UCLA Anderson TED Week: Keeping Up with the Extraterrestrials, Timing Your Success, and Engineering Romance

By Bijan White

The second day of TED Week at Anderson invited us on an exciting mission through the cosmos to search for alien life. According to MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager, this search is not as desperate as we once thought. The screening room was thrown into a whirlwind of color as Seager led us through galaxies of red stars and planets that could potentially be teeming with life. The possibilities are endless, to hear Seager tell it: “Kepler 186f could theoretically hold life forms, but all the plant life would be red because it orbits the red dwarf star Kepler 186,” she merrily explained and she launched us into a new planetary system. With roughly 500 billion galaxies in the universe, the number of planets reaches well above 5x1022, and Seager insists that some of them must contain life.

The Anderson panelists were skeptical. Dr. Thomas Yunck, founder of GEO Optics, reminded the audience of the extremely specific and independent conditions that led to the development of life on Earth and that are highly unlikely to reoccur. The panelists launched into a discussion of the application of space programs to our earthly activities. Amir Blachman ('03), managing director of the Space Angels Network, commented on the interdisciplinary nature of space research and its application to telecommunication, weather reporting, and the cross examination of atmospheres. Whether or not life is to be found beyond this world, space programs remain vital to understanding and monitoring our own planet. And the industry is experiencing a process of privatization in which startups are gaining importance.

On a more earthly note, a range of presentations on marketing, the economy and entrepreneurship were surely an inspiration to many Anderson students. Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, shared his thesis on the key to success for startups. He argued that among all the elements of success, timing is the most crucial. More than ideas, business models or even funding, “timing counts for more than 40% of the difference between success and failure.” Entrepreneurs must choose wisely the ideal moment to enter the market.

Tim Leberecht, chief marketing officer of global design and architecture firm NBBJ, lamented our loss of authentic feeling, saying, “We are engineering romance out of our lives.” Insisting that it is time for a new romantic movement, Leberecht advised us to play “strangers in a strange land” by being open to experience and novelty. Businesses should provide more than the usual solutions for customers, he said, they should also “humanize the enterprise.”

As TED Week progresses, take a moment to embrace the present as a romantic. Seize opportunity, and cast your eyes toward the heavens to wonder what might exist in the blue between the stars.

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This year's TED conference convened in Vancouver, Canada, under the theme Truth and Dare. The fourth annual TED Week at Anderson brings together the UCLA community to share ideas that change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.

Check out the UCLA Anderson TED Week schedule

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