[Intro Music]
[Applause]
Well hello there. My job today is to, uh, lower the intellectual tone
of the proceedings and I feel like my life has been devoted to this very moment.
[laughter]
But let's take a step back. Uh, TED, for those of you who weren't familiar
with it till today,
um, is an acronym, of course. It stands for Technology, Entertainment and
Design.
You may not be aware, however, that as well as being an acronym it's also an abbreviation,
originally the conference was actually called EDWARD [laughter],
um, which stands for, uh, Elitists Discussions with White Anglo Rich Dudes [laughter].
But of course it's not now, it's TED, and this actually isn't really a TED,
this is uh, a TEDx, right. Um, and you notices everyone stresses that,
you know the x, what does the x mean? It means it's an independently organised event,
and to me, an x implies a y [laughter]. And I've been trying to work it out all day,
and I think I've worked it out [laughter]. Yeah. [Minor applause].
But um, you know, I shouldn't really joke about the main TED, um, you know,
I, pffft [laughter], uh, because, it's a movement, uh, an event which garners
a lot of support and love, there's a word for people who are into TED isn't there?
What is it? Uh... TEDophiles, is uh, is the word,
I think, and there's been a lot of TEDophilia
today I believe [laughter], from all of you and the people outside as well.
But um, I think today has been a great event, uh, for Sydney, uh, and it's been great
to see TEDx coming here. The charge, of course, has been led by our wonderful host Remo,
let's have a round of applause for Remo. [Applause]
And, and his magical carpet [laughter], in the form of, of course, the uh,
General Thinking logo, it is a great logo, I'm not exactly sure where he got the idea
for it,
but, uh, I think it works, I think it works. And it's certainly been a wonderful sight
for all of us today to experience the... the interesting range of thoughts that we've
had.
We began with na... Michael Cathcart, uh, whose meditation on national identity
was so thoughtful and reflective, that, quite frankly,
I found it un-Australian [laughter].
He talked about our veneration of dead explorers and how we've started to grow up,
and I, I do think that's true. I mean, we have moved from necronationalism to what
I like to call necrogangsterism [laughter]. Hmmm.
And many thanks also to Mary Victor O'Reeri, whose beautiful address was very measured,
um, and also provided us with a little bit of necronunism, which I thought was fantastic
[laughter].
I never said it would be tasteful [chuckles].
But thanks also to all our indigenous performers today,
William Barton was spectacular, um, yeah,
let's hear it for William. [Applause].
Quite simply the best electric guitar and didgeridoo
hip-hop artist I have ever seen [laughter].
Well I think we can fairly say, though, that, um, you know, our indigenous brothers and
sisters
who have, uh, an amazing oral tradition, uh, have
done Australia proud today,
and hopefully, this event, uh, has made some steps
towards developing our oral tradition as well.
But we moved on, to Seb Chan, and isn't he cute.
Wasn't TED... wasn't Seb just fantastic?
An inspiring story of how we can revitalise the idea of the museum. And I was convinced,
so much so that I think that if Seb can do that,
he might be able to revitalise another tired
museum concept one day, I'd like to see it, don't you think [laughter].
Then of course we had Michael Kirby, and the God botherers, uh, being at the door.
And of course he was wrong, the God botherers aren’t at the door, they're inside [laughter],
as well. But everyone's welcome here. Uh, Justice Kirby, of course, is famous
for his dissenting opinions, but I think
you'll agree today that he was, in the majority, uh and always righting
the lead opinion for our better natures.
We moved on to Greig Pickhaver, a rousing address
about sports, reminding us that there
is no I in team, all though there is an I in Greig,
weirdly enough, [laughter],
um, but uh, I like to think of Greig as, you know, really putting the power in the
Port Power.
One of my favourite expressions of the day, it's an idea as simple as the fork [laughter].
And indeed it was. Um, but you know, to be honest, I mean, it was, it was an engaging
and humorous idea, but I think, and I'm sure you'll agree, sporting clubs should do that,
I would like to see, you know, exercise bikes around [applause], that's what I call
thinking outside the corporate box, ladies and gentlemen [laughter].
We moved on to a fascinating display by Brett Solomon, and those amazing,
disturbing scenes, from Iraq, and of course, the powerful work that Brett's doing,
uh, with Access Now, to protect dissidents, who are, you know, being spied on through
their Gmail. And I think that it's important that we remember the names of these activists,
um, and while we acknowledge the work that Brett
is doing to protect them,
we should also say that they could do a bit better
as well, to be fair [laughter],
should be a little more time into thinking about that.
Um. And then a fascinating statistic
about election results and Facebook groups, isn't that, you know, powerful?
Think about the next Australian election. What, I mean, if we were to judge,
by Facebook groups who's gonna win, wouldn't it be that Macquarie Bank
guy who watched Miranda Kerr? [Laughter]
Nigel Marsh, of course, came here to talk about work-life balance on a Saturday
[laughter & applause].
