It's 4pm on Thursday at TED in Monterey. There have been 20 of the 18 minute TED Talks -- ranging from physics, to genetic engineering, to psychology, to population growth. As always -- TED brings very smart people together and somehow manages to scare the hell out of them. Despite that, they come back for more year after year. It may be because smart people know that the world is facing problems -- the real question is, can we gather together enough of our precious resource of intellectual capital to solve these problems.
But this year is very different than any of the four previous years I've attend. Why? Because change is in the air.
Let me be clear, TED is hardly a political event. In fact, politics is rarely mentioned. But among this gathering of artists, thinkers, writers, journalists, technologists, musicians, architects, professors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs -- it's a pretty safe bet that the majority of the people in this room haven't been sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom anytime in the past eight years.
Now, it seems, invitations may be in the mail.
Ok, that may seem premature, but understand that TED is as likely a place for Barack Obama to look for advisers, thinkers, Cabinet members, and ambassadors and emissaries from the worlds of science, technology, and global affairs.
After seeing images presented by psychologist Philip Zimbardo from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and hearing about the likelyhood of a nuclear attack, Samantha Powers is now on stage - talking about American's Responses to Genocide... wearing an Obama for president pin.
Here's her book.
To her credit, she kept to the subject, and talked about "Evil", but she slipped up once and talked about Obama. That generated an enthusiastic round of applause.
To have her on the stage -- one of Obama's closest advisors on foreign affairs -- created a sense that there was a bridge between the issues and ideas that inhabit TED and the coming presidential election.
Was Barack Obama at TED this year? No, he's on the campaign trail. But was he present at TED -- the answer was absolutely yes.
I've seen Al Gore, and Bill Clinton at TED. Who knows what next year might be like. On thing is for sure, he'd feel right at home.