[Music]
what an amazing crowd I have to say so
this is my passport it’s a German one
and it gives you access to yeah the
European Union you can live everywhere
plus the most countries in the world
without any visa so this is the one you
want to have there’s another one I was
thinking about it’s this one it’s one of
the most it was at least one of the most
desired pastors in the past and partly
because of this you know I lived there
for seven years and it’s just an amazing
city San Francisco is just like Hamburg
when you cut out the dark and wet part
so it’s it’s it wasn’t alive changing
experience to live there and I fulfilled
quite a few of my life dreams over there
I met a beautiful wife in San Francisco
we have four children we traveled around
the world we started some startups and
to make friends I also took the time off
three years to be with my kids and be a
stay-at-home dad a very different
experience and joined the the board of a
preschool a non-profit preschool and see
that side of the society living in San
Francisco really makes you appreciate
the disruptive power of ideas because
that place is full of videos however you
also realized there is an ugly ugly
underbelly
there is something there’s some concerns
some questions where you as a European
really not on board and also what you
see in Francisco you see for the
distance that Europe has something has
something potentially for the future of
the world that San Francisco and the Bay
Area and the city can barely can’t
easily replicate so I was thinking about
this as well the distance yeah there is
no European passport but there’s the
European citizenship and I was wondering
would I give up my German citizenship
for the u.s. one no I wouldn’t would I
give it up for the European one if I was
forced to I don’t know it’s basically
something that happened to the people in
the UK right they had to choose between
the two options and I wonder for all of
you would you do it would you give up
your past
for your that you have right now to
basically keep it European mom the blue
one race of hands who would yeah some
brave ones maybe maybe or something well
this talk is about Europe and why I
think Europe has a much brighter future
than most people think
why potentially the European passport
might be the one you really want to have
well let’s go back to Silicon Valley the
first or the second most question asked
when I came back was how can we
replicate Silicon Valley here in Germany
or in Europe somewhere and the first one
was actually why did you come back well
somehow it’s it’s common a common idea
that we have to replicate the Silicon
Valley that we have to have you know
more venture capital or more willingness
to fail you know risk-taking breaking
things less regulation that’s all good
right and it might be good and we might
have to try these things the problem
even if we could implement that in a
heartbeat overnight with a magic wand
it’s still in knockoff it’s still not a
Silicon Valley they have that already
and they are successful if we do the
same later we’re not catching the wave
we are just behind so what I think we
have to do is do something different we
have to go where the puck is going like
Gretzky quote hey you don’t have to go
with the puck is right now you have to
go where it’s going to be and that’s
what Europe should do there sometimes
hard because we like the stuff we know
more than the stuff that is unknown in
the future that’s hard too we like to
grab the stuff we know and therefore
crazy ideas are often not really
appreciated that’s totally different in
the Silicon Valley the space is full of
crazy ideas every bar keeper has a
startup idea and basically crazy ideas
when you have one Oh interesting you
should try it it might be the next big
idea and indeed some of these ideas like
140 characters micro blog or renting out
your your air mattress to a stranger or
like photos that disappear after few
seconds these crazy ideas yeah some of
them are
better than people expect most of them
die some get really big one happy idea
that really got big was ten years ago in
ten years we had like this 140-character
idea creating like revolutions or at
least no enabling them or creating a
president or you know destroying a lot
of careers who wrote something
unfertilized shouldn’t yeah there are
two ideas I would like to talk to you
about that will ya will hit as soon I
think one is you know must idea to solve
sustainable transportation to have no
emissions at all anymore
this idea is big its bold and it’s
actually very important I think we need
that all of us need that because our
earth would be better if we make that
happen if we make that happen if he
succeeds though it will be a different
world because suddenly and you have
self-driving electric cars you don’t
need any taxi drivers know who were
drivers no truck drivers and you don’t
need that many cars potentially because
you know 23 hours a day most cars stand
around there they don’t they drive and
they do stuff so anyway you can get away
with a lot less cars and the cars are
much easier to build you don’t need to
combust a combustion engine no
transmission and basically it will be
robots building those things therefore
if that happens a lot of the car
industry of the jobs will be gone
another idea Jeff Bezos he wants to
build the most customer centric company
in the world and it’s showing Amazon is
disrupting retail massively right it’s
like in the u.s. there forty five
percent of the online business is Amazon
forty five percent so like that’s
it’s growing so recently they acquired
Whole Foods Market
it’s a beloved organic store and
actually that together with Amazon go
this futuristic thing where you
basically go into the store grab stuff
and leave the store you don’t see the
cashier you don’t see a checkout line
there’s no human interaction
you take these two together it’s another
extinction level event for retail jobs
there are no cashiers anymore and there
are no people in the store so these are
two examples for something that is
bigger that software is eating the world
is that Marc Andreessen said it’s the
software innovations that create a very
different reality software is a weird
thing software has this like you know
network effect automatically attached to
it because software has zero marginal
cost and it works globally so what you
see is that suddenly you have more and
more disruption happening because more
with value the value that suffered
creates with less people is going up
something that I really appreciate it
was this quote from from when Gibson
their futures ready here it’s just not
very evenly distributed so you really
feel when you live there that the world
is different over there already you feel
it with regard to the new latest service
and greatest app you also feel it with
regards to the social and economic
environment so what you could feel is
there are fewer and fewer winners when
you have this this disruption happening
through software because suffer creates
Network effects and network effects
create winner-takes-all game and when I
think it’s all game creates bigger
winners with more power but also more
losers
well the winners we see in the market
where we see not by accident that the
five biggest companies in the world a
software company so internet companies
the losers though you can see as well
samer cisco has more than six thousand
homeless people on the street six
thousand is actually approaching one
percent of the people living in San
Francisco
and yeah that’s that’s not the just then
it’s more there’s like it’s hard for a
teacher for example to live in the city
it’s hard to afford that
it’s hard for families to live in the
city they move out it’s also hard for
normal people to live in the city when
the Google bus starts to stop in front
of your neighborhood because the right
the rents goes up and you might
basically be out of this area so people
start attacking Google buses and
blocking them it’s also a question is it
okay if your preschool
you know the admission of your little
boy or girl for the preschool depends on
your wealth is that okay or is it not so
the more losers that’s I think the
biggest thing we should think about
because that’s not just the cashiers and
the truck drivers it will be the doctors
and executives you know masa for example
expects in the next thirty years that AI
artificial intelligence can do every job
better than human beings and it’s not
just basically yeah those people it’s a
is everyone it’s basically you and me
it’s like even if you feel safe that’s
eventually not the case so what we need
and where it’s Europe’s biggest chance
is to create a society that can handle
massive inequality and massive Network
effects that’s our chance so what we
should do is we should really disrupt
the globe by building a society that is
just for the age of AI because that will
hit us there will be no doubt that
software will do this to us and we will
have to address it so how will that look
like one idea that is I think really
mainstream now it feels like it because
everywhere around the globe people try
it out it’s the guaranteed basic income
we have to separate the livelihood of a
person from their paid work because you
know when work is suddenly done by
computers and robots that will have to
change another thing that we have to do
we should do a thing is we should have
smarter protections and not just like
less regulations we should indeed to the
opposite of what we did the ability for
car manufacturers to get away with this
diesel
because the regulations were kind of
made to protect them and not us that was
a stupid mistake it basically it will
kill the European countries because they
are not ready for a world where that is
not okay anymore where you need electric
we should have had the strongest
protections there you know going first
to zero emissions because then we had
potentially again a winning player for
the for the future so we need
protections that basically are more
oriented in the future than in the past
another thing that might be
controversial so far we saw a race to
the bottom it’s like the globalized
world and you have to have the lowest
labor cost and the lowest regulation
that is the old model I think in the
future we might see the opposite a race
to the top where you not try to under
built the other ones you go higher and
Europe has a wonderful ability to do
that because we have 510 million
citizens living here that have a lot of
money it’s the richest economic system
in the world and we can use that as
leverage
it’s basically we should make sure that
we have the highest standards here one
example that is interesting is the the
general data protection regulation the
idea that all the data that companies
collect about us belongs to us so I can
say I want to see it I want to delete it
I want you to put it here between with
someone else that’s a powerful idea and
that idea makes a lot of sense in a
world where this data about us is used
against us or is basically used to make
a lot of money
the last idea that might be
controversial is I think we have to
leverage access to our consumers in a
world where kind of you know work and
labor cover tax is an issue because that
is not the the main driver also taxi
machines is not the solution because
it’s software even texting companies
it’s part because they move their
profits around in the world we might
have to do something different we might
have to learn from China and say well we
have this huge group of consumers here
that are rich and want to spend money if
you want to play here and play this game
you have to basically provide value to
the society you have to potentially pay
a lot of taxes when you want to access
this market China does that very
successfully with yeah basically saying
if you want to sell in China you have to
have a joint venture locally that we
participate and not just you know be
used as consumers and not sure how this
plays out but it’s obvious that we need
a new model that the current models
reach their limits when you have
