Cazmeus TED used to be a bag of gems. But now it's a big bag of turds, with some gems in it. I'd say there are the same number of gems. It's just that putting your hand in there to pick them out has become increasingly off-putting.
MasTer0fLOL To sprinkle a bit of emotive language into a talk to make it a bit more exciting can be okay, I think. As long as it's not used to drive points across, but instead to emotionally sum up points already made. I don't know if his talk adheres to this. I'm not inclined to re-watch it just to check, but there was nothing that jumped out at me when I watched it.
About an eighth of the geographical area (in the SE) has almost 90% of its total population. The rest (seven eighths) is sparsely populated or even less and so, can't be compared to the mega-cities in the rest. In any case Australia(the sixth largest country) is very remote, considering the population.
he's a good storyteller and a good salesman. The irony is that we are more connected than we have ever been yet we don't even make eye contact with the person next to us on the trains he speaks of because were staring at our phone instead.
+LotusEater Starts at 13:56. I didn't quote it word for word but its practically the same thing I wrote. He says ''North America doesn't need more walls it needs connections''
Awesome talk, one interconnected society is a dream of mine and many others, and to see Mr. Khanna talk about connectivity between mega-cities really gives me hope that my dream is achievable in the future.
I am so relieved to see that people are speaking about the power of urbanization as a tool to curb population growth (by empowering women with eduction and family planning), addressing climate change (through the efficient use of energy resources) and easing conflict. It's an optimistic message for a planet sliding into climate change and the millions that are already being displaced by rising seas and water shortages. I hope the Coronavirus pandemic hasn't interrupted this hopeful path into the future.
Because a country has so many alies (which isn't a bad thing), when ever there is tension with another country, many other countries join in to help either side. Today, rivalry between two countries is always called the next world war, because of how a country is connected and supported by others. I really like this connectivity idea and hope it dosnt lead to a major war between several countries just because two countries have rivalry
Well Portland and Seattle are shown as part of a mega-city, despite being ~170 miles from each other and having only around 600k population each. But London is only ~120 miles from Birmingham, and both of those cities have over 1 million inhabitants. Bristol is also closer to London than Portland is to Seattle, and has 400k people, and Coventry is very close to London, and has 300k people. That's a far bigger megacity than Portland-Seattle. You also have Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Blackpool and Sheffield, which are all pretty big and all close to one another.
***** I was listing city proper populations, which are in the region of 600k for both Seattle and Portland. Metropolitan areas are much different. Seattle's metro area is 3.7m, Portland is 2.3m, London is 13.8m, The Birmingham area (west midlands) population is 5.6m. So even looking by metro areas, Birmingham-London is still far more populated and more densely packed than Portland-Seattle, which means it is a more effective Megacity
if you look at the structure of my comment, that's pretty much what it implies... that human civilization will already have become a planetary civilization, now looking at other star systems in our galaxy
hopefully, but that we would also keep our own cultures, heritage, and values per region, no mass migration to all continents of the world, otherwise i have no problem with that
The problem with his viewpoint is that it ignores all sorts of socio-political realities in favor of a one-world economy. He also distorts the facts on the ground to fit his agenda. While I agree that connectivity can build relationships, it must be done without sacrificing identity.
+scrwbll19: I don't mind that the ideas of identity and nationalism may disappear in the near future. the fact that its disappearing just freaks you and me out because we were brought up in a nation state mind where competition was key. but only focusing on the best nations ends up being very inefficient because of all the valuable resources, goods, and ideas can come from anywhere in our one world. and it also ends up creating terrible bitter divides among people. we have to remember that we are all just one species after all. but the more I think about it, the fall of nations states should not be much of a surprise since villages tribes empires have fallen before.
+NoFroJo What you and he are saying would be fine, if you want to ignore history. Czechoslavakia, Yugoslavia, the Middle Eastern countries were countries that were created for convenience post-war. They were not formed along sociological borders and boundaries between groups that often hated and still hate each other. Forcing them together has not resulted in peace, only death, terrorism, oppression, etc. History matters, and so does identity, which is formed by history. Trade and commerce won't change that alone.
I'm not suggesting that they should be forced to come together. nor am I suggesting that a connected world is perfect and the peak of human aggregation. It definitely has flaws. im just saying that a world where people worry about stupid and irreverent things like race and religion for the sake of "identity" is not as good as a global world where our identity is humanity. and as for those little squabbles like war and terrorism are just growing pains that will probably ease in the coming decades. it required two plus one cold war for us to get from the industrial revolution to the modern era.
+NoFroJo Race, religion, etc. are not the problem. The problem is when people use those as negative identity markers over against others. That is a choice - one that can be helped by teaching children history and love. The assumption that conflict is bad, and the absence of conduct is peace, runs aground when people and groups who disagree can still choose to love the other.
