TED Talk Tuesday #274: Penrose tiling

TED continues to spread ideas and help us all be better critical thinkers. Watching, listening and talking about TED Talks is a popular pastime for many in the CN&CO community. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh, learn or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations and business opportunities. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part in spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place.

This week’s TED Talk was chosen by Colin Ford.

There’s a certain design that shows up across cultures and throughout history. It’s known as “Penrose tiling” and is defined as “two shapes that fit together in infinite combinations without ever repeating”.

In this TED Talk, Terry Moore, director of the Radius Foundation, a forum for exploring and gaining insight from different worldviews, explores the meaning of this particular design style.

“These aren’t decorations,” he says. “These are statements about the fundamental values that culture had, what they found important, the way they saw themselves, the world, and themselves in the world.”