0:00:15.838,0:00:18.241
We live in a physical world.

0:00:18.241,0:00:20.256
We also live in a physical world

0:00:20.256,0:00:24.394
that's in a process of [br]merging with the digital world.

0:00:24.394,0:00:26.180
As a consequence,

0:00:26.180,0:00:28.961
increasingly, aspect of the physical world

0:00:28.961,0:00:31.008
such as, say,

0:00:31.008,0:00:33.255
the fact that it's [br]geographically distributed,

0:00:33.255,0:00:37.675
are starting to impact [br]our digital experiences.

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This is a worldwide property,

0:00:40.044,0:00:41.399
and it's due to the fact

0:00:41.399,0:00:44.693
that we live all across [br]the surface of a planet

0:00:44.693,0:00:46.680
that has a finite diameter.

0:00:46.680,0:00:49.514
So, for example, in virtual worlds,

0:00:49.514,0:00:52.554
if you have one party [br]on one side of the planet,

0:00:52.554,0:00:54.961
and one party [br]on another side of the planet,

0:00:54.961,0:00:57.402
that are interacting via a virtual world,

0:00:57.402,0:00:58.789
such as Second Life,

0:00:58.789,0:01:01.794
the experience delays due to the fact

0:01:01.794,0:01:04.509
that light takes a finite amount of time

0:01:04.509,0:01:06.695
to travel around the Earth's surface

0:01:06.695,0:01:08.481
in order to connect them.

0:01:08.481,0:01:10.529
And this problem isn't in any way

0:01:10.529,0:01:13.507
specific to virtual worlds [br]or entertainment.

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It's a problem that's keenly felt [br]in industrial sectors,

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in financial sectors.

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Financial sector in particular,

0:01:20.676,0:01:23.172
is very well incentified to make sure

0:01:23.172,0:01:26.445
that the time delays [br]for transmitting information

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between financial exchanges is minimised.

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One more example,

0:01:32.590,0:01:34.934
telerobotics and telesurgery.

0:01:34.934,0:01:37.259
As we move towards an era,

0:01:37.259,0:01:39.759
where a physician [br]in one location on Earth

0:01:39.759,0:01:41.931
can perform surgery on a patient

0:01:41.931,0:01:43.977
on the opposite end of the Earth,

0:01:43.977,0:01:47.096
the delays involved in [br]manipulating remote machines

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become increasingly essential [br]to performance.

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And so how if we try [br]to combat this thus far?

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This is a map of submarine cables

0:01:58.709,0:02:03.095
strewn all around the Earth's [br]oceans and on land.

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We are literally [br]wiring up our planet surface

0:02:06.426,0:02:10.129
in order to efficiently [br]allow information to flow

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from any point on the Earth's surface

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to any other point [br]on the Earth's surface.

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You might imagine

0:02:16.569,0:02:17.747
we are relatively close to

0:02:17.747,0:02:20.705
solving this problem [br]of information delays.

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But of course,

0:02:23.532,0:02:25.659
as with all physical properties,

0:02:25.659,0:02:26.966
there are limits.

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Here's one very important one.

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What you're seeing here are 2 maps

0:02:31.387,0:02:33.421
of some of the state-of-the-art

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Internet connections [br]connecting locations.

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On the left, [br]

0:02:37.614,0:02:39.703
a New York to Chicago connection.

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On the right,

0:02:41.109,0:02:42.835
New York to London.

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Interestingly,

0:02:44.109,0:02:46.113
if you look at [br]the amount of time it takes

0:02:46.113,0:02:48.278
to send information back and forth,

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through these pipes,

0:02:49.888,0:02:51.302
and you compare it

0:02:51.302,0:02:53.576
with the theoretical physical limit

0:02:53.576,0:02:56.530
to how fast you could [br]send information round trip

0:02:56.530,0:03:00.041
using light through optical fiber,

0:03:00.301,0:03:01.553
you'll notice

0:03:01.553,0:03:03.581
that we're literally approaching

0:03:03.581,0:03:06.099
the physical limits allowed to us

0:03:06.099,0:03:08.407
for sending information around the Earth

0:03:08.407,0:03:10.805
between these important cities.