companies that have more than 50% of the
whole market Loly how can you create
laws that are not directly you know
targeting that company there will be a
lacks Amazon because Amazon basically is
all there is and therefore we have to
think differently we have to I think
have bold social and economic
innovations and really you know make it
better Europe is stronger Europe like
make more euro but not less and how
would we do that I think what Europe has
is the problem is like a branding
problem people seem to look down
actually in the Silicon Valley very much
so but even here people are frustrated
with the European Union and I think we
have to change that with another brand
or with a branding exercise who did that
well or kind of it effectively was
Donald Trump in the u.s. he really
nailed it by starting with just acclaim
America first it goes against everything
that I think that Europe stands for but
it is working right with this claim he
was able to you know argue against
immigrants against the Paris climate
Accord against the labor regulation and
for coal
suddenly I don’t want to basically
imitate that but I think what is empower
‘fl is the idea that we need to have a
brand that works on social media that we
have to have the vision that people can
get behind not a vision that is
close-minded and you know just the
acclamation of we are best but something
else something to strive for something
that you know is a wake-up call for the
harmonic dance of progress and humanity
what about Europe with heart and soul
you know Europe that provides that ends
the heart to provide a guaranteed basic
income to everybody everybody who lives
here gets that income and the soul to
create to advance society and create
regulations that are future proof that
are good for the whole world and to
create a sustainable and just economic
model that would work in a world that is
run by software it also works as a
hashtag
that’s a good thing there it’s short and
precise if you find the right ones and I
think it’s a good way to start at
potentially in Hamburg this open-minded
City maybe you met TEDx Hamburg with all
these kind of like like-minded people so
just try it out see if it resonates and
take it from there
I believe Europe has a chance a big
chance to make a big difference if you
learn from Silicon Valley we should
learn that being bold and basically
going somewhere where it’s not yet in a
really mainstream and then something
that everyone agrees with we have to try
things out we have to experiment we have
to be bold and you know I think Europe
has best the best chance to do that
because we are a very diverse
environment we have like even different
languages we are also very socially
aware environment where you know
providing health care to people is not a
surprise we just do it and therefore I
believe Europe has a chance to yeah
learn to be bold and and make a huge
difference
I believe in a Europe with heart and
soul how about you thank you
[Applause]
what an amazing crowd I have to say so
this is my passport it’s a German one
and it gives you access to yeah the
European Union you can live everywhere
plus the most countries in the world
without any visa so this is the one you
want to have there’s another one I was
thinking about it’s this one it’s one of
the most it was at least one of the most
desired pastors in the past and partly
because of this you know I lived there
for seven years and it’s just an amazing
city San Francisco is just like Hamburg
when you cut out the dark and wet part
so it’s it’s it wasn’t alive changing
experience to live there and I fulfilled
quite a few of my life dreams over there
I met a beautiful wife in San Francisco
we have four children we traveled around
the world we started some startups and
to make friends I also took the time off
three years to be with my kids and be a
stay-at-home dad a very different
experience and joined the the board of a
preschool a non-profit preschool and see
that side of the society living in San
Francisco really makes you appreciate
the disruptive power of ideas because
that place is full of videos however you
also realized there is an ugly ugly
underbelly
there is something there’s some concerns
some questions where you as a European
really not on board and also what you
see in Francisco you see for the
distance that Europe has something has
something potentially for the future of
the world that San Francisco and the Bay
Area and the city can barely can’t
easily replicate so I was thinking about
this as well the distance yeah there is
no European passport but there’s the
European citizenship and I was wondering
would I give up my German citizenship
for the u.s. one no I wouldn’t would I
give it up for the European one if I was
forced to I don’t know it’s basically
something that happened to the people in
the UK right they had to choose between
the two options and I wonder for all of
you would you do it would you give up
your past
for your that you have right now to
basically keep it European mom the blue
one race of hands who would yeah some
brave ones maybe maybe or something well
this talk is about Europe and why I
think Europe has a much brighter future
than most people think
why potentially the European passport
might be the one you really want to have
well let’s go back to Silicon Valley the
first or the second most question asked
when I came back was how can we
replicate Silicon Valley here in Germany
or in Europe somewhere and the first one
was actually why did you come back well
somehow it’s it’s common a common idea
that we have to replicate the Silicon
Valley that we have to have you know
more venture capital or more willingness
to fail you know risk-taking breaking
things less regulation that’s all good
right and it might be good and we might
have to try these things the problem
even if we could implement that in a
heartbeat overnight with a magic wand
it’s still in knockoff it’s still not a
Silicon Valley they have that already
and they are successful if we do the
same later we’re not catching the wave
we are just behind so what I think we
have to do is do something different we
have to go where the puck is going like
Gretzky quote hey you don’t have to go
with the puck is right now you have to
go where it’s going to be and that’s
what Europe should do there sometimes
hard because we like the stuff we know
more than the stuff that is unknown in
the future that’s hard too we like to
grab the stuff we know and therefore
crazy ideas are often not really
appreciated that’s totally different in
the Silicon Valley the space is full of
crazy ideas every bar keeper has a
startup idea and basically crazy ideas
when you have one Oh interesting you
should try it it might be the next big
idea and indeed some of these ideas like
140 characters micro blog or renting out
your your air mattress to a stranger or
like photos that disappear after few
seconds these crazy ideas yeah some of
them are
better than people expect most of them
die some get really big one happy idea
that really got big was ten years ago in
ten years we had like this 140-character
idea creating like revolutions or at
least no enabling them or creating a
president or you know destroying a lot
of careers who wrote something
unfertilized shouldn’t yeah there are
two ideas I would like to talk to you
about that will ya will hit as soon I
think one is you know must idea to solve
sustainable transportation to have no
emissions at all anymore
this idea is big its bold and it’s
actually very important I think we need
that all of us need that because our
earth would be better if we make that
happen if we make that happen if he
succeeds though it will be a different
world because suddenly and you have
self-driving electric cars you don’t
need any taxi drivers know who were
drivers no truck drivers and you don’t
need that many cars potentially because
you know 23 hours a day most cars stand
around there they don’t they drive and
they do stuff so anyway you can get away
with a lot less cars and the cars are
much easier to build you don’t need to
combust a combustion engine no
transmission and basically it will be
robots building those things therefore
if that happens a lot of the car
industry of the jobs will be gone
another idea Jeff Bezos he wants to
build the most customer centric company
in the world and it’s showing Amazon is
disrupting retail massively right it’s
like in the u.s. there forty five
percent of the online business is Amazon
forty five percent so like that’s
it’s growing so recently they acquired
Whole Foods Market
it’s a beloved organic store and
actually that together with Amazon go
this futuristic thing where you
basically go into the store grab stuff
and leave the store you don’t see the
cashier you don’t see a checkout line
there’s no human interaction
you take these two together it’s another
extinction level event for retail jobs
there are no cashiers anymore and there
are no people in the store so these are
two examples for something that is
bigger that software is eating the world
is that Marc Andreessen said it’s the
software innovations that create a very
different reality software is a weird
thing software has this like you know
network effect automatically attached to
it because software has zero marginal
cost and it works globally so what you
see is that suddenly you have more and
more disruption happening because more
with value the value that suffered
creates with less people is going up
something that I really appreciate it
was this quote from from when Gibson
their futures ready here it’s just not
very evenly distributed so you really
feel when you live there that the world
is different over there already you feel
it with regard to the new latest service
and greatest app you also feel it with
regards to the social and economic
environment so what you could feel is
there are fewer and fewer winners when
you have this this disruption happening
through software because suffer creates
Network effects and network effects
create winner-takes-all game and when I
think it’s all game creates bigger
winners with more power but also more
losers
well the winners we see in the market
where we see not by accident that the
five biggest companies in the world a
software company so internet companies
the losers though you can see as well
samer cisco has more than six thousand
homeless people on the street six
thousand is actually approaching one
percent of the people living in San
Francisco
and yeah that’s that’s not the just then
it’s more there’s like it’s hard for a
teacher for example to live in the city
it’s hard to afford that
it’s hard for families to live in the
city they move out it’s also hard for
normal people to live in the city when
the Google bus starts to stop in front
of your neighborhood because the right
the rents goes up and you might
basically be out of this area so people
start attacking Google buses and
blocking them it’s also a question is it
okay if your preschool
you know the admission of your little
boy or girl for the preschool depends on
your wealth is that okay or is it not so
the more losers that’s I think the
biggest thing we should think about
because that’s not just the cashiers and
the truck drivers it will be the doctors
and executives you know masa for example
expects in the next thirty years that AI
artificial intelligence can do every job
better than human beings and it’s not
just basically yeah those people it’s a
is everyone it’s basically you and me
it’s like even if you feel safe that’s
eventually not the case so what we need
and where it’s Europe’s biggest chance
is to create a society that can handle
massive inequality and massive Network
effects that’s our chance so what we
should do is we should really disrupt
the globe by building a society that is
just for the age of AI because that will
hit us there will be no doubt that
software will do this to us and we will
have to address it so how will that look
like one idea that is I think really
mainstream now it feels like it because
everywhere around the globe people try
it out it’s the guaranteed basic income
we have to separate the livelihood of a
person from their paid work because you
know when work is suddenly done by
computers and robots that will have to
change another thing that we have to do
we should do a thing is we should have
smarter protections and not just like
less regulations we should indeed to the
opposite of what we did the ability for
car manufacturers to get away with this
diesel
because the regulations were kind of
made to protect them and not us that was
a stupid mistake it basically it will
kill the European countries because they
are not ready for a world where that is
not okay anymore where you need electric
we should have had the strongest
protections there you know going first
to zero emissions because then we had
potentially again a winning player for
the for the future so we need
protections that basically are more
oriented in the future than in the past
another thing that might be
controversial so far we saw a race to
the bottom it’s like the globalized
world and you have to have the lowest
labor cost and the lowest regulation
that is the old model I think in the
future we might see the opposite a race
to the top where you not try to under
built the other ones you go higher and
Europe has a wonderful ability to do
that because we have 510 million
citizens living here that have a lot of
money it’s the richest economic system
in the world and we can use that as
leverage
it’s basically we should make sure that
we have the highest standards here one
example that is interesting is the the
general data protection regulation the
idea that all the data that companies
collect about us belongs to us so I can
say I want to see it I want to delete it
I want you to put it here between with
someone else that’s a powerful idea and
that idea makes a lot of sense in a
world where this data about us is used
against us or is basically used to make
a lot of money
the last idea that might be
controversial is I think we have to
leverage access to our consumers in a
world where kind of you know work and
labor cover tax is an issue because that
is not the the main driver also taxi
machines is not the solution because
it’s software even texting companies
it’s part because they move their
profits around in the world we might
have to do something different we might
have to learn from China and say well we
have this huge group of consumers here
that are rich and want to spend money if
you want to play here and play this game
you have to basically provide value to
the society you have to potentially pay
a lot of taxes when you want to access
this market China does that very
successfully with yeah basically saying
if you want to sell in China you have to
have a joint venture locally that we
participate and not just you know be
used as consumers and not sure how this
plays out but it’s obvious that we need
a new model that the current models
reach their limits when you have
companies that have more than 50% of the
whole market Loly how can you create
laws that are not directly you know
targeting that company there will be a
lacks Amazon because Amazon basically is
all there is and therefore we have to
think differently we have to I think
have bold social and economic
innovations and really you know make it
better Europe is stronger Europe like
make more euro but not less and how
would we do that I think what Europe has
is the problem is like a branding
problem people seem to look down
actually in the Silicon Valley very much
so but even here people are frustrated
with the European Union and I think we
have to change that with another brand
or with a branding exercise who did that
well or kind of it effectively was
Donald Trump in the u.s. he really
nailed it by starting with just acclaim
America first it goes against everything
that I think that Europe stands for but
it is working right with this claim he
was able to you know argue against
immigrants against the Paris climate
Accord against the labor regulation and
for coal
suddenly I don’t want to basically
imitate that but I think what is empower
‘fl is the idea that we need to have a
brand that works on social media that we
have to have the vision that people can
get behind not a vision that is
close-minded and you know just the
acclamation of we are best but something
else something to strive for something
that you know is a wake-up call for the
harmonic dance of progress and humanity
what about Europe with heart and soul
you know Europe that provides that ends
the heart to provide a guaranteed basic
income to everybody everybody who lives
here gets that income and the soul to
create to advance society and create
regulations that are future proof that
are good for the whole world and to
create a sustainable and just economic
model that would work in a world that is
run by software it also works as a
hashtag
that’s a good thing there it’s short and
precise if you find the right ones and I
think it’s a good way to start at
potentially in Hamburg this open-minded
City maybe you met TEDx Hamburg with all
these kind of like like-minded people so
just try it out see if it resonates and
take it from there
I believe Europe has a chance a big
chance to make a big difference if you
learn from Silicon Valley we should
learn that being bold and basically
going somewhere where it’s not yet in a
really mainstream and then something
that everyone agrees with we have to try
things out we have to experiment we have
to be bold and you know I think Europe
has best the best chance to do that
because we are a very diverse
environment we have like even different
languages we are also very socially
aware environment where you know
providing health care to people is not a
surprise we just do it and therefore I
believe Europe has a chance to yeah
learn to be bold and and make a huge
difference
I believe in a Europe with heart and
soul how about you thank you
[Applause]
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