Difference between revisions of "An Interview with Alan Kay by Martin Wasserman"
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+ | <subtitle id="0:0:10">I'm</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:13"> not talking to alan kay he is one of the leading</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:16"> pioneers in the development of the modern</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:19">computer in the graphic user interface that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:22"> was so familiar with today he's also the president of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:25"> viewpoints research which</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:28"> is a company in Los Angeles nonprofit nonprofit</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:31"> company in Los Angeles so Alan we're</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:34"> talking about collective intelligence today what</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:37">you see as the future of collective intelligence where</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:40"> is this going well I think yeah</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:43"> anthropologists think that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:46">humans have been on the earth for a hundred thousand years and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:49"> we're social creatures and so we've had a form</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:52"> of collective intelligence throughout this</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:55">time and the results have not been very pretty and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:0:58"> so 400</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:1"> years ago a better way of dealing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:4"> with magnifying</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:7"> collective intelligence called science was invented and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:10"> it had the aspect</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:13"> of sharing knowledge which people been doing for a long time</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:16"> but it also had something that people hadn't</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:19"> thought of before and that is how to be really</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:22"> critical about</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:25"> the open</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:28"> ideas that I really become up</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:31">didn't science go back thousands of years no science</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:34"> science as you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:37"> know when it meant knowledge sian chea means</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:40">knowledge and so the gathering of knowledge and certainly</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:43"> Aristotle was</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:46"> interested in biology and with people have</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:49"> been interested in explanations but generally</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:52"> speaking you could say that human beings have been interested</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:55">explanations but they've been willing to be</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:1:58"> satisfied with really weak ones over</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:1"> the years and the big difference between the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:4"> last 400 years and the time before that is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:7"> that people for the first time wanted to have strong explanations</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:10"> they wanted to have these explanations be</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:13">terms of mechanisms of various clients to explain</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:16"> well you can explain natural phenomena chiral</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:19"> phenomena which includes us since we're part</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:22"> of this to explain systems of all kinds too Blaine</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:25"> cause-and-effect relationships so we won't</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:28"> have a clear understanding of the world we live in that's the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:31"> basic idea and by saying it that way I</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:34"> think we agree that human beings were 100,000</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:37"> years haven't had a clear idea of it we've made</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:40"> up stories and we've been satisfied with those stories</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:43"> as explanations and what science wanted to do</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:46"> was to come up with something stronger than a story</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:49"> even given the fact that our brains</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:52"> turn everything into stories so the idea</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:55"> is can you factor what's wrong with the way we think</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:2:58"> into the process and try</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:1"> and deal with our errors in various ways and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:4"> so the successful invention of science</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:7"> partly involved a social structure</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:10"> in which the people</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:13"> who did the criticism were usually not the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:16">with the theories so the idea is that even when</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:19"> you're trying to be a good scientist you also like your</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:22"> own theories let's say we acquired a huge</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:25">amount of knowledge we learned to explain everything in the world</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:28"> does that mean that we would necessarily be better</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:31"> off well I think that if you had cancer</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:34"> and you went to a person who understood</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:37"> cancer and could do something about it you would feel better off so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:40"> one of the ways of looking at this is that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:43"> there's kind of an interaction between philosophy and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:46"> pragmatics</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:49"> and there's</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:52"> a problem with people being way too pragmatic often</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:55"> at the expense of other things</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:3:58"> but generally speaking most people would like to live</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:1"> as long as they can would like to be as happy as long</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:4"> as they can I would like to be able to take care of their children</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:7">whole bunch of these things are facilitated</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:10"> very strongly not just by understanding the physical</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:13"> world but the social world well you think</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:16"> it's necessary to have a coherent worldview a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:19">framework of looking at the world in which you can fit</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:22"> everything and it all makes sense no in fact I don't think</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:25">anybody can do that science doesn't take that view</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:28"> so science went</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:31"> through several stages and there is the 19th</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:34">century stage where they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:37"> sort of second stage Newton and they thought they</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:40"> were nailing everything down and then we had the 20th century</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:43"> with