Difference between revisions of "An Interview with Computing Pioneer Alan Kay"
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+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:4">okay mister okay your</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:7">Paderborn right now we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:10"> see a quote at a at a building as a great</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:13"> honor to you it was great surprise</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:16"> when they told me they were doing it the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:19"> quote has been everywhere on the internet</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:22"> it will probably go on my tombstone people</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:25"> like the optimism in the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:28"> quote and of course there are other quotes that are less optimistic</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:31"> that I've made and those have not gone on any building that I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:34"> know of the research community I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:37"> was a part of was much</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:40"> more concerned with making progress than anything and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:43"> so the important part about the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:46"> quote is not who said it but</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:49"> who reads it okay and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:52"> so from the standpoint I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:55"> would be just as happy if my name weren't on the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:58"> quote because that's irrelevant</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:1"> okay there's no information content in Alan Kay</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:4"> but there is a little bit of information content</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:7"> in the idea that the future is in our hands</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:10">do something about it so from</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:13"> the way I am my research community from</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:16"> 40 years ago looked at things that was what</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:19"> was more important so I might even have picked a different</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:22"> quote which one well</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:25"> one of the ones I came up with is the idea that context</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:28"> or point of view is worth ad IQ</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:31"> points and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:34"> you know we're if we're</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:37"> born in 10,000 BC with</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:40"> the IQ of Leonardo not</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:43"> a lot is going to happen because it's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:46">a question of being smart we aren't a very smart species</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:49"> we can accumulate knowledge and that helps</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:52"> but most traditional societies have accumulated</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:55">lot of knowledge and things that have made the big changes</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:58"> are changes in our context like</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:1"> the invention of reading and writing the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:4"> invention of modern science 400 years ago those</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:7"> completely changed the way we look at the world</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:10"> and to me it's the business</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:13"> of a university to supply</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:16"> to help students</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:19"> learn contexts that they're</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:22"> never aware of when they're in high school and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:25"> so I think I might put that on a university building</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:28"> first because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:31"> the you think about preventing the future</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:34"> it doesn't even say it doesn't say</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:37"> whether the inventions are plus or minus right</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:40"> so it's a very aggressive statement if you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:43"> think about it and people like</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:46"> it because it's optimistic and it doesn't have any</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:49"> moral consequences the way it's way it's actually stated</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:52"> but to me invention does have moral consequences</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:55">and so you have to think about something else also in 2004</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:58"> you've got the Turing award for your life</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:4">the you know I got a bunch</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:7"> of awards over over the years and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:10"> most of us in</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:13"> that research community I came from and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:16"> who got awards think that the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:19"> the big the big award was the fact that we got to do</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:22"> the work so that was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:25"> because making something out of nothing is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:28"> a process of art and that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:31"> is a huge reward to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:34"> be able to do that and then almost</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:37"> as equal in the amount of award is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:40"> the fact that people were willing to fund us before we done</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:43"> the work so if you think about getting a medal</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:46"> 40 years later for something that was is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:49"> now completely obvious was a good idea</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:52"> it's small compared to somebody</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:55"> being willing to fund you before</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:58">the idea is a good idea and especially if you happen</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:1"> to be in your 20s like I was so the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:4"> the awards are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:7"> we think are more to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:10"> recognize the field because nobody remembers</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:13"> who last year's Nobel Prize winner in physics was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:16"> but we remember the public remembers</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:19"> there is a thing called physics because there is a Nobel</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:22"> Prize and somebody wins it each year and that's the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:25">feel about awards like the Turing award and the Draper prize