In early 2010, one of the members of the TEDxPeachtree planning team took a position at the Center for Ethics at Emory University.  They had a new Director, Paul Root Wolpe.  When I heard this, I nearly fell out of my chair.  That name is one you don’t forget, and ironically, Dr. Wolpe was my sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania more than 20 years ago! The course?  Deviant Behavior.  He was one of the most captivating lecturers I experienced in my 4 years of undergraduate work.  Little did I know that his work evolved into the area of bioethics.

It was clear that Professor Wolpe was doing some incredible things, and I found some video clips from an episode of 60 Minutes, where Leslie Stahl was talking to him about the ethical implications of new technology that allows people to read another person’s mind.  The right to one’s own thoughts has been sacred through every civilization in our history.  Does this have the same applicability as DNA research?  This was fascinating to me.

TED is all about “ideas worth spreading,” and from my experience with the TED community, Professor Wolpe was articulating ideas that TED had not dealt with before, at least from an ethical perspective.  The team at TEDxPeachtree felt that Professor Wolpe had something unique, especially after learning that he was also involved in synthetic biology. It worked perfectly with our 2010 theme, “Shift.”  After seeing Craig Venter  speak at TED 2008, it seemed like a great idea to bring Professor Wolpe’s insights into the discussion.

So while it was personally a wonderful experience to “reconnect” with my former professor, I am even more elated that the TEDxPeachtree community and TED community overall, has responded well to Professor Wolpe’s “jaw-dropping” TED Talk. It is now being featured on the TED.com site and has generated a lot of discussion. Please view the video of the talk below. —  TEDxPeachtree Founder, Al Meyers