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I visit the future for a living.
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Not just one future,
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but many possible futures,
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bringing back evidences from those futures
for you to experience today.
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Like an archaeologist of the future.
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Over the years, my many journeys
have brought back things
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like a new species
of synthetically engineered bees;
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a book named, "Pets as Protein;"
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a machine that makes you rich
by trading your genetic data;
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a lamp powered by sugar;
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a computer for growing food.
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OK, so I don't actually travel
to different futures -- yet.
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But my husband Jon and I spend
a lot of time thinking
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and creating visions
of different futures in our studio.
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We are constantly looking out
for weak signals,
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those murmurs of future potential.
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Then we trace those threads of potential
out into the future, asking:
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What might it feel like
to live in this future?
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What might we see, hear and even breathe?
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Then we run experiments,
build prototypes, make objects,
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bringing aspects of these futures to life,
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making them concrete and tangible
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so you can really feel the impact
of those future possibilities
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here and now.
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But this work is not about predictions.
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It's about creating tools --
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tools that can help connect
our present and our future selves
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so we become active participants
in creating a future we want --
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a future that works for all.
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So how do we go about doing this?
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For a recent project called Drone Aviary,
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we were interested in exploring
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what it would mean to live
with drones in our cities.
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Drones that have the power
to see things we can't,
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to go places we can't
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and to do so with increasing autonomy.
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But to understand the technology,
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getting our hands dirty was crucial.
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So we built several different
drones in our studio.
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We gave them names, functions
and then flew them --
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but not without difficulty.
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Things came loose,
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GPS signals glitched
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and drones crashed.
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But it was through such experimentation
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that we could construct a very
concrete and very experiential slice
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of one possible future.
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So now, let's go to that future.
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Let's imagine we are living in a city
with drones like this one.
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We call it The Nightwatchman.
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It patrols the streets, often spotted
in the evenings and at night.
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Initially, many of us were annoyed
by its low, dull hum.
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But then, like everything else,
we got used to it.
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Now, what if you could see
the world through its eyes?
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See how it constantly logs
every resident of our neighborhood;
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logging the kids who play football
in the no-ballgame area
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and marking them as statutory nuisances.
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(Laughter)
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And then see how it disperses
this other group, who are teenagers,
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with the threat of an autonomously
issued injunction.
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And then there's this giant
floating disc called Madison.
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Its glaring presence is so overpowering,
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I can't help but stare at it.
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But if feels like each time I look at it,
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it knows a little more about me --
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like it keeps flashing all these
Brianair adverts at me,
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as if it knows about
the holiday I'm planning.
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I'm not sure if I find this
mildly entertaining
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or just entirely invasive.
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Back to the present.
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In creating this future, we learned a lot.
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Not just about how these machines work,
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but what it would feel like
to live alongside them.
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Whilst drones like Madison
and Nightwatchman,
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in these particular forms,
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are not real yet,
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most elements of a drone future
are in fact very real today.
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For instance,
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facial recognition systems
are everywhere --
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in our phones, even in our thermostats
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and in cameras around our cities --
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keeping a record of everything we do,
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whether it's an advertisement
we glanced at or a protest we attended.
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These things are here,
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and we often don't understand
how they work,
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and what their consequences could be.
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And we see this all around us.
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This difficulty in even imagining
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how the consequences of our actions
today will affect our future.
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Last year, where I live, in the UK,
there was a referendum
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where the people could vote
for the UK to leave the EU
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or stay in the EU,
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popularly known as "Brexit."
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And soon after the results came out,
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a word began to surface
called "Bregret" --
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(Laughter)
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describing people who chose to vote
for Brexit as a protest,
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but without thinking through
its potential consequences.
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And this disconnect is evident
in some of the simplest things.
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Say you go out for a quick drink.
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Then you decide
you wouldn't mind a few more.
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You know you'll wake up
in the morning feeling awful,
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but you justify it by saying,
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"The other me in the future
will deal with that."
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But as we find out in the morning,
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that future "you" is you.
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When I was growing up in India
in the late '70s and early '80s,
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there was a feeling
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that the future both needed to
and could actually be planned.
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I remember my parents had to plan
for some of the simplest things.
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When they wanted a telephone in our house,
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they needed to order it and then wait --
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wait for nearly five years before
it got installed in our house.
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(Laughter)
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And then if they wanted to call
my grandparents who lived in another city,
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they needed to book
something called a "trunk call,"
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and then wait again,
for hours or even days.
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And then abruptly, the phone
would ring at two in the morning,
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and all of us would jump out of our beds
and gather round the phone,
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shrieking into it,
discussing general well-being
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at two in the morning.
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Today it can feel like things
are happening too fast --
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so fast, that it can
become really difficult
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for us to form an understanding
of our place in history.
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It creates an overwhelming sense
of uncertainty and anxiety,
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and so, we let the future
just happen to us.
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We don't connect with that future "us."
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We treat our future selves as a stranger,
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and the future as a foreign land.
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It's not a foreign land;
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it's unfolding right in front of us,
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continually being shaped
by our actions today.
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We are that future,
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and so I believe fighting
for a future we want
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is more urgent and necessary
than ever before.
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We have learned in our work
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that one of the most powerful means
of effecting change
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is when people can directly, tangibly
and emotionally experience
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some of the future consequences
of their actions today.
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Earlier this year, the government
of the United Arab Emirates invited us
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to help them shape
their country's energy strategy
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all the way up to 2050.
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Based on the government's econometric
data, we created this large city model,
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and visualized many
possible futures on it.
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As I was excitably taking a group
of government officials
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and members of energy companies
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through one sustainable
future on our model,
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one of the participants told me,
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"I cannot imagine that in the future
people will stop driving cars
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and start using public transport."
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And then he said,
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"There's no way I can tell my own son
to stop driving his car."
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But we were prepared for this reaction.
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Working with scientists in a chemistry lab
in my home city in India,
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we had created approximate samples
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of what the air would be like in 2030
if our behavior stays the same.
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And so, I walked the group
over to this object
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that emits vapor from those air samples.
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Just one whiff of the noxious
polluted air from 2030
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brought home the point
that no amount of data can.
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This is not the future you would want
your children to inherit.
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The next day, the government
made a big announcement.
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They would be investing billions
of dollars in renewables.
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We don't know what part our future
experiences played in this decision,
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but we know that they've changed
their energy policy
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to mitigate such a scenario.
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While something like air from the future
is very effective and tangible,
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the trajectory from our present
to a future consequence
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is not always so linear.
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Even when a technology
is developed with utopian ideals,
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the moment it leaves the laboratory
and enters the world,
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it is subject to forces outside
of the creators' control.
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For one particular project,
we investigated medical genomics:
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the technology of gathering
and using people's genetic data
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to create personalized medicine.
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We were asking:
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What are some of the unintended
consequences of linking our genetics
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to health care?
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To explore this question further,
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we created a fictional lawsuit,
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and brought it to life through 31 pieces
of carefully crafted evidence.
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So we built an illegal genetic clinic,
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a DIY carbon dioxide incubator,
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and even bought frozen mice on eBay.
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So now let's go to that future
where this lawsuit is unfolding,
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and meet the defendant, Arnold Mann.
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Arnold is being prosecuted
by this global giant biotech company
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called Dynamic Genetics,
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because they have evidence
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that Arnold has illegally inserted
the company's patented genetic material
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into his body.
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How on earth did Arnold manage to do that?
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Well, it all started
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when Arnold was asked to submit
a saliva sample in this spit kit
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to the NHI --
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the UK's National Health
Insurance service.
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When Arnold received
his health insurance bill,
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he was shocked and scared
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to see that his premiums
had gone through the roof,
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beyond anything he or his family
could ever afford.
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The state's algorithm had scanned
his genetic data
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and found the risk of a chronic health
condition lurking in his DNA.
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And so Arnold had to start paying
toward the potential costs
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of that future disease --
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potential future disease from today.
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In that moment of fear and panic,
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Arnold slipped through the city
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into the dark shadows
of this illegal clinic for treatment --
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a treatment that would modify his DNA
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so that the state's algorithm
would no longer see him as a risk,
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and his insurance premiums
would become affordable again.
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But Arnold was caught.
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And the legal proceedings in the case
Dynamic Genetics v. Mann began.
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In bringing such a future to life,
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what was important to us
was that people could actually touch,
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see and feel its potential,
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because such an immediate and close
encounter provokes people
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to ask the right questions,
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questions like:
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What are the implications
of living in a world
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where I'm judged on my genetics?
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Or: Who might claim ownership
to my genetic data,
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and what might they do with it?
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If this feels even slightly
out-there or farfetched,
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today there's a little-known bill
being passed through the American congress
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known as HR 1313, Preserving
Employee Wellness Programs Act.
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This bill proposes to amend the Genetic
Information Nondiscrimination Act,
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popularly known as GINA,
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and would allow employers to ask
about family medical history
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and genetic data
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to all employees for the first time.
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Those who refuse
would face large penalties.
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In the work I've shown so far,
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whether it was drones or genetic crimes,
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these stories describe troubling futures
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with the intention of helping us
avoid those futures.
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But what about what we can't avoid?
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Today, especially with climate change,
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it looks like we are heading for trouble.
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And so what we want to do now
is to prepare for that future
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by developing tools and attitudes
that can help us find hope --
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hope that can inspire action.
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Currently, we are running
an experiment in our studio.
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It's a work in progress.
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Based on climate data projections,
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we are exploring a future
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where the Western world has moved
from abundance to scarcity.
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We imagine living in a future city
with repeated flooding,
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periods with almost
no food in supermarkets,
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economic instabilities,
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broken supply chains.
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What can we do to not just survive,
but prosper in such a world?
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What food can we eat?
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To really step inside these questions,
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we are building this room in a flat
in London from 2050.
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It's like a little time capsule
that we reclaimed from the future.
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We stripped it down to the bare minimum.
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Everything we lovingly put in our homes,
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like flat-panel TVs,
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internet-connected fridges
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and artisanal furnishings
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all had to go.
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And in its place,
we're building food computers
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from abandoned, salvaged
and repurposed materials,
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turning today's waste
into tomorrow's dinner.
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For instance,
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we've just finished building our first
fully automated fogponics machine.
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It uses the technique of fogponics --
so just fog as a nutrient,
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not even water or soil --
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to grow things quickly.
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At the moment,
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we have successfully grown tomatoes.
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But we'll need more food than what
we can grow in this small room.
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So what else could we forage
from the city?
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Insects? Pigeons? Foxes?
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Earlier, we brought back
air from the future.
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This time we are bringing
an entire room from the future,
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a room full of hope, tools and tactics
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to create positive action
in hostile conditions.
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Spending time in this room,
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a room that could be our own future home,
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makes the consequences
of climate change and food insecurity
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much more immediate and tangible.
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What we're learning through such
experiments and our practice
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and the people we engage with
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is that creating concrete experiences
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can bridge the disconnect
between today and tomorrow.
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By putting ourselves
into different possible futures,
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by becoming open and willing
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to embrace the uncertainty and discomfort
that such an act can bring,
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we have the opportunity
to imagine new possibilities.
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We can find optimistic futures;
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we can find paths forward;
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we can move beyond hope into action.
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It means we have the chance
to change direction,
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a chance to have our voices heard,
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a chance to write ourselves
into a future we want.
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Other worlds are possible.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)