And, and, and he told us, and I, you know, I think it's a, it's a good... it's a manner
of perspective these things. You know, some people
say that working long hours, you know,
is basically neglecting, your... your spouse or your partner, but I... I don't look
at it that way. I think of it as spending quality
time with your next partner [laughter].
And you know, most men, ah, think about sex every
ten seconds, but, uh, Nigel actually admits
it during his speech, I think that's absolutely sex...
fantastic, fantastic [chuckles from audience].
Then of course we had Jonathon Marshall, talking about, uh, symbols.
And uh, you remember what he said, think about a nation that you don't particularly care
about,
I, I did, did you? [laughter]. But I was reminded of Jonathon's discussion
of symbols and metaphors during, ah, Sarah Jane Pell's talk, um, [laughter].
But then, then I thought may... maybe that's just
me until she announced that the things
called The Dominator [laughter]. But anyway, um, Sarah Jane, uh, can dance
and create beautiful, uh, art underwater and I think the rest of the day showed
that Sydney has plenty of people who can talk under it.
Although, uh, I do believe that in Sydney,
rather than performance artists, you're more likely
to find accountants at the bottom
of the harbour, old reference [chuckles].
Rachel's talk on collaborative consumption, uh, was fantastic, and wasn't it interesting
to hear about all the amazing businesses which are popping up, and doing incredible
work,
uh, you know, bringing in economy to collaborative consumption. These are not Mickey Mouse businesses,
ladies and gentlemen, well, uh, maybe they are.
But I thought it was a powerful message,
that technology is enabling trust between strangers.
It's a good point. It's a shame it was made
just after someone in Sydney was killed for, by a new Facebook friend, but you know,
I still, the point remains [chuckles from audience].
Then we, um, I didn't say it would be tasteful [laughter].
Then uh, we had, uh, An... Andy Kuper, um, talking about,
uh, profit and solving poverty
which I, I... I thought was fascinating, and it was interesting to see all the people
who'd been helped by the sort of micro insurance that Andy was talking about.
And I think that, you know, he reall... really told
us something about the sort of people
who, uh, can move from poverty to profit and back again uh...
Then of course, uh, we moved on to Michael Wesley,
ah, who spoke passionately about the need
for a lack of passion in politics in a talk that I like to subtitle Phillip Ruddock
for Prime Minister. Eliminating the passion from politics I think you will agree
is a good thing, and as I cite as exhibit A,
this man, Troy Buswell, uh, there should
not be that sort of passion in politics, ladies and gentlemen.
Uh, Amanda Barnard introduced us to uh, the amazing
world of nanotechnology, and talked
about the way that this has been commercialised, which I think is, is very interesting,
and it is true, of course, you know, nanotechnology is entering our markets now.
Apple, obviously, has even uh, released, uh, the nano-speed jobs recently,
which I think is, uh, what, too soon? [laughter]
I didn't say it would be tasteful [Chuckles].
Um, but you know, he, we... we did learn from Amanda
that nanodiamonds are a girl's best friend,
um and then we moved on to Rob, uh, who, showed us mega Lego, now that was cool.
I loved that, stacking the apartments. Uh, but some scary statistics didn't you think.
Doubling the size of Melbourne, which of course, would uh, quadruple the uh, national smuggles...
smugness level, wooh, could do with a drink up here,
sorry. Uh, then we got to Glenn Albrecht,
and it had been a long day, ladies and gentlemen, uh, but uh, I... I personally reached the
tipping point
round about the expression tipping points of the mind. I, uh, I was with you for good
and evil,
[laughter], biophilia and necrophilia, I was less there, made necronationalism seem
like good
family fun it seemed to me [laughter], um, but maybe that's just because Glen clearly
doesn't want me to get my iPad on time. But it's been an interesting day,
hasn't it ladies and gentlemen, so much talk about
the climate, climate change has a psychology,
Jonathon Marshall tells us, one that we're alienated
from but need to come to terms with.
Jon Jureidini tells us that we shouldn't presume that the truth lies in the middle
and then Michael Cathcart tells us that it does
lie in the middle.
Possibly what we need is global hydrotherapy, ladies and gentlemen, or maybe just the wave,
which is one of the only things which makes solastalgia easy to understand by comparison.
But... [Laughter and Applause]. But ladies and gentlemen, there is a party now, to celebrate
the end of the day, it's, it's TED triple x,
so I think you know what that means, um,
but I think today has been a wonderful experience for,
for everyone here, I've certainly enjoyed it,
have you guys enjoyed yourselves?
[Applause]
And, and the lesson it seems to me, is that, uh,
the sum is greater than the parts,
whether it's aquabatics, or, or micro insurance, and the start of that sum is, coming, woops,
sorry, there goes that joke, forgot about that one.
The start of that sum is you guys, and there you all are,
I hope you've had a great day. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
Captioning services provided by Michael Lockrey