Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex

http://www.ted.com At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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[VirgilBlackgold]

@psarmstr May I add that, as long as we don't have a common second language, our rate of progress and exchange of ideas will be slower, more expensive, and more cumbersome as people fail to understand each other. I've read studies on Esperanto (the neutral international language) that show that it can be learned by everyone in 6 months, because its grammar is so logical. If everybody had a common (easy and neutral) second language, all would be able to communicate without language barriers.

[ibraheem2555]

this is completely true, no body knows nothing, but accumulation, 

[ordnascrazy]

@VirgilBlackgold

(Esperanto) Esperanto estas REALO, ekzistas multaj personoj, kiuj ĉiutage interparolas per tiu ĉi lingvo. Kaj ĝi vere estas tre facila!

(Italian) Esperanto è una realtà, esistono molte persone che ogni giorno parlano per mezzo di questa lingua. Ed è veramente facile!

(English) Esperanto it's real, there are many people that speaks one another by this language. It is very easy!

[MrLaughinggrass]

@MANGOS487 Yes Johan, Yes Milton, Yes Tommy xxx

[AULhall]

This is my favorite TED talk.

[juliacotic]

Love the vibe on your page

[Ilavenya]

0:15

[seratago]

His opening few sentences prove him to be a complete buffoon.

[goodtuneman]

This lecture makes people think.It makes us happy to hear that we as a human race are not doomed like the media tells us. It made a lot of sense to me and it was not scientific mumbo jumbo....ok, now it really gets weird- we got from the arrowhead to the PC mouse (in my opinion) with help from aliens,yes...E.T's...the government played a big part in this. This is a good thing. Why do they insist on keeping it a secret?

[MANGOS487]

@beesleeper YOU SHOULD WATCH GLOBALIZATION IS GOOD BY JOHAN NORBGERG, YOU SEEM NOT TO KNOW WHAT CAPITALISM REALLY IS

[loqiloqi]

1:15 "How did we become the only species that becomes more prosperous as it becomes more populous?"

Fossil fuels, maybe? That would be my guess.

If we don't change course, we're likely to arrive where we're headed.

We are now very gradually changing course. Maybe the sharing of good ideas like real democracy and non-carbon fuels will outcompete the bad ideas like corporate personhood and mind-shackling religion. The race is on.