Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
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- Опубликовано: 19 мар 2008
- www.ted.com - Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent's creative potential, we can create a change in Africa's future. Turok asks the TED community to help him expand the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences by opening 15 new centers across Africa in five years. By adding resources for entrepreneurship to this proven model, he says, we can create a network for progress across the continent -- and perhaps discover an African Einstein.
This speech lifted my mood better than any comedy on RUclips would have. I feel so happy about what has been done and I don't even have anything to do with Africa. TED is amazing, it brings back my faith in humanity, which the mainstream media often reduces.
Neil Turok is god's gift to humanity, there are many TED lectures, this one is special!
Neil Truck i call him smiling genius and Blessing for the physics who is sincere and great scientist
SUCH an inspiring story!
i love how TED focuses on africa a lot. a 7th of all people live there. and most do not get enough education. there's SO much potential for science there. also the culture is very friendly and warm. good-hearted scientists with super social skills will come from there. and of course hawking is part of it. rock on, hawking!
This man (contrary to the previous videos guest K.Armstrong) is actually doing something, and with results and quite remarkable ones!
I fully support this, more ppl like him are needed in the world.
I LIKE NEIL TUROK
Im sick of myself when i see what this man accomplished..
GOD BLESS YOU PROFESSOR
touches our hearts by doing
Awesome talk.
Turok is a great scientist! The fact that he's a director of the Perimeter institute speaks bags about his talent.
Beautiful
I found myself applauding with the audience. Here, in the United States, Oprah seemed to be the only hope for South African education producing intellectual leaders to solve Africa's problems.
How wonderful to see AIMS is inclusive of both sexes and the whole continent is involved.
It is remarkable that this all started a short while ago, with only one hundred thousand dollars. I never did understand why Oprah spent so much for so few. Does Oprah and AIMS have any kind of partnership?
This guy is a true role model
Great Video.. Although he doesn't seem to realize that Africa was the first to contribute to everything we know today... That is not ego, just fact... So perhaps his ending should have read something like; "Our aim is to help get Africa back to where it was when it gave birth to the very things we cherish so much today, in order to bring about more greatness that otherwise may never surface..." I do love the fact that he realizes that the solution is Africa...
yeah! go Africa!
TED is awesome!
subscribed.
This man is incredible. This is exactly how Africa should develop
We must always be aware and alert to how we measure progress, if progress is what we really require. The application of knowledge has a primary directive: sustain life and protect culture and land.
Africa has plenty of water, good agricultural soil and pasture. In case your image of Africa is just the dustbowls you see on the news when Ethiopians are dying, most of the continent is actually lush and green, with tropical rainforests and vast open savannas. Starvation in Africa is first and foremost caused by failures of politics, with poor transport networks also playing a role. There are draughts of course, but first world nations like USA and Australia have those, and nobody starves.
One of my uncles (fairly distant like third uncle) took a test similar to the American SAT in kenya, scored the second highest, and got a full ride to a college in Boston. After graduating he went on to go to medical school and soon after became a doctor. Till this day, 19 years later he has yet to return to Africa. He is afraid to return to Somalia because of the tribal war that has been going on there since 1990. This is only one example of many where the educated Africans stay out of AFRICA.
Neil is my cousin...(seriously!!) oh my god!!! I am so impressed!!! I vote for the nobel prize too!!!
what a beautiful scheme
finally new intro music! halleluja! halleluja!
Europe had not one but TWO terrible world wars with acts of genocide far more brutal than anything Africa has gone through, and then had the Cold War etc. Africa's problems are not colonialism, they're not lack of resources, and they're certainly not caused by biological differences between Africans and Europeans. There is little about Africa that could not be solved by better education, an embrace of free market economics and a rule of law. (Europe dropping agri tariffs would help too)
Africa had its independence wars, and it won them. When the English were driven from America the country flourished because it had good leaders. The American Declaration of Independence is so remarkable that it remains powerfully stirring to this day. If the independence fighters of Africa had similar motivation, Africa would be a very different place. Unfortunately for the most part they only only fought to replace benevolent European dictatorships with their own malevolent local ones.
i wish i could go to that school
"What is the point of owning slaves if you don't make progress?"
