[Music]
[Applause]
I’ve much enjoyed listening learning
tonight thank you to all the speakers
thank you very much this has been a
great opportunity for me personally to
reflect on what this quote means to me
and then to broaden that to see if
there’s even more meaning in it related
to what I see in the world around me why
does this quote have such a hold on me
what must I have experienced what
triumphs but more likely what failures
lurk perhaps than like subconscious
waiting to resonate with these words at
every opportunity as you know this
famous quote is but a short snippet from
a good long speech on citizenship in a
republic which would be well worth a
good read or at least an understanding
of today but for today I need to
simplify my thoughts down to the essence
of what is simply in the words of that
quote but first a short story if I may
perhaps of my most important
contribution at NASA as part of my first
spaceflight and that taught me just how
big the arena can be and how fierce
opponents can fight and just how the
criticism can sting it was about 1992
and that already been in NASA as an
instructor for about five and a half
years and an astronaut actually for a
year and a half the opportunity came for
me in a small team to essentially hack
in to the Space Shuttle main computer
information stream that traditionally
only goes to the Mission Control Center
laptops had just become powerful enough
to handle the work that the Mission
Control Center was doing to process and
display over a hundred and twenty eight
thousand bytes a second
not particularly a hard task or a big
deal today the laptops are not
completely reliable in space I had four
laptops on the flight deck with me okay
just in case and I needed to have a
bunch of computing power there the
laptops are not completely reliable in
space because the radiation that’s not
being blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere
will occasionally corrupt a bit of
memory here and there in the in the
laptop so they’re not completely
trustworthy but the benefits for the
crew of being able to use some of the
data that wasn’t already being displayed
on the very limited shuttle displays
none of which had real graphics at that
time was potentially so important for
the future of docking the shuttle with
the space station through the ability to
fuse information from multiple sensors
radar lasers GPS for example to robotic
arm operations to something as simple as
updating a world map on the laptop that
would let us know where we were with the
earth without having to go look out the
window or ask the control center I had
no idea how protective the flight
controllers were going to be of their
prerogative to see all the data in to
control the flight and of course what
the crew could see and therefore do I
was peppered with Spears again and again
and finally after the lead flight
director told me that he was not going
to kill my little project I felt almost
encouraged and pressed ahead
we succeeded and soon no space shuttle
crew would fly without that capability
but it was a hard battle and emotionally
exhausting why can’t people just
recognize what is right and good of
course that is an ironic thing to ask as
our country even our world continually
grapples with what is right and best for
our future we obviously will just will
not ever all agree at a certain level
President Roosevelt’s words speak to the
effort required to maintain something
that he considered good and excuse me
good in the world
or Republic as is the responsibility of
the citizens of Republic’s but anybody
who’s been in the arena of any sort will
probably agree that the emotional cost
of that effort at a very minimum can be
very high but must struggle be an
integral part of being alive of being
human is the reason the species was able
to leave Africa and spread to all parts
of the earth is that because of an
innate need and willingness to struggle
being human to most of us inherit this
willingness and make it a part of
everything we do
is it possible to conceive of human life
or perhaps more broadly of any life that
is not involved in a daily struggle for
survival in some way shape or form
survival of our way of life of our
belief system of what we want for our
country etc etc some of these are the
proverbial firstworldproblems some of
mine certainly were but for others some
in our own country the struggle is about
food and shelter and aside I’ve tried to
convince my own children at times that
many of the things I do as a parent are
not simply arbitrary dictatorial and
tyrannical but are actually motivated
but a desire by a desire that they have
the best chance to succeed in life and
get to have choices in what they do
parents are among the few that really
care for their children’s success
whether first world or other life is
still a competition for available
resources significant others college
admissions job opportunities and
outcomes these outcomes can have
significant effects on our lives part of
my own naivete is that I believed and
still do that there are parts of the
world often our own that are generally
improving treating people more fairly
more transparency in government slowly
but surely making improvements in our
Republic but I think I failed to
acknowledge how important human
appetites
are there are people who hunger for
certain things so much and some were
just so good at some things and their
personal success may come at the expense
of others whether it is men abusing
their power to the detriment of women or
someone accumulating wealth at the
expense of others or person accumulating
political power primarily for their own
benefit and not their constituents the
list goes on and on so if I accept that
this is what it means to be human
I personally think that two of the most
pressing problems for societies writ
large is the civilization of young men
and the education of young women how
