TEDx Warwick: Anthropocene

‘Every living thing affects its surroundings, but humanity is now influencing every aspect of the Earth on a scale akin to the great forces of nature. We have pushed the planet into a new geological epoch—the Anthropocene.’

The tagline for the now famous TED Talks is ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’, so it’s a good start when the title of Warwick’s independently organised TED event teaches you something new in its very name. This year’s event was called ‘Anthropocene’, and, as the programme explained in the quote above, the term covers all of recent human history. This gave the coordinators a lot of room for manoeuvre in the speakers that they hosted, and they exploited this potential to its full extent.

The line-up for this year’s TED event was fantastic. Topics ranged from ‘Designing Universities That Work’, to ‘The Beauty of the Human Voice’, to ‘Swarming Nanomedicine’. The latter talk was delivered by Sabine Hauert, a Swarm Engineer from the University of Bristol, explaining how she used research into the flocking behaviour of birds in her work on designing nanorobotics that self-organise into swarms, with the ultimate implication of medicine that can target health issues such as tumours.

This first science-based talk followed three more sociological presentations which discussed:  improving universities: rehabilitating sex offenders: and prison gangs –demonstratingthe hugely diverse range of subjects discussed, and the breadth of specialised intellect and experience on offer. Each talk was wildly different from the last, but all were equally engaging, professional and impressive; they were easily the quality of the TED talks I am used to watching from the central organisation.

The disparities between talks were not just between sciences, humanities and arts, but within each discipline. Pete Trainor’s talk on ‘The Biological Power of Push and Pull’ discussed how our apps affect how we think, specifically in how they can cultivate limited linear thinking. If our brains become used to solving the same problems—for example how to fly a small pixelated bird through small gaps— then it develops in certain ways. Trainor argues that apps could develop games that encourage more complex problem solving, to develop the brain’s hippocampus; an easy, practical change that would have a lasting impact on how we think, perhaps in a more positive way than is currently progressing.

The app Tinder made a number of surprising appearances throughout the day. One was in the ‘biological push and pull’ talk, drawing attention to the spike of evolutionarily dictated adrenaline once the potential love connection is made and the subsequent rush of the stress hormone cortisol.

Tinder was also discussed in Ali Razeai Haddad’s talk on ‘Crowdsourcing: The Chain of Survival’.This was a combination of the techy and the medical, presenting the GoodSAM app, an application designed to connect off-duty paramedics and patients suffering medical emergencies. If the app becomes widespread (as much as Tinder, for example), then it could easily save lives. ‘If a patient has a cardiac arrest… it is the first few minutes after the incident that determine the outcome—life, death, or long-term brain injury,’ GoodSAM’s website warns. This app has the potential to connect medical professionals with those who need them, and faster than emergency services.

Another app, created by Neil Daly, temporarily bypasses the need for a professional at all, with the Skin Analytics app, a programme that can determine the risk of cancer in moles by taking a photo with your phone. The app uploads the photograph of your skin, and sends it to the system’s database, which runs comparison checks to determine the risk of cancer; photos can be taken over a number of months, to track any changes. As with the heart issues GoodSAM aims to combat, the key principle behind Skin Analytics is that early diagnosis is the best way to increase a patient’s chance of surviving cancer.

These talks all reflect the overarching sentiment of the day, which was one of optimism. It’s not all doom and gloom; in amongst all of the fear regarding technology destroying your brain, there are ways that technology can be used to improve our lives, potentially benefiting us in countless ways.

Another speaker, Richard Aldrich, made a particularly relevant argument regarding contemporary concerns about internet privacy. It’s becoming a frequent issue in the news and (ironically) social media, with the response most commonly being concern that user information can be, and is, sold to big business or used to target advertising.

Aldrich presented a contentious view, with a talk called ‘Privacy is Dead: The Future is Fabulous’. The prediction being that with a decrease in personal privacy, there will also be a decrease in the privacy of the institutions people feel threatened by. It will become impossible for politicians to have skeletons in their closets, as the general public will have the means to rifle through their things with a flashlight.

As an example, Aldrich cited the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings. Within hours of the initial attack, photographs of the finishing line were being scrutinised by the global online community. Such was the extent of this scrutiny that a suspicious target was identified, his home address identified, and a mob deployed. Of course, it was added, they were wrong in this instance, and it was some innocent athletics enthusiast that caught the brunt of overzealous online investigation.

Creative recycling was another feature of the day, with two speakers discussing different ways we can make use out of waste. Arthur Kay, in his talk ‘Designing Tomorrow, Today’, discussed the potential of used coffee grounds being converted to biomass pellets and biodiesel to be used as fuel. The main market for his company, bio-bean, is London’s transport system. With over 200,000 tonnes of coffee waste being produced each year in London alone, the potential for this fuel source is high and the company is growing rapidly in size.

A less scientific waste recycling organisation has been developed by Adam Smith, who started the ‘Real Junk Food’ project in Leeds in 2013, with a café where all the food on the menu is ‘waste’, donated by restaurants, charities and individuals, and is bought on a ‘Pay-As-You-Feel’ system. Customers give whatever they feel they can, be it money or services, and this has not only kept the café going for over a year, but has prompted the appearance of more cafés with the same ethos all over the world.

These were just some of the day’s talks: seven, out of seventeen. My focus here has been on the science and tech side of things but it would be an injustice not to mention the fantastic talks on social issues (and their potential solutions) and the arts. A personal favourite was Emma Fay’s ‘Playing with Paint’, which showcased some of her beautiful artwork, painted onto a human canvas. Often, this human was a contortionist (or three) and the finished product constituted a union between the physical art made possible by the human body, and the painted image. Carefully done to make best use of the contortion, this resulted in transfixing images.

The event lasted all day, and despite its long length (eight hours overall), it was impossible to get bored. The scope of the material covered was incredible, and yet, accessible. None of the talks were made difficult to follow or understand by specialist jargon, but equally none felt dumbed-down or patronising. I can’t recommend attending next year’s TEDxWarwick event enough; I’m already excited for more.