are not familiar with my work,

I create multicultural characters,

so characters from lots of different backgrounds.

So before the present is the new future,

a bit about the past is that I grew up in a family

that was multi-everything -- multi-racial, multi-cultural,

black and white, Caribbean,

Irish-American, German-American.

There was Dominican music blasting from stereos.

There were Christians and Jews.

That's a long story filled with

intrigue and interfaith guilt and shame.

But I was totally immersed in this world

that was filled with everybody,

and then I went on to the United Nations school,

and that just completely —

So I began sort of developing these voices

and these people,

all of whom were loosely based on people I really know,

and so, for example, in performing them,

I would really try to inhabit them.

And for example,

I don't really talk like that,

but that was one of my people,

and I'm going to bring a few of my friends --

I think of them as my friends —

to this stage, in this spirit of the idea

that the present is the new future,

in sort of a meta way,

because I thought about it, and the future, for me,

what can be so frightening

is that I don't know what's coming.

I don't know if that's true for other people,

but that notion of thinking about

how we can understand the future

and predict outcomes,

for me, it's terrifying to not know what might be coming.

And so the idea that there are questions

that I've never seen

that my people are going to answer,

and some of these characters have been with me for ages,

some of them don't even have names,

I don't know what's going to happen.

I don't know what's coming,

and all I can do is remind myself

that I told Chris I'd fly by the seat of my pants,

and now that I'm up here it sort of feels like

that dream where you don't have any pants on,

and so I suppose I'm going to be

flying by the seat of my ass.

That said, let's just see who comes out.

May we have the first question:

"Do you ever get headaches

from the microchips implanted in your brain?"

Right.

Okay.

Well first of all, I'll just say

that I hope you can hear me okay.

My name is Lorraine Levine,

and the idea of microchips implanted in my brain,

frankly, just putting on my glasses reminds me

of thank God I'm not wearing the Google Glasses.

No offense to them. I'm glad that you all enjoy them,

but at my age,

just putting on the regular ones I have

already gives me too much information.

Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

I don't need to know more. I don't want to know.

That's it. That's enough.

I love you all. You're wonderful.

It's fabulous to be here with such big machers

again this year. Mwah!

Okay, next question. (Applause)

Next, please.

"Is dating boring,

now that humans reproduce asexually?"

Who do we got?

Hi, um, okay, hi everybody.

My name is Nereida.

I just want to say first of all

that dating is never boring under any circumstance.

But I am very excited to be here right now,

so I am just trying to remind myself that,

you know, like, the purpose of being here and everything,

I mean, trying to answer these questions, it is very exciting.

But I also, I just need to acknowledge

that TED is an incredible experience right now

in the present, like, I just need to say, like,

Isabel Allende. Isabel Allende!

Okay, maybe it doesn't mean,

of course it means something to you,

but to me, it's like, another level, okay?

Because I'm Latina and I really appreciate the fact

that there are role models here that I can really,

I don't know, I just need to say that.

That's incredible to me, and sometimes when I'm nervous and everything like that,

I just need to, like, say some affirmations

that can help me.

I usually just try to use, like, the three little words

that always make me feel better:

Sotomayor, Sotomayor, Sotomayor. (Laughter)

Just, it really helps me to get grounded.

Now I can use Allende, Allende, Allende,

and, you know, I just need to say it, like,

it's so incredible to be here, and I knew that we were going to have these questions.

I was so nervous and I was thinking just, like, oh my God, oh my God,

and reminding me, because I've had, like, some very,

especially since the last time we were here at TED,

it was, like, unbelievable,

and then right after that, like,

so many crazy things happened, like,

we ended up going to the White House to perform.

That was, like, amazing,

and I'm standing there,

and I was just like, please don't say, "Oh my God."

Don't say, "Oh my God."

And I just kept saying it: "Oh my God. Oh my God."

And, you know, I kept thinking to myself, like,

President Obama has to come up here at the same podium,

and I'm standing here saying, "Oh my God."

It's like, the separation of church and state.

It's just, I couldn't, like, I couldn't process.

It was really too much.

So I think I've lost my way.

But what I wanted to say is that dating, for me,

you know, as far as I'm concerned,

however you reproduce, as long as you're enjoying yourself

and it's with another consenting asexual -- I don't know.

You know where I'm going with that.

Okay, ciao, gracias.

Okay, next question. (Applause)

What are your top five favorite songs right now?

All right, well first of all, I'mma say,

you know what I'm saying, I'm the only dude up here right now.

My name is Rashid,

and I never been at TED before,

you know what I'm saying.

I think, Sarah Jones, maybe she didn't want me to come out last time.

I don't know why. You know what I'm saying.

Obviously I would be like a perfect fit for TED.

You know what I'm saying.

First of all, that I'm in hip hop, you know what I'm saying.

I know some of y'all may be not really

as much into the music,

but the first way y'all can always know,

you know what I'm saying, that I'm in hip hop,

is 'cos I hold the microphone

in an official emcee posture.

Y'all can see that right there.

That's how you hold it.

All right, so you get your little tutorial right there.

But when Sarah Jones told me we was gonna come up here,

I was like, betch, you know what I'm saying,

TED is real fly, I got a whole lot of dope,

you know what I'm saying, shit going on and everything,

but she was like, yeah,

we're going to have to answer, like, some random questions,

just like, and I was like, what the hell is that?

You know what I'm saying, just stand up there

and answer some random questions?

I don't want to,

I mean, it's like an intellectual stop-and-frisk.

You know what I'm saying? (Laughter)

I don't want to be standing up there just

all getting interrogated and whatnot.

That's what I'm trying to leave behind

in New York. You know what I'm saying?

So anyway, I would have to say my top five songs right now

is all out of my own personal catalogue,

you know what I mean?

So if you want to know more about that,

you know what I'm saying,

we could talk about the anti-piracy and all that,

but as far as I'm concerned,

you know, I believe in creative commons,

and I think it's really important that, you know,