*Michelle's Mental Clutter*: T.E.D.: Day One Talks (Distilled and Hyperlinked)

Biotech CEO Juan Enriquez discussed what he saw as the future of human evolutionary development, in which we would use bio-technology to pre-design our own future evolution (making homo sapiens - he said - into homo evolutis). His conclusions were based on the fact that, among other things, we're already growing replacement body parts in labs.
Military strategist P.W. Singer presented his investigations for his new book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, including the 12,000+ robots which are doing battle right now on the ground in Iraq, current military robotic projects in the works, and what might be the strategic and philosophical implications of non-human robotic warfare.
David Hanson of Hanson Robotics demonstrated his research on getting robots to emulate human emotional expressions, and even suggested that an eventual potential development of introducing empathy into AIs might be one approach to the ethical dilemmas posed by Singer in his previous talk.
In a very much publicized talk (in which he unleashed a hoard of mosquitoes on the conference goers), Bill Gates talked about the challenge his philanthropic foundation faces in trying to eradicate malaria. (Video already available here!)
Tim Berners-Lee imagined taking even further his original concept of the World Wide Web and using it to render useful raw data fully public and “linkable” by everybody
Al Gore updated his 2006 presentation of the Inconvenient Truth slideshow by reporting about the disappearance of the Artic ice cap.
Yves Behar and Forrest North of Mission Motors debuted the Mission One high performance electric motorcycle, the top speed of which is 150 mph!
Nandan Nilekani discussed the globalization implications of what he called India's "demographic dividend," in which it will soon become the only young country in an increasingly aging world.
Sustainable business pioneer Ray Anderson explained how, after he read Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce, he decided that business what the only institution large and pervasive enough to change the status quo of the "take, make, waste industrial system," and went on to reduce his company's carbon emissions in his successful carpet tile business by 82% in 14 years, all while doubling profits.
Marketer Seth Godin argued that mass marketing is out, but marketing to “tribes” or fostering specialized communities of people with shared interests is where it’s at in order to really “change the world”.
Filmmakers Yann-Arthus Bertrand and Jake Eberts each premiered clips from their own soon-to-be released gorgeous nature documentaries.
MIT Media Lab researcher Pattie Maes debuted a prototype of an internet sixth sense which would give real-time updated information which would be literally directly projected unto products, places and persons, all without the user having to modify his or her behavior to access it. (Plus, she suggested provocatively, it might be potentially implantable in the brain within a decade!) Check out the embedded video below!

Other blog coverage of TED's first day can be found at...

Via White African:

Via My Heart's in Aggra:

T.E.D.: Day One Talks (Distilled and Hyperlinked)

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