[Music]
so a long time ago in a galaxy not so
far away in fact it was this one I found
myself standing in a Physics Laboratory
for a while in my life that’s happened
quite a lot on account of studying
physics so this laboratory was probably
as exactly as you might imagine from
floor to ceiling
it was stacked with monitors screens
buttons switches and that almost exactly
the height of my hand from the floor
there was a big red button and above it
there was a sign which said do not press
in fact it did say do not press in three
different languages which just goes to
show how important it was
so recall seeing the big red button in
the sign and then the next thing I
remember is that I pressed it what
happened next is also exactly as you
might imagine the room actually made
this noise the screens went black after
a bit they started flashing and so I did
the grown-up thing which was to walk
away quite fast but not so fast anyone
would notice and think that something
was up so people like me could give
curiosity a bad press pun intended
I took a little while come on they say
that curiosity killed the cat
well curiosity doesn’t kill cats I’m
here to kick that very unhelpful proverb
right out of the cat flap curiosity
gives us nine lives and why am I telling
you this well because our relationship
with curiosity really matters I think
that we are at a tipping point in the
timeline of human knowledge and what we
choose to do with it we urgently need to
reclaim curiosity for the 21st century
if we’re not just going to survive but
thrive so I’ve got three famous cats to
introduce three types of curiosity to
you each one will give you three bonus
lives and then we’ll get back to the red
button later
so first up first famous cat is nyan cat
[Music]
the original YouTube video if you
haven’t seen it has been watched over
151 million times
I have personally joyfully contributed
to at least one of those hits if not
more so back in 1989 a guy called Tim
berners-lee yet to be a sir was really
busy inventing the World Wide Web and he
was doing it to share the vast amounts
of data that was being generated at CERN
the big particle physics experiments
doing incredible curiosity led research
into the fundamental nature of matter in
the universe so little could he have
known back then that in the future
billions of people would be using his
brilliant invention to mostly share
videos of cats cats in boxes cats
playing keyboards we’ve all got our
favorite internet cat right so nyan cat
represents for me sort of it sums up all
internet cats but also represents our
first type of curiosity a trait that
we’ve all had since childhood it’s
called diversity and that gets defined
as a sort of a wide-ranging but
potentially potentially superficial or
transient attraction to the novel to
anything new especially I suppose to an
animated cat made of a pop tart with a
rainbow coming out of its bum now
there’s nothing wrong with diverse of
curiosity research suggests in fact that
when you’re in that state you’re more
open to approaching ambiguous images and
information and we’re in this digital
age
because we’ve got this incredible
connection to more knowledge than we’ve
ever had before it’s become almost
unremarkable hasn’t it to have the
entire accumulated knowledge of
humankind literally at our fingertips
and for 2.6 billion smartphone users
literally in our pockets and I just
wonder if that instant constant delivery
of information or nourishment means that
we’re starting to value it less that
we’re losing our capacity for developing
a longer-term type of curiosity
because if you think about it the top
two search terms in the world last year
were Pokemon go an iPhone 7 according to
Google Trends they were the things we
search for as a planet last year so our
internet curiosity has gone so meta it’s
kind of imploded hasn’t it as a planet
we chose to search for a thing on which
you can access the Internet in order to
download a game that only works because
Internet we’ve become curious consumers
that’s for sure but we have this
incredible opportunity at this point in
time to do something really
extraordinary together we are more
connected and we have more of a global
perspective available to us than any
generation before so how do we make the
most of that potential democracy of
ideas available to us and how do we
enable more people to become not just
curious consumers but curious creators
and changemakers as well well we have to
remember what it was like to be about
four or five years old
peak question asking age and we have to
practice asking questions again we have
to get really good at it because it is
the most powerful tool that we have our
disposal we all have it each question is
a stepping stone through a bog of fake
news political disarray and nonsense but
it’s not easy right because we’ve been
conditioned since kids that hands go up
in class to answer not to ask and you
need courage to enter the uncertain
space that asking questions actually
opens up to us which brings me to our
second famous cat and it belongs to the
mind of a windrow dinger so
schrödinger’s cat experiment you get a
cat you put it in a box in the box is a
flask of radioactive liquid that has a
50-50 chance of decaying of releasing
some radiation that might kill the cat
so until you open the box to observe
what state the cat is in to see how it’s
getting on in the world of quantum
mechanics it actually exists in what is
known as a superposition of states the
cat is both dead and Allah
at the same time now admittedly this is
probably the only example where
curiosity could kill the cat but it is a
thought experiment so I’m not going to
let it count for that so if in trying to
think about this experiment and quantum
mechanics your brain feels a little bit
like it’s trying to grasp hold of a
slippery soap in the bath
well don’t worry you’re not alone
because the uncertain nature of it is
very counterintuitive to us and that’s
why I think we all struggle a little bit
to hold on to our curiosity after
childhood its uncertainty and
interestingly our brains have actually
evolved to resolve their way out of
uncertainty as quick as they can I
learned this when I was creator of
impossible projects a public perception
laboratory run by the neuroscientist
beau lotto and in fact you can watch his
own TED talk where he uses visual
illusions to reveal how the brain deals
with uncertainty now Bristol is actually
home to a famous visual illusion it’s
called the cafe wall illusion you can go
and see it in a set of tiles on a cafe
on some Michaels Hill it was discovered
by Professor Richard Gregory so if you
have a look at this illusion and you
have a look at these tiles
it looks like the rows are a bit wonky
right you probably wouldn’t get this
builder back to do that again if I
changed just one thing about this image
which is the color of the lines between
the rows you find that they are in fact
parallel so this just goes to show how
far the brain goes to try and resolve
its way out of uncertainty it actually
constructs realities for us based on our
past experiences and making assumptions
about what it thinks we’re viewing the
conditions under so when you look at a
visual illusion like this it sort of
makes you feel a bit curious but also a
bit uneasy it just doesn’t feel
comfortable to not know in life does it
but there is a bit of a solution because
curiosity has been described rather
beautifully I think as the knowledge in
motion and it’s odd really that there is
a desire with acquiring knowledge a kind
of a wanting to find stuff out
but perhaps that has evolved for a
reason because curiosity motivates us to
go into the unknown it allows us to
imagine possibilities beyond our current
situation and our modern lives would be
unrecognizable without the humans before
us pursuing another type of curiosity
epistemic curiosity so this is a longer
term knowledge and experience generating
curiosity and they’ve done it with
courage and passion are asking questions
like how fast can I run what would
happen if I traveled on a beam of light
– paintings be realistic without
epistemic curiosity there would be no
smartphones or internet or gin or roads
or electric guitars cubism penicillin
the greatest thinkers and innovators
across history ask questions they broke
the rules they didn’t accept the status
quo they smashed paradigms of thought I
would like to imagine that Einstein
would have really enjoyed nyan cat but
then he’d have been asking whoa hold on
what happens if I travel on a rainbow
beam of pops our cat through the
universe that would have been a hell of
a theory of relativity life is uncertain
but there is a positively disruptive
energy that we can find in that space
what happens if we take the best of our
digital world and the way that it can
connect us in play and in communication
and we combine that with asking
questions together because the
combination is powerful right the more
curious you are the more you can step
into the unknown and the more time that
you’re prepared to be in an uncertain
space to play and dwell there the more
curious connections you can make it’s a
curious circle which brings me to our
third and final famous cat it’s a big
cat it’s the lion king all right I
cheated because I just wanted to get to
the circle of life lyrics there’s more
to see than can ever be seen more to do
than can ever be done now all right it
might be cheesy but for me this kind of
sums up what it is to be alive and the
potential that we all have to write
whatever it is that we want to write on
our page
the human story which brings me to our
last of curiosity empathic curiosity and
interest in the feelings and the needs
and the wants and the well-being of
other human beings because what really
bugs the hell out of me is that we still
do not all have an equal start in life
to fulfill our potential it is naive to
suggest that if we all just became
curious then we could solve all
political and social and economic
problems of course it’s not as simple as
that and with uncertain futures as well
as uncertain present times for far too
many of us curiosity curiosity has
become a luxury that we just can’t
afford but what if what would our
destination look like if more people
could be part of that curious
conversation if everyone could
participate in perceiving new futures
together so we know that we learn better
when we’re curious because it’s
connected to dopamine which is the
reward chemical in our brains also
affects our memories because actually
you do need to know just a little before
you can get curious you need something
to chew on but even if you are lucky
enough to be one of the world’s educated
children you are more likely to be fed
textbooks at school than a hunger to
learn we’re still teaching our kids to
regurgitate facts and pass exams this
belongs to the Victorian era our system
is woefully inadequate is not fit for
purpose we don’t even know what we are
educating our children to go and do next
we don’t know what jobs they’re in what
the world will look like what we need
them to be is agile connects as
connectors of ideas comfortable with not
knowing but with the tools to find out
what we really need to do the best thing
we can do is teach them to be all kinds
of curious empathic included despite
more access to knowledge than any
generation before us we still face big
on unanswered questions what are we
going to do about climate change what do
we do about our growing and aging
population how do we house them what if
a superbug takes over these are
so-called wicked problems problems that
are so complex they are not going
be fixed by one person sitting in a lab
and having a Eureka moment on their own
we need connected diverse minds and
curious people more than ever people who
connect ideas across disciplines so all
of my best adventures have started with
curiosity not with any particular
experience or talent or anything like
that and that’s how I ended up working
with animators and dancers opera singers
scientists what we don’t really need is
the type of curiosity that led me to
press the big red button I pressed the
big red button because I’m an idiot
luckily my curious adventures have also
led me to be connecting up with some
other curious cats and that is how we
have now evolved a science center into
we the curious which is a place and an
idea dedicated to cultivating a culture
of curiosity and empowering everybody to
ask questions and this final big red
button is here to remind us all that we
tend to put up imaginary and totally
unnecessary do not press signs in our
minds when we are faced with the unknown
when we are uncertain when we’re not
being curious enough and if later today
you experience what I do after watching
TED talks which is a glorious
combination of being both enormous ly
inspired but also feeling very slightly
inadequate it’s not just me okay you
don’t need to do the last bit that’s the
good news because you and me and all of
the speakers that you’re going to hear
today and actually everybody on planet
earth shares the same vital comment rate
and that is curiosity I am simply here
to remind you and encourage you to be
curious because it’s our time to do
something with it
if the 21st century so far has taught us
anything is that we can no longer sit
around while our leaders flap about
we need to get doing stuff we need to be
asking questions this century is only
going to take flight with the power of
connected creative curious citizens so
if your curiosity is a bit dormant wake
it up find it start a practice of asking
a question and exploring it every week
you can take Leonardo da Vinci as your
hero he used to write to-do lists every
day in his notebooks probably as long as
I am tall and they would have things in
it like find out what a woodpeckers
tongue looks like measure Milan imagine
doing that without the internet if
you’re already curious fantastic don’t
stop go deeper keep asking questions and
take time to notice whose questions
aren’t being heard and see if you can
amplify them if you’re thinking about
any of those things then we’re going to
be in a better State this is a time for
curious activists to get together a
society of curious people is going to be
more creative more compassionate more
resilient it’s where we want to be it’s
time for a new age of curiosity and it’s
time for you to press your imaginary big
red button thank you
you
so a long time ago in a galaxy not so
far away in fact it was this one I found
myself standing in a Physics Laboratory
for a while in my life that’s happened
quite a lot on account of studying
physics so this laboratory was probably
as exactly as you might imagine from
floor to ceiling
it was stacked with monitors screens
buttons switches and that almost exactly
the height of my hand from the floor
there was a big red button and above it
there was a sign which said do not press
in fact it did say do not press in three
different languages which just goes to
show how important it was
so recall seeing the big red button in
the sign and then the next thing I
remember is that I pressed it what
happened next is also exactly as you
might imagine the room actually made
this noise the screens went black after
a bit they started flashing and so I did
the grown-up thing which was to walk
away quite fast but not so fast anyone
would notice and think that something
was up so people like me could give
curiosity a bad press pun intended
I took a little while come on they say
that curiosity killed the cat
well curiosity doesn’t kill cats I’m
here to kick that very unhelpful proverb
right out of the cat flap curiosity
gives us nine lives and why am I telling
you this well because our relationship
with curiosity really matters I think
that we are at a tipping point in the
timeline of human knowledge and what we
choose to do with it we urgently need to
reclaim curiosity for the 21st century
if we’re not just going to survive but
thrive so I’ve got three famous cats to
introduce three types of curiosity to
you each one will give you three bonus
lives and then we’ll get back to the red
button later
so first up first famous cat is nyan cat
[Music]
the original YouTube video if you
haven’t seen it has been watched over
151 million times
I have personally joyfully contributed
to at least one of those hits if not
more so back in 1989 a guy called Tim
berners-lee yet to be a sir was really
busy inventing the World Wide Web and he
was doing it to share the vast amounts
of data that was being generated at CERN
the big particle physics experiments
doing incredible curiosity led research
into the fundamental nature of matter in
the universe so little could he have
known back then that in the future
billions of people would be using his
brilliant invention to mostly share
videos of cats cats in boxes cats
playing keyboards we’ve all got our
favorite internet cat right so nyan cat
represents for me sort of it sums up all
internet cats but also represents our
first type of curiosity a trait that
we’ve all had since childhood it’s
called diversity and that gets defined
as a sort of a wide-ranging but
potentially potentially superficial or
transient attraction to the novel to
anything new especially I suppose to an
animated cat made of a pop tart with a
rainbow coming out of its bum now
there’s nothing wrong with diverse of
curiosity research suggests in fact that
when you’re in that state you’re more
open to approaching ambiguous images and
information and we’re in this digital
age
because we’ve got this incredible
connection to more knowledge than we’ve
ever had before it’s become almost
unremarkable hasn’t it to have the
entire accumulated knowledge of
humankind literally at our fingertips
and for 2.6 billion smartphone users
literally in our pockets and I just
wonder if that instant constant delivery
of information or nourishment means that
we’re starting to value it less that
we’re losing our capacity for developing
a longer-term type of curiosity
because if you think about it the top
two search terms in the world last year
were Pokemon go an iPhone 7 according to
Google Trends they were the things we
search for as a planet last year so our
internet curiosity has gone so meta it’s
kind of imploded hasn’t it as a planet
we chose to search for a thing on which
you can access the Internet in order to
download a game that only works because
Internet we’ve become curious consumers
that’s for sure but we have this
incredible opportunity at this point in
time to do something really
extraordinary together we are more
connected and we have more of a global
perspective available to us than any
generation before so how do we make the
most of that potential democracy of
ideas available to us and how do we
enable more people to become not just
curious consumers but curious creators
and changemakers as well well we have to
remember what it was like to be about
four or five years old
peak question asking age and we have to
practice asking questions again we have
to get really good at it because it is
the most powerful tool that we have our
disposal we all have it each question is
a stepping stone through a bog of fake
news political disarray and nonsense but
it’s not easy right because we’ve been
conditioned since kids that hands go up
in class to answer not to ask and you
need courage to enter the uncertain
space that asking questions actually
opens up to us which brings me to our
second famous cat and it belongs to the
mind of a windrow dinger so
schrödinger’s cat experiment you get a
cat you put it in a box in the box is a
flask of radioactive liquid that has a
50-50 chance of decaying of releasing
some radiation that might kill the cat
so until you open the box to observe
what state the cat is in to see how it’s
getting on in the world of quantum
mechanics it actually exists in what is
known as a superposition of states the
cat is both dead and Allah
at the same time now admittedly this is
probably the only example where
curiosity could kill the cat but it is a
thought experiment so I’m not going to
let it count for that so if in trying to
think about this experiment and quantum
mechanics your brain feels a little bit
like it’s trying to grasp hold of a
slippery soap in the bath
well don’t worry you’re not alone
because the uncertain nature of it is
very counterintuitive to us and that’s
why I think we all struggle a little bit
to hold on to our curiosity after
childhood its uncertainty and
interestingly our brains have actually
evolved to resolve their way out of
uncertainty as quick as they can I
learned this when I was creator of
impossible projects a public perception
laboratory run by the neuroscientist
beau lotto and in fact you can watch his
own TED talk where he uses visual
illusions to reveal how the brain deals
with uncertainty now Bristol is actually
home to a famous visual illusion it’s
called the cafe wall illusion you can go
and see it in a set of tiles on a cafe
on some Michaels Hill it was discovered
by Professor Richard Gregory so if you
have a look at this illusion and you
have a look at these tiles
it looks like the rows are a bit wonky
right you probably wouldn’t get this
builder back to do that again if I
changed just one thing about this image
which is the color of the lines between
the rows you find that they are in fact
parallel so this just goes to show how
far the brain goes to try and resolve
its way out of uncertainty it actually
constructs realities for us based on our
past experiences and making assumptions
about what it thinks we’re viewing the
conditions under so when you look at a
visual illusion like this it sort of
makes you feel a bit curious but also a
bit uneasy it just doesn’t feel
comfortable to not know in life does it
but there is a bit of a solution because
curiosity has been described rather
beautifully I think as the knowledge in
motion and it’s odd really that there is
a desire with acquiring knowledge a kind
of a wanting to find stuff out
but perhaps that has evolved for a
reason because curiosity motivates us to
go into the unknown it allows us to
imagine possibilities beyond our current
situation and our modern lives would be
unrecognizable without the humans before
us pursuing another type of curiosity
epistemic curiosity so this is a longer
term knowledge and experience generating
curiosity and they’ve done it with
courage and passion are asking questions
like how fast can I run what would
happen if I traveled on a beam of light
– paintings be realistic without
epistemic curiosity there would be no
smartphones or internet or gin or roads
or electric guitars cubism penicillin
the greatest thinkers and innovators
across history ask questions they broke
the rules they didn’t accept the status
quo they smashed paradigms of thought I
would like to imagine that Einstein
would have really enjoyed nyan cat but
then he’d have been asking whoa hold on
what happens if I travel on a rainbow
beam of pops our cat through the
universe that would have been a hell of
a theory of relativity life is uncertain
but there is a positively disruptive
energy that we can find in that space
what happens if we take the best of our
digital world and the way that it can
connect us in play and in communication
and we combine that with asking
questions together because the
combination is powerful right the more
curious you are the more you can step
into the unknown and the more time that
you’re prepared to be in an uncertain
space to play and dwell there the more
curious connections you can make it’s a
curious circle which brings me to our
third and final famous cat it’s a big
cat it’s the lion king all right I
cheated because I just wanted to get to
the circle of life lyrics there’s more
to see than can ever be seen more to do
than can ever be done now all right it
might be cheesy but for me this kind of
sums up what it is to be alive and the
potential that we all have to write
whatever it is that we want to write on
our page
the human story which brings me to our
last of curiosity empathic curiosity and
interest in the feelings and the needs
and the wants and the well-being of
other human beings because what really
bugs the hell out of me is that we still
do not all have an equal start in life
to fulfill our potential it is naive to
suggest that if we all just became
curious then we could solve all
political and social and economic
problems of course it’s not as simple as
that and with uncertain futures as well
as uncertain present times for far too
many of us curiosity curiosity has
become a luxury that we just can’t
afford but what if what would our
destination look like if more people
could be part of that curious
conversation if everyone could
participate in perceiving new futures
together so we know that we learn better
when we’re curious because it’s
connected to dopamine which is the
reward chemical in our brains also
affects our memories because actually
you do need to know just a little before
you can get curious you need something
to chew on but even if you are lucky
enough to be one of the world’s educated
children you are more likely to be fed
textbooks at school than a hunger to
learn we’re still teaching our kids to
regurgitate facts and pass exams this
belongs to the Victorian era our system
is woefully inadequate is not fit for
purpose we don’t even know what we are
educating our children to go and do next
we don’t know what jobs they’re in what
the world will look like what we need
them to be is agile connects as
connectors of ideas comfortable with not
knowing but with the tools to find out
what we really need to do the best thing
we can do is teach them to be all kinds
of curious empathic included despite
more access to knowledge than any
generation before us we still face big
on unanswered questions what are we
going to do about climate change what do
we do about our growing and aging
population how do we house them what if
a superbug takes over these are
so-called wicked problems problems that
are so complex they are not going
be fixed by one person sitting in a lab
and having a Eureka moment on their own
we need connected diverse minds and
curious people more than ever people who
connect ideas across disciplines so all
of my best adventures have started with
curiosity not with any particular
experience or talent or anything like
that and that’s how I ended up working
with animators and dancers opera singers
scientists what we don’t really need is
the type of curiosity that led me to
press the big red button I pressed the
big red button because I’m an idiot
luckily my curious adventures have also
led me to be connecting up with some
other curious cats and that is how we
have now evolved a science center into
we the curious which is a place and an
idea dedicated to cultivating a culture
of curiosity and empowering everybody to
ask questions and this final big red
button is here to remind us all that we
tend to put up imaginary and totally
unnecessary do not press signs in our
minds when we are faced with the unknown
when we are uncertain when we’re not
being curious enough and if later today
you experience what I do after watching
TED talks which is a glorious
combination of being both enormous ly
inspired but also feeling very slightly
inadequate it’s not just me okay you
don’t need to do the last bit that’s the
good news because you and me and all of
the speakers that you’re going to hear
today and actually everybody on planet
earth shares the same vital comment rate
and that is curiosity I am simply here
to remind you and encourage you to be
curious because it’s our time to do
something with it
if the 21st century so far has taught us
anything is that we can no longer sit
around while our leaders flap about
we need to get doing stuff we need to be
asking questions this century is only
going to take flight with the power of
connected creative curious citizens so
if your curiosity is a bit dormant wake
it up find it start a practice of asking
a question and exploring it every week
you can take Leonardo da Vinci as your
hero he used to write to-do lists every
day in his notebooks probably as long as
I am tall and they would have things in
it like find out what a woodpeckers
tongue looks like measure Milan imagine
doing that without the internet if
you’re already curious fantastic don’t
stop go deeper keep asking questions and
take time to notice whose questions
aren’t being heard and see if you can
amplify them if you’re thinking about
any of those things then we’re going to
be in a better State this is a time for
curious activists to get together a
society of curious people is going to be
more creative more compassionate more
resilient it’s where we want to be it’s
time for a new age of curiosity and it’s
time for you to press your imaginary big
red button thank you
you
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