Your online life, permanent as a tattoo
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0:02 - 0:03All right, so let's take
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0:03 - 0:05four subjects that obviously go together:
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0:05 - 0:10big data, tattoos, immortality and the Greeks.
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0:10 - 0:11Right?
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0:11 - 0:14Now, the issue about tattoos is that,
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0:14 - 0:18without a word, tattoos really do shout.
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0:18 - 0:22[Beautiful]
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0:22 - 0:24[Intriguing]
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0:24 - 0:28So you don't have to say a lot.
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0:28 - 0:31[Allegiance]
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0:31 - 0:36[Very intimate]
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0:36 - 0:38[Serious mistakes]
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0:38 - 0:41(Laughter)
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0:42 - 0:46And tattoos tell you a lot of stories.
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0:46 - 0:48If I can ask an indiscreet question,
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0:48 - 0:51how many of you have tattoos?
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0:51 - 0:53A few, but not most.
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0:53 - 0:56What happens if Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn,
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0:56 - 0:59cell phones, GPS, Foursquare, Yelp, Travel Advisor,
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0:59 - 1:01all these things you deal with every day
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1:01 - 1:04turn out to be electronic tattoos?
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1:04 - 1:05And what if they provide as much information
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1:05 - 1:10about who and what you are as any tattoo ever would?
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1:10 - 1:13What's ended up happening over the past few decades
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1:13 - 1:16is the kind of coverage that you had as a head of state
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1:16 - 1:18or as a great celebrity
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1:18 - 1:21is now being applied to you every day by all these people
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1:21 - 1:24who are Tweeting, blogging, following you,
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1:24 - 1:28watching your credit scores and what you do to yourself.
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1:28 - 1:33And electronic tattoos also shout.
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1:33 - 1:35And as you're thinking of the consequences of that,
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1:35 - 1:38it's getting really hard to hide from this stuff, among other things,
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1:38 - 1:41because it's not just the electronic tattoos,
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1:41 - 1:45it's facial recognition that's getting really good.
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1:45 - 1:49So you can take a picture with an iPhone and get all the names,
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1:49 - 1:53although, again, sometimes it does make mistakes. (Laughter)
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1:53 - 1:56But that means you can take a typical bar scene like this,
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1:56 - 2:00take a picture, say, of this guy right here,
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2:00 - 2:03get the name, and download all the records
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2:03 - 2:07before you utter a word or speak to somebody,
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2:07 - 2:08because everybody turns out to be
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2:08 - 2:12absolutely plastered by electronic tattoos.
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2:12 - 2:15And so there's companies like face.com that now have
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2:15 - 2:18about 18 billion faces online.
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2:18 - 2:20Here's what happened to this company.
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2:20 - 2:23[Company sold to Facebook, June 18, 2012...]
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2:23 - 2:25There are other companies that will place a camera
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2:25 - 2:28like this — this has nothing to do with Facebook —
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2:28 - 2:30they take your picture, they tie it to the social media,
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2:30 - 2:32they figure out you really like to wear black dresses,
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2:32 - 2:35so maybe the person in the store comes up and says,
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2:35 - 2:37"Hey, we've got five black dresses
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2:37 - 2:40that would just look great on you."
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2:40 - 2:42So what if Andy was wrong?
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2:42 - 2:43Here's Andy's theory.
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2:43 - 2:45[In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes.]
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2:45 - 2:46What if we flip this?
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2:46 - 2:51What if you're only going to be anonymous for 15 minutes? (Laughter)
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2:51 - 2:54Well, then, because of electronic tattoos,
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2:54 - 2:59maybe all of you and all of us are very close to immortality,
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2:59 - 3:00because these tattoos will live
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3:00 - 3:03far longer than our bodies will.
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3:03 - 3:05And if that's true, then what we want to do
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3:05 - 3:08is we want to go through four lessons from the Greeks
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3:08 - 3:12and one lesson from a Latin American.
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3:12 - 3:14Why the Greeks?
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3:14 - 3:15Well, the Greeks thought about what happens
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3:15 - 3:20when gods and humans and immortality mix for a long time.
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3:20 - 3:23So lesson number one: Sisyphus.
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3:23 - 3:26Remember? He did a horrible thing, condemned for all time
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3:26 - 3:28to roll this rock up, it would roll back down,
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3:28 - 3:30roll back up, roll back down.
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3:30 - 3:33It's a little like your reputation.
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3:33 - 3:34Once you get that electronic tattoo,
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3:34 - 3:37you're going to be rolling up and down for a long time,
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3:37 - 3:39so as you go through this stuff,
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3:39 - 3:43just be careful what you post.
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3:43 - 3:46Myth number two: Orpheus, wonderful guy,
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3:46 - 3:50charming to be around, great partier, great singer,
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3:50 - 3:53loses his beloved, charms his way into the underworld,
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3:53 - 3:55only person to charm his way into the underworld,
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3:55 - 3:58charms the gods of the underworld,
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3:58 - 4:01they release his beauty on the condition
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4:01 - 4:04he never look at her until they're out.
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4:04 - 4:06So he's walking out and walking out and walking out
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4:06 - 4:10and he just can't resist. He looks at her, loses her forever.
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4:10 - 4:13With all this data out here, it might be a good idea
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4:13 - 4:19not to look too far into the past of those you love.
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4:19 - 4:21Lesson number three: Atalanta.
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4:21 - 4:26Greatest runner. She would challenge anybody.
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4:26 - 4:28If you won, she would marry you.
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4:28 - 4:31If you lost, you died.
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4:31 - 4:33How did Hippomenes beat her?
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4:33 - 4:35Well, he had all these wonderful little golden apples,
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4:35 - 4:38and she'd run ahead, and he'd roll a little golden apple.
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4:38 - 4:40She'd run ahead, and he'd roll a little golden apple.
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4:40 - 4:44She kept getting distracted. He eventually won the race.
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4:44 - 4:48Just remember the purpose as all these little golden apples
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4:48 - 4:50come and reach you and you want to post about them
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4:50 - 4:54or tweet about them or send a late-night message.
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4:54 - 4:57And then, of course, there's Narcissus.
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4:57 - 5:01Nobody here would ever be accused or be familiar with Narcissus.
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5:01 - 5:03(Laughter)
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5:03 - 5:06But as you're thinking about Narcissus,
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5:06 - 5:10just don't fall in love with your own reflection.
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5:10 - 5:11Last lesson, from a Latin American:
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5:11 - 5:14This is the great poet Jorge Luis Borges.
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5:14 - 5:15When he was threatened by the thugs
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5:15 - 5:18of the Argentine military junta,
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5:18 - 5:20he came back and said, "Oh, come on,
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5:20 - 5:24how else can you threaten, other than with death?"
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5:24 - 5:27The interesting thing, the original thing,
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5:27 - 5:30would be to threaten somebody with immortality.
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5:30 - 5:32And that, of course, is what we are all
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5:32 - 5:36now threatened with today because of electronic tattoos.
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5:36 - 5:37Thank you.
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5:37 - 5:40(Applause)
- Title:
- Your online life, permanent as a tattoo
- Speaker:
- Juan Enriquez
- Description:
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What if Andy Warhol had it wrong, and instead of being famous for 15 minutes, we’re only anonymous for that long? In this short talk, Juan Enriquez looks at the surprisingly permanent effects of digital sharing on our personal privacy. He shares insight from the ancient Greeks to help us deal with our new “digital tattoos.”
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 05:57
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |