A vision of crimes in the future
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0:00 - 0:03I study the future
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0:03 - 0:07of crime and terrorism,
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0:07 - 0:10and frankly, I'm afraid.
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0:10 - 0:12I'm afraid by what I see.
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0:12 - 0:14I sincerely want to believe
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0:14 - 0:17that technology can bring us
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0:17 - 0:20the techno-utopia that we've been promised,
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0:20 - 0:21but, you see,
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0:21 - 0:25I've spent a career in law enforcement,
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0:25 - 0:27and that's informed my perspective on things.
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0:27 - 0:29I've been a street police officer,
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0:29 - 0:31an undercover investigator,
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0:31 - 0:33a counter-terrorism strategist,
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0:33 - 0:35and I've worked in more than 70 countries
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0:35 - 0:37around the world.
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0:37 - 0:38I've had to see more than my fair share
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0:38 - 0:42of violence and the darker underbelly of society,
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0:42 - 0:46and that's informed my opinions.
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0:46 - 0:48My work with criminals and terrorists
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0:48 - 0:50has actually been highly educational.
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0:50 - 0:53They have taught me a lot, and I'd like to be able
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0:53 - 0:56to share some of these observations with you.
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0:56 - 0:59Today I'm going to show you the flip side
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0:59 - 1:03of all those technologies that we marvel at,
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1:03 - 1:05the ones that we love.
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1:05 - 1:06In the hands of the TED community,
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1:06 - 1:09these are awesome tools which will bring about
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1:09 - 1:13great change for our world,
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1:13 - 1:16but in the hands of suicide bombers,
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1:16 - 1:19the future can look quite different.
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1:19 - 1:21I started observing
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1:21 - 1:23technology and how criminals were using it
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1:23 - 1:25as a young patrol officer.
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1:25 - 1:29In those days, this was the height of technology.
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1:29 - 1:31Laugh though you will,
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1:31 - 1:32all the drug dealers and gang members
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1:32 - 1:35with whom I dealt had one of these
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1:35 - 1:39long before any police officer I knew did.
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1:39 - 1:42Twenty years later, criminals are still using
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1:42 - 1:46mobile phones, but they're also building
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1:46 - 1:48their own mobile phone networks,
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1:48 - 1:50like this one, which has been deployed
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1:50 - 1:54in all 31 states of Mexico by the narcos.
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1:54 - 1:56They have a national encrypted
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1:56 - 1:59radio communications system.
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1:59 - 2:01Think about that.
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2:01 - 2:05Think about the innovation that went into that.
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2:05 - 2:08Think about the infrastructure to build it.
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2:08 - 2:09And then think about this:
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2:09 - 2:13Why can't I get a cell phone signal in San Francisco? (Laughter)
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2:13 - 2:18How is this possible? (Laughter) It makes no sense. (Applause)
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2:18 - 2:20We consistently underestimate
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2:20 - 2:23what criminals and terrorists can do.
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2:23 - 2:25Technology has made our world
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2:25 - 2:27increasingly open, and for the most part,
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2:27 - 2:29that's great, but all of this openness
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2:29 - 2:31may have unintended consequences.
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2:31 - 2:36Consider the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai.
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2:36 - 2:39The men that carried that attack out were armed
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2:39 - 2:42with AK-47s, explosives and hand grenades.
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2:42 - 2:44They threw these hand grenades
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2:44 - 2:47at innocent people as they sat eating in cafes
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2:47 - 2:52and waited to catch trains on their way home from work.
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2:52 - 2:56But heavy artillery is nothing new in terrorist operations.
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2:56 - 2:58Guns and bombs are nothing new.
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2:58 - 2:59What was different this time
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2:59 - 3:02is the way that the terrorists used
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3:02 - 3:05modern information communications technologies
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3:05 - 3:10to locate additional victims and slaughter them.
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3:10 - 3:12They were armed with mobile phones.
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3:12 - 3:14They had BlackBerries.
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3:14 - 3:16They had access to satellite imagery.