Fantastic speech! This IS our destiny. We must realize the global community and start building the bridges that will connect all of us. We must do this. We will do this.Thanks, Mr. Khanna
+FortuitusVideo Not very topical I would assume. The more you urbanise the more your diet changes. The more food you will need to import or grow. Look at how Korea and China as well as Saudi Arabia are leasing farm land in Africa.
+Tracey Brown Sadly that's how it is now. But in the future we will probably see greenhouse towers and apartment with greenhouses attached to them and such. The technology already exists.
+Tracey Brown Actually in some European cities there is a movement in order to create small cells of urban agriculture because even thought mega cities are "a thing" now they are unsustainable as they are now in the long run.
+SuperPig Technology has existed for 87 years (founded in 1929) and what has not existed or even been promulgated is the political will to stipulate that all buildings of all design must incorporate green technologies that extend past the simplistic insulation and heat management laws. We can have the future, but we have to lobby not just for that future in concept but in changing the needed to be changed building construction rules and laws that will bring that future into now.
+keeperofthegood I agree tgat knowledge and thecnology exist for a long time but I think the problem is more a mixture of lack of culture, the old American mentality if sproll city, cost and private interests. Land is every day more expensive in megacities and a farm is not as "productive" as skycrapers, without thaking in consideration the noise, smell and what not. So the citizens, goverment and private coorporations should force some kind of agreement between transport, services and labbour culture. There is not an easy solution to this, we as humans need to change and start to think in a more communal wellness before is to late. I apologise for any grammar and spelling mistake, English is not my first language.
Asserting the importance to functional geography over political geography, the thinker, strategist Parag Khanna gives a riveting talk about the evolution of mega city clusters across the globe. It's very exciting, informative and thoroughly researched and persuasively presented scholarly work. Highly recommended to everyone.
As a libertarian I love decentralisation so long as the collectivism of the Greeks is avoided. We are not cogs in a machine and the closer we can place sovereignty in the hands of the individual, the better.
Excellent talk by Parag Khanna, A Great Speaker like this takes you some where, and builds the true picture of the world rather than one hanging in the wall.
The purpose of Ted talks are to spread ideas all over the world. Several countries don't have english as their first language, and many people are not tech savvy enough to slow the video down to x0.8 or x0.7 to listen( or to read the transcipt without having to pause the video frequently). Talking slowly means that they can be understood easier. For those who wants to save time, they can always listen to the video at x1.5, even x2.0 speed for some videos.
If I were a multi-millionaire, your average rich but not super rich guy, should I invest my money into infrastructure, or park it on Wall Street and let it create more "assets" for me out of thin air? Sadly most of these people are not visionary enough to pick the first choice. As for the billionaires? Forget it, most of them helped in creating this number game purely based on an abstract value called "investor confidence".
You got to understand that money is not money..it's currency...or fiduciary faith on those papers... Is worth nothing... And the stock market is a big scam. Nothing else.. If you do have a little currency in the stock market i do suggest to get it out and invest it... When the market crashes you won't have nothing... Its all fake stocks... Be carefull
Excellent Excellent Excellent. Parag is insightful, engaging and most importantly in distributing the facts about our world today and in the future he outlines how we can solve our collective issues through urbanization and connectivity. After all, we're all in this together. Megacities are just a fascinating concept, pleasure to have someone do the topic justice. One of the best TED Talks I've seen, certainly the best this year.
It seems to me that he is very optimistic, but connection is definitely key to the future. Although, I'm not sure how much the religious people of the world want connectivity. I sometimes wonder if beliefs are the death of all reasonable thoughts...
7:37 kind of amazing how New Delhi and Islamabad are so interconnected in terms of dense population, despite the constant hostility between India and Pakistan.
Great talk. I would counter only that the notion of "connectivity" as discussed here reflects evolving scales and conceptualizations of geography, rather than a completely-new framework. Location still matters.
True. And the pandemic has thrown an unforeseen wrench into the works. That said, I think it's a great idea to leverage older approaches to urbanization (trains, mass transit, walkability) in new ways. We can scale up instead of out, and empower young women around the globe by giving them access to family planning and education (slowing population growth). Scaling can mean different things. We could scale resource efficiency, for instance, building housing that shares a common heating/cooling source or employing workers that don't have to drive to an office. That would do a lot more to curb climate change that electric cars or reusable bags. And a parting though, maybe some regions might be able to improve their lot by becoming resource-rich in non-traditional ways... like developing unique intellectual capital...
Exactly. Earth Mother has natural borders. Seas oceans mountain ranges rivers lakes rifts and ditches. This guy is a text book hero. Nothing more. Big fail. Big fail because his lab coat analysis sucks. The version of correction given in this talk is contrary to nature. Person below rants about "we can take a the next step into the space era". Good. All - youse borderless proselytisers can bung yourselves into a crypt and send yourself into an abyss. Good bye and good riddance!
Connectivity is just one part of what we need. Water, food, clean air, economy etc. We connect to places because of their substance, if Sahara had great connectivity who would live there ? We are part of nature and we live in places which are able to provide our needs
+J PEREZ I agree, thats why all of the western hemisphere, from canada to south america should bow down, get annexed and be part of the a new American Empire mwahaha. I kid, but that would be the best way for the future
Really interesting talk. I support the ideas of greater connectivity and better infrastructures, as well as cities are more ecologically responsible. I do worry about the place of rural countries and the gaps between urban centers that were not addressed in this version of the future.
We need more wilderness areas and preserves. The ideas presented in this talk would certainly go a long way towards solving human problems, but they would cause massive disruption of the natural world as well. To turn the world into a vast connected human city would be to ignore our responsibility to care for species other than us.
Urban is sustainable. We use electric cars however it will destroy more land for mining. We can build 3D farms like a skyscraper that will save A LOT of land. TO actually solve these problems we need to mine asteroids for resources and leave our planet alone.
You're completely neglecting the fact that most urbanized areas have suburban outskirts. You're also forgetting that no one takes better care of their land than the people who own it. You've made a very fallacious remark buddy.
Wtf are you talking about? These global megacities take up more than half the populations of the countries they're located in. In Latin America, 82% of the population lives in these cities. That's a lot of rural space.
There are so many interweaving forces influencing the world. I just hope I can have the luck to witness an upward trend of surroundings for my fellow human-beings.
A huge part of what he highlighted as "European Union". is actually Russia. He failed to locate Russia on the map and, from that, drew a conclusion that Russia somehow "disturbs the system"
This is exactly what China is trying to do, the Belt and Road Initiative, connecting Asia, Europe and Africa! Chinese culture is a culture of peace, through our more than 4000 years of history of peace and turmoil Chinese have learned that negotiation is always better than war.
Megacities have always been fascinating to me, whether in cyberpunk fiction like Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Heng Sha is one of my favorite fictional settings ever) and New Mombasa, Kenya in Halo. So cool.
Dirk De Schepper It might not be important in some respects, but I think it's important for multiculturalism. People from all over the world want to go to Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei, New York, London, and so on regardless of where they originate from. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Less people on our planet, and a 100% transparent system where everybody has the same say/vote. That is my humble wish :) Tnx for making people think :)
None of this will work until IQ/Race/Genetics denial becomes accepted and studied by mainstream science. The fact is that average IQ of some regions are higher, and IQ in some regions are lower. You can throw trillions of dollars into low IQ regions (which is what we've been doing for the last several decades) and it doesn't work. Resources have to be allocated intelligently, and scientists (not politicians) have to take a serious look at IQ and race/genetics so that resources are not wasted if our true goal is to help bring the standard of living up for all humans.
Have Italians lost individuality by being in the EU? Have texans lost individuality by being in the US? The same argument could be used for living in a isolated shack in the wilderness: If i build a road to the village, I'll lose individuality?... No, but I'll have healthcare, education and opportunities. What even is this primitive individuality we talk of? If we value it so much, lets go back to individual tribes, or even regress to solitary animals like polar bears (who don't see a fellow species member for months on end).
The part about Russia was absolute bullshit. First, the picture at 13:19 is misleading because only Europe is lighted up, making it look like the East isn't connected at all. Second of all, considering the sparse population and the vast amount of land it is impressive how it is still just as connected as Scandinavian countries, Spain, Italy and most of France. Germany has an incredibly dense population so it is obviously very lit up in the picture. Saying they aren't "as connected" as an excuse for geopolitical tensions is condescending and only increases that tension.
+James Rustles He used this image ( www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/712130main_8246931247_e60f3c09fb_o.jpg ) as the basis for his graphics. It's a great image, and can be used in all sorts of classes, from Geography and History to Economy and Medicine. I've spent a couple hours studying it in depth (yes, it's that high resolution). It's also outdated, though, and doesn't account for density of population, just for the area covered by the sprawls. That said, his statement that Russia is "not as connected" comes not from the overlayed maps, but from the data the maps were drawn based on. His argument is basically that less economic integration makes countries more likely to go rogue. He thinks it's a bad thing. I'd argue that's not always the case, and that selective non-integration can serve its purposes, but that would be a subject for another talk.