Well to answer that we have to differentiate between the best interest of the slave owner, and the best interest of the nation.
Slave ownership made a few slave owners wealthy but overall hampered the economy, society as a whole would have been better off if they had paid the workers and turned them into aspirational consumers. Apart from anything else, paid workers have a much higher production output than slaves.
hell yeah bro
what kinds of things are they better at?
Sure, I didn't suggest that these issues can't be addressed simultaneously. I was just trying to make the point that other issues must be addressed in order for education to make real change in Africa. Sure there are some who will feel compelled to stay in Africa to help out their own countrymen after such education, but I believe most would leave the country and not come back due to security concerns and lack of economic opportunity.
I believe if such issues are addressed, globalization w/proper labor rights could possibly become a force of unimaginable good in Africa. If a case could be made that corporations could find cheap yet humane wages in Africa, then African countries could finally develop its economy and improve everything else as a result like disease prevention, humanitarian rights, education, and diplomacy between the many ethnic groups and clans that would have had hostility towards one another in the past.
Genius
i hope that AIM extends to involve children who cannot attend primary and/or secondary schools. i hope that Dr. Neil will remember or i should say not forget about those kids as well. and i also hope that we have 'AIM' in middle east too, because the level of education is falling exponentially over there...
"As I recall on one documentary African tribes fought valiantly to no avail the Europeans due to refusal of acceptance of the railroads and modern structure."
The west had people like that also, the Luddites. Today there are few people who agree with them, they'd much rather have a long healthy prosperous life than a lifetime of backbreaking manual labor in the fields, and their core assertion that mechanisation creates unemployment is known to be complete and utter crap.
Wow he's the most nervous TED presenter I've seen.
Come again?
Wonder how many of the graduates will remain in Africa
Actually the more research is done in genetics, the more it shows that geographically isolated groups (races) are evolving even faster from one another, especially in the past few thousand years. Medicine research now takes into account these differences, to better treat the varying races. I believe humans are most valuable when we do more with less. Those who can't bring themselves out of their poverty should not bring more children into the world to suffer.
havent watched this yet
@RealDeal901 PROBABLY NOT, BUT HE IS A GREAT THEORETICAL PHYSICIST. BY THE WAY, YOUR CAPS LOCK WAS ON.
The most advanced parts of Africa, where Africans enjoy the highest standard of living, are where Western Europe has had the most influence. Even in apartheid South Africa, thousands of Africans wanted to move there since even the black South Africans had a higher standard of living than the rest of the continent.
Blood Diamonds by Campbell Greg explains the sad story behind. After reading it, my fiance and I decided to buy an engineered diamond as engagement.
they're not corrupt. they're operating as was intended, they're just dead set on oppressing people. that can be changed.
Give him a Nobel Prize
"Would paid workers work from dust till dawn seven days a week" This statement makes me wonder how old you are, and if you've ever had a job! Dusk till dawn are approximately the same number of hours I work per day, and I'm self employed. Electric lighting means I can sleep in later, and stay up later though.
Slaves aren't given productivity incentives, they're just whipped a lot. As a result they shirk the moment the boss' back is turned. Also, they were usually poorly trained.
Your stance is that intelligence is 100% environmental for humans. My stance is that the brain is formed by DNA from the parents, that any creature's intelligence is limited by their brain formation, though their cultural environment may determine how much of that inherent potential is reached. To deny inherent genius is to deny that evolution occurs.
It goes even deeper than that. The upper class usually either uses foreign aide or leaves the country to keep up their comfortable western lifestyle. Essentially not many people want to take their time and make things better when they can just leave or import western goods with western aide to escape the poverty of their countries.
"even though it was COUNTERPRODUCTIVE as you put it?"
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Armed with a modern understanding of economics and management we can now say that the whole idea of slavery was stupid.
That doesn't mean it wasn't profitable for the slave traders and slave owners, but the best analogy I think would be to compare it to the drug trade. It makes a minority wealthy but causes harm to the majority. A society without slaves is like a society without drug addicts.
