Technology's epic story
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0:01 - 0:04I want to talk about my investigations
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0:04 - 0:08into what technology means in our lives --
-
0:08 - 0:11not just our immediate life,
but in the cosmic sense, -
0:11 - 0:15in the kind of long history of the world
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0:15 - 0:17and our place in the world.
-
0:17 - 0:19What is this stuff?
-
0:19 - 0:21What is the significance?
-
0:21 - 0:24And so, I want to kind of
go through my little story -
0:24 - 0:26of what I found out.
-
0:26 - 0:28One of the first things
I started to investigate -
0:28 - 0:31was the history of the name of technology.
-
0:31 - 0:34In the United States,
there is a State of the Union address -
0:34 - 0:37given by every president since 1790.
-
0:37 - 0:42And each one of those is kind of
summing up the most important things -
0:42 - 0:44for the United States at that time.
-
0:44 - 0:49If you search for the word "technology,"
it was not used until 1952. -
0:49 - 0:53So, technology was sort of absent
from everybody's thinking until 1952, -
0:53 - 0:55which happened to be the year of my birth.
-
0:55 - 0:58And obviously, technology
had existed before then, -
0:58 - 0:59but we weren't aware of it.
-
1:00 - 1:04And so it was sort of an awakening
of this force in our life. -
1:04 - 1:08I actually did research to find out
the first use of the word "technology." -
1:08 - 1:10It was in 1829,
-
1:10 - 1:13and it was invented by a guy
who was starting a curriculum -- -
1:13 - 1:18a course, bringing together all the kinds
of arts and crafts, and industry -- -
1:18 - 1:20and he called it "Technology."
-
1:20 - 1:22And that's the very first use of the word.
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1:23 - 1:25So what is this stuff
-
1:25 - 1:29that we're all consumed by
and bothered by? -
1:30 - 1:33Alan Kay calls it, "Technology
is anything that was invented -
1:33 - 1:34after you were born."
-
1:34 - 1:35(Laughter)
-
1:35 - 1:40Which is sort of the idea we normally
have about what technology is: -
1:40 - 1:41it's all that new stuff.
-
1:41 - 1:44It's not roads, or penicillin,
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1:44 - 1:47or factory tires; it's the new stuff.
-
1:47 - 1:50My friend Danny Hillis
says kind of a similar one, -
1:50 - 1:53he says, "Technology is anything
that doesn't work yet." -
1:53 - 1:54(Laughter)
-
1:54 - 1:56Which is, again,
a sense that it's all new. -
1:56 - 1:57But we know that it's just not new.
-
1:57 - 1:59It actually goes way back,
-
1:59 - 2:03and what I want to suggest is,
it goes a long way back. -
2:03 - 2:06So, another way to think
about technology, what it means, -
2:06 - 2:08is to imagine a world without technology.
-
2:08 - 2:11If we were to eliminate every single bit
of technology in the world today -- -
2:11 - 2:16and I mean everything,
from blades to scrapers to cloth -- -
2:16 - 2:19we, as a species,
would not live very long. -
2:19 - 2:22We would die by the billions,
and very quickly: -
2:22 - 2:25the wolves would get us,
we would be defenseless, -
2:25 - 2:29we would be unable to grow
enough food or find enough food. -
2:29 - 2:32Even the hunter-gatherers
used some elementary tools. -
2:32 - 2:34So, they had minimal technology,
-
2:34 - 2:36but they had some technology.
-
2:36 - 2:39And if we study
those hunter-gatherer tribes -
2:39 - 2:43and the Neanderthal,
which are very similar to early man, -
2:43 - 2:46we find out a very curious thing
about this world without technology, -
2:46 - 2:49and this is a kind of a curve
of their average age. -
2:49 - 2:54There are no Neanderthal fossils
that are older than 40 years old -
2:54 - 2:55that we've ever found,
-
2:55 - 3:00and the average age of most of these
hunter-gatherer tribes is 20 to 30. -
3:00 - 3:04There are very few young infants,
because they die -- high mortality rate -- -
3:04 - 3:06and there's very few old people.