then do we make and imbue our lives with
meaning
it wasn’t until I worked at NASA that I
finally admitted to myself that there’s
not going to be a utopia in space or
anywhere else for that matter we were
obviously going to take our very human
appetites and problems with us wherever
we go
now most species do not survive very
long Oh ants and cockroaches aside okay
the archaeological record is littered
with evidence of the demise of species
our own tenure on earth is just as
uncertain as any other species is a
colleague of mine pointed out it would
behoove us to have a bit of humility and
a lot less arrogance and pay attention
to the real limits of a real planet we
could start with not littering for
example we live a lot of plastic I also
assert that discarding co2 is littering
the list goes on but what invests us in
the future our own lives certainly while
we are young enough to have a future
ourselves but certainly the lives of the
young people we care about York two on
the lower left but highlighted
Caty these are the people we care about
especially our own children perhaps even
the children in our community in other
communities so how should we choose to
live our lives in closing I’d like to
share with you a reading from a favorite
Japanese story the story concerns a man
named Musashi a samurai struggling to
achieve wisdom the following is a brief
passage describing some of his thoughts
as he progressed along the way it wasn’t
that he had forgotten the lesson he had
been taught the truly brave man is one
who loves life cherishing it as a
treasure that once forfeited can never
be regained he knew full well that to
live was more than merely to survive the
problem was how to imbue his life with
meaning how to ensure that his life
would cast a bright ray of light into
the future even if it became necessary
to give up that life for a cause if he
succeeded in doing this the length of
his life 20 years or 70 made little
difference a lifetime was only an
insignificant interval in the endless
flow of time that for me is the most
important question I know how do we
imbue our lives with meaning part of
that answer should be that we have
responsibilities in our Republic and
then it matters that we be in the arena
in some way ourselves and not
particularly at this time simply
criticized and not act life is a canvas
upon which we can paint meaning purpose
we can express our ideas as to what
there is that is worth doing we all have
different and probably incomplete
answers to these questions and those of
us who are older should listen and learn
from what some of our younger folks
answers are especially at this stage of
our lives and I am certainly eager to
learn those answers what their answers
are later in their lives too as their
arenas expand and they
grow with them good luck to our children
and our future a lot of life is about
showing up please show up thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
I’ve much enjoyed listening learning
tonight thank you to all the speakers
thank you very much this has been a
great opportunity for me personally to
reflect on what this quote means to me
and then to broaden that to see if
there’s even more meaning in it related
to what I see in the world around me why
does this quote have such a hold on me
what must I have experienced what
triumphs but more likely what failures
lurk perhaps than like subconscious
waiting to resonate with these words at
every opportunity as you know this
famous quote is but a short snippet from
a good long speech on citizenship in a
republic which would be well worth a
good read or at least an understanding
of today but for today I need to
simplify my thoughts down to the essence
of what is simply in the words of that
quote but first a short story if I may
perhaps of my most important
contribution at NASA as part of my first
spaceflight and that taught me just how
big the arena can be and how fierce
opponents can fight and just how the
criticism can sting it was about 1992
and that already been in NASA as an
instructor for about five and a half
years and an astronaut actually for a
year and a half the opportunity came for
me in a small team to essentially hack
in to the Space Shuttle main computer
information stream that traditionally
only goes to the Mission Control Center
laptops had just become powerful enough
to handle the work that the Mission
Control Center was doing to process and
display over a hundred and twenty eight
thousand bytes a second
not particularly a hard task or a big
deal today the laptops are not
completely reliable in space I had four
laptops on the flight deck with me okay
just in case and I needed to have a
bunch of computing power there the
laptops are not completely reliable in
space because the radiation that’s not
being blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere
will occasionally corrupt a bit of
memory here and there in the in the
laptop so they’re not completely
trustworthy but the benefits for the
crew of being able to use some of the
data that wasn’t already being displayed
on the very limited shuttle displays
none of which had real graphics at that
time was potentially so important for
the future of docking the shuttle with
the space station through the ability to
fuse information from multiple sensors
radar lasers GPS for example to robotic
arm operations to something as simple as
updating a world map on the laptop that
would let us know where we were with the
earth without having to go look out the
window or ask the control center I had
no idea how protective the flight
controllers were going to be of their
prerogative to see all the data in to
control the flight and of course what
the crew could see and therefore do I
was peppered with Spears again and again
and finally after the lead flight
director told me that he was not going
to kill my little project I felt almost
encouraged and pressed ahead
