my wife Stephanie and I had a beautiful
wedding recently there were hundreds of
people there was a live band playing
older couples were bugging on the
dancefloor champagne glasses were filled
to the room but there in a darkened
corner something disturbed me all the
kids between the ages of 3 and 13 were
huddled together their faces a glow of
blue light their next trained at 40
degree angles eyes wide and dry they
were ignoring the dancing ignoring the
music ignoring each other they were on
smartphones and tablets I was so happy
for the newlywed couple but so worried
for this future generation were they
missing the intimate moments of life
what is the long-term impact and are we
now at a point where we should fear all
new technology I don’t know the answer
to all of these questions but I do know
that when those kids grow up they will
there’s a famous Swiss scientist his
name is Konrad Gesner and he writes
about a new technology that will spread
so much information he thinks it will be
overwhelming to society let me see a
show of hands even if you haven’t been
to a wedding recently that you relate to
this idea of being overwhelmed by
information that constant pings and
alerts constantly I know I did resonates
with me yet Konrad Gastner died in 1565
four and a half centuries ago and the
technology that he was referring to was
not a new app but the printing press you
see he was concerned that the mass
proliferation of books would have so
much information that it would be
detrimental confusing and harmful to the
mind for children and adults it sounds
almost silly no since I left Athens I’ve
lived in New York London Seoul Korea in
Silicon Valley at the intersection of
media and technology and I still get
anxious at the rapid pace of innovation
am i doing it right am i optimizing
technology correctly should I be worried
more should I be worried less we read
about new technologies like virtual
reality devices where you can escape to
new worlds augmented reality enabling
you to interact with the real world
artificial intelligence imitating human
thought space trips to Mars blockchain
digital Ledger’s and my favorite drones
that have replaced models at fashion
shows this is
this is actually from the Dolce Gabanna
fashion show a few months ago I replaced
all the models with drones fantastic
because we’re human however we have
excitement at the new possibilities but
because we’re human we have lots and
lots of fears we fear loss of privacy
loss of real human interaction loss of
identity we fear machines conspiring
with machines we fear drones being used
for malicious purposes we fear our
Bitcoin being stolen we fear machines
telling us what to do
and we fear not being able to shut it
all off it’s enough to leave us
constantly terrified however I love
looking at the past and seeing how the
fears that we had and seeing if we can
use that as a guide a framework for the
future technophobia means an abnormal
fear about the effects of advanced
technology the word was coined not
during the last dot-com boom but
actually during the Industrial
Revolution a period that ran from 1760
to 1840 and we got the steam engine the
power weaving loom the Telegraph a
resistance force in the form of
technophobia called the Luddites rose up
the power to violently attack and kill
mill owners and they tried to destroy
all this new technology the term Luddite
to this day means one who opposes new
technology
flash forward with me now from the 18th
century all the way to Detroit in the
early 1900s a new technology had arrived
the automobile and there were no rules
look at that photo this is complete
chaos
horses buggies cars families let their
11-year old children
drive the family car the true story
because there are no fast and furious
movies to help them understand some
drivers regularly flipped over when
speeding around corners and pedestrians
used to the pace of a horse couldn’t
accurately judge the pace of an oncoming
car and were regularly injured the
result of all this chaos was at in the
1920s two hundred and ten thousand
people were killed in car accidents
terrible
city officials government officials were
irate they wanted to ban and get rid of
this unnecessary unneeded undesired
it sounds kind of silly in hindsight now
during the from this bloody time we have
many of our common automobile
institutional norms they occurred
because we have a necessary and
synergistic process one society adapted
to the new technology and we got
crosswalks traffic lights and speed
limits and number two the car itself
evolved from an unwieldy force to one
that had safety belts brakes and
headlights but does this process always
occur with every new technology moving
from danger to safety from chaos to
order from eleven-year-old drivers to
sixteen-year-old drivers I think it must
it has to with every new innovation
otherwise we’re moving to a doomed bleak
dystopia nomophobia means having an
intense anxiety and fear of not having a
okay now plat three times of that
resonates with you it does to me as well
researchers at Iowa State University
have found that we are forming bonds
with our devices to the level of partner
spousal relationships so the next time
you’re freaking out you can’t find your
Stephanie and I have three young kids
ten eight and five four girl boy and
we’re very conscious of their bonds
they’re forming with technology we want
them to be anxiety free we teach them
about balance between balancing the
technology and access to the real world
we have full and complete control we’ve
mastered it until we found out that our
