The Human Machine
May 27, 2013 Blog Martin Niro
Human life is always evolving, but in the background another form of life has been evolving too. Its name is technology, and its evolution has been so rapid that it finds itself fighting for supremacy with the human way of life. But rather than compete, humanity has decided there’s more to gain if we join forces.
And it’s humans’ new life of co-existence with machines that Amber Case explores during her TED talk (DEC 2010, Washington DC), as she tells us we need not fear, but cherish this new co-existence. Read More »
Tweeting Towards Immortality
May 25, 2013 Blog Tom Mayers
I hate to sleep. For me it is the burden of my day. If I can, I like to stay up late and get up early. If I happened to stumble across a magic lamp and a genie popped out, (do you imagine the genie from Aladdin?) one of my obligatory three wishes would be “to not need sleep”. The rule being: I could sleep if I wanted to but I wouldn’t need to. For me this means I could always get the things done I wanted to do and also devote more time to others. However, this seems like my life would be one continuous life-long immortality. I’m not sure if this is a good thing?
The concept of immortality has often found its way into my thought. Immortality being the unlimited continuation of a person’s existence, this continues after death. In a nutshell, this implies a never-ending existence. Immortality has often belonged to religious traditions, but this topic has also been food for thought for philosophers such as; Plato, Pythagoras and Descartes to name a few. The beliefs in immortality have been compressed into 3 categories.
30 Is No Longer The New 20
May 20, 2013 Blog Nazeera Nazir
An inspirational talk ’Why 30 is not the new 20’ by Meg Jay (TED; February 2013) starts with Jay, who is a clinical psychologist by profession, talking about her first psychotherapy client. ‘Alex’ came with ‘boy’ problems, which was a relief for Jay as another colleagues’ first client was an arsonist! They mused over funny stories and Alex would say that ’thirty’s the new 20’. They both had plenty of time, as far as they were concerned. Everything, including serious careers, partners and children would come after 30. Read More »
War of the Words: The Language Battle You’re Fighting
May 17, 2013 Blog Martin Lindley
Do you impute pretentiousness to people who use nepheligenous or skewbald words? Don’t worry if it doesn’t mean anything to you, we’ll come back to it. For now just pay attention solider; there’s a war happening. Read More »
The Magic of Science
May 14, 2013 Blog Jade Hunter
In the midst of our humdrum lives we sometimes forget about the magic of the world around us. That even just existing is rather a wondrous thing. It is good to have a reminder now and then, something which this TED speaker is here to do. He is here to tell us about the magic of science. Read More »
Thoughts Of A Living Atheist
May 13, 2013 Blog Martin Niro
For thousands of years no one has been able to keep apart the hate when it comes to religion and atheism. Religion stands its ground while atheists attack on the theory that it’s all nonsense. Yet despite this clear divide and with no end in sight, I am going to try and do something no one person has been able to do in over 2000 years … I’m going to unite religion and atheism -
Here goes… Read More »
Seriously, Computer Games CAN Be Good For You
May 12, 2013 Blog Tom Mayers
Ever since I was a young boy, I’ll never forget they day I came home and my parents had set up a Nintendo in my living room. It was amazing! It was there I was introduced to a plumber known as Super Mario and have played the series of Super Mario games throughout the last 22 years. I’m no doubt the only one who has grown up with characters like Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Link (The Legend of Zelda), Sonic the Hedgehog and these are just characters from the 80’s and 90’s and there have been plenty more.
The idea for this blog came as I slightly touched on the notion of games being the scapegoats of national tragedies such as school shootings in my last blog. There are strong opinions that believe computer games are technological poison corrupting the minds of young children. I recently watched Jane McGonigal’s talk “Gaming can make a better world” and it was very refreshing to hear how computer games can be good for you and how they can have a positive view on humanity. In Jane’s talk she explains how computer games can impact the individual positively and she applies this to the efficacy of challenging world problems.
Reading Comics Is Not A Waste Of Time
May 10, 2013 Blog Ben Milnes
I watched Scott McCloud’s TED2005 talk on comics with interest. He examines comics as a form of storytelling, including a look at where they came from, and where they might be going. The delivery of his talk shares some elements with the way a story is told in a comic, with a snappy succession of images supplementing his words. But maybe there’s a more fundamental hurdle to leap before you can enjoy it.
Comics. They’re daft, aren’t they? They’re for kids, right? Read More »
Passion Overload
May 8, 2013 Blog Faizaan Khan
Patience and time do more than strength or passion.”
-Jean de La Fontaine
10 Tech Tips You Might Not Have Known About
May 6, 2013 Blog Nazeera Nazir
I’m a real sucker for all things shortcut. In fact, I haven’t looked back since I discovered the joys of ‘Ctrl+C’ and ‘Ctrl+V’ (I can almost imagine people rolling their eyes at this and saying ‘What planet have you been on woman?’). You can imagine my excitement when I found a whole series of shortcuts in the TED talk ’10 top time-saving tech tips’ by David Pogue (TED; Feb 2013)! Pogue starts off the talk by highlighting the fact that in technology, there doesn’t appear to be any defined syllabus or manual that everybody is supposed to read beforehand, it’s just assumed that somehow you’ll just know how things work in the end. So here’s some time-saving tips doled out by Pogue that will make your life that bit more streamlined. A word of warning beforehand; some of these tips may not work for particular models of devices mentioned. Read More »