Nivesh Proag Based on your name. I assume that you are, like me, from India. We have plenty of business/military/technology/nuclear cooperation with China, Russia and USA. There is no point for us to engage in a toxic war with either of the 3 powers since we gain from having relations with them and don't lose much (unlike many small nations that lose national sovereignty and gain unfair deals because they are small weak nations). Its best if we use our resources for development. It may not be ethically correct to engage with brutal dictatorships like China, but hey, as long as we aren't funding Chinese atrocities, its not our fight.
Great talk .I loved your perspective and could not be in agreement more. I wish the new Govt in India which will be sworn in post May 23, 2019 will employ people like you in policy making roles.
Connectivity depends on fuel for vehicles - dwindling Petroleum products. This will put an upper bound on "Connectivity" or at least refashion it. Electric Cars are the new entrant. But it will depend on more & more power packed batteries, still to evolve. For these, Electricity supply is through 'charging' for which mega power generating plants are required which need 'fuel' - either coal, petro- based fuels & lately 'nuclear' power. U235 power generation is old hat & Thorium based power projects struggle to come up (against the U235 entrenched, nuclear power plants). Air-transport will grow exponentially & is based on petro-based 'ATF' that will rule for the next century at least. Electrical Battery based aero engines are being dreamt of, but will take at least a century.
Very interesting, but I have not heard about unavoidable issues related to the development of cities and infrastructure; such as land use, cementation, reduction of eco-system services and other impoverishments.
“When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will” ~ Frederic Bastiat
Finally someone who gives me some optimism for the future!
Functional geography over Political geography. My new favorite phrase.
Johan Johansson yes biosphere divides more by ecoregions linking nature to urban areas all connected in a network
Functional geography is political geography.
Best TED talk this year.
Agreed
+FeedbackJack agreed, sadly that's not saying much...
+FeedbackJack I liked it, but he manipulated few time.
Cazmeus
TED used to be a bag of gems. But now it's a big bag of turds, with some gems in it. I'd say there are the same number of gems. It's just that putting your hand in there to pick them out has become increasingly off-putting.
MasTer0fLOL
To sprinkle a bit of emotive language into a talk to make it a bit more exciting can be okay, I think. As long as it's not used to drive points across, but instead to emotionally sum up points already made.
I don't know if his talk adheres to this. I'm not inclined to re-watch it just to check, but there was nothing that jumped out at me when I watched it.
Australia really isn't getting invited to this party.
+Liam.M Well New Zealand wasn't even on the map..
Because Australia is Upside down.
Very difficult to connect railways tho.
See all the lights in the middle of australian outback.... pretty sure like 50k people living there......
About an eighth of the geographical area (in the SE) has almost 90% of its total population. The rest (seven eighths) is sparsely populated or even less and so, can't be compared to the mega-cities in the rest. In any case Australia(the sixth largest country) is very remote, considering the population.
@Christie Kaiser! How much of RBI is under Rothschild family stake?
he's a good storyteller and a good salesman. The irony is that we are more connected than we have ever been yet we don't even make eye contact with the person next to us on the trains he speaks of because were staring at our phone instead.
that is not remotely the same topic. That is more psychology than economy and geography. You are literally equating a chicken to an cassowary.
@@leiajiang7877 cassowaries are more like velociraptors than chickens.
Superb talk filled with positivity and enthusiasm. Deserved a standing ovation.
Gives me hope for a better future. Loved the ''North America needs more connection than walls''
+İlyas Luka
Trump reference.
Attila the Fun Yup.
+İlyas Luka Where? pls do you know the time stamp?
+LotusEater Starts at 13:56. I didn't quote it word for word but its practically the same thing I wrote. He says ''North America doesn't need more walls it needs connections''
+İlyas Luka HAHA 13:56 very true..... thank you....
Awesome talk, one interconnected society is a dream of mine and many others, and to see Mr. Khanna talk about connectivity between mega-cities really gives me hope that my dream is achievable in the future.
I am so relieved to see that people are speaking about the power of urbanization as a tool to curb population growth (by empowering women with eduction and family planning), addressing climate change (through the efficient use of energy resources) and easing conflict. It's an optimistic message for a planet sliding into climate change and the millions that are already being displaced by rising seas and water shortages. I hope the Coronavirus pandemic hasn't interrupted this hopeful path into the future.
Because a country has so many alies (which isn't a bad thing), when ever there is tension with another country, many other countries join in to help either side. Today, rivalry between two countries is always called the next world war, because of how a country is connected and supported by others. I really like this connectivity idea and hope it dosnt lead to a major war between several countries just because two countries have rivalry
Odd that he barely spent any time speaking about Western Europe, even though that's by far the most interconnected part of the world.
Apart from, you know, all of Western Europe?
