Weapons of math destruction

Blind faith in big data must end. Open in your browser

This week on TED.com August 26, 2017

Cathy O'Neil: Weapons of math destruction  13:18 minutes · Filmed Apr 2017 · Posted Aug 2017 · TED2017 Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more -- but they don't automatically make things fair. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and harmful: "weapons of math destruction." Learn more about the hidden agendas behind the formulas. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Secrets to understanding life From work and happiness, to love and success (and everything else in between), these 10 talks offer insights on some of life's biggest secrets. Watch » 10 TED Talks • Total run time 2:32:27

This week's new TED Talks (a few more than usual) "Music is everywhere, and it is in everything," says musician and college student Anika Paulson. Guitar in hand, she plays through the beats of her life in an exploration of how music connects us and makes us what we are. Watch » Imagine a computer that can emulate the human brain, in all its complex thoughts and processes. What might it want? Social scientist Robin Hanson plays out a future scenario starring the "ems" -- emulated brains that can think, feel and work like the human brains they're copied from. Enjoy this rapid-fire, mind-blowing glimpse at a hypothetical future. Watch » Your cells are coated with sugars that store information and speak a secret language. What are they trying to tell us? Your blood type, for one -- and, maybe, that you have cancer. Chemical biologist Carolyn Bertozzi researches how sugars on cancerous cells interact with (and sometimes trick) your immune system. Learn more about how your body detects cancer, and how the latest cancer-fighting medicines could help your immune system beat the disease. Watch » Should your driverless car kill you -- if it means sparing the lives of five pedestrians? In this useful primer on the moral dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how new technology can challenge our own morality. In his lab, he asks real people to make the same moral judgments we're going to expect from our cars -- and his ongoing work reveals the ethical trade-offs we're willing (and not willing) to make. Watch » With charm and searching insight, poet David Whyte meditates on the frontiers of the past, present and future, sharing two long-form poems inspired by a hike along El Camino de Santiago. Make quiet time to watch and savor. Watch » Every artist has a name, and every artist has a story. Laolu Senbanjo's story started in Nigeria, where he was surrounded by the culture and mythology of the Yoruba. He shares what he calls the Sacred Art of the Ori, art that uses skin as canvas and connects artist and muse through mind, body and soul. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com We humans: Understanding the mysteries of heartbreak » When love ends, why does it hurt so much?   Science: Should we use gene editing to produce disease-free babies? A scientist who helped discover CRISPR weighs in Quiz: Can you match the president to the eye chart? An unusual and revealing look at US history

Quote of the Week “ Everyone uses algorithms. They just don't write them in code. Let me give you an example. I use an algorithm every day to make a meal for my family. The data I use is the ingredients in my kitchen, the time I have, the ambition I have. My definition of success is: a meal is successful if my kids eat vegetables. It's very different from if my youngest son were in charge. He'd say success is if he gets to eat lots of Nutella. But I get to choose success. I am in charge. My opinion matters. That's the first rule of algorithms. Algorithms are opinions embedded in code." Cathy O'Neil The era of blind faith in big data must end

ted radio hour: Hardwired How much of who we are is biology? How much is learned? And how much can we change? This week on the TED Radio Hour, explore how genes and experience collaborate -- and compete -- to make us who we are. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, the TED Android app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sincerely, x: Rescued by ritual This week on TED's audio podcast Sincerely, X: How one woman found a way to heal the trauma of a violent marriage. Tune in to hear how she created a private ritual, which her doctor now recognizes and recommends as a tool for recovery from abuse. Available now on Apple Podcasts, the TED Android app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

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How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas

Learn to love being bored. Open in browser

This week on TED.com August 19, 2017

Talk of the week Manoush Zomorodi: How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas 16:13 minutes · Filmed Apr 2017 · Posted Aug 2017 · TED2017 Do you sometimes have your most creative ideas while folding laundry, washing dishes or doing nothing in particular? It's because when your body goes on autopilot, your brain gets busy forming new neural connections that connect ideas and solve problems. Learn to love being bored as Manoush Zomorodi explains the connection between spacing out and creativity. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Where do ideas come from? How does the metaphorical lightbulb go off? These 9 talks explore the nature of ideas themselves: where they come from, how they evolve, and how to nurture them. Watch » 9 TED Talks • Total run time 2:18:49

Among this week's new TED Talks The traditional ways to turn art into money (like record sales) have been broken by the internet, leaving musicians, writers and artists wondering how to make a living. Which is why musician Jack Conte created Patreon, a way for artists on the internet to get paid by their fans. Could payment platforms like this change what it means to be an artist in the digital age? Watch » Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan fights to free wrongfully convicted people from jail -- in fact, he has freed some 6,000 innocent people over the course of his career. He shares heartbreaking stories of how (and why) people end up being put in jail for something they didn't do. Watch » When Richard J. Berry, the mayor of Albuquerque, saw a man on a street corner holding a cardboard sign that read "Want a job," he decided to take him up on it. He and his staff started a citywide program to help homeless people by giving them day jobs and a place to sleep. Find out how your city can replicate Albuquerque's success in this frank and optimistic talk. Watch » What's one secret to longevity? According to psychologist Susan Pinker, it's not a sunny disposition or a low-fat, gluten-free diet -- in fact, by studying communities where people live longest, it turns out that close personal relationships and face-to-face interactions matter most. Learn more about what it takes to live to 100 and beyond. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Opinion: We must unite to confront religious violence now » Behind this week's headlines, why — and how — to stand together in the face of hate We humans: How your to-do list shapes your personality » There's the personality you're born with, and the one you develop Politics: A powerful insight about race in the United States » The conversation Americans need to have

Quote of the Week “ Fear is like a disease. When it moves, it moves like wildfire. But what happens when, even in the face of that fear, you do what you've got to do? That's called courage. And just like fear, courage is contagious." Damon Davis Courage is contagious

Sincerely, x: equality executive This week on Sincerely, X, the new podcast from TED and Audible: Why does corporate America have so few female executives, despite overwhelming evidence that gender equality is good for business? Rare insight from C-suites and boardrooms. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, the TED Android app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

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How your brain decides what is beautiful

Why certain configurations of line, color and form captivate us. Open in browser

This week on TED.com August 12, 2017

Anjan Chatterjee: How your brain decides what is beautiful 14:47 minutes · Filmed Nov 2016 · Posted Aug 2017 · TEDMED 2016 Anjan Chatterjee uses tools from evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience to study one of nature's most captivating concepts: beauty. Learn more about the science behind why certain configurations of line, color and form excite us in this fascinating, deep look inside your brain. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Blueprints for the next generation Great ideas and practical advice on what the newest generations need to succeed. Watch » 8 TED Talks • Total run time 1:45:35

This week's new TED Talks It's not the passage of time that makes it so hard to get older. It's ageism, a prejudice that pits us against our future selves -- and each other. Ashton Applewhite urges us to dismantle the dread and mobilize against the last socially acceptable prejudice. "Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured," she says. "It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process that unites us all." Watch » On August 21, 2017, the moon's shadow will race from Oregon to South Carolina in what some consider to be the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature: a total solar eclipse. Umbraphile David Baron chases these rare events across the globe, and in this ode to the bliss of seeing the solar corona, he explains why you owe it to yourself to witness one, too. Watch » "Every time a machine gets smarter, we get smarter," says Tom Gruber, the co-creator of Siri. He shares his vision for a future where AI helps us achieve superhuman performance -- from turbocharging our design skills to helping us remember everything we've ever read and the name of everyone we've ever met. Watch » Behold the microscopic jungle in and around you: tiny organisms living on your cheeks, under your sofa and in the soil in your backyard. We sanitize, exterminate and disinfect them, but maybe we should take another look, says microbiologist Anne Madden. In fact, they could be sources of new technologies and medicines waiting to be discovered. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Work: 5 interview question to help you hire better people >> (Sorry for the bad link last week! This article is so interesting and useful) Learning: The fascinating reason why children write letters backwards >> Hint: It's related to why we think the earth is flat until told otherwise ...