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This is the problem [br]for the reasons I've mentioned

0:03:13.673,0:03:18.176
that's only going to become [br]more exacerbated with time.

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Why is this a problem?

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Well, the way we've architected

0:03:22.351,0:03:25.445
many of our global transactions [br]right now on the Internet,

0:03:25.445,0:03:27.282
and our networks in general,

0:03:27.282,0:03:30.098
requires round trip transactions.

0:03:30.098,0:03:31.854
So, you have location A,

0:03:31.854,0:03:33.390
and location B,

0:03:33.390,0:03:35.601
and you want to coordinate processes

0:03:35.601,0:03:37.562
between these two locations,

0:03:37.562,0:03:40.023
they have to send [br]information to each other

0:03:40.023,0:03:41.753
about their current state,

0:03:41.753,0:03:43.591
and wait for the other party [br]

0:03:43.591,0:03:45.557
to react to that new information,

0:03:45.557,0:03:48.008
and send back an execution signal.

0:03:48.008,0:03:49.431
In other words,

0:03:49.431,0:03:50.951
for most transactions today,

0:03:50.951,0:03:52.995
you're stuck with round trip delays

0:03:52.995,0:03:54.619
on the Internet.

0:03:55.969,0:03:58.009
Now, biology, [br]

0:03:58.009,0:04:00.259
as has historically been the case,

0:04:00.259,0:04:02.680
has come up with [br]a solution to this problem.

0:04:02.680,0:04:04.717
So, if you as a human,

0:04:04.717,0:04:06.348
touch a hot surface,

0:04:06.348,0:04:08.846
you'll note, [br]that your hand pulls itself back

0:04:08.846,0:04:11.514
before you feel the pain[br]in your mind.

0:04:11.514,0:04:13.848
And the reason is that the pain signal [br]

0:04:13.848,0:04:16.182
isn't travelling the entire distance

0:04:16.182,0:04:18.207
from your finger up to your brain,

0:04:18.207,0:04:20.703
and then back to your motor neurons,

0:04:20.703,0:04:22.229
to pull your hand back.

0:04:22.229,0:04:25.106
Instead, it's just travelling [br]to an intermediate location,

0:04:25.106,0:04:26.372
your spinal column,

0:04:26.372,0:04:27.911
where it's immediately recognized [br]

0:04:27.911,0:04:29.900
as actionable information,

0:04:29.900,0:04:32.431
and signals are immediately [br]turned around

0:04:32.431,0:04:34.474
for a more rapid response.

0:04:34.474,0:04:36.316
It's called a reflex arc.

0:04:36.316,0:04:39.342
So, biology is handing us the solution.

0:04:40.022,0:04:43.847
We can do reflex arcs [br]for global networking.

0:04:43.847,0:04:45.679
So rather than doing

0:04:45.679,0:04:48.011
round trip transmission of information,

0:04:48.011,0:04:51.265
let's instead position [br]server infrastructure

0:04:51.265,0:04:54.261
at well selected intermediate locations

0:04:54.261,0:04:57.003
between two different [br]geographic locations

0:04:57.003,0:04:59.016
that need to be coordinated.

0:04:59.016,0:05:00.081
So, this is a problem [br]

0:05:00.081,0:05:01.236
that I've been thinking about

0:05:01.236,0:05:02.612
for a number of years:

0:05:02.612,0:05:05.251
how best to position [br]these intermediate locations

0:05:05.251,0:05:08.475
in order to literally [br]get around the speed of light

0:05:08.475,0:05:11.767
by not being forced to [br]wait for this round trip transmission?

0:05:11.767,0:05:13.237
And recently, [br]

0:05:13.237,0:05:16.577
I identified and published [br]the optimal solution.

0:05:16.577,0:05:18.549
So, what you're seeing here [br]is an equation

0:05:18.549,0:05:21.349
that describes [br]the theoretical optimal solution

0:05:21.349,0:05:23.172
for where to place yourself [br]

0:05:23.172,0:05:25.415
in between two different locations

0:05:25.415,0:05:28.154
in order to optimally [br]coordinate processes

0:05:28.154,0:05:30.483
happening at either end.