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3:16 - 3:21They had satellite phones, and they even had night vision goggles.
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3:21 - 3:24But perhaps their greatest innovation was this.
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3:24 - 3:26We've all seen pictures like this
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3:26 - 3:29on television and in the news. This is an operations center.
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3:29 - 3:32And the terrorists built their very own op center
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3:32 - 3:35across the border in Pakistan,
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3:35 - 3:37where they monitored the BBC,
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3:37 - 3:41al Jazeera, CNN and Indian local stations.
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3:41 - 3:46They also monitored the Internet and social media
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3:46 - 3:48to monitor the progress of their attacks
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3:48 - 3:51and how many people they had killed.
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3:51 - 3:54They did all of this in real time.
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3:54 - 3:57The innovation of the terrorist operations center
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3:57 - 4:01gave terrorists unparalleled situational awareness
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4:01 - 4:03and tactical advantage over the police
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4:03 - 4:06and over the government.
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4:06 - 4:07What did they do with this?
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4:07 - 4:09They used it to great effect.
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4:09 - 4:11At one point during the 60-hour siege,
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4:11 - 4:13the terrorists were going room to room
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4:13 - 4:16trying to find additional victims.
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4:16 - 4:18They came upon a suite on the top floor
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4:18 - 4:20of the hotel, and they kicked down the door
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4:20 - 4:22and they found a man hiding by his bed.
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4:22 - 4:24And they said to him, "Who are you,
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4:24 - 4:26and what are you doing here?"
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4:26 - 4:28And the man replied,
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4:28 - 4:31"I'm just an innocent schoolteacher."
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4:31 - 4:33Of course, the terrorists knew
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4:33 - 4:37that no Indian schoolteacher stays at a suite in the Taj.
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4:37 - 4:39They picked up his identification,
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4:39 - 4:42and they phoned his name in to the terrorist war room,
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4:42 - 4:45where the terrorist war room Googled him,
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4:45 - 4:48and found a picture and called their operatives
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4:48 - 4:49on the ground and said,
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4:49 - 4:54"Your hostage, is he heavyset?
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4:54 - 4:58Is he bald in front? Does he wear glasses?"
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4:58 - 5:03"Yes, yes, yes," came the answers.
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5:03 - 5:05The op center had found him and they had a match.
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5:05 - 5:06He was not a schoolteacher.
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5:06 - 5:10He was the second-wealthiest businessman in India,
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5:10 - 5:12and after discovering this information,
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5:12 - 5:15the terrorist war room gave the order
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5:15 - 5:17to the terrorists on the ground in Mumbai.
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5:17 - 5:20("Kill him.")
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5:20 - 5:24We all worry about our privacy settings
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5:24 - 5:26on Facebook,
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5:26 - 5:28but the fact of the matter is,
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5:28 - 5:32our openness can be used against us.
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5:32 - 5:33Terrorists are doing this.
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5:33 - 5:37A search engine can determine
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5:37 - 5:41who shall live and who shall die.
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5:41 - 5:44This is the world that we live in.
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5:44 - 5:45During the Mumbai siege,
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5:45 - 5:48terrorists were so dependent on technology
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5:48 - 5:50that several witnesses reported that
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5:50 - 5:53as the terrorists were shooting hostages with one hand,
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5:53 - 5:56they were checking their mobile phone messages
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5:56 - 5:58in the very other hand.
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5:58 - 6:01In the end, 300 people were gravely wounded
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6:01 - 6:05and over 172 men, women and children
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6:05 - 6:09lost their lives that day.
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6:09 - 6:11Think about what happened.
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6:11 - 6:14During this 60-hour siege on Mumbai,
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6:14 - 6:1910 men armed not just with weapons,
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6:19 - 6:21but with technology,
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6:21 - 6:24were able to bring a city of 20 million people
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6:24 - 6:26to a standstill.
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6:26 - 6:28Ten people brought 20 million people
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6:28 - 6:32to a standstill, and this traveled around the world.
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6:32 - 6:39This is what radicals can do with openness.
