A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending TED in Long Beach, California. This was the 25th anniversary of TED and the first time it had been held in Long Beach. It was also my first time to attend. The theme of the conference was "The Great Unveiling," and the conference was packed with an amazing array of speakers. Additionally, I was fascinated by the stories of many of my fellow TEDsters and the TED Fellows.
As I write this, I'm watching the 81st Academy Awards and remembering back to the presentation about the special effects behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Several clips from the film were played and the speaker, Ed Ulbrich from Digital Domain, informed us that the head of the character was, for the first hour of the film, completely computer generated. I was amazed. It was the first time that I had ever seen CGI used in a film and, even after learning it was CGI, still could not tell. It won't be long now until we can create CGI actors, perhaps even resurrecting performers from an earlier age. What will it mean for the world when we can create these performances rapidly on a home computer? Benjamin Button just won the Oscar for visual effects as I finished this paragraph.
An Oscar contender for 2010 will surely be Oceans, by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, the creators of Winged Migration. A clip from the film was presented by producer Jake Eberts and it was phenomenal (I will soon run out of superlatives). I think it will be a powerful documentary, up there with An Inconvenient Truth, but also moving and beautiful.
Speaking of which, Vice President Al Gore was there to give an update on the climate. He did not paint a pretty picture. In fact, it was rather alarming and depressing – more so, I think, than some of his previous messages. In a few short minutes he outlined how climate change is already causing a thaw of the permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere and how that is leading to a massive bleed-off of methane – 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. His message was, essentially, that if we don't address this issue in a big way right now, we are well and truly fucked. Luckily, there were some other TED speakers who had some ideas about how to fix things.
One of the very best speakers on this matter was Willie Smits. I think, when his talk is released online, it will be viewed as one of the premiere TED talks – in the same category as Hans Rosling or Vice President Gore. Willie was a forester in Indonesia who set out to save orangutans. But to do so, he realized that he would have to rebuild an ecosystem that had been ravaged by the growing population of humans. Rather than apply a series of band-aids, Willie enlisted the help of the locals to begin rebuilding the rain forest through a carefully managed plan. His work resulted in fantastic success in a few short years and his presentation was like a recipe for ecosystem restoration and maintaining healthy forests, while also providing the people a sustainable lifestyle.
Strange, or odd, or funny, or beautiful, or surreal things can happen at this conference and they are often called "TED moments" by people who've been several times. When the winds whipped up and the storm bore down upon Long Beach, the TED balloon inadvertently escaped to parts unknown. (I'm pretty sure that is my photo at the beginning of the video.) I had my own TED moment when I helped a baby seal. We were attending a party at a house on the beach when someone mentioned there was a baby seal. It was stuck on a stretch of sand between the boardwalk and the sea wall. At first, some wanted to wrap it up in a blanket and carry it back to the sea. I used Google Maps on my G1 to pinpoint our location, used Google Voice Search to read about what to do with baby seals, and used Goog-411 to call animal control. Animal control said that they like to see if the seal finds its way back to its mother, but that they would send someone out in the morning. Sylvia Earle would be proud.
But I think the TED moment that really stands out for me was the Friday night before the last day. Eric Lewis, an amazing pianist who could make the piano make sounds I didn't know were possible, sat down at the piano in the lobby of the Westin and performed an incredible array of music for the hundred or so of us gathered there after midnight. And a fellow TEDster put on her tap shoes and joined in, each riffing off the other. After the rodeo rope trick cowboy, dressed in full Western regalia, joined in, I knew that I would be coming back to TED.
Many people have asked me how I was able to go. I think there are a lot of myths that surround becoming a TED member. Don't you have to be invited? Don't you have to know someone? No and no. You become a TED member by applying and, in the words of TED Community Director Tom Rielly, "being interesting." There is, also, the matter of the $6000 registration fee. But $4000 of that is tax deductible – a charitable contribution to a good cause that enriches your mind and soul in return. I think that's a good investment.