Lots of civilisations have had disturbances of at least equal magnitude to colonialism. Asia had basically exactly the same experience but has not turned out anything like Africa. Many Asian countries followed up colonialism with Communist revolutions and wars which were at least as traumatic as the start and end of colonialism but have turned out completely differently. Not even Vietnam, which had brutal colonialism AND the Vietnam war AND communism has turned out as screwed up as Africa.
@goyavesETmangues
I meant "reality shutter"
"Native Africans need to take over their countries rich resources to provide for their own future" Can you cite any examples where forced nationalisation of foreign assets did NOT result in catastrophic outcomes for the economy?
Take the example of Venezuela. Until the 1950s it was one of the wealthiest countries in the world with a per capita GDP as high as anywhere. In the 1950s "patriotic" governments seized foreign businesses including oil cos, and this prosperity rapidly evaporated.
though i am immensely thankful for someone like this man to keep us safe from dinosaurs n shit
you need to take a statistics class, variability within groups does not eliminate the overall bell curve.
You should look at averages, not variability.
"Bold statement which you have no basis to prove that." Actually, I do. If you care to do a bit of research you'll find numerous economic papers and books have been written on the economics of slavery and the creation of a wealthy society, including many studying NAZI Germany's use of slavery in WW2. A good start would be "The Birth of Plenty" by William Bernstein, a very accessible book which asks the question, "why is it that some societies are wealthy while others are poor?"
"Medicine research now takes into account these differences, to better treat the varying races." Only to the extent that some races are known to be more subject to certain diseases than others, like Australian Aborigines and diabetes, and some races respond better to certain drugs. It doesn't follow however, nor it it true, that any of this implies superior intelligence potential or differences in personality beyond cultural conditioning.
"I mean compared to what? To mechanized labour, as you say?" No, I was quite explicit about comparing it to paid employees. Also, if you are familiar with US economic history you'll know that slavery persisted beyond the introduction of machinery and that many plantation owners fought hard against mechanisation because they wanted to be lords and masters more than just businessmen.
Slaves are very poorly motivated to innovate, to work when the boss isn't watching, to take pride in their work.
Fabulous! I wrote a proposal for a World School of Peace which is endorsed by the Dalai Lama and Dr. Robert Muller, among others based on a very similar model - it's based on finding the most brilliant under privilaged students from all over the world (8 per country) and giving them the best education possible and making lectures available on line to the world as well for donations...put the palestinian students with the jewish etc and let them go on to solve world issues as friends ...
you're exactly right, it seems that the money given isn't doing the job at the moment. the root causes of problems (probably religion) aren't beeing addressed
i dont know but being hypersensitive about it sure is the way to fix things :)
"The Amish people in America have their own governing rule and society untainted from the modern world and they seem fine." As an ironic aside, inbreeding among the Amish has created numerous health problems. Despite their anti-technology beliefs they have embraced modern medicine including some very cutting edge gene therapy. Google "gene therapy Amish" for more info. Also, the Amish population is constantly shrinking because a good portion of young Amish want modernity, so they leave the sect.
"What about the vast difference in skull shape between Australian aborigines and Norwegians or Koreans?" Yeah, what about it? It hasn't been demonstrated that these actually affect functionality. In computer terms, it's just a "skin". :)
is he related to the famed dinosaur by any chance?
So, Nigeria has the highest number of educated people among africans.... thats kind of like saying Honolulu has the highest number of hockey players among Hawaiians.
What do your comments say about Sean Hannity? Scary....
Actually, native African governments need to stop using this wealth to buy palaces and huge fleets of Mercedes S Class limos for themselves instead of investing it in education, healthcare etc. Blaming the west for Africa's problems is simplistic in the extreme. We've seen in Zimbabwe over the last few years just how destructive bad government can be. None of Zimbabwe's current problems are the west's fault.
