J.J. Abrams' mystery box

Summary (mystery box)

In his lecture “Mystery box” J.J. Abrams talks about how important mystery, creativity and imagination can be, specially in the film and arts business. Abrams is a well known film maker famous for his participation in movies and TV show such as lost, alias, Cloverfield and mission impossible. First of all, Abrams mentions how his inspiration began. He says that when he was a kid his grandfather used to show him how things works. Thanks to this he developed an incredible passion for mystery which boosted his creativity and helped him to made great projects. This also boosted his film making passion. Abrams also mentions about a magic box that he bought long time ago and he never open, because for him that box represents his grandfather, possibility and hope. He says that mystery is the catalyst of creativity. Then he gives some examples of some of his greatest projects such as lost where he was able to make thinks that where not possible ten years ago. After that, he says that in today’s world technology is really helpful and can make incredible things, but somehow no everything is about technology. To conclude he states that despite that technology helps, the most important concept to make things that matter is not technology, but inspiration and creativity. (216 words)

Response (Mystery box)

In my opinion, this was the best of all the lectures that I watched in TED talks. I really like it, because as Abrams, I also have a strong desire for the film making business. This video was really inspiring for me in many aspects. First of all, it boosted my creativity and it helped me to think in many future ideas for a script or a short film. This video also made realize that the use of really expensive tools for make significant things is not necessary. I know that the film industry require a lot of expenses that I can not afford, such as lighting, cameras and software. Thanks to Abrams I realize that I actually do not need all that stuff, I just need to be really creative and put all my passion in what I am doing. I think this video is really important because it shows the people, that they should explore more themselves to get inspiration and make things that matter. (162 words)

 

Mechai Viravaidya: How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place

 

Summary (How Mr. condom made Thailand a better place)

In his lecture “How Mr. condom made Thailand a better place” Mechai Viravaidya talks about how a great family planing service helped Thailand and how important this service could be for societies. First of all, Viravaidya starts talking about Thailand situation 40 years ago. He mentions that the country in that time was really poor and it suffered overpopulation with approximately 7 children per family. In order to fix this situation, Thailand decided to start a planing family system. They start by spreading the use of contraceptives such as pills and condoms all around the country. They also involved education in this process so that children will be well informed about this topic when they grew up. After this, in 1975 Thailand started a micro-credit program that would help only people who took care of them selves by a family planing service. Thanks to all this effort, Thailand population decrease with 1.5 children per family, saving this way Thailand economy. This process not only helped Thailand in it economy and development, but also safe millions of lives by reducing the transmission of HIV and AIDS, saving 7.7 million of lives. By all these Viravaidya shows how important a family planing service can be for today’s societies. (210 words)

Response (How Mr. condom made Thailand a better place)

In my opinion this article is really good because it shows how important a family planing service can be for developing countries. I think this is great because it reminds me my country situation, where the poorest families are the ones that have the most children. I think a family service system such as the one show in the video and was used in Thailand would be very important and efficient in my country. If these families get help and better education they would be less likely to commit mistakes such as having seven children that they can not feed. I think this video is also really important because in today’s society one of the biggest problems that we are starting to face is overpopulation. If all the countries have good knowledge about family planing services and used them, the world will have a better control on population and an incredible decrease in the STDs cases. (156 words)

 

Patrick Chappatte: The power of cartoons

 

Summary (The power of cartoons) 

 

In his lecture “The power of cartoons” Patrick Chappatte talks about how important cartoons are for the society. First of all he talks about how in today's world, printed media is being replaced thanks to technological improvements. The best example of this is internet, which is connecting the world and putting aside printed media such as news papers. These days almost the whole world is connected. As a result of this, problems of developing countries are being inform worldwide trying to find solutions. Second, Chappatte mentions how internet has empower us and also has set us free but at the same time it has enslaved us. Chappatte then gives us an example were due to cartoons many revolutions were made in order to change the world. He also gives some examples when he used cartoons to make a difference in thee world. He mentions that he went to West Africa and to Gaza in order to report what was happening there, but his desire of making a difference did not stop just there. He also participated in a group of really different people who gathered together in order to do cartoons that had a strong impact in the moment’s situation. He also encouraged Lebanon media to support cartoonist which wanted to express their feelings and make a difference in the world. By all these Chappate explains how powerful cartoons can be and can be used for good purposes. (238 words)

Response (The power of cartoons)

In my opinion this article is really good because it shows how important cartoons can be. For me cartoons are like art. They are a way to express what you are feeling about a real situation or problem in a humorist way. For this reason I think cartoons are really good. Cartoons can help us to changed and to improve the world where we are living in a funny way. In my personal life, I had a great experience thanks to cartoons. When I was in high school there was one teacher who was really grumpy. He was really bad with the class and his classes were boring. We hate him, but one day trying to complain in a funny way my class decided to made one cartoon about him. The cartoon was really good so when the teacher saw it, he really understood the class problem and he changed. Making the class better and being kinder. That is why I agree that cartoons can be a very good way to change things. (177 words)

