full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jason Pontin: Can technology solve our big problems?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So "Something hpeanped to our capacity to solve big problems with technology" has become a commonplace. You hear it all the time. We've haerd it over the last two days here at TED. It feels as if technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with tiirval toys, with things like iPhones and apps and social media, or algorithms that speed automated trading. There's nothing wrong with most of these things. They've eaxpednd and enriched our lives. But they don't solve humanity's big problems.

What happened? So there is a parochial explanation in Silicon Valley, which admits that it has been funding less aibiomtus companies than it did in the years when it financed itenl, Microsoft, Apple and Genentech. Silicon vllaey says the markets are to blame, in particular the incentives that venture catsiitapls offer to epnnurerrtees. sicilon Valley says that venture investing shifted away from funding transformational ideas and towards funding incremental plmorebs or even fake problems. But I don't think that explanation is good enough. It mostly explains what's wrong with Silicon Valley. Even when vunrtee capitalists were at their most risk-happy, they preferred small inmtvnetess, tiny investments that offered an exit within 10 yreas. V.C.s have always struggled to invest profitably in technologies such as energy whose citaapl requirements are huge and whose dponlemeevt is long and lengthy, and V.C.s have never, never funded the development of technologies meant to solve big problems that possess no immediate commercial value. No, the reasons we can't solve big problems are more complicated and more profound.

Open Cloze


So "Something ________ to our capacity to solve big problems with technology" has become a commonplace. You hear it all the time. We've _____ it over the last two days here at TED. It feels as if technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with _______ toys, with things like iPhones and apps and social media, or algorithms that speed automated trading. There's nothing wrong with most of these things. They've ________ and enriched our lives. But they don't solve humanity's big problems.

What happened? So there is a parochial explanation in Silicon Valley, which admits that it has been funding less _________ companies than it did in the years when it financed _____, Microsoft, Apple and Genentech. Silicon ______ says the markets are to blame, in particular the incentives that venture ___________ offer to _____________. _______ Valley says that venture investing shifted away from funding transformational ideas and towards funding incremental ________ or even fake problems. But I don't think that explanation is good enough. It mostly explains what's wrong with Silicon Valley. Even when _______ capitalists were at their most risk-happy, they preferred small ___________, tiny investments that offered an exit within 10 _____. V.C.s have always struggled to invest profitably in technologies such as energy whose _______ requirements are huge and whose ___________ is long and lengthy, and V.C.s have never, never funded the development of technologies meant to solve big problems that possess no immediate commercial value. No, the reasons we can't solve big problems are more complicated and more profound.

Solution


  1. capitalists
  2. silicon
  3. ambitious
  4. capital
  5. problems
  6. investments
  7. trivial
  8. years
  9. development
  10. intel
  11. valley
  12. expanded
  13. happened
  14. venture
  15. heard
  16. entrepreneurs

Original Text


So "Something happened to our capacity to solve big problems with technology" has become a commonplace. You hear it all the time. We've heard it over the last two days here at TED. It feels as if technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with trivial toys, with things like iPhones and apps and social media, or algorithms that speed automated trading. There's nothing wrong with most of these things. They've expanded and enriched our lives. But they don't solve humanity's big problems.

What happened? So there is a parochial explanation in Silicon Valley, which admits that it has been funding less ambitious companies than it did in the years when it financed Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Genentech. Silicon Valley says the markets are to blame, in particular the incentives that venture capitalists offer to entrepreneurs. Silicon Valley says that venture investing shifted away from funding transformational ideas and towards funding incremental problems or even fake problems. But I don't think that explanation is good enough. It mostly explains what's wrong with Silicon Valley. Even when venture capitalists were at their most risk-happy, they preferred small investments, tiny investments that offered an exit within 10 years. V.C.s have always struggled to invest profitably in technologies such as energy whose capital requirements are huge and whose development is long and lengthy, and V.C.s have never, never funded the development of technologies meant to solve big problems that possess no immediate commercial value. No, the reasons we can't solve big problems are more complicated and more profound.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
big problems 11
solve big 8
silicon valley 3
apollo program 2
venture capitalists 2
international treaties 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
solve big problems 7

Important Words


  1. admits
  2. algorithms
  3. ambitious
  4. apple
  5. apps
  6. automated
  7. big
  8. blame
  9. capacity
  10. capital
  11. capitalists
  12. commercial
  13. commonplace
  14. companies
  15. complicated
  16. days
  17. development
  18. diverted
  19. energy
  20. enriched
  21. entrepreneurs
  22. exit
  23. expanded
  24. explains
  25. explanation
  26. fake
  27. feels
  28. financed
  29. funded
  30. funding
  31. genentech
  32. good
  33. happened
  34. hear
  35. heard
  36. huge
  37. ideas
  38. incentives
  39. incremental
  40. intel
  41. invest
  42. investing
  43. investments
  44. iphones
  45. lengthy
  46. lives
  47. long
  48. markets
  49. meant
  50. media
  51. microsoft
  52. offer
  53. offered
  54. parochial
  55. possess
  56. preferred
  57. problems
  58. profitably
  59. profound
  60. reasons
  61. requirements
  62. shifted
  63. silicon
  64. small
  65. social
  66. solve
  67. speed
  68. struggled
  69. technologies
  70. technologists
  71. ted
  72. time
  73. tiny
  74. toys
  75. trading
  76. transformational
  77. trivial
  78. valley
  79. venture
  80. wrong
  81. years