"How do you think the pyramids got built, contractors?" While you are at it, you might want to look up some Egyptian history! The pyramids were built by free citizens during the flood season when their farmland was submerged by the Nile. There is ample archaeological evidence for this including pay records, various artifacts at the sites, graffiti discovered inside the pyramids etc. Heck, you don't even need a library for that one... you'll learn that from watching the Discovery Channel!
lol did u catch that awkward moment in the auditorium when he said "Our dream is, that the next Einstein will be African"?
If the students of AIMS don't stay in Africa, then I don' t see that it is going to help all that much.
True, but that´s an ´if´.
I´m personally under the impression that these students are off in other countries to get their masters and further training in the areas that would benefit their home region.
"Seriously, if that's the case what a huge misstep in America's short history" Yes, you are right! Slavery was a terrible idea, for humanitarian reasons and because it hindered the economy. At one point it is estimated that 50% of the population of Madgascar were slaves (Wikipedia), yet that country is among the world's poorest. In all seriousness, if you do a bit of research you'll find that slavery turns out to be a really bad idea on many levels, including the economic one.
No, I'm not. There are many factors which explain the success of Europe, and allegedly superior European intelligence isn't one of them. It is worth remembering that at the time of the Dark Ages while Europe suffocated the Arabic world was keeping the work of the Greeks alive, and many firsts occurred in China. At various times Europe has not been an intellectual leader.Read "The Birth of Plenty" for a possible explanation of why things worked for Europe and not elsewhere.
there is one problem with AIMS that I forsee. Even with more educated minds, Africa's brightest will still find themselves coming back home to poverty. This will inevitably cause a brain drain to developed countries with a much better economy,Why would educated people stay in a country where they can't find good paying jobs? So will this bring an end to Africa's problems? Probably not, or at least not by itself. Instead, economic issues, womens rights, and labor rights must be first addressed.
@Standardfrank do you know how to levitate a 300 ton pyramid sone?? Also, please show some evidence for these other crazy statements you have made.
So you're saying some guys just sailed across the atlantic TWICE to bring people from Africa to America to work for them, even though it was COUNTERPRODUCTIVE as you put it? And they did this for how many hundred years? And STILL they didn't notice how COUNTERPRODUCTIVE it was?
They must have had some very LOUSY accountants back then. I think they should have hired YOU to do the numbers for them.
Umm.. sorry to state the obvious here, but with respect to their accomplishments..Can we get an Aims here in America too? like say "Detroit"? just saying I can see this working very well here too. the cost of education is ridiculous, and its certain that anyone invited to higher education would surely be a contributing member to society, if they don't have to be enslaved to gain said education. Anyone? Somebodey?
...
By the logic "slaves make a society great" it should follow that countries like Haiti should be the wealthiest, and America's south should be richer than the north. Actually economically slaves are a lousy resource because their productivity is really low. Humanitarianism aside, from a strictly economic point of view mechanised agriculture creates far more wealth than slave-run plantations. The west got wealthy because it had the industrial revolution and replaced human muscle with machines.
Africa has been and still is in many ways being pillaged by Arabs, Asians and especially Europeans for centuries, dont expect big changes any time soon.
Me thinks more intellectual output can be had by fixing American educational system (more emphasis on applications of knowledge than bookwork and boring HW). Also, we need to acknowledge that IQ is mostly genetic, not just environmental. Humans evolved, so equality is an outdated, invalidated religious theory.
Actually intelligence is likely mostly environmental. Of course, if parents of a child have some physical problem that hinders intelligence, it can be genetically passed to their offspring. But that's far from proving that IQ is "mostly genetic".
Also, equality of people is not a theory. It's a basic human principle.
Nelson Mandela himself asked Oprah to build a school in South Africa when she was already a billionaire. She used her own money. Over 40 million of it. There was nothing wrong with my question. Love or hate Oprah, you have to give her credit. I know very well who owned King World and gave her a 50 million dollar a year contract aproximately 20 years ago. Reread my original post.
I asked a flat question. You read too much into it.
He is correct. But the causes of lower IQ hasn't been concluded because of fundamental design. Nature vs Nurture are both areas that may be the factors. Adizeta you should however not use words like "Blackie" if you want to be taken seriously.
