Noted science fiction writer Greg Bear at TEDx Seattle. Photo by Stephen Brashear, courtesy University of Wash. MCDM

After listening to all of the speakers at Seattle's TEDx conference yesterday, I'd vote for Greg Bear's speech as the first to be made available for wider public consumption. Many of the others were great, as well, but our society needs to hear the science fiction writer's message.

That message was to take a step back and consider the potential consequences of the connected culture we're creating. His "Carrie"-inspired comment about covering ourselves in "the pig's blood of technology" generated lots of tweets, ironically enough, but the part that most resonated with me was his simple question: What happens if we're so focused on our places in the "vast social brain" that we don't fully engage in our own personal thoughts and private lives?

That one made me close my laptop and listen more closely. Many of us these days are so intent on communicating to the world the things we think we're experiencing -- at conferences and in life -- that we neglect to completely experience those things ourselves.

It's reaching the point where we'll almost need multiple cores in our finite individual brains to create the capacity for everything we're trying to process for (and from) everyone else.

Presumably someone at Intel is working on that.

In the meantime I'm going to take some of Bear's advice and spend some quality time with a book this weekend -- the old-fashioned, paper kind. Right after I get done putting together our podcast.

And I'll be sure to tell everyone about it on Twitter!

"I’m thinking of starting a Master of Communication in Analog Media," joked Hanson Hosein, director of the University of Washington's Master of Communication in Digital Media program (which organized the TEDx Seattle event) as he came back to the lectern after Bear's talk.

By the way, I got a chance to sit down with Bear at lunch with a few other TEDx attendees. It was fun to hear him talk about his current work on a trilogy based on Microsoft's "Halo" series, including some insightful observations about the video-game fans he's been meeting at conventions. Bear has a Facebook page, but for the record, he confirmed that he's not on Twitter, in case there was any doubt.

For more on Bear's speech, see this this blog post by Kathy Gill of the UW MCDM. More photos of Bear talking at TEDx here.

Sapna Cheryan, UW assistant psychology professor. (Stephen Brashear photo)

Another TEDx Seattle talk that struck a chord with me was psychologist Sapna Cheryan's explanation of the role that stereotypes play in keeping women from pursuing careers in computer science and engineering. We've covered the topic in some depth in the past, and we explored it at a TechFlash Live event last year.

To sum up Cheryan's presentation in a sentence: Physical environments (i.e., nerdy cubicles) and cultural perceptions (i.e., nerdy movies) do play a role, but those environments and perceptions can be changed -- which can, in turn, alter the stereotype and get more women pursuing careers in science and technology.

"This image is malleable," she said.

For much more on the topic, see this paper by Cheryan and her collaborators, published last year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: "Ambient Belonging: How Stereotypical Cues Impact Gender Participation in Computer Science."

Ben Huh (Carlos Sanchez photo)

As he walked off the stage, it looked to me like Ben Huh may have been a little surprised and pissed at himself for having gotten choked up as he told the TEDx audience about overcoming his early business and financial struggles before founding the successful Cheezburger Network of comedy sites.

But the talk was one of the more memorable and meaningful of the day, and having heard Huh speak about business and entrepreneurial lessons multiple times over the past year, it was refreshing to hear him take a different approach by sharing the challenges, lessons and aspirations of his personal life.

"I don’t know anything about investing," he said at one point. "I know how to run a cat picture website."

For more background on the topic, see Huh's "Life Goals" blog post, which was the basis for his TEDx talk.

Quote of the day: "It’s not an individualistic venture for status, but a community effort to reach this climactic moment." -- Martha Gonzalez of participatory music group Fandango Without Borders.

Those were just a few of the highlights from a day of inspiring and insightful talks -- a great event, overall, especially as a first-time effort for the UW MCDM. See the official event live blog for a more comprehensive summary of all the TEDx Seattle speakers.

The TEDx Seattle photo stream is here.

Looking forward to seeing where this one goes next year.