Will tomorrow's children attend eugenist schools? | Laurent Alexandre | TEDxParis
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0:11 - 0:13Hello.
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0:16 - 0:19Schools in 2014 are as archaic
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0:21 - 0:23as medicine in 1750.
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0:23 - 0:27(Applause)
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0:31 - 0:35Schools have not evolved
for many centuries. -
0:37 - 0:39There are some minor differences.
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0:40 - 0:43In my time, the board was black;
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0:43 - 0:44today, it's white.
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0:44 - 0:46(Laughter)
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0:46 - 0:50This inaction is unsustainable today,
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0:52 - 0:54for three reasons.
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0:55 - 1:00First, a war of the brains has begun.
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1:02 - 1:05We wanted a knowledge economy?
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1:07 - 1:08We've got it!
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1:10 - 1:15And in a knowledge economy,
the neuron is the only fuel; -
1:15 - 1:18innovation, IQ.
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1:21 - 1:23In the world of algorithms,
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1:23 - 1:27unbelievable inequalities are created
between the most innovative, -
1:27 - 1:30gifted people,
and less talented people. -
1:31 - 1:37An absolutely caricature-like example
sums up this situation well. -
1:39 - 1:44WhatsApp; 55 employees,
around for four years, -
1:45 - 1:48and worth $19 billion.
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1:48 - 1:54Peugot; more than a 100 years old,
more than 100,000 employees, -
1:54 - 1:57is worth $12 billion!
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1:59 - 2:0255 little geniuses with stratospheric IQs
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2:03 - 2:07create more economic value in four years,
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2:09 - 2:13than more than 100,000 employees
in a company more than 100 years old. -
2:15 - 2:19The second reason why the status quo
is completely untenable -
2:21 - 2:25is that after a failed launch in the 60s,
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2:25 - 2:30robotics and artificial intelligence
are really reaching maturity now. -
2:33 - 2:36The neuron is 550 million years old.
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2:36 - 2:38The transistor, 60 years old.
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2:38 - 2:43The transistor, the microprocessor,
is 10 million times younger -
2:44 - 2:46than our neurons.
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2:47 - 2:50In 40 years, or something like that,
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2:50 - 2:55the transistor will have surpassed
the abilities of the biological brain. -
2:56 - 2:58This race is lost.
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3:01 - 3:02Between ENIAC,
-
3:03 - 3:07- at the end of the war
founded by the great Turing - -
3:08 - 3:11and its 350 operations per second,
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3:11 - 3:15and the TN2, which carries out
33 million billion operations per second, -
3:16 - 3:20and a million billion operations by 2019,
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3:20 - 3:22there is an extraordinary leap.
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3:22 - 3:26This explosion of digital power
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3:26 - 3:29today allows for the emergence
of a 2nd generation robotics, -
3:29 - 3:31of which Google is the world leader.
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3:31 - 3:36Google, which bought up eight
of the finest global robotics companies. -
3:37 - 3:42The Google Car
is just a special type of robot. -
3:43 - 3:48Silicon Valley is very optimistic
about artificial intelligence. -
3:48 - 3:51Ray Kurzweil, the head engineer at Google,
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3:51 - 3:54explains that in 2045,
-
3:54 - 3:59artificial intelligence will be
a billion times more powerful -
3:59 - 4:03than our eight billion
brains put together. -
4:03 - 4:05In 30 years.
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4:06 - 4:09This alarms a lot of people.
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4:09 - 4:12Bill Gates, who's not known
for joking around, -
4:12 - 4:16estimates that in 2035,
that is to say in 20 years, -
4:16 - 4:20as near as the death
of François Mitterrand, -
4:20 - 4:23half of our jobs will have been automated.
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4:23 - 4:27Stemming from the convergence
of artificial intelligence and robotics. -
4:28 - 4:29He even cites nurses,
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4:29 - 4:34whom he predicts will be replaced
by machines by then. -
4:36 - 4:39A huge fear is emerging.
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4:39 - 4:44Education is not adapted
to allow our kids to compete -
4:45 - 4:48against second generation machines.
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4:51 - 4:55The third reason why the status quo
is unthinkable in schools -
4:56 - 5:01is that the society of tomorrow
will no longer accept inequalities in IQ. -
5:03 - 5:06On average, in this room,
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5:06 - 5:08you have an IQ of 130.
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5:09 - 5:11The French average is 100.
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5:12 - 5:14Everyone thinks that's normal.
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5:14 - 5:17In reality, it's intolerable.
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5:19 - 5:24IQ gaps will be the last
of the major inequalities, -
5:24 - 5:27even more so than differences in money.
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5:28 - 5:33And intellectual differences
are the mother of all inequalities. -
5:33 - 5:36Between the most
and least talented people, -
5:36 - 5:39there is a 14 year difference
in life expectancy, -
5:39 - 5:42an income gap from one to 15,
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5:42 - 5:47huge differences in social classes,
degrees, and access to culture. -
5:49 - 5:54In 1750, we accepted that a poor child
died in the street, without care. -
5:54 - 5:56Today, that's unacceptable.
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5:56 - 6:00Today we accept enormous differences
in intellectual abilities. -
6:00 - 6:03The society of the future
will no longer accept that. -
6:05 - 6:08Ultimately, the NBIC revolution,
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6:09 - 6:13that is, nanotechnology,
biotechnology, information technology, -
6:13 - 6:17and cognitive science,
that is, artificial intelligence, -
6:17 - 6:19neuroscience, and robotics,
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6:21 - 6:23are in the process of turning
society on its head, -
6:23 - 6:26and upending the work market.
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6:28 - 6:33School, as we currently know it,
is completely unprepared -
6:33 - 6:35to allow our students
to compete in a world -
6:35 - 6:40where smart machines will be ubiquitous
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6:40 - 6:41in the coming decades.
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6:48 - 6:50What is society to do?
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6:51 - 6:54What will society decide upon?
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6:58 - 7:02In my opinion, society
will demand that schools use -
7:02 - 7:07all the resources of NBIC technology
to respond to these challenges. -
7:10 - 7:13Tomorrow, schools will use MOOCs,
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7:13 - 7:16which are a type of second
generation online teaching, -
7:17 - 7:19and cerebral strengthening technologies,
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7:19 - 7:22which we call "neuro-enhancement."
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7:23 - 7:25It will tolerate legal doping.
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7:26 - 7:29It will accept, in the future,
intracerebral implants -
7:29 - 7:31to enhance us.
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7:31 - 7:34And it will accept intellectual eugenics
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7:35 - 7:38via embryonic selection.
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7:40 - 7:46In the world of tomorrow,
teaching will no longer be about knowing. -
7:47 - 7:50Teaching will be about the brain.
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7:51 - 7:55We will have the convergence
of education, medicine, -
7:55 - 7:58information technology,
genetics, and neuroscience. -
7:59 - 8:02And the teacher will become
a "neuro-hacker." -
8:05 - 8:07There's still some work left to do.
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8:07 - 8:08(Laughter)
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8:08 - 8:11They'll become a "neuro-cultivator."
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8:17 - 8:23This bringing together of education
and school will become natural. -
8:24 - 8:27Education will begin before birth.
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8:32 - 8:34The brain is an extraordinary
organ with high plasticity. -
8:35 - 8:38The environment, school, and stimulation
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8:38 - 8:42are fundamental in developing
our neuronal and synaptic wiring. -
8:43 - 8:47Unfortunately, the genetic aspect
of our intellectual abilities -
8:47 - 8:49is important.
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8:49 - 8:52It's a bit more important
than we imagined a few years ago. -
8:52 - 8:55Recent studies such as this one
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8:55 - 8:58tend to show that about 60%
of our intellectual abilities -
8:58 - 8:59are of genetic origin,
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8:59 - 9:02while a whole third is linked
to familial influences, -
9:02 - 9:06the educational
environment, and school. -
9:08 - 9:12Silicon Valley, as usual,
is at the forefront of this battle, -
9:13 - 9:16for better or worse.
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9:18 - 9:23Here you have a patent filed by "23andMe",
Google's genomics subsidiary -
9:23 - 9:27- whose CEO is the ex-wife
of Google cofounder Sergeï Brin - -
9:28 - 9:34for "designer babies" à la carte
and genetic selection of gametes -
9:35 - 9:37to make more beautiful babies.
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9:41 - 9:44It's even more troubling
to our moral norms -
9:44 - 9:46that China has launched a huge program
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9:46 - 9:48to sequence the DNA
of the extremely gifted, -
9:48 - 9:51led by an exceptionally gifted
person, who is shown here, -
9:51 - 9:53with the goal, admitted
in the international press, -
9:53 - 9:56of using these results
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9:56 - 10:00to increase the average IQ
of the 21st-century Chinese person. -
10:01 - 10:05Will society resist
using these technologies? -
10:06 - 10:10When we know that Bostrom,
the English academic, -
10:11 - 10:13demonstrated that,
using these technologies, -
10:13 - 10:18we could increase a country's average IQ
by 60 points in phase one, -
10:18 - 10:20and then 120 points in a second phase.
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10:20 - 10:23Which would make Bill Gates
or Jacques Attali -
10:23 - 10:26just within the average
in a first phase, -
10:27 - 10:30and intellectually deficient
compared to the norms of the time -
10:30 - 10:31in a second phase.
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10:31 - 10:34(Laughter)
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10:35 - 10:39Of course, this all seems very far
from our own experience. -
10:39 - 10:42Eugenics is not for us.
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10:43 - 10:47However, we have already
gotten caught up in the works of eugenics; -
10:47 - 10:49we are already eugenicists.
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10:49 - 10:52We are already
in a eugenicist civilization. -
10:52 - 10:57Here in France, 97% of children
with Down's syndrome -
10:57 - 10:59are detected and are aborted.
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10:59 - 11:03Only one in 30 trisomic fetuses
survive past screening. -
11:06 - 11:09And in the USA, 28% of Americans,
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11:10 - 11:14say they are ready to use
genetic scanning technology -
11:14 - 11:16to have smarter babies.
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11:18 - 11:21What will the parents
of the remaining 72% do? -
11:25 - 11:28But the transgression doesn't stop there.
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11:28 - 11:31Silicon Valley is ready
to go even further. -
11:34 - 11:37Again, Ray Kurzweil,
the lead engineer at Google, -
11:37 - 11:41explained to us last March
at TED Vancouver, -
11:42 - 11:46that in 2035, 20 years from now,
we will have intracerebral implants -
11:46 - 11:50to connect us more quickly
to knowledge and to be more intelligent. -
11:50 - 11:54And he warned us that we need
to prepare ourselves -
11:54 - 11:56to have a hybrid thinking,
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11:56 - 11:58a mix of our biological brain
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11:58 - 12:03and artificial intelligence
connected to our cortex. -
12:06 - 12:10This creates an upheaval
in our moral and political norms; -
12:13 - 12:15it's the end of "Humanity 1.0",
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12:16 - 12:20and the arrival, to borrow
the phrase of Google's CEO, -
12:20 - 12:22of a "Humanity 2.0".
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12:24 - 12:28All of this could lead
to a neuro-dictatorship, -
12:29 - 12:32to a neuro-nightmare.
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12:33 - 12:36That's why, if the NBIC
schools of tomorrow -
12:37 - 12:40will undoubtedly use,
alongside teachers, -
12:40 - 12:42educational engineers,
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12:43 - 12:46neuroscientists and geneticists,
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12:46 - 12:49it is especially necessary
that we have neuro-ethicists; -
12:49 - 12:51"brain ethicists".
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12:52 - 12:58To make sure that neuro-education
does not turn into neuro-manipulation. -
13:02 - 13:04What must be done?
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13:05 - 13:07I don't know.
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13:07 - 13:09What do we have to do?
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13:11 - 13:13I don't know.
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13:14 - 13:17I have two convictions, though.
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13:18 - 13:21The first is that
we don't prevent Silicon Valley -
13:21 - 13:24from manufacturing machines
that are smarter than us. -
13:26 - 13:30As the cofounder of Google,
Sergeï Brin, says, -
13:30 - 13:32"We will make machines
that reason, that think, -
13:32 - 13:35and that do things better than we do."
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13:35 - 13:40In that context, are we going to leave
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13:40 - 13:44people stuck with average,
or modest cognitive abilities, -
13:44 - 13:49completely outdated in the face
of second generation machines, -
13:49 - 13:53resulting from the convergence
of artificial intelligence and robotics? -
13:55 - 13:57I don't believe that's possible.
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13:58 - 14:00My second conviction
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14:00 - 14:04is that if we collectively
and politically decide -
14:04 - 14:06in the years and decades to come,
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14:06 - 14:11to block technologies that allow us
to reduce differences in IQs, -
14:11 - 14:16we would be judged very harshly
by future generations. -
14:18 - 14:24In reality, we are all
terrible neuro-conservatives, -
14:25 - 14:31who are perfectly content
with intolerable IQ gaps. -
14:32 - 14:33Thank you.
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14:33 - 14:35(Applause)
- Title:
- Will tomorrow's children attend eugenist schools? | Laurent Alexandre | TEDxParis
- Description:
-
Will tomorrow's schools be eugenicist? Are they condemned to incorporate advances in neuroscience in order to adapt to the emerging war of the brains and to reduce the growing disparities in IQ that are to come?
A surgical urologist and neurobiologist, Laurent Alexandre also holds degrees from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, HEC, and the National School of Administration. An internet pioneer, he is the founder of Doctissimo.fr. The author of "The Death of Death" and "Defeating Cancer," he is currently interested in NBIC breakthroughs. Moreover, he is the director of DNAVision, a company specializing in DNA sequencing.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- French
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 14:49