-
3:06 - 3:10So the profile is sort of for your average
San Francisco neighborhood: -
3:10 - 3:11a lot of young people.
-
3:11 - 3:14And if you go there, you say,
"Hey, everybody's really healthy." -
3:14 - 3:16Well, that's because they're all young.
-
3:16 - 3:19Same thing with the hunter-gatherer
tribes and early man: -
3:19 - 3:21you didn't live beyond the age of 30.
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3:21 - 3:23So it was a world without grandparents.
-
3:23 - 3:25And grandparents are very important,
-
3:25 - 3:28because they are the transmitter
of cultural evolution and information. -
3:28 - 3:32Imagine a world where basically
everybody was 20 to 30 years old. -
3:32 - 3:33How much learning can you do?
-
3:33 - 3:36You can't do very much
learning in your own life, -
3:36 - 3:37it's so short,
-
3:37 - 3:39and there's nobody to pass on
what you do learn. -
3:39 - 3:42So that's one aspect.
-
3:42 - 3:44It was a very short life.
-
3:44 - 3:46But at the same time, anthropologists know
-
3:46 - 3:49that most hunter-gatherer
tribes of the world, -
3:49 - 3:51with that very little technology,
-
3:51 - 3:54actually did not spend a very long time
gathering the food they needed: -
3:54 - 3:56three to six hours a day.
-
3:56 - 4:00Some anthropologists call that
the original affluent society, -
4:00 - 4:02because they had
bankers' hours, basically. -
4:02 - 4:05So it was possible to get enough food.
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4:05 - 4:07But when the scarcity came,
-
4:07 - 4:10when the highs and lows
and the droughts came, -
4:10 - 4:12then people went into starvation.
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4:12 - 4:14And that's why they didn't live very long.
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4:14 - 4:17So what technology brought,
-
4:17 - 4:20through the very simple tools
like these stone tools here -- -
4:21 - 4:23even something as small as this --
-
4:23 - 4:29the early bands of humans were actually
able to eliminate to extinction -
4:29 - 4:34about 250 megafauna animals
in North America -
4:34 - 4:36when they first arrived 10,000 years ago.
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4:36 - 4:39So, long before the industrial age,
-
4:39 - 4:41we've been affecting
the planet on a global scale -
4:41 - 4:44with just a small amount of technology.
-
4:44 - 4:47The other thing that the early man
invented was fire. -
4:47 - 4:49And fire was used to clear out, and again,
-
4:49 - 4:53affected the ecology of grass
and whole continents, -
4:53 - 4:55and was used in cooking.
-
4:55 - 4:58It enabled us to actually
eat all kinds of things. -
4:58 - 5:00It was, in a certain sense,
in a McLuhan sense, -
5:00 - 5:02an external stomach,
-
5:02 - 5:05in the sense that it was cooking food
that we could not eat otherwise. -
5:06 - 5:08And if we didn't have fire,
we actually could not live. -
5:08 - 5:11Our bodies have adapted
to these new diets. -
5:11 - 5:14Our bodies have changed
in the last 10,000 years. -
5:14 - 5:17So, with that little bit of technology,
-
5:17 - 5:20humans went from a small band
of 10,000 or so -- -
5:20 - 5:22the same number
as Neanderthals everywhere -- -
5:22 - 5:23and we suddenly exploded.
-
5:23 - 5:26With the invention of language
around 50,000 years ago, -
5:26 - 5:27the number of humans exploded,
-
5:27 - 5:30and very quickly became
the dominant species on the planet. -
5:30 - 5:33And they migrated
into the rest of the world -
5:33 - 5:34at two kilometers per year
-
5:34 - 5:37until, within several tens
of thousands of years, -
5:37 - 5:40we occupied every single
watershed on the planet -
5:40 - 5:41and became the most dominant species,
-
5:41 - 5:44with a very small amount of technology.
-
5:44 - 5:47And even at that time,
with the introduction of agriculture, -
5:47 - 5:498,000, 10,000 years ago,
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5:49 - 5:50we started to see climate change.
-
5:50 - 5:54So climate change is not a new thing;
what's new is just the degree of it. -
5:54 - 5:57Even during the agricultural age,
there was climate change. -
5:57 - 6:01So already, small amounts of technology
were transforming the world. -
6:01 - 6:04And what this means, and where I'm going,
-
6:04 - 6:07is that technology has become
the most powerful force in the world. -
6:07 - 6:10All the things we see today
that are changing our lives, -
6:10 - 6:12we can always trace back
-
6:12 - 6:14to the introduction
of some new technology. -
6:14 - 6:15So it's a force,
-
6:15 - 6:19that is the most powerful force
that has been unleashed on this planet, -
6:19 - 6:21and in such a degree,
-
6:21 - 6:27that I think it's become who we are.
-
6:27 - 6:30In fact, our humanity and everything
that we think about ourselves, -
6:30 - 6:32is something we've invented.
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6:32 - 6:33So we've invented ourselves.
-
6:33 - 6:35Of all the animals
that we've domesticated, -
6:35 - 6:38the most important animal has been us.
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6:39 - 6:42So humanity is our greatest invention,
-
6:42 - 6:44but of course, we're not done yet.
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6:44 - 6:46We're still inventing,
-
6:46 - 6:48and this is what technology
is allowing us to do; -
6:48 - 6:50it's continually to reinvent ourselves.
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6:50 - 6:52It's a very, very strong force.
-
6:52 - 6:56I call this entire thing --
us humans as our technology, -
6:56 - 6:58everything that we've made,
gadgets in our lives -- -
6:58 - 7:00we call that the technium.
-
7:00 - 7:01That's this world.
-
7:01 - 7:03My working definition of technology is:
-
7:03 - 7:05anything useful that a human mind makes.
-
7:05 - 7:08It's not just hammers
and gadgets, like laptops. -
7:08 - 7:09But it's also law.
-
7:09 - 7:14And, of course, cities are ways
to make things more useful to us. -
7:14 - 7:17While this is something
that comes from our mind, -
7:17 - 7:21it also has its roots
deeply into the cosmos. -
7:21 - 7:22It goes back.
-
7:22 - 7:25The origins and roots of technology
go back to the Big Bang, -
7:25 - 7:30in this way, in that they are part
of this self-organizing thread -
7:30 - 7:34that starts at the Big Bang
and goes through galaxies and stars, -
7:34 - 7:36into life, into us.
-
7:36 - 7:39And the three major phases
of the early universe -
7:39 - 7:41was energy, when the dominant
force was energy; -
7:41 - 7:44then the dominant force,
as it cooled, became matter; -
7:44 - 7:47and then, with the invention
of life four billion years ago, -
7:47 - 7:50the dominant force in our neighborhood
became information. -
7:50 - 7:51That's what life is:
-
7:51 - 7:54an information process
that was restructuring -
7:54 - 7:55and making new order.
-
7:55 - 7:58So, energy and matter,
Einstein showed were equivalent, -
7:58 - 8:04and now new sciences of quantum computing
show that entropy and information -
8:04 - 8:06and matter and energy
-
8:06 - 8:07are all interrelated.
-
8:07 - 8:08So it's one long continuum.
-
8:09 - 8:12You put energy
into the right kind of system, -
8:12 - 8:15and out comes wasted heat, entropy,
-
8:16 - 8:18and extropy, which is order.
-
8:18 - 8:20It's the increased order.
-
8:20 - 8:21Where does this order come from?
-
8:21 - 8:23Its roots go way back.
-
8:23 - 8:24We actually don't know.
-
8:24 - 8:25But we do know
-
8:25 - 8:29that the self-organization trend
throughout the universe is long, -
8:30 - 8:32and it began with things like galaxies;
-
8:32 - 8:34they maintained their order
for billions of years. -
8:34 - 8:38Stars are basically
nuclear fission machines -
8:38 - 8:41that self-organize and self-sustain
themselves for billions of years: -
8:41 - 8:44order against the extropy of the world.
-
8:44 - 8:49And flowers and plants
are the same thing, extended, -
8:49 - 8:53and technology is basically
an extension of life. -
8:54 - 8:57One trend that we notice
in all those things -
8:57 - 9:00is that the amount of energy
per gram per second -
9:00 - 9:01that flows through this
-
9:01 - 9:02is actually increasing.
-
9:02 - 9:07The amount of energy is increasing
through this little sequence. -
9:07 - 9:11And the amount of energy per gram
per second that flows through life -
9:11 - 9:13is actually greater than a star --
-
9:13 - 9:16because of the star's long lifespan,
-
9:16 - 9:20the energy density in life
is actually higher than a star. -
9:20 - 9:22And the energy density
that we see in the greatest amount -
9:22 - 9:24anywhere in the universe
-
9:24 - 9:25is actually in a PC chip.
-
9:25 - 9:28There is more energy flowing
through, per gram per second, -
9:28 - 9:31than anything that we have
any other experience with. -
9:31 - 9:33And so, what I would suggest
-
9:33 - 9:36is that if you want to see
where technology is going, -
9:36 - 9:38we continue that trajectory,
-
9:38 - 9:41and we say, "Well, it's going
to become more energy-dense, -
9:41 - 9:42that's where it's going."
-
9:42 - 9:45And so what I've done is,
I've taken the same kinds of things -
9:45 - 9:48and looked at other aspects
of evolutionary life and say, -
9:48 - 9:51"What are the general trends
in evolutionary life?" -
9:51 - 9:53And there are things moving
towards greater complexity, -
9:53 - 9:57moving towards greater diversity,
moving towards greater specialization, -
9:57 - 10:02sentience, ubiquity,
and most important, evolvability. -
10:02 - 10:05Those very same things
are also present in technology. -
10:05 - 10:07That's where technology is going.
-
10:07 - 10:12In fact, technology
is accelerating all the aspects of life. -
10:12 - 10:14And we can see that happening;
-
10:14 - 10:18just as there's diversity in life,
there's more diversity in things we make. -
10:18 - 10:20Things in life start off
being general cells, -
10:20 - 10:22and they become specialized:
-
10:22 - 10:24you have tissue cells,
muscle, brain cells. -
10:24 - 10:26The same thing happens
with, say, a hammer, -
10:26 - 10:28which is general at first
and becomes more specific. -
10:28 - 10:31So I would like to say
that while there are six kingdoms of life, -
10:31 - 10:35we can think of technology
basically as a seventh kingdom of life. -
10:35 - 10:37It's a branching off from the human form.
-
10:37 - 10:41But technology has its own agenda,
like anything, like life itself. -
10:41 - 10:45For instance, right now,
three-quarters of the energy that we use -
10:45 - 10:47is actually used to feed
the technium itself. -
10:47 - 10:49In transportation, it's not to move us;
-
10:49 - 10:50it's to move the stuff we make or buy.
-
10:51 - 10:52I use the word "want." Technology wants.
-
10:53 - 10:56This is a robot that wants to plug
itself in to get more power. -
10:56 - 10:58Your cat wants more food.
-
10:58 - 11:01A bacterium, which has
no consciousness at all, -
11:01 - 11:02wants to move towards light.
-
11:02 - 11:05It has an urge,
and technology has an urge. -
11:05 - 11:07At the same time,
it wants to give us things, -
11:07 - 11:10and what it gives us
is basically progress. -
11:10 - 11:13You can take all kinds of curves,
and they're all pointing up. -
11:13 - 11:15There's really no dispute about progress,
-
11:15 - 11:18if we discount the cost of that.
-
11:18 - 11:21And that's the thing
that bothers most people, -
11:21 - 11:24is that progress is really real,
but we wonder and question: -
11:24 - 11:26What are the environmental costs of it?
-
11:26 - 11:30I did a survey of the number
of species of artifacts in my house, -
11:30 - 11:31and there's 6,000.
-
11:31 - 11:33Other people have come up with 10,000.
-
11:34 - 11:36When King Henry of England died,
-
11:36 - 11:38he had 18,000 things in his house,
-
11:38 - 11:42but that was the entire
wealth of England, so ... -
11:42 - 11:43(Laughter)
-
11:43 - 11:45And with that entire wealth of England,
-
11:45 - 11:48King Henry could not buy any antibiotics,
-
11:48 - 11:50he could not buy refrigeration,
-
11:50 - 11:52he could not buy
a trip of a thousand miles, -
11:52 - 11:56whereas this rickshaw wallah in India
could save up and buy antibiotics -
11:56 - 11:58and he could buy refrigeration.
-
11:58 - 12:02He could buy things that King Henry,
in all his wealth, could never buy. -
12:02 - 12:03That's what progress is about.
-
12:03 - 12:06So, technology is selfish;
technology is generous. -
12:06 - 12:10That conflict, that tension,
will be with us forever: -
12:10 - 12:12sometimes it wants to do
what it wants to do, -
12:12 - 12:14and sometimes it's going
to do things for us. -
12:14 - 12:16We have confusion
about what we should think -
12:16 - 12:17about a new technology.
-
12:17 - 12:21Right now the default position
when a new technology comes along, -
12:21 - 12:24is people talk about
the precautionary principle, -
12:24 - 12:25which is very common in Europe,
-
12:25 - 12:28which says, basically, "Don't do anything.
-
12:28 - 12:30When you meet a new technology, stop,
-
12:30 - 12:33until it can be proven
that it does no harm." -
12:33 - 12:35I think that really leads nowhere.
-
12:35 - 12:38But a better way is
what I call the proactionary principle, -
12:38 - 12:40which is, you engage with technology.
-
12:40 - 12:42You try it out.
-
12:42 - 12:46You obviously do what the precautionary
principle suggests, -
12:46 - 12:47you try to anticipate it,
-
12:47 - 12:49but after anticipating it,
-
12:49 - 12:50you constantly asses it,
-
12:50 - 12:52not just once, but eternally.
-
12:52 - 12:55And when it diverts from what you want,
-
12:55 - 12:58we prioritize risk,
we evaluate not just the new stuff, -
12:58 - 13:00but the old stuff.
-
13:00 - 13:01We fix it; but most importantly,
-
13:01 - 13:03we relocate it.
-
13:03 - 13:04And what I mean by that is,
-
13:04 - 13:06we find a new job for it.
-
13:06 - 13:10Nuclear energy, fission,
is a really bad idea for bombs. -
13:10 - 13:16But it may be a pretty good idea
relocated into sustainable nuclear energy -
13:16 - 13:18for electricity, instead of burning coal.
-
13:18 - 13:20When we have a bad idea,
-
13:20 - 13:21the response to a bad idea
-
13:21 - 13:25is not no ideas,
it's not to stop thinking. -
13:25 - 13:27The response to a bad idea --
-
13:27 - 13:29like, say, a tungsten lightbulb --
-
13:29 - 13:31is a better idea.
-
13:32 - 13:35So, better ideas
is really always the response -
13:35 - 13:37to technology we don't like;
-
13:37 - 13:39it's basically better technology.
-
13:39 - 13:43And actually, in a certain sense,
technology is a kind of a method -
13:43 - 13:45for generating better ideas,
-
13:45 - 13:46if you can think about it that way.
-
13:46 - 13:49So, maybe spraying DDT
on crops is a really bad idea. -
13:49 - 13:52But DDT sprayed on local homes --
-
13:52 - 13:55there's nothing better
to eliminate malaria, -
13:55 - 13:59besides insect DDT-impregnated
mosquito nets. -
13:59 - 14:02But that's a really good idea;
that's a good job for technology. -
14:02 - 14:06So our job as humans
is to parent our mind children, -
14:06 - 14:08to find them good friends,
-
14:08 - 14:09to find them a good job.
-
14:09 - 14:12And so, every technology
is sort of a creative force -
14:12 - 14:14looking for the right job.
-
14:14 - 14:16That's actually my son, right here.
-
14:16 - 14:18(Laughter)
-
14:18 - 14:20There are no bad technologies,
-
14:20 - 14:22just as there are no bad children.
-
14:22 - 14:25We don't say children are neutral;
children are positive. -
14:25 - 14:27We just have to find them the right place.
-
14:27 - 14:31And so, what technology gives us
over the long term -- -
14:31 - 14:35over this sort of extended evolution
from the beginning of time, -
14:35 - 14:38through the invention
of the plants and animals, -
14:38 - 14:41and the evolution of life,
the evolution of brains -- -
14:41 - 14:45what that is constantly giving us
is increasing differences: -
14:45 - 14:48It's increasing diversity,
it's increasing options, -
14:48 - 14:52it's increasing choices, opportunities,
possibilities and freedoms. -
14:52 - 14:55That's what we get
from technology all the time. -
14:55 - 14:58That's why people leave villages
and go into cities -- -
14:58 - 15:01because they are always gravitating
towards increased choices -
15:01 - 15:02and possibilities.
-
15:03 - 15:05And we are aware of the price;
-
15:05 - 15:07we pay a price for that,
but we're aware of it, -
15:07 - 15:10and generally, we will pay the price
for increased freedoms, -
15:10 - 15:12choices and opportunities.
-
15:12 - 15:15Even technology wants clean water.
-
15:15 - 15:19Is technology diametrically
opposed to nature? -
15:19 - 15:22Because technology
is an extension of life, -
15:22 - 15:25it's in parallel and aligned
with the same things -
15:25 - 15:26that life wants.
-
15:27 - 15:29So that I think technology loves biology,
-
15:29 - 15:31if we allow it to.
-
15:31 - 15:35Great movement
starting billions of years ago -
15:35 - 15:38is moving through us
and it continues to go, -
15:38 - 15:41and our choice, so to speak,
in technology, -
15:41 - 15:43is really to align ourselves
with this force -
15:43 - 15:45much greater than ourselves.
-
15:45 - 15:47So, technology is more
than just the stuff in your pocket; -
15:47 - 15:49it's more than just gadgets,
-
15:49 - 15:51it's more than just things
that people invent. -
15:51 - 15:55It's actually part of a very long
story -- a great story -- -
15:55 - 15:56that began billions of years ago.
-
15:56 - 15:59It's moving through us,
this self-organization, -
15:59 - 16:01and we're extending and accelerating it,
-
16:01 - 16:05and we can be part of it by aligning
the technology that we make with it. -
16:05 - 16:07And I really appreciate
your attention today. -
16:07 - 16:09Thank you.
-
16:09 - 16:12(Applause)
- Title:
- Technology's epic story
- Speaker:
- Kevin Kelly
- Description:
-
In this wide-ranging, thought-provoking talk from TEDxAmsterdam, Kevin Kelly muses on what technology means in our lives -- from its impact at the personal level to its place in the cosmos.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:12
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for Technology's epic story | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Technology's epic story | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Technology's epic story | ||
TED edited English subtitles for Technology's epic story | ||
TED added a translation |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 6/21/2017. At 11:52, "rickshaw wale" was changed to "rickshaw wallah."