full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Nick Bostrom: A philosophical quest for our biggest problems

Unscramble the Blue Letters

If we want to achieve this, what, in the world, would have to change? And this is the awnesr — we would have to change. Not just the world around us, but we, ourselves. Not just the way we think about the world, but the way we are — our very biology. hamun nature would have to change. Now, when we think about changing human nature, the first thing that comes to mind are these human modification technologies — growth hoornme therapy, cosmetic surgery, stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, anti-depressants, anabolic steroids, aiatcirfil heatrs. It's a pretty pathetic list. They do great things for a few people who suffer from some specific condition, but for most people, they don't really transform what it is to be human. And they also all seem a little bit — most people have this istnncit that, well, sure, there needs to be anti-depressants for the really deeresspd people. But there's a kind of queasiness that these are unnatural in some way.

Open Cloze

If we want to achieve this, what, in the world, would have to change? And this is the ______ — we would have to change. Not just the world around us, but we, ourselves. Not just the way we think about the world, but the way we are — our very biology. _____ nature would have to change. Now, when we think about changing human nature, the first thing that comes to mind are these human modification technologies — growth _______ therapy, cosmetic surgery, stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, anti-depressants, anabolic steroids, __________ ______. It's a pretty pathetic list. They do great things for a few people who suffer from some specific condition, but for most people, they don't really transform what it is to be human. And they also all seem a little bit — most people have this ________ that, well, sure, there needs to be anti-depressants for the really _________ people. But there's a kind of queasiness that these are unnatural in some way.

Solution

  1. instinct
  2. artificial
  3. hormone
  4. depressed
  5. hearts
  6. human
  7. answer

Original Text

If we want to achieve this, what, in the world, would have to change? And this is the answer — we would have to change. Not just the world around us, but we, ourselves. Not just the way we think about the world, but the way we are — our very biology. Human nature would have to change. Now, when we think about changing human nature, the first thing that comes to mind are these human modification technologies — growth hormone therapy, cosmetic surgery, stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, anti-depressants, anabolic steroids, artificial hearts. It's a pretty pathetic list. They do great things for a few people who suffer from some specific condition, but for most people, they don't really transform what it is to be human. And they also all seem a little bit — most people have this instinct that, well, sure, there needs to be anti-depressants for the really depressed people. But there's a kind of queasiness that these are unnatural in some way.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

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good life 2
greater subjective 2
modification technologies 2
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worthwhile modes 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
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Important Words

  1. achieve
  2. adderall
  3. anabolic
  4. answer
  5. artificial
  6. biology
  7. bit
  8. change
  9. changing
  10. condition
  11. cosmetic
  12. depressed
  13. great
  14. growth
  15. hearts
  16. hormone
  17. human
  18. instinct
  19. kind
  20. list
  21. mind
  22. modification
  23. nature
  24. pathetic
  25. people
  26. pretty
  27. queasiness
  28. ritalin
  29. specific
  30. steroids
  31. stimulants
  32. suffer
  33. surgery
  34. technologies
  35. therapy
  36. transform
  37. unnatural
  38. world