and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:28"> and the Kyoto prize and so forth that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:31"> there are really recognitions of the field for</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:34"> the public and we show up to them when we get these awards to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:37"> help the public understand there</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:40"> that there are these processes going on that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:43"> are not completely in the public eye</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:46"> yeah so so the the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:49"> we gotta</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:52">say the real recognition usually comes much earlier than getting</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:55"> a major award of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:58"> the stuff that counts okay</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:7">our global economic economy</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:10"> is increasingly growing and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:13"> the characteristics are mainly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:16"> or the the main point</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:19"> the development of the IT</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:22"> you talk about a revolution</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:25"> at which</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:28"> a state of this well</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:31"> I think that you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:34"> know economics ultimately depends on our</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:37"> ability to convert things</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:40"> in nature to energy which we can</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:43"> then use to make things and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:46"> you know</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:49"> over the over the years we've used water flow</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:52"> we've used heat we've used petroleum and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:55"> forth and information</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:58"> has a content</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:1"> that can be transformed from from</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:4"> one way to another and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:7"> the ability of people to cooperate</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:10"> has done more for civilization than</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:13"> almost any other thing even though it's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:16"> in our genes to to compete</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:19"> but in fact the civilizations</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:22">that are the most wealthy are the ones that have</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:25"> learned how to cooperate because that gives</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:28"> you the most potential wealth</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:31"> to be able to make things out of so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:34"> that's something that the general human race hasn't really</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:37"> understood yet and many people in business</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:40"> don't understand it because businesses are always competing they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:43"> haven't invented agriculture yet</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:46"> in the sense of thinking of a stable large</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:49"> very powerful</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:52"> very abundant system of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:55"> things and in the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:58"> realm of computing what</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:1"> has happened now is to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:4"> to be able to do what always happens when something new</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:7"> comes along like when the Gutenberg Bible was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:10"> shown at the Nuremberg fair</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:13"> in 1454</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:16"> it was shown as a way</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:19"> of making things that looked exactly like what the monks</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:22"> did including the illuminations so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:25">though it's cheaper to print they got people in to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:28"> make the drawings in there by hand because that's what books look like</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:31"> the books were big like this so you couldn't they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:34"> weren't really portable because books beforehand</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:37"> we're so expensive that they're too</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:40"> expensive to move around and there</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:43"> are people in the first few years after</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:46">understood what the book the printing press was actually</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:49"> about but Europe didn't understand</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:52"> it for 150 years so it was until</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:55"> the 17th century that what the printing press was all about</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:58"> starting to get used and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:1"> that lag is what we're in right now and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:4"> it's interesting that commercial computing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:7"> started about 500</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:10">years after the printing presses started in the early 50s printing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:13"> presses 1454 and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:16"> so in this for in this first 50 years if</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:19"> you look at what most people use their computers for it's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:22"> almost entirely automating old media</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:25"> right so it's textual</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:28"> media pictures movies accounting</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:31"> things</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:34"> automating warehouses full of records</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:37"> and except for science almost</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:40">uses computers for what they're actually good for</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:43"> they're using them for the secondary thing the ability</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:46"> of the computer to imitate old media just</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:49">he printing press could imitate what the monks did but</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:52"> so the real revolution and the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:55"> revolution and that happened with the printing press changes the way Europe</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:58"> thought and not just scientifically it changed</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:1"> how Europe thought about itself from the standpoint</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:4"> of nationalism