0:00:08.621,0:00:11.015 So, this is a map[br]of New York State 0:00:11.015,0:00:14.417 that was made in 1937 by the[br]General Drafting Company. 0:00:14.417,0:00:17.767 It's an extremely famous map[br]among cartography nerds, 0:00:17.767,0:00:20.519 because down here at the bottom[br]of the Catskill Mountains 0:00:20.519,0:00:22.576 there is a little town called Roscoe 0:00:22.600,0:00:25.500 --actually, this will go easier[br]if I just put it up here-- 0:00:26.640,0:00:31.105 There's Roscoe, and then, right above Roscoe,[br]is Rockland, New York, 0:00:31.105,0:00:35.058 and then right above that[br]is the tiny town of Agloe, New York. 0:00:35.058,0:00:38.182 Agloe, New York,[br]is very famous to cartographers, 0:00:38.182,0:00:43.078 because it's a paper town.[br]It's also known as a copyright trap. 0:00:43.078,0:00:46.470 Map makers -- because my map of New York[br]and your map of New York 0:00:46.470,0:00:49.254 are going to look very similar,[br]on account of the shape of New York. 0:00:49.254,0:00:54.355 Often, map makers will insert[br]fake places onto their maps, 0:00:54.355,0:00:59.599 in order to protect their copyright, because then,[br]if my fake place shows up on your map, 0:00:59.599,0:01:02.848 I can be well and truly sure[br]that you have robbed me. 0:01:02.848,0:01:08.110 Agloe is a scrabblization of the initials[br]of the two guys who made this map 0:01:08.110,0:01:11.007 Ernest G. Alpers and Otto Lindberg, 0:01:11.007,0:01:13.478 and they released this map in 1937. 0:01:13.478,0:01:17.464 Decades later, Rand McNally releases a map 0:01:17.464,0:01:21.620 with Agloe, New York, on it,[br]at the same exact intersection 0:01:21.620,0:01:24.662 of two dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. 0:01:24.662,0:01:28.126 Well, you can imagine the delight[br]over at General Drafting. 0:01:28.126,0:01:31.126 They immediately called[br]Rand McNally, and they say: 0:01:31.126,0:01:34.872 "We've caught you![br]We made Agloe, New York, up. 0:01:34.872,0:01:39.226 It is a fake place. It's a paper town.[br]We're gonna sue your pants off!" 0:01:39.226,0:01:45.113 And Rand McNally says:[br]"N-n-no, no, no, Agloe is real." 0:01:45.113,0:01:50.022 Because people kept going to that intersection[br]of two dirt roads (Laughter), 0:01:50.022,0:01:52.102 in the middle of nowhere, 0:01:52.102,0:01:55.643 expecting there to be a place called Agloe, 0:01:55.643,0:01:59.798 someone built a place[br]called Agloe, New York. 0:01:59.798,0:02:05.244 It had a gas station, a general store,[br]two houses at its peak. (Laughter) 0:02:05.244,0:02:10.595 And this is of course a completely[br]irresistible metaphor to a novelist, 0:02:10.595,0:02:15.293 because we would all like to believe[br]that the stuff that we write down on paper 0:02:15.293,0:02:17.898 can change the actual world[br]in which we're actually living -- 0:02:17.898,0:02:20.256 which is why my third book[br]is called "Paper Towns". 0:02:20.256,0:02:24.493 But what interests me ultimately more[br]than the medium in which this happened 0:02:24.493,0:02:28.256 is the phenomenon itself. 0:02:28.256,0:02:32.284 It's easy enough to say that the world[br]shapes our maps of the world, right? 0:02:32.284,0:02:37.110 Like the overall shape of the world[br]is obviously going to affect our maps. 0:02:37.110,0:02:40.537 But what I find a lot[br]more interesting is the way 0:02:40.537,0:02:44.369 that the manner in which we map[br]the world changes the world. 0:02:44.369,0:02:48.676 Because the world would truly be[br]a different place if North were down. 0:02:48.676,0:02:52.175 And the world would be a truly[br]different place if Alaska and Russia 0:02:52.175,0:02:54.461 weren't on opposite sides of the map. 0:02:54.461,0:03:00.659 And the world would be a different place[br]if we projected Europe to show it in its actual size. 0:03:00.659,0:03:04.760 The world is changed by our maps of the world. 0:03:04.760,0:03:09.717 The way that we choose to, sort of,[br]our personal cartographic enterprise 0:03:09.717,0:03:14.780 also shapes the map of our lives,[br]and that in turn shapes our lives. 0:03:14.780,0:03:19.670 I believe that what we map[br]changes the life we lead. 0:03:19.670,0:03:23.539 And I don't mean that in some, like,[br]secrecy Oprah's Angels network, like, 0:03:23.539,0:03:26.578 you-can-think-your-way-out-of-cancer sense. 0:03:26.578,0:03:32.597 But I do believe that while maps don't show you[br]where you will go in your life, 0:03:32.597,0:03:35.168 they show you where you might go. 0:03:35.168,0:03:40.016 You very rarely go to a place[br]that isn't on your personal map. 0:03:40.016,0:03:43.626 So I was a really terrible[br]student when I was a kid. 0:03:43.626,0:03:46.482 My GPA was consistently in the low 2s, 0:03:46.482,0:03:49.267 and I think the reason that[br]I was such a terrible student is that 0:03:49.267,0:03:55.177 I felt like education was just a series[br]of hurdles that had been erected before me, 0:03:55.177,0:03:58.873 and I had to jump over[br]in order to achieve adulthood. 0:03:58.873,0:04:00.858 And I didn't really want[br]to jump over these hurdles, 0:04:00.858,0:04:03.293 because they seemed completely arbitrary,[br]so I often wouldn't, 0:04:03.293,0:04:05.494 and then people would[br]threaten me, you know, 0:04:05.494,0:04:08.587 they'd threaten me with[br]"this going on my permanent record", 0:04:08.587,0:04:13.963 or "you'll never get a good job".[br]I didn't want a good job! 0:04:13.963,0:04:16.112 As far as I could tell[br]at eleven or twelve years old, like, 0:04:16.112,0:04:19.296 people with good jobs woke up[br]very early in the morning, 0:04:19.296,0:04:21.022 (Laughter) 0:04:21.022,0:04:25.211 and the men who had good jobs,[br]one of the first things they did 0:04:25.211,0:04:30.301 was tie a strangulation item[br]of clothing around their necks. 0:04:30.301,0:04:34.863 They literally put nooses on themselves, and then[br]they went off to their jobs, whatever they were. 0:04:34.863,0:04:38.226 That's not a recipe for a happy life. 0:04:38.226,0:04:42.455 These people -- in my, like, symbol-obsessed,[br]twelve-year-old imagination, 0:04:42.455,0:04:46.321 these people who are strangling themselves[br]as one of the first things 0:04:46.321,0:04:49.246 they do each morning,[br]they can't possibly be happy. 0:04:49.246,0:04:53.801 Why would I wanna jump over all these hurdles [br]and have that be the end? 0:04:53.801,0:04:55.823 That's a terrible end! 0:04:55.823,0:04:58.556 And then, when I was in tenth grade,[br]I went to this school, 0:04:58.556,0:05:03.458 Indian Springs School, a small boarding school,[br]outside of Birmingham, Alabama, 0:05:03.458,0:05:07.485 and all at once I became a learner. 0:05:07.485,0:05:11.329 And I became a learner, because I found myself[br]in a community of learners. 0:05:11.329,0:05:16.728 I found myself surrounded by people who celebrated[br]intellectualism and engagement, 0:05:16.728,0:05:22.383 and who thought that my ironic oh-so-cool disengagement[br]wasn't clever, or funny, 0:05:22.383,0:05:28.711 but, like, it was a simple and unspectacular response[br]to very complicated and compelling problems. 0:05:28.757,0:05:31.604 And so I started to learn,[br]because learning was cool. 0:05:31.604,0:05:35.368 I learned that some infinite sets[br]are bigger than other infinite sets, 0:05:35.368,0:05:39.151 and I learned that iambic pentameter is[br]and why it sounds so good to human ears. 0:05:39.151,0:05:42.628 I learned that the Civil War[br]was a nationalizing conflict, 0:05:42.628,0:05:47.013 I learned some physics, I learned that correlation[br]shouldn't be confused with causation -- 0:05:47.013,0:05:53.081 all of these things, by the way,[br]enriched my life on a literally daily basis. 0:05:53.081,0:05:56.413 And it's true that I don't use[br]most of them for my "job", 0:05:56.413,0:05:58.629 but that's not what it's about for me. 0:05:58.629,0:06:03.184 It's about cartography.[br]What is the process of cartography? 0:06:03.184,0:06:08.199 It's, you know, sailing upon some land, and thinking[br]"I think I'll draw that bit of land", 0:06:08.199,0:06:11.546 and then wondering[br]"Maybe there's some more land to draw". 0:06:11.546,0:06:13.467 And that's when learning really began for me. 0:06:13.467,0:06:18.647 It's true that I had teachers that didn't give up on me,[br]and I was very fortunate to have those teachers, 0:06:18.647,0:06:22.996 because I often gave them cause to think[br]there was no reason to invest in me. 0:06:22.996,0:06:30.018 But a lot of the learning that I did in high school[br]wasn't about what happened inside the classroom, 0:06:30.018,0:06:31.584 it was about what happened outside of the classroom. 0:06:31.584,0:06:33.047 For instance, I can tell you that 0:06:33.047,0:06:35.496 "There's a certain slant of light,[br][On] winter afternoons, 0:06:35.496,0:06:38.422 That oppresses, like the heft [weight][br]Of cathedral tunes", 0:06:38.422,0:06:43.763 not because I memorized Emily Dickinson in school,[br]when I was in high school, 0:06:43.763,0:06:47.479 but because there was a girl, when I was in high school,[br]and her name was Amanda, 0:06:47.479,0:06:51.290 and I had a crush on her,[br]and she liked Emily Dickinson poetry. 0:06:51.290,0:06:53.745 The reason I can tell you[br]what opportunity cost is, 0:06:53.745,0:06:57.503 is because one day when I was playing[br]Super Mario Kart on my couch, 0:06:57.503,0:07:00.840 my friend Emmet walked in, and he said[br]"How long have you been playing Super Mario Kart?", 0:07:00.840,0:07:05.361 and I said, "I don't know,[br]like, six hours?", and he said, 0:07:05.361,0:07:08.032 "You realize that if you'd worked[br]at Baskin-Robbins those six hours, 0:07:08.032,0:07:13.893 you could have made thirty dollars, so in some ways,[br]you just paid thirty dollars to play Super Mario Kart", 0:07:13.893,0:07:17.504 and I was, like, "I'll take that deal."[br](Laughter) 0:07:18.458,0:07:22.979 But I learned what[br]opportunity cost is, 0:07:22.979,0:07:24.606 and along the way, 0:07:24.606,0:07:29.695 the map of my life got better,[br]it got bigger, it contained more places. 0:07:29.695,0:07:35.037 There were more things that might happen,[br]more futures I might have. 0:07:35.037,0:07:40.400 It wasn't a formal organized learning process,[br]and I'm happy to admit that. 0:07:40.400,0:07:42.898 It was spotty, it was inconsistent,[br]there was a lot I didn't know. 0:07:42.898,0:07:44.879 I might know, you know,[br]that Cantor's idea 0:07:44.947,0:07:47.761 that some infinite sets are larger[br]than other infinite sets, 0:07:47.761,0:07:50.777 but I didn't really understand[br]the calculus behind that idea. 0:07:50.777,0:07:52.461 I might know the idea[br]of opportunity cost, 0:07:52.461,0:07:55.069 but I didn't know the law[br]of diminishing returns. 0:07:55.069,0:07:58.757 But the great thing about imagining[br]learning as cartography, 0:07:58.757,0:08:01.776 instead of imagining it as arbitrary hurdles[br]that you have to jump over 0:08:01.884,0:08:05.466 is that you see a bit of coast line,[br]and that makes you want to see more. 0:08:05.466,0:08:09.965 And so now I do know at least some of the calculus[br]that underlies all of that stuff. 0:08:09.965,0:08:14.575 So, I had one learning community in high school,[br]then I went to another for college, 0:08:14.575,0:08:17.226 and then I went to another, when I started working[br]at a magazine called "Booklist", 0:08:17.226,0:08:21.547 where I was an assistant[br]surrounded by astonishingly well-read people, 0:08:21.547,0:08:25.152 and then I wrote a book,[br]and like all authors dream of doing, 0:08:25.152,0:08:28.753 I promptly quit my job. 0:08:28.753,0:08:33.941 And for the first time since high school,[br]I found myself without a learning community, 0:08:33.941,0:08:37.232 and it was miserable.[br]I hated it. 0:08:37.232,0:08:40.541 I read many, many books[br]during this two-year period. 0:08:40.541,0:08:45.882 I read books about Stalin, and I read books about[br]how the Uzbek people came to identify as Muslims, 0:08:45.882,0:08:47.696 and I read books about[br]how to make atomic bombs, 0:08:47.696,0:08:50.946 but it just felt like[br]I was creating my own hurdles, 0:08:50.946,0:08:55.674 and then jumping over them myself,[br]instead of feeling the excitement of being part 0:08:55.674,0:08:58.089 of a community of learners,[br]a community of people 0:08:58.089,0:09:02.828 who are engaged together in a cartographic enterprise[br]of trying to better understand 0:09:02.828,0:09:08.360 and map the world around us.[br]And then, in 2006, I met that guy. 0:09:08.360,0:09:12.952 His name is Ze Frank. I didn't actually meet him,[br]just on the Internet. 0:09:12.952,0:09:17.671 Ze Frank was running, at the time,[br]a show called "The Show with Ze Frank", 0:09:17.671,0:09:22.704 and I discovered this show, and that was my way back[br]into being a community learner again. 0:09:22.735,0:09:26.006 Here's Ze talking about Las Vegas: 0:09:26.006,0:09:29.523 (Video) Ze Frank: "Las Vegas was built in the middle[br]of a huge hot desert, 0:09:29.523,0:09:32.582 almost everything here[br]was brought from somewhere else -- 0:09:32.583,0:09:34.582 the sort of rocks,[br]the trees, the waterfalls. 0:09:34.582,0:09:37.816 These fish are almost as out of place[br]as my pig that flew. 0:09:37.816,0:09:40.976 Contrasted to the scorching desert[br]that surrounds this place, so are these people. 0:09:40.976,0:09:44.120 Things from all over the world have been rebuilt here,[br]away from their histories, 0:09:44.120,0:09:46.544 and away from the people[br]that experience them differently. 0:09:46.544,0:09:49.622 Sometimes, improvements were made.[br]Even the Sphinx got a nose job. 0:09:49.622,0:09:53.656 Here, what you see is what you get, and there's[br]no reason to feel like you're missing anything. 0:09:53.656,0:09:56.869 This New York means the same to me[br]as it does to everyone else. 0:09:56.869,0:09:59.633 Everything is out of context,[br]and that means context allows for everything. 0:09:59.633,0:10:02.531 Self Parking, Events Center, Shark Reef. 0:10:02.531,0:10:05.524 This fabrication of place could be one[br]of the world's greatest achievements, 0:10:05.524,0:10:07.716 because no one belongs here, everyone does. 0:10:07.716,0:10:10.220 As I walked around this morning,[br]I noticed most of the buildings 0:10:10.220,0:10:13.036 were huge mirrors reflecting[br]the sun back into the desert. 0:10:13.036,0:10:17.753 But unlike most mirrors, which present you[br]with an outside view of yourself embedded in a place, 0:10:17.753,0:10:19.453 these mirrors come back empty." 0:10:19.453,0:10:25.387 It makes me nostalgic for the days when you could see[br]the pixels in online video. (Laughter) 0:10:25.387,0:10:29.908 Ze isn't just a great public intellectual,[br]he's also a brilliant community builder, 0:10:29.908,0:10:31.246 and the community of people that built up 0:10:31.246,0:10:35.262 around these videos was in many ways[br]a community of learners, 0:10:35.262,0:10:38.080 so we played Ze Frank at chess collaboratively,[br]and we beat him. 0:10:38.080,0:10:42.654 We organized ourselves to take a young man[br]on a road trip across the United States. 0:10:42.654,0:10:48.222 We turned the Earth into a sandwich by having one person[br]hold a piece of bread at one point on the Earth, 0:10:48.222,0:10:53.416 and on the exact opposite point of the Earth[br]having another person holding a piece of bread. 0:10:53.416,0:10:59.300 I realize that these are silly ideas,[br]but they are also 'learny' ideas, 0:10:59.382,0:11:01.581 and that was what was so exciting to me, 0:11:01.581,0:11:05.403 and if you go online, you can find[br]communities like this all over the place. 0:11:05.403,0:11:09.527 Follow the calculus tag on Tumblr, and yes,[br]you will see people complaining about calculus, 0:11:09.527,0:11:12.675 but you'll also see people[br]re-blogging those complaints, 0:11:12.675,0:11:16.164 making the argument that calculus[br]is interesting and beautiful, 0:11:16.164,0:11:19.925 and here's a way in to thinking about[br]the problem that you find unsolvable. 0:11:19.925,0:11:24.764 You can go to places like Reddit, and find sub-Reddits,[br]like 'Ask a Historian', or 'Ask Science', 0:11:24.764,0:11:29.817 where you can ask people who are in these fields[br]a wide range of questions, 0:11:29.817,0:11:31.998 from very serious ones[br]to very silly ones. 0:11:31.998,0:11:35.471 But to me, the most interesting[br]communities of learners 0:11:35.471,0:11:37.686 that are growing up on the Internet[br]right now are on YouTube, 0:11:37.686,0:11:39.978 and admittedly I am biased. 0:11:39.978,0:11:43.943 But I think in a lot of ways,[br]the YouTube page resembles a classroom. 0:11:43.943,0:11:48.889 Look for instance at "Minute Physics",[br]a guy who's teaching the world about physics. 0:11:48.889,0:11:53.944 (Video) "Let's cut to the chase. As of July 4th, 2012,[br]the Higgs Boson is the last fundamental piece 0:11:53.944,0:11:57.230 of the standard model of particle physics[br]to be discovered experimentally. 0:11:57.230,0:12:00.690 But, you might ask, why was the Higgs Boson[br]included in the standard model, 0:12:00.690,0:12:03.583 alongside well-known particles[br]like electrons and photons and quarks, 0:12:03.583,0:12:06.218 if it hadn't been discovered[br]back then in the 1970s? 0:12:06.218,0:12:08.443 Good question.[br]There are two main reasons. 0:12:08.443,0:12:11.576 First, just like the electron[br]is an excitation in the electron field, 0:12:11.576,0:12:16.266 the Higgs Boson is simply a particle which is an excitation[br]of the everywhere-permeating Higgs field. 0:12:16.266,0:12:21.107 The Higgs field in turn plays an integral role[br]in our model for the weak nuclear force. 0:12:21.107,0:12:23.704 In particular, the Higgs field[br]helps explain why it's so weak. 0:12:23.704,0:12:28.667 We'll talk more about this in a later video, but even though[br]weak nuclear theory was confirmed in the 1980s, 0:12:28.667,0:12:32.092 in the equations, the Higgs field[br]is so inextricably jumbled with the weak force, 0:12:32.092,0:12:36.875 that until now we've been unable to confirm[br]its actual and independent existence." 0:12:36.875,0:12:39.500 John Green: Or here's a video[br]that I made as part 0:12:39.521,0:12:41.920 of my show "Crash Course",[br]talking about World War I: 0:12:41.920,0:12:44.772 "The immediate cause was of course[br]the assassination in Sarajevo 0:12:44.772,0:12:48.690 of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand,[br]on June 28, 1914, 0:12:48.690,0:12:51.850 by a Bosnian-Serb nationalist[br]named Gavrilo Princip. 0:12:51.850,0:12:57.198 Quick aside: it's worth noting that the first big war[br]of the twentieth century began with an act of terrorism. 0:12:57.198,0:13:01.978 So Franz Ferdinand wasn't particularly well-liked[br]by his uncle, the emperor Franz Joseph 0:13:01.978,0:13:03.880 -- now "that" is a moustache! -- 0:13:03.880,0:13:07.109 but even so, the assassination led Austria[br]to issue an ultimatum to Serbia, 0:13:07.109,0:13:10.634 whereupon Serbia accepted some,[br]but not all, of Austria's demands, 0:13:10.635,0:13:12.634 leading Austria to declare[br]war against Serbia. 0:13:12.634,0:13:15.740 And then Russia, due to its alliance[br]with the Serbs, mobilized its army. 0:13:15.740,0:13:20.188 Germany, because it had an alliance with Austria,[br]told Russia to stop mobilizing, 0:13:20.188,0:13:23.195 which Russia failed to do,[br]so then Germany mobilized its own army, 0:13:23.195,0:13:26.294 declared war on Russia,[br]cemented an alliance with the Ottomans, 0:13:26.294,0:13:30.458 and then declared war on France,[br]because, you know -- France!" 0:13:30.458,0:13:33.780 (Laughter) 0:13:33.780,0:13:39.203 And it's not just physics and world history[br]that people are choosing to learn through YouTube. 0:13:39.203,0:13:42.266 Here's a video about abstract mathematics: 0:13:43.766,0:13:46.468 (Video) "So you're me,[br]and you're in math class yet again,[br] 0:13:46.468,0:13:48.732 because they make you go,[br]like, every single day. 0:13:48.732,0:13:50.811 And you're learning about, I don't know,[br]the sums of infinite series. 0:13:50.811,0:13:53.055 That's a high school topic, right?[br]Which is odd, because 0:13:53.056,0:13:56.055 it's a cool topic, but they[br]somehow manage to ruin it anyway. 0:13:56.055,0:13:59.696 So I guess that's why they allow[br]infinite series in the curriculum. 0:13:59.696,0:14:03.179 So, in a quite understandable need for distraction,[br]you're doodling and thinking more about 0:14:03.179,0:14:06.256 what the plural of "series" should be[br]than about the topic at hand. 0:14:06.256,0:14:09.168 "Serieses," "seriese,"[br]"seriesen," and "serii?" 0:14:09.169,0:14:12.558 Or is it that the singular should be changed?[br]One "serie," or "serus," or "serum?" 0:14:12.558,0:14:15.838 Just like the singular[br]of "sheep" should be "shoop." 0:14:15.838,0:14:21.005 But the whole concept of things like[br]1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 and so on, approaching one, 0:14:21.005,0:14:24.961 is useful if, say, you wanna draw a line of elephants[br]each holding the tail of the next one: 0:14:24.961,0:14:28.673 normal elephant, young elephant, baby elephant,[br]dog-sized elephant, puppy-sized elephant... 0:14:28.673,0:14:32.240 All the way down to Mr. Tusks and beyond.[br]Which is at least a tiny bit awesome, 0:14:32.240,0:14:35.063 because you can get an infinite number[br]of elephants in a line 0:14:35.064,0:14:38.063 and still have it fit across[br]a single notebook page." 0:14:38.063,0:14:39.996 JG: And lastly, here's Destin,[br]from "Smarter Every Day", 0:14:39.996,0:14:45.040 talking about the conservation of angular momentum[br]and, since it's YouTube, cats: 0:14:45.040,0:14:47.275 (Video) "Hey, it's me, Destin.[br]Welcome back to "Smarter Every Day". 0:14:47.275,0:14:51.373 So you've probably observed that cats[br]almost always land on their feet. 0:14:51.373,0:14:53.703 Today's question is why? 0:14:53.703,0:14:56.324 Like most simple questions,[br]there's a very complex answer. 0:14:56.325,0:14:58.324 For instance, let me[br]reword this question: 0:14:58.324,0:15:03.592 "How does a cat go from feet up[br]to feet down in a falling reference frame 0:15:03.592,0:15:06.592 without violating the conservation[br]of angular momentum?" 0:15:08.402,0:15:11.630 JG: So, here's something all[br]of these videos have in common: 0:15:11.631,0:15:14.630 they all have more than[br]half a million views on YouTube. 0:15:14.630,0:15:18.130 And those are people[br]watching not in classrooms, 0:15:18.130,0:15:21.123 but because they are part[br]of the communities of learning 0:15:21.135,0:15:23.734 that are being set up[br]by these channels. 0:15:23.734,0:15:26.076 And I said earlier that YouTube[br]is like a classroom to me, 0:15:26.077,0:15:28.476 and in many ways it is,[br]because here is the instructor 0:15:28.476,0:15:31.427 -- it's like the old-fashioned classroom --[br]here's the instructor, 0:15:31.428,0:15:34.427 and then beneath the instructor[br]is the students, 0:15:34.427,0:15:36.874 and they're all having[br]a conversation. 0:15:36.874,0:15:38.700 And I know that[br]YouTube Comments have 0:15:38.700,0:15:42.168 a very bad reputation[br]in the world of the Internet, 0:15:42.168,0:15:45.436 but in fact, if you go[br]on Comments for these channels, 0:15:45.437,0:15:48.436 what you'll find is people[br]engaging the subject matter, 0:15:48.436,0:15:53.018 asking difficult, complicated questions[br]that are about the subject matter, 0:15:53.018,0:15:55.492 and then other people[br]answering those questions. 0:15:55.492,0:15:58.231 And because the YouTube page is set up 0:15:58.231,0:16:03.763 so that the page in which I'm talking to you[br]is on the exact same page 0:16:03.763,0:16:11.080 as your comments, you are participating in a live[br]and real and active way in the conversation. 0:16:11.080,0:16:14.548 And because I'm in Comments usually,[br]I get to participate with you, 0:16:14.548,0:16:20.544 and you find this whether it's world history,[br]or mathematics, or science, or whatever it is. 0:16:20.544,0:16:24.012 You also see young people using the tools 0:16:24.012,0:16:28.096 and the sort of genres of the Internet[br]in order to create places 0:16:28.096,0:16:30.687 for intellectual engagement[br]instead of the ironic detachment 0:16:30.687,0:16:35.374 that maybe most of us associate[br]with memes and other Internet conventions, 0:16:35.374,0:16:37.638 you know "Got bored -- Invented calculus", 0:16:37.638,0:16:40.991 or here's Honey Boo Boo[br]criticizing industrial capitalism 0:16:41.000,0:16:44.208 ["Liberal capitalism is not at all[br]the Good of humanity. 0:16:44.208,0:16:46.024 Quite the contrary; it is the vehicle[br]of savage destructive nihilism"]. 0:16:46.024,0:16:48.366 In case you can't see[br]what she says... Yeah. 0:16:50.366,0:16:55.000 I really believe that[br]these spaces, these communities 0:16:55.172,0:16:59.171 have become, for a new[br]generation of learners, 0:16:59.171,0:17:03.578 the kind of communities,[br]the kind of cartographic communities 0:17:03.578,0:17:07.828 that I had when I was in high school,[br]and then again when I was in college. 0:17:07.828,0:17:14.643 And as an adult, re-finding these communities[br]has re-introduced me to a community of learners, 0:17:14.643,0:17:19.665 and has encouraged me to continue[br]to be a learner even in my adulthood, 0:17:19.665,0:17:24.419 so that I no longer feel like learning[br]is something reserved for the young. 0:17:24.419,0:17:29.708 Vi Hart and "Minute Physics" introduced me[br]to all kinds of things that I didn't know before. 0:17:29.708,0:17:34.545 And I know that we all hearken back to the days[br]of the Parisian salon in the Enlightenment, 0:17:34.545,0:17:38.976 or to the Algonquin Round Table, and wish[br]"Oh, I wish I could have been a part of that, 0:17:38.976,0:17:41.753 I wish I could have laughed[br]at Dorothy Parker's jokes". 0:17:41.753,0:17:46.823 But I'm here to tell you that[br]these places exist, they still exist. 0:17:46.823,0:17:53.093 They exist in corners of the Internet,[br]where old men fear to tread. (Laughter) 0:17:53.093,0:17:58.969 And I truly, truly believe that when[br]we invented Agloe, New York, in the 1960s, 0:17:58.969,0:18:03.519 when we made Agloe real,[br]we were just getting started. 0:18:03.519,0:18:05.108 Thank you. 0:18:05.109,0:18:07.500 (Applause)