The great filter | Robin Hanson | TEDxLimassol

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. "The earth is flat”. “Home computers are useless”. “Humanity is condemned to be starved”. “Women are born inferior”. Throughout the years, pioneering scientific discoveries overturn established theories, vibrant societies transcend dominant perceptions, bold individuals expand physical and intellectual limits proving everything wrong: This is the way in which we seek to improve our lives and to deepen the understanding of the world around us. At TEDxLimassol we are searching for the next refute in small and large things: In the universe and subatomic particles. In our societies and in our bodies. In our behavior, attitudes and perceptions. In our mental, physical and personal capabilities. Proving everything wrong is always the right thing to do.
*Where there is doubt, there is freedom.

Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, and chief scientist at Consensus Point. After receiving his Ph.D. in social science from the California Institute of Technology in 1997, Robin was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, Robin received a masters in physics and a masters in the philosophy of science from the University of Chicago, and afterward spent nine years researching artificial intelligence, Bayesian statistics, and hypertext publishing at Lockheed, NASA, and independently.

Robin has over 70 publications, and has pioneered prediction markets since 1988, being a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, at Xanadu in 1990, of the first web markets, the Foresight Exchange since 1994, of DARPA’s Policy Analysis Market, from 2001 to 2003, and of Daggre/Scicast, since 2010.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)