wasn't until books</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:7">tarted being printed in the vernacular for each country people</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:10"> started so governance changed</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:13"> there there wasn't anything like a democratic</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:16"> republic in Europe until after</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:19"> the printing press because they have to be argued into</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:22"> effect so the real revolution of the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:25">printing press happened in the 17th century and when</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:28"> we when we invented the personal computer in the internet</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:31"> in the 70s we realized it was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:34"> going to take a while for the uptake</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:37"> and it could take a hundred years and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:40"> the reason is is that the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:43"> commercial reason</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:46"> is that the commercial consumer economy</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:49"> is not interested in having the buyers</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:52"> of technology learn anything and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:55"> they are selling things that are explicitly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:58"> aimed at imitating old media and don't</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:1">give you access to the new media so for instance the iPad</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:4"> is a wonderful piece of technology but it's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:7"> not really set up for anybody to write a program on whether</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:10"> you're a child or an adult or a scientist or anybody</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:13"> else so it's in exactly an imitator</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:16"> for for old media and it's been very successful</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:19"> because the general public doesn't have to learn how</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:22"> to use it ok so so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:25"> that is not a revolution that is simply</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:28"> automating something that's familiar and making</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:31"> money by selling sir</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:34">convenient services so the real revolution happens</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:37"> when we'll start thinking differently</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:40"> well</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:43">you know nobody does what I do who isn't optimistic</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:46"> so because otherwise</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:49"> the you know working on really hard</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:52"> problems the you it</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:55"> helps being optimistic even if</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:10:58"> you don't have a good reason for it because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:1"> an optimist will try more things and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:4"> if the optimist doesn't worry about failing the optimist</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:7"> has a much better chance even in a tough</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:10"> area than a pessimist does and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:13"> and I think that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:16"> the one one way of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:19"> looking at the human race is to go back 500 years to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:22"> when the printing press was just happening</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:25"> and to ask are things generally better now than they were</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:28"> then and the answer is yeah over 500</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:31"> years we can see improvement if we look</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:34"> at how are things over the last 10 years or</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:37"> the last 50 years it doesn't look so good</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:40"> but in fact it's generally</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:43"> good even though humans are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:46"> doing many of the same bad things that they have always done</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:49"> so one of the secrets is to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:52"> do education of a particular</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:55"> kind and hope that enough people can</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:11:58"> understand the consequences of their</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:1"> actions to make these societies more</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:4"> stable so it's tough you know my</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:7"> my wife always gets worried because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:10"> I work on these problems that look like they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:13"> will take forever and I say well the people who built</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:16"> the cathedrals knew they were gonna die before the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:19">cathedrals were done but they put their bricks in there so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:22"> for these hard problems I think what we what we need are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:25"> people are willing to put their bricks into the cathedral</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:28"> and eventually maybe over a hundred years or so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:31"> you get an you get something new on the planet</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:34"> there's a nice picture was a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:37"> Cathedral so yeah</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:40"> you found out the the viewpoints Research Institute</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:43"> I did what are your objectives</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:46"> to date and who are the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:49"> supporters of these goals yeah so I got</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:52"> very spoiled in the 60s and 70s as</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:55"> I mentioned by having</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:12:58"> incredible research funding so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:1"> a lot a lot of us who got medals from</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:4"> the stuff we did then we think that the funders should get</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:7"> the medals because they set</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:10"> up the context and that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:13"> context attracted people like me and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:16"> we just did what came naturally</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:19"> within that context and some good things happened</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:22"> so I I think that the climate</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:25"> of funding what the funders are out</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:28"> after