full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Charlie Jane Anders: Go ahead, dream about the future

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And then there's second-order eefcfts, like how do things go wnorg — or right — in a way that nobody ever anticipated? Like, if the walls of your apartment are made out of a kind of fungus that can rrogew itself to raiepr any damage, what if people start eating the walls?

(Laughter)

Speaking of eating: What kind of sewer system does the city of the future have? It's a trcik question. There are no sewers. There's something incredibly bizarre about the current system we have in the utnied States, where your waste gets flushed into a tennul to be mixed with rainwater and often dumped into the ocean. Not to mention tloiet paper. A bunch of techies, led by Bill Gates, are trying to reinvent the toilet right now, and it's possible that the toilet of the future could appear incredibly strange to someone living toady. So how does the history of the fruute, all of that trial and error, lead to a better way to go to the bathroom? There are companies right now who are experimenting with a kind of cleaning wand that can substitute for toilet paper, using compressed air or sanitizing sprays to clean you off. But what if those things loekod more like flowers than technology? What if your toilet could analyze your waste and let you know if your microbiome might need a little tune-up? What if today's epietenmrxs with turning human waste into fuel leads to a smart battery that could help power your home?

Open Cloze


And then there's second-order _______, like how do things go _____ — or right — in a way that nobody ever anticipated? Like, if the walls of your apartment are made out of a kind of fungus that can ______ itself to ______ any damage, what if people start eating the walls?

(Laughter)

Speaking of eating: What kind of sewer system does the city of the future have? It's a _____ question. There are no sewers. There's something incredibly bizarre about the current system we have in the ______ States, where your waste gets flushed into a ______ to be mixed with rainwater and often dumped into the ocean. Not to mention ______ paper. A bunch of techies, led by Bill Gates, are trying to reinvent the toilet right now, and it's possible that the toilet of the future could appear incredibly strange to someone living _____. So how does the history of the ______, all of that trial and error, lead to a better way to go to the bathroom? There are companies right now who are experimenting with a kind of cleaning wand that can substitute for toilet paper, using compressed air or sanitizing sprays to clean you off. But what if those things ______ more like flowers than technology? What if your toilet could analyze your waste and let you know if your microbiome might need a little tune-up? What if today's ___________ with turning human waste into fuel leads to a smart battery that could help power your home?

Solution


  1. regrow
  2. repair
  3. united
  4. future
  5. experiments
  6. tunnel
  7. looked
  8. today
  9. effects
  10. wrong
  11. toilet
  12. trick

Original Text


And then there's second-order effects, like how do things go wrong — or right — in a way that nobody ever anticipated? Like, if the walls of your apartment are made out of a kind of fungus that can regrow itself to repair any damage, what if people start eating the walls?

(Laughter)

Speaking of eating: What kind of sewer system does the city of the future have? It's a trick question. There are no sewers. There's something incredibly bizarre about the current system we have in the United States, where your waste gets flushed into a tunnel to be mixed with rainwater and often dumped into the ocean. Not to mention toilet paper. A bunch of techies, led by Bill Gates, are trying to reinvent the toilet right now, and it's possible that the toilet of the future could appear incredibly strange to someone living today. So how does the history of the future, all of that trial and error, lead to a better way to go to the bathroom? There are companies right now who are experimenting with a kind of cleaning wand that can substitute for toilet paper, using compressed air or sanitizing sprays to clean you off. But what if those things looked more like flowers than technology? What if your toilet could analyze your waste and let you know if your microbiome might need a little tune-up? What if today's experiments with turning human waste into fuel leads to a smart battery that could help power your home?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
science fiction 4
fiction writer 2
kill people 2
future history 2
social media 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
science fiction writer 2

Important Words


  1. air
  2. analyze
  3. anticipated
  4. apartment
  5. bathroom
  6. battery
  7. bill
  8. bizarre
  9. bunch
  10. city
  11. clean
  12. cleaning
  13. companies
  14. compressed
  15. current
  16. damage
  17. dumped
  18. eating
  19. effects
  20. error
  21. experimenting
  22. experiments
  23. flowers
  24. flushed
  25. fuel
  26. fungus
  27. future
  28. gates
  29. history
  30. home
  31. human
  32. incredibly
  33. kind
  34. laughter
  35. lead
  36. leads
  37. led
  38. living
  39. looked
  40. mention
  41. microbiome
  42. mixed
  43. ocean
  44. paper
  45. people
  46. power
  47. question
  48. rainwater
  49. regrow
  50. reinvent
  51. repair
  52. sanitizing
  53. sewer
  54. sewers
  55. smart
  56. speaking
  57. sprays
  58. start
  59. states
  60. strange
  61. substitute
  62. system
  63. techies
  64. technology
  65. today
  66. toilet
  67. trial
  68. trick
  69. tunnel
  70. turning
  71. united
  72. walls
  73. wand
  74. waste
  75. wrong