Well Portland and Seattle are shown as part of a mega-city, despite being ~170 miles from each other and having only around 600k population each.
But London is only ~120 miles from Birmingham, and both of those cities have over 1 million inhabitants. Bristol is also closer to London than Portland is to Seattle, and has 400k people, and Coventry is very close to London, and has 300k people. That's a far bigger megacity than Portland-Seattle.
You also have Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Blackpool and Sheffield, which are all pretty big and all close to one another.
Legally, there are much bigger divisions between US states than UK counties.
It's astronomically closer to London than Seattle is to Portland.
***** I was listing city proper populations, which are in the region of 600k for both Seattle and Portland. Metropolitan areas are much different. Seattle's metro area is 3.7m, Portland is 2.3m, London is 13.8m, The Birmingham area (west midlands) population is 5.6m. So even looking by metro areas, Birmingham-London is still far more populated and more densely packed than Portland-Seattle, which means it is a more effective Megacity
He wants to sound so epic that his voice sounds so weirdly intense, it kind of creeps me out.
I would love to live 1000 years and see the heights the human civilization will reach... a planetary civilization with it's eyes towards the stars.
+endoftheroad a planetary civilization will be way before a thousand years.
if you look at the structure of my comment, that's pretty much what it implies... that human civilization will already have become a planetary civilization, now looking at other star systems in our galaxy
endoftheroad My mistake but I think we will reach Alpha centauri before the end of the millennium.
hopefully, but that we would also keep our own cultures, heritage, and values per region, no mass migration to all continents of the world, otherwise i have no problem with that
Literally just sobbed my way through watching this. There is nothing I believe in more than the power of sustainable urbanization.
The problem with his viewpoint is that it ignores all sorts of socio-political realities in favor of a one-world economy. He also distorts the facts on the ground to fit his agenda. While I agree that connectivity can build relationships, it must be done without sacrificing identity.
+scrwbll19: I don't mind that the ideas of identity and nationalism may disappear in the near future. the fact that its disappearing just freaks you and me out because we were brought up in a nation state mind where competition was key. but only focusing on the best nations ends up being very inefficient because of all the valuable resources, goods, and ideas can come from anywhere in our one world. and it also ends up creating terrible bitter divides among people. we have to remember that we are all just one species after all. but the more I think about it, the fall of nations states should not be much of a surprise since villages tribes empires have fallen before.
+NoFroJo What you and he are saying would be fine, if you want to ignore history. Czechoslavakia, Yugoslavia, the Middle Eastern countries were countries that were created for convenience post-war. They were not formed along sociological borders and boundaries between groups that often hated and still hate each other. Forcing them together has not resulted in peace, only death, terrorism, oppression, etc. History matters, and so does identity, which is formed by history. Trade and commerce won't change that alone.
I'm not suggesting that they should be forced to come together. nor am I suggesting that a connected world is perfect and the peak of human aggregation. It definitely has flaws. im just saying that a world where people worry about stupid and irreverent things like race and religion for the sake of "identity" is not as good as a global world where our identity is humanity. and as for those little squabbles like war and terrorism are just growing pains that will probably ease in the coming decades. it required two plus one cold war for us to get from the industrial revolution to the modern era.
+NoFroJo Race, religion, etc. are not the problem. The problem is when people use those as negative identity markers over against others. That is a choice - one that can be helped by teaching children history and love. The assumption that conflict is bad, and the absence of conduct is peace, runs aground when people and groups who disagree can still choose to love the other.
Why? I mean why is a particular identity important.
I am definitely part of this by choice. This is the manifestation of the Oneness we all originate from. Brilliantly presented. Bravo !
Fantastic speech! This IS our destiny. We must realize the global community and start building the bridges that will connect all of us. We must do this. We will do this.Thanks, Mr. Khanna
He never once mentioned food.
+FortuitusVideo Not very topical I would assume. The more you urbanise the more your diet changes. The more food you will need to import or grow. Look at how Korea and China as well as Saudi Arabia are leasing farm land in Africa.
+Tracey Brown Sadly that's how it is now. But in the future we will probably see greenhouse towers and apartment with greenhouses attached to them and such. The technology already exists.
+Tracey Brown Actually in some European cities there is a movement in order to create small cells of urban agriculture because even thought mega cities are "a thing" now they are unsustainable as they are now in the long run.
+SuperPig Technology has existed for 87 years (founded in 1929) and what has not existed or even been promulgated is the political will to stipulate that all buildings of all design must incorporate green technologies that extend past the simplistic insulation and heat management laws. We can have the future, but we have to lobby not just for that future in concept but in changing the needed to be changed building construction rules and laws that will bring that future into now.
