Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet
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0:16 - 0:18We live in a physical world.
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0:18 - 0:20We also live in a physical world
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0:20 - 0:24that's in a process of
merging with the digital world. -
0:24 - 0:26As a consequence,
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0:26 - 0:29increasingly, aspect of the physical world
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0:29 - 0:31such as, say,
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0:31 - 0:33the fact that it's
geographically distributed, -
0:33 - 0:38are starting to impact
our digital experiences. -
0:38 - 0:40This is a worldwide property,
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0:40 - 0:41and it's due to the fact
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0:41 - 0:45that we live all across
the surface of a planet -
0:45 - 0:47that has a finite diameter.
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0:47 - 0:50So, for example, in virtual worlds,
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0:50 - 0:53if you have one party
on one side of the planet, -
0:53 - 0:55and one party
on another side of the planet, -
0:55 - 0:57that are interacting via a virtual world,
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0:57 - 0:59such as Second Life,
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0:59 - 1:02the experience delays due to the fact
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1:02 - 1:05that light takes a finite amount of time
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1:05 - 1:07to travel around the Earth's surface
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1:07 - 1:08in order to connect them.
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1:08 - 1:11And this problem isn't in any way
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1:11 - 1:14specific to virtual worlds
or entertainment. -
1:14 - 1:17It's a problem that's keenly felt
in industrial sectors, -
1:17 - 1:19in financial sectors.
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1:19 - 1:21Financial sector in particular,
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1:21 - 1:23is very well incentified to make sure
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1:23 - 1:26that the time delays
for transmitting information -
1:26 - 1:30between financial exchanges is minimised.
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1:30 - 1:33One more example,
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1:33 - 1:35telerobotics and telesurgery.
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1:35 - 1:37As we move towards an era,
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1:37 - 1:40where a physician
in one location on Earth -
1:40 - 1:42can perform surgery on a patient
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1:42 - 1:44on the opposite end of the Earth,
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1:44 - 1:47the delays involved in
manipulating remote machines -
1:47 - 1:51become increasingly essential
to performance. -
1:52 - 1:55And so how if we try
to combat this thus far? -
1:55 - 1:59This is a map of submarine cables
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1:59 - 2:03strewn all around the Earth's
oceans and on land. -
2:03 - 2:06We are literally
wiring up our planet surface -
2:06 - 2:10in order to efficiently
allow information to flow -
2:10 - 2:12from any point on the Earth's surface
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2:12 - 2:15to any other point
on the Earth's surface. -
2:15 - 2:17You might imagine
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2:17 - 2:18we are relatively close to
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2:18 - 2:21solving this problem
of information delays. -
2:22 - 2:24But of course,
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2:24 - 2:26as with all physical properties,
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2:26 - 2:27there are limits.
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2:27 - 2:29Here's one very important one.
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2:29 - 2:31What you're seeing here are 2 maps
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2:31 - 2:33of some of the state-of-the-art
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2:33 - 2:36Internet connections
connecting locations. -
2:36 - 2:38On the left,
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2:38 - 2:40a New York to Chicago connection.
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2:40 - 2:41On the right,
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2:41 - 2:43New York to London.
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2:43 - 2:44Interestingly,
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2:44 - 2:46if you look at
the amount of time it takes -
2:46 - 2:48to send information back and forth,
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2:48 - 2:50through these pipes,
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2:50 - 2:51and you compare it
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2:51 - 2:54with the theoretical physical limit
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2:54 - 2:57to how fast you could
send information round trip -
2:57 - 3:00using light through optical fiber,
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3:00 - 3:02you'll notice
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3:02 - 3:04that we're literally approaching
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3:04 - 3:06the physical limits allowed to us
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3:06 - 3:08for sending information around the Earth
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3:08 - 3:11between these important cities.
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3:11 - 3:14This is the problem
for the reasons I've mentioned -
3:14 - 3:18that's only going to become
more exacerbated with time. -
3:19 - 3:21Why is this a problem?
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3:21 - 3:22Well, the way we've architected
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3:22 - 3:25many of our global transactions
right now on the Internet, -
3:25 - 3:27and our networks in general,
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3:27 - 3:30requires round trip transactions.
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3:30 - 3:32So, you have location A,
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3:32 - 3:33and location B,
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3:33 - 3:36and you want to coordinate processes
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3:36 - 3:38between these two locations,
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3:38 - 3:40they have to send
information to each other -
3:40 - 3:42about their current state,
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3:42 - 3:44and wait for the other party
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3:44 - 3:46to react to that new information,
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3:46 - 3:48and send back an execution signal.
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3:48 - 3:49In other words,
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3:49 - 3:51for most transactions today,
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3:51 - 3:53you're stuck with round trip delays
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3:53 - 3:55on the Internet.
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3:56 - 3:58Now, biology,
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3:58 - 4:00as has historically been the case,
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4:00 - 4:03has come up with
a solution to this problem. -
4:03 - 4:05So, if you as a human,
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4:05 - 4:06touch a hot surface,
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4:06 - 4:09you'll note,
that your hand pulls itself back -
4:09 - 4:12before you feel the pain
in your mind. -
4:12 - 4:14And the reason is that the pain signal
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4:14 - 4:16isn't travelling the entire distance
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4:16 - 4:18from your finger up to your brain,
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4:18 - 4:21and then back to your motor neurons,
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4:21 - 4:22to pull your hand back.