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6:39 - 6:41This was done nearly four years ago.
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6:41 - 6:43What could terrorists do today
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6:43 - 6:46with the technologies available that we have?
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6:46 - 6:49What will they do tomorrow?
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6:49 - 6:51The ability of one to affect many
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6:51 - 6:54is scaling exponentially,
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6:54 - 6:58and it's scaling for good and it's scaling for evil.
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6:58 - 7:00It's not just about terrorism, though.
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7:00 - 7:03There's also been a big paradigm shift in crime.
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7:03 - 7:07You see, you can now commit more crime as well.
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7:07 - 7:09In the old days, it was a knife and a gun.
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7:09 - 7:12Then criminals moved to robbing trains.
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7:12 - 7:15You could rob 200 people on a train, a great innovation.
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7:15 - 7:17Moving forward, the Internet
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7:17 - 7:19allowed things to scale even more.
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7:19 - 7:21In fact, many of you will remember
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7:21 - 7:22the recent Sony PlayStation hack.
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7:22 - 7:29In that incident, over 100 million people were robbed.
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7:29 - 7:31Think about that.
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7:31 - 7:32When in the history of humanity
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7:32 - 7:34has it ever been possible for one person
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7:34 - 7:40to rob 100 million?
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7:40 - 7:42Of course, it's not just about stealing things.
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7:42 - 7:44There are other avenues of technology
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7:44 - 7:45that criminals can exploit.
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7:45 - 7:49Many of you will remember this super cute video
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7:49 - 7:51from the last TED,
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7:51 - 7:56but not all quadcopter swarms are so nice and cute.
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7:56 - 7:58They don't all have drumsticks.
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7:58 - 8:00Some can be armed with HD cameras
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8:00 - 8:02and do countersurveillance on protesters,
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8:02 - 8:05or, as in this little bit of movie magic,
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8:05 - 8:09quadcopters can be loaded with firearms
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8:09 - 8:13and automatic weapons.
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8:13 - 8:15Little robots are cute when they play music to you.
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8:15 - 8:18When they swarm and chase you down the block
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8:18 - 8:22to shoot you, a little bit less so.
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8:22 - 8:24Of course, criminals and terrorists weren't the first
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8:24 - 8:27to give guns to robots. We know where that started.
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8:27 - 8:28But they're adapting quickly.
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8:28 - 8:30Recently, the FBI arrested
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8:30 - 8:32an al Qaeda affiliate in the United States,
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8:32 - 8:34who was planning on using these remote-controlled
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8:34 - 8:37drone aircraft to fly C4 explosives
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8:37 - 8:39into government buildings in the United States.
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8:39 - 8:45By the way, these travel at over 600 miles an hour.
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8:45 - 8:47Every time a new technology is being introduced,
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8:47 - 8:50criminals are there to exploit it.
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8:50 - 8:51We've all seen 3D printers.
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8:51 - 8:53We know with them that you can print
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8:53 - 8:55in many materials ranging from plastic
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8:55 - 9:00to chocolate to metal and even concrete.
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9:00 - 9:01With great precision
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9:01 - 9:03I actually was able to make this
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9:03 - 9:05just the other day, a very cute little ducky.
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9:10 - 9:12But I wonder to myself,
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9:12 - 9:19for those people that strap bombs to their chests
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9:19 - 9:20and blow themselves up,
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9:20 - 9:24how might they use 3D printers?
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9:24 - 9:28Perhaps like this.
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9:28 - 9:30You see, if you can print in metal,
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9:30 - 9:33you can print one of these,
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9:33 - 9:36and in fact
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9:39 - 9:43you can also print one of these too.
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9:46 - 9:50The UK I know has some very strict firearms laws.
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9:50 - 9:52You needn't bring the gun into the UK anymore.
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9:52 - 9:54You just bring the 3D printer
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9:54 - 9:57and print the gun while you're here,
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9:57 - 10:00and, of course, the magazines for your bullets.
