I have always believed that we are just scratching the surface of human potential. With 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses there is no way that we could be anywhere nearing the processing capacity of the brain. And with much of our daily energy focused on why we cannot do this or that you have to believe that so much more is possible. THPL contemplates this mostly by taking the practical and making it better – our improvements are mostly linear, and with enough time they can be significant. But to get exponential growth we need to have two things happen – we have to get a glimpse into what is possible and second we need to construct a way to make it so.
And in my ever growing bibliography of Ted videos that I have watched, I have seen a lot of really amazing people overcoming adversity, creating new and innovative ways to think and constantly challenging the status quo. But every once in a while I come upon a Ted talk that shows a glimpse into more – it shows that we can reach the outer reaches of human potential. In this case Derek Paravinci shows us his stuff in the Ted talk titled In The Key of Genius. The talk runs about 20 minutes and even if you only watch some of it you will come away convinced that the brain, can, with the “right” wiring do amazing things. As it turns out Derek is blind and has severe autism. He also has perfect pitch, innate talent and has practiced hours and hours a day to first become an acclaimed concert pianist by the age of 10 and then now one of the truly interesting examples of how you can do more with the piano than previously considered possible. If Derek can play everything by ear the way he does, translate songs in the same way a computer does and can do this in synch with others then he is indeed a magical person and one who proves we can do way more than we are doing today. Take a look at the Ted talk when you have a minute and then think about how far do you think we can indeed go ? Are we ready for more? I think THPL is - let’s get inspired and set new paths from here forward.
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_paravicini_and_adam_ockelford_in_the_key_of_genius.html
Loving life knowing that I can indeed do way more
Ciao
joe