fourth grader because he goes to school
and now many of his classmates have
smartphones they expenses recessed
looking at NBA highlights on YouTube and
laughing at farthing memes tree what
what do we to do right what can we do
what we do is we teach them it’s self
control and that ultimately technology
they’re merely tools that unlock and
provide for a better education higher
quality of life and to prepare for
adulthood that’s very important that
last one because according to the World
Economic Forum sixty-five percent of all
jobs that our kids may do as adults do
not exist today
sixty-five percent now listen I know I
look like a fifth year senior
thank you but for the UGA students here
when you’re my age you more than likely
will be doing a job but you can’t even
imagine right now Facebook didn’t even
exist when I graduated from here and I
think we should recognize that the the
fears of technology we have have crusted
with the advent of the smartphone and
the content it can access we should look
around that technology is all around us
in every industry health care military
media entertainment transportation etc
and that every innovation goes through a
bloody challenging optimistic time to
achieve what we call in the valley
product market fit let me give you some
examples of the impact of this 200 years
ago approximately the average life
expectancy was 35 years of age the
extreme global poverty rate was 94% and
the literacy rate globally was less than
20% so we were poor we were hungry we
couldn’t read we died early now life
expectancy is over 70 years poverty rate
globally extreme poverty is less than
10% and global literacy rate is greater
than 80 percent so our bellies are full
we live a long time we have more time to
read this is a result of the
acceleration and technology that began
in the Industrial Revolution and
continues through today’s Information
Age so let’s take a step back away from
our angst and fears and appreciate that
it was our courage our thoughtfulness
our persistence to find technology tools
that we could distribute across the
there’s a reason why Marvel’s Black
Panther film has hit over a billion
dollars of the box office it’s fantastic
film focusing on afrofuturism in their
utopia the what contents have
successfully integrated their African
culture with their technological gifts
they’ve seen that their precious
resource vibranium is merely a tool to
amplify their clothing their weapons
their
of care system and it’s not something
that they will be dominated by they use
it to fulfill their traditional values
and societal values as well ultimately
there are prosperous unified peaceful
nation that bridges and supports other
societies we should use this
mythological country as a beacon for
what is the point of technology it’s to
drive greater scientific efficiencies to
propel the human race to new heights now
I work in Silicon Valley as a business
leader I go to work every day with as a
conscious creator I focused on good
intention to serve this mission however
I am not naive to the fact that the
human condition takes technology and we
twist it sometimes for good and
sometimes for bad the technology
industry you would be surprised to know
is quite aware of this they’re very
focused on their ability to disseminate
tools in a thoughtful manner iBM is a
leader in artificial intelligence and
may have been at the forefront in
establishing ethical guidelines and they
see merging industry the idea is to
ensure that AI is developed with trust
and morality Facebook has partnered with
the California Library System to
distribute virtual reality systems so
that many have access and companies like
Tesla their engineers volunteer at
places like hack the hood street code to
ensure that minority youth are trained
and have exposure to these tools for the
future but we do have more work to be
done
so what can you do to alleviate fear and
feel like you’re back in control to feel
like you have power one it’s pretty
simple go off the grid
I practice off the grid Sundays you
don’t have to go this far this is me in
Mendocino California
I find it liberating to be off the grid
relying on your self wits and
self-reliance
you’ll have to go to Mendocino you can
go to Costco to the mall step away you
will be liberated and you get endorphins
of self-reliance second one on a daily
basis be highly cognizant of your
interaction with technology it’s a tool
remember I want you to think about
spending five minutes a day just sitting
and be in the moment and in the spirit
and purposeful at that moment to
appreciate that we’re in the greatest
time in American society 3dr a real
world social interaction tap that person
in line at the Starbucks or the UJ bus
stop ensure that you might make a new
date a hot sexy new friend a cool
business opportunity and if you get
tapped in line reciprocate that
connectedness keep that real human
interaction going and forth become a
beta tester you don’t need an
experienced beta testers get access to
technology products early and they are
critical in shaping the direction and
feature set and policy of new
technologies go to beta bound comm or
beta lists comm to ensure that we are
moving forward with technology
listen it’s people who are using and
creating technology people like me
people like you let’s ensure that the
human spirit will never be subjugated by
any technology for while it is wise to
acknowledge our fears from steam engines
to books to cars to smartphones to the
as yet unknown it is human to confront
them and overcome for the greater good
thank you [Applause]