1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,001 2 00:00:01,034 --> 00:00:03,105 (buzzing) 3 00:00:18,251 --> 00:00:20,788 Even if we can change human beings, 4 00:00:21,021 --> 00:00:23,160 in what direction do we change them? 5 00:00:23,189 --> 00:00:26,329 Do we want to change them this way or that way? 6 00:00:26,359 --> 00:00:30,205 This is an example of the way in which 7 00:00:30,230 --> 00:00:35,270 technological advance impinges on sociological necessity. 8 00:00:35,301 --> 00:00:43,301 ♪ 9 00:00:56,356 --> 00:00:58,199 What we need to ask ourselves is, 10 00:00:58,224 --> 00:01:02,434 "Where does my individual ability to control my life 11 00:01:02,462 --> 00:01:05,272 or to influence the political process 12 00:01:05,298 --> 00:01:08,768 lie in relation to these new forms of technology?" 13 00:01:08,802 --> 00:01:11,646 ♪ 14 00:01:11,671 --> 00:01:13,207 Government and politicians 15 00:01:13,239 --> 00:01:15,082 don't understand what's happening. 16 00:01:15,108 --> 00:01:17,486 See, they don't even realized this change is happening. 17 00:01:17,510 --> 00:01:18,750 ♪ 18 00:01:18,778 --> 00:01:21,816 It is very difficult, not impossible, 19 00:01:21,848 --> 00:01:25,762 to predict what the precise effects will be, 20 00:01:25,785 --> 00:01:30,700 and in--in many cases, like with other technologies, 21 00:01:30,723 --> 00:01:33,260 we have to socket and see. 22 00:01:33,293 --> 00:01:35,603 Who would have predicted the internet? 23 00:01:35,628 --> 00:01:38,404 And I talk about this matter as humanity 2.0 24 00:01:38,431 --> 00:01:40,274 'cause in a sense, this is kind of where we're heading, 25 00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:42,746 to some kind of new--new normal, as it were, 26 00:01:42,769 --> 00:01:45,340 of what it is to be a human being. 27 00:01:45,371 --> 00:01:47,544 It's not a problem 28 00:01:47,574 --> 00:01:49,679 that we should dismiss or underestimate. 29 00:01:49,709 --> 00:01:51,882 It's staggering in its proportions. 30 00:01:52,112 --> 00:01:54,888 Ignorance and disbelief at the same time. 31 00:01:55,115 --> 00:01:59,495 People don't believe that change is happening this fast. 32 00:01:59,519 --> 00:02:00,862 That's the problem. 33 00:02:00,887 --> 00:02:06,360 ♪ 34 00:02:06,392 --> 00:02:08,668 This is a stone 35 00:02:08,695 --> 00:02:10,902 formed naturally in the Earth's crust 36 00:02:11,131 --> 00:02:14,340 over millions of years through pressure and heat. 37 00:02:14,367 --> 00:02:18,611 It was discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. 38 00:02:18,638 --> 00:02:22,313 Dated around 2.5 million years BC, 39 00:02:22,342 --> 00:02:26,449 it is arguably one of the first examples of technology. 40 00:02:26,479 --> 00:02:29,483 Stone tools were first adapted for the use of cutting, 41 00:02:29,516 --> 00:02:34,226 scraping, or pounding materials by Homo habilis, 42 00:02:34,254 --> 00:02:37,633 one of our earliest ancestors. 43 00:02:37,657 --> 00:02:39,659 Over one million years later, 44 00:02:39,692 --> 00:02:42,195 mankind made one of the most significant 45 00:02:42,228 --> 00:02:45,266 of all technological discoveries... 46 00:02:45,298 --> 00:02:46,572 Fire. 47 00:02:46,599 --> 00:02:48,476 The ability to control fire 48 00:02:48,501 --> 00:02:51,175 was a turning point for human evolution. 49 00:02:51,204 --> 00:02:54,310 It kept us warm, allowed us to see in the dark, 50 00:02:54,340 --> 00:02:56,286 and allowed us to cook food, 51 00:02:56,309 --> 00:02:59,552 which many scientists believe was a huge contributor 52 00:02:59,579 --> 00:03:01,354 to the ascent of mind. 53 00:03:01,381 --> 00:03:02,917 ♪ 54 00:03:02,949 --> 00:03:07,261 Each age, each empire, has brought with it 55 00:03:07,287 --> 00:03:11,292 the discovery and invention of numerous technologies 56 00:03:11,324 --> 00:03:15,329 each in their own way redesigning human life... 57 00:03:15,361 --> 00:03:17,602 ♪ 58 00:03:17,630 --> 00:03:20,304 ...leading us to now... 59 00:03:20,333 --> 00:03:21,937 ...modern-day society. 60 00:03:23,803 --> 00:03:27,341 We're now more advanced, connected, knowledgeable, 61 00:03:27,373 --> 00:03:31,378 and resistant to disease than ever before, 62 00:03:31,411 --> 00:03:33,322 and it is all due to our ability 63 00:03:33,346 --> 00:03:36,919 to apply scientific knowledge for practical purposes 64 00:03:36,950 --> 00:03:40,363 in a bid to maximize efficiency. 65 00:03:40,386 --> 00:03:44,300 Just as the stone set us on a path of transformation, 66 00:03:44,324 --> 00:03:46,463 the technologies of the future 67 00:03:46,492 --> 00:03:49,473 may bring with them a paradigm shift, 68 00:03:49,495 --> 00:03:54,274 changing two major features of the human experience. 69 00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:56,541 Two things that have defined our lives 70 00:03:56,569 --> 00:03:58,947 for as long as we can remember. 71 00:03:58,972 --> 00:04:04,012 Two things that have always been involuntary constants: 72 00:04:04,244 --> 00:04:07,282 trading our time for sustenance 73 00:04:07,313 --> 00:04:09,884 and losing that time through senescence. 74 00:04:09,916 --> 00:04:14,661 ♪ 75 00:04:19,392 --> 00:04:23,534 ♪ 76 00:04:23,563 --> 00:04:25,941 (indistinct chattering) 77 00:04:25,965 --> 00:04:29,276 ♪ 78 00:04:29,302 --> 00:04:30,747 (telephone ringing) 79 00:04:30,770 --> 00:04:36,015 ♪ 80 00:04:36,042 --> 00:04:38,545 (Zapping) 81 00:04:38,578 --> 00:04:46,520 ♪ 82 00:04:46,552 --> 00:04:48,862 (laughing) 83 00:04:48,888 --> 00:04:56,888 ♪ 84 00:04:57,463 --> 00:04:59,704 The Industrial Revolution effectively freed man 85 00:04:59,732 --> 00:05:01,405 from being a beast of burden. 86 00:05:01,434 --> 00:05:03,573 The computer revolution will similarly free him 87 00:05:03,603 --> 00:05:06,015 from dull, repetitive routine. 88 00:05:06,039 --> 00:05:07,712 The computer revolution is, however, 89 00:05:07,740 --> 00:05:09,981 perhaps better compared with the Copernican 90 00:05:10,009 --> 00:05:12,046 or the Darwinian Revolution, 91 00:05:12,078 --> 00:05:15,525 both of which greatly changed man's idea of himself 92 00:05:15,548 --> 00:05:17,585 and the world in which he lives. 93 00:05:17,617 --> 00:05:21,360 In the space of 60 years, we have landed on the moon, 94 00:05:21,387 --> 00:05:23,890 seen the rise of computing power, 95 00:05:23,923 --> 00:05:25,596 mobile phones, 96 00:05:25,625 --> 00:05:27,730 the explosion of the internet, 97 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,333 and we have sequenced the human genome. 98 00:05:31,364 --> 00:05:33,640 We took man to the moon and back 99 00:05:33,666 --> 00:05:35,907 with four kilobytes of memory. 100 00:05:35,935 --> 00:05:40,782 The phone in your pocket is at least 250,000 times 101 00:05:40,807 --> 00:05:43,014 more powerful than that. 102 00:05:43,042 --> 00:05:46,580 We are ever-increasingly doing more with less. 103 00:05:46,612 --> 00:05:48,387 One of the things that has been born 104 00:05:48,414 --> 00:05:50,951 out of this technological revolution 105 00:05:50,983 --> 00:05:54,021 is the ability to replace human workers 106 00:05:54,053 --> 00:05:56,966 with more efficient machines. 107 00:05:56,989 --> 00:05:58,866 This is largely due to the speed 108 00:05:58,891 --> 00:06:02,429 at which we are advancing our technological capabilities. 109 00:06:02,462 --> 00:06:04,499 (applause) 110 00:06:04,530 --> 00:06:08,740 Information technology grows in an exponential manner. 111 00:06:08,768 --> 00:06:10,714 It's not linear. 112 00:06:10,737 --> 00:06:12,683 And our intuition is linear. 113 00:06:12,705 --> 00:06:14,150 When we walked through the savanna 114 00:06:14,374 --> 00:06:16,115 a thousand years ago, we made linear predictions 115 00:06:16,142 --> 00:06:18,019 where that animal would be and that worked fine. 116 00:06:18,044 --> 00:06:20,422 It's hardwired in our brains, 117 00:06:20,446 --> 00:06:22,949 but the pace of exponential growth 118 00:06:22,982 --> 00:06:26,623 is really what describes information technologies, 119 00:06:26,652 --> 00:06:28,723 and it's not just computation. 120 00:06:28,755 --> 00:06:30,098 There's a big difference between linear 121 00:06:30,123 --> 00:06:31,124 and exponential growth. 122 00:06:31,157 --> 00:06:33,831 If I take 30 steps linearly, 123 00:06:33,860 --> 00:06:36,898 one, two, three, four, five, I get to 30. 124 00:06:36,929 --> 00:06:39,000 If I take 30 steps exponentially, 125 00:06:39,031 --> 00:06:42,569 two, four, eight, sixteen, I get to a billion. 126 00:06:42,602 --> 00:06:44,445 It makes a huge difference. 127 00:06:44,470 --> 00:06:46,780 And that really describes information technology. 128 00:06:46,806 --> 00:06:48,843 When I was a student at MIT, 129 00:06:48,875 --> 00:06:51,048 we all shared one computer, it took up a whole building. 130 00:06:51,077 --> 00:06:52,784 The computer in your cell phone today 131 00:06:52,812 --> 00:06:55,793 is a million times cheaper, a million times smaller, 132 00:06:55,815 --> 00:06:58,022 a thousand times more powerful. 133 00:06:58,050 --> 00:07:00,894 That's a billionfold increase in capability per dollar 134 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:02,524 that we've actually experienced 135 00:07:02,555 --> 00:07:04,091 since I was a student, 136 00:07:04,123 --> 00:07:07,593 and we're gonna do it again in the next 25 years. 137 00:07:07,627 --> 00:07:10,540 Currently, on an almost daily basis, 138 00:07:10,563 --> 00:07:13,169 new algorithms, programs, 139 00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:15,736 and feats in mechanical engineering 140 00:07:15,768 --> 00:07:19,181 are getting closer and closer to being a reliable 141 00:07:19,205 --> 00:07:24,211 and more cost-effective alternative to a human worker. 142 00:07:24,444 --> 00:07:28,119 This process is known as automation. 143 00:07:28,147 --> 00:07:30,923 This is not just about, 144 00:07:30,950 --> 00:07:32,827 you know, automation where we expect it, 145 00:07:32,852 --> 00:07:34,229 which is in factories 146 00:07:34,454 --> 00:07:36,559 and among blue-collar workers and so forth. 147 00:07:36,589 --> 00:07:39,069 It is coming quite aggressively 148 00:07:39,091 --> 00:07:40,968 for people at much higher skill levels, 149 00:07:40,993 --> 00:07:42,836 and that will only grow in the future 150 00:07:42,862 --> 00:07:45,706 as we continue on this exponential arc. 151 00:07:45,731 --> 00:07:48,678 This business that, you know, not having to work very hard 152 00:07:48,701 --> 00:07:51,113 because machines are taking care of things for you, 153 00:07:51,137 --> 00:07:53,014 I mean, you see this also in the 19th century 154 00:07:53,039 --> 00:07:54,609 with the Industrial Revolution. 155 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,621 And, in fact, I think one of the problems 156 00:07:57,643 --> 00:07:59,145 with the Industrial Revolution, 157 00:07:59,178 --> 00:08:02,091 and this is where Marxism got so much traction, 158 00:08:02,114 --> 00:08:05,254 was that machines actually did render 159 00:08:05,485 --> 00:08:07,624 a lot of people unemployed, okay? 160 00:08:07,653 --> 00:08:10,964 That already happened in the 19th and 20th centuries. 161 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:14,062 And it was only by labor organizing itself 162 00:08:14,093 --> 00:08:15,265 that it was able to kind of deal 163 00:08:15,495 --> 00:08:17,600 with the situation intelligently 164 00:08:17,630 --> 00:08:19,507 because there was no automatic, you might say, 165 00:08:19,532 --> 00:08:21,170 transition to something else. 166 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:23,009 It was just, you know, "We don't need you anymore. 167 00:08:23,035 --> 00:08:24,514 We have these more efficient machines, 168 00:08:24,537 --> 00:08:25,982 and so now we don't--you know, 169 00:08:26,005 --> 00:08:27,780 now you just have to find work somewhere else." 170 00:08:27,807 --> 00:08:30,253 Automation clearly has been happening for a long time, 171 00:08:30,276 --> 00:08:33,052 and it has, you know, automated 172 00:08:33,079 --> 00:08:35,787 a lot of very laborious work that we don't want to do, 173 00:08:35,815 --> 00:08:38,125 and that's gonna continue to be the case in the future, 174 00:08:38,150 --> 00:08:41,529 but I do think that this time is genuinely different. 175 00:08:41,554 --> 00:08:43,261 If we look at what's happened historically, 176 00:08:43,289 --> 00:08:45,064 what we've seen is that automation 177 00:08:45,091 --> 00:08:47,298 has primarily been a mechanical phenomenon, 178 00:08:47,527 --> 00:08:49,564 and the classic example of that 179 00:08:49,595 --> 00:08:50,869 is, of course, agriculture. 180 00:08:50,897 --> 00:08:52,535 I'm a farmer. 181 00:08:52,565 --> 00:08:54,602 Here's what mechanical engineering has done 182 00:08:54,634 --> 00:08:56,580 for all of us who work on the farms 183 00:08:56,602 --> 00:08:57,910 and for you, too. 184 00:08:57,937 --> 00:08:59,678 It used to be, in the United States 185 00:08:59,705 --> 00:09:00,843 and in most advanced countries, 186 00:09:00,873 --> 00:09:02,978 that most people worked on farms. 187 00:09:03,009 --> 00:09:04,818 Now, almost no one works on a farm. 188 00:09:04,844 --> 00:09:06,653 It's less than two percent. 189 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,057 And, of course, as a result of that, we're better off. 190 00:09:09,081 --> 00:09:12,221 We have, you know, more comfortable jobs, 191 00:09:12,251 --> 00:09:13,787 food is cheaper, 192 00:09:13,819 --> 00:09:15,696 we have a much more advanced society. 193 00:09:15,721 --> 00:09:17,826 The question is, "Can that continue indefinitely?" 194 00:09:17,857 --> 00:09:19,063 And what we're seeing this time 195 00:09:19,091 --> 00:09:21,196 is that things are really quite different. 196 00:09:21,227 --> 00:09:23,002 If this keeps up, 197 00:09:23,029 --> 00:09:26,203 it won't be long before machines will do everything. 198 00:09:26,232 --> 00:09:28,178 Nobody will have work. 199 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:32,239 So as we move deeper into the automated future, 200 00:09:32,271 --> 00:09:35,684 we will see different stages take form. 201 00:09:35,708 --> 00:09:37,949 The first stage that we're entering 202 00:09:37,977 --> 00:09:40,719 is the stage where automated robots are working 203 00:09:40,746 --> 00:09:43,022 side by side with people in factories. 204 00:09:43,049 --> 00:09:45,154 Some of those jobs are slowly going away, 205 00:09:45,184 --> 00:09:48,757 but in the near future, within two to three years, 206 00:09:48,788 --> 00:09:50,859 you're going to see a huge percentage 207 00:09:50,890 --> 00:09:52,892 of those factory jobs be replaced 208 00:09:52,925 --> 00:09:55,929 with automated systems and automated robots. 209 00:09:55,962 --> 00:10:00,843 The next stage following that is we could see 210 00:10:00,866 --> 00:10:04,109 up to a third of jobs in America 211 00:10:04,136 --> 00:10:07,879 be replaced by 2025 212 00:10:07,907 --> 00:10:10,251 by robots or automated systems. 213 00:10:10,276 --> 00:10:12,017 That's a huge percentage of people 214 00:10:12,044 --> 00:10:13,682 that could be unemployed 215 00:10:13,713 --> 00:10:15,886 because of this automated tsunami 216 00:10:15,915 --> 00:10:17,258 that's coming, basically. 217 00:10:17,283 --> 00:10:20,753 We have a colleague here called Carl Frey 218 00:10:20,786 --> 00:10:24,859 who has put together a list of jobs 219 00:10:24,890 --> 00:10:26,130 by their vulnerability 220 00:10:26,158 --> 00:10:29,162 to getting replaced by automation, 221 00:10:29,195 --> 00:10:32,404 and the least vulnerable are things like choreographers, 222 00:10:32,632 --> 00:10:35,909 managers, social workers. 223 00:10:35,935 --> 00:10:38,381 People who have people skills 224 00:10:38,404 --> 00:10:42,045 and who have creativity. 225 00:10:42,074 --> 00:10:50,074 ♪ 226 00:10:53,119 --> 00:10:55,190 One area that I look a lot at is fast food. 227 00:10:55,221 --> 00:10:57,326 I mean, the fast food industry is tremendously important 228 00:10:57,356 --> 00:10:58,858 in American economy. 229 00:10:58,891 --> 00:11:01,872 If you look at the years since recovery 230 00:11:01,894 --> 00:11:03,669 from the Great Recession, 231 00:11:03,696 --> 00:11:06,734 the majority of jobs, somewhere around 60 percent, 232 00:11:06,766 --> 00:11:09,212 have been low-wage service sector jobs. 233 00:11:09,235 --> 00:11:11,738 A lot of those have been in areas like fast food, 234 00:11:11,771 --> 00:11:14,809 and yet, to me, it seems almost inevitable 235 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,446 that, ultimately, fast food is gonna automate. 236 00:11:17,677 --> 00:11:20,283 There's a company right here in San Francisco 237 00:11:20,312 --> 00:11:24,818 called "Momentum Machines" which is actually working on 238 00:11:24,850 --> 00:11:26,921 a machine to automate hamburger production, 239 00:11:26,952 --> 00:11:28,226 and it can crank out 240 00:11:28,254 --> 00:11:32,930 about 400 gourmet hamburgers per hour, 241 00:11:32,958 --> 00:11:37,429 and they ultimately expect to sort of roll that out 242 00:11:37,463 --> 00:11:40,842 not just in fast food establishments, 243 00:11:40,866 --> 00:11:42,709 perhaps in convenience stores 244 00:11:42,735 --> 00:11:43,941 and maybe even vending machines. 245 00:11:43,969 --> 00:11:45,312 It could be all over the place. 246 00:11:45,337 --> 00:11:50,844 ♪ 247 00:11:50,876 --> 00:11:54,187 I can see manufacturing now becoming completely automated. 248 00:11:54,213 --> 00:11:56,193 I can see, you know, hundreds of millions 249 00:11:56,215 --> 00:11:57,888 of workers being put out of jobs, 250 00:11:57,917 --> 00:11:59,760 That's almost certain it's gonna happen. 251 00:11:59,785 --> 00:12:01,958 So you have lots of companies right now that are automating 252 00:12:01,987 --> 00:12:04,024 their factories and their warehouses. 253 00:12:04,056 --> 00:12:05,763 Amazon is a great example. 254 00:12:05,791 --> 00:12:08,294 They're using robots to automate their systems. 255 00:12:08,327 --> 00:12:10,364 The robots actually grab the products 256 00:12:10,396 --> 00:12:11,841 and bring the products to the people 257 00:12:11,864 --> 00:12:14,435 who put those products into the box. 258 00:12:14,467 --> 00:12:16,310 So there are still people 259 00:12:16,335 --> 00:12:18,440 within the factories at Amazon, 260 00:12:18,471 --> 00:12:21,816 but in the near future, those jobs may go away as well. 261 00:12:21,841 --> 00:12:24,412 There is a company here in Silicon Valley 262 00:12:24,443 --> 00:12:26,116 called "Industrial Perception," 263 00:12:26,145 --> 00:12:29,422 and they built a robot that can approach 264 00:12:29,448 --> 00:12:32,827 a stack of boxes that are son of stacked haphazardly 265 00:12:32,852 --> 00:12:35,196 in some nonstandard way 266 00:12:35,221 --> 00:12:38,430 and visually, by looking at that stack of boxes, 267 00:12:38,457 --> 00:12:40,130 figure out how to move those boxes. 268 00:12:40,159 --> 00:12:42,161 And they built a machine that ultimately 269 00:12:42,194 --> 00:12:45,937 will be able to move perhaps one box every second, 270 00:12:45,965 --> 00:12:48,536 and that compares with about three seconds 271 00:12:48,768 --> 00:12:51,840 for a human worker who's very industrious. 272 00:12:51,871 --> 00:12:53,942 Okay, and this machine, you can imagine, 273 00:12:53,973 --> 00:12:55,077 will work continuously. 274 00:12:55,107 --> 00:12:56,518 It's never gonna get injured, 275 00:12:56,542 --> 00:13:00,319 never file a workers' compensation claim, 276 00:13:00,346 --> 00:13:02,417 and, yet, it's moving into an area 277 00:13:02,448 --> 00:13:04,951 that, up until now, at least, we would have said 278 00:13:04,984 --> 00:13:08,397 is really something that is exclusively the provid-- 279 00:13:08,420 --> 00:13:10,093 province of the human worker. 280 00:13:10,122 --> 00:13:14,537 I mean, it's this ability to look at something 281 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:17,268 and then based on what you see, 282 00:13:17,296 --> 00:13:18,468 manipulate your environment. 283 00:13:18,497 --> 00:13:20,443 It's son of the confluence 284 00:13:20,466 --> 00:13:23,379 of visual perception and dexterity. 285 00:13:23,402 --> 00:13:27,111 ♪ 286 00:13:27,139 --> 00:13:29,346 We'll see self-driving cars on the road 287 00:13:29,375 --> 00:13:31,116 within 10 or 15 years. 288 00:13:31,143 --> 00:13:32,850 Fifteen years from now, we'll be debating 289 00:13:32,878 --> 00:13:35,552 whether we should even allow human beings to be on-- 290 00:13:35,581 --> 00:13:37,288 be on the road at all. 291 00:13:37,316 --> 00:13:39,887 Tesla says that by next year, 292 00:13:39,919 --> 00:13:44,459 that, you know, their cars will be 90 percent automated. 293 00:13:44,490 --> 00:13:46,367 Which means that the jobs of taxi drivers, 294 00:13:46,392 --> 00:13:48,531 truck drivers, goes away. 295 00:13:48,561 --> 00:13:51,906 Suddenly, we don't need to own cars anymore. 296 00:13:51,931 --> 00:13:55,174 Humanity isn't ready for such a basic change such as that. 297 00:13:55,201 --> 00:13:57,875 ♪ 298 00:13:57,903 --> 00:13:59,541 Call center jobs, voice recognition 299 00:13:59,572 --> 00:14:01,609 is pretty sophisticated these days. 300 00:14:01,841 --> 00:14:06,085 And you can imagine replacing many kinds of, 301 00:14:06,111 --> 00:14:08,022 you know, helplines and things. 302 00:14:08,047 --> 00:14:10,550 There's a company called "lPsoft" that has created 303 00:14:10,583 --> 00:14:13,530 an intelligent software system, 304 00:14:13,552 --> 00:14:16,396 an automated system, called "Amelia." 305 00:14:16,422 --> 00:14:19,403 She can not only understand what you're saying to her, 306 00:14:19,425 --> 00:14:22,065 she understands the context of what you're saying, 307 00:14:22,094 --> 00:14:24,370 and she can learn from her mistakes. 308 00:14:24,396 --> 00:14:26,569 This is a huge deal because what we're going to see 309 00:14:26,599 --> 00:14:29,136 is all of the customer service agent jobs, 310 00:14:29,168 --> 00:14:31,409 if she is successful, if this software program, 311 00:14:31,437 --> 00:14:34,475 this automated software program is successful, 312 00:14:34,506 --> 00:14:37,578 we could see all of those jobs go away. 313 00:14:37,610 --> 00:14:39,647 These things tend to go to marginal cost, 314 00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:43,486 and marginal cost is copying software, which is nothing, 315 00:14:43,515 --> 00:14:45,495 and running it on a computer 316 00:14:45,517 --> 00:14:47,155 which will probably be very cheap. 317 00:14:47,186 --> 00:14:51,134 ♪ 318 00:14:51,156 --> 00:14:55,263 Human doctors will be, in some respect, pushed aside 319 00:14:55,294 --> 00:14:56,967 because machines can do a better job 320 00:14:56,996 --> 00:14:58,634 of diagnosis than they can. 321 00:14:58,664 --> 00:15:00,610 Now will they have the empathy that current doctors do? 322 00:15:00,633 --> 00:15:02,306 I don't know, but at least they'll have the knowledge 323 00:15:02,334 --> 00:15:04,211 that our doctors do, they'll be more advanced, 324 00:15:04,236 --> 00:15:06,045 so I can see this option in healthcare. 325 00:15:06,071 --> 00:15:08,574 The one that is likely to be the biggest growth area, 326 00:15:08,607 --> 00:15:12,077 from an economic standpoint, is the android companions 327 00:15:12,111 --> 00:15:15,320 to help elderly people, okay, because there's-- 328 00:15:15,347 --> 00:15:18,021 you know, given the rise in elderly people 329 00:15:18,050 --> 00:15:21,224 over the next 20, 30 years, that it's-- 330 00:15:21,253 --> 00:15:23,199 and it's unlikely there are gonna be enough people 331 00:15:23,222 --> 00:15:25,395 going into the nursing profession 332 00:15:25,424 --> 00:15:27,927 to actually serve them, especially if we're thinking 333 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:31,134 in terms of home-based care. 334 00:15:31,163 --> 00:15:34,007 The robot surgeon, I think, is something that will happen 335 00:15:34,033 --> 00:15:36,707 in the not-too-distant future 336 00:15:36,936 --> 00:15:41,248 because a lot of that is to do with manual dexterity 337 00:15:41,273 --> 00:15:46,279 and having the expertise to recognize-- 338 00:15:46,312 --> 00:15:50,283 to understand what you're manipulating as a surgeon. 339 00:15:50,316 --> 00:15:53,559 Terrific amount of expertise for a human to accumulate, 340 00:15:53,585 --> 00:15:55,531 but I can imagine that we would be able to build 341 00:15:55,554 --> 00:15:58,364 something that is a specialized robot surgeon 342 00:15:58,390 --> 00:16:00,700 that can carry out particular operations 343 00:16:00,726 --> 00:16:03,104 such as a prostate operation. 344 00:16:03,128 --> 00:16:04,698 That's one that people are working on right now, 345 00:16:04,730 --> 00:16:06,403 and I think they're nearly there 346 00:16:06,432 --> 00:16:07,638 of being able to produce 347 00:16:07,666 --> 00:16:10,010 a reliable robot surgeon that can do that. 348 00:16:10,035 --> 00:16:11,742 You might not want to submit yourself to this thing, 349 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:14,042 you might think, but in fact, I think we'll be able to make 350 00:16:14,073 --> 00:16:17,316 a very reliable robot surgeon to do that sort of thing. 351 00:16:17,343 --> 00:16:24,693 ♪ 352 00:16:24,717 --> 00:16:26,424 I can see this option in finance 353 00:16:26,452 --> 00:16:28,489 because they're moving to digital currencies. 354 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:31,626 And--and we're now moving to crowdfunding 355 00:16:31,657 --> 00:16:35,230 and crowdbanking and all these other advances. 356 00:16:35,260 --> 00:16:37,467 One of my favorites is investment bankers. 357 00:16:37,496 --> 00:16:41,501 Artificial intelligence already does more 358 00:16:41,533 --> 00:16:44,514 stock market trades today than any human being. 359 00:16:44,536 --> 00:16:48,211 Lots of decisions like decisions about mortgages 360 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:50,652 and insurance, already those things have been, 361 00:16:50,676 --> 00:16:53,589 you know, largely taken over by programs, 362 00:16:53,612 --> 00:16:56,388 and I think that kind of trend is only gonna continue. 363 00:16:56,415 --> 00:17:04,415 ♪ 364 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:11,268 Every time there's a technological change, 365 00:17:11,296 --> 00:17:13,367 it will, unfortunately, put a lot of people out of work. 366 00:17:13,399 --> 00:17:15,208 It happened with the cotton gin. 367 00:17:15,234 --> 00:17:18,738 It's happened with every single technological change. 368 00:17:18,771 --> 00:17:22,446 So, sure, technology destroys jobs, 369 00:17:22,474 --> 00:17:24,147 but it creates new ones. 370 00:17:24,176 --> 00:17:27,157 Moving from the age of work that we're in now 371 00:17:27,179 --> 00:17:31,423 into the abundant, ubiquitous automation age, 372 00:17:31,450 --> 00:17:33,828 that bridge that we have to cross 373 00:17:34,053 --> 00:17:36,659 is gonna be a very interesting time period. 374 00:17:36,688 --> 00:17:39,225 I think in the very beginning of that time period, 375 00:17:39,258 --> 00:17:43,263 you're going to see automation star-t to replace jobs, 376 00:17:43,295 --> 00:17:46,708 but those jobs will transfer into other forms of work. 377 00:17:46,732 --> 00:17:50,077 So, for example, instead of working in a factory, 378 00:17:50,102 --> 00:17:53,208 you will learn to code and you will code the robots 379 00:17:53,238 --> 00:17:54,740 that are working in the factory. 380 00:17:54,773 --> 00:17:58,084 When I was a young man and I went for careers advice, 381 00:17:58,110 --> 00:18:00,112 I don't know what they would have made of me 382 00:18:00,145 --> 00:18:04,355 asking for a job as a webmaster. 383 00:18:04,383 --> 00:18:07,227 It didn't exist, there wasn't a web at that time. 384 00:18:07,252 --> 00:18:10,324 And, right now, we have over 200,000 vacancies 385 00:18:10,355 --> 00:18:12,835 for people who can analyze big data. 386 00:18:12,858 --> 00:18:15,168 And we really do need people 387 00:18:15,194 --> 00:18:17,105 and mechanisms for analyzing it 388 00:18:17,129 --> 00:18:20,838 and getting the most information from that data, 389 00:18:20,866 --> 00:18:23,779 and that problem is only gonna increase in the future. 390 00:18:23,802 --> 00:18:26,442 And I do think that there's gonna be a lot of employment 391 00:18:26,472 --> 00:18:28,110 moving in that direction. 392 00:18:28,140 --> 00:18:33,180 ♪ 393 00:18:33,212 --> 00:18:36,318 The history of our country proves that new inventions 394 00:18:36,348 --> 00:18:40,421 create thousands of jobs for every one they displace. 395 00:18:40,452 --> 00:18:44,457 So it wasn't long before your grandfather had a better job 396 00:18:44,490 --> 00:18:46,663 at more pay for less work. 397 00:18:46,692 --> 00:18:48,399 We're always offered this solution 398 00:18:48,427 --> 00:18:50,703 of still more education, still more training. 399 00:18:50,729 --> 00:18:52,402 If people lose their routine job, 400 00:18:52,431 --> 00:18:53,808 then let's send them back to school. 401 00:18:53,832 --> 00:18:55,709 They'll pick up some new skills, 402 00:18:55,734 --> 00:18:57,236 they'll learn something new, and then they'll be able 403 00:18:57,269 --> 00:18:59,875 to move into some more rewarding career. 404 00:18:59,905 --> 00:19:02,249 That's not gonna operate so well in the future 405 00:19:02,274 --> 00:19:03,617 where the machines are coming 406 00:19:03,642 --> 00:19:05,553 for those skilled jobs as well. 407 00:19:05,577 --> 00:19:07,318 The fact is that machines are really good at 408 00:19:07,346 --> 00:19:08,848 picking up skills and doing all kinds 409 00:19:08,881 --> 00:19:11,191 of extraordinarily complex things, 410 00:19:11,216 --> 00:19:12,559 so those jobs aren't necessarily 411 00:19:12,584 --> 00:19:14,359 gonna be there either. 412 00:19:14,386 --> 00:19:17,265 And a second insight, I think, is that historically, 413 00:19:17,289 --> 00:19:20,202 it's always been the case that the vast majority of people 414 00:19:20,225 --> 00:19:22,171 have always done routine work. 415 00:19:22,194 --> 00:19:24,731 So even if people can make that transition, 416 00:19:24,763 --> 00:19:26,674 if they can succeed in going back to school 417 00:19:26,698 --> 00:19:29,201 and learning something new, in percentage terms, 418 00:19:29,234 --> 00:19:31,271 those jobs don't constitute 419 00:19:31,303 --> 00:19:32,873 that much of the total employment out there. 420 00:19:32,905 --> 00:19:34,748 I mean, most people are doing these more routine things. 421 00:19:34,773 --> 00:19:37,185 So, you know, we're up against a real problem 422 00:19:37,209 --> 00:19:39,883 that's probably gonna require a political solution. 423 00:19:39,912 --> 00:19:44,725 It's probably going to require direct redistribution. 424 00:19:44,750 --> 00:19:46,423 That's my take on it, 425 00:19:46,451 --> 00:19:49,796 and that's a staggering political challenge, 426 00:19:49,821 --> 00:19:51,562 especially in the United States. 427 00:19:51,590 --> 00:19:53,866 This would be fine if we had generations 428 00:19:53,892 --> 00:19:57,738 to adapt to the change so that the next generation 429 00:19:57,763 --> 00:19:59,208 could develop a different lifestyle, 430 00:19:59,231 --> 00:20:00,676 different value system. 431 00:20:00,699 --> 00:20:02,679 The problem is that all of this is happening 432 00:20:02,701 --> 00:20:03,679 within the same generation. 433 00:20:03,702 --> 00:20:05,875 Within a period of 15 years, 434 00:20:05,904 --> 00:20:09,442 we're gonna start wiping out most of the jobs that we know. 435 00:20:09,474 --> 00:20:12,284 That's really what worries me. 436 00:20:12,311 --> 00:20:15,758 A term commonly used when describing the trajectory 437 00:20:15,781 --> 00:20:18,990 of technological progress and where it's leading us 438 00:20:19,218 --> 00:20:21,892 is the "technological singularity." 439 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:23,900 The term is borrowed from physics 440 00:20:23,922 --> 00:20:27,961 to describe an event horizon or a moment in space time 441 00:20:27,993 --> 00:20:30,269 that you cannot see beyond. 442 00:20:30,295 --> 00:20:32,502 We are currently in the transistor era 443 00:20:32,531 --> 00:20:34,602 of information technology. 444 00:20:34,633 --> 00:20:39,480 In 1965, co-founder of Intel, Gordon Moore, 445 00:20:39,504 --> 00:20:41,950 made the observation that the processing power 446 00:20:41,974 --> 00:20:45,581 of computers doubles every 18 months. 447 00:20:45,611 --> 00:20:48,285 The prediction that this trend will continue 448 00:20:48,313 --> 00:20:50,725 is known as Moore's Law. 449 00:20:50,749 --> 00:20:51,989 When Intel created 450 00:20:52,017 --> 00:20:55,931 their first computer processing unit in 1971, 451 00:20:55,954 --> 00:20:59,265 it has 2,300 transistors 452 00:20:59,291 --> 00:21:04,001 and had a processing speed of 740 kilohertz. 453 00:21:04,029 --> 00:21:08,808 Today, a typical CPU has over a billion transistors 454 00:21:08,834 --> 00:21:11,747 with an average speed of two gigahertz. 455 00:21:11,770 --> 00:21:15,308 However, many predict that by 2020, 456 00:21:15,340 --> 00:21:18,344 the miniaturization of transistors and silicon chips 457 00:21:18,377 --> 00:21:20,323 will reach its limit, 458 00:21:20,345 --> 00:21:25,294 and Moore's Law will fizzle out into a post-silicon era. 459 00:21:25,317 --> 00:21:27,422 Another way of describing the term 460 00:21:27,452 --> 00:21:29,932 "technological singularity" 461 00:21:29,955 --> 00:21:32,458 is a time when artificial intelligence 462 00:21:32,491 --> 00:21:36,337 surpasses human intellectual capacity. 463 00:21:36,361 --> 00:21:37,897 But does this mean that a computer 464 00:21:37,929 --> 00:21:39,875 can produce a new idea 465 00:21:39,898 --> 00:21:42,970 or make an original contribution to knowledge? 466 00:21:43,001 --> 00:21:46,574 Artificial intelligence, Al, is a longstanding project 467 00:21:46,605 --> 00:21:49,449 which has to do with basically trying 468 00:21:49,474 --> 00:21:51,784 to use machines as a way of trying to understand 469 00:21:51,810 --> 00:21:53,551 the nature of intelligence 470 00:21:53,578 --> 00:21:55,819 and, originally, the idea was, in some sense, 471 00:21:55,847 --> 00:21:58,054 to manufacture within machines 472 00:21:58,083 --> 00:22:00,723 something that could simulate human intelligence. 473 00:22:00,752 --> 00:22:02,789 But I think now, as the years have gone on, 474 00:22:02,821 --> 00:22:04,767 we now think in terms of intelligence 475 00:22:04,790 --> 00:22:06,098 in a much more abstract way, 476 00:22:06,325 --> 00:22:10,034 so the ability to engage in massive computations, 477 00:22:10,062 --> 00:22:11,803 right, where you can end up making 478 00:22:11,830 --> 00:22:14,367 quite intelligent decisions much more quickly 479 00:22:14,399 --> 00:22:15,810 than a human being can. 480 00:22:15,834 --> 00:22:17,745 So in this respect, artificial intelligence 481 00:22:17,769 --> 00:22:19,749 in a sense is a, you might say, 482 00:22:19,771 --> 00:22:21,876 as trying to go to the next level of intelligence 483 00:22:21,907 --> 00:22:23,045 beyond the human. 484 00:22:23,075 --> 00:22:24,884 ♪ 485 00:22:24,910 --> 00:22:27,481 A proper Al could substitute 486 00:22:27,512 --> 00:22:32,018 for practically any human job at some level of skill, 487 00:22:32,050 --> 00:22:34,894 so it's--it would be 488 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:36,900 a completely different situation. 489 00:22:36,922 --> 00:22:40,369 You can imagine any kind of job could, in theory, 490 00:22:40,392 --> 00:22:45,068 be replaced by technology, if you build human-level Al. 491 00:22:45,097 --> 00:22:49,443 Now that, of course, may or may not be a good thing. 492 00:22:49,468 --> 00:22:51,880 You'd be able to, for example, make robots 493 00:22:51,903 --> 00:22:54,042 that could do all kinds of jobs 494 00:22:54,072 --> 00:22:56,109 that humans don't necessarily want to do. 495 00:22:56,141 --> 00:22:59,145 There are the so-called three D's jobs 496 00:22:59,378 --> 00:23:01,949 that are dirty, dangerous, or dull, 497 00:23:01,980 --> 00:23:03,982 which humans might not want to do, 498 00:23:04,015 --> 00:23:06,928 and yet, where you might actually want 499 00:23:06,952 --> 00:23:08,522 a human level of intelligence 500 00:23:08,553 --> 00:23:10,499 to do the job well or do the job properly. 501 00:23:10,522 --> 00:23:12,433 These are things which are achievable. 502 00:23:12,457 --> 00:23:13,902 - Yeah. - This isn't something... 503 00:23:13,925 --> 00:23:15,529 I don't think it's science fiction. 504 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:17,164 I think this is entirely feasible 505 00:23:17,396 --> 00:23:19,876 that we could build a computer 506 00:23:19,898 --> 00:23:22,435 which is vastly superhuman 507 00:23:22,467 --> 00:23:24,913 which is conscious, which has emotions, 508 00:23:24,936 --> 00:23:27,473 which is, essentially, a new species 509 00:23:27,506 --> 00:23:31,113 of self-aware intelligence and conscious in every way 510 00:23:31,143 --> 00:23:34,056 and has got emotions the same as you and I do. 511 00:23:34,079 --> 00:23:35,752 I don't see any fundamental limits 512 00:23:35,781 --> 00:23:38,125 on what we can do, and we already know enough 513 00:23:38,150 --> 00:23:41,620 about basic science to start doing that now. 514 00:23:41,653 --> 00:23:44,998 So some people are concerned about, 515 00:23:45,023 --> 00:23:48,493 you know, possible risks of building Al 516 00:23:48,527 --> 00:23:51,804 and building something that is very, very powerful 517 00:23:51,830 --> 00:23:54,106 where there are unintended consequences 518 00:23:54,132 --> 00:23:57,443 of the thing that you've built and where it might 519 00:23:57,469 --> 00:23:58,675 do things that you can't predict 520 00:23:58,703 --> 00:24:00,808 that might be extremely dangerous. 521 00:24:00,839 --> 00:24:02,648 So a so-called "existential risk," 522 00:24:02,674 --> 00:24:03,948 as some people call it. 523 00:24:03,975 --> 00:24:06,922 We are going to hand off to our machines 524 00:24:06,945 --> 00:24:09,084 all the multidimensional problems 525 00:24:09,114 --> 00:24:11,492 that we are incapable of coping with. 526 00:24:11,516 --> 00:24:14,827 You and I can take a problem with two or three 527 00:24:14,853 --> 00:24:17,697 or four or even seven inputs. 528 00:24:17,722 --> 00:24:18,826 But 300? 529 00:24:18,857 --> 00:24:21,235 A thousand, a million inputs? 530 00:24:21,460 --> 00:24:22,837 We're dead in the water. 531 00:24:22,861 --> 00:24:24,841 The machines can cope with that. 532 00:24:24,863 --> 00:24:26,672 The advantage that computers have 533 00:24:26,698 --> 00:24:29,577 is that they communicate at gigabit speeds. 534 00:24:29,601 --> 00:24:31,137 They all network together. 535 00:24:31,169 --> 00:24:32,944 We talk in slow motion. 536 00:24:32,971 --> 00:24:37,078 So computers will achieve this level of awareness 537 00:24:37,108 --> 00:24:39,110 probably in the next 20, 30, 40 years. 538 00:24:39,144 --> 00:24:42,682 It's not that if it's good or that it's evil. 539 00:24:42,714 --> 00:24:44,125 It's we're probably good enough 540 00:24:44,149 --> 00:24:46,857 to not program an evil Al. 541 00:24:46,885 --> 00:24:50,526 It's that if it's lethally indifferent. 542 00:24:50,555 --> 00:24:52,159 If it has certain things 543 00:24:52,190 --> 00:24:55,865 that it's tasked with accomplishing 544 00:24:55,894 --> 00:24:57,840 and humans are in the way. 545 00:24:57,863 --> 00:25:00,935 So there's this concern that once we reach that moment 546 00:25:00,966 --> 00:25:03,242 where the computers outperform us 547 00:25:03,268 --> 00:25:05,942 in ways that are quite meaningful, 548 00:25:05,971 --> 00:25:09,282 that then they will somehow be motivated to dispose of us 549 00:25:09,508 --> 00:25:12,114 or take over us or something of this kind. 550 00:25:12,143 --> 00:25:13,781 I don't really believe that 551 00:25:13,812 --> 00:25:16,088 because these kinds of developments, 552 00:25:16,114 --> 00:25:18,253 which probably are a little farther off in the future 553 00:25:18,283 --> 00:25:20,695 than some of their enthusiasts think, 554 00:25:20,719 --> 00:25:22,858 there will be time for us to adapt, 555 00:25:22,888 --> 00:25:26,028 to come to terms with it, to organize social systems 556 00:25:26,057 --> 00:25:28,003 that will enable us to deal adequately 557 00:25:28,026 --> 00:25:30,097 with these new forms of intelligence. 558 00:25:30,128 --> 00:25:31,971 So I don't thi--this is not just gonna be something 559 00:25:31,997 --> 00:25:34,136 that's gonna happen as a miracle tomorrow 560 00:25:34,165 --> 00:25:35,974 and then we'll be taken by surprise. 561 00:25:36,001 --> 00:25:38,038 But I do think the key thing here is 562 00:25:38,069 --> 00:25:41,710 that we need to treat these futuristic things 563 00:25:41,740 --> 00:25:44,243 as not as far away as people say they are. 564 00:25:44,276 --> 00:25:46,153 Just because they're not likely to happen 565 00:25:46,177 --> 00:25:47,952 in 15 years, let's say, 566 00:25:47,979 --> 00:25:49,981 it doesn't mean they won't happen in 50 years. 567 00:25:50,015 --> 00:25:54,020 It's gonna be of kind of historical dimensions, 568 00:25:54,052 --> 00:25:56,191 and it's very hard to predict, I think, 569 00:25:56,221 --> 00:26:00,601 whether it's gonna take us in a utopian direction 570 00:26:00,625 --> 00:26:02,161 or in a dystopian direction 571 00:26:02,193 --> 00:26:04,935 or more likely something in between, 572 00:26:04,963 --> 00:26:06,237 but just very different. 573 00:26:06,264 --> 00:26:08,175 Very hard to predict. 574 00:26:08,199 --> 00:26:10,839 You see, it's our job to take raw materials, 575 00:26:10,869 --> 00:26:12,746 adapt them to useful forms, 576 00:26:12,771 --> 00:26:16,116 take natural forces, harness them to do man's work. 577 00:26:16,141 --> 00:26:18,280 The automated systems of the future 578 00:26:18,310 --> 00:26:21,951 are a natural process of human innovation. 579 00:26:21,980 --> 00:26:26,326 It all comes back to the idea of doing more with less. 580 00:26:26,351 --> 00:26:28,058 This process of innovation 581 00:26:28,086 --> 00:26:31,761 is driven not by necessity, but desire, 582 00:26:31,790 --> 00:26:35,363 or to simply fill a gap in the market. 583 00:26:35,594 --> 00:26:37,972 Farm owners didn't really need to replace 584 00:26:37,996 --> 00:26:40,840 their workers with machines, but they did so 585 00:26:40,865 --> 00:26:43,709 because they could foresee the benefits. 586 00:26:43,735 --> 00:26:46,045 It's a natural cycle of business. 587 00:26:46,071 --> 00:26:49,746 Doing more with less leads to greater prosperity. 588 00:26:49,774 --> 00:26:51,310 ♪ 589 00:26:51,343 --> 00:26:53,118 The hope is that we can adapt to this 590 00:26:53,144 --> 00:26:54,282 politically and socially. 591 00:26:54,312 --> 00:26:55,757 In order to do that, 592 00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:57,259 we have to begin a conversation now. 593 00:26:57,282 --> 00:26:59,694 Remember that we're up against 594 00:26:59,718 --> 00:27:02,164 an exponential arc of progress. 595 00:27:02,187 --> 00:27:04,326 Things are gonna keep moving faster and faster, 596 00:27:04,356 --> 00:27:06,802 so we need to star-t talking about this now 597 00:27:06,825 --> 00:27:08,361 and we need to sort of get the word out there 598 00:27:08,393 --> 00:27:09,838 so that people will realize 599 00:27:09,861 --> 00:27:12,205 that this problem is coming at us, 600 00:27:12,230 --> 00:27:14,176 so that we can begin to discuss 601 00:27:14,199 --> 00:27:16,076 viable political solutions to this 602 00:27:16,101 --> 00:27:18,843 because, again, I think it will require, 603 00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:20,372 ultimately, a political choice. 604 00:27:20,405 --> 00:27:24,410 It's not something that is gonna son itself out 605 00:27:24,643 --> 00:27:27,647 by itself as a result of the normal functioning 606 00:27:27,679 --> 00:27:29,249 of the market economy. 607 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:31,282 It's something that will require 608 00:27:31,316 --> 00:27:33,057 some son of an intervention 609 00:27:33,084 --> 00:27:34,358 and, you know, pan of the problem is 610 00:27:34,386 --> 00:27:36,059 that in the United States, 611 00:27:36,087 --> 00:27:39,899 roughly half of the population is very conservative 612 00:27:39,924 --> 00:27:42,131 and they really don't believe in this idea 613 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,800 of intervention in the market. 614 00:27:44,829 --> 00:27:46,934 It's gonna be a tough transition, 615 00:27:46,965 --> 00:27:49,002 and those that find themselves out of jobs 616 00:27:49,034 --> 00:27:51,275 because a robot has taken it 617 00:27:51,302 --> 00:27:53,213 are gonna be pretty pissed off. 618 00:27:53,238 --> 00:27:57,186 The effect of automation on jobs and livelihood 619 00:27:57,208 --> 00:28:00,712 is going to be behind this like the original Luddites. 620 00:28:00,745 --> 00:28:02,850 It wasn't--it wasn't that they were against 621 00:28:02,881 --> 00:28:05,794 technological developments in some ethereal sense. 622 00:28:05,817 --> 00:28:08,957 It was that this was taking their damn jobs. 623 00:28:08,987 --> 00:28:11,831 I absolutely think there could be a Neo-Luddite movement 624 00:28:11,856 --> 00:28:14,336 against the future, against technology 625 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:15,736 because they're gonna say, 626 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:17,068 "Well, hey, you're taking our jobs, 627 00:28:17,095 --> 00:28:18,472 you're taking our livelihoods away. 628 00:28:18,697 --> 00:28:20,404 You're taking everything away from us." 629 00:28:20,432 --> 00:28:22,810 But I think that's when it's gonna be important 630 00:28:22,834 --> 00:28:25,974 that leaders and government step in and say, 631 00:28:26,004 --> 00:28:27,278 "It may seem that way, 632 00:28:27,305 --> 00:28:29,216 but life is going to get better for everyone." 633 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,880 We're gonna have more time to do things that we want, 634 00:28:31,910 --> 00:28:33,389 more vacations, more passions. 635 00:28:33,411 --> 00:28:35,186 This is the modern world. 636 00:28:35,213 --> 00:28:38,387 We can create the utopia that we've always dreamt of. 637 00:28:38,416 --> 00:28:41,260 Why are we saying, "My job's not safe," 638 00:28:41,286 --> 00:28:44,824 or, "Automation's going to steal my jobs"? 639 00:28:44,856 --> 00:28:46,460 These are the--these are the phrases 640 00:28:46,491 --> 00:28:48,368 that keep getting pushed out there. 641 00:28:48,393 --> 00:28:50,066 They're negative phrases, 642 00:28:50,095 --> 00:28:53,304 and instead, it seems that we would look at this, 643 00:28:53,331 --> 00:28:55,004 especially if someone has been working in a factory 644 00:28:55,033 --> 00:28:56,273 their whole life, 645 00:28:56,301 --> 00:28:58,406 that they would look at that system and say, 646 00:28:58,436 --> 00:29:02,043 "Thank goodness that this is starting to be automated." 647 00:29:02,073 --> 00:29:04,053 I don't want anyone to have to crawl 648 00:29:04,075 --> 00:29:07,215 into a hole in the ground and pull up coal. 649 00:29:07,245 --> 00:29:09,782 No human being should have to go do that. 650 00:29:09,814 --> 00:29:12,317 If you make an awful lot of computers 651 00:29:12,350 --> 00:29:14,421 and a lot of robots, and the computers can make 652 00:29:14,452 --> 00:29:16,193 those robots very sophisticated 653 00:29:16,221 --> 00:29:18,098 and do lots of sophisticated jobs, 654 00:29:18,123 --> 00:29:21,502 you could eliminate most of the high-value physical jobs 655 00:29:21,526 --> 00:29:24,370 and also most of the high-value intellectual jobs. 656 00:29:24,395 --> 00:29:26,466 What you're left with, then, are those jobs 657 00:29:26,498 --> 00:29:28,205 where you have to be a human being, 658 00:29:28,233 --> 00:29:30,873 so I find it quite paradoxical in some ways 659 00:29:30,902 --> 00:29:32,904 that the more advanced the technology becomes, 660 00:29:32,937 --> 00:29:35,440 the more it forces us to become humans. 661 00:29:35,473 --> 00:29:36,975 So in some ways, it's very good. 662 00:29:37,008 --> 00:29:40,114 It forces us to explore what is humanity about? 663 00:29:40,145 --> 00:29:41,283 What are the fundamentally important 664 00:29:41,312 --> 00:29:42,882 things about being a human? 665 00:29:42,914 --> 00:29:45,087 It's not being able to, you know, flip a burger 666 00:29:45,116 --> 00:29:48,325 or, you know, carve something intricately. 667 00:29:48,353 --> 00:29:49,832 A computer or a robot 668 00:29:49,854 --> 00:29:52,027 could do that far better than a human being. 669 00:29:52,056 --> 00:29:54,332 One thing I've noticed, if you talk to techno-optimists 670 00:29:54,359 --> 00:29:57,829 about the future of work and how it's gonna unfold, 671 00:29:57,862 --> 00:30:00,274 very often they will focus on this issue 672 00:30:00,298 --> 00:30:03,177 of how will we all be fulfilled in the future? 673 00:30:03,201 --> 00:30:05,010 What will be our purpose in life 674 00:30:05,036 --> 00:30:06,515 when we don't want to work? 675 00:30:06,538 --> 00:30:09,542 And, you know, you can son of posit this 676 00:30:09,574 --> 00:30:12,020 in terms of-there was a guy named Maslow 677 00:30:12,043 --> 00:30:14,250 who came up with a hierarchy of human needs, 678 00:30:14,279 --> 00:30:15,553 Maslow's pyramid. 679 00:30:15,580 --> 00:30:17,389 And at the base of that pyramid 680 00:30:17,415 --> 00:30:20,555 are the foundational things like food and shelter, 681 00:30:20,585 --> 00:30:22,326 and at the top of that pyramid, of course, 682 00:30:22,353 --> 00:30:24,333 are all these intangible things like, you know, 683 00:30:24,355 --> 00:30:25,925 a sense of purpose in your life 684 00:30:25,957 --> 00:30:27,459 and fulfillment and so forth. 685 00:30:27,492 --> 00:30:31,065 What you'll find among the most techno-optimistic people 686 00:30:31,095 --> 00:30:32,574 is that they will want to skip 687 00:30:32,597 --> 00:30:34,270 right over the base of that pyramid 688 00:30:34,299 --> 00:30:36,609 and jump right to the top and start talking about, 689 00:30:36,835 --> 00:30:38,508 "Oh, gosh, how are we gonna," you know, 690 00:30:38,536 --> 00:30:39,947 "what's the meaning of our life gonna be 691 00:30:39,971 --> 00:30:41,973 when we don't have to work?" 692 00:30:42,006 --> 00:30:45,317 But the reality is that the base of that pyramid, 693 00:30:45,343 --> 00:30:47,584 food, shelter, all the things that we need 694 00:30:47,612 --> 00:30:49,319 to have, you know, a decent life, 695 00:30:49,347 --> 00:30:50,553 that's the elephant in the room. 696 00:30:50,582 --> 00:30:54,029 That stuff costs real money. 697 00:30:54,052 --> 00:30:55,429 That stuff is gonna involve 698 00:30:55,453 --> 00:30:58,024 perhaps raising taxes on a lot of the people 699 00:30:58,056 --> 00:30:59,467 that are doing really well right now, 700 00:30:59,490 --> 00:31:00,969 and that's probably part of the reason 701 00:31:00,992 --> 00:31:02,528 that they prefer not to talk about it. 702 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:05,234 So what do we do with the 99 percent 703 00:31:05,263 --> 00:31:06,401 of the population on this planet 704 00:31:06,431 --> 00:31:08,206 if they don't have jobs? 705 00:31:08,233 --> 00:31:11,112 The suggestion is and the goal is 706 00:31:11,135 --> 00:31:12,944 to make this an efficient system. 707 00:31:12,971 --> 00:31:15,383 You put automation in the hands of everyone. 708 00:31:15,406 --> 00:31:17,477 In the near future, we're going to see systems 709 00:31:17,508 --> 00:31:19,613 where we can 3D print our clothing, 710 00:31:19,644 --> 00:31:21,317 we can 3D print food. 711 00:31:21,346 --> 00:31:23,952 If you automate these self-replicating 712 00:31:23,982 --> 00:31:27,156 industrial machines to pull the raw materials 713 00:31:27,185 --> 00:31:29,062 and distribute those raw materials 714 00:31:29,087 --> 00:31:31,431 to everyone who has the capacity 715 00:31:31,456 --> 00:31:33,265 to 3D print their own house 716 00:31:33,291 --> 00:31:36,101 or 3D print their own farm bot, 717 00:31:36,127 --> 00:31:40,405 you have literally solved the equation 718 00:31:40,431 --> 00:31:43,105 of how do I automate my life 719 00:31:43,134 --> 00:31:45,444 and how do I automate my basic necessities? 720 00:31:45,470 --> 00:31:47,347 If we had the political will 721 00:31:47,372 --> 00:31:49,283 to take all these new technologies 722 00:31:49,307 --> 00:31:51,685 and the wealth and abundance they create, 723 00:31:51,910 --> 00:31:54,356 and distribute these across our society 724 00:31:54,379 --> 00:31:55,949 in the First World countries 725 00:31:55,980 --> 00:31:57,618 and also across the whole world, 726 00:31:57,649 --> 00:31:59,629 then, of course, I mean, the sky's the limit. 727 00:31:59,651 --> 00:32:01,562 We can solve all kinds of problems. 728 00:32:01,586 --> 00:32:04,396 But we will have to have the political will to do that, 729 00:32:04,422 --> 00:32:07,028 and I don't see a whole lot of evidence for it right now. 730 00:32:07,058 --> 00:32:10,267 There really is enough already for everybody, 731 00:32:10,295 --> 00:32:12,332 certainly to have an adequate life, 732 00:32:12,363 --> 00:32:16,277 if not a life of superabundant, 733 00:32:16,301 --> 00:32:19,305 so, you know, I don't think that the introduction 734 00:32:19,337 --> 00:32:21,248 of more labor-saving devices 735 00:32:21,272 --> 00:32:25,049 or more is really gonna make any difference in that. 736 00:32:25,076 --> 00:32:26,282 The reason there are poor people 737 00:32:26,311 --> 00:32:27,722 is 'cause there's rich people. 738 00:32:27,946 --> 00:32:34,454 ♪ 739 00:32:34,485 --> 00:32:37,022 You're simultaneously making a lot of people 740 00:32:37,055 --> 00:32:38,693 almost completely useless 741 00:32:38,723 --> 00:32:41,636 while generating a lot more wealth 742 00:32:41,659 --> 00:32:43,696 and value than ever before. 743 00:32:43,728 --> 00:32:44,968 So I worry about this. 744 00:32:44,996 --> 00:32:46,236 I worry about the schism 745 00:32:46,264 --> 00:32:49,268 between the super rich and the poor. 746 00:32:49,300 --> 00:32:53,009 The ultra rich, if they're representative 747 00:32:53,037 --> 00:32:54,983 of some of the people we've seen in Silicon Valley, 748 00:32:55,006 --> 00:32:56,246 I really, really worry 749 00:32:56,274 --> 00:32:58,254 because I wonder if they really have a soul. 750 00:32:58,276 --> 00:33:01,723 I really--I wonder if they really have an awareness 751 00:33:01,746 --> 00:33:04,192 of how regular people feel 752 00:33:04,215 --> 00:33:06,491 and if they share the values of humanity. 753 00:33:06,517 --> 00:33:09,191 It really bothers me that you have this ultra rich 754 00:33:09,220 --> 00:33:12,167 that is out of touch with regular people, with humanity. 755 00:33:12,190 --> 00:33:14,363 This is being filmed right now in San Francisco, 756 00:33:14,392 --> 00:33:17,601 which is by all accounts one of the wealthiest cities 757 00:33:17,628 --> 00:33:19,733 and most advanced cities in the world, 758 00:33:19,764 --> 00:33:21,505 and it's pretty much ground zero 759 00:33:21,532 --> 00:33:24,172 for this technological revolution, 760 00:33:24,202 --> 00:33:25,476 and, yet, as I came here, 761 00:33:25,503 --> 00:33:28,416 I almost tripped over homeless people 762 00:33:28,439 --> 00:33:30,043 sleeping on the sidewalk. 763 00:33:30,074 --> 00:33:32,714 That is the reality of today's economy 764 00:33:32,744 --> 00:33:33,779 and today's society. 765 00:33:34,012 --> 00:33:35,548 In a very real sense, 766 00:33:35,580 --> 00:33:38,754 we already live in the economy of abundance, 767 00:33:38,783 --> 00:33:41,457 and yet we have not solved this problem. 768 00:33:41,486 --> 00:33:44,092 I think the future for the four billion 769 00:33:44,122 --> 00:33:46,796 poor people in the world is actually a very good one. 770 00:33:47,025 --> 00:33:49,562 We've seen the amount of food in the world, for example, 771 00:33:49,594 --> 00:33:51,801 has more than doubled in the last 25 years. 772 00:33:52,030 --> 00:33:54,135 That's likely to continue. 773 00:33:54,165 --> 00:33:58,272 Worldwide, we're seeing massive economic growth. 774 00:33:58,302 --> 00:34:01,613 That really means that people in poor countries today 775 00:34:01,639 --> 00:34:04,051 will be much better off in the future, 776 00:34:04,075 --> 00:34:06,112 so there will still be some poor people, 777 00:34:06,144 --> 00:34:07,452 relatively speaking, 778 00:34:07,478 --> 00:34:09,617 but compared to today's poor people, 779 00:34:09,647 --> 00:34:11,285 they'll be actually quite well-off. 780 00:34:11,315 --> 00:34:14,353 I think this is an amplifier for inequality. 781 00:34:14,385 --> 00:34:18,231 It's gonna make what we see now much more amplified. 782 00:34:18,256 --> 00:34:19,599 The number of people that are doing 783 00:34:19,624 --> 00:34:21,228 really well in the economy 784 00:34:21,259 --> 00:34:23,296 I think is likely to continue to shrink. 785 00:34:23,327 --> 00:34:25,170 Those people that are doing well 786 00:34:25,196 --> 00:34:29,144 will do extraordinarily well, but for more and more people, 787 00:34:29,167 --> 00:34:30,703 they're simply gonna find themselves 788 00:34:30,735 --> 00:34:32,840 in a position where they don't have a lot to offer. 789 00:34:33,071 --> 00:34:34,675 They don't have a marketable skill. 790 00:34:34,705 --> 00:34:38,118 They don't have a viable way to really earn an income 791 00:34:38,142 --> 00:34:39,746 or, in particular, middle-class income. 792 00:34:39,777 --> 00:34:41,347 We should value the fact 793 00:34:41,379 --> 00:34:43,586 that we can spend more time doing human work 794 00:34:43,614 --> 00:34:47,357 and the robots will get on, increase the economy. 795 00:34:47,385 --> 00:34:49,592 They'll be still taking all the resources 796 00:34:49,620 --> 00:34:51,725 and convening them into material goods 797 00:34:51,756 --> 00:34:54,794 at very low cost, so the economy will expand, 798 00:34:54,826 --> 00:34:56,305 we'll be better off, 799 00:34:56,327 --> 00:34:57,863 and we can concentrate on what matters. 800 00:34:58,096 --> 00:35:00,269 There's nothing to worry about in there. 801 00:35:00,298 --> 00:35:02,335 A constant stream of savings dollars 802 00:35:02,366 --> 00:35:06,280 must flow into big and small business each year. 803 00:35:06,304 --> 00:35:08,875 These dollars help to buy the land, 804 00:35:09,107 --> 00:35:13,556 the buildings, the tools and equipment, 805 00:35:13,578 --> 00:35:15,615 and create new job opportunities 806 00:35:15,646 --> 00:35:17,557 for our expanding population. 807 00:35:17,582 --> 00:35:21,291 ♪ 808 00:35:21,319 --> 00:35:22,764 We need consumers out there. 809 00:35:22,787 --> 00:35:25,563 We need people who can actually buy 810 00:35:25,590 --> 00:35:28,298 the things that are produced by the economy. 811 00:35:28,326 --> 00:35:30,203 If you look at the way our economy works, 812 00:35:30,228 --> 00:35:32,765 ultimately, it's driven by end consumption, 813 00:35:32,797 --> 00:35:35,710 and by that, I mean people and to a limited extent, 814 00:35:35,733 --> 00:35:37,804 governments, who buy things because they want them 815 00:35:37,835 --> 00:35:39,473 or they need them. 816 00:35:39,504 --> 00:35:41,142 You know, businesses in our economy, 817 00:35:41,172 --> 00:35:43,209 they also buy things, of course, 818 00:35:43,241 --> 00:35:45,482 but they do that in order to produce something else, 819 00:35:45,510 --> 00:35:47,490 and one business may sell to another business, 820 00:35:47,512 --> 00:35:49,856 but at the end of that, at the end of that chain, 821 00:35:49,881 --> 00:35:52,919 there has to stand a consumer or perhaps a government 822 00:35:53,151 --> 00:35:55,529 who buys that product or service 823 00:35:55,553 --> 00:35:57,533 just because they want it or they need it. 824 00:35:57,555 --> 00:35:58,932 So this is not the case 825 00:35:59,157 --> 00:36:00,864 that things can just keep going like this 826 00:36:00,892 --> 00:36:03,668 and get more and more unequal over time 827 00:36:03,694 --> 00:36:05,401 and everything will still be fine. 828 00:36:05,429 --> 00:36:06,737 I think that it won't be fine. 829 00:36:06,764 --> 00:36:09,870 It will actually have an impact on our economy 830 00:36:09,901 --> 00:36:12,245 and on our economic growth. 831 00:36:12,270 --> 00:36:15,774 We need intelligent planning because, you know, 832 00:36:15,806 --> 00:36:18,787 being unemployed is not a positive thing in itself. 833 00:36:18,809 --> 00:36:20,482 There has to be some kind of transition point 834 00:36:20,511 --> 00:36:22,422 to some other form of life after that. 835 00:36:22,446 --> 00:36:24,289 And, again, at the moment, 836 00:36:24,315 --> 00:36:26,693 I really don't see enough attention being paid to this, 837 00:36:26,717 --> 00:36:29,960 so we need to take this future prospect seriously now. 838 00:36:30,188 --> 00:36:32,190 ♪ 839 00:36:32,223 --> 00:36:35,227 If we manage to adapt to this expected wave 840 00:36:35,259 --> 00:36:39,571 of technological unemployment both politically and socially, 841 00:36:39,597 --> 00:36:41,838 it's likely to facilitate a time 842 00:36:41,866 --> 00:36:44,472 when work takes on a different meaning 843 00:36:44,502 --> 00:36:46,539 and a new role in our lives. 844 00:36:46,571 --> 00:36:48,209 ♪ 845 00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,913 Ideas of how we should approach our relationship 846 00:36:50,942 --> 00:36:54,446 with work have changed throughout history. 847 00:36:54,478 --> 00:36:57,322 In ancient Greece, Aristotle said, 848 00:36:57,348 --> 00:37:02,457 "A working paid job absorbs and degrades the mind." 849 00:37:02,486 --> 00:37:05,228 I.E., if a person would not willingly adopt 850 00:37:05,256 --> 00:37:06,758 their job for free, 851 00:37:06,791 --> 00:37:08,896 the argument can be made that they have become 852 00:37:08,926 --> 00:37:11,463 absorbed and degraded by it, 853 00:37:11,495 --> 00:37:15,341 working purely out of financial obligation. 854 00:37:15,366 --> 00:37:18,904 In 1844, Karl Marx famously described 855 00:37:18,936 --> 00:37:22,884 the workers of society as "alienated from their work 856 00:37:22,907 --> 00:37:26,684 and wholly saturated by it." 857 00:37:26,711 --> 00:37:28,782 He felt that most work didn't allow 858 00:37:28,813 --> 00:37:31,453 an individual's character to grow. 859 00:37:31,482 --> 00:37:33,860 He encouraged people to find fulfillment 860 00:37:33,884 --> 00:37:36,387 and freedom in their work. 861 00:37:36,420 --> 00:37:39,594 During World War Two, the ethos towards work 862 00:37:39,624 --> 00:37:41,661 was that it was a patriotic duty 863 00:37:41,692 --> 00:37:44,935 in order to support the war effort. 864 00:37:44,962 --> 00:37:48,535 To best understand our current relationship with work 865 00:37:48,566 --> 00:37:51,672 and perhaps by extension modern life itself, 866 00:37:51,702 --> 00:37:55,946 we can look to the writings of a man called Guy Debord. 867 00:37:55,973 --> 00:38:01,286 Debord was a French Marxist theorist and in 1967, 868 00:38:01,312 --> 00:38:04,418 he published a powerful and influential critique 869 00:38:04,448 --> 00:38:07,861 on Western society entitled 870 00:38:07,885 --> 00:38:11,492 The Society of the Spectacle. 871 00:38:11,522 --> 00:38:14,469 He describes our workers are ruled by commodities 872 00:38:14,492 --> 00:38:15,835 and that production 873 00:38:15,860 --> 00:38:19,307 is an inescapable duty of the masses, 874 00:38:19,330 --> 00:38:21,571 such is the economic system 875 00:38:21,599 --> 00:38:24,671 that to work is to survive. 876 00:38:24,702 --> 00:38:27,046 "The capitalist economy," he says, 877 00:38:27,071 --> 00:38:31,383 "requires the vast majority to take part as wage workers 878 00:38:31,409 --> 00:38:34,413 in the unending pursuit of its ends. 879 00:38:34,445 --> 00:38:37,449 A requirement to which, as everyone knows, 880 00:38:37,481 --> 00:38:40,485 one must either submit or die." 881 00:38:40,518 --> 00:38:42,828 The assumption has crept into our rhetoric 882 00:38:42,853 --> 00:38:44,423 and our understanding that we live in 883 00:38:44,455 --> 00:38:46,457 a leisure society to some extent. 884 00:38:46,490 --> 00:38:49,403 We have flexible working time. 885 00:38:49,427 --> 00:38:52,465 You hear the term a lot "relative poverty" 886 00:38:52,496 --> 00:38:53,975 it's, again, it's absolute poverty, 887 00:38:53,998 --> 00:38:57,036 and all these kinds of ideas suggest that, in fact, 888 00:38:57,068 --> 00:38:59,105 we should feel pretty pleased with ourselves. 889 00:38:59,337 --> 00:39:01,374 We should both feel quite leisured 890 00:39:01,405 --> 00:39:03,715 and we should feel less in bondage to work 891 00:39:03,741 --> 00:39:05,880 than perhaps somebody in the 19th century 892 00:39:05,910 --> 00:39:08,948 who was kind of shackled to a machine in a factory. 893 00:39:08,979 --> 00:39:12,426 But, in fact, we're very unhappy. 894 00:39:12,450 --> 00:39:14,828 It's irrelevant how much you work 895 00:39:14,852 --> 00:39:16,832 in actual terms anymore. 896 00:39:16,854 --> 00:39:18,856 The way in which the spectacle operates 897 00:39:18,889 --> 00:39:23,133 is to make of leisure itself an adjunct to work. 898 00:39:23,361 --> 00:39:26,433 In other words, the idea of networking and working 899 00:39:26,464 --> 00:39:29,673 are in some sense locked into an unholy 900 00:39:29,700 --> 00:39:32,374 and reciprocal relationship with each other. 901 00:39:32,403 --> 00:39:34,405 You know, the fact that you're not working 902 00:39:34,438 --> 00:39:35,940 is only because you've been working, 903 00:39:35,973 --> 00:39:37,418 and the fact that you're working 904 00:39:37,441 --> 00:39:39,512 is only so that you cannot work. 905 00:39:39,543 --> 00:39:42,820 In other words, so engrafted is that rubric 906 00:39:42,847 --> 00:39:44,155 in the way that we approach life 907 00:39:44,382 --> 00:39:46,885 that--that we can never be rid of it. 908 00:39:46,917 --> 00:39:50,626 Debord also observed that as technology advances, 909 00:39:50,654 --> 00:39:52,964 production becomes more efficient. 910 00:39:52,990 --> 00:39:56,665 Accordingly, the workers' tasks invariably become 911 00:39:56,694 --> 00:39:59,470 more trivial and menial. 912 00:39:59,497 --> 00:40:02,876 It would seem that as human labor becomes irrelevant, 913 00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:06,507 the harder it is to find fulfilling work. 914 00:40:06,537 --> 00:40:09,575 The truth of the matter is that most people already, 915 00:40:09,607 --> 00:40:12,816 in Britain, are doing useless jobs 916 00:40:12,843 --> 00:40:16,017 and have been for generations, actually. 917 00:40:16,046 --> 00:40:18,788 Most jobs in management are completely useless. 918 00:40:18,816 --> 00:40:21,092 They basically consist in the rearrangement 919 00:40:21,118 --> 00:40:23,189 of information into different patterns 920 00:40:23,421 --> 00:40:25,662 that are meant to take on the semblance of meaning 921 00:40:25,689 --> 00:40:27,862 in the bureaucratic context. 922 00:40:27,892 --> 00:40:31,931 So most work is, in fact, a waste of time already, 923 00:40:31,962 --> 00:40:34,602 and I think people understand that intuitively. 924 00:40:34,632 --> 00:40:37,579 When I go into companies, I often ask the question, 925 00:40:37,601 --> 00:40:38,875 "Why are you employing people? 926 00:40:38,903 --> 00:40:40,473 You could get monkeys 927 00:40:40,504 --> 00:40:42,848 or you could get robots to do this job." 928 00:40:42,873 --> 00:40:44,079 The people are not allowed to think. 929 00:40:44,108 --> 00:40:45,917 They are processing. 930 00:40:45,943 --> 00:40:48,082 They're just like a machine. 931 00:40:48,112 --> 00:40:51,559 They're being so hemmed down, 932 00:40:51,582 --> 00:40:55,530 they operate with an algorithm and they just do it. 933 00:40:55,553 --> 00:40:58,898 We all have the need to find meaning in our lives, 934 00:40:58,923 --> 00:41:02,234 and it is our professions that define us. 935 00:41:02,460 --> 00:41:04,736 To work is to provide a service 936 00:41:04,762 --> 00:41:06,764 either to yourself or for others, 937 00:41:06,797 --> 00:41:09,835 but most of us would like our work to be purposeful 938 00:41:09,867 --> 00:41:13,576 and contributory to society in some way. 939 00:41:13,604 --> 00:41:15,811 It is an uncomfortable truth 940 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,719 that with our present model of economics 941 00:41:18,742 --> 00:41:22,918 not everyone is able to monetize their passions. 942 00:41:22,947 --> 00:41:25,951 If any of this were to come to fruition, 943 00:41:25,983 --> 00:41:29,192 if we learned to make automation work for us, 944 00:41:29,220 --> 00:41:34,226 the question remains, "What do we do with our days?" 945 00:41:34,258 --> 00:41:35,999 There's a good and a bad. 946 00:41:36,026 --> 00:41:38,700 The good is that the cost of everything drops. 947 00:41:38,729 --> 00:41:41,073 We can solve some of the basic problems of humanity 948 00:41:41,098 --> 00:41:45,103 like disease, hunger, lodging. 949 00:41:45,135 --> 00:41:49,277 We can look after all the basic needs of human beings. 950 00:41:49,507 --> 00:41:53,887 The dark side is that automation takes jobs away, 951 00:41:53,911 --> 00:41:56,892 and the question is, "What do we do for a living?" 952 00:41:56,914 --> 00:41:59,793 Some of us will seek enlightenment 953 00:41:59,817 --> 00:42:02,161 and rise and will keep learning and growing, 954 00:42:02,186 --> 00:42:04,257 but the majority of people don't care about those things. 955 00:42:04,288 --> 00:42:07,997 Majority of people just want to do, you know, grunt work. 956 00:42:08,025 --> 00:42:11,563 They want to socialize with people as they do at work. 957 00:42:11,595 --> 00:42:15,065 Sennett wrote in his book, The Corrosion of Character, 958 00:42:15,099 --> 00:42:18,046 that in late capitalism, 959 00:42:18,068 --> 00:42:21,208 one of the great kind of supports 960 00:42:21,238 --> 00:42:24,845 for human interaction and for human meaning 961 00:42:24,875 --> 00:42:27,754 is the longevity of social relations 962 00:42:27,778 --> 00:42:30,315 and the interactions in working environments 963 00:42:30,548 --> 00:42:32,824 and that if that's taken away, 964 00:42:32,850 --> 00:42:36,593 if what's required is to be continually responsive 965 00:42:36,620 --> 00:42:40,227 and changing in a precarious world, 966 00:42:40,257 --> 00:42:43,932 then people no longer find the fulfillment 967 00:42:43,961 --> 00:42:46,567 or the substance in what they're doing. 968 00:42:46,597 --> 00:42:50,204 There is an underlying desire for people to do things, 969 00:42:50,234 --> 00:42:51,770 you know, you spoke about the idea 970 00:42:51,802 --> 00:42:54,180 that people want to be engaged creatively. 971 00:42:54,204 --> 00:42:55,649 They want to be engaged, you know, 972 00:42:55,673 --> 00:42:58,984 go back to basic Marxist ideas of praxis 973 00:42:59,009 --> 00:43:00,647 and right back to John Locke. 974 00:43:00,678 --> 00:43:02,680 They want to be engaged in what Locke thought of 975 00:43:02,713 --> 00:43:04,283 as primary acquisition, 976 00:43:04,315 --> 00:43:07,159 mixing their labor, either their creative thinking 977 00:43:07,184 --> 00:43:08,686 or their physical labor even, 978 00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:11,199 with the world in order to transform it. 979 00:43:11,221 --> 00:43:13,667 They want to do that, and that's a very basic 980 00:43:13,691 --> 00:43:15,967 human instinct to do that. 981 00:43:15,993 --> 00:43:19,099 And the idea of a leisured class, as it were, 982 00:43:19,129 --> 00:43:23,271 a class who is not involved in a praxis with the world, 983 00:43:23,300 --> 00:43:25,610 but is simply involved in a passive way 984 00:43:25,636 --> 00:43:29,311 as a recipient of things is actually repugnant to people. 985 00:43:29,340 --> 00:43:34,187 They would sooner work for the man in a meaningless job 986 00:43:34,211 --> 00:43:36,782 and construct a false ideology 987 00:43:36,814 --> 00:43:38,987 of involvement and engagement 988 00:43:39,016 --> 00:43:41,155 than they would actually sit on their ass. 989 00:43:41,185 --> 00:43:42,892 We can't get away from the fact that-- 990 00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:45,730 that people work because they have to. 991 00:43:45,756 --> 00:43:48,760 That's, you know, the primary motivation for most people, 992 00:43:48,792 --> 00:43:50,294 that if you don't work, 993 00:43:50,327 --> 00:43:52,739 you're gonna be living on the street, okay? 994 00:43:52,763 --> 00:43:55,073 Once we--if we ever move into a future 995 00:43:55,099 --> 00:43:56,703 where that's not the case 996 00:43:56,734 --> 00:43:57,974 and people don't have to worry about that, 997 00:43:58,002 --> 00:43:59,208 then we can begin to take on 998 00:43:59,236 --> 00:44:01,307 these more philosophical questions 999 00:44:01,338 --> 00:44:05,411 of-of, you know, but we're not at that point yet. 1000 00:44:05,643 --> 00:44:09,352 We can't pretend that we are living in an age 1001 00:44:09,380 --> 00:44:14,386 where that necessity for an income doesn't exist. 1002 00:44:14,418 --> 00:44:18,867 Douglas Rushkoff stated in 2009, 1003 00:44:18,889 --> 00:44:22,427 "We all want paychecks or at least money. 1004 00:44:22,660 --> 00:44:25,368 We want food, shelter, clothing, 1005 00:44:25,396 --> 00:44:28,309 and all the things that money buys us. 1006 00:44:28,332 --> 00:44:32,041 But do we all really want jobs?" 1007 00:44:32,069 --> 00:44:35,949 According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 1008 00:44:35,973 --> 00:44:37,384 there is enough food produced 1009 00:44:37,408 --> 00:44:39,046 to provide everyone in the world 1010 00:44:39,076 --> 00:44:44,185 with 2,720 kilocalories per person per day. 1011 00:44:44,214 --> 00:44:46,251 ♪ 1012 00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:05,803 At this stage, it's difficult to think of 1013 00:45:05,836 --> 00:45:08,214 other possible ways of life. 1014 00:45:08,238 --> 00:45:10,343 The need to earn a living has been a pan 1015 00:45:10,374 --> 00:45:12,980 of every cultural narrative in history. 1016 00:45:13,010 --> 00:45:16,184 It's a precondition of human life. 1017 00:45:16,213 --> 00:45:18,853 The challenge facing the future of work 1018 00:45:18,882 --> 00:45:21,988 is politically unclear. 1019 00:45:22,019 --> 00:45:23,930 It is likely to require 1020 00:45:23,954 --> 00:45:26,867 not only a redistribution of wealth, 1021 00:45:26,890 --> 00:45:30,303 but a redistribution of the workload. 1022 00:45:30,327 --> 00:45:34,002 But will working less mean living more? 1023 00:45:34,031 --> 00:45:35,772 ♪ 1024 00:45:35,799 --> 00:45:39,076 And is our fear of becoming irrelevant 1025 00:45:39,103 --> 00:45:42,414 greater than our fear of death? 1026 00:45:45,909 --> 00:45:53,909 ♪ 1027 00:46:17,274 --> 00:46:21,222 The process of physical aging is known as senescence, 1028 00:46:21,245 --> 00:46:23,555 and none of us are spared from it. 1029 00:46:23,781 --> 00:46:28,059 It remains to this day an evolutionary enigma. 1030 00:46:28,085 --> 00:46:30,224 Our cells are programmed to wane 1031 00:46:30,254 --> 00:46:33,963 and our entire bodies are fated to become frail. 1032 00:46:33,991 --> 00:46:36,471 It was seen that the laws of nature would prefer it 1033 00:46:36,493 --> 00:46:38,439 if we dwindle and die. 1034 00:46:38,462 --> 00:46:42,239 ♪ 1035 00:46:42,266 --> 00:46:44,576 Negligible senescence, however, 1036 00:46:44,802 --> 00:46:47,942 is the lack of symptoms of aging. 1037 00:46:47,971 --> 00:46:52,249 Negligibly senescent organisms include certain species 1038 00:46:52,276 --> 00:46:55,052 of sturgeon, giant tortoise, 1039 00:46:55,078 --> 00:46:58,457 flatworm, clam, and tardigrade. 1040 00:47:00,083 --> 00:47:04,122 One species of jellyfish called turritopsis dohrnii 1041 00:47:04,154 --> 00:47:08,068 has even been observed to be biologically immortal. 1042 00:47:08,091 --> 00:47:11,903 It has the capability to reverse its biotic cycle 1043 00:47:11,929 --> 00:47:13,909 and revert back to the polyp stage 1044 00:47:13,931 --> 00:47:16,377 at any point in its development. 1045 00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,313 There is only one thing wrong with dying, 1046 00:47:19,336 --> 00:47:21,247 and that's doing it when you don't want to. 1047 00:47:22,272 --> 00:47:24,252 Doing it when you do want to is not a problem. 1048 00:47:24,274 --> 00:47:26,083 Now if you put that bargain to anybody, 1049 00:47:26,109 --> 00:47:28,350 "Look, this is the deal: 1050 00:47:28,378 --> 00:47:30,483 You will die, but only when you want to." 1051 00:47:30,514 --> 00:47:32,323 Who would not take that bargain? 1052 00:47:32,349 --> 00:47:36,855 In 2014, a team of scientists at Harvard 1053 00:47:36,887 --> 00:47:39,333 were able to effectively reverse the age 1054 00:47:39,356 --> 00:47:41,529 of an older mouse by treating it 1055 00:47:41,558 --> 00:47:43,560 with the blood of a younger mouse 1056 00:47:43,594 --> 00:47:46,905 through a process called parabiosis. 1057 00:47:47,931 --> 00:47:49,308 For the first time in history 1058 00:47:49,333 --> 00:47:51,643 it is deemed scientifically possible 1059 00:47:51,869 --> 00:47:54,577 to gain control over the aging process. 1060 00:47:54,605 --> 00:48:02,605 ♪ 1061 00:48:03,113 --> 00:48:05,593 Ultimately, when people get the hang of the idea 1062 00:48:05,616 --> 00:48:07,892 that aging is a medical problem 1063 00:48:07,918 --> 00:48:10,228 and that everybody's got it, 1064 00:48:10,254 --> 00:48:13,929 then it's not going to be the way it is today. 1065 00:48:19,363 --> 00:48:23,175 He thinks it's possible that people will extend-- 1066 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,670 be able to extend their lifespan by considerable amounts. 1067 00:48:26,904 --> 00:48:28,247 I think he's on record as saying 1068 00:48:28,272 --> 00:48:31,219 the first 1,000-year-old person is already alive. 1069 00:48:31,241 --> 00:48:33,482 It's highly likely, in my view, 1070 00:48:33,510 --> 00:48:36,423 that people born today or born 10 years ago 1071 00:48:36,446 --> 00:48:39,188 will actually be able to live 1072 00:48:39,216 --> 00:48:41,253 as long as they like, so to speak, 1073 00:48:41,285 --> 00:48:46,394 without any risk of death from the ill health of old age. 1074 00:48:46,423 --> 00:48:52,101 The way to apply comprehensive maintenance to aging 1075 00:48:52,129 --> 00:48:53,699 is a divide and conquer approach. 1076 00:48:53,931 --> 00:48:55,467 It is not a magic bullet. 1077 00:48:55,499 --> 00:48:57,445 It is not some single thing that we can do, 1078 00:48:57,467 --> 00:49:00,380 let alone a single thing that we could do just once. 1079 00:49:00,404 --> 00:49:03,578 Aging is the lifelong accumulation 1080 00:49:03,607 --> 00:49:05,609 of damage to the body, 1081 00:49:05,642 --> 00:49:08,680 and that damage occurs as an intrinsic, 1082 00:49:08,712 --> 00:49:10,714 unavoidable side effect 1083 00:49:10,948 --> 00:49:13,360 of the way the body normally works. 1084 00:49:13,383 --> 00:49:15,021 Even though there are many, many, 1085 00:49:15,052 --> 00:49:17,555 many different types of damage at the molecular level 1086 00:49:17,587 --> 00:49:21,467 and the cellular level, they can all be classified 1087 00:49:21,491 --> 00:49:23,971 into a very manageable number of categories, 1088 00:49:23,994 --> 00:49:25,564 just seven major categories. 1089 00:49:25,595 --> 00:49:28,439 So now the bottom line, what do we do about it? 1090 00:49:28,465 --> 00:49:31,742 How do we actually implement the maintenance approach? 1091 00:49:31,969 --> 00:49:33,744 There are four fundamental paradigms, 1092 00:49:33,971 --> 00:49:35,473 they all begin with 1093 00:49:35,505 --> 00:49:37,109 They are called replacement, removal, 1094 00:49:37,140 --> 00:49:38,676 repair, and reinforcement. 1095 00:49:38,709 --> 00:49:41,588 We've got particular ways to do all these things. 1096 00:49:41,611 --> 00:49:44,683 Sometimes replacement, sometimes simply elimination 1097 00:49:44,715 --> 00:49:48,754 of the superfluous material, the garbage that's accumulated. 1098 00:49:48,986 --> 00:49:52,297 Sometimes repair of the material. 1099 00:49:52,322 --> 00:49:54,563 Occasionally, in a couple of cases, reinforcement-- 1100 00:49:54,591 --> 00:49:57,128 that means making the cell robust 1101 00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:59,504 so that the damage, which would normally have caused 1102 00:49:59,529 --> 00:50:02,032 the pathology no longer does that. 1103 00:50:02,065 --> 00:50:05,137 I wanna talk about one thing that we're doing in our lab, 1104 00:50:05,168 --> 00:50:07,341 which involved the number one cause of death 1105 00:50:07,371 --> 00:50:09,510 in the western world, cardiovascular disease 1106 00:50:09,539 --> 00:50:11,246 causes hear-t attacks and strokes. 1107 00:50:11,274 --> 00:50:14,084 It all begins with these things called foam cells, 1108 00:50:14,111 --> 00:50:16,785 which are originally white blood cells. 1109 00:50:17,014 --> 00:50:20,621 They become poisoned by toxins in the bloodstream. 1110 00:50:20,650 --> 00:50:23,494 The main toxin that's responsible is known-- 1111 00:50:23,520 --> 00:50:26,433 it's called 7-ketocholesterol, that's this thing, 1112 00:50:26,456 --> 00:50:29,460 and we found some bacteria that could eat it. 1113 00:50:29,493 --> 00:50:31,700 We then found out how they eat it, 1114 00:50:31,728 --> 00:50:34,675 we found out the enzymes that they use to break it down, 1115 00:50:34,698 --> 00:50:37,201 and we found out how to modify those enzymes 1116 00:50:37,234 --> 00:50:39,510 so that they can go into human cells, 1117 00:50:39,536 --> 00:50:42,608 go to the right place in the cell that they're needed, 1118 00:50:42,639 --> 00:50:44,380 which is called the lysosome, 1119 00:50:44,408 --> 00:50:48,550 and actually do their job there, and it actually works. 1120 00:50:48,578 --> 00:50:51,821 Cells are protected from this toxic substance-- 1121 00:50:52,049 --> 00:50:53,687 that's what these graphs are showing. 1122 00:50:53,717 --> 00:50:56,129 So this is pretty good news. 1123 00:50:56,153 --> 00:50:58,724 The damage that accumulates that eventually causes 1124 00:50:58,755 --> 00:51:01,759 the diseases and disabilities of old age 1125 00:51:01,792 --> 00:51:04,363 is initially harmless. 1126 00:51:04,394 --> 00:51:07,603 The body is set up to tolerate a certain amount of it. 1127 00:51:07,631 --> 00:51:10,271 That's critical, because while we damage it 1128 00:51:10,300 --> 00:51:13,213 at that sub-pathological level, 1129 00:51:13,236 --> 00:51:15,341 it means that it's not participating 1130 00:51:15,372 --> 00:51:17,249 in metabolism, so to speak. 1131 00:51:17,274 --> 00:51:20,380 It's not actually interacting with the way the body works. 1132 00:51:20,410 --> 00:51:22,720 So medicines that target that damage 1133 00:51:22,746 --> 00:51:25,283 are much, much less likely 1134 00:51:25,315 --> 00:51:28,228 to have unacceptable side effects 1135 00:51:28,251 --> 00:51:31,198 than medicines that try to manipulate the body 1136 00:51:31,221 --> 00:51:33,098 so as to stop the damage from being created 1137 00:51:33,123 --> 00:51:34,295 in the first place. 1138 00:51:42,399 --> 00:51:48,350 It's unlikely, in fact, by working on longevity per se, 1139 00:51:48,371 --> 00:51:50,248 that we will crack it. 1140 00:51:50,273 --> 00:51:53,379 It's going to be-- it seems to me more probable 1141 00:51:53,410 --> 00:51:57,756 that we will crack longevity simply by getting rid of, 1142 00:51:57,781 --> 00:52:01,354 sequentially, the prime causes of death. 1143 00:52:01,384 --> 00:52:06,390 I hear people talk about living hundreds of years. 1144 00:52:06,423 --> 00:52:07,595 Inside, I'm like, yeah, right, 1145 00:52:07,624 --> 00:52:10,468 I mean, because if you study the brain, 1146 00:52:10,494 --> 00:52:12,770 the dead end is the brain. 1147 00:52:12,796 --> 00:52:14,332 We all star-t developing 1148 00:52:14,364 --> 00:52:16,503 Alzheimer's pathology at 40 years old. 1149 00:52:16,533 --> 00:52:18,706 It's not a matter of whether you get Alzheimer's, 1150 00:52:18,735 --> 00:52:19,805 it's when. 1151 00:52:20,871 --> 00:52:25,718 It's when, and genetically, 1152 00:52:25,742 --> 00:52:27,813 we all have some predisposition 1153 00:52:27,844 --> 00:52:30,347 to when we're gonna get this disease. 1154 00:52:30,380 --> 00:52:32,155 It's pan of the program. 1155 00:52:32,182 --> 00:52:34,389 Let's fix that part of the program 1156 00:52:34,417 --> 00:52:36,590 so we can live past 90 years old 1157 00:52:36,620 --> 00:52:39,157 with an intact, working brain 1158 00:52:39,189 --> 00:52:41,430 to continue the evolution of our mind. 1159 00:52:42,592 --> 00:52:47,871 That is number one in my book, because here's a fact: 1160 00:52:47,898 --> 00:52:50,401 Life span's almost 80 right now on average. 1161 00:52:50,433 --> 00:52:54,279 By 85, half of people will have Alzheimer's. 1162 00:52:54,304 --> 00:52:56,181 Do the math. 1163 00:52:56,206 --> 00:52:57,446 Seventy-four million Baby Boomers 1164 00:52:57,474 --> 00:52:58,817 headed toward risk age. 1165 00:52:58,842 --> 00:53:01,482 Eighty-five, 50 percent have Alzheimer's, 1166 00:53:01,511 --> 00:53:03,184 current life span's 80. 1167 00:53:03,213 --> 00:53:04,783 They're gonna be 85 pretty soon. 1168 00:53:04,814 --> 00:53:07,886 Half our population at 85's gonna have this disease. 1169 00:53:07,918 --> 00:53:09,693 And then keep going up to 90 and 100, 1170 00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:11,198 and it gets even worse. 1171 00:53:11,221 --> 00:53:13,326 This is enemy number one. 1172 00:53:13,356 --> 00:53:16,462 It's interesting, just this week 1173 00:53:17,594 --> 00:53:20,234 it was discovered that an Egyptian mummy 1174 00:53:21,264 --> 00:53:23,938 had died of cancer, so even way back in those times, 1175 00:53:23,967 --> 00:53:25,605 cancer was around. 1176 00:53:25,635 --> 00:53:28,707 What seems to have happened is, as we have lived longer, 1177 00:53:28,738 --> 00:53:31,878 the number of diseases that pop up to kill us 1178 00:53:31,908 --> 00:53:34,411 star-ts to increase, and the reality is 1179 00:53:34,444 --> 00:53:37,482 I think this is a son of whack-a-mole situation 1180 00:53:37,514 --> 00:53:41,360 as we beat cancer to death and it disappears, 1181 00:53:41,384 --> 00:53:42,624 something else will pop up. 1182 00:53:42,652 --> 00:53:44,598 Cancer is a specific disease, 1183 00:53:44,621 --> 00:53:46,726 and every cancer is a specific gene involved 1184 00:53:46,756 --> 00:53:48,463 together with lifestyle. 1185 00:53:48,491 --> 00:53:52,234 Alzheimer's, specific disease, specific genetics. 1186 00:53:52,262 --> 00:53:55,266 I can go on and on-- diabetes, hear-t disease. 1187 00:53:55,298 --> 00:53:59,405 These are diseases, and as you get older, 1188 00:53:59,436 --> 00:54:02,679 your susceptibility to these diseases increases, 1189 00:54:02,706 --> 00:54:04,686 and your genetics will determine 1190 00:54:04,708 --> 00:54:07,450 whether you get them and when you get them 1191 00:54:07,477 --> 00:54:08,717 given your lifespan. 1192 00:54:08,745 --> 00:54:10,486 That's not aging, 1193 00:54:10,513 --> 00:54:12,789 that's just living long enough to be susceptible, 1194 00:54:12,816 --> 00:54:16,992 so we may very well eradicate, in our fantasy world, 1195 00:54:17,020 --> 00:54:20,263 all the cancers and strokes and hear-t disease 1196 00:54:20,290 --> 00:54:23,294 and diabetes and Alzheimer's we get right now 1197 00:54:23,326 --> 00:54:26,535 by 80 or 90 years old, and then what's gonna happen? 