All good news at the global gathering for optimists

The world's great minds brought some positive thinking to Oxford's TEDGlobal conference, writes RONAN McGREEVY

THE FUTURE is bright. It always has been, because human beings retain the capacity to resolve our problems, however insurmountable they might seem. That was the essential message from the TEDGlobal annual gathering in Oxford this week.

“And so for the good news” was an audacious title chosen to counter the avalanche of bad news that seems to land on us every day. The theme and tone of the conference were set by Bruno Giussani, its European organiser. Good news had become an “extinct species”, he said, which obscured the fact that so many exciting innovations were happening.

TED, which takes its name from the first letters of the words technology, entertainment and design, is an organisation lacking in neither self-confidence nor self-regard. Founded in 1984, it has, thanks to the internet, become a globally recognised brand and probably the best-known forum for new ideas.

Its speakers have included Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Gordon Brown. Everybody at TED is a somebody: a CEO, an entrepreneur, an innovator, an artist or the head of an NGO. It could hardly be otherwise: access to the four-day talking shop costs about €5,000, and there is no shortage of subscribers.

“How many of you were turned down for a gifted programme?” asked one speaker. When no hands went up she said: “I forgot, this is a TED audience.”

The atmosphere is creative rather than commercial, the quality of the talks was sky-high and many of the ideas are head-spinning. Alice in Wonderland once said she could believe in six impossible things before breakfast. She should have come to TED.

10 TEDGlobal ideas

Mind blindsThe Australian- Vietnamese entrepreneur Tan Le unveiled a headset that allows you to open blinds, turn on lights or change the television just by thinking about it.

Boy wonderMeet Milo, the world's first cyberperson. Created by computer game developer Peter Molyneaux, Milo is a virtual 11-year-old boy who will recognise your voice, respond to your commands and learn.

Bug crunchMarcel Dicke, a Dutch entomologist, has a solution to increasing demand for food: "Eat insects." He said there was no real difference between shrimps, which are a delicacy in the West, and locusts, which he described as an excellent source of nutrition.

Whale wisdomMarine biologist Dr Toni Frohoff reckons whales and dolphins may be wiser than humans. They are "highly wired for intelligence but also for psychological complexity and even empathy".

Soft powerFormer diplomat Joseph Nye defined the concept of "soft power" as the idea that countries can get what they want by spreading their influence.

Population growthWe are the only species that gets more prosperous as its population increases, said rational optimist Matt Ridley. There are three times more people on the planet than there were in the 1950s, but people are three times more prosperous.

Deep thoughtsSome day we will be able to examine the brains of dead people and re-create their thoughts, predicted Prof Sebastian Seung of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By mapping the "connectome", the interconnection between our neurons and synapses, we can recover thoughts, feelings and memories.

Add it upLet computers do the calculating in class, suggests mathematician Conrad Wolfram. He said children spend too much time doing manual computation when they should be concentrating on solving problems.

Good foodArthur Potts Dawson, a nephew of Mick Jagger, has the world's first carbon-neutral restaurant. The Water House in Hoxton, east London, uses an adjacent canal for heat and power, and turns 70kg of waste vegetables into compost every week.

Sunny dispositionCosta Rica is the happiest country in the world, thanks to long life expectancy, high literacy and a low carbon footprint, said researcher Nic Marks.