The Power of One

There was a time when we heard about the great achievements of the day only from the newspapers and came to know of outstanding explorers, scientists or others only when they were given awards. Albert Einstein, Albert Schweitzer, Nelson Mandela were all distant but haloed names when we were growing up but we knew little of their work in any detail. In the past fifteen years with the internet, now you can google almost any name to find out the latest discoveries and breakthroughs and those making them and also read their latest papers. This change I thought was drastic in that it made it possible for people all over the globe to know the latest breakthroughs in real time. That was till a few days ago when, Kit, a friend of mine, sent me an audio clip of Swami Vivekananda made more than a century ago speaking at the World Religion Congress in Chicago in 1895. I had been reading Vivekanda since my childhood, since he was a particular hero of mine, but I must confess that hearing his voice in this audio starting with " Brother and sister of America" was an exhilarating experience.

But even this has been surpassed in the past five years when you can hear and see the greatest minds of the day talk about their work on the internet youtube videos. The power of one person to change the world of science, technology, medicine, politics can now be seen in real time. The impact of this new reality on the world has yet to be fully grasped. But the wonder of being able to listen to and see the greatest minds of the day talking about their passionate discoveries and endeavours is immense. For we are no longer talking about the past but of the future since in many cases their journey is not yet complete.

Here are a few of these modern day visionaries and explorers of the mind and spirit speaking themselves of where they are in their efforts.

• "Can we create new life out of our digital universe?" Craig Venter asks. His answer is "yes" -- and pretty soon. He walks through his latest research and promises that we'll soon be able to build and boot up a synthetic chromosome.
• Alan Russell studies regenerative medicine -- a breakthrough way of thinking about disease and injury, using a process that can signal the body to rebuild itself.
• Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society.
• Shai Agassi has a bold plan for electric cars and to make countries oil free by 2020.
• Dr. Larry Brilliant talks about how smallpox was eradicated from the planet, and calls for a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.
• Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Laboratory, describes how the One Laptop Per Child project will build and distribute the "$100 laptop."
  
• A call to service by Obama. Speaking at a commencement ceremony on a college campus during his campaign, Obama spoke passionately about a call to service to the young.
• Nandan Nilekhani's optimistic book "Imagining India: The idea of a renewed nation " which lays out the achievements and challenges facing the country and how technology can be mobilized for development.
  

As Bobby Kennedy once said "few will have the greatness to bend history itself" but I am certain that a few will certainly come from the group above.

I would welcome my readers contributing their own views on who they see as an explorer and visionary based on their knowledge.