Difference between revisions of "Alan Kay talk at DePaul University (2012)"
From Viewpoints Intelligent Archive
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
}} | }} | ||
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:9">this</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:12"> great honor is especially meaningful to me because</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:15"> no one knows more to his research</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:18"> community than i do and i feel</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:21"> the same spirit of family and community in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:24"> the wonderful deep all commitments to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:27"> access to everyone and it takes a</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:30"> village to help all of us succeed in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:33"> our dreams when i asked</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:36"> about graduation speeches i was</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:39"> told it is tradition to give advice and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:42"> to be darn quick about it</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:45"> but</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:48"> since we're all manifestly diverse</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:51"> everyone needs somewhat</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:54"> different advice and after all of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0: | + | <subtitle id="0:0:57"> these years I'm still working on my own process so</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:0"> I don't have any lofty pronouncements from my</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:3"> own experience this is probably a relief</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:6"> on the other hand</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:9"> we are all the members of the same species and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:12"> part of what education with</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:15"> the capital e should mean is for</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:18"> us to gain some understanding and perspective on</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:21"> ourselves so after</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:24"> acquiring a real education in college</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:27"> shouldn't we be able to give</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:30"> the human race at least one piece of useful advice</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:33"> what of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:36"> many perspectives on humanity</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:39"> would you choose and what advice would you give</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:45">there's a lot of scientific evidence that</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:48"> says our species has been on the planet</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:51"> for at least 200,000 years an</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:54"> anthropologists who</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:1: | + | <subtitle id="0:1:57"> have studied thousands of societies around the world and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:0"> found that all have language</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:3"> stories culture</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:6"> religion music</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:9"> dance art several</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:12"> hundred categories of behaviors</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:15"> at all a child born</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:18"> into one culture and moved at birth to another will</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:21"> grow up as a member of the receiving</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:24"> culture we have to be very similar</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:27"> for this to be possible so</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:30"> despite all of our manifest differences</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:33"> down deep we were also very similar and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:36">what seems to differ from culture to culture are</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:39"> not our categories but how each culture</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:42"> fills them out for</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:45">we don't fight over whether we have beliefs about</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:48"> the world but over what beliefs</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:51"> so here's what strikes me about us even</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:54"> though for hundreds of thousands of years we've</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:2: | + | <subtitle id="0:2:57"> cared so much about our beliefs to fight for them</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:0"> until very recently we humans</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:3"> have just taken the world of our senses and of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:6"> our cultures as they seem with</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:9"> almost no attempts to invent ways to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:12"> check if our perceptions and beliefs actually</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:15"> hold water in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:18"> other words we humans live inside of our heads</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:21"> to an astonishing degree so</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:24"> much so that we resemble a creature in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:27"> a dream that only occasionally matches</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:30"> up with the world that lives in we</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:33"> live in a kind of a hallucination of our own devising</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:36"> Francis Bacon pointed</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:39"> this out in 1610 when</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:42"> he called for methods to be developed to get around the</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:45"> blindness caused by our genetics</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:48"> how our individual brains</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:51"> develop how we use language and how</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:54"> we assimilate the beliefs of our culture's</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:3: | + | <subtitle id="0:3:57"> this was part of the already started</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:0"> invention of science which produced</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:3"> example after example we're careful investigations</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:6"> and new kinds of thinking's revealed</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:9"> that many of our beliefs about the world did not hold</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:12"> up we have been fooling ourselves</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:15"> so the perspective on humanity I</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:18"> would choose is that we are the species</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:21"> that fools itself in fact</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:24"> we even pay good money to be fooled and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:27"> we have been fooling ourselves for</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:30"> our entire 200,000 years and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:33"> part of the nature of this foolery is that</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:36">we can see and that</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:39"> what we think is there is what is there a</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:42"> wonderful line and the Talmud</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:45"> says we things not as they are</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:48"> but as we are I've often wondered</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:51"> what happened to that person Marshall</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:54"> McLuhan the great canadian philosopher</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:4: | + | <subtitle id="0:4:57"> said until I believe it I can't see it</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:0"> but we need dreams</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:3"> and imagination one</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:6"> of my greatest heroes was Helen Keller</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:9"> who was rendered blind and deaf</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:12"> before she was two years old yet</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:15"> became the first deafblind person to earn a college</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:18"> degree at Radcliffe in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:21"> 1904 in 1932</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:24"> shortly after the empire state building was</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:27"> built at the dawn of the depression</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:30"> in amazingly less than a year as a</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:33"> statement by its contractors about</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:36"> what humans can do with purpose and will</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:39"> Helen Keller who knew a lot about</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:42"> purpose and will took a trip to the top</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:45"> she was asked afterwards by</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:48"> dr. John Finley what did you think of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:51"> the site when you're on top of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:54"> the empire building here are</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:5: | + | <subtitle id="0:5:57"> a few extracts from the letter she wrote to Finley</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:0"> I quote</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:3"> frankly I was so entranced seeing</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:6"> that I did not think</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:9"> about the site if</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:12"> there was a subconscious thought of it it</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:15"> was in the nature of gratitude</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:18"> to God for having given</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:21"> the blind seeing minds as I</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:24"> now recall the view i had from the Empire tower</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:27"> I'm convinced that until</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:30"> we have looked into darkness we cannot</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:33"> know what a divine thing vision is I</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:36"> will concede that my guide</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:39"> saw a thousand things that escaped me from</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:42"> the top of the empire building but</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:45"> i am not envious for imagination</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:48"> creates distances and horizons</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:51"> that reach to the end of the world it</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:54"> is as easy for the mind to think in stars as</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:6: | + | <subtitle id="0:6:57"> in cobblestones it</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:0"> was a thrilling experience to be whizzed in a</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:3"> lift a quarter of a mile heavenward and to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:6"> see New York spread out like a marvelous tapestry</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:9"> beneath us there was the Hudson</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:12"> more like the flash of a sword blade than</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:15"> a noble River the little island</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:18"> of Manhattan set like a jewel in its nest of</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:21"> rainbow waters stared up into</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:24"> my face and the solar system circled</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:27"> about my head why I thought</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:30"> the Sun and stars are suburbs</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:33"> of New York and I never knew it I see</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:36"> in the Empire State Building something else</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:39"> passionate skill arduous and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:42"> fearless idealism the tallest</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:45">building is a victory of imagination instead</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:48"> of crouching close to the earth like a beast the</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:51"> spirit of man soars to higher regions and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:54"> from this new point of Vantage he</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:7: | + | <subtitle id="0:7:57"> looks upon the impossible with fortified</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:0"> courage and dreams yet more significant enterprises</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:3"> what did I see in here from the Empire</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:6"> tower as I stood there are twinks to earth</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:9"> and sky I saw a romantic structure</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:12"> wrought by human brains and hands</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:15"> that is to the burning I of the Sun</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:18"> arrival luminary I saw it stand erect</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:21"> and serene in the midst of storm and the</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:24"> tumult of n elemental commotion</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:27"> I heard the hammer of Thor ring when the shaft</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:30"> began to rise upward I saw the unconquerable</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:33"> steal the flash of testing</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:36"> flames the sword like rivets I heard</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:39"> the stream steam drills and pandemonium I</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:42"> saw countless skilled workers welding</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:45"> together that mighty symmetry I looked</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:48">up on the Marvel of frail yet indomitable hands</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:51"> that lifted the tower to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:54"> its dominating height</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:8: | + | <subtitle id="0:8:57"> when I first read that i said wow</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:0"> I say it now every</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:3"> human being is born with it potential</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:6"> to learn to see as Helen Keller learned to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:9"> see with their hearts body spirits and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:12"> minds and to learn to be as vividly alive</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:15"> and human as Helen Keller learned to be</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:18"> our great gift is that</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:21"> though we are the stuff that dreams are made of we</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:24"> can invest those dreams with the clearer knowledge</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:27"> brought by careful study beyond our simple</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:30"> prejudices there's nothing more powerful and</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:33"> imagination coupled with investigation</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:36"> imagination allows us to dream</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:39"> and conceive of better futures for us all</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:42"> investigation finds the powers and knowledge to</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:45"> make better futures happen so</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:48"> I think my advice to our species would be we can't learn</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:51"> to see until we admit we are blind in</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:54"> other words let us learn</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:9: | + | <subtitle id="0:9:57"> how to wake up from the slumbers of our nervous system culture</subtitle> |
| − | <subtitle id="0:10: | + | <subtitle id="0:10:0"> and beliefs try to find out what is going on</subtitle> |
| + | |||
| + | <subtitle id="0:10:3"> and what is really needed thank you</subtitle> | ||
Latest revision as of 21:28, 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 speeches i was
told it is 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
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 be 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 part 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 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 and 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 you
