Pete Alcorn response

Pete Alcorn talked about the world in 2200 he opened with figures from the U.N. that showed how the worlds populaton would grow to about 10 billion and then decrease over time. He stated that although this may not seem like a good thing it actually might be. First he stated that it would lift a burden from the poor becasue it would mean less people in a limited amount of space. That would cause less crowding and would eventually lead to better conditions. The other reason he said declining populatoin would be good is becasue it would cause scarce labor. That in turn drives up wages, another benefit for the poor and working class. Pete stated that history shows when population drops conditions go up. After the black death Europe saw many benfits including higher wages and land reform as above stated but also a birth of a middle class. In todays society where there is already a middle class I think that it would cause an increase in the middle class which would mean less poor people. Because we have no madern equivilant to this he states that we always lood back at the "good old days" but we should look foreward because there is another upturn coming. Another European Enlightenment and Rennasance for the whole world all we have to do is make it over the speedbumps along the way.
Pete's prenentation style was very succient. His whole talk took about four minutes so it was very easy to listen to the whole thing attentivly. This was a talk that I was more interested in becasue I love the outdoors and the thought of a huge population covering the world doesn't make we want to live forever.  I agree that a slight decrease in population could be good for humantity as a whole and end up benifitting the planet from the innovation that could come from a second Rennasance of sorts.

Clay Shirky response

Clay talked about cognative surplus or the ability to volunteer free time to work on projects. He mentioned the wall cats as a project of this type becasue it is what someone does in their free time and makes public no matter how bad it is. Ushidi is also an example of this because some programers just gave their time to this cite to get the word out about what was happening. He separates these by labeling them communal and civic. The cats are communal because they are for the makers by the makers. But Ushidi is civic because it is by the makers for the world. The cats are fun to make but don't really make a difference for anyone except if you get a laugh out of them. Ushidi is different because it makes a difference and gives quality information to the world. This can be a reflection on the type of person who is using cognative surplus. The cat person might just want a laugh while the Ushidi person wants to make a differnce and change something.
 This was deffinetly not my favorite talk becasue I didn't know what he was talking about until it was half done and the whole peice with the daycare didn't seem to relate to the cognative surplus topic to me. He didn't really have any good tie-ins besides Ushidi and the cats so it got old when he kept going back to the same examples over and over. If he had more developable examples or if he just had more this talk would have been better. This connects to me becasue I spend a lot of time watching T.V. and laying around. The only part of this talk that made me think was when he said the the world has a trillion free hours a year. I wonder what we could do if we all put some of that time to use.

Daniel Pink response

Daniel Pink talked about drive and how it affects us. With the candle problem you are driven to get the candle on the wall but to do that you need to think outside the box to find the solution. The rewards sometimes offered destroy the creativness that is needed to complete the task. This is because when a goal is offered for a simple task we will do fine but if a task is more complex then the reward makes us do worse. This is becasue the reward makes us focus so much on the goal that we lose the big picture and therefore lose the ability to see the solution. But when a system like the ROWE is used the focus is big and you can do what you want to as long a you do your job. This leaves a lot of space for creativity and open-end work which makes us better at a job because we are not focused so much on a goal and a schedule and a deadline that can cloud our focus.
The way that Daniel Pink talked was good becasue he had a lot of facts on his ppt and kept the presentation lose. He had a good tie in with his opener and that made the talk better because of the connection.

Nick Bostrom, problems

This speaker took a look at what are humanities biggest problems with the human race. He stated that age, risk, and that life isn't always the best it can be. This talk made me think about these topics and ponder the impact of them on my life. This speaker had a very standard style. He stood behind a podium and had a power point that went along with his speech. The first two topics deffinetly made me think more because they seem to apply more to me. Every second I am alive I get older and every time I get out of bed I take a risk. I could fall down the stairs or burn myself on the toaster. The final point also made me think that life can't always be like vacation where there is no responsablility and there might not be something new to do or an extra piece to something for extra entertainment. This talk made me appreciate what I have because: 1.The darkness is slowly closing in. 2. I could be grossly injured at any time. 3. It could always be worse.

Ted Talk Sir Ken Robinson

He seems like he has a very strong belief that education takes away creativity. He has kids so he has experience with what can happen from a different perspective than being a kid. He kept the mood light and kept the crowd and me engaged even though it was a long talk. This was good becaue when I heard the topic I thought it would be boring but the way he told his story made it a lot better. His presentation seemed very loose and free flowing even though I'm sure it was very well prepared and practiced. This video matters to me because I am in the education system and I am at the age where I need to find creative ways to get ahead to compete in an ever changing world. I also think that he is right because the way that we work and are expected to be is structured and composed which can be good for some things but other topics can be better expressed with an open approach. His talk showed and open approach no notes and he was just walking around on the stage not just standing at a podium and that approach worked great for this talk.