what extent do</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:31"> they allow new ideas to happen is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:34"> the is the determining factor</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:37"> on on this and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:40"> so after that really</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:43"> good funding went away in the end of the 70s Xerox</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:46"> PARC happened because that funding went away because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:49"> it's more difficult to do this stuff within a company they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:52"> have many objectives that don't have to do with truth</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:55"> and beauty and so about 10</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:13:58"> years ago I decided to try and make a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:1"> nonprofit research organization that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:4"> was like the processes</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:7"> that we had back in the 60s of course is much</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:10"> harder to get funding because we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:13"> have to decouple the goals that we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:16"> work on from what the funders goals are so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:19">funders that are willing to just give us money a couple</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:22"> million dollars a year</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:25"> which is about ten or twelve people and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:28"> we try and do the best we can</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:31"> with this and then when we have a success we give</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:34">it away we don't retain the intellectual property</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:37"> to it so it's a public benefit</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:40"> company and we've</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:43"> done three or four good things so far we've given them given</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:46"> them away and we work on kind of a combination</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:49"> of advanced systems design and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:52"> education for children they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:55"> sound like two completely different things but</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:14:58"> there's a lot to make</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:1">nvironments for children you have to do advanced systems</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:4"> design and many of the ones that we've done in the past are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:7">used by everybody today for instance the the GUI</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:10"> was something I designed originally for children</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:13"> and now two billion people use</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:16"> it because it was designed to be fairly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:19"> easy to use it was designed to be able to be very</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:22"> general and the kinds of things that could deal with designed</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:25"> to be easily learn about</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:28"> intuitive and so forth so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:31"> the having children is a focus helpful helped</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:34"> us make that design and it just happened to work well</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:37"> for adults also</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:40"></subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:43"> Geneva they may</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:46"> be found</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:49"> awesome I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:52"> think what this depends</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:55"> on what newspaper you read but if you talk to I'm</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:15:58"> you know I'm a real scientist and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:1"> so the so if you look</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:4"> at what scientists say to each other there</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:7"> is extremely high probability that they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:10"> found a particle so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:13"> the way they talk about it is this is actually</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:16"> a discovery because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:19"> they have to go out to five six sigma of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:22"> it being not being</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:25"> chance and that's what they've got and they've gotten it from several</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:28"> points of view from different places and in the world</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:31"> so there is there is a particle</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:34"> that exists</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:37"> at that mass and nobody</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:40"> knows whether it's the Higgs particle</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:43"> okay but do you think with</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:46"> computer technology in the near future well we will</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:49"> discover more of these things</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:52"> like maybe</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:55"> yeah well I mean this is what's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:16:58">interesting about computing is that scientists actually need computers</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:1"> for what they are computers are there</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:4"> to be able to deal with models that are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:7"> more complicated than we can hold in a single brain</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:10"> and to be able to run those models</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:13">in a way that is very difficult to do with classical mathematics</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:16"> and so they they are a way they're</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:19"> an imagination amplifier in the one hand and they're</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:22">also a future predictor on the other hand and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:25"> so much of modern</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:28"> science is not is not possible without computers so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:31">it's not a question of them being useful a lot</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:34"> of what's going on in modern science is only done because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:37"> there are computers in the the amount of data</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:40">sifting that had to be done to identify this particle</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:43"> is not possible without without</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:46"> a computers and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:49"> the so most things</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:52"> that people are thinking about scientifically in the future</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:55"> are thinking