hello everyone I want to share a story
with you in the 1980s the chief
scientist of the World Health
Organization was on his way to a gala –
a celebration and as he was putting on
his tuxedo his little daughter looked at
him and she asked him where he was going
and he told her that he was on his way
to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of
the eradication of smallpox and she
looked at him and she said daddy what
smallpox and he said exactly the
smallpox vaccine is estimated to have
saved over a hundred twenty million
lives and I love this story for two
reasons one it highlights the power of
Technology and two it demonstrates that
there are always solutions to seemingly
intractable problems I’m an optimist and
I love thinking about the progress that
we’ve made as a species and when I think
about the quantum leaps that we’ve made
in just a few short centuries I see that
progress through the lens of scientific
enlightenment and technological
advancement technology is essentially a
superpower it has solved so many of the
world’s greatest challenges and I
believe that scientists and engineers
have a super-sized capacity to shape the
future for the better in fact I believe
that scientists and engineers they’re
the superheroes of our era and I think
we need them now more than ever
climate change poses an existential
threat to our way of life
there are 1.5 billion people who are
malnourished or starving in this world
and yes we may have conquered smallpox
but a child dies every 30 seconds from
malaria malaria did you know that it’s
estimated that malaria has killed over
50% of the Homo sapiens who have ever
walked this earth and did you know that
it can cost as little as two dollars and
50 cents to manufacture and distribute
an insecticide coated mosquito net that
can literally save someone’s life
there’s a famous argument made by the
Australian ethicist Peter Singer that
had a profound impact on my life it goes
like this
imagine you’re walking in the park and a
pair of fancy brand new shoes and you’re
walking by a lake
and you see a child drowning in the
water
and you have the ability to jump in and
save her and there’s no one else around
but you don’t have time to take off your
shoes do you jump in and save the child
do you yes of course yes of course I’m
like looking in the audience I’m like ah
who’s not raising their hand
ah of course you save the child when
asked most people say that you have a
moral obligation to save the child it’s
morally indefensible not to the reason
that if you are aware of someone in need
and you have the means to help then you
have a moral obligation to do what’s
right it’s your responsibility and I
suspect many of us don’t feel this way
when it comes to things like climate
change or global hunger or malaria yes
we acknowledge the cosmic injustice of
it all but we think ourselves incapable
of doing anything about it and so we
reason that we’re not morally
responsible it’s as if we see the child
but we can’t swim but this is a myth and
it is a myth that is as pervasive as it
is pernicious and it’s because these
challenges have solutions we know that
these problems are not intractable we
know that they have answers there’s
enough food in the world to feed 15
billion people global hunger is not set
in stone more solar energy hits the
square mileage of Texas that all of the
world’s power plants combined reliance
on fossil fuels is not set in stone and
given that people’s lives are at stake
and given that we have the technological
capacity to rise to the challenge I ask
can we afford not to so back to the
superheroes of our era you would think
that armed with such a superpower and
with such morally compelling motivation
you would think that we would see waves
of eager enthusiastic bright-eyed
idealistic optimistic young
technologists scientists and engineers
who are being the change they want to
see in this world and who are harnessing
the power of technology to change the
world for the better right wrong in fact
it’s too often the exact opposite there
is a vast infrastructural pipeline at
play that
commodifies brilliance and it seduces
the superheroes of our era with
six-figure starting salaries and swanky
offices in Silicon Valley and Wall
Street I see the brightest minds of my
generation flock westward in an annual
pilgrimage to Palo Alto and to Menlo
Park so that they can optimize ad
algorithms for mr. Zuckerberg
I love snapchat I love snapchat don’t
get me wrong I really do but in a world
of climate change and inaccessible
healthcare and gender inequalities and
ocean acidification and malaria like do
we really need all our precious time our
precious technological resources spent
building apps that allow us to send
disappearing nudes this is what I wanted
to change this is what I wanted to
change at least just a little bit to
shift the paradigm I wanted to do my
part in changing this at least a little
bit I wanted to show that you have other
options and I wanted to show the
superheroes of our era that you have
more moral agency than you think you
have a moral responsibility that you
don’t even know and that’s why I
together with one of my closest friends
