Paul Gilding and Peter Diamandis talk tech at TED

Paul Gilding told audiences at Tuesday's TED talk that our obsession with modern research could lead to our downfall. Picture: Brett Faulkner Source: news.com.au

SILICON Valley giants at the prestigious TED research conference here on Tuesday were warned that the worship of innovation will ruin the world previously it saves it.

Activist and author Paul Gilding made a case for the peril of obsession with modern innovation and how lust for the latest gadgets is distracting people from acting to stop global disasters just as climate change.

The Earth is full

"The Earth is full," argued Mr Gilding, author of The Great Disruption in which he reasons that as innovation drives efficiency and economic growth it powers breakneck consumption that the planet cannot endure.

On a TED stage famous for presentations from leading entrepreneurs developing ways to make the world a better place, Mr Gilding argued that innovation was making matters worse.

With China and other developing countries booming, in many cases thanks to innovation, the world's resources are being rapidly devoured, the author argued.

"Those people who think research will get us through are right; they are only missing that it takes a crisis to get us going... We actually do love a good crisis and this one is a master."

The head of the nonprofit X Prize Foundation

The head of the nonprofit X Prize Foundation, which is devoted to innovation breakthroughs for the good of mankind, was at the time brought on stage to provide a counter-point to Mr Gilding's dark vision.

He argued that rapidly improving sensors, robotics, digital medicine, synthetic biology and computing power in the Internet "cloud" provided hope for a better future.

Mr Diamandis as well heads Singularity University in Silicon Valley, which serves as a training ground and academic boot camp for entrepreneurs, inventors and innovation industry executives.

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