Food for thought
Since I've done a fair bit of travelling of late and often been listening to some (not as often) interesting talks on the plane, I wanted to share some of the more inspirational gems with you…
Whilst on a visit in Paris earlier this year, a friend of mine has introduced me to the Mimetic Desire theory created by René Girard, who fundamentally claims that all human behaviour is learned and learning itself is based on imitation. Initially using examples from literature, the theory then also introduces and explains the Scapegoat mechanism as a result of this constant universal imitation and the competition and rivalry caused by copying desires from each other…
On a related note, Susan Blackmore has come to the field of Mimetics via the Darwin/Dawkins connection and applies & extrapolates some evolutionary thoughts to memes in this TED talk below…
Susan Blackmore: Genes, Memes & Temes
In the comments section on the TED site, I also found another interesting article series mentioned applying the concept to software (as the 3rd replicator): Software Physics.
Judith Donath
More social-studies-interestingness follows by Judith Donath, Director of MIT's Sociable Media Group and her talk about the role of signalling to explain some of our behaviours both online and offline (e.g. fashion) and how to use these learnings in the design of new services and products. E.g. One of her group's latest projects is mycrocosm, “a webservice that allows you to share snippets of information from the minutiae of daily life in the form of simple statistical graphs”.
Judith Donath: Signals, Truth & Design
Steven Pinker
Much of my recent talk at Semi-Permanent dealt with the concept & generative role of language in design. Even though I can't yet count him as a big influence on myself (still need to read his books first ;), Steven Pinker's TED talk has some great insights about the universal fabric of language.
Steven Pinker: The Stuff of thought
Alternatively check out his RSA lecture for a longer, more in-depth and entertaining version of this topic.
Benjamin Zander
The last presentation of this round is also the best one, IMHO - for I totally agree with and buy into Benjamin Zander's sense of judgement and success, both professionally and privately: “Look for the shining eyes”. Along with the great Ken Robinson, I'd have loved to have him as teacher… inspirational, indeed!
Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes
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