It's sort of a perverse thing. The lecturers are told to give short (~30mins) lectures, meaning they can never really go into any significant detail. Apparently the TED audience isn't expected to stay focused for longer than that. A few days ago I saw a (non-TED, on Youtube) lecture on the Israel-Palestine conflict which left out a lot of details for purposes of time (and the lecturer, Finkelstein, explicitly mentioned that), and that was 2 hours long. You just can't really give anything other than a quick overview in less than that amount of time. And I bet a lot of those lecturers also have a book to sell you.
I'd be all for longer TED talks. But I greatly enjoy what they do go over, I think TED talks are interesting. Though I generally watch the actual technology related stuff so shorter videos are usually not to much of a problem. (though yeah sometimes I'm left wanting more)
well like i said i only watched a couple but i think it has more to do with the discovery channel kind of approach to education and information (But what if...The Dinosaurs were alive today? 'If the dinosaurs were alive today, I've got one word for you: We. Are. Screwed.' - Dr. Bill Gibbons from University of West Rump *Insert CGI shot of T-Rex eating Empire State Building* I forget what I was going to say
Maybe I haven't watched enough TED Talks to know what you are talking about. You think you could find an example of this?
And as much as I know that sort of thing probably shouldn't be in a TED talk, I'd probably still say it was entertaining if not exactly the most intellectual topic. Though it'd also be a video title "Dinosaurs in modern day" and I'd probably skip it because its just a hypothetical thing I want to know about some technology that actually effects someone. (negatively or positively)