In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners today think they're right about reality and everybody else is wrong? Anderson tears into the fabric of object...

In a talk from the cutting edge of technology, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman explores the underlying design principles of ChatGPT and demos some mind-blowing, unreleased plug-ins for the chatbot that sent shockwaves across the world. After the talk, head of TED Chris Anderson joins Brockman to dig into the timeline of ChatGPT's development and ...

Once every century, the world's greatest spiders gather to compete in a series of grueling games. The winner will become the next arachnomonarch, able to command all the world's spiders to their will. That day is today, and for the first time, you're casting your name into the ring. Can you attain the mantle of spider supremacy? Dan Finkel shows...

Today is the annual wizard tournament featuring competitors from three schools, and you’re in charge. The wizards have entered the maze and compete in your chosen events in utmost secrecy; only you and they see what happens. But a dark wizard appears and casts a forgetting curse— throwing the results into question. Can you figure out who won the...

They call you the human cannonball. Your act involves flying through rings of fire, bouncing through a trampoline course, and catching the trapezist in the grand finale. Today's pre-flight test fails dramatically, and upon inspection, your cannon has clearly been sabotaged. Unfortunately, it's too late to abort the launch. Can you fix it in time...

As Numberland's best detective, you thought you'd seen it all. But the desiccated corpses of prominent natural numbers have been showing up all over the city. A lockdown is ordered from sundown to sunrise, and it's still not enough to stop what can only be described as a vampiric feeding frenzy. Can you figure out why the citizens of Numberland ...

In the mid-18th century, England was crazy for ketchup. The sauce was a staple, but this ketchup wasn’t the ubiquitous red goop you’re familiar with today. In fact, it was a sweet and savory brown sauce that didn’t even have tomatoes in it. So where did this early ketchup come from, and how did it become the dip we know and love? Dan Kwartler tr...

It's your first day as Center Realm's official cartographer, and you've already got a big problem. Center Realm is home to three elder dragons: two ice, one fire, and they've lived in harmony for centuries. But scouts have sighted three fire dragons and five ice dragons flying towards the region. Can you figure out where to place the new dragons...

In 1970, neurosurgeon Robert White and his team carted two monkeys into an operating room to conduct an ambitious experiment. The objective was to connect the head of Monkey A to the body of Monkey B, in what he considered a whole-body transplant, with the ultimate goal of one day performing this surgery on humans. Is such a feat even medically ...

On Olympus, you've been waiting for an opportunity to bring the bloody Trojan War to its conclusion. The two sides have agreed to a brief truce, and when you consult the Fates, they advise: should the peace last for 10 days, all will end soon. But if the truce is broken, there will be 10 more devastating years of war. Can you help the Greeks and...

You’ve spent months creating a basketball-playing robot, the Dunk-O-Matic, and you’re excited to demonstrate its capabilities. Until you read an advertisement: “See the Dunk-O-Matic face human players and automatically adjust its skill to create a fair game for every opponent!” That’s not what you were told to create. Can you recalibrate your ro...

Will truth and reason survive the evolution of artificial intelligence? AI researcher Gary Marcus says no, not if untrustworthy technology continues to be integrated into our lives at such dangerously high speeds. He advocates for an urgent reevaluation of whether we're building reliable systems (or misinformation machines), explores the failure...

Why are we so deadlocked on climate, and what would it take to overcome the seemingly insurmountable barriers to progress? Policy entrepreneur Ted Halstead proposes a transformative solution based on the conservative principles of free markets and limited government. Learn more about how this carbon dividends plan could trigger an international ...

Clifford Stoll captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides -- and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he's a scientist: "Once I do something, I want to do something else."

The talk proposes that humans have always lived in a “pluriverse” of many different real worlds, not just in a universe of one. It also considers how this proposal might change the way we think about the human past, present, and the future. Greg loves to share his fascination with the many different worlds that humans have inhabited. This talk ...

La co-directora y co-guionista del documental [m]otherhood relata en primera persona su decisión de renunciar a la maternidad y los estigmas sociales que ha tenido que superar para poder vivir su convicción con plena libertad

Andrea Grieco ha seri problemi di insonnia. Cosa lo tiene sveglio la notte? Due parole: cambiamento climatico. Le slide della prima parte dello speech di Andrea, riportavano dati raccapriccianti sul tema. Il suo obiettivo era quello di far dormire peggio anche tutto il pubblico? Qualcosa del genere. Il suo ruolo consiste principalmente nel re...