about in terms of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:17:58"> now we've got a new part</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:1"> of something that was like mathematics where</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:4"> we can model our ideas in the world we can model</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:7"> observations we can try and make machines that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:10"> seem to work like the way nature does</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:13"> and this is going to affect everybody so for</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:16"> example being able to model large</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:19"> molecule interactions how proteins</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:22"> react to other molecules is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:25"> revolutionizing the synthesis</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:28"> of drugs now and this simply</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:31"> not possible to do without</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:34"> computers or without killing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:37"> lots of animals and humans doing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:40"> experiments to find out which which how</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:43"> which drugs influence the 20,000</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:46">we our body so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:49"> I think this is something that the public needs to understand</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:52"> for instance AIDS has not</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:55"> been an enormous factor in countries</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:18:58"> that have science</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:1"> because we can</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:4"> model epidemics we understand how epidemics work it</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:7"> doesn't matter how long the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:10">an epidemic so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:13"> AIDS is particularly tricky because it</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:16"> takes five to seven years of incubation</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:19"> to develop the disease if</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:22"> you don't know how you're in real trouble because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:25"> most of your population can be infected</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:28"> before you start seeing any deaths but</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:31"> if you have these models and you can say</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:34"> okay here's what this thing is doing oh this</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:37"> is this is going to kill us eventually but</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:40"> we have to get busy now and of course</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:43"> the number one things still in all disease</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:46"> in the world that's more effective than anything is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:49"> sanitation so a lot of the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:52"> control of AIDS has just been done by using sanitation</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:55"> and now drugs are being developed</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:19:58"> to to help with it but the virus itself</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:1"> is a virus that changes there's not</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:4"> just one kind of AIDS and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:7">and this is going to be true of many of the diseases that we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:10"> are now faced with a lot of the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:13"> these flu variants are constantly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:16"> mutating in animals and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:19"> there are more and more pathways for getting</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:22"> diseases from animals yeah</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:25"> in the diseases that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:28"> give us a chance we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:31"> have an excellent chance with computers now</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:34"> to try and do the modeling that will tell</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:37"> us how to build defenses against these these drugs</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:40"> I'm against these diseases</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:43"> very interesting if you've got the time</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:46"> please tell us about the Dynabook concept</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:49"> from 70s the Dynabook</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:52"> was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:55"> so in the early</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:20:58"> 60s what this great funding I mentioned</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:1"> got interested in the idea of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:4"> computers being interactive which was a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:7"> new idea back then and they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:10"> would be some</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:13"> form of amplifier to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:16"> our own intellectual it's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:19"> an interactive intellectual amplifier and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:22"> then the other part of it is they would be networked</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:25"> over the entire world so this</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:28"> idea was in in pretty</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:31"> full form in the early 60s so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:34"> basically I built a desktop computer when</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:37"> I was in graduate school and I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:40"> came across Seymour Papert who had been working</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:43"> with children and computers and he was a mathematician like</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:46"> I was and I realized that he had</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:49"> hooked onto something very important about computers</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:52"> that would help children</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:55"> learn to think mathematically much</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:21:58"> earlier and much easier then had</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:1"> had ever been done before this got</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:4"> me to think of the computer not so much as</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:7"> a as a the transition</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:10"> from public transportation like a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:13"> train to an automobile but it got me to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:16"> think of the computer as something much more</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:19"> like the printing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:22">it was actually going to change the way we thought and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:25"> if it's something like the printing press you want to be able to find</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:28"> out how to teach