Science & Technology

The Future Isn’t Just Coded — It’s Built | Lauren Dunford | TED

Look around — almost everything you see was manufactured, from baby formula to AI data centers and beyond. Yet we rarely think about how it’s all made. Factory fixer Lauren Dunford pulls back the curtain on modern manufacturing, revealing just how thrilling and world-shaping this unsung engine of progress can be. Discover how reinventing this…

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Look around — almost everything you see was manufactured, from baby formula to AI data centers and beyond. Yet we rarely think about how it’s all made. Factory fixer Lauren Dunford pulls back the curtain on modern manufacturing, revealing just how thrilling and world-shaping this unsung engine of progress can be. Discover how reinventing this overlooked industry could be one of the most important opportunities of our time — and why we all have a role to play. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 10, 2025)

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48 Comments

  1. @Untouchedflower

    June 12, 2025 at 11:04 am

    Who is so jobless to be building millions of futures according to his preferences? That’s a lot of work.

  2. @NarutoUzumaki-m4k

    June 12, 2025 at 11:04 am

    Nice

  3. @crashnova7601

    June 12, 2025 at 11:09 am

    “You take the blue pill – the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” – Morpheus, The Matrix

  4. @sooma-ai

    June 12, 2025 at 11:12 am

    Lauren Dunford highlights the importance of manufacturing in our world, arguing it’s the greatest opportunity of our generation. She emphasizes the need to change perceptions, attract talent, and innovate in manufacturing to address global challenges and build a sustainable future.

  5. @NeonsStyleHD

    June 12, 2025 at 11:15 am

    America can’t make stuff anymore. It’s lost the ability to do tooling, because it’s been gone so long, there are very few people who have the skill to do sophisticated machine tooling needed to run factories. It used to be America had all the smart ppl making the machines to build stuff, then China used the machines to export stuff back to USA. Now it’s the other way around and China has all the highly skilled toolmakers and America has none. This is why Trumps plan will fail, especially since he’s gutting the education department.

  6. @Ifedunmolami

    June 12, 2025 at 11:19 am

    Build the future you want to see!

  7. @WhiskyTangoFoxtrot_3

    June 12, 2025 at 11:30 am

    TED talks have gotten really boring. Lipstick on a pig unless you talk pay, salary, or wages. Also this: “Power going into the machines wasn’t just power, it is the heartbeat of their machines, which was the heartbeat of their production which was the heart beat of their entire business” so a perpetual motion machine with a heartbeat? What?

  8. @jeevan88888

    June 12, 2025 at 11:35 am

    The future is SolarPunk DataCentres.

  9. @havo5684

    June 12, 2025 at 11:35 am

    *Anyone in 2914?* 💖

  10. @witness1013

    June 12, 2025 at 11:38 am

    Terrible POV. I don’t agree w/ most of her takes – and the ones I do agree w/ – she’s lifted from the standard playbook.

  11. @TS73827

    June 12, 2025 at 12:32 pm

    Seems like a MAGA to me

    • @dianacourt377

      June 13, 2025 at 12:21 am

      I got that feeling at @4:34

  12. @Bluth53

    June 12, 2025 at 12:36 pm

    Uninspiring talk due to lack of new insightful forward thinking. Dislike

  13. @JONSEY101

    June 12, 2025 at 1:02 pm

    Wait, did she say it can be fun?
    Working in a factory?
    It’s the most boring job ever.
    Not to mention, you’ll most likely have a boss that keeps raising the amount that needs to be produced each month, working people until they can hardly stand.

    Much of the things that need to be manufactured today can be done by machine.

    Designing such things is where you’ll find the fun side of it.

    If you take content creators as an example or designers, people want to create and be creative, to explore what is possible, not sitting in a factory doing some repetitive task day in, day out.
    Once you’ve learnt the skills to do that, your brain goes numb doing it as it just becomes a subconscious task that you do.

    To keep people engaged in anything, you need to be stimulating their minds, interests, and passions.
    If they aren’t using their minds, their minds dift away, they lose focus, etc, and that can be dangerous in a factory environment both for the person doing the task and those around them.

    • @heatherwallace3397

      June 12, 2025 at 1:22 pm

      I think she’s saying the future WONT look like that. It’s like.. the new “professional”.

    • @Post-CombustionOS

      June 12, 2025 at 2:55 pm

      I feel like she’s talking about designing a post combustion future where manufacturing and work are redefined. I’d love to have a conversation with her. You’re right the legacy factory and plants weren’t designed for fun or the employees as the invaluable resource they are. For example, your feedback is very useful to builders of the future.

    • @redfava

      June 12, 2025 at 8:57 pm

      I have worked in factories and plush offices, the factory was far more interesting than office spreadsheets, presentations and meetings.

    • @heatherwallace3397

      June 12, 2025 at 9:07 pm

      @@redfavamy husband is mechanical engineer and he would 100% agree with you!

    • @forty-four1586

      June 13, 2025 at 12:30 am

      Change takes a lot of work, which does anyone good.

  14. @leagarner3675

    June 12, 2025 at 1:25 pm

    Labor is on the liability side of the equation. Fix that and you can get great by uy in

  15. @jappebest9660

    June 12, 2025 at 2:11 pm

    Best ted talk ive seen in years

  16. @JulioGonzalez-ep8gf

    June 12, 2025 at 2:49 pm

    Five seconds one thing not manufacture. 6 of golbal economy. Human made is manufacture

    50 influencer want to be.
    Food as cookies manufacture is as important today.

  17. @mycrewandI

    June 12, 2025 at 4:44 pm

    Sounds like you’re describing principles and analysis that is the core of Industrial Engineering! I am an industrial engineer resonate fully with the idea of manufacturing “being” the world around us through the goods we own! I encourage you all to learn more about Industrial Engineering, Toyota Production System, and Lean Manufacturing!

  18. @mycrewandI

    June 12, 2025 at 4:44 pm

    Sounds like you’re describing principles and analysis that is the core of Industrial Engineering! I am an industrial engineer and resonate fully with the idea of manufacturing “being” the world around us through the goods we own and things we use! I encourage you all to learn more about Industrial Engineering, Toyota Production System, and Lean Manufacturing!

  19. @Matulinkas

    June 12, 2025 at 5:31 pm

    Not really sure what was the point of this talk. She doesn’t make anything by the hand either. If I understood it correctly, she’s an engineer, so she is… coding while other people (in India and Africa) do the job. Sounds more like a political speech about how valuable is low payed hard work while the person talking about it.. is just talking about it and not living it.

    • @dinarozin4876

      June 13, 2025 at 9:23 am

      Yes, thank you: we need to comprehend the whole of the supply chain to be entitled to have an opinion about justice and equity and sovereignty. But this is likely not the goal or mechanism of economic development.

  20. @user-ci2fd8vc2f

    June 12, 2025 at 5:58 pm

    Humans are also manufactured

  21. @dennistucker1153

    June 12, 2025 at 6:04 pm

    I would have thought that the gains made by a super intelligence aptly connected would have been much more(10x-20x at least).

  22. @AGGJD

    June 12, 2025 at 6:42 pm

    Is this a propo?!

  23. @Dave-the-adequate

    June 12, 2025 at 7:10 pm

    Remember when TED talks weren’t just publicity for the speaker’s business?

  24. @KayleighMackrell

    June 12, 2025 at 8:34 pm

    The missing piece is that Ai will replace most manufacturing. Robots will replace most factory work. We need the minds of the engineers to teach the Ai, not their hands in the factories anymore.

    • @redfava

      June 12, 2025 at 8:59 pm

      AI can’t think as we do, and until it can there will be space for people.

    • @HarryDale-yq2hq

      June 12, 2025 at 10:17 pm

      I mean that sort of was her point. We need people to figure out how to implement these tools, be excited to do the hard work a changing processes and building out the foundation of processes if they’re not already in place. I know from experience, this is no small feat, discussing>organizing>aligning> executing and so on is quite a difficult task especially in company and areas at scale and many moving pieces

  25. @FortuneOnyeachonam-ps4zw

    June 12, 2025 at 8:44 pm

    Good point

  26. @BusinessTacticsDaily

    June 12, 2025 at 9:33 pm

    Everyone’s obsessed with AI and code, but without factories to build servers, power grids, and silicon chips — how exactly is AI supposed to run? 🤔 The future isn’t just coded, it’s built. This video should be mandatory in every school!

    • @dinarozin4876

      June 13, 2025 at 9:18 am

      It appears we are constructing a world where manufacturing will be in service to AI – to keep it going and growing.

  27. @gobybikeNY

    June 12, 2025 at 9:45 pm

    Please Sir, I want some more

  28. @forty-four1586

    June 13, 2025 at 12:20 am

    Creation is the roots of seeds yet to grow. Imagine together. Grow back to build well.
    Living on Mars will be easy, compared to the future of manufacturing that will occur in space. Stretching will assist being dislocated and spun up.
    Much is right to be wrong… correct and gain anti-gravity. Breakthroughs usually don’t feel normal.
    Remember, wheels get reinvented, sails catch wind, and elbow grease cuts one’s cholesterol and stressful vacations.

  29. @SehrBoeserBob

    June 13, 2025 at 2:34 am

    Die Wahrheit liegt in der Mitte zwischen Code und Produktion. Beides wichtig, aber Produktion ist viel wichtiger als der normale Mensch denkt.

  30. @SandrineKouassir

    June 13, 2025 at 9:19 am

    I am at the beginning of my “investment journey”, planning to put 385K into dividend stocks so that I will be making up to 30% annually in dividend returns. any good stock recommendation on great performing stocks will be appreciated..

    • @LaurenBaken

      June 13, 2025 at 9:19 am

      As a new investor, it’s essential for you to have a mentor to keep you accountable. Andras Bohm is my trade analyst, he has guided me to identify key market trends, pinpointed strategic entry points, and provided risk assessments, ensuring my trades decisions align with market dynamics for optimal returns.

    • @BensonTati

      June 13, 2025 at 9:20 am

      I earned $990,000 in Bitcoin just April and now I’m buying more Bitcoin and gradually increasing my investments. A good financial advisor like Andras Bohm will contribute to your success both in cryptocurrency and stock market.

    • @BensonTati

      June 13, 2025 at 9:20 am

      Andras Bohm has made an incredible impact on the trading community. His guidance and expertise have helped countless individuals achieve their financial goals and his contributions have set a new standard for excellence in the industry. We’re truly grateful for his dedication and hard work, and I’m sure his legacy will continue to inspire others for years to come

    • @SandrineKouassir

      June 13, 2025 at 9:21 am

      how would you suggest i enter the crypto market? I am also looking at studying pro traders and using their strategy than investing myself. whats your take on this? How can i reach him please??

    • @BensonTati

      June 13, 2025 at 9:21 am

      Do a quick search with his name for his website.

  31. @Xnnn8

    June 13, 2025 at 9:54 am

    Yes, manufacturing is the fluture but not made by robots

  32. @fun_learn_enjoy6055

    June 13, 2025 at 10:52 am

    i learn storytelling

  33. @包包子-l5y

    June 13, 2025 at 8:39 pm

    If I could become a CEO, I would practice your views, serve the people and solve their needs.
    I want to protect those who want to live a good life
    The premise is that I can become a CEO. is that it is too difficult now. 🤣🤣

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