PART A: 10 Ted Talk videos
Video #1
1) Yasheng Huang
2) Yasheng Huang: Does democracy stifle economic growth?
3) Economic growth in China and India
4) Economist Yasheng Huang compares China to India, and questions how China's authoritarian rule led to its significant economic growth, which leads to a big question: Is democracy actually holding India back? Huang gives an answer that may be surprising.
5) Yasheng Huang is a Chinese political economist who asks people to rethink our ideas about China and other large emerging economies. His question is: "Does democracy hold back or promote economic growth?"
6) Huang's main point is that democracy may stifle a country's economic growth, but can lead people to the right way with introducing freedom of information acts.
7) I was curious about how the economic growth of China and other large developing countries would affect the economy of other neighbor countries and the economy of the world.
8) Before I watched this video, I predicted that the presenter would only compare China with India about each country's political and cultural views and explain how they have affected those countries' economic growth. However, the presenter, Huang, did not only compare them, but also explain both positive and negative effect of having democracy. He also said that even though India is so behind compared to China, it will one day become a strong and prosperous country just like China's future. He has changed my view that we should understand why people mostly compare India with China and compare those two countries with different views
9) "Sometimes a fixed effect can explain change, but a fixed effect only explains changes in interaction with the things that change."
Video #2
1) Steve Jobs
2) Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
3) Our dreams and opportunities in life
4) Steve Jobs, who is the CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar, urges us to seek our dreams and see the opportunities in life.
5) Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, and he spearheaded a few of the most iconic products in technology, entertainment, and design.
6) The presenter's main point is that you have to trust in something whatever it is because believing something will give you the confidence to follow your heart.
7) I was excited about this video because I was curious about Steve Jobs's life and how he could be so successful recently. I was also curious about how he overcame all those hardships when he was young.
8) The presenter has changed my view that all of us have hardship to overcome and we all have our own destiny. He also emphasized to follow what we want to do.
9) "At the end, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards."
Video #3
1) Chris Bangle
2) Chris Bangle says great cars are Art
3) Cars as art
4) American designer Chris Bangle explains his philosophy that car design is an art form with and entertaining and ultimately moving account of the BMW Group's Deep Blue project.
5) As chief designer for the BMW Group, Chris Bangle has overseen cars that have been seen the world over.
6) What designers are interested in is finding form that is more than just a function.
7) I was excited about this video because the presenter, Chris Bangle, is one of the few inspirational people to me and also is a chief car designer in BMW Group. Since my dream is to be a car designer, I expected that he would explain some of the most essential and important point about designing cars.
8) I thought designing cars is a lot different from pure art. However, the presenter has changed my view that designing cars is similar to sculpting and finding beauty of a form.
9) "We're interested in finding beauty that's more than just an aesthetic."
Video #4
1) Michelle Obama
2) Michelle Obama's plea for education
3) Education
4) Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each students to take education seriously. She says that this new generation will close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.
5) Michell Obama is the First Lady, a lawyer and an administrator. She is an advocate for working parents, military families and national service.
6) The presenter's main point is that we need strong, smart, confident young women to stand up and take the reins.
7) The presenter, Michelle Obama, is famous of helping military families and working mothers. That is why I was excited to watch this video because the point that she is making is valid and important in our life.
8) The presenter has changed my view that there should be no discrimination against girls in education. Also she said that success will automatically follow when we work hard.
9) "Your success will be determined by your own fortitude, your own confidence, your own individual hard work."
Video #5
1) Stephen Hawking
2) Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe
3) The universe
4) Professor Stephen Hawking asks some big questions about our universe - How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? - and discusses how we might go about answering them.
5) Stephen Hawking's scientific investigations have shed light on the origins of the cosmos, the nature of time and the ultimate fate of universe.
6) The presenter, Stephen Hawking, is making point that there are still many questions we should find out about the universe. He also said that humans shall continue to survive and should avoid destroying themselves.
7) This video was very interesting to me because despite his disability, professor Stephen Hawking has made a huge progress in searching for answers for his big questions of the universe.
8) Professor Hawking has changed my view that humans will need to continue the quest for the answers for the big questions about the universe.
9) "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space."
Video #6
1) Larry Burns
2) Larry Burns on the future of cars
3) Future cars
4) Larry Burns previews next generation car design.Vehicles of the future run clean on hydrogen and pump energy back into the electrical grid when they're idle.
5) Larry Burns is the vice president of R&D for GM. His job is to find a new way to power cars.
6) By using alternative resource and having technology to run cars by hydrogen, cars can be more cleaner and more efficient in the future.
7) I was excited about this video because I was wondering about the future of cars. Since my dream is to be a car designer, I have always been questioning about how the next generation of cars would work in different ways.
8) I thought the future vehicles would run by hydrogen cells, but after I watched this video, I realized that there could be many other power sources that can run future cars.
9) "Cars are a form of entertainment, they're a form of art, a pride of ownership."
Video #7
1) Dennis Hong
2) Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers
3) Car for blind drivers
4) Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It is not a "self-driving" car, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can drive independently.
5) Dennis Hong is the founder and director of RoMeLa, a Virginia Tech robotics lab that has pioneered several breakthroughs in robot design and engineering.
