MinutePhysics
Solution to the Grandfather Paradox
If you could travel back in time, and you killed your grandfather, would you be killing your future self? What do physics, complexity theory, and computer science have to say about this famous murderous time-travel paradox?
Crash Course
IP Problems, YouTube, and the Future: Crash Course Intellectual Property
In which Stan Muller talks about some of the problems in Intellectual Property law as it exists today. He'll also teach you a little about how IP law applies to everyone's favorite media platform, YouTube. Lastly, he'll do a little...
TED Talks
TED: Remembering climate change ... a message from the year 2071 | Kim Stanley Robinson
Coming to us from 50 years in the future, legendary sci-fi writer Kim Stanley Robinson tells the "history" of how humanity ended the climate crisis and restored the damage done to Earth's biosphere. A rousing vision of how we might unite...
TED Talks
Possible futures from the intersection of nature, tech and society | Natsai Audrey Chieza
Biodesigner Natsai Audrey Chieza prototypes the future, imagining a world where people and nature can thrive together. In this wildly imaginative talk, she shares the vision behind her innovation lab, which works at the intersection of...
TED Talks
TED: 5 transformational policies for a prosperous and sustainable world | Johan Rockstrom
In a talk about how we can build a robust future without wrecking the planet, sustainability expert Johan Rockstrom debuts the Earth3 model -- a new methodology that combines the UN Sustainable Development Goals with the nine planetary...
TED Talks
TED: Why the hospital of the future will be your own home | Niels van Namen
Nobody likes going to the hospital, whether it's because of the logistical challenges of getting there, the astronomical costs of procedures or the alarming risks of complications like antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But what if we could...
TED Talks
Penelope Boston: There might just be life on Mars
So the Mars Rovers didn't scoop up any alien lifeforms. Scientist Penelope Boston thinks there's a good chance -- a 25 to 50 percent chance, in fact -- that life might exist on Mars, deep inside the planet's caves. She details how we...
TED Talks
TED: Political common ground in a polarized united States | Gretchen Carlson, David Brooks
How can we bridge the gap between left and right to have a wiser, more connected political conversation? Journalist Gretchen Carlson and op-ed columnist David Brooks share insights on the tensions at the heart of American politics today...
TED Talks
Meditations on the intersection of humanity and technology | Olivia Arthur
Documentary photographer Olivia Arthur has been exploring a new frontier: the evolution of the blurring line between humanity and technology. In this meditative talk, she shows her work documenting the remarkable ways humans have merged...
TED Talks
TED: Intelligent floating machines inspired by nature | Anicka Yi
Taking cues from soft robotics and the natural world, conceptual artist Anicka Yi builds lighter-than-air machines that roam and react like autonomous life forms. Her floating "aerobes" inspire us to think about new ways of living with...
TED Talks
Chris McKnett: The investment logic for sustainability
Sustainability is pretty clearly one of the world's most important goals; but what groups can really make environmental progress in leaps and bounds? Chris McKnett makes the case that it's large institutional investors. He shows how...
TED Talks
TED: The 4 commandments of cities | Eduardo Paes
Eduardo Paes is the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, a sprawling, complicated, beautiful city of 6.5 million. He shares four big ideas about leading Rio -- and all cities -- into the future, including bold (and do-able) infrastructure upgrades...
TED Talks
The value of your humanity in an automated future | Kevin Roose
To futureproof your job against robots and AI, you should learn how to code, brush up on your math skills and crack open an engineering textbook, right? Wrong. In this surprisingly comforting talk, tech journalist Kevin Roose makes the...
TED Talks
Lee Cronin: Print your own medicine
Chemist Lee Cronin is working on a 3D printer that, instead of objects, is able to print molecules. An exciting potential long-term application: printing your own medicine using chemical inks.
TED Talks
TED: Why open a school? To close a prison | Nadia Lopez
Our kids are our future, and it's crucial they believe it themselves. That's why Nadia Lopez opened an academic oasis in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the most underserved and violent neighborhoods in New York -- because she believes in...
TED Talks
TED: Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
Taking lessons from a historical pattern called "Thucydides's Trap," political scientist Graham Allison shows why a rising China and a dominant United States could be headed towards a violent collision no one wants -- and how we can...
TED Talks
William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes
How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the...
TED Talks
TED: Why Brexit happened -- and what to do next | Alexander Betts
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now...
TED Talks
TED: How China is (and isn't) fighting pollution and climate change | Angel Hsu
China is the world's biggest polluter -- and now one of its largest producers of clean energy. Which way will China go in the future, and how will it affect the global environment? Data scientist Angel Hsu describes how the most populous...
TED Talks
P.W. Singer: Military robots and the future of war
In this powerful talk, P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction -- that now may not be so fictitious.
TED Talks
TED: The mind-bending art of deep time | Katie Paterson
Short-sightedness may be the greatest threat to humanity, says conceptual artist Katie Paterson, whose work engages with deep time -- an idea that describes the history of the Earth over a time span of millions of years. In this lively...
TED Talks
TED: How we could eat real meat without harming animals | Isha Datar
What if you could eat chicken nuggets without harming a chicken? It's possible through "cellular agriculture," says Isha Datar. In a talk about cutting-edge science, she explains how this new means of food production makes it possible to...
TED Talks
TED: Is humanity smart enough to survive itself? | Jeanette Winterson
With quick wit and sharp insight, writer Jeanette Winterson lays out a vision of the future where human and machine intelligence meld -- forming what she calls "alternative intelligence" -- and takes a philosophical look at our species,...
TED Talks
Chiki Sarkar: How India's smartphone revolution is creating a new generation of readers and writers
India has the second largest population of any country in the world -- yet it has only 50 decent bookstores, says publisher Chiki Sarkar. So she asked herself: How do we get more people reading books? Find out how Sarkar is tapping into...