New Perspectives - What's Wrong with TED Talks? Benjamin Bratton at TEDxSanDiego 2013 - Re:Think

this could be a high brow movie scene

This was good. And I also applaud TED talks for wanting to improve. Growth can come with growing pains. But, it's better to deal with them early, than sweep them under the rug.

Chill. Ted is entertainment. I enjoy a well-constructed fake insight just as much as I do the spurious-sounding rage of a Jacque Fresco clone.

Ted Kaczynski > TED Talks

He makes some good points, but most people are smart enough to understand that most all TED presenters are just stating their own opinions, and all this advice is not necessarily the truth. Guys like this, who have plenty of cognitive ability but probably little actual experience working real jobs with real people in the real world don't understand how the real world operates, and should not have such an arrogant view of their abilities.
Guys like this are almost always highly idealistic, believe they can solve the world's problems, and are to a man almost always progressive.
TED should not be censored. The talks do their purpose of giving people contradictory viewpoints on many issues, and can be very entertaining which is a good thing.

What's wrong with TED? Anyone outside of the 3rd world with a college degree knows it's BS.

This is incredible.

Best TED talk ever

One cannot provide random and numerous examples that illustrate a point to be made without at least ATTEMPTING to tie those examples and sub-points together into one coherent train of thought. And just throwing in big words as often as one can doesn't help, either. He raised fair points and delivered fair criticisms; I cannot argue with that. I don't know enough about TED to say otherwise. But the speech left much to be desired. And if one can't give a talk on the intellectual viability of TED WITHOUT bringing political views and opinions into the mix, forget it. Unprofessional.

The problem about ted that he mention is why I love TedTalk so much

Because I don't care about transformation. I want to hear a selfish cynical talk about a very specific things. I wanna hear a selfish opinion that produce a whole new level of truth.
And his talk is one of them

Welcome to intellectual Valhalla bitches.

Great TED talk, the way he talks reminds me of my science teacher

So good. So tired of hearing numb nuts gushing about Ted so you'll think they have a brain

Joe Rogan and this guy

He just had to bring politics to this talk too.

This guy makes me proud to be judgemental and better than other people....

I thought i was pissed off.....

As much as I love what Dr. Bratton claims (here or in The Stack or otherwise), part of his cynical outlook stems from the fact that he loves to riff off things and people that only 10% of us, with each given reference, will understand. Statistically, it is near impossible that anyone really understands what he's saying. If we want the radical interdisciplinary AND specialization Dr. Bratton wants, we need to live three times as long, and we will all need doctorates, engineering degrees, and MFAs. This isn't possible. He needs to be a little more forgiving of people who truly are trying to understand what is "innovative" in his terms. More pedagogy, less epistemic density. I know this goes directly against what he's saying, but if people don't learn correctly what he's saying, we get more of the same that he fears.

string some jargon together

Every generation thinks they have the insight on innovation. And every generation needs to learn that the bronze age knew what they were talking about.

I don't agree

Because he seems to be saying that focus on innovation will be bad or actually is bad and that political brainwashing is rife in TED and this will lead to disaster. I agree there is political brainwashing etc but I don't think this always leads to disaster

In reality there is more than one path to success and no one is smart enough or had such integration of historical and present day knowledge to understand which path is better or worse. We couldn't even design some all knowing simulation which could direct towards the most optimised path to success

It is too complex

TED is there to perpetuate itself and make money. That is just the reality of all human behavior, but that doesn't mean it is a bad thing and should be changed

It may be superseded but that isn't necessarily bad either

From a consumer perspective TED has benefits because, although most talks could be condensed to about two minutes and still convey the entire subject matter, and although most of the TED talks are based on faulty premises, such as the overpopulation myth etc, they still hold value because they contain information which personally as an information consumer I wouldn't have otherwise had access to

That is even though I know the majority of it is by far not leading me down the most optimal path

One of the most under-rated (& brutally honest & straightforward) TED Talks!

"When inspiration becomes manipulation, inspiration becomes obfuscation." -- Benjamin Bratton FTW...and today's world, we're all being 'inspired' and manipulated...
Wow!!! Powerful AF!!

cool

Title should be 'What's wrong with TEDx Talks? '

back after 5 Years of watching this & it still Bangs !!!

It doesn't beat Prometheus though - what TED thought was the perfect marketing opportunity really showcased the calibre of the self serving, pretentious and agenda driven speakers in real life. Pity they axed it from the final cut though!

TED is good
TEDx sucks. Like the worst and shittiest talks and speakers with nothing important to say.

Using TED to talk against TED is not an act that supports what the message is about :) Great session though with a critique point of view!

This is awesome. How did he pass his audition with this topic?

PS this may be the most inspiring TED talk I've seen.

2021 and yet we still see pointless TED talks about hyperloops and rights for overweight feminists.

Love it and so true

Thought this might have been better, given the title. But another let-down. The first few I watched years ago were novel and interesting. But, as someone else commented, so many of these have too little content, leaving behind merely a few mildly interesting platitudes.

What a great video. I'm certainly guilty of not thinking critically about "middlebrow infotainment"

.

Take that, optimists with interesting stories!

Heard about Bratton from Avessians ”Future Metaphysic”, googled and landed here. This talk is highly illuminating and the placebo politics and innovation inspiration is relevant to the current times.

I work in SaaS/tech sales and this mentality has become so prevalent that it borders on delusion. I cannot put to words how apt his parallels to religious pathology are.
I come back to this video every few moths just to remind myself that I'm not alone, otherwise I'd off myself.

genius my friend,and brave

Still the best TED talk after all these years.

YADA YADA YADA..

Ouch lol

You know what else oversimplifies complex ideas?
"Education" — classes, courses, textbooks, lectures, etc.

Doesn't take away from their utility. You're looking for something else in the thing that you're looking at.

"De-accelerate" ? Does he mean decelerate?

sad that this doesnt have more views.

This should be played before EVERY TED talk, and the speakers should KNOW beforehand that it will be played.

Best and last TED talk for me ❤