we succeeded and soon no space shuttle
crew would fly without that capability
but it was a hard battle and emotionally
exhausting why can’t people just
recognize what is right and good of
course that is an ironic thing to ask as
our country even our world continually
grapples with what is right and best for
our future we obviously will just will
not ever all agree at a certain level
President Roosevelt’s words speak to the
effort required to maintain something
that he considered good and excuse me
good in the world
or Republic as is the responsibility of
the citizens of Republic’s but anybody
who’s been in the arena of any sort will
probably agree that the emotional cost
of that effort at a very minimum can be
very high but must struggle be an
integral part of being alive of being
human is the reason the species was able
to leave Africa and spread to all parts
of the earth is that because of an
innate need and willingness to struggle
being human to most of us inherit this
willingness and make it a part of
everything we do
is it possible to conceive of human life
or perhaps more broadly of any life that
is not involved in a daily struggle for
survival in some way shape or form
survival of our way of life of our
belief system of what we want for our
country etc etc some of these are the
proverbial firstworldproblems some of
mine certainly were but for others some
in our own country the struggle is about
food and shelter and aside I’ve tried to
convince my own children at times that
many of the things I do as a parent are
not simply arbitrary dictatorial and
tyrannical but are actually motivated
but a desire by a desire that they have
the best chance to succeed in life and
get to have choices in what they do
parents are among the few that really
care for their children’s success
whether first world or other life is
still a competition for available
resources significant others college
admissions job opportunities and
outcomes these outcomes can have
significant effects on our lives part of
my own naivete is that I believed and
still do that there are parts of the
world often our own that are generally
improving treating people more fairly
more transparency in government slowly
but surely making improvements in our
Republic but I think I failed to
acknowledge how important human
appetites
are there are people who hunger for
certain things so much and some were
just so good at some things and their
personal success may come at the expense
of others whether it is men abusing
their power to the detriment of women or
someone accumulating wealth at the
expense of others or person accumulating
political power primarily for their own
benefit and not their constituents the
list goes on and on so if I accept that
this is what it means to be human
I personally think that two of the most
pressing problems for societies writ
large is the civilization of young men
and the education of young women how
then do we make and imbue our lives with
meaning
it wasn’t until I worked at NASA that I
finally admitted to myself that there’s
not going to be a utopia in space or
anywhere else for that matter we were
obviously going to take our very human
appetites and problems with us wherever
we go
now most species do not survive very
long Oh ants and cockroaches aside okay
the archaeological record is littered
with evidence of the demise of species
our own tenure on earth is just as
uncertain as any other species is a
colleague of mine pointed out it would
behoove us to have a bit of humility and
a lot less arrogance and pay attention
to the real limits of a real planet we
could start with not littering for
example we live a lot of plastic I also
assert that discarding co2 is littering
the list goes on but what invests us in
the future our own lives certainly while
we are young enough to have a future
ourselves but certainly the lives of the
young people we care about York two on
the lower left but highlighted
Caty these are the people we care about
especially our own children perhaps even
the children in our community in other
communities so how should we choose to
live our lives in closing I’d like to
share with you a reading from a favorite
Japanese story the story concerns a man
named Musashi a samurai struggling to
achieve wisdom the following is a brief
passage describing some of his thoughts
as he progressed along the way it wasn’t
that he had forgotten the lesson he had
been taught the truly brave man is one
who loves life cherishing it as a
treasure that once forfeited can never
be regained he knew full well that to
live was more than merely to survive the
problem was how to imbue his life with
meaning how to ensure that his life
would cast a bright ray of light into
the future even if it became necessary
to give up that life for a cause if he
succeeded in doing this the length of
his life 20 years or 70 made little
difference a lifetime was only an
insignificant interval in the endless
flow of time that for me is the most
important question I know how do we
imbue our lives with meaning part of
that answer should be that we have
responsibilities in our Republic and
then it matters that we be in the arena
in some way ourselves and not
particularly at this time simply
criticized and not act life is a canvas
upon which we can paint meaning purpose
we can express our ideas as to what
there is that is worth doing we all have
different and probably incomplete
answers to these questions and those of
us who are older should listen and learn
from what some of our younger folks
answers are especially at this stage of
our lives and I am certainly eager to
learn those answers what their answers
are later in their lives too as their
arenas expand and they
grow with them good luck to our children
and our future a lot of life is about
showing up please show up thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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