Pop!Tech
Davy Rothbart provides a quick peek into the the private lives of people through his collection of found stuff. Rothbart, the creator and editor of FOUND Magazine, entertains the audience at PopTech 2005 by sharing lost or discarded letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, and other scraps that he collects from people all over the country. His style and delivery combine with the material to provide a unique and very amusing commentary on our culture.
Are there educational benefits to be gained from participating in video game play? Stephen Berlin Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You, discusses how video games have changed significantly over the past three decades. He argues that there are advantages to engaging in the complex and intellectually challenging games available today. He believes that video games can provide cognitive benefits for those who play them, and over the long term have a positive impact on society.
It is human nature to resist change. So one might ask, how could a group hope to bring about major social, economic, political, religious or cultural changes in a non-violent way, or know if the means one chooses would provide the desired result, or create new problems? In this session, Ivan Marovic talks about a new game that helps address these issues. Through his experiences in the Otpor (resistance), Ivan Marovic was key in shaping a new online game where people can play out real world scenarios and strategies in a virtual world.
Every day, millions of online gamers from around the world are spending astonishing amounts of time within online games' virtual worlds, or what Ed Castronova likes to call synthetic worlds. From Ed's unique vantage point, as an avid gamer, and a pioneer in the study of the economics of these synthetic worlds, he shares some incredible statistical information, and intelligently discusses the ways in which the economics within these synthetic worlds have spilled over into the real world and impact it in some truly amazing ways.
The Internet is producing waves of change that are hitting Chinese culture, from the highest levels of government to the poorest rural communities. In this talk from PopTech 2005, Rebecca MacKinnon discusses the impact of emerging technologies in China and how the Earth's most populous nation is in turn affecting the future of the Internet.
The US has the largest, most robust, and most flexible economy in the world, but within twenty years, China will likely surpass the US in at least one of those. In this presentation from PopTech! 2005, Oded Shekar, the Ford Motor Company Chair in Global Business Management at Ohio State University and author of the book The Chinese Century, outlines China's rise and what it might mean for the US in the coming years.
Award winning writer Suketu Mehta tells us that his home town of Bombay and other mega-cities foreshadow the future. Bombay juxtaposes hopeless poverty, crowding, and inequity with riches and a vitality that draws a flood of young immigrants from rural villages. Although Mehta paints a grim picture, he sees hope in the exercise of democracy by the poor and a culture where people help each other while expecting little from their government.
Global climate change is seen by many as a hot political controversy. Journalist and author Mark Lynas argues that it is much more important than that. It is the whole of the human species versus the biosphere, requiring a collective species level response to resolve.
Answers about the origin of living organisms, planets, entire galaxies, all from one robotic space expedition? Perhaps. Carolyn Porco, the Cassini Imaging Team Leader, presents imagery and insight from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. In her talk, she takes the audience on a rapid fire, guided tour of Saturn's rings and moons including the exciting discoveries of active geology, organic compounds, and surfaces that are "strangely Earth-like."
Ocean exploration often takes a back seat to space exploration in the minds of the public, but strange and wonderful discoveries are being made in the deep water. In this talk from Pop!Tech 2005, Marcia McNutt describes the current state of deep ocean exploration. She explains how we can travel to the ocean floor to learn about new species and how climate change is affecting the oceans.
