Name: 【TEDx】Epigenetics: David Shenk at TEDxLakeGeneva
Uploaded: 2017-03-17T05:45:47.000Z
Duration: 13 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

day by day, I become a lot more reliant and trusting

Like some of you, I suspect, I'm increasingly aware

of the frailties of the human body and brain.

And I look around at this technological revolution taking place.

And I kind of want to apply this same ingenuity to the human body

Why can't I, why can't we all be stronger, smarter,

We've all seen great new inventions that are aimed at doing just that;

High-tech replacements for our hands and arms,

Google has an ambition to connect the brain directly to the internet;

Think about that for a second, kind of creepy, kind of cool?

I'm sure it will happen if Google is going after it.

The main reason that we fantasize about these biological, these bionic upgrades

is that our own biological upgrades happen so infrequently,

at least that's what we were told in school, right?

This is Darwin's famous natural selection.

very slow upgrade mechanism that we have.

And what we were told was, we're stuck in place

we'll stay just like this until a random genetic mutation happens

and spreads throughout the entire species.

For most of the grand time scale of human existence,

If you look closely at science from the last few decades,

Not just every few hundred thousand years, but all the time.

whose function it is to constantly adapt to external conditions and needs.

and you're really gonna want to buy this one

because you'll never have to buy another one.

Next year this iPhone 6 will turn into an iPhone 7.

The year after that, it will turn into an iPhone 8,

the hardware itself will transform right in your hand

So, the screen will become bigger or smaller depending on what you need,

the glass will become more flexible or more rigid depending on what you need,

the case will become harder or softer or more grippy or smoother

to our external conditions and needs using not one, but four

We've already talked about natural selection,

it's the only one we don't get to see in our own lifetime.

that allows the body to adapt constantly,

second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour,

I'm in the middle of a freezing cold blizzard all of a sudden.

Immediately, my hypothalamus sends signals

to constrict the blood vessels close to my skin,

it activates my skeletal muscles to shiver and generate warmth,

the hair on my skin raises up to trap warm air,

glands secrete adrenaline and thyroxine to increase my metabolic rate.

I'm not even aware of it, but my body has just immediately

it is instantly upgraded to deal with the cold.

That's homeostasis, upgrade mechanism number one.

and I'm actually on my way to my son's school a few blocks away,

he's in the fifth grade and he's learning to play the violin,

and today I get to hear his first orchestra concert.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TEDx】Epigenetics: David Shenk at TEDxLakeGeneva

constantly

meditation

entire

scale