children how to use it because adults who</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:31"> go to adulthood without learning how to read you almost</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:34"> never learn how to read so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:37">for these are really important things you have to do therefore so that started me thinking</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:40"> about a children's computer more difficult was it to realize</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:43"> this project no</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:46"> it was easy because the once</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:49">I started thinking about children and I didn't worry about</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:52"> exactly how you know the real question</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:55"> is what would be a good computer for children so the first thing was that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:22:58"> had to be portable because he didn't want to tie children to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:1"> a desk so it had you had to carry it around</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:4"> and there were 1 inch square flatscreen</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:7"> displays people are starting to do them in the 60s</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:10"> Moore's law which is the prediction of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:13"> how silicon was going to double every 18 months</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:16"> was three years old</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:19"> so in 1968 after meeting this</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:22"> guy I just wrote I made a little</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:25"> sketch of two children doing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:28"> things on these little flat-screen</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:31"> notebook computers that I call</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:34"> the Dinah book and when I got back to to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:37"> Utah I made a cardboard model of it and we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:40"> filled it up with lead pellets to see how heavy</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:43">ou could make it before you didn't want to carry it around the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:46"> answer is a little under a kilogram was the right weight</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:49"> in 1968 and it's the right weight now and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:52"> so we had everything then when I when</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:55"> I went to Xerox PARC we built a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:23:58"> functional machine to do this which was again</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:1"> a desktop computer but it had the screen like</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:4"> the Dynabook and the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:7">Macintosh came out of that so the Macintosh can</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:10"> trace its lineage back</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:13"> to this little cardboard model that I made in 1968</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:16"> and yeah and the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:19"> the people always asked how hard was that to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:22">think about and the answer was it was easy because the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:25"> weighted way to think about these things is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:28"> to think about what you actually need</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:31"> before you figure out how you can do it</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:34"> all right so you have to have a vision of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:37"> the thing and once I had a vision of the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:40"> thing like this then the next question</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:43"> is when can it be built and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:46"> the answer was well about ten years</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:49"> 1978 1980 would be the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:52"> first time you could do one of these things but that was good because we</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:55"> figure it would take ten years to do the software workout</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:24:58">user interface provide all the services that this</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:1"> thing would have so most people don't look at things that way</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:4"> and so they've been very firmly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:7"> tied to each existing technology it's come along and they've</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:10"> resisted each new technology and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:13"> so you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:16"> know the first paper I wrote about this Dynabook pointed out you don't</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:19"> need to have a keyboard you could have the whole surface</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:22"> of it touch sensitive and that's a description of the iPad</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:25"> and yet the iPad only</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:28"> came out a few years ago could have come out thirty</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:31"> years ago so two</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:34"> different kinds of people thinking about the world in</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:25:37"> very different ways okay</subtitle> |
Latest revision as of 21:56, 6 December 2017
okay mister okay your
Paderborn right now we
see a quote at a at a building as a great
honor to you it was great surprise
when they told me they were doing it the
quote has been everywhere on the internet
it will probably go on my tombstone people
like the optimism in the
quote and of course there are other quotes that are less optimistic
that I've made and those have not gone on any building that I
know of the research community I
was a part of was much
more concerned with making progress than anything and
so the important part about the
quote is not who said it but
who reads it okay and
so from the standpoint I
would be just as happy if my name weren't on the
quote because that's irrelevant
okay there's no information content in Alan Kay
but there is a little bit of information content
in the idea that the future is in our hands
do something about it so from
the way I am my research community from
40 years ago looked at things that was what
was more important so I might even have picked a different
quote which one well
one of the ones I came up with is the idea that context
or point of view is worth ad IQ
points and so
you know we're if we're
born in 10,000 BC with
the IQ of Leonardo not
a lot is going to happen because it's
a question of being smart we aren't a very smart species
we can accumulate knowledge and that helps
but most traditional societies have accumulated
lot of knowledge and things that have made the big changes
are changes in our context like
the invention of reading and writing the
invention of modern science 400 years ago those
completely changed the way we look at the world
and to me it's the business
of a university to supply
to help students
learn contexts that they're
never aware of when they're in high school and
so I think I might put that on a university building
first because
the you think about preventing the future
it doesn't even say it doesn't say
whether the inventions are plus or minus right
so it's a very aggressive statement if you
think about it and people like
it because it's optimistic and it doesn't have any