+keeperofthegood I agree tgat knowledge and thecnology exist for a long time but I think the problem is more a mixture of lack of culture, the old American mentality if sproll city, cost and private interests. Land is every day more expensive in megacities and a farm is not as "productive" as skycrapers, without thaking in consideration the noise, smell and what not. So the citizens, goverment and private coorporations should force some kind of agreement between transport, services and labbour culture. There is not an easy solution to this, we as humans need to change and start to think in a more communal wellness before is to late. I apologise for any grammar and spelling mistake, English is not my first language.
Asserting the importance to functional geography over political geography, the thinker, strategist Parag Khanna gives a riveting talk about the evolution of mega city clusters across the globe. It's very exciting, informative and thoroughly researched and persuasively presented scholarly work. Highly recommended to everyone.
As a libertarian I love decentralisation so long as the collectivism of the Greeks is avoided. We are not cogs in a machine and the closer we can place sovereignty in the hands of the individual, the better.
agreed, national borders do nothing but divide
Poor Australia
Its an island.. Lol
its still a continent with large cities
Titancraft I know they shouldn't have missed it but sad...
Excellent talk by Parag Khanna, A Great Speaker like this takes you some where, and builds the true picture of the world rather than one hanging in the wall.
These TED talks are very visionary and ideological.
change play speed to 1.25
many ted talkers are talking slowly for some reason..
+Kongolox They're going for that pondus but it just means less information in the end.
The purpose of Ted talks are to spread ideas all over the world. Several countries don't have english as their first language, and many people are not tech savvy enough to slow the video down to x0.8 or x0.7 to listen( or to read the transcipt without having to pause the video frequently). Talking slowly means that they can be understood easier. For those who wants to save time, they can always listen to the video at x1.5, even x2.0 speed for some videos.
i make this
That was so powerful! Wonderful speaker... even though I don't agree with all the things he said :)
If I were a multi-millionaire, your average rich but not super rich guy, should I invest my money into infrastructure, or park it on Wall Street and let it create more "assets" for me out of thin air? Sadly most of these people are not visionary enough to pick the first choice.
As for the billionaires? Forget it, most of them helped in creating this number game purely based on an abstract value called "investor confidence".
You got to understand that money is not money..it's currency...or fiduciary faith on those papers... Is worth nothing... And the stock market is a big scam. Nothing else.. If you do have a little currency in the stock market i do suggest to get it out and invest it... When the market crashes you won't have nothing... Its all fake stocks... Be carefull
Excellent Excellent Excellent. Parag is insightful, engaging and most importantly in distributing the facts about our world today and in the future he outlines how we can solve our collective issues through urbanization and connectivity. After all, we're all in this together. Megacities are just a fascinating concept, pleasure to have someone do the topic justice. One of the best TED Talks I've seen, certainly the best this year.
I've NEVER heard such an analogy. How lovely.
That was a really good, positive talk
Coruscant.
It seems to me that he is very optimistic, but connection is definitely key to the future. Although, I'm not sure how much the religious people of the world want connectivity. I sometimes wonder if beliefs are the death of all reasonable thoughts...
7:37 kind of amazing how New Delhi and Islamabad are so interconnected in terms of dense population, despite the constant hostility between India and Pakistan.
There's one important thing we've lost connection to, the stars above. I can literally count how many there are where I live.
I wrote a paper on this. Our word would be better off if there wasnt as much sprawl and more verticality in city planning.
Great talk. I would counter only that the notion of "connectivity" as discussed here reflects evolving scales and conceptualizations of geography, rather than a completely-new framework. Location still matters.
True. And the pandemic has thrown an unforeseen wrench into the works. That said, I think it's a great idea to leverage older approaches to urbanization (trains, mass transit, walkability) in new ways. We can scale up instead of out, and empower young women around the globe by giving them access to family planning and education (slowing population growth). Scaling can mean different things. We could scale resource efficiency, for instance, building housing that shares a common heating/cooling source or employing workers that don't have to drive to an office. That would do a lot more to curb climate change that electric cars or reusable bags. And a parting though, maybe some regions might be able to improve their lot by becoming resource-rich in non-traditional ways... like developing unique intellectual capital...
Extraordinary discussion. You cant deny it.
Really interesting! Thank You.
seamless world through connectivity is the way to go, but many countries are not ready still battling with the basics of life
Honest, enlightening and hopeful - an exceptional TED talk
The way of speaking good he talked about mega cities are good. we need to created mega infrastructure for cities and we can integrated the world.
Awesome!! Right up till the end where the Earth (Terra) is depicted rotating the whole direction
Nice dream.
Ugly reality.
