Thanks to modern science and technology, we can predict what the weather will be like in 5 days, but it’s still a bit more challenging to predict what will happen to us and our societies.

In 2000, the UN laid out 8 goals to make the world better by reducing poverty and disease -- with a deadline of 2015. As that deadline approaches, Jamie Drummond of ONE.org runs down the surprising successes of the 8 Millennium...

Machine learning isn't just for simple tasks like assessing credit risk and sorting mail anymore -- today, it's capable of far more complex applications, like grading essays and diagnosing diseases. With these advances comes an uneasy...

Why do we turn to nonprofits, NGOs and governments to solve society's biggest problems? Michael Porter admits he's biased, as a business school professor, but he wants you to hear his case for letting business try to solve massive...

For many centuries (and for many reasons) critically acclaimed creative genius has generally come from a male perspective. As theater director Jude Kelly points out in this passionately reasoned talk, that skew affects how we interpret...

The term Gross Domestic Product is often talked about as if it were “handed down from god on tablets of stone.” But this concept was invented by an economist in the 1930s. We need a more effective measurement tool to match 21st century...

General Motors veep Larry Burns previews cool next-gen car design: sleek, customizable (and computer-enhanced) vehicles that run clean on hydrogen -- and pump energy back into the electrical grid when they're idle.

Every great and difficult thing has required a strong sense of optimism, says editor and author Kevin Kelly, who believes that we have a moral obligation to be optimistic. Tracing humanity's progress throughout history, he's observed...

Parkinson's disease affects 6.3 million people worldwide, causing weakness and tremors, but there's no objective way to detect it early on. Yet. Applied mathematician and TED Fellow Max Little is testing a simple, cheap tool that in...

For tens of thousands of years our ancestors understood the world through myths, and the pace of change was glacial. The rise of scientific understanding transformed the world within a few centuries. Why? Physicist David Deutsch proposes...

Scared of superintelligent AI? You should be, says neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris -- and not just in some theoretical way. We're going to build superhuman machines, says Harris, but we haven't yet grappled with the problems...

Machines that can think, learn and adapt are coming -- and that could mean that we humans will end up with significant unemployment. What should we do about it? In a straightforward talk about a controversial idea, futurist Martin Ford...

Can we call any economy "healthy" in the face of dwindling resources and growing inequality? What if we cut off our addiction to endless growth, and used a new compass for modern prosperity? One such compass is known as "doughnut...

Hector Ruiz, the executive chair of AMD, wants to give Internet access to everyone. In this talk, he shares his extraordinary life story and describes AMD's 50x15 initiative that calls for connecting 50 percent of the world by 2015.

Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.

We are living in a world that is tantalizingly close to ensuring that no one need die of hunger or malaria or diarrhea, says economist Michael Green. To help spur progress, back in 2015 the United Nations drew up a set of 17 goals around...

Reports of a fireball streaking through the sky are never a good sign after losing contact with a rocket.

What is AI, really? Jeff Dean, the head of Google's AI efforts, explains the underlying technology that enables artificial intelligence to do all sorts of things, from understanding language to diagnosing disease -- and presents a...

In this video Paul Andersen explains how heat can be absorbed in endothermic or released in exothermic reactions. An energy diagram can be used to show energy movements in these reactions and temperature can be used to measure them...

We're going back to the future! The real-life 2015 looks a little different than the movie version, though.

Before the creation of humanity, the Greek gods won a great battle against a race of giants called the Titans. Most Titans were destroyed or driven to the eternal hell of Tartarus. But the Titan Prometheus, whose name means foresight,...

Thousands of years ago, ancient Nubians drew pictures on tomb walls of a terrible disease that turns the eyelids inside out and causes blindness. This disease, trachoma, is still a scourge in many parts of the world today -- but it's...

We need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress, says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in...

Many generations have felt they've reached the pinnacle of technological advancement. Yet, if you look back 100 years, the technologies we take for granted today would seem like impossible magic. So - will there be a point where we reach...