The playful wonderland behind great inventions
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0:01 - 0:05(Music)
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0:05 - 0:07Roughly 43,000 years ago,
-
0:07 - 0:10a young cave bear
died in the rolling hills -
0:10 - 0:14on the northwest border
of modern day Slovenia. -
0:14 - 0:18A thousand years later,
a mammoth died in southern Germany. -
0:18 - 0:21A few centuries after that,
a griffon vulture also died -
0:21 - 0:22in the same vicinity.
-
0:23 - 0:27And we know almost nothing
about how these animals met their deaths, -
0:27 - 0:31but these different creatures
dispersed across both time and space -
0:32 - 0:35did share one remarkable fate.
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0:35 - 0:38After their deaths,
a bone from each of their skeletons -
0:38 - 0:41was crafted by human hands
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0:41 - 0:42into a flute.
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0:43 - 0:44Think about that for a second.
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0:44 - 0:47Imagine you're a caveman,
40,000 years ago. -
0:47 - 0:49You've mastered fire.
-
0:49 - 0:51You've built simple tools for hunting.
-
0:51 - 0:53You've learned how to craft
garments from animal skins -
0:53 - 0:56to keep yourself warm in the winter.
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0:56 - 0:58What would you choose to invent next?
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0:58 - 1:01It seems preposterous
that you would invent the flute, -
1:01 - 1:05a tool that created
useless vibrations in air molecules. -
1:05 - 1:08But that is exactly
what our ancestors did. -
1:09 - 1:13Now this turns out
to be surprisingly common -
1:13 - 1:14in the history of innovation.
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1:14 - 1:16Sometimes people invent things
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1:16 - 1:19because they want to stay alive
or feed their children -
1:19 - 1:21or conquer the village next door.
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1:21 - 1:23But just as often,
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1:23 - 1:25new ideas come into the world
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1:25 - 1:27simply because they're fun.
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1:28 - 1:30And here's the really strange thing:
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1:30 - 1:33many of those playful
but seemingly frivolous inventions -
1:33 - 1:36ended up sparking
momentous transformations -
1:36 - 1:39in science, in politics and society.
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1:39 - 1:43Take what may be the most
important invention of modern times: -
1:43 - 1:45programmable computers.
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1:45 - 1:49Now, the standard story is that computers
descend from military technology, -
1:49 - 1:52since many of the early computers
were designed specifically -
1:52 - 1:56to crack wartime codes
or calculate rocket trajectories. -
1:56 - 1:59But in fact, the origins
of the modern computer -
1:59 - 2:01are much more playful,
-
2:01 - 2:02even musical,
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2:02 - 2:03than you might imagine.
-
2:04 - 2:05The idea behind the flute,
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2:05 - 2:08of just pushing air through tubes
to make a sound, -
2:08 - 2:11was eventually modified
to create the first organ -
2:11 - 2:13more than 2,000 years ago.
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2:13 - 2:16Someone came up with the brilliant idea
of triggering sounds -
2:16 - 2:19by pressing small levers with our fingers,
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2:19 - 2:21inventing the first musical keyboard.
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2:21 - 2:25Now, keyboards evolved
from organs to clavichords to harpsichords -
2:25 - 2:27to the piano,
-
2:27 - 2:29until the middle of the 19th century,
-
2:29 - 2:32when a bunch of inventors
finally hit on the idea -
2:32 - 2:36of using a keyboard
to trigger not sounds but letters. -
2:36 - 2:38In fact, the very first typewriter
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2:38 - 2:42was originally called
"the writing harpsichord." -
2:43 - 2:47Flutes and music led
to even more powerful breakthroughs. -
2:47 - 2:49About a thousand years ago,
-
2:49 - 2:51at the height of the Islamic Renaissance,
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2:51 - 2:54three brothers in Baghdad
designed a device -
2:54 - 2:56that was an automated organ.
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2:56 - 2:59They called it "the instrument
that plays itself." -
3:00 - 3:03Now, the instrument
was basically a giant music box. -
3:03 - 3:07The organ could be trained to play
various songs by using instructions -
3:07 - 3:11encoded by placing pins
on a rotating cylinder. -
3:11 - 3:14And if you wanted the machine
to play a different song, -
3:14 - 3:17you just swapped a new cylinder in
with a different code on it. -
3:18 - 3:21This instrument was the first of its kind.
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3:21 - 3:23It was programmable.
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3:23 - 3:26Now, conceptually,
this was a massive leap forward. -
3:26 - 3:29The whole idea of hardware and software
-
3:30 - 3:33becomes thinkable for the first time
with this invention. -
3:33 - 3:35And that incredibly powerful concept
-
3:35 - 3:38didn't come to us as an instrument
of war or of conquest, -
3:38 - 3:40or necessity at all.
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3:40 - 3:45It came from the strange delight
of watching a machine play music. -
3:45 - 3:49In fact, the idea of programmable machines
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3:49 - 3:53was exclusively kept alive by music
for about 700 years. -
3:53 - 3:56In the 1700s, music-making machines
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3:56 - 3:59became the playthings
of the Parisian elite. -
3:59 - 4:03Showmen used the same coded cylinders
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4:03 - 4:06to control the physical movements
of what were called automata, -
4:07 - 4:09an early kind of robot.
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4:09 - 4:10One of the most famous of those robots
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4:11 - 4:14was, you guessed it,
an automated flute player -
4:14 - 4:16designed by a brilliant French inventor
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4:16 - 4:17named Jacques de Vaucanson.
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4:18 - 4:22And as de Vaucanson
was designing his robot musician, -
4:22 - 4:24he had another idea.
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4:24 - 4:28If you could program a machine
to make pleasing sounds, -
4:28 - 4:32why not program it to weave
delightful patterns of color out of cloth? -
4:33 - 4:37Instead of using the pins of the cylinder
to represent musical notes, -
4:37 - 4:40they would represent
threads with different colors. -
4:40 - 4:43If you wanted a new pattern
for your fabric, -
4:43 - 4:45you just programmed a new cylinder.
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4:45 - 4:48This was the first programmable loom.
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4:49 - 4:53Now, the cylinders were too expensive
and time-consuming to make, -
4:53 - 4:54but a half century later,
-
4:54 - 4:57another French inventor named Jacquard
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4:57 - 5:02hit upon the brilliant idea
of using paper-punched cards -
5:02 - 5:03instead of metal cylinders.
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5:03 - 5:07Paper turned out to be
much cheaper and more flexible -
5:07 - 5:09as a way of programming the device.
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5:09 - 5:13That punch card system inspired
Victorian inventor Charles Babbage -
5:13 - 5:16to create his analytical engine,
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5:16 - 5:18the first true programmable computer
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5:18 - 5:20ever designed.
-
5:20 - 5:22And punch cards were used
by computer programmers -
5:22 - 5:25as late as the 1970s.
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5:25 - 5:28So ask yourself this question:
-
5:28 - 5:31what really made
the modern computer possible? -
5:31 - 5:35Yes, the military involvement
is an important part of the story, -
5:35 - 5:39but inventing a computer
also required other building blocks: -
5:39 - 5:40music boxes,
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5:40 - 5:42toy robot flute players,
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5:42 - 5:44harpsichord keyboards,
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5:44 - 5:46colorful patterns woven into fabric,
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5:47 - 5:49and that's just a small part of the story.
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5:49 - 5:52There's a long list of world-changing
ideas and technologies -
5:52 - 5:54that came out of play:
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5:54 - 5:56public museums, rubber,
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5:56 - 5:58probability theory, the insurance business
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5:58 - 6:00and many more.
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6:00 - 6:02Necessity isn't always
the mother of invention. -
6:03 - 6:07The playful state of mind
is fundamentally exploratory, -
6:07 - 6:10seeking out new possibilities
in the world around us. -
6:11 - 6:14And that seeking
is why so many experiences -
6:14 - 6:17that started with simple
delight and amusement -
6:17 - 6:20eventually led us
to profound breakthroughs. -
6:21 - 6:25Now, I think this has implications
for how we teach kids in school -
6:25 - 6:28and how we encourage innovation
in our workspaces, -
6:29 - 6:32but thinking about play
and delight this way -
6:32 - 6:35also helps us detect what's coming next.
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6:35 - 6:38Think about it: if you were
sitting there in 1750 -
6:38 - 6:41trying to figure out
the big changes coming to society -
6:41 - 6:43in the 19th, the 20th centuries,
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6:43 - 6:45automated machines, computers,
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6:45 - 6:47artificial intelligence,
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6:47 - 6:49a programmable flute
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6:49 - 6:51entertaining the Parisian elite
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6:51 - 6:55would have been as powerful a clue
as anything else at the time. -
6:56 - 6:58It seemed like an amusement at best,
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6:58 - 7:01not useful in any serious way,
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7:01 - 7:05but it turned out to be
the beginning of a tech revolution -
7:05 - 7:07that would change the world.
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7:07 - 7:09You'll find the future
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7:09 - 7:11wherever people are having the most fun.
- Title:
- The playful wonderland behind great inventions
- Speaker:
- Steven Johnson
- Description:
-
Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, not always. Steven Johnson shows us how some of the most transformative ideas and technologies, like the computer, didn't emerge out of necessity at all but instead from the strange delight of play. Share this captivating, illustrated exploration of the history of invention. Turns out, you'll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 07:25
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for Steven Johnson at TED Studio |