Difference between revisions of "Alan Kay talk at DePaul University (2012)"

Revision as of 19:35, 6 December 2017

this great honor is especially meaningful to me because no one

knows more to his research community than i do and

i feel the same spirit of family

and community in the wonderful deep

all commitments to access to

everyone and it takes a village to help all

of us succeed in our dreams

when i asked about graduation

tradition to give advice and to be darn quick about it

but since we're all manifestly

diverse everyone

needs somewhat different advice and

after all of these years I'm still working

on my own process so I don't have any lofty

pronouncements from my own experience this

is probably a relief on

the other hand we are all the members of the

same species and part

of what education with the capital e should mean

is for us to gain some understanding

and perspective on ourselves

so after acquiring a real

education in college shouldn't

we be able to give the human race at least

one piece of useful advice

what of many perspectives

on humanity would you choose and what

advice would you give

there's a lot of scientific

evidence that says our species

has been on the planet for at least 200,000

years an anthropologists

who have studied thousands of

societies around the world and found

that all have language stories

culture

religion music dance art

several hundred categories

of behaviors at all a

child born into one culture and moved

at birth to another will grow up as a

member of the receiving culture we

have to be very similar for this

to be possible so despite all of our manifest

differences down deep we were also

very similar and what seems to differ

from culture to culture are not our categories but

how each culture fills them out

for example we don't fight over whether

we have beliefs about the world but over what beliefs

so here's what

strikes me about us even though for hundreds of thousands

of years we've cared so much about our

beliefs to fight for them until very

recently we humans have just taken the world of

our senses and of our cultures as they

seem with almost no attempts

to invent ways to check if our perceptions

and beliefs actually hold water

in other words we humans

live inside of our heads to an astonishing degree

so much so that we resemble

a creature in a dream that

only occasionally matches up with the world that lives in

we live in a kind of a hallucination of

our own devising Francis

Bacon pointed this out in 1610

when he called for methods to

developed to get around the blindness caused

by our genetics how

our individual brains develop how we use language

and how we assimilate the beliefs of our

culture's this was

of the already started invention of science

which produced example after example we're

careful investigations and new kinds

of thinking's revealed that many of our beliefs

about the world did not hold up we

have been fooling ourselves so

the perspective on humanity I would choose is that

we are the species that fools itself in

fact we even pay good money to be fooled

and we have been fooling

ourselves for our entire 200,000

years and part of the nature

of this foolery is that we think we can see

and that what we think is there

is what is there a wonderful

line and the Talmud says we things

not as they are but as we are I've

often wondered what happened to that person

Marshall McLuhan the

great canadian philosopher said until I believe

it I can't see it but

we need dreams and imagination

one of my greatest heroes was

Helen Keller who

was rendered blind and deaf before she was two years

old yet became the first deafblind

person to earn a college degree at

Radcliffe in 1904 in

1932 shortly after the empire

state building was built at

the dawn of the depression in amazingly less

than a year as a statement by its contractors

about what humans can do with purpose

and will Helen Keller who

knew a lot about purpose and will took

a trip to the top she

was asked afterwards by dr. John Finley what

did you think of the site when

you're on top of the empire building

here are a few extracts from the

letter she wrote to Finley I

quote frankly

I was so entranced seeing that

I did not think about the site

if there was a subconscious thought

of it it was in the nature of gratitude

to

God for having given the blind seeing minds as

I now recall the view i had

from the Empire tower I'm convinced

that until we have looked into darkness

we cannot know what a divine thing vision

is I will

concede that my guide saw a thousand things that

escaped me from the top of the empire building

but i am not envious

for imagination creates distances

horizons that reach to the end of

the world it is as easy for the mind

to think in stars as in cobblestones

it was a thrilling experience to

be whizzed in a lift a quarter of a mile

heavenward and to see New York spread out

like a marvelous tapestry beneath us there

was the Hudson more like the flash of

a sword blade than a noble River the

little island of Manhattan set like

a jewel in its nest of rainbow waters stared

up into my face and the

solar system circled about my head why

I thought the Sun and

stars are suburbs of New York and I never knew it I

see in the Empire State Building

something else passionate skill

arduous and fearless idealism

the tallest building is a victory of imagination

instead of crouching close to the

earth like a beast the spirit of man soars

to higher regions and from this new

point of Vantage he looks upon the impossible

with fortified courage and dreams yet

more significant enterprises what

did I see in here from the Empire tower as I

stood there are twinks to earth and sky I saw

a romantic structure wrought by human

brains and hands that is to

the burning I of the Sun arrival luminary

I saw it stand erect and serene in the

midst of storm and the tumult of n elemental

commotion I heard the hammer of Thor

ring when the shaft began to rise upward

I saw the unconquerable steal the

flash of testing flames the sword like rivets

I heard the stream steam

drills and pandemonium I saw countless skilled

workers welding together that mighty symmetry

I looked up on the Marvel of frail

yet indomitable hands that lifted

the tower to its dominating height

when I first read

that i said wow I say

it now every human being is born

with it potential to learn to see as Helen

Keller learned to see with their hearts body

spirits and minds and to learn

to be as vividly alive and human as Helen

Keller learned to be our great

gift is that though we are the stuff that dreams

are made of we can invest those dreams with

the clearer knowledge brought by careful

study beyond our simple prejudices there's

nothing more powerful and imagination coupled with

investigation imagination

allows us to dream and conceive of better futures for

us all investigation finds

the powers and knowledge to make better futures happen

so I think my advice to our species would

be we can't learn to see until we admit we are

blind in other words

let us learn how to wake up from the slumbers of

our nervous system culture and beliefs try to

find out what is going on and what is really needed thank

Difference between revisions of "Alan Kay talk at DePaul University (2012)"