😂
Exactly. Earth Mother has natural borders. Seas oceans mountain ranges rivers lakes rifts and ditches. This guy is a text book hero. Nothing more. Big fail. Big fail because his lab coat analysis sucks. The version of correction given in this talk is contrary to nature. Person below rants about "we can take a the next step into the space era". Good. All - youse borderless proselytisers can bung yourselves into a crypt and send yourself into an abyss. Good bye and good riddance!
Amazingly well spoken person and very intriguing to listen to. Thanks for sharing.
Who else can only see a derpy smiley face at 7:53 ?
o u O
Me
Conectivity equals interdependancy. There will always be conflicts (big or small) but peace is a reachable goal... And we can see it from here.
"North America does not need more walls, it needs more connections!" Bravo sir!
Yet some countries get to have boundaries and preservation of their way of life.
and American cities are now rotting from within due to an open border. Bravo sir!
Connectivity is just one part of what we need. Water, food, clean air, economy etc. We connect to places because of their substance, if Sahara had great connectivity who would live there ? We are part of nature and we live in places which are able to provide our needs
he his inspiring so many people to improve our future
MY FACE IS MELTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“But building mare connectivity is how we put Humpty Dumpty Back together” Best part of the video
This is great! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
This still my favorite video on the internet
ITS TRUE ALL OF AMERICA FROM NORTH TO SOUTH NEEDS TO BE MORE UNITED FOR THE BETTER OF HUMANITY IN GENERAL.....!!!
+J PEREZ I agree, thats why all of the western hemisphere, from canada to south america should bow down, get annexed and be part of the a new American Empire mwahaha. I kid, but that would be the best way for the future
this helps me in learning
Really interesting talk. I support the ideas of greater connectivity and better infrastructures, as well as cities are more ecologically responsible. I do worry about the place of rural countries and the gaps between urban centers that were not addressed in this version of the future.
We need more wilderness areas and preserves.
The ideas presented in this talk would certainly go a long way towards solving human problems, but they would cause massive disruption of the natural world as well. To turn the world into a vast connected human city would be to ignore our responsibility to care for species other than us.
+Reed Spurling By concentrating most humans in megacities, you would free up space for the wild.
Urban is sustainable. We use electric cars however it will destroy more land for mining. We can build 3D farms like a skyscraper that will save A LOT of land. TO actually solve these problems we need to mine asteroids for resources and leave our planet alone.
You're completely neglecting the fact that most urbanized areas have suburban outskirts. You're also forgetting that no one takes better care of their land than the people who own it. You've made a very fallacious remark buddy.
Wtf are you talking about? These global megacities take up more than half the populations of the countries they're located in. In Latin America, 82% of the population lives in these cities. That's a lot of rural space.
There are so many interweaving forces influencing the world. I just hope I can have the luck to witness an upward trend of surroundings for my fellow human-beings.
We need Boarders without them we don't have a country.
Globalization.
This guy should get Nobel Peace prize for this idea 🙏
Feels good to get an actual Ted Talk as opposed to the SJW bullshit that's been getting thrown at us recently.
You must not understand the point of Ted Talks.
...or the nature of SJW bullshit.
The execution of the speech is almost perfect
A huge part of what he highlighted as "European Union". is actually Russia. He failed to locate Russia on the map and, from that, drew a conclusion that Russia somehow "disturbs the system"
Excellent presentation!!!
A sense a hint of Globalism here....
Would be nice if your fairy tale included, you know, some reflection of the realities on the ground.
Based
This is exactly what China is trying to do, the Belt and Road Initiative, connecting Asia, Europe and Africa! Chinese culture is a culture of peace, through our more than 4000 years of history of peace and turmoil Chinese have learned that negotiation is always better than war.
Megacities have always been fascinating to me, whether in cyberpunk fiction like Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Heng Sha is one of my favorite fictional settings ever) and New Mombasa, Kenya in Halo. So cool.
+Polonium Fist Very cool. Just not actually very important
Dirk De Schepper It might not be important in some respects, but I think it's important for multiculturalism. People from all over the world want to go to Tokyo, Shanghai, Taipei, New York, London, and so on regardless of where they originate from. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Pax Aseana ❤️
It's an exciting time to be alive.
Interesting lecture, but this economic stability argument is exactly why people could not believe WW1 would happen.
moving to such a mega-city format of legislation would disadvantage people living in rural areas even more so than they are now
Sooo.... Lima is on the map at 8:37 but the entire Toronto area isn't??
Less people on our planet, and a 100% transparent system where everybody has the same say/vote. That is my humble wish :) Tnx for making people think :)
great talk!!
