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TED2017: The future you
4/20/17, 12:07 PM

Lisa Genova wields her ability to tell a story and her knowledge of the human brain to talk about medical conditions like Alzheimer’s in warmly human terms. Her writing, often focusing on those who are misunderstood, explores the lives of people living with neurological diseases and disorders. A bestselling author, her work has been transformed into an Oscar-winning film, Still Alice, but the real triumph is Genova’s ability to help us empathize with a person’s journey we otherwise couldn’t even begin to understand.

Her newest book, Inside the O’Briens, is about Huntington’s disease.

lisagenova.com @LisaGenova

Robin Hanson
Economist, social scientist

Does humanity have a future as uploaded minds? In his work, Robin Hanson asks this and other extra-large questions.

In his book, The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth, Robin Hanson re-imagines humanity's role as our tech becomes smarter. A pioneer in prediction markets, also known as information markets and idea futures, Hanson has been known since the 1980s for taking the very very long view on topics as varied as (a selected list) spatial product competition, health incentive contracts, group insurance, product bans, evolutionary psychology and bioethics of health care, voter information incentives, incentives to fake expertise, Bayesian classification, agreeing to disagree, self-deception in disagreement, probability elicitation, wiretaps, image reconstruction, the history of science prizes, reversible computation, the origin of life, the survival of humanity, very long term economic growth, growth given machine intelligence, and interstellar colonization.

Meanwhile, he has developed new technologies for conditional, combinatorial, and intermediated trading, and studied insider trading, manipulation and other foul play. Hanson is associate professor of economics at George Mason University, and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. His next book is The Elephant in the Brain, co-authored with Kevin Simler, due in 2018.

overcomingbias.com @robinhanson

Anil Seth
Cognitive scientist

How can the "inner universe" of consciousness be explained in terms of mere biology and physics? Cognitive neuroscientist Anil Seth explores the brain basis of consciousness and self.

In his groundbreaking research, Anil Seth seeks to understand consciousness in health and in disease. As founding co-director of the University of Sussex’s Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, his research bridges neuroscience, mathematics, artificial intelligence, computer science, psychology, philosophy and psychiatry. He has also worked extensively with playwrights, dancers and other artists to shape a truly humanistic view of consciousness and self.

Seth is the editor and co-author of the best-selling 30-Second Brain, a collection of brief and engaging neuroscience vignettes. His forthcoming book The Presence Chamber develops his unique theories of conscious selfhood within the rich historical context of the mind and brain sciences.

anilseth.com @anilkseth

Wednesday, April 26, 11:00AM - 12:45PM PDT
Session 6: Planet, Protection
Hosted by Chris Anderson.

Kristin Poinar
Glaciologist

Kristin Poinar uses remote sensing and numerical models to study the interaction of meltwater with ice flow, especially on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Hidden under many meters of ice, a pool of meltwater lies under the Greenland Ice Sheet. Kristin Poinar studies how the meltwater forms and flows in this dynamic glacial system. She asks: How did this water get there, and where does it go? How much water is in there? And how is climate change affecting this system?

Using data from Operation IceBridge flights and from field instruments, she's building a numerical model of how crevasses form and channel water. In fact, a NASA report released in February 2017 revealed a new pathway her team discovered for meltwater to reach the ocean. Using physically based models to constrain the bounds of what is realistic has shaped Poinar's interest in glaciology.

http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/kristin.poinar @crevassse

Kate Marvel
Climate scientist

Climate scientist Kate Marvel looks at the big picture of environmental change.

Kate Marvel is a scientist at Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute of Space studies. She uses computer models and

https://ted2017.ted.com/program
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