moral consequences the way it's way it's actually stated
but to me invention does have moral consequences
and so you have to think about something else also in 2004
you've got the Turing award for your life
the you know I got a bunch
of awards over over the years and
most of us in
that research community I came from and
who got awards think that the
the big the big award was the fact that we got to do
the work so that was
because making something out of nothing is
a process of art and that
is a huge reward to
be able to do that and then almost
as equal in the amount of award is
the fact that people were willing to fund us before we done
the work so if you think about getting a medal
40 years later for something that was is
now completely obvious was a good idea
it's small compared to somebody
being willing to fund you before
the idea is a good idea and especially if you happen
to be in your 20s like I was so the
the awards are
we think are more to
recognize the field because nobody remembers
who last year's Nobel Prize winner in physics was
but we remember the public remembers
there is a thing called physics because there is a Nobel
Prize and somebody wins it each year and that's the
feel about awards like the Turing award and the Draper prize and
and the Kyoto prize and so forth that
there are really recognitions of the field for
the public and we show up to them when we get these awards to
help the public understand there
that there are these processes going on that
are not completely in the public eye
yeah so so the the
we gotta
say the real recognition usually comes much earlier than getting
a major award of
the stuff that counts okay
our global economic economy
is increasingly growing and
the characteristics are mainly
or the the main point
the development of the IT
you talk about a revolution
at which
a state of this well
I think that you
know economics ultimately depends on our
ability to convert things
in nature to energy which we can
then use to make things and so
you know
over the over the years we've used water flow
we've used heat we've used petroleum and so
forth and information
has a content
that can be transformed from from
one way to another and so
the ability of people to cooperate
has done more for civilization than
almost any other thing even though it's
in our genes to to compete
but in fact the civilizations
that are the most wealthy are the ones that have
learned how to cooperate because that gives
you the most potential wealth
to be able to make things out of so
that's something that the general human race hasn't really
understood yet and many people in business
don't understand it because businesses are always competing they
haven't invented agriculture yet
in the sense of thinking of a stable large
very powerful
very abundant system of
things and in the
realm of computing what
has happened now is to
to be able to do what always happens when something new
comes along like when the Gutenberg Bible was
shown at the Nuremberg fair
in 1454
it was shown as a way
of making things that looked exactly like what the monks
did including the illuminations so
though it's cheaper to print they got people in to
make the drawings in there by hand because that's what books look like
the books were big like this so you couldn't they
weren't really portable because books beforehand
we're so expensive that they're too
expensive to move around and there
are people in the first few years after
understood what the book the printing press was actually
about but Europe didn't understand
it for 150 years so it was until
the 17th century that what the printing press was all about
starting to get used and so
that lag is what we're in right now and
it's interesting that commercial computing
started about 500
years after the printing presses started in the early 50s printing
presses 1454 and
so in this for in this first 50 years if
you look at what most people use their computers for it's
almost entirely automating old media
right so it's textual
media pictures movies accounting
things
automating warehouses full of records
and except for science almost
uses computers for what they're actually good for
they're using them for the secondary thing the ability
of the computer to imitate old media just
he printing press could imitate what the monks did but
so the real revolution and the
revolution and that happened with the printing press changes the way Europe
thought and not just scientifically it changed
how Europe thought about itself from the standpoint
of nationalism wasn't until books
tarted being printed in the vernacular for each country people
started so governance changed
there there wasn't anything like a democratic
republic in Europe until after
the printing press because they have to be argued into
effect so the real revolution of the
printing press happened in the 17th century and when
we when we invented the personal computer in the internet
in the 70s we realized it was
going to take a while for the uptake
and it could take a hundred years and
the reason is is that the
commercial reason
is that the commercial consumer economy
is not interested in having the buyers
of technology learn anything and so
they are selling things that are explicitly
aimed at imitating old media and don't
give you access to the new media so for instance the iPad
is a wonderful piece of technology but it's
not really set up for anybody to write a program on whether
you're a child or an adult or a scientist or anybody
else so it's in exactly an imitator
for for old media and it's been very successful
because the general public doesn't have to learn how
to use it ok so so
that is not a revolution that is simply
automating something that's familiar and making
money by selling sir
convenient services so the real revolution happens
when we'll start thinking differently
well
you know nobody does what I do who isn't optimistic
so because otherwise
the you know working on really hard
problems the you it
helps being optimistic even if
you don't have a good reason for it because
an optimist will try more things and
if the optimist doesn't worry about failing the optimist
has a much better chance even in a tough
area than a pessimist does and
and I think that
the one one way of
looking at the human race is to go back 500 years to
when the printing press was just happening
and to ask are things generally better now than they were
then and the answer is yeah over 500
years we can see improvement if we look
at how are things over the last 10 years or
the last 50 years it doesn't look so good
but in fact it's generally
good even though humans are
doing many of the same bad things that they have always done
so one of the secrets is to
do education of a particular
kind and hope that enough people can
understand the consequences of their
actions to make these societies more
stable so it's tough you know my
my wife always gets worried because
I work on these problems that look like they
will take forever and I say well the people who built
the cathedrals knew they were gonna die before the
cathedrals were done but they put their bricks in there so
for these hard problems I think what we what we need are
people are willing to put their bricks into the cathedral
and eventually maybe over a hundred years or so
you get an you get something new on the planet
there's a nice picture was a
Cathedral so yeah
you found out the the viewpoints Research Institute
I did what are your objectives
to date and who are the
supporters of these goals yeah so I got
very spoiled in the 60s and 70s as
I mentioned by having
incredible research funding so
a lot a lot of us who got medals from
the stuff we did then we think that the funders should get
the medals because they set
up the context and that
context attracted people like me and
we just did what came naturally
within that context and some good things happened
so I I think that the climate
of funding what the funders are out
after what extent do
they allow new ideas to happen is
the is the determining factor
on on this and
so after that really
good funding went away in the end of the 70s Xerox
PARC happened because that funding went away because
it's more difficult to do this stuff within a company they
have many objectives that don't have to do with truth
and beauty and so about 10
years ago I decided to try and make a
nonprofit research organization that
was like the processes
that we had back in the 60s of course is much
harder to get funding because we
have to decouple the goals that we
work on from what the funders goals are so
funders that are willing to just give us money a couple
