when I first read this quote I thought
to myself Wow Karl Marx is really nailed
it and he’s on to something of great
consequence and so when I was putting
this talk together I thought I would
build my narrative around sort of a
micro version of this a very personal
version of technology creating history
as well as a macro version of sort of a
broader generic view of technology
creating history and then feather in
some past present and future aspects of
technology and then leave you with a
conundrum of sorts to ponder conceivably
after we leave this August Kirby theater
for years ago today I was invited to
meet with a founder of a technology
company in Los Angeles so I flew to LAX
I get in a cab I get to their building
and just for the visual the building is
in the shadow of that massive Hollywood
sign in the Hollywood Hills right up on
the elevator or met by the founder and
he gives me something that would have to
be described as a delicious tour he
introduces me to everybody in the
company all the different departments
and at one point is we’re sort of
circling the area he said would you mind
dropping into this office and I said not
at all I go in and I realized it wasn’t
really an office at all it was a lab
there were all forms of deconstructed
computers everywhere sensors and chips
and and motherboards and all of it and
of course the requisite Star Wars
characters duct taped to the wall
everywhere and sort of floating in the
air which is the purest signal of a tech
company for sure and so after we’re in
he said would you mind putting on this
headset it looks something like this one
other than the the itab in this case it
was a tab that went directly to the
middle of my eyebrows and touched my
forehead very lightly after i had this
assembly john he said do you see that
lamp across the way and it was about
from me to the third or fourth row here
I said of course and he said look at it
and think of the word on
which I did and then I turned the light
on with my mind and then I turned it off
and they turned it on and off and on and
off and it was the most remarkable
moment for me and it documented Karl
Marx’s theory of technology making
history in a very very personal way it
changed my life in many ways and all of
us have had a comparable experience in
some sense with technology that moment
either when you’re younger or at any
point in your life where you think wow
it’s something now to the more macro
version of the generic version of of
what technology can do is this is a
video from a friend of mine David
Lorenzini who we all in some sense owe a
debt of gratitude to because in the year
2000 he invented something called
keyhole which google bought and
ultimately came Google Earth which we
were all very familiar with and you sort
of in some regular basis and this is his
view of the year twenty twenty so four
years from now and it has some great
imaging imaging that I think you might
appreciate it sets the stage for the
rest of the talk
there are many historic flexion
inflections that have the document that
technology creates history specifically
these obvious cases were Industrial
Revolution oil production transportation
steal the computer itself in my view of
these events historically are the
technological developments Forge
cataclysms that make a mark and here’s
history on a parallel taking note to the
more modern view of this progression the
internet itself certainly social media
in many ways certainly feeds into an AR
v RI 0 TI 0 e web 3.0 which we saw in
part in the video and artificial
intelligence for those of you may not
sort of know these acronyms augmented
reality is a RV ours virtual reality
mixed reality Internet of Things
internet of everything that kind of
stuff and each one of these platforms
feeds one another lending itself to a
progression in my personal world these
days I’m involved heavily with AR and VR
in particular augmented reality is a
technology that allows for the
superimposition of computer graphics on
the real world what does that mean that
means you can superimpose information on
virtually any subject matter the Great
Wall of China the Eiffel Tower any
individual in this room even Williams
College which lends itself to the the
other forms of virtual reality which is
a completely immersive technology and a
mixed reality which Microsoft is
developing a product that should be
available early next year called
hololens where we will be able to have a
hologram of me being here giving this
talk without being here so technology is
at this stage where it’s about to
accelerate very aggressively the best
illustration of this is not so much even
ioe or IOT but AI artificial
intelligence and the pitchfork I have
listed up here or sighting is just to
suggest some of the core developments
there are massive companies as well as
individuals in their garage that are
working towards the ends of these
pitchfork comments
which are places like robotics and
machine learning and natural language
processing all of which contribute to
this sort of thing and the most powerful
thing that I know over I can conceive of
as a relates day I right now is that
mankind person kind cannot think beyond
aai at this point Bill Gates this year
said we’re going to have to there’s a
moment in time and not too distant
future we’re going to have to have to
ask a I how smart it is because we won’t
be able to know ourselves the last
thought about this slide is there is a
fellow who is a TED talk or as name is
tim urban he’s invented a concept that I
find very compelling and he said he’s
the acronym that he’s come up with is a
DD you some of you may know but it’s a
drop-dead unit and how he profiles this
is you have to if you start with
Neanderthal man you have to go to 1754
ddu one to two hundred thousand years
give or take and that means if you take
a Neanderthal you put him in 1750
overwhelmed by everything that he sees
and knows drops dead on the spot 1752
1950 so 200,000 to then 200 years same
scenario put somebody from 1750 1950
drops dead on the spot the next dee do
dee dee you three will be 1952 2040 so
I’ll drop dead in 2040 for sure but it’s
a very compelling notion when you think
of sort of the acceleration of
Technology and what it can mean until
this compression of time as it relates
to all of it so then I got to a point us
in think about this talk why why is all
this going on what is it you know why do
we do this and it’s somewhat clear to me
that there is this sociological ego that
mankind has globally and worldwide in
sort of every fashion where technology
is merely a reflective tool it’s a way
for us to look at ourselves and provide
information and identify ourselves in
some consequential way there is a
chicken and egg scenario about this in
my mind as well which means and it
relates back to Karl his thinking
because isn’t it true that technology
doesn’t does not create history but
mankind creates how
see that ultimately creates history and
we get to a point in that that there are
human beings sort of producing product
that lends itself to something of great
consequence and here’s the rub or here’s
the way the final piece of the story
unfolds in my mind it’s what happens
when human beings are no longer the top
species on the planet what does that
mean when we become subjugated to a
technology for example how do we feel
what do we do when technology is
devising itself for itself and
ultimately getting to a point where call
may be it may have been massively
correct where technology will be
creating history for itself I have a
final piece of reassurance in some sense
because there’s a dark side to that
story and that is to say the good news
is the future won’t happen until the
president is ready for it and human
beings are pretty obstinate in a way
we’re going to hold on to our grip of
control of the planet and consequential
role there in until we’re ready to let
go and that will transition over time so
with that thought in mind I’ve put
together a small owed that I’ll read too
if you don’t mind our stewardship of the
planet and ultimately our storytelling
to future generations must include a
coexistence philosophy and importantly
safeguards with technology to ensure our
fate and the fate of human history moving forward thank you