Five quick questions

TedxManitoba is delighted that Gem Newman will take the stage at our 2012 event! Gem founded the Winnipeg Skeptics, a community organization that promotes science and critical thinking in Manitoba. He graduated with distinction from the University of Manitoba with a B.Sc. in Computer Science, specializing in artificial intelligence.

What motivates you?

I’m passionate about learning, exploration, and discovery. I simply love to figure things out. We live in a wonderful, complex, and fascinating world, and I hope to do what I can to encourage in others an understanding and appreciation for the universe around us.

What do you do for a living and why?

I’m the lead software developer at Invenia Technical Computing. I have the privilege of spending much of my day figuring things out and devising new methods for solving complex problems. These are things that I legitimately enjoy doing.

Which TED talk do you think everyone should watch?

Sam Harris’ Science Can Answer Moral Questions.

Why are you excited to speak at TEDxManitoba?

I think that TED, and TEDx by extension, is a wonderful program, and the fact that I’ve been granted the opportunity to participate in the conference is at once humbling and energizing. I hope to be able to share my enthusiasm for science and for discovering what is really true.

What is your idea worth spreading?

What if the popular media understood the importance of science and skepticism? In a time when we are inundated with information, much of it contradictory, it’s important to devise some way to discern what is probably true from what is probably not true. Fortunately, we have just such a tool: science. Science is very important, but it is consistently misrepresented in the media as either sinister or “just another way of knowing.” It’s within our power to use media to reignite public passion for science as a vehicle for discovery.