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4:22 - 4:25Instead, it's just travelling
to an intermediate location, -
4:25 - 4:26your spinal column,
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4:26 - 4:28where it's immediately recognized
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4:28 - 4:30as actionable information,
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4:30 - 4:32and signals are immediately
turned around -
4:32 - 4:34for a more rapid response.
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4:34 - 4:36It's called a reflex arc.
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4:36 - 4:39So, biology is handing us the solution.
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4:40 - 4:44We can do reflex arcs
for global networking. -
4:44 - 4:46So rather than doing
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4:46 - 4:48round trip transmission of information,
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4:48 - 4:51let's instead position
server infrastructure -
4:51 - 4:54at well selected intermediate locations
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4:54 - 4:57between two different
geographic locations -
4:57 - 4:59that need to be coordinated.
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4:59 - 5:00So, this is a problem
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5:00 - 5:01that I've been thinking about
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5:01 - 5:03for a number of years:
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5:03 - 5:05how best to position
these intermediate locations -
5:05 - 5:08in order to literally
get around the speed of light -
5:08 - 5:12by not being forced to
wait for this round trip transmission? -
5:12 - 5:13And recently,
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5:13 - 5:17I identified and published
the optimal solution. -
5:17 - 5:19So, what you're seeing here
is an equation -
5:19 - 5:21that describes
the theoretical optimal solution -
5:21 - 5:23for where to place yourself
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5:23 - 5:25in between two different locations
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5:25 - 5:28in order to optimally
coordinate processes -
5:28 - 5:30happening at either end.
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5:32 - 5:33And so, just for fun,
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5:33 - 5:35I've taken this equation,
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5:35 - 5:38and applied it to a financial task.
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5:38 - 5:40So, what you're looking at here,
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5:40 - 5:42is literally a treasure map.
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5:42 - 5:44The large red dots represent
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5:44 - 5:46the world's largest stock exchanges,
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5:46 - 5:48and the small blue dots here
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5:48 - 5:52represent the calculated
optimal intermediate locations -
5:52 - 5:55for coordinating, trading,
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5:55 - 5:57on pairs of these exchanges.
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5:57 - 5:58And you'll note,
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5:58 - 6:01that many of these
optimal intermediate locations -
6:01 - 6:03are in network sparse areas,
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6:03 - 6:05and on oceans.
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6:05 - 6:08And so, this presents us with
what may perhaps be -
6:08 - 6:11the first excuse to
literally boil the oceans -
6:11 - 6:13using computation.
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6:15 - 6:19Now, how do we go about to
deploying this new infrastructure? -
6:19 - 6:24So, I've shown here
3 different modalities -
6:24 - 6:26for deploying these new servers
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6:26 - 6:30that would be responsible
for creating global reflex arcs, -
6:30 - 6:33in order to help us get around
speed of light limitations. -
6:33 - 6:35So, on the left,
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6:35 - 6:36you see microwave towers,
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6:36 - 6:38we see balloons in the middle,
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6:38 - 6:42and we see microwave buoys,
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6:42 - 6:45microwave relay buoys, to the right.
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6:45 - 6:49These are just 3 modalities
by which one can envisage, -
6:49 - 6:52getting around the speed of light
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6:52 - 6:54due to the Earth's finite size.
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6:54 - 6:57And so, I think, stepping back,
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6:57 - 7:01we're faced with an opportunity
at this point in time, -
7:01 - 7:03to not just bump up against
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7:04 - 7:06the finite speed of light,
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7:06 - 7:08as a pretence to
telecommunications on Earth, -
7:08 - 7:11but to use this as an opportunity
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7:11 - 7:14to create lots of
new infrastructure in locations -
7:14 - 7:17that previously had none,
and in particular, -
7:17 - 7:21I'm especially fond of this analogy,
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7:21 - 7:23the Silk Road, or the Silk Route,
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7:23 - 7:26the trade of silk was responsible,
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7:26 - 7:29in the first few centuries CE,
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7:29 - 7:31for creating economic growth
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7:31 - 7:32at intermediate locations
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7:32 - 7:35between opposite ends of a trade route.
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7:35 - 7:37And I think the opportunity here
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7:37 - 7:40is to leverage the finite speed of light
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7:40 - 7:42to deploy infrastructure
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7:42 - 7:44in many locations around the world
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7:44 - 7:46that currently don't have access
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7:46 - 7:48to low latency Internet,
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7:48 - 7:49and as a result,
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7:49 - 7:53treat geography
as a new form of natural resource -
7:53 - 7:56that can lead to
broader economic development. -
7:56 - 7:57Thank you very much.
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7:57 - 8:00(Applause)
- Title:
- Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet
- Description:
-
The performance of a wide variety of globally-distributed online activities is increasingly limited by the finite speed of light. In this talk, Dr. Wissner-Gross introduces the technology for partially mitigating the impact of this limitation on the coordination of geographically distributed activities.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 08:01
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Elisabeth Buffard approved English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Elisabeth Buffard edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Elisabeth Buffard edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Elisabeth Buffard edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Sam HK edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Sam HK edited English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet | ||
Sam HK accepted English subtitles for Networking Faster Than Light: Alex Wissner-Gross at TEDxBeaconStreet |