Edward Tenner: Unintended consequences

http://www.ted.com Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

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.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[sokseb]

Damn that intros stealing valuable bandwidth

[sokseb]

You sir, are wrong!

[publicanimal]

I can't watch this... he speaks too slowly and his content is not very interesting. I hope that I could do a better job.

[essellar]

The unintended consequence was of the regulation that required the lifeboats to be fitted -- the well-intended people who created that regulation failed to take into account its effect on the stability of hulls that were designed and built before the regulation came into force.

[sokseb]

I think it is the latter, a delicate form of troll comment with the purpose of emotionally stirring up conversations to wake people up. So if the comment is shit, then it tastes like chocolate.

[Cannibalzz]

I fell asleep watching this... this guy needs someone more energetic to give his speeches.

[juditK2007]

Wrong as in the entire socio-economic dynamics of 7 centuries can be explained in 500 characters? Or wrong as in you can go and read a book about it or type in a few words in Google? Akak you can't do either of those.

Or as in "I'm a lazy troll and have nothing better to do than write shit comments on youtube videos"?

And you, obviously female gender-ed person who's name is a typical Slavic male first name, are right. Makes perfect sense. Oh wait it's not reverse day.

[Ocker3]

What?? Unintended consequences of adding extra lifeboats? Too much weight above the centre of gravity makes a boat unstable, basic physics! That's not unintended consequences, that's shoddy design!

[Christopher Urbalejo]

whats wrong with the intro?