"the highest standard of living, are where Western Europe has had the most influence." - Agreed!
If anyone is still skeptical, look at the axis countries after WW2. They were bombed back to the stone age and culturally had their lives turned upside down, yet took only a generation to recover. That is because people with the will and knowhow to rebuild survived. That's education, hard work and capital investment for you! Sorry, but anyone who thinks colonialism was worse than WW2 is a fool.
@ultradevon04 Dude, why did you even reply to my first comment. What the heck are you even talking about.
But aren't you taking for granted the cultural history that produced these "opportunities" that nobody seems willing to attribute to a higher rate of genius among Western Europeans than any other group? It's not as if opportunity and knowledge just fall from the sky into Europe. It's the cultural heritage of generations of higher rates of inherent geniuses that made Europe more advanced. The root of poverty is low IQ, not vice versa. The smart person will work themselves out of poverty.
"whole situation a great deal and continues to do so today." If your claim is that the west helped in some way make Africa as crappy as it is today, I agree. Also, by providing poorly planned "aid" and failing to topple barbaric regimes they continue to do harm. That said, the vast majority of Africa's problems have nothing to do with the west, and the solutions largely involve becoming more "westernised", if you accept that education, sanitation, democracy and free enterprise are "western".
btw, what's you're iq? i'm not trying to make any judgements here. answer now
The IQ test is not a very accurate way to measure intelligence, there have been many studies on this.
The average score in America has risen in the last 50 years, yet this seems to be contradictory to common sense if IQ was indeed an accurate measure of intelligence, no?
True, but I blame the Middle Ages on religious superstition superceding scientific objectivity. I can only dream what our world would be like today if the middle ages in Europe had continued on the path began by the Greeks, in terms of knowing the earth was round, and the free discussion of ideas that was only resurrected during the Renaissance. What about the vast difference in skull shape between Australian aborigines and Norwegians or Koreans?
It's because Oprah spoils those girls, she gives them gifts, spa days, etc.
"Africans didn't exactly advertise their slave trade market to the world either." You might start by looking up the Wikipedia page on the history of slavery. It might surprise you that slavery in Africa predates Europeans' arrival by thousands of years. It was just as common also in the Americas long before white men arrived.. you seen Apocalypto? Seriously, claiming white men invented slavery is like saying the French invented sex.
That's not the real Turok!
The real Turok says only this:
*I AM TUROK!*
TravisMorien, all that about slaves' productivity being low is just nonsense. I mean compared to what? To mechanized labour, as you say? You're mixing up technology with social structure here. Comparing a free worker with advanced equipment to a slave with primitive equipment makes no sense. Try comparing the two if they use the SAME equipment and you'll see who's more productive.
hahaha you cite IQ scores? anyone who looks into that will easily find that IQ tests mean very little. and if, perhaps, a physical IQ test were administered, who do you suppose would score highest? and what does that mean? that their circumstances are different.
same capabilities for humans, with marginal variations. people are so scarcely able to tell each other apart that there's a highly specialized part of the brain dedicated to distinguishing faces apart.
7:40 where he says that he cant explain it.. If you cant explain it simply then you dont know what your on about
I would like one cosmologist to tell me why things move?
"They would much rather pour huge amounts in as investment so they can turn them into wealthy consumers." - Like in China for instance. There is nothing those greedy capitalists would like more than for Africa to do what China is doing now so they can do business there.
Your conspiracy theory doesn't hold up for mining either. Because of poor infrastructure, training and security, plus govt corruption, mining in Africa is actually extremely expensive vs. elsewhere, despite the cheap labour.
Maybe he should spend more time hunting dinosaurs.
"Humans evolved, so equality is an outdated, invalidated religious theory." Actually modern geneticists have done a great deal of work comparing the different "races" and have come to the conclusion that biologically we're all practically identical. Racial differences are largely confined to the ones we can see, everything else including genetic intelligence is not correlated to race. Turok is right, there is nothing wrong with African humans. There is enormous wasted potential.
Fuck!!! You're comparing Turok to Einstein :S wow BAD TED!!!!!!!!