Paul Knoepfler : The ethical dilemma of designer babies

TED 2015
Paul Knoepfler : The ethical dilemma of designer babies  (transcript)
Summary
I didn't know what designer babies are and I was very surprised that we have to still ready for the coming designer babies revolution.
Designer babies mean to create genetically modified people who are upgraded.
They can be altered physical appearances and be eliminated the risk of auto-immune diseases. They are incredibly intelligent, beautiful, tall, athletic and healthy. They have lower health care costs. Just they are with upgrades and kids who have no genetic modification are called naturals. In fact, there is no law on this yet in many countries, thus you could do it in theory. Then the speaker tells us that governments might start accepting this because GM ( genetically modified) child is healthy and it expects lower care costs. He thinks that we need to put a hold on this because it definitely has negative consequences that people don't tell, but there are many people who don't disagree with him. He also said to educate and engage with the public and people. We have to talk about this more because the public hasn't known about it well.
However, I think that if people know about this well, many people want to start doing, even if it's not allowed. Probably, people don't feel fear because all people become GM. I don’t use it, though.

Words in this story
dilemma /noun/ a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones.
extraordinary /adj/ very unusual or remarkable.
freak /noun/adj/verb/ behave or cause to behave in a wild and irrational way, typically because of the effects of extreme emotion, mental illness, or drugs.

Chetan Bhatt : Dare to refuse the origin myths that claim who you are

TED 2015
Chetan Bhatt : Dare to refuse the origin myths that claim who you are  (transcript)
Summary
We have to notice that from now, clinging to pure identities is a sign of immaturity, and ethnicity, nationalist, and religious traditions are bad for us. It's because there are still a lot of wars that are, in fact, the rages of identity come from our different religions and races.
We ask where you come from too much. When a person rejects what people call his religion or his country, he becomes someone else. He refuses to be who he is. He recreates himself and becomes involved in some armed groups. He rejects his backgrounds to become a new person essentially.
We should know about distinct worlds of truth. Our social and political life should be governed by our reason, not by religion. They should be separated and the truth is our reason. Beyond religion and nationality, we have to know each other.
Don't keep from connecting with humanity as a whole. We know about you from not “where are you from?” but from “where are you going?”

Words in this story
immaturity / the state of being immature or not fully grown.
clinging / (of a person or animal) hold on tightly to.
distinct /adj/  clear, unmistakable, easily, recognizably different in nature from something else of a similar type.

Christiane Amanpour : How to seek truth in the era of fake news

TED 2017
Christiane Amanpour : How to seek truth in the era of fake news (transcript)
Summary
After all, are the problems solved by love?
Christiane Amanpour is known for TV news legend and uncompromising approach to reporting and interviewing.
She tells us that we have to be really careful where we get our information from. We have to take responsibility for what we read, listen to, watch and we have to make sure what the trust is. Now, in the world, many people are going to be wandering along to a potential catastrophe.
People are depending on the internet too much and they are relieved because there is the internet. They believe that its promise is to exponentially explode our access to more democracy, more information, less bias, more varied information.
However, in fact, the opposite has happened.
The most shocking thing is that when you're neutral, you are an accomplice. We often say that we must be more objective.
However, she tells us that the objective means giving all sides an equal hearing and talking all sides but not treating all sides equally.
It is not creating a forced moral equivalence or a factual equivalence. There is a truth in there.
Probably, I think that our minds will change the truth to fake(bad) news.
It means that if the TV says a true event, you add your thought with it and it will be spreading. Bad news has more ripple effect than true (good) news.

Words in this story
uncompromising / showing an unwillingness to make concessions to others, especially by changing one's ways or opinions.
potential /adj/ having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.
relieved /adj/ no longer feeling distressed or anxious; reassured.
factual /  truthful, true, concerned with what is actually the case rather than interpretations of or reactions to it.
ripple /noun/ ring on the water

Elizabeth Wayne : We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer

TED 2017
Elizabeth Wayne : We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer (transcript)
Summary
Our immune system has a natural ability to provide resistance to infection and toxins in our bodies.
However, we always use chemotherapy. It's so non-specific. It kills the cancer cells though it also kills the rest of your body. Some drugs ended up accumulating in the other organs or passing through your urine and leave your body.
The speaker created a new system to be able to directly deliver drugs to your cancer cells by using human design naturally.
She discovered that a nanoparticle made of lipids can naturally deliver special molecules which act as a glue to bind the nanoparticle to the immune cells, and only killing cancer cells without killing normal cells. By only using injection, drugs can go to the right places of the body.
It's going to be used not only for cancer but for all diseases. It can stop the drugs from killing the rest of your body.

Words in this story
resistance /noun/ the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.  opposition to, hostility to, refusal to accept
resilience /noun/ the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
urine /u・rine/jˈʊ(ə)rɪn/  piss, pissing

Lauren Sallan : How to win at evolution and survive a mass extinction

TED 2017
Lauren Sallan : How to win at evolution and survive a mass extinction (transcript)
Summary
Although audiences laughed at this speech, I think it is true that being alive now is fortunate and we won't stay here if we don't develop.
Our developments are not having three legs and weapons or not being able to eat other species, of course.
The speaker is a paleobiologist and she studies about evolution patterns from  500 million years ago fish data.
Fish could transform its form though there are many species that died off. We can't bring back extinct species.
We now have to think about our actions again. Is it better for our future?

Moshe Safdie 2: How to reinvent the apartment building

TED 2014
Moshe Safdie 2: How to reinvent the apartment building (transcript)
Summary
The speaker is an architect who designed “Habitat’ 67” which is now a heritage building.
Habitat 67 is the famous monolithic apartment built about 50 years ago in Canada.
Although it's an apartment, it has gardens and connects with nature and streets instead of corridors. It gives each unit unprecedented sense of desirable openness.
Nowadays, in the cities, there are many high-rise buildings and traffic congestion. Housings are too dense to achieve qualities of life. He noticed they need light, sun, and nature when he saw a lot of dense areas.
His goal is that housing should be a space having openness. Every unit has own private garden and community space. It does not form a wall or an obstruction in the city and light permeates everywhere.
He designed the world's longest swimming pool in Singapore also.

Words in this story
monolithic /adj/ formed of a single large block of stone.
unprecedented / never done or known before.
desirable /adj/ preferable, likeable
congestion /noun/  crowding, overcrowding, obstruction, the state of being congested.

Moshe Safdie 1: Building uniqueness

TED 2002

Moshe Safdie 1: Building uniqueness   (transcript)

Summary

What a strange building it is!

I was attracted to the first picture in this TED and I was sorry that I didn't know who designed and where this building was.

The building has been “Habitat’ 67” designed by Moshe Safdie in Canada. It's the famous monolithic apartment built about 50 years ago and it's now a  heritage building.

In this TED talk, the speaker is an architect Moshe Safdie who explains his other four design projects.

This is a bit unfortunate because I wanted him to explain about Habitat more and the world’s longest swimming pool in Singapore, in the hotel Marina Bay Sands.

It seems to be built after the talk.

He tells us that only buildings and museums are unique is not very meaningful. It's important for its side, its users and its places to be truly unique. The finding of their uniqueness is the key.

His thoughts is that his buildings are only complex and capricious are not satisfied. He thought that they should be some kind of a geometry generating idea.

Therefore, his geometry generates beauty. Something that people can't digest or understand is canceled or stopped. When places and understanding are prepared, he started his projects.

Designing is a search for beauty, so there is the beauty that is profoundly in the sense of fit. There's no fitness there, beauty isn't expressed. Only seeking truth leads to finding beauty.

We can see true beauty in his unique buildings.

Words in this story

capricious /noun/  freak, unusual, odd, strange, funny

vanity /noun/  conceit, narcissism, self-love, self-admiration, egotism

compatible /adj/  adaptable