GOOGLE.org’s Larry Brilliant

05.15.08 | Category: Video, Zen Earth

Google.org's Larry Brilliant and ValleyZen's Drue Kataoka

Set against the backdrop of the warmest weather yet this year, Dr. Larry Brilliant’s talk about our global problems took on even more urgency.

As he spoke about climate change, it was hard not to think of the weatherman this morning, “Scorching hot today…Get ready for the triple digits.”

The heat inside the lecture room was appropriate. As Brilliant explained Google.org’s initiative to Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE less than C), there was no escape for the audience into air-conditioned complacency. Bodies against bodies, the rising temperature in the standing room only lecture area was a metaphor: We are all in this together.

In fact, Brilliant deeply understands the interdependence and fragility of all things. His philosophy exemplifies the Zen principle of Inter-being. He warned, “We need to look at the health of human environments, insect environments and animal environments together. Veterinary epidemiology and human epidemiology together.”

LARRY BRILLIANT’S TALISMAN
Dr. Brilliant has a talisman that has guided him in the most difficult decision-making processes. Who should Google help in a world of infinite problems? In this video that Drue shot, (same video embedded below) Brilliant shares how this soulful talisman has guided him without fail.

VALLEYZEN – BLACK on GREEN
Drue told Brilliant he would be covered in ValleyZen.

“I’m honored,” said Brilliant, and gestured magnanimously.

“And I’m wearing black like you,” he told her.

“You can never have too much black, or GREEN,” said Drue.

2 Comments so far

  1. Howard Weaver

    Larry Brilliant is one of the planet’s most potent resources. As a bio/intro at TED once said, “Larry Brilliant’s career path, as unlikely as it is inspirational, has proven worthy of his surname. Trained as a doctor, he was living in a Himalayan monastery in the early 1970s when his guru told him he should help rid the world of smallpox. He joined the World Health Organization’s eradication project, directed efforts to eliminate the disease in India and eventually presided over the last case of smallpox on the planet …”

    You can find his talks at ted.com. We’re lucky he’s around; thanks for sharing him, Valley Zen.

  2. Drue Kataoka

    @ Howard – Thank you for illuminating more of the brilliance here. I very much like the way Larry Brilliant tells the story of smallpox and its eradication. One slide that is particularly powerful is where he shows a large list of sovereigns that have been killed by smallpox from Emperor Gokomyo in Japan to Tsar Peter II of Russia stretching back to Marcus Aurelius in 180 AD — showing smallpox as a great leveler across cultures, time, and social status.

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