What can governments learn from the open-data revolution? In this stirring talk, Beth Noveck, the former deputy CTO at the White House, shares a vision of practical openness -- connecting bureaucracies to citizens, sharing data, creating...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on the hierarchy of systems.

T
ERMS:
System inter
actions -
Complex systems - consisting of many different and
connected parts
Sub-systems - a...

On Friday, May 12th, 2017, the ransomware program WannaCry started spreading to computers all over the world at an alarming rate. A couple days later, it was basically completely contained with very little damage done. So what happened?

Tesla's Autopilot system is the most advanced available right now, but it has limitations, and some of those limitations might be us.

Paul Andersen explains how stability and change are regulated in systems through controls and feedback. Controls are used to regulate matter and energy flowing into a system. Feedback mechanisms within the system are used to regulate...

For the first time, we are forced to consider the real risk of destabilizing the entire planet, says climate impact scholar Johan Rockström. In a talk backed by vivid animations of the climate crisis, he shows how nine out of the 15 big...

Sometimes, small things make a huge impact. After studying how bees in urban environments can survive by navigating small land patches, ecologist Amanda Schochet was inspired to build MICRO, a network of portable science museums the size...

The developed world holds up the ideals of capitalism, democracy and political rights for all. Those in emerging markets often don't have that luxury. In this powerful talk, economist Dambisa Moyo makes the case that the west can't...

What can you do when the wheels of justice don't turn fast enough? Or when they don't turn at all? Vivek Maru is working to transform the relationship between people and law, turning law from an abstraction or threat into something that...

Science fiction visions of the future show us AI built to replicate our way of thinking -- but what if we modeled it instead on the other kinds of intelligence found in nature? Robotics engineer Radhika Nagpal studies the collective...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on systems as parts working together. TERMS System - a set of components (e.g. things) working together Part - a piece of an object or organism This progression is...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on components and interactions within systems.

T
ERMS:
System - a set of components (e.g. things) workin
g together
Components - a part of
a larger...

Every new invention changes the world -- in ways both intentional and unexpected. Historian Edward Tenner tells stories that illustrate the under-appreciated gap between our ability to innovate and our ability to foresee the consequences.

As Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for our changing climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the world...

Behind-the-Scenes of an Airbus A350 being built!



Thanks to the folks at Airbus for bringing me to France, Germany, & the UK to visit their headquarters and facilities and see so much incredible engineering. As you can probably...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Writer and artist James Bridle uncovers a dark, strange corner of the internet, where unknown people or groups on...

The United Arab Emirates is planning an enormous colony on Mars, but first they are building the biggest Mars simulator right here on earth.

The human brain is visibly split into a left and right side. This structure has inspired one of the most pervasive ideas about the brain: that the left side controls logic and the right side controls creativity. And yet, this is a myth,...

Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff looks at happiness -- the ways we try to achieve and increase it, the way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies.

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face,...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Warning: This talk might contain much more than you'd ever want to know about the way the world poops. But as...

Jer Thorp creates beautiful data visualizations to put abstract data into a human context. At TEDxVancouver, he shares his moving projects, from graphing an entire year's news cycle, to mapping the way people share articles across the...

In this video Paul Andersen shows conceptual thinking in a mini-lesson on orders of magnitude.

Scale models - a representation that has been reduced or enlarged to a specific
scale
Orders of magnitude - is an approximation...

Most of us want to do the right thing when it comes to the environment. But things aren’t as simple as opting for the paper bag, says sustainability strategist Leyla Acaroglu. A bold call for us to let go of tightly-held green myths and...