0:05:31.613,0:05:33.392
And so, just for fun,

0:05:33.392,0:05:35.406
I've taken this equation,

0:05:35.406,0:05:38.184
and applied it to a financial task.

0:05:38.184,0:05:39.762
So, what you're looking at here,

0:05:39.762,0:05:41.853
is literally a treasure map.

0:05:41.853,0:05:43.578
The large red dots represent [br]

0:05:43.578,0:05:45.683
the world's largest stock exchanges,

0:05:45.683,0:05:48.289
and the small blue dots here

0:05:48.289,0:05:52.260
represent the calculated [br]optimal intermediate locations

0:05:52.260,0:05:54.693
for coordinating, trading,

0:05:54.693,0:05:56.883
on pairs of these exchanges.

0:05:56.883,0:05:58.015
And you'll note,

0:05:58.015,0:06:00.917
that many of these [br]optimal intermediate locations

0:06:00.917,0:06:03.314
are in network sparse areas, [br]

0:06:03.314,0:06:05.141
and on oceans.

0:06:05.141,0:06:08.258
And so, this presents us with [br]what may perhaps be

0:06:08.258,0:06:11.268
the first excuse to [br]literally boil the oceans

0:06:11.268,0:06:13.016
using computation.

0:06:15.056,0:06:19.224
Now, how do we go about to [br]deploying this new infrastructure?

0:06:19.224,0:06:23.578
So, I've shown here [br]3 different modalities

0:06:23.578,0:06:25.894
for deploying these new servers

0:06:25.894,0:06:29.618
that would be responsible [br]for creating global reflex arcs,

0:06:29.618,0:06:33.348
in order to help us get around [br]speed of light limitations.

0:06:33.348,0:06:34.557
So, on the left,

0:06:34.557,0:06:36.430
you see microwave towers,

0:06:36.430,0:06:38.216
we see balloons in the middle,

0:06:38.216,0:06:42.003
and we see microwave buoys,

0:06:42.003,0:06:44.620
microwave relay buoys, to the right.

0:06:44.620,0:06:49.009
These are just 3 modalities [br]by which one can envisage,

0:06:49.009,0:06:51.546
getting around the speed of light

0:06:51.546,0:06:54.403
due to the Earth's finite size.

0:06:54.403,0:06:57.101
And so, I think, stepping back,

0:06:57.101,0:07:00.994
we're faced with an opportunity [br]at this point in time,

0:07:00.994,0:07:03.495
to not just bump up against [br]

0:07:03.505,0:07:05.716
the finite speed of light,

0:07:05.716,0:07:08.368
as a pretence to [br]telecommunications on Earth,

0:07:08.368,0:07:10.738
but to use this as an opportunity

0:07:10.738,0:07:14.247
to create lots of [br]new infrastructure in locations

0:07:14.247,0:07:17.243
that previously had none, [br]and in particular,

0:07:17.243,0:07:20.819
I'm especially fond of this analogy,

0:07:20.819,0:07:23.081
the Silk Road, or the Silk Route,

0:07:23.081,0:07:26.378
the trade of silk was responsible,

0:07:26.378,0:07:28.716
in the first few centuries CE,

0:07:28.716,0:07:30.610
for creating economic growth

0:07:30.610,0:07:32.484
at intermediate locations

0:07:32.484,0:07:35.268
between opposite ends of a trade route.

0:07:35.268,0:07:37.001
And I think the opportunity here

0:07:37.001,0:07:40.333
is to leverage the finite speed of light

0:07:40.333,0:07:42.043
to deploy infrastructure [br]

0:07:42.043,0:07:44.063
in many locations around the world

0:07:44.063,0:07:45.979
that currently don't have access [br]

0:07:45.979,0:07:47.935
to low latency Internet,

0:07:47.935,0:07:49.110
and as a result,

0:07:49.110,0:07:52.645
treat geography [br]as a new form of natural resource

0:07:52.645,0:07:55.580
that can lead to [br]broader economic development.

0:07:55.580,0:07:57.350
Thank you very much.

0:07:57.350,0:07:59.728
(Applause)