Quote of the Week “ People with more positive feelings towards aging walk faster, they do better on memory tests, they heal quicker, and they live longer. Even with brains full of plaques and tangles, some people stayed sharp to the end. What did they have in common? A sense of purpose." Ashton Applewhite Let's end ageism

Sincerely, x: sad in silicon valley In the latest episode of TED's anonymous podcast, hear from a tech CEO who couldn’t tell his peers when he suffered from depression. He asks why we’re so afraid to talk about mental health. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, on the TED Android app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

One night only: TED Talks live in New York city! Wednesday, September 20, 2017, 7pm  The Town Hall, New York, NY TEDGlobal>NYC happens in Manhattan on the evening of Wednesday, September 20, 2017, with a mission to catalyze new thinking about world issues. Speakers include a best-selling novelist, a crime expert, a world-famous journalist, a global competition expert and more, thinking on the big problems we face -- which are collective in nature and global in scope. Learn more and get tickets at two pricing levels >>

 

You are receiving this email because you've subscribed to our mailing list. We also send out daily emails, if you can't get enough of us. We love you too. Copyright © 2017 TED, All rights reserved. You're receiving the TED Talks weekly newsletter because you subscribed to it on TED.com. (Was this forwarded by a friend? You can sign up here: http://www.ted.com/newsletter ) Our mailing address is: TED 330 Hudson Street 11th Floor New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences   view email in browser

Meet the robot dog that can run, hop and fetch you a soda

That science fiction future may be closer than you think. Open in browser

This week on TED.com August 5, 2017

Marc Raibert: Meet Spot, the robot dog that can run, hop and open doors 14:33 minutes · Filmed Apr 2017 · Posted Jul 2017 · TED2017 That science fiction future where robots can do what people and animals do may be closer than you think. Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, is developing advanced robots that can gallop like a cheetah, negotiate 10 inches of snow, walk upright on two legs and even open doors and deliver packages. Join Raibert for a live demo of SpotMini, a nimble robot that maps the space around it, handles objects, climbs stairs -- and could soon be helping you out around the house. Watch now »

Playlist of the week What direction is the future headed? (6 talks) Explore what may be in store for our collective future and how we can plan for the unpredictable, together. Watch » 6 TED Talks • Total run time 1:51:12

This week's new TED Talks Titus Kaphar makes art that wrestles with the struggles of the past -- while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to his own version of a 17th-century painting, obscuring parts of the composition and bringing its hidden story into view. He asks: What happens when we shift our focus and confront unspoken truths? Watch » In 2002, the Colombian guerrilla movement known as the FARC kidnapped Ingrid Betancourt in the middle of her presidential campaign. For the next six years, Betancourt was held hostage in jungle prison camps where she was ravaged by malaria, fleas, hunger and human cruelty until her rescue. In this deeply personal talk, the politician-turned-writer explains what it's like to live in a perpetual state of fear -- and how her faith sustained her. (In Spanish with English subtitles.) Watch » Meet Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker's art director. For the past 24 years, she's helped decide what appears on the magazine's famous cover, from the black-on-black depiction of the Twin Towers the week after 9/11 to a recent, Russia-influenced riff on the magazine's mascot, Eustace Tilley. In this visual retrospective, Mouly considers how a simple drawing can cut through the torrent of images that we see every day and elegantly capture the feeling (and the sensibility) of a moment in time. Watch » Ten years ago, researchers thought that getting a computer to tell the difference between a cat and a dog would be almost impossible. Today, computer vision systems do it with greater than 99 percent accuracy. How? Joseph Redmon works on the YOLO (You Only Look Once) system, an open-source method of object detection that can identify objects in images and video -- from zebras to stop signs -- with lightning-quick speed. In a remarkable live demo, Redmon shows off this important step forward for applications like self-driving cars, robotics and even cancer detection. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Future: Turns out, machines might be just as "creative" as humans >> So what's left for us to do? One fascinating answer Business: 5 interview questions that will help you hire better people >> Why you should ask "What's 25 times 25?"

Quote of the Week “ I want to make paintings, I want to make sculptures that are honest, that wrestle with the struggles of our past but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present ... that say, 'This is where we were, but this is where we are right now.'" Titus Kaphar Can art amend history?

TEDGlobal>NYC, September 20 on Broadway in New York City: An evening of talks and performances, followed by afterparty discussions. Learn more and get tickets >>

This week on Sincerely, X A former hedge fund manager shares his path from Wall Street to prison — and what he learned behind bars. Listen to "Ex-Con" now on Apple Podcasts or in the TED Android app.

 

You are receiving this email because you've subscribed to our mailing list. We also send out daily emails, if you can't get enough of us. We love you too. Copyright © 2017 TED, All rights reserved. You're receiving the TED Talks weekly newsletter because you subscribed to it on TED.com. (Was this forwarded by a friend? You can sign up here: http://www.ted.com/newsletter ) Our mailing address is: TED 330 Hudson Street 11th Floor New York, NY 10013 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list   update subscription preferences   view email in browser