full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Paul MacCready: Nature vs. humans

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Well, inspired by the sentences, I decided to wield the psaubnitrh. Every 25 years I do a picture. Here's the one — tries to show that the world isn't getting any bigger. Sort of a tliemine, very non-linear sacle, nature rteas and trilobites and dinosaurs, and eventually we saw some humans with caves ... Birds were flying overhead, after prtseouras. And then we get to the civilization above the little TV set with a gun on it. Then traffic jams, and pwoer systems, and some dots for digital. Where it's going to lead — I have no idea. And so I just put robotic and natural cockroaches out there, but you can fill in whatever you want. This is not a forecast. This is a wnirnag, and we have to think seriously about it. And that time when this is hapipnneg is not 100 years or 500 years. Things are going on this decade, next decade; it's a very short time that we have to decide what we are going to do. And if we can get some agreement on where we want the world to be — dbrsileae, sustainable when your kids reach your age — I think we actually can reach it. Now, I said this was a warning, not a fraoesct. That was before — I painted this before we started in on making rotobic versions of hawk moths and cockroaches, and now I'm beginning to wonder seriously — was this more of a forecast than I wanted? I personally think the surviving intelligent life form on earth is not going to be carbon-based; it's going to be silicon-based. And so where it all goes, I don't know.

Open Cloze


Well, inspired by the sentences, I decided to wield the __________. Every 25 years I do a picture. Here's the one — tries to show that the world isn't getting any bigger. Sort of a ________, very non-linear _____, nature _____ and trilobites and dinosaurs, and eventually we saw some humans with caves ... Birds were flying overhead, after __________. And then we get to the civilization above the little TV set with a gun on it. Then traffic jams, and _____ systems, and some dots for digital. Where it's going to lead — I have no idea. And so I just put robotic and natural cockroaches out there, but you can fill in whatever you want. This is not a forecast. This is a _______, and we have to think seriously about it. And that time when this is _________ is not 100 years or 500 years. Things are going on this decade, next decade; it's a very short time that we have to decide what we are going to do. And if we can get some agreement on where we want the world to be — _________, sustainable when your kids reach your age — I think we actually can reach it. Now, I said this was a warning, not a ________. That was before — I painted this before we started in on making _______ versions of hawk moths and cockroaches, and now I'm beginning to wonder seriously — was this more of a forecast than I wanted? I personally think the surviving intelligent life form on earth is not going to be carbon-based; it's going to be silicon-based. And so where it all goes, I don't know.

Solution


  1. scale
  2. desirable
  3. timeline
  4. forecast
  5. warning
  6. power
  7. pterosaurs
  8. rates
  9. paintbrush
  10. robotic
  11. happening

Original Text


Well, inspired by the sentences, I decided to wield the paintbrush. Every 25 years I do a picture. Here's the one — tries to show that the world isn't getting any bigger. Sort of a timeline, very non-linear scale, nature rates and trilobites and dinosaurs, and eventually we saw some humans with caves ... Birds were flying overhead, after pterosaurs. And then we get to the civilization above the little TV set with a gun on it. Then traffic jams, and power systems, and some dots for digital. Where it's going to lead — I have no idea. And so I just put robotic and natural cockroaches out there, but you can fill in whatever you want. This is not a forecast. This is a warning, and we have to think seriously about it. And that time when this is happening is not 100 years or 500 years. Things are going on this decade, next decade; it's a very short time that we have to decide what we are going to do. And if we can get some agreement on where we want the world to be — desirable, sustainable when your kids reach your age — I think we actually can reach it. Now, I said this was a warning, not a forecast. That was before — I painted this before we started in on making robotic versions of hawk moths and cockroaches, and now I'm beginning to wonder seriously — was this more of a forecast than I wanted? I personally think the surviving intelligent life form on earth is not going to be carbon-based; it's going to be silicon-based. And so where it all goes, I don't know.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
information technology 3
time bubble 3
human part 2
human portion 2
human population 2
kids reach 2
surveillance drone 2
hawk moths 2


Important Words


  1. age
  2. agreement
  3. beginning
  4. bigger
  5. birds
  6. caves
  7. civilization
  8. cockroaches
  9. decade
  10. decide
  11. decided
  12. desirable
  13. digital
  14. dinosaurs
  15. dots
  16. earth
  17. eventually
  18. fill
  19. flying
  20. forecast
  21. form
  22. gun
  23. happening
  24. hawk
  25. humans
  26. idea
  27. inspired
  28. intelligent
  29. jams
  30. kids
  31. lead
  32. life
  33. making
  34. moths
  35. natural
  36. nature
  37. overhead
  38. paintbrush
  39. painted
  40. personally
  41. picture
  42. power
  43. pterosaurs
  44. put
  45. rates
  46. reach
  47. robotic
  48. scale
  49. sentences
  50. set
  51. short
  52. show
  53. sort
  54. started
  55. surviving
  56. sustainable
  57. systems
  58. time
  59. timeline
  60. traffic
  61. trilobites
  62. tv
  63. versions
  64. wanted
  65. warning
  66. wield
  67. world
  68. years