Name: My library of human imagination
Uploaded: 2008-12-14T13:47:00Z
Duration: 6 min 49 s
Description: Jay Walker, curator of the Library of Human Imagination, conducts a surprising show-and-tell session highlighting a few of the intriguing artifacts that backdropped the 2008 TED stage.

Jay Walker: My library of human imagination

My library of human imagination

Jay Walker, curator of the Library of Human Imagination, conducts a surprising show-and-tell session highlighting a few of the intriguing artifacts that backdropped the 2008 TED stage.

Imagination thrives on the artifacts and stories that have shaped human history, from meteorites that formed our planet to a Sputnik satellite and a moon-flown Apollo flag. The real driver behind the spread of the printing press was not literacy but the mass production of indulgences during the 15th century. A three-story library filled with objects like an Enigma machine and DNA models becomes a living tribute to the power of connections. Every leap in human discovery, whether in science or art, begins by seeing familiar things in new ways.