Theme: xponential change

At TEDxBerlin "xponential change" we wanted to explore where and how exponential change happens and what it will lead to. Which future will exponential change create for us? What are the implications these advances will have on society? What is the future role of humans in this brave new world? Is there a limit for exponential growth?

CityCube
Messedamm 26
Berlin, Berlin, 14055
Germany

Berliner Kneipenchor

The Berliner Kneipenchor consists of boys and girls, men and women, journalists and doctors, managers and art students, DJs and ordinary people. They all come together to sing songs of the Beach Boys, Herbert Grönemeyer, Rhianna and Coldplay and to drink beer together. It’s all about having a good time and singing their favorite songs.

Andrew Keen

Andrew Keen is one of the world’s best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. He is the author of three books: Cult of the Amateur, Digital Vertigo and his current international hit The Internet Is Not The Answer which the London Sunday Times acclaimed as a "powerful, frightening read" and the Washington Post called "an enormously useful primer for those of us concerned that online life isn't as shiny as our digital avatars would like us to believe". He is executive director of the Silicon Valley innovation salonFutureCast, the host of the popular Internet chat show "Keen On", a Senior Fellow at CALinnovates, a columnist for CNN and a much acclaimed public speaker around the world. In 2015, he was named by GQ magazine in their list of the "100 Most Connected Men”.

Ashkan Fardost

Ashkan received his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from Uppsala University. He’s been a member of the scientific community since 2009, with several peer-reviewed publications in acclaimed scientific journals. Before his scientific ventures, in the mid 90’s, he leveraged computers, the early internet, and the art of growth hacking, to acquire a record deal and launch an international music career as a 17-year old. He has always been fascinated by the exponential progress of technology and how it empowers and transforms our lives, cultures and societies. Today, Ashkan is a public speaker and consultant for tech startups in Stockholm. He also appears on Swedish national television as a science reporter.

Cory D. Kidd

Dr. Cory Kidd is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a healthcare technology company focused on delivering effective behavior change. The company has developed a hardware and software platform that uses a combination of psychology and artificial intelligence to successfully engage patients through interactive conversations. These conversations happen through mobile, web, and socially interactive robot interfaces; together these interfaces create a relationship that can reach patients at any time they need support. The data reported back through the system gives Catalia Health’s institutional healthcare customers valuable information to understand the daily activities and needs of their patients. Dr. Kidd is a serial entrepreneur who has been working in healthcare technology for nearly two decades.

Daniel McDuff

Daniel McDuff is building and utilizing scalable computer vision and machine learning tools to enable the automated recognition and analysis of emotions and physiology. He is currently principal research scientist Affectiva and a post-doctoral research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab. At Affectiva Daniel is building state-of-the-art facial expression recognition software and leading analysis of the world's largest database of human emotions (currently with 8B+ data points). Daniel completed his PhD in the Affective Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab in 2014 and has a B.A. and Masters from Cambridge University. His work has received nominations and awards from Popular Science magazine as one of the top inventions in 2011, South-by-South-West Interactive (SXSWi), The Webby Awards, ESOMAR, the Center for Integrated Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and several IEEE conferences.

Django Deluxe

Their unique music combines the traditional Gypsy-Swing of Django Reinhardt with more modern forms of jazz to dazzling effect. Swing however, pulses through it’s veins, expressing their collective passion and esteem for Django – the greatest European Gypsy-Jazz legend of all time. The most impressive feature of their music: the ease with which they transfer older, traditional 30s and 40s rhythms and sounds into their arrangements, yet somehow manage to inject unique touches that are fresh and innovative. Their ability to achieve this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as they – like Django himself – are Sinti, and were raised in the same jazz tradition. At the same time however, they’re four young men, living and creating music in the contemporary world of R & B and Hip-Hop.

Dominic Stühler

Dominic is known as Presentation Punk and the founder of Presentation Revolution. He helps people deliver their ideas so that they stick. His company currently works on the presentation campus, an eLearning platform which gives anyone full access to tools to improve their ability to deliver great talks, whenever and wherever they like. He is the author of “Revolutioniere – In 7 Schritten zum Presentation Punk” and since 2009 Guest Lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Dominic works with his students on concepts for talks, presentation design, and delivery. As digital nomad and internet entrepreneur Dominic travels literally all the time and thus has no settled domicile. One consideration of freedom to him is the possibility to work everywhere with no boundaries and restrictions, this could mean working on a catamaran in Southeast Asia. To achieve this he lives completely paperless.

Emma Mulqueeny

Emma is the founder of Rewired State and Young Rewired State, is a Commissioner for the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy and a Google Fellow. She has recently been included in the 166th annual edition of Who is Who, voted onto the Wired 100 list, Tech City 100 and BIMA Hot 10. She has also been voted one of the top ten women in technology by The Guardian and in the top ten Tech Heroes for Good by NESTA. Emma writes regularly for the British Press and on her own blog, speaks on radio and on television, is best known for her campaign: ‘Year 8 is too Late’ (encouraging girls into technology subjects) and insights into the social digital generation: the 97ers.

Hyeonseo Lee

Hyeonseo Lee is a North Korean defector living in Seoul, South Korea. She has recently completed writing her memoir, The Girl With Seven Names, which was published in July 2015 in more than 20 countries. Over 5 million people have viewed her TED Talk about her life in North Korea, her escape to China and struggle to bring her family to freedom. Hyeonseo has given testimony about North Korean human rights in front of a special panel of the UN Security Council, and has discussed the issues with important leaders such as UN Ambassador Samantha Powers. Hyeonseo spends much of her time speaking about North Korean human rights and North Korean refugee issues, including speeches at the Stanford University Global Speaker Series, Princeton University, New York University Law School, and at various venues throughout Europe. She has personally met public officials like UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the former South Korean Minister of Unification, Yu Woo-ik, to discuss these issues.

Jan Schwochow

Jan Schwochow is Managing Director of the agency Golden Section Graphics, which he founded in 2007. The graphic design agency specialises in the creation of infographics and illustrations. Previously, Jan was responsible for the infographics of the magazines Stern and Max. He also spent two years working at the CP Agency KircherBurkhardt, where he established a unit for infographics and ran it. Jan Schwochow studied communication design at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg.

Karsten Becker

The 33 years old engineer Karsten Becker joined Part-Time Scientists Germany in 2009. Today he leads the electronic team. In 2007 the Google Lunar XPrize invited scientists from around the world to compete in this unique $30 Million challenge to land a privately-funded rover on the moon’s surface, drive 500 meters and send back pictures to earth. Today, the PT Scientists from Germany are 1 of 5 teams favoured to land a rover on the moon until 2017. Karsten will share fascinating insights in his work and passion for the goals and challenges of "Mission Moon".

Raymond McCauley

Raymond McCauley is a scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur working at the forefront of biotechnology. Raymond explores how applying technology to life -- biology, genetics, medicine, agriculture -- is affecting every one of us. He uses storytelling and down-to-earth examples to show how quickly these changes are happening, right now, and where it may head tomorrow.

Toby Walsh

Toby Walsh is one of the leading researchers in the world in Artificial Intelligence. He is currently working in Berlin thanks to a Humboldt Research award. He is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales back in Sydney, Australia, and a Research Group leader at NICTA, Australia's Centre of Excellence for ICT Research. He has been elected a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of AI for his contributions to AI research. Earlier this year, he was one of the initial signatories of an Open Letter calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons. The letter was also signed by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak. In total, the letter now has close to 20,000 signatures and has pushed this issue into the world's spotlight. The letter argues that we need to take action today to prevent an arms race in which these lethal autonomous weapons fall into the hands of terrorists and rogue nations.