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10:00 - 10:01But as these get bigger in the future,
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10:01 - 10:03what other items will you be able to print?
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10:03 - 10:07The technologies are allowing bigger printers.
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10:07 - 10:08As we move forward,
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10:08 - 10:11we'll see new technologies also, like the Internet of Things.
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10:11 - 10:13Every day we're connecting more and more of our lives
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10:13 - 10:15to the Internet, which means
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10:15 - 10:20that the Internet of Things will soon be
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10:20 - 10:21the Internet of Things To Be Hacked.
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10:21 - 10:23All of the physical objects in our space
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10:23 - 10:26are being transformed into information technologies,
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10:26 - 10:30and that has a radical implication for our security,
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10:30 - 10:33because more connections to more devices
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10:33 - 10:35means more vulnerabilities.
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10:35 - 10:37Criminals understand this.
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10:37 - 10:39Terrorists understand this. Hackers understand this.
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10:39 - 10:42If you control the code, you control the world.
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10:42 - 10:47This is the future that awaits us.
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10:47 - 10:50There has not yet been an operating system
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10:50 - 10:52or a technology that hasn't been hacked.
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10:52 - 10:55That's troubling, since the human body itself
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10:55 - 10:58is now becoming an information technology.
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10:58 - 11:02As we've seen here, we're transforming ourselves into cyborgs.
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11:02 - 11:04Every year, thousands of cochlear implants,
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11:04 - 11:07diabetic pumps, pacemakers
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11:07 - 11:09and defibrillators are being implanted in people.
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11:09 - 11:11In the United States, there are 60,000 people
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11:11 - 11:14who have a pacemaker that connects to the Internet.
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11:14 - 11:18The defibrillators allow a physician at a distance
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11:18 - 11:20to give a shock to a heart
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11:20 - 11:22in case a patient needs it.
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11:22 - 11:24But if you don't need it,
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11:24 - 11:26and somebody else gives you the shock,
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11:26 - 11:29it's not a good thing.
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11:29 - 11:33Of course, we're going to go even deeper than the human body.
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11:33 - 11:35We're going down to the cellular level these days.
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11:35 - 11:37Up until this point, all the technologies
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11:37 - 11:41I've been talking about have been silicon-based, ones and zeroes,
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11:41 - 11:44but there's another operating system out there:
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11:44 - 11:48the original operating system, DNA.
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11:48 - 11:53And to hackers, DNA is just another operating system
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11:53 - 11:55waiting to be hacked.
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11:55 - 11:56It's a great challenge for them.
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11:56 - 11:58There are people already working on hacking the software of life,
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12:00 - 12:03and while most of them are doing this to great good
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12:03 - 12:04and to help us all,
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12:04 - 12:07some won't be.
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12:07 - 12:09So how will criminals abuse this?
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12:09 - 12:11Well, with synthetic biology you can do some pretty neat things.
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12:11 - 12:15For example, I predict that we will move away
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12:15 - 12:18from a plant-based narcotics world
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12:18 - 12:21to a synthetic one. Why do you need the plants anymore?
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12:21 - 12:24You can just take the DNA code from marijuana
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12:24 - 12:29or poppies or coca leaves
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12:29 - 12:31and cut and past that gene
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12:31 - 12:34and put it into yeast,
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12:34 - 12:35and you can take those yeast
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12:35 - 12:38and make them make the cocaine for you,
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12:38 - 12:42or the marijuana, or any other drug.
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12:42 - 12:44So how we use yeast in the future
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12:44 - 12:46is going to be really interesting.
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12:46 - 12:48In fact, we may have some really interesting bread and beer
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12:48 - 12:52as we go into this next century.
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12:52 - 12:56The cost of sequencing the human genome is dropping precipitously.
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12:56 - 12:58It was proceeding at Moore's Law pace,
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12:58 - 13:00but then in 2008, something changed.
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13:00 - 13:02The technologies got better,
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13:02 - 13:06and now DNA sequencing is proceeding at a pace
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13:06 - 13:09five times that of Moore's Law.
