http://www.ted.com Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Comments

1. In short, the suggestion to see nothing can be as strong as one to see something. Hence, critical analysis is hard won. I'll suggest that complacency can be even stronger at times to see nothing.
2. Ha, there's truth here....but to promote excess skepticism is to fuel the other end of the equation. The tendency to NOT recognize patterns because we'd prefer not to as it would force us to re-think our version of the reality. There's far more problem from the latter than the former. Authoritarianism depends on an excess of trust in those that would lie for an ulterior motive based on our tendency to want to work together and co-operate while assuming others wouldn't lie to us. Ambition is sometimes hard to access and not well understood.
3. Funny to see most people go along with all the reasoning and scientific research into why people deceive themselves until he talks about 9/11 being an inside job...
4. this guy was the inspiration for Agent Coulson in The Avengers
5. how does our objective realities interfere with how we develop our patternicity?
6. Wow, so religion could literally be a natural evolution of pattern recognition software gone awry in a brain... that's ultimately disappointing. What's ironic is that trait helped us survive this long, but because it spawned religion will probably lead to our ultimate destruction. I often think the only thing that can save us is if we're capable of genetically manipulating ourselves to write out some of that obsolete and damaging cognitive behavior.
7. this is an interesting one
8. came because of TOK
9. I'm not saying he is all bullshit, but YouTube search "banned TED talk - The science disillusion".
10. What does this quote mean: "Humans are pattern-seeking animals and we are adept at finding patterns whether they exist or not”? (This is a quote by Michael Shermer)
11. Monkey's getting that sweet sweet french kiss XD
12. man, michael shermer is too good! three cheers to skeptic!!!
13. Sorry, Mr. Shermer, but to ascribe classical conspiracy theories, like JFK or RFK or MLK or 911 et bloody cetera, to "agenticity" is truly stupid. People who disbelieve official stories (based on scientific evidence that's still available after shredding) are not choosing between a random wisp of wind and a tiger. They are choosing between a tiger and a civet at whom the gvt is pointing its greasy finger.
14. those poor girls
15. some conspiracies have turned out to be real and some are not
16. kissing those monkeys....guess that's how they got aids started
17. Wow, those were really hard to spot dolphins.
18. »9/11 was not orchestrated by the Bush administration: because it worked« (min 15:45)
    
    Convincing, really.
19. Google and YouTube are fucking spineless crackheads.