I thought the following article would be of interest, as well as the
existence of the annual TED conference.

The article mentions Martin Seligman, who spoke at the event.
Ironically, Goldie Hawn also participated. That's ironic because
Seligman has used Hawn as an icon of the shallow ebullience that often is
mischaracterized as happiness.

Seligman's remarks also may be of interest.

Al Cannistraro
al@...


Eclectic conference ponders bliss. 01/03/2004. ABC News Online

[This is the print version of story
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1056130.htm]


Last Update: Monday, March 1, 2004. 12:05pm (AEDT)
Eclectic conference ponders bliss
When it comes to the pursuit of happiness, everyone, it turns out, has an
opinion.

Everyone, as it turns out, just happens to include architects,
scientists, explorers, Buddhist monks, comedians, primate researchers,
dietitians, deep sea divers, illusionists and Internet billionaires.

That was only a partial list of the lineup of speakers and participants
at at a free-wheeling technology and design conference in the United
States, that also attracted corporate executives and famed Hollywood
actress Goldie Hawn.

The eclectic group gathered on California's central coast to ponder the
pursuit of happiness and the shape of the future at the annual TED
conference.

TED, an acronym for technology, entertainment and design, brought
together an unlikely group of thinkers to swap ideas and garner
inspiration from Wednesday through Saturday.

In a measure of the conference's enthusiastic embrace of diversity, the
Monterey event ran the gamut from a presentation on how mantis shrimp
break open snails to a standing ovation for a piano recital by
14-year-old prodigy Jennifer Lin.

Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn joined in a meditation session guided by a
Buddhist monk.

Genomics pioneer Craig Ventner discussed his globe-trotting plans for
mapping the genome of the planet's population.

Chris Anderson, the curator of the conference, told Reuters the gathering
provides a four-day immersion in ideas, invention and fun at a time when
many of its high-powered participants are reevaluating life's big-picture
questions.

"A lot of people who have been incredibly successful over the years have
been compelled to write a different agenda because of a combination of
economic issues and 9/11," he said.

Mr Anderson, in his second year as the conference curator, announced the
launch of the TED prize, an award that will give $US100,000 apiece to
three people judged to be remarkable.

The invited guests to this year's conference included the founders of
such Internet luminaries as Amazon, AOL, Ask Jeeves, eBay, Google,
Intuit, Paypal and Priceline.

William Taubman, a real estate developer, who has attended TED since it
started over a decade ago, described it as a kind of vacation for the
mind.

In a presentation entitled "Humour, Joy and Surprise in Design," Al
Seckel, a neuroscientist from the California Institute of Technology,
described illusions as "expectations that have been violated in some
unexpected, pleasing way".

That was close to what many people felt upon seeing the billionaire
founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, circling the stage on a
Segway scooter.

The same audience had earlier watched bonobos, a species of ape from
central Africa, learn to draw pictures, drive golf carts and play
computer games.

On the whole, TED participants were wildly optimistic about the future,
with predictions that scientists in the years just ahead would solve the
problem of aging, understand the nature of gravity and find another
planet like Earth.

Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of
Pennsylvania, ended the conference by saying that America should look to
15th century Florence for inspiration.

"Florence in the 15th century could have become the greatest military
power in Europe with all its wealth and genius, but instead it chose to
invest it in beauty," Mr Seligman said.

"This is your Florentine moment and it only comes once in a millennium,"
he said.

"The question we all have to ask ourselves is how are we going to use
technology, entertainment and design to increase the tonnage of human
happiness on the planet."

With that the conference drew to a close on a rousing coda that included
singing and dancing led by the Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard.

It was an attempt to find the "flow" of the moment, described earlier by
Nancy Etkoff, an evolutionary psychologist at Harvard University.

"People feel happiest when they are in the flow, absorbed, and not
figuring out the self," she said.

-- Reuters




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