Ebert's TED talk: I Have No X and I Must Y

[Brendan Main]

This is the first topic I've started on The Escapist, despite rattling around for a while. Let me know if I've done it wrong / didn't use search bar / ruined Christmas.

Roger Ebert gave a TED talk recently, where he discussed his personal experience with technology, in light of his recent travails. If you're unfamiliar with Ebert's recent history: due to a surgical procedure in 2006 that removed cancerous tissue near his jaw and a portion of his jawbone itself, he can no longer speak. His "talk," then, was given through a text-to-speech program, and he discussed the ways in which this and other technologies have aided him in the years following his accident.

Unfortunately, for those interested, it's not online yet. But Esquire and The New York Times have quoted excerpts, and some of them are quite telling.

Besides reflecting on the existential quirks of his condition - he jokes about having already spoken his last words, and can't remember quite what they were - he speaks at length on how writing on the internet was a "life-saver" in his time of need. Here are a few other quotes from Esquire.

"I was forced to enter this virtual world in which a computer does some of my living for me. I felt ? and I still feel ? a lot of distance from the human mainstream. I become uncomfortable when I'm separated from my laptop."

"I've been able to find out what the buzzwords 'social network' really mean. I cannot speak; I can only type so fast, but with my computer, I can communicate as well as ever before."

"Online, everybody speaks at the same speed. My ability to think and write have not been affected and on the web my real voice finds expression."

And one from Mashable:

"For me, the Internet began as a useful tool and now has become something I rely on for my actual daily existence? [if this had happened before], I'd be isolated as a hermit; I'd be trapped inside my head. Because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not have to scream."

...

I realize that this may not be the best forum to reference Ebert's plight - In certain gaming circles, mentioning the guy's name is like crying wolf. But it's not Ebert The Videogame Bugaboo we're dealing with here. It's Ebert The Flesh and Blood Guy Who Got Trolled By The Universe But Can Still Reference Harlan Ellison Like A Boss.

Often, when I hear about the revolutionary ways that the internet will connect and enlighten us, I brush it off. But there's something oddly touching his his testimony, and of the very real way he got what he needed from writing, reading, and discussing things online. Ebert blogged his way back from the abyss. Go figure.

As for questions, I can think of two - they're wildly divergent, but they track back to the same place.

1. What aspects of your physical body could you stand to lose? How much is essential to how you think of yourself, and how much is just meat-and-bones?

2. Are there technologies that inspire you - in what they do, in what they make possible, in what they allow us to overcome?

Links:
http://mashable.com/2011/03/05/roger-ebert-ted-talk/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/roger-ebert-tests-his-vocal-cords-and-comedic-delivery/
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/roger-ebert-ted-talk-5359155


TL,DR, Roger Ebert is the "Rudy" of having a face.

 

[Eisenfaust]

and here i was thinking he just needed to stop talking... whoops


OT: i don't know how much i can STAND to lose, but it'd be interesting whatever happened... mainly just because i'm interested in the concept of "phantom pain" and getting to theatrically prattle on about it to someone...

technologies that inspire me? well, sometimes i stop and go "hang on... what the hell IS the internet?!" and similar things my non-engineering mind cannot possibly understand... not really inspirational, but interesting, at the very least

 

[gigastar]

Well first im going to congratulate you for stepping out into the firing line for the first time.

Now for some on-topic.

1. What aspects of your physical body could you stand to lose? How much is essential to how you think of yourself, and how much is just meat-and-bones?

Given the chance i would upload my mind onto the net, however i would think it over as my connection is slow and unreliable.

So without leaving my body i think i need to keep everything. Feet for going to the fridge and bog, hands for mashing buttons to make coherent words, eyes to review my work[footnote]If you can call it that...[/footnote] and everything else so they can do their job as nature intended. We need everything until we can exist in an enviroment where we need nothing.

2. Are there technologies that inspire you - in what they do, in what they make possible, in what they allow us to overcome?

Well as i see it most of the revolutionary stuff lying in wait is far too far in its infancy to make a real difference if it came out tomorrow. For example, walking tanks. They do have the considerable advantage across rough terrain that regular tanks dont have but thier legs would have alot of moving parts in them and the more moving parts there are the more you have to replace when someone skewers it with a rocket launcher.

Hydrogen fuel is another good example. Its the only true clean fuel but production and distribution of gas, fuel cells and engines that will run on the stuff is bieng held back by health and safety by 10 years alone.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Why can't you see the TED talk on TED.com?

I do not think I would want to stand to lose anything of my body except perhaps my ability to speak, but regardless of what sort of fate that might be dealt to me, it would be well with my soul.