 

Deb Roy: The birth of a word

Summary (Deb Roy: The birth of a word)

In his lecture “The birth of a word” Deb Roy talks about how thanks to an experiment that he, his family and a group of scientist made, they have now a better understanding of how the linguistic learning process work. This experiment consisted on having some kind of surveillance system during five years to record his life focusing on the growing process of his son. The main purpose in this project was to understand how social environments can affect the words that we learn when we grow up and the way we learn them. Roy and his group of scientist use the videos that they record to graphic the linguistic learning progress of Roy's son. By this process they made a map of the first words that his son learned. Then they compare this map with the environment that surround his son in his growing up process. Thanks to all the data that Roy and his team collect now there is a better understanding of how words are learned and how the environment affect this process. Roy and his team also made an incredible discovery. They linked this complex process to how media in the United States shape people and vise versa. to conclude roy mentions that in this high tech world is becoming easier to collect and analyze data on how the society works. (225 words)

Response (Deb Roy: The birth of a word)

In my opinion, Roy’s lecture in very interesting because it show us how technology has improved a lot in the latest years. He also show us how we can use that technology to have a better understanding of the things that surround us. One of the things that I like the most is how they graphic the worm that we create in space and time. I like this ideas because if we look at today's world, technology has became a necessary part of our lives which has its pros and its cons. In this case we see the pros because thanks to the technology development we can understand better many things, being that way easier to help other. A really god example of this is medicine, where we can use many technological methods to help people and do procedures that were seem as something impossible in the past such as transplants. (151 words)

Anthony Atala on growing new organs

 

Summary # 2 (Anthony Atala on growing new organs)

In his lecture “Anthony Atala on growing new organs” Anthony Atala talks about how can scientist regenerate organs in order to help people. First of all Atala talks about organ transplant. He says that one of the biggest problem on this process is the lack of organs. Then he mentions that human beings have the ability to regenerate injured tissues but the problem on it, is that just a few of cells can do it so in the case of a big injury a complete regeneration would be almost impossible. Atala also says that in order to regenerate bigger tissues we need to use more cells. This works by removing one piece of tissue from the injured organ to use it then to grow more cells of that organ, taking that cells then and putting them together to recreate the organ in healthy conditions. They have done this with many different organs such as vessels, heart valves and ears. Scientist still developing this organ regeneration technology. This kind of technology is being already applied on people saving and improving lives. the only problem is the complexity of it. (190 words)

Response (Anthony Atala on growing new organs)

In my opinion, Atala’s lecture is very interesting because it teach me how technology has improved. This video make me imagine how it would be the future. Looking at this created organs also remind a hollywood movie called repo men. I think that the future would be very similar to this movie. I think that in the future there will be a huge powerful company selling really expensive organs. This company will also give really high loans with high interest to the people who can not afford those organs. People, desperate choosing between their lives and their money, will accept the loan screwing at the end their lives. I hope that at least part of these future will not be like that. (123 words)

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Summary #1 (Gaming can make a better world)

In the lecture "Gaming can make a better world” Jane McGonigal talks about how gamers can be a good resource that can be used to improve the world. McGonigal says that her goal is to make as easy to safe the real world as it is in games. She says that for this people should spend more time playing games than they actually do. McGonagal mentions that games are essential for human survival. This is because games creates and master 4 amazing qualities in human beings. The first quality is urgent optimism which also means self motivation with always a hope of success. The second quality is social fabric which in other words means cooperation. Another quality is blissful productivity, in which people realize that is better to achieve something than to waste time. The final quality is epic meaning; gamers create an epic story which can be a good motivation to improve the world. However, the problem on video games is that gamers believe that they are good at playing but not in the real life and the also believe that they can change the virtual world but no the real world. Mcgonigal main idea is about making online games that can help people to solve real life problems.  She has developed some games under this standard. The first one is an online game about surviving an oil shortage. People have come with incredible ways of surviving. The second game is about humanity almost extinction, gamers have develop 500 incredible solutions. McGonigal conclude that gamers are an incredible human resource that should be use as an advantage and she advice people to play more games in their lifes.  (293 words)

Response (Gaming can make a better world)

In my opinion, McGonigal idea about using gamers to improve and safe the world sounds crazy but at the same time makes a lot of sense. McGonigal says that gamers develop a lot of skills and qualities that can be used to improve and develop the world. I completely agree with this statement because in my personal experience I think that thanks to video games I improve in many aspects of my life such as being organized and being good at solving problems. Playing games also helped me in the process of learning english. This was because when I was a kid all the video games on my country were in english which pushed me and motivated me to learn english faster. It can look like playing games does not bring any benefit at all but in most of the cases like mine; it works to develop a lot of skills and qualities that can be useful for the future. Those skills and qualities can also be used to make a difference in the world and improve it.  (178)