6) Soon enough, non-sighted people will be able to drive independently.
7) I was curious about whether it will be possible for non-sighted people to drive independently or not. I was excited about this video because it will provide me some possible answers with detailed explanations.
8) Before I watched this video, I thought that blind people can only "ride" their car with help of machines such as auto-drive. However, the presenter, Dr. Hong, has changed my view that they can "see" with help of technology so they can "actually "drive" their car independently.
9) "But potentially more important than this is the tremendous value of the spin-off technology that can come from this project."
Video #8
1) David Hanson
2) David Hanson: Robots that "show emotion"
3) Robots that show emotion
4) David Hanson's robot recognizes and respond to emotion, and make expressions of their own. The Einstein robot offers a peek at a future where robots truly mimic humans.
5) David Hanson merges robotics and art to design life-like, social robots that can mimic human expression and emotion.
6) In the future, people will live together with social robots that can mimic human expression and emotion.
7) I was very excited about this video because I was also curious about robots that can express emotion.
8) The presenter has changed my view that the robots will not just mimic human expression, but also will eventually express their emotion.
9) "If robots actually achieve human level intelligence or, quite possible, greater than human levels of intelligence, this could be the seeds of hope for our future."
Video #9
1) Markus Fischer
2) A robot that flies like a bird
3) Flying robot
4) No robot can fly like a real bird. So Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings.
5) Markus Fischer led the team at Festo that developed the first ultralight artificial bird capable of flying like a real bird.
6) His main point is that robot can not just fly by its motor, but also can fly by flapping its wings just like a bird.
7) I was excited about this video because I knew that there are many robots which can fly, but I knew nothing about robots that can actually fly like a bird. So I became curious about how they work.
8) The presenter has changed my view that robot can also fly by its own and only by flapping its wings by showing his model for his project and explaining the structure of the model.
9) "We have the possibility to fly like a bird."
Video #10
1) P.W. Singer
2) PW Singer on military robots and the future of war
3) Future of war
4) P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat. He shows us scenarios straight out of science fiction.
5) P.W. Singer is a military analyst. He studies robotic and drone war fighters and explores how these new war machines are changing the very nature of human conflict.
6) Robots can be both good and evil to the humanity. They can be helpful to people, but they can also slaughter a lot of people when used in a war. We should be more careful and consider more of using military robots in the future.
7) I was wondering whether robots would change the traits of today's war or not. I was also excited about this Ted Talk because the speaker discusses the way the military robots get more involved in future wars.
8) Before I watched this video, I thought that the presenter would have negative opinions about the usage of military robots. However, the presenter has changed the way I viewed his topic by discussing how we should do and questioning about our robots and ourselves. The presenter compared both positive and negative results of using more military robots.
9) "And so the question we all should ask, is it our machines, or is it us, that's wired for war?"
PART B: Picture Myself in the Future
Designing a car includes all kinds of complicated matters. It includes purpose, safety, technology, and any other important matters. Hello, my name is Kyle Kim, and I am the chief designer of BMW. What I want to show you today is an extraordinary, futuristic new car that me and my design team are building for young people.
First of all, before I talk about this car for young people, let me briefly tell you about some of the new technologies and traits that are involved in this project. This car that we designed and built is more sustainable, safer, more energy efficient, and less polluting. It is a fuel-cell vehicle, and all the structures of this car is made of much lighter materials such as duraluminum, fiberglass, and carbon fiber. Inside of this car, there are lots of sophisticated systems and technologies that can help people who have little experience to drive easily. For example, the computer understands the environment and calculates and send information to the driver so that the driver can predict and avoid any dangers.
Now lets talk about its design. Many believe that cars are another form of art. That is correct. That is actually quite meaningful to me, because many car designers, including me, tend to work hard to be artistic. Cars are a sculpture. Every car you see out there is sculpted by hand. This car, too, is a sculpture. Since this model is for young people, it is sculpted and designed to appeal to them. So it shows what kinds of design they prefer. Every line of this car shows aerodynamic features, and we can feel speed.
Now, isn't that worth designing cars for? I think our project that we did for young people in the future worth a lot; it is priceless. I can guarantee that our project will surely make young people happier and more excited when they drive. The things I've shown you today is just the beginning. Thank you very much.
PART C: "This American Life"
1) The Invention of Money
2) Ira Glass
3) The five reporters want to find out what the answer of the following question is: what is money? This presentation shows how the reporters attempted to find the answer and what the progress was. They travelled several different areas to find out characteristics of currency, usage of currency, history of money, etc. The members have also found how government can trick people to believe such a thing about their money. Eventually, they reached to an answer that money is fiction.
4) I learned through this presentation that the concept of money has a long history starting from thousands of years ago. I also learned various other interesting facts about distinctive usage of currency in different areas worldwide.
5) 3 most interesting facts: a pre-industrial society on the island of Yap used giant stones as currency, the Brazilian government tricked a 150,000,000 people into believing their money had value again, and the name of the Federal Reserve including the word "federal" is not actually part of the government; it's an independent institution tasked with creating money out of thin air
6) "Money is fiction."