quantum mechanics and relativity and people then realized</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:46"> oh now we know what's going on science</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:49"> is a way of taking views on stuff</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:52"> that we can't get to directly and like the Mariners</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:55"> in the 15th century who are the precursors of science</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:4:58"> wanting can make maps that were accurate</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:1"> rather than ones that were the way the world was supposed to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:4"> be like the Garden of Eden was on the medieval</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:7"> mass but instead of what they wanted was where maps that were as</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:10">accurate as they could be and they wanted annotations on them as to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:13"> where the errors where and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:16"> who had seen this and if you look at it among</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:19"> you know a map for the age of exploration</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:22"> then the UC</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:25"> cyan't the you know the first scientific writings</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:28"> in the world done by</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:31"> observation and not a coherent</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:34"> worldview but a patchwork quilt that's supported by</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:37"> observations and so science now realizes</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:40"> oh you have to open up to everything and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:43"> you just have to be very careful about when you claiming</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:46">something is good knowledge or not now when I talk about a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:49"> worldview I'm talking about a set of governing principles</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:52"> that I apply in all situations does</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:55"> it is it necessary to have that kind of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:5:58"> worldview where you perceive the world is you know</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:1"> somehow governed according to some set of principles</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:4"> that can be defined well I think that one</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:7"> of the things you could do is you could take a stance</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:10"> about outlook so for example suppose</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:13"> suppose one night you go to a</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:16"> theater</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:19"> beautiful people on the stage beautiful</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:22"> music great words you're thrilled beyond measure</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:25"> the next night you go to the very same building even</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:28">same people on this stage you also hear great words first</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:31"> night you're going to shakespeare in the second night you're going to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:34"> a political rally and if you're in the same frame of mind</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:37"> and both of those you're in trouble</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:40"> because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:43">the what we basically in</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:46"> the modern world we're in a situation where we need to be able to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:49"> choose what mode</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:52">going to be or what mood were going to be in when we're dealing with</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:55"> things are we going to be in a mood that is full</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:6:58"> of feeling and effect where are we going to be</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:1"> a mood in which we're like this and just letting things through</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:4"> very very carefully and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:7"> I think that that's a huge</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:10">difference in the modern world versus the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:13"> middle age as for example you know we're talking about intelligence</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:16"> and one of the hardest things to study is</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:19">human mind yeah very little is known about it I don't</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:22"> even think there's a working definition of normalcy</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:25"> so is the process of applying collective</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:28"> intelligence could that be applied to unravel</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:31"> the workings of the mind because the world is largely driven by</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:34"> human desires I want what I want and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:37">the price I'm willing to pay to get it and here's the price I'm willing to</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:40"> make other people pay to get it yeah well you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:43"> could certainly make a very simplistic argument</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:46"> but not a bad one that most</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:49"> of the trappings of civilization are</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:52"> mechanisms and principles that are designed</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:55"> to oppose the genetic structure that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:7:58"> our brains were shaped with other anthropologists</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:1"> have found about 300 universals</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:4"> across all cultures including the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:7"> desire for revenge and including the desire for status</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:10"> and language and stories and and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:13"> forth and things that are non universals</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:16"> our ideas like equal rights</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:19"> technology has been changing very rapidly in</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:22"> recent years we are becoming dependent</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:25"> on this technology at a rate that some people think</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:28"> is actually alarming</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:31"> Israel have we really thought through the consequences</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:34"> is so quickly becoming dependent on</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:37"> all of this technology well I think the you</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:40"> know Thoreau said we become</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:43"> the tools of our tools and</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:46"> when he was at when the</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:49"> transatlantic cable went in in 1865</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:52">was an old and they asked him what he thought of</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:55"> it and he said he was rather afraid that</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:8:58"> he would find out that it European princess</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:1"> had just gotten a new hat so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:4"> I believe that nails it and so</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:7"> this is not new it's just that most people are not</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:10"> thinkers like Thoreau was throw could</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:13"> understood that he lived in a construct</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:16"> and he lived in a technological age</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:19"> as technological in its own way as ours because</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:22"> any especially anything that is posed printing press</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:25"> could hardly be more technological as</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:28"> a set of media that shaped things the big problem</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:31"> is not whether we're dependent on this technology</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:34"> but whether we understand it or not and the thing</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:37"> that lags is getting any new idea through the educational</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:40"> system so the people who are not intrinsically interested</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:43"> in it which is most people can actually</subtitle> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <subtitle id="0:9:46"> be exposed to these ideas anyway</subtitle> |