Revision as of 19:35, 6 December 2017

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@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 |id=EL464YyDzdw
 |alignment=left
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+|autoresize=true
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+<subtitle id="0:0:13">this great honor is especially  meaningful to me because no one</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:16"> knows  more to his research community than i do  and</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:19"> i feel the same spirit of family</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:22"> and  community in the wonderful deep</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:25"> all  commitments to access to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:28"> everyone and it  takes a village to help all</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:31"> of us  succeed in our dreams</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:34"> when i asked about  graduation</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:37"></subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:40"></subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:43">tradition to give advice and to be darn  quick about it</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:46"> but since we're all  manifestly</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:49"> diverse everyone</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:52"> needs  somewhat different advice and</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:55"> after all  of these years I'm still working</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:0:58"> on my  own process so I don't have any lofty</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:1">  pronouncements from my own experience  this</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:4"> is probably a relief on</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:7"> the other  hand we are all the members of the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:10"> same  species and part</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:13"> of what education with  the capital e should mean</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:16"> is for us to  gain some understanding</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:19"> and perspective  on ourselves</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:22"> so after acquiring a real</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:25">  education in college shouldn't</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:28"> we be  able to give the human race at least</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:31"> one  piece of useful advice</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:34"> what of many  perspectives</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:37"> on humanity would you  choose and what</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:40"> advice would you give</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:43">there's a lot of scientific</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:46"> evidence  that says our species</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:49"> has been on the  planet for at least 200,000</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:52"> years an  anthropologists</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:55"> who have studied  thousands of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:1:58"> societies around the world  and found</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:1"> that all have language stories</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:4">  culture</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:7"> religion music dance art</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:10"> several  hundred categories</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:13"> of behaviors at all a</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:16">  child born into one culture and moved</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:19"> at  birth to another will grow up as a</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:22">member  of the receiving culture we</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:25"> have to be  very similar for this</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:28"> to be possible so  despite all of our manifest</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:31"> differences  down deep we were also</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:34"> very similar and  what seems to differ</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:37"> from culture to  culture are not our categories but</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:40"> how  each culture fills them out</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:43"> for example  we don't fight over whether</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:46"> we have  beliefs about the world but over what  beliefs</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:49"> so here's what</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:52"> strikes me about  us even though for hundreds of thousands</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:55">  of years we've cared so much about our</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:2:58">  beliefs to fight for them until very</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:1">  recently we humans have just taken the  world of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:4"> our senses and of our cultures  as they</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:7"> seem with almost no attempts</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:10"> to  invent ways to check if our perceptions</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:13">  and beliefs actually hold water</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:16"> in other  words we humans</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:19"> live inside of our heads  to an astonishing degree</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:22"> so much so that  we resemble</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:25"> a creature in a dream that</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:28">only occasionally matches up with the  world that lives in</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:31"> we live in a kind of  a hallucination of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:34"> our own devising  Francis</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:37"> Bacon pointed this out in 1610</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:40">  when he called for methods to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:43">developed to get around the blindness  caused</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:46"> by our genetics how</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:49"> our  individual brains develop how we use  language</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:52"> and how we assimilate the  beliefs of our</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:55"> culture's this was</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:3:58">of the already started invention of  science</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:1"> which produced example after  example we're</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:4"> careful investigations and  new kinds</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:7"> of thinking's revealed that  many of our beliefs</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:10"> about the world did  not hold up we</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:13"> have been fooling  ourselves so</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:16"> the perspective on humanity  I would choose is that</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:19"> we are the  species that fools itself in</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:22"> fact we  even pay good money to be fooled</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:25"> and we  have been fooling</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:28"> ourselves for our  entire 200,000</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:31"> years and part of the  nature</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:34"> of this foolery is that we think  we can see</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:37">  and that what we think is there</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:40"> is what  is there a wonderful</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:43"> line and the Talmud  says we things</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:46"> not as they are but as we  are I've</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:49"> often wondered what happened to  that person</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:52"> Marshall McLuhan the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:55"> great  canadian philosopher said until I  believe</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:4:58"> it I can't see it but</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:1"> we need  dreams and imagination</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:4"> one of my  greatest heroes