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

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 +
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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>

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