full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Harvey Fineberg: Are we ready for neo-evolution?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And when we are at a position where we can pass it on to the next generation, and we can adopt the attributes we want, we will have converted old-style evolution into neo-evolution. We'll take a psoecrs that normally might require 100,000 years, and we can compress it down to a thousand years — and maybe even in the next 100 yeras. These are choices that your giardlhcdrenn, or their grandchildren, are going to have before them. Will we use these choices to make a steicoy that is better, that is more successful, that is kinder? Or, will we selectively choose different attributes that we want for some of us and not for others of us? Will we make a society that is more boring and more uniform, or more robust and more versatile? These are the kinds of questions that we will have to face.

Open Cloze


And when we are at a position where we can pass it on to the next generation, and we can adopt the attributes we want, we will have converted old-style evolution into neo-evolution. We'll take a _______ that normally might require 100,000 years, and we can compress it down to a thousand years — and maybe even in the next 100 _____. These are choices that your _____________, or their grandchildren, are going to have before them. Will we use these choices to make a _______ that is better, that is more successful, that is kinder? Or, will we selectively choose different attributes that we want for some of us and not for others of us? Will we make a society that is more boring and more uniform, or more robust and more versatile? These are the kinds of questions that we will have to face.

Solution


  1. process
  2. years
  3. grandchildren
  4. society

Original Text


And when we are at a position where we can pass it on to the next generation, and we can adopt the attributes we want, we will have converted old-style evolution into neo-evolution. We'll take a process that normally might require 100,000 years, and we can compress it down to a thousand years — and maybe even in the next 100 years. These are choices that your grandchildren, or their grandchildren, are going to have before them. Will we use these choices to make a society that is better, that is more successful, that is kinder? Or, will we selectively choose different attributes that we want for some of us and not for others of us? Will we make a society that is more boring and more uniform, or more robust and more versatile? These are the kinds of questions that we will have to face.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion years 4
sexual reproduction 3
human insulin 2
hospitable environment 2
necessarily favor 2
human genome 2


Important Words


  1. adopt
  2. attributes
  3. boring
  4. choices
  5. choose
  6. compress
  7. converted
  8. evolution
  9. face
  10. generation
  11. grandchildren
  12. kinder
  13. kinds
  14. pass
  15. position
  16. process
  17. questions
  18. require
  19. robust
  20. selectively
  21. society
  22. successful
  23. thousand
  24. uniform
  25. versatile
  26. years