Autodesk at TED: Social Space and Fight Club: IDEAS Cage Matches

It's Wednesday, so today's TED schedule includes:

 

 

As I mentioned for the past two days, TED is a nonprofit that started out centered on Technology, Entertainment, and Design but whose charter has since expanded to cover most aspects of the human condition. The TED conference is being held in Long Beach, California this week. As a Design software company with Technology that serves many industries (including the Entertainment industry), Autodesk is actually one of TED's largest partners.

On Monday I covered the Master Classes. Yesterday I covered the exhibits in the Autodesk Social Space. Today I'll talk about Autodesk Fight Club: IDEAS Cage Matches. I am reminded of Monty Python's "I'd like to have an argument..." skit. From its name, I am certainly reminded of the movie Fight Club. Think of a cage match as a civilized combination of the two. The nickname for the matches is Grey Matter Smackdown. These are patterned after the sessions we conducted at Autodesk University (AU):

 

Photo from Shaan Hurley

 

The Autodesk Fight Club: IDEAS Cage Match at TED is a fun, dynamic, colorful event in which pairs of debaters ("fighters"), several current and past TED speakers, argue for opposite sides of a single question. They do this in a mock boxing ring - with over the top smoke effects, lighting, and campy commentary. Though the form of the event is total pop culture, the content is substantial, thoughtful, and leaves the audience entertained, engaged, and most importantly, thinking.

Our aim is to create an event that reflects the spirit of TED - lively, thought-provoking and unexpected. Typically the TED conference format consists of tightly scripted presentations with no questions. Whereas TED promotes "Ideas worth sharing," the Cage Match is about "Discussions worth having."

 

 

The four cage matches featured at this year's TED include:

1. Human Evolution: Intervention ("Napalm" Nathan Shedroff) versus Forces of Nature (Mark Foster "12 Gage")

   • "Nathan Shedroff is the chair of California College of the Arts' groundbreaking MBA in Design Strategy. He is one of the pioneers of experience design, an approach to design that encompasses multiple senses and explores the common characteristics in all media that make experiences successful; he also works in the related fields of interaction design and information design." ^source

     Arguing: Physically we have evolved as much as we need to physically, we will soon control our DNA and biology in whole.

   • Mark Foster Gage is a founder of Gage / Clemenceau Architects who are at the forefront of a new generation of architects working to combine architectural practice with the innovative use of today’s emerging technologies. The work of the firm has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin. ^source

     Arguing: Nature will drive evolution regardless how much we interfere.

2. The Future: Abundance (Peter "Rocket Man" Diamandis) versus Scarcity (James "Hacksaw" Hansen)

   • "Dr. Peter Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and launching large incentive prizes to drive radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. Best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private space flight and the $10 million Progressive Automotive X PRIZE for 100 mile-per-gallon equivalent cars, the Foundation launches prizes in Exploration, Life Sciences, Energy, and Education." ^source

     Arguing: By focusing on the right things and leveraging exponential technologies we can realize a future of abundance.

   • "James Hansen heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He has held this position since 1981. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University." ^source

     Arguing: If we don't change some things drastically we are heading toward a future of scarcity.

3. Education: Institutional (Vivek "The Voice" Wadhwa) versus Experiential (Dale "Hackademic" Stephens)

   • "Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Academics and Innovation at Singularity University; Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University." ^source

     Arguing: Formal education is critical to a competitive and successful society.

   • Dale J. Stephens is the author of Hacking Your Education. He founded UnCollege to prove that education isn't limited to school. For recognition of his work as an educational futurist, he was named a Thiel Fellow in May 2011. The mission of UnCollege is to change the notion that college is the only path to success. ^source

     Arguing: College education isn't worth it, drop out and "do something."

4. Intelligence: Moonshot (Astro "Jedi" Teller) versus Small Steps (Omar "The Ominous" Wasow)

   • "Dr. Astro Teller is currently Director of New Projects for Google, working to help the company explore new potential business areas. Astro is also co-founder and a current Director of Cerebellum Capital, Inc., a hedge fund management firm whose investments are continuously designed, executed, and improved by a software system based on techniques from statistical machine learning. Astro is also co-founder and a current Director of BodyMedia, Inc., a leading wearable body monitoring company." ^source

     Arguing: Go big or go home. Take risks and shoot for the moon.

   • "Omar Wasow is a Ph.D. candidate in African American studies and Government at Harvard. His research focuses on race and politics, particularly in relation to education and crime. Omar is the co-founder and strategic advisor to BlackPlanet.com, a social network he helped grow to over three million users a month. Omar also works to demystify technology through regular TV and radio segments. In 2003, he helped found a K-8 charter school in Brooklyn. He is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellowship." ^source

     Arguing: True progress is the result of practical thinking and a pragmatic approach to even our largest challenges.

Debate is alive at TED.