1198 00:54:26,563 --> 00:54:29,601 You live out to 110, and guess what's gonna happen, 1199 00:54:29,633 --> 00:54:31,544 new, other genetic variants 1200 00:54:31,568 --> 00:54:33,605 suddenly rear their ugly heads and say, 1201 00:54:33,637 --> 00:54:36,311 "Now we're gonna affect whether you live to 110 1202 00:54:36,339 --> 00:54:38,012 without Alzheimer's and hear-t disease 1203 00:54:38,041 --> 00:54:39,611 and cancer and diabetes." 1204 00:54:39,643 --> 00:54:41,418 And it'll go on and go on and go on. 1205 00:54:43,380 --> 00:54:45,792 There will undoubtedly be enormous challenges 1206 00:54:45,815 --> 00:54:48,796 concerning the biological approach to longevity. 1207 00:54:49,819 --> 00:54:52,925 There could, however, be an alternative route 1208 00:54:52,956 --> 00:54:54,936 to extreme longevity. 1209 00:54:56,426 --> 00:54:58,030 When people are worried about death, 1210 00:54:58,061 --> 00:54:59,734 I guess the issue is what is it 1211 00:54:59,763 --> 00:55:03,472 that they would like to have stay alive, okay? 1212 00:55:03,500 --> 00:55:07,312 And I think that's often very unclear what the answer is, 1213 00:55:07,337 --> 00:55:10,045 because if you look at somebody like Ray Kurzweil, for example, 1214 00:55:10,073 --> 00:55:11,916 with his promises of the singularity 1215 00:55:11,941 --> 00:55:13,784 and our merging with machine intelligence 1216 00:55:13,810 --> 00:55:15,687 and then being able to kind of have 1217 00:55:15,712 --> 00:55:17,316 this kind of infinite consciousness 1218 00:55:17,347 --> 00:55:20,385 projected outward into the Cosmos. 1219 00:55:20,417 --> 00:55:21,862 I don't think he's imaging a human body 1220 00:55:21,885 --> 00:55:24,832 living forever, okay? 1221 00:55:24,854 --> 00:55:28,324 And if that's what we're talking about is immortality, 1222 00:55:28,358 --> 00:55:30,599 what I kind of think Kurzweil is talking about, 1223 00:55:30,627 --> 00:55:32,402 then I can see it. 1224 00:55:32,429 --> 00:55:35,967 I mean, I could see at least as something to work toward. 1225 00:55:35,999 --> 00:55:40,038 In 2005, Google's Director of Engineering, 1226 00:55:40,070 --> 00:55:42,641 Ray Kurzweil, published a book 1227 00:55:42,672 --> 00:55:45,551 entitled The Singularity is Near: 1228 00:55:45,575 --> 00:55:48,749 When Humans Transcend Biology. 1229 00:55:48,778 --> 00:55:52,021 He predicts that by 2045, 1230 00:55:52,048 --> 00:55:54,551 it'll be possible to upload our minds 1231 00:55:54,584 --> 00:55:57,622 into a computer, effectively allowing us 1232 00:55:57,654 --> 00:55:59,725 to live indefinitely. 1233 00:56:14,637 --> 00:56:17,083 When people think of death at this point, 1234 00:56:17,107 --> 00:56:19,417 they think of a body going into a coffin, 1235 00:56:19,442 --> 00:56:21,718 and the coffin going into the ground. 1236 00:56:21,745 --> 00:56:25,852 When in fact that age of death is dying. 1237 00:56:25,882 --> 00:56:28,692 We are ending that stage. 1238 00:56:28,718 --> 00:56:30,425 We're entering a new stage 1239 00:56:30,453 --> 00:56:32,660 where we could possibly upload consciousness 1240 00:56:32,689 --> 00:56:34,566 into a silicone substrate. 1241 00:56:34,591 --> 00:56:36,764 You know, a lot of these science fiction ideas 1242 00:56:36,793 --> 00:56:39,637 from decades ago are becoming real 1243 00:56:39,662 --> 00:56:42,006 and already people are spending millions of pounds 1244 00:56:42,031 --> 00:56:44,841 research today on making this happen. 1245 00:56:44,868 --> 00:56:47,906 Nobody expects to do it before 2040 at the earliest. 1246 00:56:47,937 --> 00:56:51,544 My guess is 2050, it'll be a few rich people 1247 00:56:51,574 --> 00:56:54,612 and a few kings and queens here and there and politicians. 1248 00:56:54,644 --> 00:56:58,091 By 2060-2070, it's reasonably well-off people. 1249 00:56:58,114 --> 00:57:01,857 By 2075, pretty much anybody could be immortal. 1250 00:57:01,885 --> 00:57:04,161 I'm not convinced that uploading my consciousness 1251 00:57:04,187 --> 00:57:07,430 onto a computer is a form of immortality. 1252 00:57:07,457 --> 00:57:09,767 I would like to live forever, 1253 00:57:09,793 --> 00:57:12,205 but I'm not sure that I would like to live forever 1254 00:57:12,429 --> 00:57:17,970 as some digibytes of memory in a computer. 1255 00:57:18,001 --> 00:57:19,674 I wouldn't call that living forever. 1256 00:57:19,702 --> 00:57:21,511 The things I wanna do with my body 1257 00:57:21,538 --> 00:57:24,212 that I won't be able to do in that computer. 1258 00:57:24,441 --> 00:57:26,614 Immortality is a question that keeps arising 1259 00:57:26,643 --> 00:57:29,749 in the technology community, and it's one which I think 1260 00:57:29,779 --> 00:57:33,192 is entirely feasible in principle. 1261 00:57:33,216 --> 00:57:34,854 We won't actually become immortal, 1262 00:57:34,884 --> 00:57:38,491 but what we will do is we will get the technology 1263 00:57:38,521 --> 00:57:43,061 by around about 2050 to connect a human brain 1264 00:57:43,092 --> 00:57:46,972 to the machine world so well that most of your thinking 1265 00:57:46,996 --> 00:57:49,033 is happening inside the computer world, 1266 00:57:49,065 --> 00:57:50,874 inside the l.T., 1267 00:57:50,900 --> 00:57:52,607 so your brain is still being used, 1268 00:57:52,635 --> 00:57:55,582 but 99 percent of your thoughts, 99 percent of your memories 1269 00:57:55,605 --> 00:57:57,243 are actually out there in the cloud 1270 00:57:57,474 --> 00:57:59,044 or whatever you wanna call it, 1271 00:57:59,075 --> 00:58:00,952 and only one percent is inside your head. 1272 00:58:00,977 --> 00:58:02,718 So walk into work this morning, 1273 00:58:02,745 --> 00:58:05,555 you get hit by a bus, it doesn't matter. 1274 00:58:05,582 --> 00:58:09,120 You just upload you mind into an android 1275 00:58:09,152 --> 00:58:11,655 on Monday morning and carry on as if nothing had happened. 1276 00:58:11,688 --> 00:58:13,565 The question with that kind of technology 1277 00:58:13,590 --> 00:58:17,800 and the extension of human capacity 1278 00:58:17,827 --> 00:58:23,004 and human life through technology 1279 00:58:23,032 --> 00:58:26,070 is where does the human, um, end, 1280 00:58:26,102 --> 00:58:27,877 and the technology begin? 1281 00:58:27,904 --> 00:58:31,545 If we upload our consciousness into a robot, 1282 00:58:31,574 --> 00:58:35,954 a humanoid robot that has touch, the ability to feel, 1283 00:58:35,979 --> 00:58:39,722 all of the sensorial inputs, if they're the same, 1284 00:58:39,749 --> 00:58:43,060 there is a potential of continuity, right? 1285 00:58:43,086 --> 00:58:47,228 So you can have the same types of experiences 1286 00:58:47,257 --> 00:58:50,204 in that new substrate that you have as a human being. 1287 00:58:50,226 --> 00:58:52,297 It's beyond a continuity issue, 1288 00:58:52,529 --> 00:58:55,874 it's an issue that you have the ability to record 1289 00:58:55,899 --> 00:58:58,937 and recall without the content-- 1290 00:58:58,968 --> 00:59:00,879 the content being the sensations, images 1291 00:59:00,904 --> 00:59:03,544 and feelings and thoughts you experienced your whole life 1292 00:59:03,573 --> 00:59:04,847 that have associated with each other 1293 00:59:04,874 --> 00:59:06,251 through your neuronetwork. 1294 00:59:06,276 --> 00:59:07,880 Where are they stored? 1295 00:59:07,911 --> 00:59:11,085 I don't think consciousness and the brain 1296 00:59:11,114 --> 00:59:12,889 is anything to do with any particular 1297 00:59:12,916 --> 00:59:14,862 individual region in the brain, 1298 00:59:14,884 --> 00:59:17,592 but it's something that's all about-- 1299 00:59:17,620 --> 00:59:19,896 its distributed organization. 1300 00:59:19,923 --> 00:59:21,596 I don't think there are any mysteries. 1301 00:59:21,624 --> 00:59:24,298 There are no causal mysteries in the brain, 1302 00:59:24,327 --> 00:59:29,606 and I think that there's a perfectly-- 1303 00:59:29,632 --> 00:59:32,044 a comprehensible, physical chain 1304 00:59:32,068 --> 00:59:34,742 of cause and effect that goes from the things 1305 00:59:34,771 --> 00:59:37,217 that I see and hear around me 1306 00:59:37,240 --> 00:59:39,015 and the words that come out of my mouth, 1307 00:59:39,042 --> 00:59:43,582 which would encompass consciousness, I suppose. 1308 00:59:43,613 --> 00:59:44,887 But the things that-- 1309 00:59:44,914 --> 00:59:46,757 the moment you say something like that, 1310 00:59:46,783 --> 00:59:50,788 you're on the edge of the philosophical precipice. 1311 00:59:50,820 --> 00:59:52,128 When you think about a machine, 1312 00:59:52,155 --> 00:59:55,034 the question is are you simulating consciousness 1313 00:59:55,058 --> 00:59:57,231 or are you simulating cognition? 1314 00:59:58,828 --> 01:00:03,334 Cognition requires inputs and reactions 1315 01:00:03,366 --> 01:00:04,811 that are associated with each other 1316 01:00:04,834 --> 01:00:07,314 to create an output and an outcome. 1317 01:00:07,337 --> 01:00:08,907 And you can program that all day 1318 01:00:08,938 --> 01:00:11,043 and you can make that as sophisticated 1319 01:00:11,074 --> 01:00:12,781 and as information-dense as you want, 1320 01:00:12,809 --> 01:00:15,756 almost to the point that it mimics a real person. 1321 01:00:17,213 --> 01:00:19,716 But the question is will it ever have the consciousness 1322 01:00:19,749 --> 01:00:21,695 that our species with our genetics, 1323 01:00:21,718 --> 01:00:23,994 with our brain has. 1324 01:00:24,020 --> 01:00:27,365 No, a machine has its own consciousness. 1325 01:00:27,390 --> 01:00:29,700 All you're doing is programming it 1326 01:00:29,726 --> 01:00:33,173 to be cognitively responsive the way you are. 1327 01:00:33,196 --> 01:00:35,301 I remember well, when my father died, 1328 01:00:35,331 --> 01:00:39,643 asking my mother, "if I could've captured 1329 01:00:39,669 --> 01:00:42,946 the very being of my father in a machine, 1330 01:00:42,972 --> 01:00:44,747 and I could put him in an android 1331 01:00:44,774 --> 01:00:47,414 that looked exactly like him, had all the mannerisms, 1332 01:00:47,644 --> 01:00:50,955 and it was warm and it smelled and it felt like him, 1333 01:00:50,980 --> 01:00:53,187 would you do it?" and she said, "Absolutely not. 1334 01:00:53,216 --> 01:00:55,822 It wouldn't be your father, it wouldn't be him." 1335 01:00:55,852 --> 01:00:57,798 I think that someday you can upload 1336 01:00:57,820 --> 01:00:59,731 your current neuronetwork... 1337 01:01:00,923 --> 01:01:02,994 but that's not you. 1338 01:01:03,026 --> 01:01:05,802 That's just your current neuro map, right? 1339 01:01:05,828 --> 01:01:12,268 ♪ 1340 01:01:12,301 --> 01:01:14,372 As with any concept that proposes 1341 01:01:14,404 --> 01:01:17,681 to change the natural order of things, 1342 01:01:17,707 --> 01:01:22,213 the idea of extreme longevity can be met with disbelief. 1343 01:01:23,746 --> 01:01:26,249 But there is currently an international movement 1344 01:01:26,282 --> 01:01:29,286 called transhumanism that is concerned 1345 01:01:29,318 --> 01:01:31,355 with fundamentally transforming 1346 01:01:31,387 --> 01:01:34,834 the human condition by developing technologies 1347 01:01:34,857 --> 01:01:37,360 to greatly enhance human beings 1348 01:01:37,393 --> 01:01:42,467 in an intellectual, physical, and psychological capacity. 1349 01:01:42,699 --> 01:01:45,305 I really want to just simply live indefinitely, 1350 01:01:45,334 --> 01:01:48,213 and not have the Spectre of Death hanging over me, 1351 01:01:48,237 --> 01:01:50,478 potentially at any moment taking away 1352 01:01:50,707 --> 01:01:53,210 this thing that we call existence. 1353 01:01:53,242 --> 01:01:55,449 So for me, that's the primary goal 1354 01:01:55,478 --> 01:01:57,788 of the transhumanist movement. 1355 01:01:57,814 --> 01:02:00,852 Transhumanists believe we should use technology 1356 01:02:00,883 --> 01:02:05,093 to overcome our biological limitations. 1357 01:02:05,121 --> 01:02:06,429 What does that mean? 1358 01:02:06,456 --> 01:02:10,962 Well, very simplistically, perhaps, 1359 01:02:10,993 --> 01:02:13,439 I think we should be aiming for what one might call 1360 01:02:13,463 --> 01:02:16,000 a triple S civilization 1361 01:02:16,032 --> 01:02:20,139 of super intelligence, super longevity, 1362 01:02:20,169 --> 01:02:21,876 and super happiness. 1363 01:02:21,904 --> 01:02:24,316 We have been evolving through hundreds and hundreds 1364 01:02:24,340 --> 01:02:26,877 of thousands of years, human beings, 1365 01:02:26,909 --> 01:02:29,389 and transhumanism is the climax of that. 1366 01:02:29,412 --> 01:02:32,120 It's the result of how we're going to get 1367 01:02:32,148 --> 01:02:37,029 to some kind of great future where we are way beyond 1368 01:02:37,053 --> 01:02:38,794 what it means to be a human being. 1369 01:02:38,821 --> 01:02:44,100 Unfortunately, organic robots grow old and die, 1370 01:02:44,127 --> 01:02:48,872 and this isn't a choice, it's completely involuntary. 1371 01:02:48,898 --> 01:02:51,174 120 years from now, in the absence 1372 01:02:51,200 --> 01:02:54,477 of radical biological interventions, 1373 01:02:54,504 --> 01:02:58,281 everyone listening to this video will be dead, 1374 01:02:58,307 --> 01:03:00,548 and not beautifully as so, 1375 01:03:00,777 --> 01:03:04,486 but one's last years tends to be those of decrepitude, 1376 01:03:04,514 --> 01:03:08,052 frequently senility, infirmity, 1377 01:03:08,084 --> 01:03:13,193 and transhumanists don't accept aging as inevitable. 1378 01:03:13,222 --> 01:03:15,828 There's no immutable law of nature 1379 01:03:15,858 --> 01:03:18,930 that says that organic robots must grow old. 1380 01:03:18,961 --> 01:03:21,567 After all, silicone robots, they don't need to grow old. 1381 01:03:21,798 --> 01:03:25,268 Their pans can be replaced and upgraded. 1382 01:03:25,301 --> 01:03:26,974 Our bodies are capable of adjusting 1383 01:03:27,003 --> 01:03:28,914 in ways we've hardly dreamt of. 1384 01:03:30,173 --> 01:03:31,948 If we can only find the key. 1385 01:03:33,109 --> 01:03:35,953 I'm so close now, so very close. 1386 01:03:37,880 --> 01:03:40,156 - The key to what? - To be able to replace 1387 01:03:40,183 --> 01:03:41,958 diseased and damaged pans of the body 1388 01:03:41,984 --> 01:03:44,828 as easily as we replace eye corneas now. 1389 01:03:45,588 --> 01:03:46,896 Can't be done. 1390 01:03:48,291 --> 01:03:49,463 It can be done! 1391 01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:53,907 The relationship between life and death 1392 01:03:53,930 --> 01:03:58,970 and the role of technology in forestalling death 1393 01:03:59,001 --> 01:04:02,915 creates death, in a way, as a new kind of problem. 1394 01:04:02,939 --> 01:04:06,216 Death becomes something that needs to be solved. 1395 01:04:06,242 --> 01:04:07,346 Why would it be good to live forever? 1396 01:04:07,376 --> 01:04:08,582 'Cause if you have a shit day, 1397 01:04:08,611 --> 01:04:11,524 it dilutes the depression 1398 01:04:11,547 --> 01:04:14,323 within countless other days, you know? 1399 01:04:14,350 --> 01:04:19,493 And all of these metrics are about failing to exist 1400 01:04:19,522 --> 01:04:22,969 in the full light of your own autonomy. 1401 01:04:22,992 --> 01:04:24,903 That's all they're about, 1402 01:04:24,927 --> 01:04:27,032 and the paradox of your own autonomy, 1403 01:04:27,063 --> 01:04:29,634 which is you're simultaneously completely free 1404 01:04:29,866 --> 01:04:32,540 and completely unfree at the same time. 1405 01:04:32,568 --> 01:04:34,138 I have been to many conferences 1406 01:04:34,170 --> 01:04:36,446 where you got the anti-transhumanist person 1407 01:04:36,472 --> 01:04:39,078 saying, "This is just denial of death." 1408 01:04:39,108 --> 01:04:42,214 At the end of the day, that's all it's about, right? 1409 01:04:42,245 --> 01:04:45,317 And it's a kind of-- the last hangover 1410 01:04:45,348 --> 01:04:46,884 of the Abrahamic religions, 1411 01:04:46,916 --> 01:04:48,190 this idea that we're gonna, you know, 1412 01:04:48,217 --> 01:04:49,924 come back to God and all this, 1413 01:04:49,952 --> 01:04:52,398 and we're gonna realize our God-like nature, 1414 01:04:52,421 --> 01:04:57,461 and this is really the last kind of point for that. 1415 01:04:58,928 --> 01:05:00,373 I think there's a lot of truth to that, 1416 01:05:00,396 --> 01:05:02,171 especially in terms of the issues 1417 01:05:02,198 --> 01:05:03,939 we've been talking about where everybody just seems 1418 01:05:03,966 --> 01:05:06,003 to just take for granted that if you're given 1419 01:05:06,035 --> 01:05:08,641 the chance to live forever, you'd live forever. 1420 01:05:08,671 --> 01:05:11,550 I think yes, I think that that's true. 1421 01:05:11,574 --> 01:05:14,680 I don't think it's-- I think it's true, 1422 01:05:14,911 --> 01:05:16,219 I don't know if it's as problematic 1423 01:05:16,245 --> 01:05:18,191 as people kind of claim it is. 1424 01:05:18,214 --> 01:05:19,591 In other words, that there's something wrong 1425 01:05:19,615 --> 01:05:21,356 with having this fear of death 1426 01:05:21,384 --> 01:05:23,091 and wanting to live forever. 1427 01:05:23,119 --> 01:05:25,292 No, I think living forever is-- 1428 01:05:25,321 --> 01:05:28,063 I think the question is what are you doing with your time? 1429 01:05:28,090 --> 01:05:30,297 In what capacity do you wanna live forever? 1430 01:05:30,326 --> 01:05:32,602 So I do think it makes all the difference in the world 1431 01:05:32,628 --> 01:05:34,505 whether we're talking about Kurzweil's way 1432 01:05:34,530 --> 01:05:36,305 or we're talking about Aubrey de Grey's way. 1433 01:05:36,332 --> 01:05:38,141 The way the human species operates 1434 01:05:38,167 --> 01:05:41,205 is that we're really never fully ready for anything. 1435 01:05:41,237 --> 01:05:44,184 However, the prospect of living indefinitely 1436 01:05:44,206 --> 01:05:48,245 is too promising to turn down or to slow down 1437 01:05:48,277 --> 01:05:51,349 or to just not go after at full speed. 1438 01:05:51,380 --> 01:05:53,451 By enabling us to find technologies 1439 01:05:53,482 --> 01:05:55,519 to live indefinitely, we're not making it 1440 01:05:55,551 --> 01:05:57,258 so that we're going to live forever, 1441 01:05:57,286 --> 01:05:59,459 we're just making it so we have that choice. 1442 01:05:59,488 --> 01:06:01,399 If people wanna pull out of life 1443 01:06:01,424 --> 01:06:03,062 at some point down the future, 1444 01:06:03,092 --> 01:06:04,730 they're certainly welcome to do that. 1445 01:06:04,961 --> 01:06:08,374 However, it's gonna be great to eliminate death if we want, 1446 01:06:08,397 --> 01:06:10,468 because everyone wants that choice. 1447 01:06:12,068 --> 01:06:14,378 There are other socioeconomic repercussions 1448 01:06:14,403 --> 01:06:17,748 of living longer that need to be considered. 1449 01:06:17,974 --> 01:06:20,477 The combination of an aging population 1450 01:06:20,509 --> 01:06:23,388 and the escalating expenses of healthcare, 1451 01:06:23,412 --> 01:06:26,291 social care, and retirement is a problem 1452 01:06:26,315 --> 01:06:29,353 that already exists the world over. 1453 01:06:29,385 --> 01:06:31,365 In the last century alone, 1454 01:06:31,387 --> 01:06:33,594 medicine has massively contributed 1455 01:06:33,622 --> 01:06:36,068 to increased life expectancy. 1456 01:06:37,460 --> 01:06:40,407 According to the World Health Organization, 1457 01:06:40,429 --> 01:06:43,501 the number of people aged 60 years and over 1458 01:06:43,532 --> 01:06:48,038 is expected to increase from the 605 million today 1459 01:06:48,070 --> 01:06:52,382 to 2 billion by the year 2050. 1460 01:06:52,408 --> 01:06:55,252 As people live longer, they become more susceptible 1461 01:06:55,277 --> 01:06:58,451 to noncommunicable diseases. 1462 01:06:58,481 --> 01:07:02,327 This becomes enormously expensive. 1463 01:07:02,351 --> 01:07:08,199 Dementia alone costs the NHS 23 billion a year. 1464 01:07:08,224 --> 01:07:10,795 Currently, elderly non-workers 1465 01:07:11,027 --> 01:07:14,804 account for a vast portion of our population 1466 01:07:15,031 --> 01:07:18,501 and a vast portion of our work force care for them. 1467 01:07:19,668 --> 01:07:23,548 It is economically beneficial to end aging. 1468 01:07:25,541 --> 01:07:28,545 Social life is organized around people having-- 1469 01:07:28,577 --> 01:07:32,150 occupying certain roles at certain ages, right? 1470 01:07:32,181 --> 01:07:34,286 And you can already see the kinds of problems 1471 01:07:34,316 --> 01:07:36,592 that are caused to the welfare system 1472 01:07:36,619 --> 01:07:39,657 when people live substantially beyond the age of 65, 1473 01:07:39,688 --> 01:07:45,070 because when the whole number 65 was selected by Bismarck 1474 01:07:45,094 --> 01:07:47,165 when he started the first social security system, 1475 01:07:47,196 --> 01:07:50,075 in Germany, the expectation was that people would be living 1476 01:07:50,099 --> 01:07:52,670 two years beyond the retirement age 1477 01:07:52,701 --> 01:07:54,442 to be able to get the social security. 1478 01:07:54,470 --> 01:07:56,609 So it wasn't gonna break the bank, okay? 1479 01:07:56,639 --> 01:07:59,449 Problem now is you've got people who are living 20 years 1480 01:07:59,475 --> 01:08:02,081 or more beyond the retirement age, 1481 01:08:02,111 --> 01:08:03,681 and that's unaffordable. 1482 01:08:03,712 --> 01:08:06,693 There's no question that, within society as a whole, 1483 01:08:06,715 --> 01:08:10,857 there is an enormous tendency to knee-jerk reactions 1484 01:08:11,087 --> 01:08:14,159 with regard to the problems that might be created 1485 01:08:14,190 --> 01:08:17,171 if we were to eliminate aging. 1486 01:08:17,193 --> 01:08:19,298 There have been people that said, you know, 1487 01:08:19,328 --> 01:08:21,808 "You'll be bored, you won't have anything to do." 1488 01:08:21,831 --> 01:08:25,142 Speaking from a place of a lifespan 1489 01:08:25,167 --> 01:08:27,169 that's 80 or 90 years old, 1490 01:08:27,203 --> 01:08:28,773 saying that we're going to be bored 1491 01:08:28,804 --> 01:08:32,217 if we live to 150 years old really is just invalid. 1492 01:08:32,241 --> 01:08:34,653 We have no idea what we'll do with that time. 1493 01:08:34,677 --> 01:08:36,350 Pan of this transhumanism stuff, 1494 01:08:36,378 --> 01:08:39,450 where it gets some kind of real policy traction, 1495 01:08:39,482 --> 01:08:43,396 is people who want us not to live to be 1,000, 1496 01:08:43,419 --> 01:08:46,229 but maybe if we can take that 20 years 1497 01:08:46,255 --> 01:08:49,532 that we're living longer now than we did 100 years ago 1498 01:08:49,558 --> 01:08:51,697 and keep that productive. 1499 01:08:51,727 --> 01:08:53,468 So in other words, if you could still be strong 1500 01:08:53,496 --> 01:08:56,875 and still be sharp into your 70s and 80s, 1501 01:08:56,899 --> 01:08:59,709 and so not have to pull any social security 1502 01:08:59,735 --> 01:09:02,773 until quite late in life and then you'll be-- 1503 01:09:02,805 --> 01:09:04,546 you'll have 20 extra years 1504 01:09:04,573 --> 01:09:07,144 where you're actually contributing to the economy. 1505 01:09:07,176 --> 01:09:08,621 So one of the areas that we're gonna have to think about 1506 01:09:08,644 --> 01:09:11,147 in the near future if we do achieve 1507 01:09:11,180 --> 01:09:14,218 extreme longevity physically 1508 01:09:14,250 --> 01:09:17,356 is the idea of overpopulation. 1509 01:09:17,386 --> 01:09:20,526 This is a controversial idea, of course, 1510 01:09:20,556 --> 01:09:24,766 and we may face a time period where we have to say to people, 1511 01:09:24,793 --> 01:09:28,866 "You have to be licensed to have more than one child." 1512 01:09:28,898 --> 01:09:31,708 The ideas around children, I hope, will probably change 1513 01:09:31,734 --> 01:09:37,309 when people start to realize that the values of children 1514 01:09:37,339 --> 01:09:39,615 need to be defined first before we have them. 1515 01:09:39,642 --> 01:09:41,349 And that's not something that we do. 1516 01:09:41,377 --> 01:09:44,358 We just have them, and we don't define why 1517 01:09:44,380 --> 01:09:45,791 or for what purpose. 1518 01:09:45,814 --> 01:09:47,555 I'm not saying there has to be a defined purpose, 1519 01:09:47,583 --> 01:09:50,223 but I'm saying that just to continue our gene line 1520 01:09:50,252 --> 01:09:51,697 isn't the biggest reason. 1521 01:09:51,720 --> 01:09:53,427 At the moment, ultimately, 1522 01:09:53,455 --> 01:09:56,868 we see in any society where fertility rate goes down 1523 01:09:56,892 --> 01:09:59,839 because of female prosperity and emancipation 1524 01:09:59,862 --> 01:10:02,706 and education, we also see the age 1525 01:10:02,731 --> 01:10:05,940 of the average childbirth go up, right? 1526 01:10:05,968 --> 01:10:07,845 We see women having their children later. 1527 01:10:07,870 --> 01:10:10,874 Now of course, at the moment, there's a deadline for that, 1528 01:10:10,906 --> 01:10:12,749 but that's not going to exist anymore, 1529 01:10:12,775 --> 01:10:14,686 because menopause is pan of aging. 1530 01:10:14,710 --> 01:10:17,350 So women who are choosing to have their children 1531 01:10:17,379 --> 01:10:19,359 a bit later now, 1532 01:10:19,381 --> 01:10:21,258 it stands to reason that a lot of them 1533 01:10:21,283 --> 01:10:22,819 are probably gonna choose to have their children 1534 01:10:22,851 --> 01:10:24,922 a lot later and a lot later and that, of course, 1535 01:10:24,954 --> 01:10:28,265 also has an enormous depressive impact 1536 01:10:28,290 --> 01:10:31,396 on the trajectory of global population. 1537 01:10:31,427 --> 01:10:32,872 If we actually said to everybody, "Okay, 1538 01:10:32,895 --> 01:10:34,932 you're all now gonna live for 1,000 years, 1539 01:10:34,964 --> 01:10:36,875 we could restructure society 1540 01:10:36,899 --> 01:10:38,901 so it's on these LOGO-year cycles. 1541 01:10:38,934 --> 01:10:42,472 That's possible, but the problem becomes 1542 01:10:42,504 --> 01:10:46,509 when you still allow people to live the normal length 1543 01:10:46,542 --> 01:10:49,386 and you're also allowing some people to live 1,000 years 1544 01:10:49,411 --> 01:10:52,017 then how do you compare the value of the lives, 1545 01:10:52,248 --> 01:10:53,386 the amount of experience? 1546 01:10:53,415 --> 01:10:56,396 Supposing a 585-year-old guy 1547 01:10:56,418 --> 01:10:58,557 goes up for a job against a 23-year-old. 1548 01:10:58,587 --> 01:11:00,328 How do you measure the experience? 1549 01:11:00,356 --> 01:11:01,926 What, the old guy always gets the job? 1550 01:11:01,957 --> 01:11:05,905 I mean, really, these kinds of problems would arise 1551 01:11:05,928 --> 01:11:08,465 unless there was some kind of legislation 1552 01:11:08,497 --> 01:11:11,034 about permissible variation in age. 1553 01:11:11,267 --> 01:11:12,803 This is a bit of a conundrum 1554 01:11:12,835 --> 01:11:17,045 because we're all expanding our lifespan, 1555 01:11:17,273 --> 01:11:20,379 and the question is, would you like to live 1556 01:11:20,409 --> 01:11:22,753 for not 100 years but 200? 1557 01:11:22,778 --> 01:11:24,883 Would you choose to if you could? 1558 01:11:24,913 --> 01:11:27,291 It would be very, very difficult to say no. 1559 01:11:27,316 --> 01:11:30,786 The reality is the replacement of human piece pans 1560 01:11:30,819 --> 01:11:33,561 is probably gonna take us in that direction, 1561 01:11:33,589 --> 01:11:35,068 but it will be market driven, 1562 01:11:35,291 --> 01:11:37,737 and those people with the money will be able to afford 1563 01:11:37,760 --> 01:11:39,865 to live a lot longer than those people without. 1564 01:11:39,895 --> 01:11:41,806 Pretty much most of the discovery these days 1565 01:11:41,830 --> 01:11:44,401 takes place in Western Europe of the United States 1566 01:11:44,433 --> 01:11:49,314 or one or two other countries, China, Singapore, and so on, 1567 01:11:49,338 --> 01:11:52,683 but if they're valuable enough-- and I don't mean monetarily-- 1568 01:11:52,708 --> 01:11:55,985 if they're worth having, then people extend them. 1569 01:11:56,011 --> 01:11:58,321 We have to star-t somewhere, and I don't believe 1570 01:11:58,347 --> 01:12:00,418 in the dog in the manger attitude 1571 01:12:00,449 --> 01:12:01,689 is that you don't give it to anybody 1572 01:12:01,717 --> 01:12:03,754 until you can provide it for everybody. 1573 01:12:03,786 --> 01:12:06,528 All technologies are discontinuous. 1574 01:12:06,555 --> 01:12:09,092 There are people at this very moment 1575 01:12:09,325 --> 01:12:11,032 who are walking four kilometers 1576 01:12:11,060 --> 01:12:14,064 to get a bucket of water from a well. 1577 01:12:14,096 --> 01:12:17,043 You know, there are people who are having cornea operations 1578 01:12:17,066 --> 01:12:20,809 that are done with a needle where it's stuck in their eye 1579 01:12:20,836 --> 01:12:23,077 and their cornea is scraped out. 1580 01:12:23,105 --> 01:12:25,745 You know, so these ideas of totalizing 1581 01:12:25,774 --> 01:12:28,618 utopian technological intervention 1582 01:12:28,644 --> 01:12:31,454 are pan of a discontinuous technological world 1583 01:12:31,480 --> 01:12:34,825 and the world will always be discontinuous technologically. 1584 01:12:34,850 --> 01:12:39,356 When a child has to drink dirty water, cannot get food, 1585 01:12:39,388 --> 01:12:41,959 and is dying of starvation and disease, 1586 01:12:41,990 --> 01:12:44,834 and the solution is just a few dollars, 1587 01:12:44,860 --> 01:12:46,430 there's something badly wrong. 1588 01:12:46,462 --> 01:12:49,466 We need to fix those things. 1589 01:12:49,498 --> 01:12:53,503 The only way that we could fix them in the past 1590 01:12:53,535 --> 01:12:55,537 would've been at unbelievable cost 1591 01:12:55,571 --> 01:12:56,914 because of the limitation 1592 01:12:56,939 --> 01:12:59,112 of our industrial capacity and capability. 1593 01:12:59,141 --> 01:13:00,643 Not anymore. 1594 01:13:05,981 --> 01:13:10,396 ...not the one which is-- which stops us from aging. 1595 01:13:10,419 --> 01:13:15,164 In the last 20 years, healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa 1596 01:13:15,391 --> 01:13:16,836 has greatly improved. 1597 01:13:16,859 --> 01:13:17,929 ♪ 1598 01:13:17,960 --> 01:13:20,907 HIV prevalence has gone down, 1599 01:13:20,929 --> 01:13:23,876 Infant modality rate has gone down. 1600 01:13:23,899 --> 01:13:26,880 Immunization rates have gone up, 1601 01:13:26,902 --> 01:13:29,883 and the drug supply in many areas has risen. 1602 01:13:29,905 --> 01:13:30,975 ♪ 1603 01:13:31,006 --> 01:13:33,816 However, healthcare and medication 1604 01:13:33,842 --> 01:13:35,685 in developing countries 1605 01:13:35,711 --> 01:13:39,887 is not always affordable or even readily available. 1606 01:13:39,915 --> 01:13:41,758 It is not just medicine. 1607 01:13:41,784 --> 01:13:44,196 According to the World Health Organization, 1608 01:13:44,420 --> 01:13:47,697 over 700 million people worldwide 1609 01:13:47,723 --> 01:13:51,603 do not have access to clean drinking water. 1610 01:13:51,627 --> 01:13:54,506 We still live in an age where over one billion people 1611 01:13:54,530 --> 01:13:56,771 live off less than a dollar a day 1612 01:13:56,799 --> 01:13:59,473 and live in extreme poverty. 1613 01:13:59,501 --> 01:14:02,482 It is ultimately not a scientific issue, 1614 01:14:02,504 --> 01:14:04,882 it is a geopolitical issue. 1615 01:15:09,238 --> 01:15:12,014 Now a lot of people, a lot of philanthropists 1616 01:15:12,040 --> 01:15:16,853 are of the view that the most important thing to do 1617 01:15:16,879 --> 01:15:20,691 is to address the trailing edge of quality of life. 1618 01:15:20,716 --> 01:15:23,754 In other words, to help the disadvantaged. 1619 01:15:23,785 --> 01:15:26,527 But some visionary philanthropists 1620 01:15:26,555 --> 01:15:29,559 such as the ones that fund SENS Research Foundation-- 1621 01:15:29,591 --> 01:15:31,195 and the fact is I agree with this, 1622 01:15:31,226 --> 01:15:33,206 and that's why I've put most of my inheritance 1623 01:15:33,228 --> 01:15:35,834 into SENS Research Foundation, too-- 1624 01:15:35,864 --> 01:15:39,903 we feel that, actually, in the long run, 1625 01:15:39,935 --> 01:15:43,542 you lose out if you focus too exclusively 1626 01:15:43,572 --> 01:15:45,108 on the trailing edge. 1627 01:15:45,140 --> 01:15:48,280 You've got also to push forward the leading edge, 1628 01:15:48,310 --> 01:15:51,757 so that in the long term, everybody moves forward. 1629 01:16:43,999 --> 01:16:46,843 Due to a lack of funding from governments, 1630 01:16:46,868 --> 01:16:51,180 anti-aging research is often pushed into the private sector. 1631 01:16:51,206 --> 01:16:55,086 If we look at funding for disease-- 1632 01:16:55,110 --> 01:16:56,919 cancer, hear-t disease-- 1633 01:16:56,945 --> 01:16:59,152 they get six billion, eight billion, ten billion. 1634 01:16:59,181 --> 01:17:02,355 AIDS still gets two to four billion. 1635 01:17:02,384 --> 01:17:04,694 Let's look at Alzheimer's disease. 1636 01:17:04,720 --> 01:17:06,961 It's probably the most important disease of aging, 1637 01:17:06,989 --> 01:17:10,664 the brain--it gets under a half a billion 1638 01:17:10,692 --> 01:17:11,898 from the federal government, 1639 01:17:11,927 --> 01:17:14,066 and a lot of that goes to programs 1640 01:17:14,096 --> 01:17:15,939 that are tied up with pharma trials 1641 01:17:15,964 --> 01:17:18,103 where we don't really see it in the labs, 1642 01:17:18,133 --> 01:17:20,841 so you're maybe down to two or three hundred million. 1643 01:17:20,869 --> 01:17:24,214 It's not nearly enough to really make a dent. 1644 01:17:24,239 --> 01:17:29,951 The question is, why when it comes to Alzheimer's disease, 1645 01:17:29,978 --> 01:17:32,117 which is a problem in the elderly 1646 01:17:32,147 --> 01:17:34,218 do we just see it as-- the federal government 1647 01:17:34,249 --> 01:17:36,388 seems to see it as a red-haired Stepchild. 1648 01:17:36,418 --> 01:17:39,331 They don't take care of it. 1649 01:17:39,354 --> 01:17:40,992 Some people say it's because-- 1650 01:17:41,023 --> 01:17:42,195 people say, "Well, it affects old people, 1651 01:17:42,224 --> 01:17:44,431 they lived their lives, let them go." 1652 01:17:44,660 --> 01:17:47,140 No one wants to admit that, but maybe subconsciously, 1653 01:17:47,162 --> 01:17:49,073 when Congress is thinking about this, 1654 01:17:49,097 --> 01:17:50,974 that's at play, who knows? 1655 01:17:50,999 --> 01:17:53,912 Um, maybe it's much more compelling 1656 01:17:53,935 --> 01:17:57,974 to wanna put money into diseases that affect young people 1657 01:17:58,006 --> 01:18:00,111 who still have their whole life to live 1658 01:18:00,142 --> 01:18:02,088 when they have AIDS or breast cancer 1659 01:18:02,110 --> 01:18:04,784 or cancer that can strike somebody at 30 or 40 years old. 1660 01:18:04,813 --> 01:18:07,157 Age might be pan of it, and even if it's something 1661 01:18:07,182 --> 01:18:09,162 where you'd say, "No, it can't be that!" 1662 01:18:09,184 --> 01:18:10,959 you never know what's happening subconsciously 1663 01:18:10,986 --> 01:18:12,795 in those who are making the decisions. 1664 01:18:12,821 --> 01:18:14,391 Otherwise, it just makes no sense at all. 1665 01:18:14,423 --> 01:18:16,096 I don't know how to explain it. 1666 01:18:16,124 --> 01:18:17,933 When you talk to people about aging 1667 01:18:17,959 --> 01:18:20,963 and rejuvenation medicine, you're talking about things 1668 01:18:20,996 --> 01:18:23,408 that they haven't put in the same category 1669 01:18:23,432 --> 01:18:25,139 as things that they can fight. 1670 01:18:25,167 --> 01:18:26,305 They are willing to put money 1671 01:18:26,334 --> 01:18:28,280 towards solving cancer and curing cancer. 1672 01:18:28,303 --> 01:18:30,840 It's something they might have the potential of experiencing. 1673 01:18:30,872 --> 01:18:33,876 But the thing that's 100 percent in terms of probability, 1674 01:18:33,909 --> 01:18:36,082 they haven't classified that as in the same category 1675 01:18:36,111 --> 01:18:38,284 when actually it is and actually it's more dramatic 1676 01:18:38,313 --> 01:18:40,793 because 100 percent of people experience it. 1677 01:18:40,816 --> 01:18:43,922 You need to have the will to be cured. 1678 01:18:43,952 --> 01:18:48,128 Beyond that, medical science will play its pan. 1679 01:18:48,156 --> 01:18:51,103 I think it's essentially a crime 1680 01:18:51,126 --> 01:18:53,732 to not support life extension science, 1681 01:18:53,762 --> 01:18:55,469 because if you support the other side, 1682 01:18:55,497 --> 01:18:58,137 you're an advocate for killing someone. 1683 01:18:58,166 --> 01:19:02,808 When you actually support a culture of death, 1684 01:19:02,838 --> 01:19:06,149 when you support embracing death, 1685 01:19:06,174 --> 01:19:09,986 what you're really doing is not supporting embracing life. 1686 01:19:10,011 --> 01:19:11,922 Everyone ought to be healthy, 1687 01:19:11,947 --> 01:19:14,484 however long ago they were born. 1688 01:19:14,516 --> 01:19:17,395 When someone says, "Oh, dear, we shouldn't defeat aging, 1689 01:19:17,419 --> 01:19:19,296 we shouldn't work to eliminate aging," 1690 01:19:19,321 --> 01:19:22,097 what they're actually saying is they're not in favor 1691 01:19:22,124 --> 01:19:24,934 of healthcare for the elderly, or to be more precise, 1692 01:19:24,960 --> 01:19:27,133 what they're saying is they're only in favor 1693 01:19:27,162 --> 01:19:28,971 of healthcare for the elderly 1694 01:19:28,997 --> 01:19:31,978 so long as it doesn't work very well. 1695 01:19:32,000 --> 01:19:34,071 And I think that's fucked up. 1696 01:19:35,103 --> 01:19:37,777 In September 2013, 1697 01:19:37,806 --> 01:19:41,117 Google announced the conception of Calico, 1698 01:19:41,143 --> 01:19:43,214 an independent biotech company 1699 01:19:43,245 --> 01:19:46,556 that remains to this day a little mysterious. 1700 01:19:46,782 --> 01:19:51,094 Its aim is to tackle aging and devise interventions 1701 01:19:51,119 --> 01:19:55,431 that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. 1702 01:19:55,457 --> 01:19:58,097 In September 2014, 1703 01:19:58,126 --> 01:20:01,073 the life extension company announced it was partnering 1704 01:20:01,096 --> 01:20:04,908 with biopharmaceutical giant AbbVie, 1705 01:20:04,933 --> 01:20:10,406 and made a $1.5 billion investment into research. 1706 01:20:10,438 --> 01:20:12,247 I think one of the biggest obstacles 1707 01:20:12,274 --> 01:20:14,811 that we have at the moment to come to terms 1708 01:20:14,843 --> 01:20:17,187 with this future world we're talking about 1709 01:20:17,212 --> 01:20:19,317 is a lot of people who basically 1710 01:20:19,347 --> 01:20:21,953 don't want it to happen at all 1711 01:20:21,983 --> 01:20:25,294 and so are placing all kinds of ethical 1712 01:20:25,320 --> 01:20:27,357 and institutional restrictions 1713 01:20:27,389 --> 01:20:29,266 on the development of this stuff 1714 01:20:29,291 --> 01:20:31,293 so that it becomes difficult, let's say, in universities 1715 01:20:31,326 --> 01:20:33,932 to experiment with certain kinds of drugs, right? 1716 01:20:33,962 --> 01:20:36,135 To develop certain kinds of machines maybe even, 1717 01:20:36,164 --> 01:20:38,440 and as a result, all of that kind of research 1718 01:20:38,466 --> 01:20:41,106 ends up going into either the private sector 1719 01:20:41,136 --> 01:20:43,980 or maybe underground, right? 1720 01:20:44,005 --> 01:20:46,349 Or going into some country that's an ethics-free zone 1721 01:20:46,374 --> 01:20:48,479 like China or someplace like that, 1722 01:20:48,510 --> 01:20:50,319 and I think that's where the real problems 1723 01:20:50,345 --> 01:20:53,417 potentially lie, because we really need to be doing, 1724 01:20:53,448 --> 01:20:55,223 you know, we need to be developing this stuff, 1725 01:20:55,250 --> 01:20:57,321 but in the public eye, right? 1726 01:20:57,352 --> 01:21:00,424 So it should be done by the mainstream authorities 1727 01:21:00,455 --> 01:21:02,196 so we can monitor the consequences 1728 01:21:02,224 --> 01:21:03,464 as they're happening and then be able 1729 01:21:03,491 --> 01:21:05,164 to take appropriate action. 1730 01:21:05,193 --> 01:21:06,536 But I'm afraid that a lot of this stuff 1731 01:21:06,561 --> 01:21:10,008 is perhaps being driven outside 1732 01:21:10,031 --> 01:21:12,136 because of all the restrictions that are placed on it. 1733 01:21:12,167 --> 01:21:13,908 That I think is very worrisome, 1734 01:21:13,935 --> 01:21:15,505 because then you can't keep track of the results, 1735 01:21:15,537 --> 01:21:18,177 and you don't know exactly what's happening. 1736 01:21:18,206 --> 01:21:20,277 And I think that's a real problem already 1737 01:21:20,308 --> 01:21:22,219 with a lot of this more futuristic stuff. 1738 01:21:24,412 --> 01:21:26,323 Arguably, the human condition 1739 01:21:26,348 --> 01:21:29,557 is defined by our anxiety of death. 1740 01:21:29,584 --> 01:21:32,155 It's of little wonder that throughout history, 1741 01:21:32,187 --> 01:21:35,430 mankind has built countless belief systems 1742 01:21:35,457 --> 01:21:38,336 in a bid to pacify the fear of death 1743 01:21:38,360 --> 01:21:41,637 through the promise of endless paradise. 1744 01:21:41,663 --> 01:21:45,475 Ultimately, death always wins. 1745 01:21:45,500 --> 01:21:50,279 If it's not so much death we fear, it's dying. 1746 01:21:50,305 --> 01:21:52,376 The relationship between life and death 1747 01:21:52,407 --> 01:21:57,220 is often figured in terms of immortality 1748 01:21:57,245 --> 01:21:59,191 and the quest for immortality. 1749 01:21:59,214 --> 01:22:01,490 There's a philosopher, a brilliant philosopher 1750 01:22:01,516 --> 01:22:05,293 called Stephen Cave, who, in his book Immortality, 1751 01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:09,359 argues that our fear of death is the great driver 1752 01:22:09,391 --> 01:22:13,533 of all civilization, of all human endeavor, 1753 01:22:13,561 --> 01:22:16,974 and he identifies four different ways 1754 01:22:16,998 --> 01:22:20,411 in which people seek immortality, 1755 01:22:20,435 --> 01:22:24,542 so firstly the idea of extending life, 1756 01:22:24,572 --> 01:22:26,552 of living forever. 1757 01:22:26,574 --> 01:22:28,986 Secondly, the idea of resurrection 1758 01:22:29,010 --> 01:22:33,322 so that we might come back after death in some form. 1759 01:22:33,348 --> 01:22:36,955 Thirdly, the idea of the immortality 1760 01:22:36,985 --> 01:22:41,161 of some pan of ourselves beyond the physical body. 1761 01:22:41,189 --> 01:22:44,363 So perhaps the immortality of the soul, for example, 1762 01:22:44,392 --> 01:22:47,202 or living on in Heaven. 1763 01:22:47,228 --> 01:22:51,608 And finally the idea of leaving a legacy. 1764 01:22:51,633 --> 01:22:54,477 I think that one of life's challenges 1765 01:22:54,502 --> 01:22:56,573 really actually is to come to terms 1766 01:22:56,604 --> 01:22:59,608 with our own finitude and modality 1767 01:22:59,641 --> 01:23:02,019 and human limitations, 1768 01:23:02,043 --> 01:23:05,456 and this is an enormous challenge. 1769 01:23:05,480 --> 01:23:13,480 ♪ 1770 01:23:21,529 --> 01:23:26,035 Technology, a reflection of our times. 1771 01:23:26,067 --> 01:23:31,278 Efficient, computerized, with a sleek beauty all its own. 1772 01:23:31,306 --> 01:23:33,786 Technology is the human imagination 1773 01:23:34,009 --> 01:23:36,182 convened into reality. 1774 01:23:36,211 --> 01:23:38,213 We are all interested in the future, 1775 01:23:38,246 --> 01:23:40,453 for that is where you and I are going to spend 1776 01:23:40,482 --> 01:23:42,519 the rest of our lives. 1777 01:23:42,550 --> 01:23:45,121 (high-pitched tone) 1778 01:23:45,153 --> 01:23:52,503 ♪ 1779 01:23:52,527 --> 01:23:54,564 It's impossible to say for sure 1780 01:23:54,596 --> 01:23:57,509 where these new technologies will take us 1781 01:23:57,532 --> 01:24:01,571 and how we will prepare to implement them into society. 1782 01:24:01,603 --> 01:24:04,447 It is likely that they will affect the sensibilities 1783 01:24:04,472 --> 01:24:06,509 of global infrastructure. 1784 01:24:08,076 --> 01:24:12,218 There are always anxieties surrounding new technologies, 1785 01:24:12,247 --> 01:24:14,591 and this time is no exception. 1786 01:24:14,616 --> 01:24:15,720 ♪ 1787 01:24:15,750 --> 01:24:18,128 I think people fear change, 1788 01:24:18,153 --> 01:24:21,100 and so the future represents this enormous amount 1789 01:24:21,122 --> 01:24:23,500 of change that's coming at us. 1790 01:24:23,525 --> 01:24:25,368 I do think it's overwhelming for people, 1791 01:24:25,393 --> 01:24:28,670 you know, they are afraid to change 1792 01:24:28,696 --> 01:24:30,403 the paradigm that they live in, 1793 01:24:30,432 --> 01:24:33,208 and when we talk about the future of work and death, 1794 01:24:33,234 --> 01:24:35,475 what we're really talking about is changing 1795 01:24:35,503 --> 01:24:37,574 a paradigm that has existed for us 1796 01:24:37,605 --> 01:24:38,811 as long as we can remember. 1797 01:24:38,840 --> 01:24:42,083 All of this Kind of scare mongering 1798 01:24:42,110 --> 01:24:46,149 about harm and risk and stuff like that 1799 01:24:46,181 --> 01:24:50,425 really is--it's based on a kind of psychological illusion, 1800 01:24:50,452 --> 01:24:54,628 namely that you imagine that you kind of see the bad state 1801 01:24:54,656 --> 01:24:57,466 as a bad state when it happens, 1802 01:24:57,492 --> 01:25:00,132 whereas in fact, what more likely happens 1803 01:25:00,161 --> 01:25:02,767 is that you kinda get adjusted to the various changes 1804 01:25:02,797 --> 01:25:04,401 that are happening in your environment 1805 01:25:04,432 --> 01:25:06,139 so that when you actually do reach that state 1806 01:25:06,167 --> 01:25:09,808 we're talking about, it'll seem normal. 1807 01:25:09,838 --> 01:25:12,114 And because, look, when the automobile 1808 01:25:12,140 --> 01:25:14,484 was introduced in the early 20th century, 1809 01:25:14,509 --> 01:25:16,511 people were saying this is just gonna pump 1810 01:25:16,544 --> 01:25:18,387 a lot of smoke into the atmosphere, 1811 01:25:18,413 --> 01:25:20,290 it's going to ruin our contact with nature 1812 01:25:20,315 --> 01:25:21,885 'cause we'll be in these enclosed vehicles, 1813 01:25:22,117 --> 01:25:23,494 we'll be going so fast, 1814 01:25:23,518 --> 01:25:25,293 we won't be able to appreciate things, 1815 01:25:25,320 --> 01:25:27,391 there'll be congestion, blah, blah, blah, 1816 01:25:27,422 --> 01:25:29,368 they were right! 1817 01:25:29,390 --> 01:25:30,630 They were right, but of course, 1818 01:25:30,658 --> 01:25:32,831 by the time you get to that state 1819 01:25:32,861 --> 01:25:35,205 where the automobile has had that impact, 1820 01:25:35,230 --> 01:25:36,732 it's also had all this benefit as well, 1821 01:25:36,764 --> 01:25:39,210 and your whole life has been kind of restructured around it. 1822 01:25:39,234 --> 01:25:42,147 Arguably, people who are using 1823 01:25:42,170 --> 01:25:47,518 or have been conceived using in vitro fertilization 1824 01:25:47,542 --> 01:25:53,322 are cyborgs way before they were ever even people. 1825 01:25:53,348 --> 01:25:56,386 Now that doesn't mean that we understand kinship 1826 01:25:56,417 --> 01:25:58,226 in a radically different way. 1827 01:25:58,253 --> 01:25:59,857 Just look at the Industrial Revolution! 1828 01:25:59,888 --> 01:26:03,426 Is anyone actually-- does anyone actually regret 1829 01:26:03,458 --> 01:26:05,301 that the Industrial Revolution occurred? 1830 01:26:05,326 --> 01:26:07,602 No, it was fairly turbulent, right? 1831 01:26:07,629 --> 01:26:10,576 You know, we did actually have a little bit of strife 1832 01:26:10,598 --> 01:26:13,272 in the translation from a pre-industrial world 1833 01:26:13,301 --> 01:26:14,575 to the world we know today. 1834 01:26:14,602 --> 01:26:16,604 But the fact is, we adapted. 1835 01:26:16,638 --> 01:26:18,914 The most important thing here is to try to compare it 1836 01:26:18,940 --> 01:26:20,783 to something in the past. 1837 01:26:20,808 --> 01:26:24,517 Imagine we were-- it was 1914, 100 years back, 1838 01:26:24,546 --> 01:26:26,924 and I told you that most people on the planet 1839 01:26:26,948 --> 01:26:28,518 would have the ability to have 1840 01:26:28,550 --> 01:26:30,461 this tiny cell phone screen in front of them 1841 01:26:30,485 --> 01:26:33,432 and video conference with ten of their friends all at once. 1842 01:26:33,454 --> 01:26:36,264 If it was 1914, you would look at me and say, 1843 01:26:36,291 --> 01:26:38,271 "That's absurd, this guy's insane." 1844 01:26:38,293 --> 01:26:40,603 However, it's the son of same concept 1845 01:26:40,628 --> 01:26:42,335 when I tell you now in 50 years 1846 01:26:42,363 --> 01:26:44,604 we're going to be digital beings of ourselves, 1847 01:26:44,632 --> 01:26:46,270 it's no so far-fetched. 1848 01:26:46,301 --> 01:26:48,338 You have to look at it in the historical context. 1849 01:26:48,369 --> 01:26:51,407 All concepts of technological progress 1850 01:26:51,439 --> 01:26:55,581 in that way are linked to post-enlightenment ideas 1851 01:26:55,610 --> 01:26:58,386 or non--they're linked to the idea 1852 01:26:58,413 --> 01:27:01,553 of the arrow of time being in free flight forward, 1853 01:27:01,583 --> 01:27:05,588 but they're also chiliastic, they propose an end state. 1854 01:27:05,620 --> 01:27:06,894 They propose the end state, 1855 01:27:06,921 --> 01:27:08,662 and the end state is the singularity, 1856 01:27:08,690 --> 01:27:11,330 but they propose it as something desirable. 1857 01:27:11,359 --> 01:27:14,772 Now any kind of philosophy like that, it's, you know, 1858 01:27:14,796 --> 01:27:18,505 jam tomorrow, jam yesterday, but never jam today. 1859 01:27:18,533 --> 01:27:20,911 They're all philosophies that are about 1860 01:27:20,935 --> 01:27:24,405 accept the shit you're in-- work, consume, die-- 1861 01:27:24,439 --> 01:27:26,646 because there is something better in the future, 1862 01:27:26,674 --> 01:27:28,585 or there's something more innovative in the future. 1863 01:27:28,610 --> 01:27:30,920 There are good scenarios and there are bad scenarios. 1864 01:27:30,945 --> 01:27:32,549 I don't know where we're headed. 1865 01:27:32,580 --> 01:27:35,891 I mean, I don't think anyone really knows. 1866 01:27:35,917 --> 01:27:37,897 You know, if anyone claims to know the future, 1867 01:27:37,919 --> 01:27:39,626 they're guessing, they're extrapolating forward, 1868 01:27:39,654 --> 01:27:41,292 and we draw some lines and curves 1869 01:27:41,322 --> 01:27:42,801 and see where technology's gonna be. 1870 01:27:42,824 --> 01:27:44,633 What that means, 1871 01:27:44,659 --> 01:27:46,297 I don't think any of us really understand. 1872 01:27:46,327 --> 01:27:48,967 Everyone assumes that the future is going to be 1873 01:27:48,997 --> 01:27:50,670 dramatically different from today 1874 01:27:50,698 --> 01:27:52,041 and that's absolutely true, 1875 01:27:52,267 --> 01:27:53,905 but it's also true that the future will be 1876 01:27:53,935 --> 01:27:55,608 an extension of today's world. 1877 01:27:55,637 --> 01:27:58,481 The problems that exist in today's world 1878 01:27:58,506 --> 01:28:01,385 are still gonna be with us in the future. 1879 01:28:01,409 --> 01:28:03,389 Human nature is not gonna change. 1880 01:28:03,411 --> 01:28:06,017 The end point in all of this game 1881 01:28:06,047 --> 01:28:08,687 will become a bit of a moral 1882 01:28:08,716 --> 01:28:12,357 and an ethical question for society 1883 01:28:12,387 --> 01:28:14,526 where decisions will have to be made. 1884 01:28:15,657 --> 01:28:19,662 Like life itself, work and death, for better or worse, 1885 01:28:19,694 --> 01:28:21,833 are two features of the human experience 1886 01:28:21,863 --> 01:28:23,934 that are thrust upon us. 1887 01:28:25,400 --> 01:28:27,710 Whether or not we define work and death 1888 01:28:27,735 --> 01:28:29,976 as problems in need of remedy, 1889 01:28:30,004 --> 01:28:33,850 human ingenuity is a progressive and natural extension 1890 01:28:33,875 --> 01:28:35,855 of our own evolution. 1891 01:28:35,877 --> 01:28:43,694 ♪ 1892 01:28:43,718 --> 01:28:46,824 Advancing our technological capabilities is a way 1893 01:28:46,854 --> 01:28:50,427 of dealing with our limitations as human beings. 1894 01:28:50,458 --> 01:28:51,960 ♪ 1895 01:28:51,993 --> 01:28:53,666 Must we do something 1896 01:28:53,695 --> 01:28:56,403 just because we're capable of doing something? 1897 01:28:56,431 --> 01:28:58,536 Or can we withhold our hands and say 1898 01:28:58,566 --> 01:29:00,978 "No, this is not a good thing to do"? 1899 01:29:01,002 --> 01:29:04,006 This is something that the human species 1900 01:29:04,038 --> 01:29:05,813 must decide for itself. 1901 01:29:05,840 --> 01:29:08,616 You and I, we can't just leave it to the scientists. 1902 01:29:08,643 --> 01:29:10,850 We have to know what's going on and why! 1903 01:29:14,649 --> 01:29:17,649 ♪