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

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