1 post from November 2007

I just watched the three most important TED2007 talks. They all talk about related (albeit abstractly so) concepts that all tie in to what I think will be a very important technological achievement in the coming decades: the development of an abstract theory of self-organization.

Neil Gershenfeld: The beckoning promise of personal fabrication — Fabricators and the ability to "print" whole objects. (Once we have this technology, the entire social, economic, and political landscape will change. Watch out!)
Saul Griffith: Hardware solutions to everyday problems — Self organizing structures and their application to current problems.
Paul Rothemund: Casting spells with DNA — An exploration of the way in which chains of amino acids and other molecules can be coerced into specific shapes simply by programming them.
Hod Lipson: Robots that are "self-aware" — Designing robots that can determine their own body configuration and learn how to achieve tasks, without any outside guidance.
Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind — How brain damage can provide insight into the functioning of the brain.

Also worth listening to:
On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins — Hawkins' magnum opus sketching out a view of the design of cognitive structures.
Futures in Biotech 10 — Carla Shatz on self-organizing brain structures.
Futures in Biotech 20 — Eric Kandel on the mechanisms of memory and learning.