Limitless: The Other Side of Impossible

‘We choose to go to the moon.’

President John F. Kennedy said that nearly 60 years ago. Until then, we’d looked to the horizon and thought it unreachable, untouchable. Then we went to the moon and saw how it looked from the comfort of our homes. This was the beginning of humanity’s quest to conquer space; was there anything that we couldn’t do?

This year, TEDxMelbourne will host an experience that will investigate what it means to be ‘Limitless’. On June 5th at the Melbourne Convention Centre, a series of renowned speakers will explore how innovation and technology applied in different fields that have given us the power to transform life as we know it. Not so long ago we walked on the moon but now we’re talking about living on Mars. Babies can be conceived in a lab. There are ‘clouds’ that hold immense amounts of data. And we can travel around the globe in just a couple of hours as if we could fit it in our pocket. Are there any limits to our intelligence, creativity and imagination? What are the consequences? Join us at this year’s event to navigate these exciting questions.

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are concepts that we hear about often: both are dominant players that are redesigning the rules of the game. We’re crossing boundaries that have surpassed our expectations of what we can do. We can shape our future through life coding, altering the essence of human life, and this is just one of many examples. However, we must question how this might impact future generations; communities will need to get involved in deep, important conversations. Drones are buzzing above our heads, but what about our privacy? If we are responsible for climate change, what are we doing to heal the world? Where do we stop? We stand at a crossroads: the magic of our potential is intersected with how far we should push boundaries.

We aren’t stagnant; we can’t resist advancement. Developments are having a positive impact but there’s also an increasing responsibility to everything we do. We need to ask ourselves what are the intentions driving our actions and if we are pushing the limits just for the sake of doing so.

Yet, as humans, we are finite. Death –for now– is the one common thing that unites us. We are marked by the existence of that limit. But how do we deal with ‘limits’ in our day to day lives? What are we preventing ourselves from accomplishing? Behind each leap there’s a soul that dared to go forward. If we have the clarity of what we want to do and we trust in our capabilities, confidence will boil within us, dissolving fears and pushing us to what we aspire. Leading us to wonder: what’s on the other side of impossible? Finding out is certainly worth it.

So maybe it is about reassessing what the ‘limit’ actually means. If you think about it, the word ‘limitless’ in itself talks about the existence of one. If we’ve witnessed what our hands, minds and hearts can create, we should have empathy as the ultimate measure when trespassing those limits. Our greed shouldn’t prevent future generations from living healthy lives; we have to be mindful about how our actions impact on the lives of others. With that in mind, although idealistic, nothing truly is impossible.

Come and join this exciting conversation on June 5. This year, to toast our 10th anniversary, we want to give everybody the opportunity to celebrate with us. You won’t have to ask your manager to leave early from work; we’ll be waiting at 6 pm for an unforgettable evening. Make sure you’re on our mailing list to be the first to know who our amazing speakers are (dropping in the next few weeks). In the meantime, we can promise you a night with great music, thrilling questions, and a journey where we will start to imagine what the future will bring. Are you ready?