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13:09 - 13:13That has significant implications for us.
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13:13 - 13:16It took us 30 years to get from
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13:16 - 13:18the introduction of the personal computer
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13:18 - 13:20to the level of cybercrime we have today,
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13:20 - 13:24but looking at how biology is proceeding so rapidly,
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13:24 - 13:25and knowing criminals and terrorists as I do,
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13:25 - 13:28we may get there a lot faster
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13:28 - 13:30with biocrime in the future.
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13:30 - 13:32It will be easy for anybody to go ahead
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13:32 - 13:34and print their own bio-virus,
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13:34 - 13:37enhanced versions of ebola or anthrax,
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13:37 - 13:38weaponized flu.
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13:38 - 13:41We recently saw a case where some researchers
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13:41 - 13:46made the H5N1 avian influenza virus more potent.
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13:46 - 13:50It already has a 70 percent mortality rate
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13:50 - 13:51if you get it, but it's hard to get.
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13:51 - 13:54Engineers, by moving around a small number
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13:54 - 13:56of genetic changes,
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13:56 - 13:57were able to weaponize it
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13:57 - 14:01and make it much more easy for human beings to catch,
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14:01 - 14:03so that not thousands of people would die,
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14:03 - 14:05but tens of millions.
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14:05 - 14:07You see, you can go ahead and create
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14:07 - 14:09new pandemics, and the researchers who did this
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14:09 - 14:11were so proud of their accomplishments,
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14:11 - 14:12they wanted to publish it openly
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14:12 - 14:15so that everybody could see this
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14:15 - 14:19and get access to this information.
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14:19 - 14:20But it goes deeper than that.
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14:20 - 14:22DNA researcher Andrew Hessel
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14:22 - 14:24has pointed out quite rightly
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14:24 - 14:26that if you can use cancer treatments,
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14:26 - 14:27modern cancer treatments,
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14:27 - 14:30to go after one cell while leaving all the other cells
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14:30 - 14:32around it intact,
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14:32 - 14:36then you can also go after any one person's cell.
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14:36 - 14:38Personalized cancer treatments
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14:38 - 14:41are the flip side of personalized bioweapons,
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14:41 - 14:44which means you can attack any one individual,
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14:44 - 14:48including all the people in this picture.
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14:48 - 14:52How will we protect them in the future?
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14:52 - 14:55What to do? What to do about all this?
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14:55 - 14:58That's what I get asked all the time.
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14:58 - 14:59For those of you who follow me on Twitter,
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14:59 - 15:04I will be tweeting out the answer later on today. (Laughter)
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15:04 - 15:06Actually, it's a bit more complex than that,
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15:06 - 15:08and there are no magic bullets.
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15:08 - 15:10I don't have all the answers,
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15:10 - 15:12but I know a few things.
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15:12 - 15:14In the wake of 9/11,
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15:14 - 15:17the best security minds
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15:17 - 15:19put together all their innovation
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15:19 - 15:23and this is what they created for security.
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15:23 - 15:27If you're expecting the people who built this to protect you
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15:27 - 15:31from the coming robopocalypse — (Laughter)
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15:31 - 15:34— uh, you may want to have a backup plan. (Laughter)
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15:34 - 15:40Just saying. Just think about that. (Applause)
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15:40 - 15:43Law enforcement is currently a closed system.
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15:43 - 15:46It's nation-based, while the threat is international.
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15:46 - 15:50Policing doesn't scale globally. At least, it hasn't,
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15:50 - 15:54and our current system of guns, border guards, big gates and fences
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15:54 - 15:57are outdated in the new world into which we're moving.
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15:57 - 16:00So how might we prepare for some of these specific threats,
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16:00 - 16:02like attacking a president or a prime minister?
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16:02 - 16:04This would be the natural government response,
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16:04 - 16:06to hide away all our government leaders
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16:06 - 16:08in hermetically sealed bubbles.
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16:08 - 16:10But this is not going to work.
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16:10 - 16:13The cost of doing a DNA sequence is going to be trivial.
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16:13 - 16:16Anybody will have it and we will all have them in the future.
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16:16 - 16:20So maybe there's a more radical way that we can look at this.
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16:20 - 16:22What happens if we were to take
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16:22 - 16:25the President's DNA, or a king or queen's,
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16:25 - 16:27and put it out to a group of a few hundred
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16:27 - 16:29trusted researchers so they could
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16:29 - 16:32study that DNA and do penetration testing against it
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16:32 - 16:34as a means of helping our leaders?
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16:34 - 16:37Or what if we sent it out to a few thousand?
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16:37 - 16:39Or, controversially, and not without its risks,
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16:39 - 16:42what happens if we just gave it to the whole public?
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16:42 - 16:46Then we could all be engaged in helping.
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16:46 - 16:48We've already seen examples of this working well.
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16:48 - 16:51The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
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16:51 - 16:53is staffed by journalists and citizens
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16:53 - 16:55where they are crowd-sourcing
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16:55 - 16:57what dictators and terrorists are doing
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16:57 - 16:59with public funds around the world,
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16:59 - 17:01and, in a more dramatic case,
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17:01 - 17:03we've seen in Mexico,
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17:03 - 17:05a country that has been racked
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17:05 - 17:09by 50,000 narcotics-related murders
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17:09 - 17:10in the past six years.
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17:10 - 17:12They're killing so many people
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17:12 - 17:14they can't even afford to bury them all
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17:14 - 17:16in anything but these unmarked graves
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17:16 - 17:19like this one outside of Ciudad Juarez.
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17:19 - 17:22What can we do about this? The government has proven ineffective.
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17:22 - 17:25So in Mexico, citizens, at great risk to themselves,
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17:25 - 17:30are fighting back to build an effective solution.
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17:30 - 17:34They're crowd-mapping the activities of the drug dealers.
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17:34 - 17:36Whether or not you realize it,
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17:36 - 17:39we are at the dawn of a technological arms race,
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17:39 - 17:41an arms race between people
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17:41 - 17:43who are using technology for good
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17:43 - 17:45and those who are using it for ill.
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17:45 - 17:49The threat is serious, and the time to prepare for it is now.
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17:49 - 17:53I can assure you that the terrorists and criminals are.
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17:53 - 17:55My personal belief is that,
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17:55 - 17:57rather than having a small, elite force
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17:57 - 17:59of highly trained government agents
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17:59 - 18:01here to protect us all,
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18:01 - 18:02we're much better off
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18:02 - 18:04having average and ordinary citizens
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18:04 - 18:07approaching this problem as a group
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18:07 - 18:08and seeing what we can do.
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18:08 - 18:09If we all do our part,
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18:09 - 18:12I think we'll be in a much better space.
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18:12 - 18:13The tools to change the world
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18:13 - 18:15are in everybody's hands.
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18:15 - 18:18How we use them is not just up to me,
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18:18 - 18:20it's up to all of us.
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18:20 - 18:23This was a technology I would frequently deploy
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18:23 - 18:25as a police officer.
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18:25 - 18:28This technology has become outdated in our current world.
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18:28 - 18:31It doesn't scale, it doesn't work globally,
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18:31 - 18:33and it surely doesn't work virtually.
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18:33 - 18:37We've seen paradigm shifts in crime and terrorism.
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18:37 - 18:41They call for a shift to a more open form
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18:41 - 18:46and a more participatory form of law enforcement.
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18:46 - 18:48So I invite you to join me.
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18:48 - 18:54After all, public safety is too important to leave to the professionals.
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18:54 - 18:56Thank you. (Applause)
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18:56 - 19:04(Applause)
- Title:
- A vision of crimes in the future
- Speaker:
- Marc Goodman
- Description:
-
The world is becoming increasingly open, and that has implications both bright and dangerous. Marc Goodman paints a portrait of a grave future, in which technology's rapid development could allow crime to take a turn for the worse.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 19:43
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for A vision of crimes in the future | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |