on? Will existence ever end? No use saying nothing matters until you're dead.

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  • @Khyrid Don't give me these theories that change every time there's a new discovery in science.

    Please don't tell me if there is use of saying anything, you're in no position of deciding that for anyone but yourself.

  • @Static172 The original claim was that life is meaningless in the end, I was merely remarking that IF science got really advanced it perhaps wouldn't have to be.

    As for the second point, you're free to decide what has meaning in life for yourself, so I'll leave it at that.

  • @Khyrid A meaning to life is a non-sequitur, anyway. There is nothing to derive the idea of me