The Inner History of Devices
Contemporary science has done a great disservice to Sigmund Freud, suggests Sherry Turkle, who believes the psychoanalytic tradition can teach us much about the often concealed connections between physical objects and our thoughts and feelings. On the occasion of the publication of her latest book, The Inner History of Devices—the third in a trilogy—Turkle speaks of the importance of technology as a subjective tool, as a window into the soul. Watch
Archives and History
Moderator Peter Walsh poses a series of questions to the archivists and historians on this panel, who reflect the anxiety and exhilaration of a digital age that is constantly transforming their disciplines. Watch
The Future of the News
Ellen Hume, Research Director of the Center for Future Civic Media program, predicts a good news conversation with her MIT Museum crowd about the future of news. Participants work hard to find a silver lining in the dire situation facing newspapers and other traditional forms of journalism. Watch
Narratives of Science
Robert Kanigel poses the central question of this panel: “The storytelling express is leaving the station. Do we want to jump aboard, or under some circumstances, stay where we are?” Science writing has matured as a discipline and genre, and for many writers, this means telling a story with what Kanigel describes as “a narrative arc: a cannon propelling you through a text, because of readers’ eagerness to know what’s happening next.” Watch
Global Media
Just as digital technology has expanded the means of producing media, so has it increased the geographic range new media may travel. Locally generated content can zip around the world in a heartbeat. Watch
Paint it Black: On the Current Financial Crisis
“Paint it Black” is all about red—the mountain of debt challenging the viability of all the nation’s institutions. James Poterba moderates this discussion of the current economic crisis, and the possible impact of governmental remedies.
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George Soros on The New Paradigm for Financial Markets
George Soros extends his "theory of reflexivity" from abstraction to application in the realm of investing. His book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets, offers a timely look at the credit crisis that reached crescendo in 2008. His views fall between prescience and vindication. Nevertheless, he concedes fallibility: "With all my great, deep understanding, I don't always get the markets right." Watch
Professor Charles Stewart III on Race and the 2008 Election
Some political observers have declared that the election of the first black president signals a new era of post-racial politics in the United States—but the data show otherwise, say two MIT professors, Charles H. Stewart III and Stephen Ansolabehere. Watch
The Way David Macaulay Works
During this tour of David Macaulay's imagination, prepare to soar over Rome's great monuments, raft within the human body's circulatory system, and dismantle and rebuild the Empire State Building. A master illustrator rolls out sketches and storylines from some of his greatest hits. Watch
Stefan Helmreich on his book "Alien Ocean"
When MIT Professor of Anthropology Stefan Helmreich set out to examine the world of marine microbiologists for a new book, his research took an unexpected twist. Helmreich, who has been recognized for his innovative cultural anthropology work, had decided to study scientists who chase some of the world's smallest creatures in some of the world's most forbidding places. So he spent long hours interviewing microbial biologists. But during the years of Helmreich's research, the entire field shifted gears. Watch on YouTube
Fold your own Brass Rat
Brian Chan shows how to fold an origami brass rat in one hour. Watch
Jay Gatsby and the Myth of American Origins
America’s supreme economic, political and military power in the world is matched, says Leo Marx, by “correspondingly ardent, patriotic, nationalistic …thinking of a large number of Americans, dedicated to the idea of America’s unique, divinely ordained role in the world." But this “amalgam of Christian fundamentalist religion and dogmatic patriotism is…deeply rooted in our history,” he continues.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology