What the World Needs Now: Reimagining the Possible

In the early 1960s, John F. Kennedy launched a commitment to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade -- a commitment that's served since as an example of how a U.S. leader can galvanize the public to seek (literally) greater heights. I believe, following the theme of this year's TED conference, that what the world needs now is for us to once again expand what we believe to be possible.

Kennedy's speech fascinates me because of the disparity between its realpolitik origins and what it ended up meaning to the American people. For Kennedy's administration, the space race with the Soviets was a serious national security priority. Satellites were (and remain) a major strategic tool for information collecting, and at that time, the implications and opportunities for militarizing space were at the forefront of the administration's mind.

Yet at the same time, the Cold War was a global game of Risk in which the currency to get new countries and regions to align was prestige and inspiration. The fact that the USSR had launched an unmanned satellite in 1957, for example -- before the Americans -- was perceived as a major knock to the American brand.

What Kennedy knew was that the bureaucratic revolution required to regain the edge in the space race would take a different sort of commitment to the project. It was a commitment that had to appeal not only to the American people's fears, but also their deeply held belief in the power of U.S. progress and achievement.

I think it's hard for those of us who have grown up today to understand how much the space program meant to the generation for which it was the most profound, complex and unbelievable mission of the day. The difference between the world the day before Neil Armstrong touched down and the day after was about a fundamental difference in the collective sense of the possible. How many careers did that single moment of conversion enable? How many people saw the moon landing and thought to themselves "If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we...?"

I believe firmly that the boundaries of what we believe to be possible determine the edges of our aspiration. Put more simply, we stretch ourselves to achieve things only that we believe to be achievable. This is why, so often, it is the people who are on the margins of society and refuse to accept or validate the status quo who change the world.

The man in the picture above is Professor Mark Roth. He and his team have discovered a process which seems to allow us to put humans into a state of suspended animation. In other words, they can turn people off, so their systems shut down and stop using oxygen, and then bring them back later. While his team is focused on enabling trauma victims the time to get to locations where they can get the care they need, the work's implications are much greater than that.

Let the fact that suspended animation is real explode in your brain for a minute. Then contrast that incredible achievement with what the average student in America today believes he or she can achieve.

Our education system is in shambles -- not only because of a lack of teachers and money, but because we are failing to inspire, to an extent that's nearly criminal. We teach problems and test standards without teaching people why they should care. Test and standards can be important, but frankly, I believe they mostly just teach people to game the system.

Who cares if you can read, if you don't care about the wonder and expanded perspective reading can inspire? Who cares about math if it's only seen as a soulless spreadsheet, not a vehicle toward a discovering the patterns of the universe? As we get more specific about the short-term outcomes of education, we risk forgetting that our real goal has to be enabling people to lead a life of meaning -- one in which everyone can contribute to a more just, healthy society.

What the world needs now is more stories of the innovators who are remaking the world for the better. I believe these stories need to be at the center of a wholly remade education system. If we don't do this, I believe that -- just as America is seeing its first-ever generation who will have a shorter lifespan than that of its parents -- the current generation will also be the first to have less faith in its own capacity to build the world we need.

Photo Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson