WEBVTT 00:00:01.435 --> 00:00:06.730 So a chip, a poet, and a boy. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:06.730 --> 00:00:08.635 It's just about 20 years ago, 00:00:08.635 --> 00:00:12.139 June 1994, when Intel announced 00:00:12.139 --> 00:00:14.122 that there was a flaw 00:00:14.122 --> 00:00:16.859 at the core of their Pentium chip. 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:19.099 Deep in the core of the SRT algorithm 00:00:19.099 --> 00:00:21.451 to calculate intermediate quotients necessary 00:00:21.451 --> 00:00:23.595 for iterative floating points of divisions 00:00:23.595 --> 00:00:26.754 — I don't know what that means, but it's what it says on Wikipedia — 00:00:26.754 --> 00:00:29.523 there was a flaw and an error 00:00:29.523 --> 00:00:31.659 that meant that there was a certain probability 00:00:31.659 --> 00:00:34.627 that the result of the calculation would be an error, 00:00:34.627 --> 00:00:37.059 and the probability was one out of every 00:00:37.059 --> 00:00:40.827 360 billion calculations. 00:00:40.827 --> 00:00:42.811 So Intel said your average spreadsheet 00:00:42.811 --> 00:00:47.387 would be flawed once every 27,000 years. 00:00:47.387 --> 00:00:48.891 They didn't think it was significant, 00:00:48.891 --> 00:00:51.907 but there was an outrage in the community. 00:00:51.907 --> 00:00:53.987 The community, the techies, said, this flaw 00:00:53.987 --> 00:00:55.538 has to be addressed. 00:00:55.538 --> 00:00:57.339 They were not going to stand by quietly 00:00:57.339 --> 00:00:59.247 as Intel gave them these chips. 00:00:59.247 --> 00:01:01.363 So there was a revolution across the world. 00:01:01.363 --> 00:01:04.443 People marched to demand 00:01:04.443 --> 00:01:06.202 — okay, not really exactly like that — 00:01:06.202 --> 00:01:09.403 but they rose up and they demanded 00:01:09.403 --> 00:01:12.115 that Intel fix the flaw. 00:01:12.115 --> 00:01:17.547 And Intel set aside 475 million dollars 00:01:17.547 --> 00:01:19.939 to fund the replacement of millions of chips 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:21.330 to replace the flaw. 00:01:21.330 --> 00:01:23.372 So billions of dollars in our society 00:01:23.372 --> 00:01:25.236 was spent to address a problem 00:01:25.236 --> 00:01:29.297 which would come once every 360 billion 00:01:29.297 --> 00:01:31.724 calculations. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:31.724 --> 00:01:34.477 Number two, a poet. 00:01:34.477 --> 00:01:36.707 This is Martin Niemöller. 00:01:36.707 --> 00:01:38.300 You're familiar with his poetry. 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:40.356 Around the height of the Nazi period, 00:01:40.356 --> 00:01:42.158 he started repeating the verse, 00:01:42.158 --> 00:01:43.893 "First they came for the communists, 00:01:43.893 --> 00:01:45.574 and I did nothing, 00:01:45.574 --> 00:01:47.774 did not speak out because I was not a communist. 00:01:47.774 --> 00:01:49.398 Then they came for the socialists. 00:01:49.398 --> 00:01:50.990 Then they came for the trade unions. 00:01:50.990 --> 00:01:52.526 Then they came for the Jews. 00:01:52.526 --> 00:01:54.838 And then they came for me. 00:01:54.838 --> 00:01:59.689 But there was no one left to speak for me." 00:01:59.689 --> 00:02:02.918 Now, Niemöller is offering a certain kind of insight. 00:02:02.918 --> 00:02:06.078 This is an insight at the core of intelligence. 00:02:06.078 --> 00:02:07.854 We could call it cluefulness. 00:02:07.854 --> 00:02:11.225 It's a certain kind of test: 00:02:11.225 --> 00:02:13.437 can you recognize 00:02:13.437 --> 00:02:15.941 an underlying threat and respond? 00:02:15.941 --> 00:02:19.381 Can you save yourself or save your kind? 00:02:19.381 --> 00:02:21.045 Turns out ants are pretty good at this. 00:02:21.045 --> 00:02:23.373 Cows, not so much. 00:02:23.373 --> 00:02:25.453 So can you see the pattern? 00:02:25.453 --> 00:02:27.085 Can you see a pattern and then recognize 00:02:27.085 --> 00:02:31.682 and do something about it? Number two. 00:02:31.682 --> 00:02:34.109 Number three, a boy. 00:02:34.109 --> 00:02:36.033 This is my friend Aaron Swartz. 00:02:36.033 --> 00:02:37.731 He's Tim's friend. 00:02:37.731 --> 00:02:39.373 He's friends of many of you in this audience, 00:02:39.373 --> 00:02:41.128 and seven years ago, 00:02:41.128 --> 00:02:44.184 Aaron came to me with a question. 00:02:44.184 --> 00:02:46.497 It was just before I was going to give my first TEDTalk. 00:02:46.497 --> 00:02:49.016 I was so proud. I was telling him about my talk, 00:02:49.016 --> 00:02:51.577 laws that choke creativity. 00:02:51.577 --> 00:02:53.576 And Aaron looked at me 00:02:53.576 --> 00:02:55.297 and was a little impatient, and he said, 00:02:55.297 --> 00:02:59.081 "So how are you ever 00:02:59.081 --> 00:03:01.033 going to solve the problems you're talking about? 00:03:01.033 --> 00:03:02.792 Copyright policy, internet policy, 00:03:02.792 --> 00:03:05.802 how are you ever going to address those problems 00:03:05.802 --> 00:03:09.455 so long as there's this fundamental corruption 00:03:09.455 --> 00:03:12.047 in the way our government works?" NOTE Paragraph 00:03:12.047 --> 00:03:14.895 So I was a little put off by this. 00:03:14.895 --> 00:03:16.820 He wasn't sharing in my celebration. 00:03:16.820 --> 00:03:18.347 And I said to him, "You know, Aaron, 00:03:18.347 --> 00:03:21.271 it's not my field, not my field." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:21.271 --> 00:03:23.637 He said, "You mean as an academic, it's not your field?" NOTE Paragraph 00:03:23.637 --> 00:03:26.271 I said, "Yeah, as an academic, it's not my field." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.271 --> 00:03:29.602 He said, "What about as a citizen? 00:03:29.602 --> 00:03:32.999 As a citizen." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:32.999 --> 00:03:34.695 Now, this is the way Aaron was. 00:03:34.695 --> 00:03:39.476 He didn't tell. He asked questions. 00:03:39.476 --> 00:03:41.436 But his questions spoke as clearly 00:03:41.436 --> 00:03:44.604 as my four-year old's hug. 00:03:44.604 --> 00:03:46.020 He was saying to me, 00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:47.652 "You've got to get a clue. 00:03:47.652 --> 00:03:49.348 You have got to get a clue, because there is 00:03:49.348 --> 00:03:52.036 a flaw at the core of the operating system 00:03:52.036 --> 00:03:53.767 of this democracy, 00:03:53.767 --> 00:03:57.995 and it's not a flaw every one out of 360 billion times 00:03:57.995 --> 00:03:59.817 our democracy tries to make a decision. 00:03:59.817 --> 00:04:01.578 It is every time, 00:04:01.578 --> 00:04:04.114 every single important issue. 00:04:04.114 --> 00:04:08.347 We've got to end the bovinity of this political society. 00:04:08.347 --> 00:04:10.048 We've got to adopt, it turns out, 00:04:10.048 --> 00:04:13.152 the word is formafomadic attitude, 00:04:13.152 --> 00:04:14.912 that's what the internet tells me the world is, 00:04:14.912 --> 00:04:16.744 the ant's appreciative attitude 00:04:16.744 --> 00:04:19.432 that gets us to recognize this flaw, 00:04:19.432 --> 00:04:25.365 save our kind and save our demos. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:25.365 --> 00:04:26.933 Now if you know Aaron Swartz, 00:04:26.933 --> 00:04:30.341 you know that we lost him 00:04:30.341 --> 00:04:33.213 just over a year ago. 00:04:33.213 --> 00:04:34.589 It was about six weeks 00:04:34.589 --> 00:04:36.149 before I gave my TEDTalk, 00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:37.814 and I was so grateful to Chris 00:04:37.814 --> 00:04:39.365 that he asked me to give this TEDTalk, 00:04:39.365 --> 00:04:41.725 not because I had the chance to talk to you, 00:04:41.725 --> 00:04:43.789 although that was great, 00:04:43.789 --> 00:04:47.972 but because it pulled me out of an extraordinary depression. 00:04:47.972 --> 00:04:51.781 I couldn't begin to describe the sadness. 00:04:51.781 --> 00:04:53.231 Because I had to focus. 00:04:53.231 --> 00:04:57.306 I had to focus on what I was going to save to you. 00:04:57.306 --> 00:04:59.658 It saved me. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:59.658 --> 00:05:01.577 But after the buzz, the excitement, 00:05:01.577 --> 00:05:05.842 the power that comes from this community, 00:05:05.842 --> 00:05:08.443 I began to yearn for a less sterile, 00:05:08.443 --> 00:05:11.005 less academic way to address these issues, 00:05:11.005 --> 00:05:14.749 the issues that I was talking about. 00:05:14.749 --> 00:05:16.725 We'd begun to focus on New Hampshire 00:05:16.725 --> 00:05:19.573 as a target for this political movement, 00:05:19.573 --> 00:05:22.053 because the primary in New Hampshire 00:05:22.053 --> 00:05:23.910 is so incredibly important. 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:26.421 It was a group called the "New Hampshire Rebellion" 00:05:26.421 --> 00:05:28.629 that was beginning to talk about how would we make 00:05:28.629 --> 00:05:32.109 this issue of this corruption central in 2016. 00:05:32.109 --> 00:05:35.055 But it was another soul that caught my imagination, 00:05:35.055 --> 00:05:40.927 a woman named Doris Haddock, aka. Granny D. 00:05:40.927 --> 00:05:44.269 On January 1, 1999, 15 years ago, 00:05:44.269 --> 00:05:48.948 at the age of 88, Granny D started a walk. 00:05:48.948 --> 00:05:52.278 She started in Los Angeles 00:05:52.278 --> 00:05:55.054 and began to walk to Washington D.C. 00:05:55.054 --> 00:05:57.838 with a single sign on her chest that said 00:05:57.838 --> 00:06:00.502 campaign finance reform. 00:06:00.502 --> 00:06:03.036 Eighteen months later, 00:06:03.036 --> 00:06:05.015 at the age of 90, 00:06:05.015 --> 00:06:07.566 she arrived in Washington with hundreds following her, 00:06:07.566 --> 00:06:09.814 including many Congressmen who had gotten in a car 00:06:09.814 --> 00:06:12.182 and driven out about a mile outside of the city 00:06:12.182 --> 00:06:14.046 to walk in with her. 00:06:14.046 --> 00:06:16.942 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:06:16.942 --> 00:06:19.982 Now, I don't have 13 months 00:06:19.982 --> 00:06:21.654 to walk across the country. 00:06:21.654 --> 00:06:23.966 I have three kids who hate to walk, 00:06:23.966 --> 00:06:25.718 and a wife who, it turns out, 00:06:25.718 --> 00:06:27.766 still hates when I'm not there 00:06:27.766 --> 00:06:29.255 for mysterious reasons, 00:06:29.255 --> 00:06:30.510 so this was not an option, 00:06:30.510 --> 00:06:31.750 but the question I asked, 00:06:31.750 --> 00:06:33.798 could we remix Granny D a bit? 00:06:33.798 --> 00:06:35.950 What about a walk not of 3,200 miles 00:06:35.950 --> 00:06:39.870 but of 185 miles across New Hampshire 00:06:39.870 --> 00:06:43.334 in January? NOTE Paragraph 00:06:43.334 --> 00:06:45.830 So on January 11, 00:06:45.830 --> 00:06:48.566 the anniversary of Aaron's death, 00:06:48.566 --> 00:06:52.359 we began a walk that ended on January 24th, 00:06:52.359 --> 00:06:56.655 the day that Granny D was born. 00:06:56.655 --> 00:07:01.255 A total of 200 people joined us across this walk, 00:07:01.255 --> 00:07:05.129 as we went from the very top to the very bottom of New Hampshire 00:07:05.129 --> 00:07:07.465 talking about this issue. 00:07:07.465 --> 00:07:09.185 And what was astonishing to me 00:07:09.185 --> 00:07:11.706 is something I completely did not expect to find 00:07:11.706 --> 00:07:14.361 was the passion and anger 00:07:14.361 --> 00:07:19.676 that there was among everyone that we talked to about this issue. 00:07:19.676 --> 00:07:24.782 We had found in a poll that 96 percent of Americans 00:07:24.782 --> 00:07:26.601 believe it important to reduce the influence 00:07:26.601 --> 00:07:28.947 of money in politics. 00:07:28.947 --> 00:07:30.893 Now politicians and pundits tell you, 00:07:30.893 --> 00:07:32.603 there's nothing we can do about this issue, 00:07:32.603 --> 00:07:34.299 Americans don't care about it, 00:07:34.299 --> 00:07:36.435 but the reason for that is 00:07:36.435 --> 00:07:38.179 that 91 percent of Americans 00:07:38.179 --> 00:07:42.731 think there's nothing that can be done about this issue. 00:07:42.731 --> 00:07:45.403 And it's this gap between 96 and 91 00:07:45.403 --> 00:07:48.067 that explains our politics of resignation. 00:07:48.067 --> 00:07:50.123 I mean, after all, at least 96 percent of us 00:07:50.123 --> 00:07:51.995 wish we could fly like Superman, 00:07:51.995 --> 00:07:54.939 but because at least 91 percent of us believe we can't, 00:07:54.939 --> 00:07:57.835 we don't leap off of tall buildings every time 00:07:57.835 --> 00:07:59.355 we have that urge. 00:07:59.355 --> 00:08:01.351 That's because we accept our limits, 00:08:01.351 --> 00:08:04.011 and so too with this reform. 00:08:04.011 --> 00:08:07.933 But when you give people the sense of hope, 00:08:07.933 --> 00:08:15.027 you begin to thaw that absolute sense of impossibility. 00:08:15.027 --> 00:08:18.565 As Harvey Milk said, if you give 'em hope, 00:08:18.565 --> 00:08:21.069 you give 'em a chance, a way to think 00:08:21.069 --> 00:08:23.349 about how this change is possible. 00:08:23.349 --> 00:08:26.066 Hope. 00:08:26.066 --> 00:08:29.530 And hope is the one thing that we, Aaron's friends, 00:08:29.530 --> 00:08:32.527 failed him with, because we let him 00:08:32.527 --> 00:08:38.127 lose that sense of hope. 00:08:38.127 --> 00:08:42.079 I loved that boy like I love my son. 00:08:46.233 --> 00:08:50.202 But we failed him. 00:08:50.202 --> 00:08:54.058 And I love my country, my country, 00:08:54.058 --> 00:08:56.394 and I'm not going to fail that. 00:08:56.394 --> 00:08:57.706 I'm not going to fail that. 00:08:57.706 --> 00:09:01.279 That sense of hope, we're going to hold, 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:02.765 and we're going to fight for, 00:09:02.765 --> 00:09:07.175 however impossible this battle looks. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:07.175 --> 00:09:08.949 What's next? 00:09:08.949 --> 00:09:12.012 Well, we started with this march with 200 people, 00:09:12.012 --> 00:09:15.212 and next year, there will be a thousand 00:09:15.212 --> 00:09:16.981 on different routes 00:09:16.981 --> 00:09:19.181 that march in the month of January 00:09:19.181 --> 00:09:23.229 and meet in Concord to celebrate this cause, 00:09:23.229 --> 00:09:25.469 and then in 2016, before the primary, 00:09:25.469 --> 00:09:28.510 there will be 10,000 who march across that stage, 00:09:28.510 --> 00:09:31.684 meeting in Concord to celebrate this cause. 00:09:31.684 --> 00:09:34.415 And as we have marched, people around the country 00:09:34.415 --> 00:09:36.533 have begun to say, "Can we do the same thing 00:09:36.533 --> 00:09:38.093 in our state?" 00:09:38.093 --> 00:09:39.869 So we've started a platform called GD Walkers, 00:09:39.869 --> 00:09:41.790 that is Granny D walkers, 00:09:41.790 --> 00:09:43.837 and Granny D walkers across the country 00:09:43.837 --> 00:09:46.629 will be marching for this reform. Number one. 00:09:46.629 --> 00:09:49.349 Number two, on this march, 00:09:49.349 --> 00:09:52.341 one of the founders of Thunderclap, David Casino, 00:09:52.341 --> 00:09:54.037 who is with us, 00:09:54.037 --> 00:09:55.918 and he said, "Well what can we do?" 00:09:55.918 --> 00:09:58.157 And so they developed a platform 00:09:58.157 --> 00:10:00.189 which we are announcing today 00:10:00.189 --> 00:10:02.205 that allows us to pull together voters 00:10:02.205 --> 00:10:04.973 who are committed to this idea of reform. 00:10:04.973 --> 00:10:06.629 Regardless of where you are, 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:08.541 in New Hampshire or outside of New Hampshire, 00:10:08.541 --> 00:10:10.781 you can sign up and directly be informed 00:10:10.781 --> 00:10:13.829 where the candidates you are are on this issue 00:10:13.829 --> 00:10:15.389 so you can decide who to vote for 00:10:15.389 --> 00:10:18.157 as a function of which is going 00:10:18.157 --> 00:10:22.835 to make this possibility real. 00:10:22.835 --> 00:10:26.587 And then finally number three, the hardest. 00:10:26.587 --> 00:10:28.660 We're in the age of the SuperPAC. 00:10:28.660 --> 00:10:30.859 Indeed yesterday, Merriam announced 00:10:30.859 --> 00:10:34.859 that Merriam-Webster will have SuperPAC as a word. 00:10:34.859 --> 00:10:38.899 It is now an official word in the dictionary. 00:10:38.899 --> 00:10:44.194 So on May 1st, May One, aka. May Day, 00:10:44.194 --> 00:10:46.951 we're going to try an experiment. 00:10:46.951 --> 00:10:48.728 We're going to try a launching 00:10:48.728 --> 00:10:50.856 of what we can think of as a Super PAC 00:10:50.856 --> 00:10:54.048 to end all Super PACs. 00:10:54.048 --> 00:10:56.003 And the basic way this works is this. 00:10:56.003 --> 00:10:57.912 For the last year, we have been working 00:10:57.912 --> 00:11:01.352 with analysts and political experts 00:11:01.352 --> 00:11:04.344 to calculate how much would it cost 00:11:04.344 --> 00:11:07.176 to win enough votes in the United States Congress 00:11:07.176 --> 00:11:09.136 to make fundamental reform possible. 00:11:09.136 --> 00:11:11.728 What is that number? Half a billion? A billion? 00:11:11.728 --> 00:11:13.888 What is that number? 00:11:13.888 --> 00:11:16.773 And then whatever that number is, 00:11:16.773 --> 00:11:18.568 we are going to kickstart, sort of, 00:11:18.568 --> 00:11:20.569 because you can't use KickStarter for political work, 00:11:20.569 --> 00:11:23.360 but anyway, kickstart sort of 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.776 first a bottom-up campaign 00:11:25.776 --> 00:11:28.656 where people will make small dollar commitments 00:11:28.656 --> 00:11:31.648 contingent on reaching very ambitious goals, 00:11:31.648 --> 00:11:33.488 and when those goals have been reached, 00:11:33.488 --> 00:11:37.577 we will turn to the large dollar contributors, 00:11:37.577 --> 00:11:40.959 to get them to contribute to make it possible 00:11:40.959 --> 00:11:44.712 for us to run the kind of Super PAC necessary 00:11:44.712 --> 00:11:46.344 to win this issue, 00:11:46.344 --> 00:11:48.648 to change the way money influences politics, 00:11:48.648 --> 00:11:52.209 so that on November 8th, 00:11:52.209 --> 00:11:54.817 which I discovered yesterday is the day 00:11:54.817 --> 00:11:58.908 that Aaron would have been 30 years old, 00:11:58.908 --> 00:12:01.045 on November 8th, 00:12:01.045 --> 00:12:04.949 we will celebrate 218 representatives 00:12:04.949 --> 00:12:06.956 in the House and 60 Senators 00:12:06.956 --> 00:12:09.477 in the United States Senate 00:12:09.477 --> 00:12:11.440 who have committed to this idea 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:13.176 of fundamental reform. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:13.176 --> 00:12:16.808 So last night, we heard about wishes. 00:12:16.808 --> 00:12:19.336 Here's my wish. 00:12:19.336 --> 00:12:22.520 May One. 00:12:22.520 --> 00:12:25.893 May the ideals of one boy 00:12:25.893 --> 00:12:30.214 unite one nation behind one critical idea 00:12:30.214 --> 00:12:32.585 that we are one people, 00:12:32.585 --> 00:12:36.222 we are the people who were promised a government, 00:12:36.222 --> 00:12:38.151 a government that was promised to be 00:12:38.151 --> 00:12:41.722 dependent upon the people alone, the people, 00:12:41.722 --> 00:12:45.891 who, as Madison told us, 00:12:45.891 --> 00:12:49.538 meant not the rich more than the poor. 00:12:49.538 --> 00:12:51.604 May One. 00:12:51.604 --> 00:12:55.523 And then may you, may you join this movement, 00:12:55.523 --> 00:12:57.861 not because you're a politician, 00:12:57.861 --> 00:12:59.547 not because you're an expert, 00:12:59.547 --> 00:13:02.499 not because this is your field, 00:13:02.499 --> 00:13:04.379 but because if you are, 00:13:04.379 --> 00:13:08.011 you are a citizen. 00:13:08.011 --> 00:13:11.147 Aaron asked me that. 00:13:11.147 --> 00:13:14.132 Now I've asked you. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:14.132 --> 00:13:16.920 Thank you very much. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:16.920 --> 00:13:23.385 (Applause)