A stunning presentation
None of this will work until IQ/Race/Genetics denial becomes accepted and studied by mainstream science. The fact is that average IQ of some regions are higher, and IQ in some regions are lower. You can throw trillions of dollars into low IQ regions (which is what we've been doing for the last several decades) and it doesn't work. Resources have to be allocated intelligently, and scientists (not politicians) have to take a serious look at IQ and race/genetics so that resources are not wasted if our true goal is to help bring the standard of living up for all humans.
+ZP Spoken like a truly deluded eugenicist. Bravo to you.
Have Italians lost individuality by being in the EU? Have texans lost individuality by being in the US? The same argument could be used for living in a isolated shack in the wilderness: If i build a road to the village, I'll lose individuality?... No, but I'll have healthcare, education and opportunities.
What even is this primitive individuality we talk of? If we value it so much, lets go back to individual tribes, or even regress to solitary animals like polar bears (who don't see a fellow species member for months on end).
Really interesting talk!
greatest century of all time
I live just outside of dc in Maryland. And there's just complete urbanized city for miles and miles, farther than I've even seen.
Some of it is interesting. But in the long arc of the future he discusses, the major geopolitics of fossil is most likely supplanted by renewables
Connectivity in the Middle East? Checkout the Saudi Vision 2030 released April 24,2016. Truly promising!
such an interesting talk!
Incredible oratory!
Throw a few more obvious buzzwords in there why don't you. Decent talk either way though.
+Siren Apple So true. Had to hit unlike after "quantum leap". Nice talk, tho.
Parag is the man.
I like this a lot. Thank you
Amazing stuff! I like this guy
Great time to be alive
true trade deals like tpp is bad but still connectivity done properly is great for humanity
Furthermore, the slowness and the quality of the movements should be reevaluated in contrast to the frenzy city life.
this all sounds too good to be true
The part about Russia was absolute bullshit. First, the picture at 13:19 is misleading because only Europe is lighted up, making it look like the East isn't connected at all. Second of all, considering the sparse population and the vast amount of land it is impressive how it is still just as connected as Scandinavian countries, Spain, Italy and most of France. Germany has an incredibly dense population so it is obviously very lit up in the picture. Saying they aren't "as connected" as an excuse for geopolitical tensions is condescending and only increases that tension.
+James Rustles He used this image ( www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/712130main_8246931247_e60f3c09fb_o.jpg ) as the basis for his graphics. It's a great image, and can be used in all sorts of classes, from Geography and History to Economy and Medicine. I've spent a couple hours studying it in depth (yes, it's that high resolution). It's also outdated, though, and doesn't account for density of population, just for the area covered by the sprawls. That said, his statement that Russia is "not as connected" comes not from the overlayed maps, but from the data the maps were drawn based on.
His argument is basically that less economic integration makes countries more likely to go rogue. He thinks it's a bad thing. I'd argue that's not always the case, and that selective non-integration can serve its purposes, but that would be a subject for another talk.
+James Rustles
I certainly can agree with your last sentence. There's no point for any nation to engage Russia/China.
+Attila the Fun why not?
Nivesh Proag Based on your name. I assume that you are, like me, from India.
We have plenty of business/military/technology/nuclear cooperation with China, Russia and USA. There is no point for us to engage in a toxic war with either of the 3 powers since we gain from having relations with them and don't lose much (unlike many small nations that lose national sovereignty and gain unfair deals because they are small weak nations). Its best if we use our resources for development.
It may not be ethically correct to engage with brutal dictatorships like China, but hey, as long as we aren't funding Chinese atrocities, its not our fight.
Attila the Fun Would you say the same about North Korea? (BTW I'm Mauritian, but with Indian ancestors)
14:00 a post colonial world? It seems like this is Colonialism on a global scale?
an eye opener
Forget about history, territories, language, culture...here comes the New World Order...sponsored by TED
Great talk .I loved your perspective and could not be in agreement more. I wish the new Govt in India which will be sworn in post May 23, 2019 will employ people like you in policy making roles.
Connectivity depends on fuel for vehicles - dwindling Petroleum products. This will put an upper bound on "Connectivity" or at least refashion it. Electric Cars are the new entrant. But it will depend on more & more power packed batteries, still to evolve. For these, Electricity supply is through 'charging' for which mega power generating plants are required which need 'fuel' - either coal, petro- based fuels & lately 'nuclear' power. U235 power generation is old hat & Thorium based power projects struggle to come up (against the U235 entrenched, nuclear power plants). Air-transport will grow exponentially & is based on petro-based 'ATF' that will rule for the next century at least. Electrical Battery based aero engines are being dreamt of, but will take at least a century.
Amazing...
Very interesting, but I have not heard about unavoidable issues related to the development of cities and infrastructure; such as land use, cementation, reduction of eco-system services and other impoverishments.