Live(ish) From TED pt. 2

Our friend Jonathan Greenblatt is at the TED conference, absorbing the wisdom of the illuminati. This is his second dispatch (we added some links, his first TED post is here).

Also, Dave Eggers and two others accept the TED Prize live on the internet tonight. It starts at 5:15 PST. Watch at the TED blog.

Jonathan writes:

- It’s been quite an afternoon. Stanford professor Phil Zimbardo, who led the notorious prison experiment at Stanford 20 years ago, gave a gripping talk on the nature of evil, using the Abu Ghraib scandal as an analysis framework for understanding that the roots of evil lie not in the individual or the situation, but in systematic breakdowns or gaps that fail to thwart immoral behaviors. He observes that individuals have a higher likelihood of devolving into perpetrators when they wear anonymizing uniforms, when they dehumanize the enemy, when they can deflect responsibility.

- Goldie Hawn announced the progress on Pangea Day, a powerful collective action on April 10 when people around the world will come together to view films as a demonstration of global solidarity. As a teaser, TED unveiled an amazing short film that looked at the defining moment of Tiananmen Square – but did so from the eyes of the tank driver who stopped in the face of the single protester. Sony has built an extraordinary sound stage that will serve as the launchpad. Hosted by Christiane Amanpour, it will be the anchor desk for this massive, continent-spanning program. Apparently, a new trailer has been posted to YouTube.