was</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:7"> Helen Keller who</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:10"> was  rendered blind and deaf before she was  two years</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:13"> old yet became the first  deafblind</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:16"> person to earn a college  degree at</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:19"> Radcliffe in 1904 in</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:22"> 1932  shortly after the empire</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:25"> state building  was built at</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:28"> the dawn of the depression  in amazingly less</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:31"> than a year as a  statement by its contractors</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:34"> about what  humans can do with purpose</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:37"> and will  Helen Keller who</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:40"> knew a lot about  purpose and will took</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:43"> a trip to the top  she</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:46"> was asked afterwards by dr. John  Finley what</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:49"> did you think of the site  when</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:52"> you're on top of the empire  building</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:55"> here are a few extracts from  the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:5:58"> letter she wrote to Finley I</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:1"> quote  frankly</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:4"> I was so entranced seeing that</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:7"> I  did not think about the site</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:10"> if there  was a subconscious thought</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:13"> of it it was  in the nature of gratitude</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:16"> to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:19"> God for  having given the blind seeing minds as</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:22"> I  now recall the view i had</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:25"> from the  Empire tower I'm convinced</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:28"> that until we  have looked into darkness</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:31"> we cannot know  what a divine thing vision</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:34"> is I will</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:37">  concede that my guide saw a thousand  things that</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:40"> escaped me from the top of  the empire building</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:43"> but i am not envious</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:46">  for imagination creates distances</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:49">horizons  that reach to the end of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:52"> the world it is  as easy for the mind</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:55"> to think in stars  as in cobblestones</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:6:58"> it was a thrilling  experience to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:1"> be whizzed in a lift a  quarter of a mile</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:4"> heavenward and to see  New York spread out</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:7"> like a marvelous  tapestry beneath us there</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:10"> was the Hudson  more like the flash of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:13"> a sword blade  than a noble River the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:16"> little island of  Manhattan set like</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:19"> a jewel in its nest  of rainbow waters stared</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:22"> up into my face  and the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:25"> solar system circled about my  head why</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:28"> I thought the Sun and</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:31"> stars are  suburbs of New York and I never knew it  I</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:34"> see in the Empire State Building</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:37">  something else passionate skill</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:40"> arduous  and fearless idealism</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:43"> the tallest  building is a victory of imagination</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:46">  instead of crouching close to the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:49"> earth  like a beast the spirit of man soars</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:52"> to  higher regions and from this new</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:55"> point  of Vantage he looks upon the impossible</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:7:58">  with fortified courage and dreams yet</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:1">  more significant enterprises what</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:4"> did I  see in here from the Empire tower as I</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:7">stood there are twinks to earth and sky  I saw</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:10"> a romantic structure wrought by  human</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:13"> brains and hands that is to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:16"> the  burning I of the Sun arrival luminary</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:19"> I  saw it stand erect and serene in the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:22">  midst of storm and the tumult of n  elemental</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:25"> commotion I heard the hammer  of Thor</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:28"> ring when the shaft began to  rise upward</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:31"> I saw the unconquerable  steal the</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:34"> flash of testing flames the  sword like rivets</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:37"> I heard the stream  steam</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:40"> drills and pandemonium I saw  countless skilled</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:43"> workers welding  together that mighty symmetry</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:46"> I looked  up on the Marvel of frail</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:49"> yet  indomitable hands that lifted</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:52"> the tower  to its dominating height</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:55"> when I first  read</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:8:58"> that i said wow  I say</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:1"> it now every human being is born</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:4">  with it potential to learn to see as  Helen</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:7"> Keller learned to see with their  hearts body</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:10"> spirits and minds and to  learn</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:13"> to be as vividly alive and human  as Helen</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:16"> Keller learned to be our great</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:19">  gift is that though we are the stuff  that dreams</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:22"> are made of we can invest  those dreams with</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:25"> the clearer knowledge  brought by careful</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:28"> study beyond our  simple prejudices there's</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:31"> nothing more  powerful and imagination coupled with</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:34">  investigation imagination</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:37"> allows us to  dream and conceive of better futures for</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:40">  us all investigation finds</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:43"> the powers  and knowledge to make better futures  happen</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:46"> so I think my advice to our  species would</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:49"> be we can't learn to see  until we admit we are</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:52"> blind in other  words</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:55"> let us learn how to wake up from  the slumbers of</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:9:58"> our nervous system  culture and beliefs try to</subtitle>
+<subtitle id="0:10:1"> find out what  is going on and what is really needed  thank</subtitle>