The thing that makes TED(x) interesting is the broad range of topics, new ideas and unknown facts being presented, even if they are on the fringe of science. It's supposed to provoke thought, questioning and insights. If instead it becomes just another platform for established, proven ideas, what makes it different from a guest speaker round in a local school?
Now granted, I'm still in (probably) the first third of my life, but one thing I've come to realize is that there is too much stuff for me to learn. Even if all I ever did was sit in a room and learn stuff, I would never learn it all. Not just that, but if I sat in a room and learned only the interesting stuff, I'd still probably croak from natural causes before finishing. And even if that was all I did, why would I want to just sit in a room learning stuff if I never had time to apply it and build interesting things?
Maybe you learn faster than me. So be it. But, given all that--that I don't even have enough time in my life to learn all the interesting, no, fascinating, things that are so boring as to be considered the current scientific consensus--why should I want to waste my time listening to things that are likely to be bullshit? I don't. I don't have time for bullshit, and neither should you. But the thing is this: Just because you exclude the bullshit it doesn't follow that you can't have talks that cover the cutting edge of research in science and the humanities.
