TED



TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading".

When '80s Robot drives Kermit the Frog around the world to re-unite his friends in The Muppets, Scooter is yanked from the lobby of the Google offices while on his way to a TED conference.

On February 29, 2012, Scooter appeared at the real TED2012 conference as a speaker.

"On stage at TED2012 — the “Academy Awards for nerds,” as he put it — Scooter laid out his question: “Can Tactile Icons Survive in an Integer-Driven Environment?” In other words, MUPPETS vs. CGI! (Or “Formulas vs. Felt.”) In a breathtaking intellectual throwdown only a 2-foot-high Muppet could deliver, Scooter laid out a series of trenchant arguments that demolished the notion that computer-generated characters have surpassed puppets:

-CG can do 3D? Muppets have always been 3D.

-CG can do motion capture? Hand moves, puppet moves. Motion: captured.

-Artificial intelligence? “In all the years I’ve been with the Muppets, we’ve never done anything intelligent, artificial or otherwise.”"

Scooter said the best part about being at TED was that JJ Abrams (currently directing the twelfth Star Trek film) promised him he could play a Vulcan (the fictional alien species first portrayed by Leonard Nimoy).