full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Juan Enriquez: The next species of human

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the last Olympics, this gentleman, who had several wlord records in the Special Olympics, tried to run in the normal Olympics. The only issue with Oscar Pistorius is he was born without bones in the lower part of his legs. He came within about a second of qualifying. He sued to be allowed to run, and he won the suit, but didn't qualify by time. Next Olympics, you can bet that ocasr, or one of Oscar's successors, is going to make the time. And two or three Olympics after that, they are going to be unbeatable.

And as you bring these trends together, and as you think of what it means to take people who are prnuoodlfy deaf, who can now begin to hear — I mean, remember the evolution of hnrieag aids, right? I mean, your grandparents had these graet big cones, and then your parents had these odd boxes that would suqawk at odd times during dinner, and now we have these little buds that nobody sees. And now you have cochlear inamtpls that go into people's hdeas and allow the deaf to begin to hear. Now, they can't hear as well as you and I can. But, in 10 or 15 mcanihe generations they will, and these are machine generations, not human generations. And about two or three yaers after they can hear as well as you and I can, they'll be able to hear maybe how bats sing, or how whales talk, or how dogs talk, and other types of tonal scales. They'll be able to focus their hearing, they'll be able to increase the setvitsniiy, deesarce the sensitivity, do a sriees of things that we can't do.

Open Cloze


In the last Olympics, this gentleman, who had several _____ records in the Special Olympics, tried to run in the normal Olympics. The only issue with Oscar Pistorius is he was born without bones in the lower part of his legs. He came within about a second of qualifying. He sued to be allowed to run, and he won the suit, but didn't qualify by time. Next Olympics, you can bet that _____, or one of Oscar's successors, is going to make the time. And two or three Olympics after that, they are going to be unbeatable.

And as you bring these trends together, and as you think of what it means to take people who are __________ deaf, who can now begin to hear — I mean, remember the evolution of _______ aids, right? I mean, your grandparents had these _____ big cones, and then your parents had these odd boxes that would ______ at odd times during dinner, and now we have these little buds that nobody sees. And now you have cochlear ________ that go into people's _____ and allow the deaf to begin to hear. Now, they can't hear as well as you and I can. But, in 10 or 15 _______ generations they will, and these are machine generations, not human generations. And about two or three _____ after they can hear as well as you and I can, they'll be able to hear maybe how bats sing, or how whales talk, or how dogs talk, and other types of tonal scales. They'll be able to focus their hearing, they'll be able to increase the ___________, ________ the sensitivity, do a ______ of things that we can't do.

Solution


  1. decrease
  2. series
  3. great
  4. heads
  5. years
  6. world
  7. profoundly
  8. squawk
  9. oscar
  10. sensitivity
  11. hearing
  12. implants
  13. machine

Original Text


In the last Olympics, this gentleman, who had several world records in the Special Olympics, tried to run in the normal Olympics. The only issue with Oscar Pistorius is he was born without bones in the lower part of his legs. He came within about a second of qualifying. He sued to be allowed to run, and he won the suit, but didn't qualify by time. Next Olympics, you can bet that Oscar, or one of Oscar's successors, is going to make the time. And two or three Olympics after that, they are going to be unbeatable.

And as you bring these trends together, and as you think of what it means to take people who are profoundly deaf, who can now begin to hear — I mean, remember the evolution of hearing aids, right? I mean, your grandparents had these great big cones, and then your parents had these odd boxes that would squawk at odd times during dinner, and now we have these little buds that nobody sees. And now you have cochlear implants that go into people's heads and allow the deaf to begin to hear. Now, they can't hear as well as you and I can. But, in 10 or 15 machine generations they will, and these are machine generations, not human generations. And about two or three years after they can hear as well as you and I can, they'll be able to hear maybe how bats sing, or how whales talk, or how dogs talk, and other types of tonal scales. They'll be able to focus their hearing, they'll be able to increase the sensitivity, decrease the sensitivity, do a series of things that we can't do.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
billion years 5
mandatory spending 3
stem cells 3
turing test 3
great big 2
ultimate reboot 2
short term 2
start thinking 2
financial crisis 2
red wine 2
mice molars 2
petri dishes 2
physical turing 2
natural state 2
homo evolutis 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
physical turing test 2

Important Words


  1. aids
  2. allowed
  3. bats
  4. bet
  5. big
  6. bones
  7. born
  8. boxes
  9. bring
  10. buds
  11. cochlear
  12. cones
  13. deaf
  14. decrease
  15. dinner
  16. dogs
  17. evolution
  18. focus
  19. generations
  20. gentleman
  21. grandparents
  22. great
  23. heads
  24. hear
  25. hearing
  26. human
  27. implants
  28. increase
  29. issue
  30. legs
  31. machine
  32. means
  33. normal
  34. odd
  35. olympics
  36. oscar
  37. parents
  38. part
  39. people
  40. pistorius
  41. profoundly
  42. qualify
  43. qualifying
  44. records
  45. remember
  46. run
  47. scales
  48. sees
  49. sensitivity
  50. series
  51. sing
  52. special
  53. squawk
  54. successors
  55. sued
  56. suit
  57. talk
  58. time
  59. times
  60. tonal
  61. trends
  62. types
  63. unbeatable
  64. whales
  65. won
  66. world
  67. years