Latest revision as of 02:02, 6 December 2017
I'm
not talking to alan kay he is one of the leading
pioneers in the development of the modern
computer in the graphic user interface that
was so familiar with today he's also the president of
viewpoints research which
is a company in Los Angeles nonprofit nonprofit
company in Los Angeles so Alan we're
talking about collective intelligence today what
you see as the future of collective intelligence where
is this going well I think yeah
anthropologists think that
humans have been on the earth for a hundred thousand years and
we're social creatures and so we've had a form
of collective intelligence throughout this
time and the results have not been very pretty and
so 400
years ago a better way of dealing
with magnifying
collective intelligence called science was invented and
it had the aspect
of sharing knowledge which people been doing for a long time
but it also had something that people hadn't
thought of before and that is how to be really
critical about
the open
ideas that I really become up
didn't science go back thousands of years no science
science as you
know when it meant knowledge sian chea means
knowledge and so the gathering of knowledge and certainly
Aristotle was
interested in biology and with people have
been interested in explanations but generally
speaking you could say that human beings have been interested
explanations but they've been willing to be
satisfied with really weak ones over
the years and the big difference between the
last 400 years and the time before that is
that people for the first time wanted to have strong explanations
they wanted to have these explanations be
terms of mechanisms of various clients to explain
well you can explain natural phenomena chiral
phenomena which includes us since we're part
of this to explain systems of all kinds too Blaine
cause-and-effect relationships so we won't
have a clear understanding of the world we live in that's the
basic idea and by saying it that way I
think we agree that human beings were 100,000
years haven't had a clear idea of it we've made
up stories and we've been satisfied with those stories
as explanations and what science wanted to do
was to come up with something stronger than a story
even given the fact that our brains
turn everything into stories so the idea
is can you factor what's wrong with the way we think
into the process and try
and deal with our errors in various ways and
so the successful invention of science
partly involved a social structure
in which the people
who did the criticism were usually not the
with the theories so the idea is that even when
you're trying to be a good scientist you also like your
own theories let's say we acquired a huge
amount of knowledge we learned to explain everything in the world
does that mean that we would necessarily be better
off well I think that if you had cancer
and you went to a person who understood
cancer and could do something about it you would feel better off so
one of the ways of looking at this is that
there's kind of an interaction between philosophy and
pragmatics
and there's
a problem with people being way too pragmatic often
at the expense of other things
but generally speaking most people would like to live
as long as they can would like to be as happy as long
as they can I would like to be able to take care of their children
whole bunch of these things are facilitated
very strongly not just by understanding the physical
world but the social world well you think
it's necessary to have a coherent worldview a
framework of looking at the world in which you can fit
everything and it all makes sense no in fact I don't think
anybody can do that science doesn't take that view
so science went
through several stages and there is the 19th
century stage where they
sort of second stage Newton and they thought they
were nailing everything down and then we had the 20th century
with quantum mechanics and relativity and people then realized
oh now we know what's going on science
is a way of taking views on stuff
that we can't get to directly and like the Mariners
in the 15th century who are the precursors of science
wanting can make maps that were accurate
rather than ones that were the way the world was supposed to
be like the Garden of Eden was on the medieval
mass but instead of what they wanted was where maps that were as
accurate as they could be and they wanted annotations on them as to
where the errors where and
who had seen this and if you look at it among
you know a map for the age of exploration
then the UC
cyan't the you know the first scientific writings
in the world done by
observation and not a coherent
worldview but a patchwork quilt that's supported by
observations and so science now realizes
oh you have to open up to everything and
you just have to be very careful about when you claiming
something is good knowledge or not now when I talk about a
worldview I'm talking about a set of governing principles
that I apply in all situations does
it is it necessary to have that kind of
worldview where you perceive the world is you know
somehow governed according to some set of principles
that can be defined well I think that one
of the things you could do is you could take a stance
about outlook so for example suppose
suppose one night you go to a
theater
beautiful people on the stage beautiful
music great words you're thrilled beyond measure
the next night you go to the very same building even
same people on this stage you also hear great words first
night you're going to shakespeare in the second night you're going to
a political rally and if you're in the same frame of mind
and both of those you're in trouble
because
the what we basically in
the modern world we're in a situation where we need to be able to
choose what mode
going to be or what mood were going to be in when we're dealing with
things are we going to be in a mood that is full
of feeling and effect where are we going to be
a mood in which we're like this and just letting things through
very very carefully and
I think that that's a huge
difference in the modern world versus the
middle age as for example you know we're talking about intelligence
and one of the hardest things to study is
human mind yeah very little is known about it I don't
even think there's a working definition of normalcy
so is the process of applying collective
intelligence could that be applied to unravel
the workings of the mind because the world is largely driven by
human desires I want what I want and
the price I'm willing to pay to get it and here's the price I'm willing to
make other people pay to get it yeah well you
could certainly make a very simplistic argument
but not a bad one that most
of the trappings of civilization are
mechanisms and principles that are designed
to oppose the genetic structure that
our brains were shaped with other anthropologists
have found about 300 universals
across all cultures including the
desire for revenge and including the desire for status
and language and stories and and so
forth and things that are non universals
our ideas like equal rights
technology has been changing very rapidly in
recent years we are becoming dependent
on this technology at a rate that some people think
is actually alarming
Israel have we really thought through the consequences
is so quickly becoming dependent on
all of this technology well I think the you
know Thoreau said we become
the tools of our tools and
when he was at when the
transatlantic cable went in in 1865
was an old and they asked him what he thought of
it and he said he was rather afraid that
he would find out that it European princess
had just gotten a new hat so
I believe that nails it and so
this is not new it's just that most people are not
thinkers like Thoreau was throw could
understood that he lived in a construct
and he lived in a technological age
as technological in its own way as ours because
any especially anything that is posed printing press
could hardly be more technological as
a set of media that shaped things the big problem
is not whether we're dependent on this technology
but whether we understand it or not and the thing
that lags is getting any new idea through the educational
system so the people who are not intrinsically interested
in it which is most people can actually
be exposed to these ideas anyway