million dollars a year
which is about ten or twelve people and
we try and do the best we can
with this and then when we have a success we give
it away we don't retain the intellectual property
to it so it's a public benefit
company and we've
done three or four good things so far we've given them given
them away and we work on kind of a combination
of advanced systems design and
education for children they
sound like two completely different things but
there's a lot to make
nvironments for children you have to do advanced systems
design and many of the ones that we've done in the past are
used by everybody today for instance the the GUI
was something I designed originally for children
and now two billion people use
it because it was designed to be fairly
easy to use it was designed to be able to be very
general and the kinds of things that could deal with designed
to be easily learn about
intuitive and so forth so
the having children is a focus helpful helped
us make that design and it just happened to work well
for adults also
Geneva they may
be found
awesome I
think what this depends
on what newspaper you read but if you talk to I'm
you know I'm a real scientist and
so the so if you look
at what scientists say to each other there
is extremely high probability that they
found a particle so
the way they talk about it is this is actually
a discovery because
they have to go out to five six sigma of
it being not being
chance and that's what they've got and they've gotten it from several
points of view from different places and in the world
so there is there is a particle
that exists
at that mass and nobody
knows whether it's the Higgs particle
okay but do you think with
computer technology in the near future well we will
discover more of these things
like maybe
yeah well I mean this is what's
interesting about computing is that scientists actually need computers
for what they are computers are there
to be able to deal with models that are
more complicated than we can hold in a single brain
and to be able to run those models
in a way that is very difficult to do with classical mathematics
and so they they are a way they're
an imagination amplifier in the one hand and they're
also a future predictor on the other hand and
so much of modern
science is not is not possible without computers so
it's not a question of them being useful a lot
of what's going on in modern science is only done because
there are computers in the the amount of data
sifting that had to be done to identify this particle
is not possible without without
a computers and so
the so most things
that people are thinking about scientifically in the future
are thinking about in terms of
now we've got a new part
of something that was like mathematics where
we can model our ideas in the world we can model
observations we can try and make machines that
seem to work like the way nature does
and this is going to affect everybody so for
example being able to model large
molecule interactions how proteins
react to other molecules is
revolutionizing the synthesis
of drugs now and this simply
not possible to do without
computers or without killing
lots of animals and humans doing
experiments to find out which which how
which drugs influence the 20,000
we our body so
I think this is something that the public needs to understand
for instance AIDS has not
been an enormous factor in countries
that have science
because we can
model epidemics we understand how epidemics work it
doesn't matter how long the
an epidemic so
AIDS is particularly tricky because it
takes five to seven years of incubation
to develop the disease if
you don't know how you're in real trouble because
most of your population can be infected
before you start seeing any deaths but
if you have these models and you can say
okay here's what this thing is doing oh this
is this is going to kill us eventually but
we have to get busy now and of course
the number one things still in all disease
in the world that's more effective than anything is
sanitation so a lot of the
control of AIDS has just been done by using sanitation
and now drugs are being developed
to to help with it but the virus itself
is a virus that changes there's not
just one kind of AIDS and so
and this is going to be true of many of the diseases that we
are now faced with a lot of the
these flu variants are constantly
mutating in animals and
there are more and more pathways for getting
diseases from animals yeah
in the diseases that
give us a chance we
have an excellent chance with computers now
to try and do the modeling that will tell
us how to build defenses against these these drugs
I'm against these diseases
very interesting if you've got the time
please tell us about the Dynabook concept
from 70s the Dynabook
was
so in the early
60s what this great funding I mentioned
got interested in the idea of
computers being interactive which was a
new idea back then and they
would be some
form of amplifier to
our own intellectual it's
an interactive intellectual amplifier and
then the other part of it is they would be networked
over the entire world so this
idea was in in pretty
full form in the early 60s so
basically I built a desktop computer when
I was in graduate school and I
came across Seymour Papert who had been working
with children and computers and he was a mathematician like
I was and I realized that he had
hooked onto something very important about computers
that would help children
learn to think mathematically much
earlier and much easier then had
had ever been done before this got
me to think of the computer not so much as
a as a the transition
from public transportation like a
train to an automobile but it got me to
think of the computer as something much more
like the printing
it was actually going to change the way we thought and
if it's something like the printing press you want to be able to find
out how to teach children how to use it because adults who
go to adulthood without learning how to read you almost
never learn how to read so
for these are really important things you have to do therefore so that started me thinking
about a children's computer more difficult was it to realize
this project no
it was easy because the once
I started thinking about children and I didn't worry about
exactly how you know the real question
is what would be a good computer for children so the first thing was that
had to be portable because he didn't want to tie children to
a desk so it had you had to carry it around
and there were 1 inch square flatscreen
displays people are starting to do them in the 60s
Moore's law which is the prediction of
how silicon was going to double every 18 months
was three years old
so in 1968 after meeting this
guy I just wrote I made a little
sketch of two children doing
things on these little flat-screen
notebook computers that I call
the Dinah book and when I got back to to
Utah I made a cardboard model of it and we
filled it up with lead pellets to see how heavy
ou could make it before you didn't want to carry it around the
answer is a little under a kilogram was the right weight
in 1968 and it's the right weight now and
so we had everything then when I when
I went to Xerox PARC we built a
functional machine to do this which was again
a desktop computer but it had the screen like
the Dynabook and the
Macintosh came out of that so the Macintosh can
trace its lineage back
to this little cardboard model that I made in 1968
and yeah and the
the people always asked how hard was that to
think about and the answer was it was easy because the
weighted way to think about these things is
to think about what you actually need
before you figure out how you can do it
all right so you have to have a vision of
the thing and once I had a vision of the
thing like this then the next question
is when can it be built and
the answer was well about ten years
1978 1980 would be the
first time you could do one of these things but that was good because we
figure it would take ten years to do the software workout
user interface provide all the services that this
thing would have so most people don't look at things that way
and so they've been very firmly
tied to each existing technology it's come along and they've
resisted each new technology and
so you
know the first paper I wrote about this Dynabook pointed out you don't
need to have a keyboard you could have the whole surface
of it touch sensitive and that's a description of the iPad
and yet the iPad only
came out a few years ago could have come out thirty
years ago so two
different kinds of people thinking about the world in
very different ways okay