in the world we created impact labs
impact labs was designed to inspire and
empower the next generation of
superheroes we wanted to create an
environment in which young technologists
could critically explore how they could
optimally leverage their skills for
social good and that’s exactly what we
did last year we created the inaugural
impact fellowship in which we gathered
35 computer science students from all
around the world and for two weeks
we studied advanced software engineering
by day from amazing instructors and by
night we heard from amazing speakers in
the social impact arena people from NGOs
and think tanks and research
institutions and philanthropic
organizations and social startups and
impact investment firms people who were
leveraging technology to build a more
equitable sustainable world the best
part was actually when the students
themselves they teamed up with one
another and they created their own
social startup that addressed one of the
UN sustainable development goals one
team of women to give you an example
they built Airbnb for safe houses so if
you’re a victim of domestic abuse you
could log on to this app and it would
safely and anonymously pair you with a
volunteer shelter so you could extricate
yourself from the violence another team
they created a platform that uses SMS
based services to create a heat map of
water
illnesses so that you can track the
spread of contaminated water supplies in
the developing world these are the ideas
that emerged in just two weeks when we
gave young technologists the audacity to
think beyond taxi-hailing apps and as
amazing as it was we wanted to go bigger
and that’s why we put on our second
initiative the impact summit which
applied this themes to over 250 students
and over the weekend we heard from over
60 incredible speakers with technical
workshops we put on a Career Expo and no
Facebook Google Microsoft Amazon Twitter
penalty are allowed we only highlighted
the companies that are doing well by
doing good we put out a blockchain for
social impact hackathon and we put on a
social startup competition where we were
able to give out over $40,000 worth of
prize money to young student
entrepreneurs working on social ventures
but even these initiatives were just the
beginning I know that there’s so much
more that we’re capable of achieving I
dream of an impact fellowship in every
major city across the country I dream of
an impact Academy where we’re focusing
on middle school and high school
students and encouraging them to enter
STEM fields for social good I dream of
an impact accelerator where we rink you
baiting small enterprises I dream of an
impact fund where we can invest in
social entrepreneurs and I dream of an
impact research facility where we can
develop cures for humanity’s most
life-threatening illnesses I know that
we’re capable of achieving this I know
it I just know it in my heart and I
think that the only risk here is in
thinking small technology is our super
power technology is our super power but
it doesn’t just go for those of us that
can code each and every one of us has a
responsibility and obligation and no one
is exempt we have the ability to make
profound impact on this planet as
individuals but together when we work
collectively we can be unstoppable to
borrow another’s words never doubt that
a small group of thoughtful committed
citizens can change the world indeed it
is the only thing that ever has my goal
is to get each and every one of us in
this audience and watching this online
to think critically about the impact we
know that we are capable of achieving in
this world ask yourself ok now how do I
get there
what am I uniquely suited to do on this
earth and if I can achieve that impact
today what are the step
that I can take today so that I can
achieve that impact tomorrow who are the
people I need to surround myself with so
that my values don’t erode and one of
the skills I’ll need to get there and if
I don’t have those skills how do I start
learning those skills today I ask you to
envision a world in which we all use our
superpowers optimistically and
relentlessly and I envision a world in
which I’m putting on my tuxedo to go to
the big celebration of 10 years without
malaria and my little girl can look at
me and she can say daddy what’s the
malaria and I can look at her and I can
say exactly thank you so much [Applause]
with you in the 1980s the chief
scientist of the World Health
Organization was on his way to a gala –
a celebration and as he was putting on
his tuxedo his little daughter looked at
him and she asked him where he was going
and he told her that he was on his way
to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of
the eradication of smallpox and she
looked at him and she said daddy what
smallpox and he said exactly the
smallpox vaccine is estimated to have
saved over a hundred twenty million
lives and I love this story for two
reasons one it highlights the power of
Technology and two it demonstrates that
there are always solutions to seemingly
intractable problems I’m an optimist and
I love thinking about the progress that
we’ve made as a species and when I think
about the quantum leaps that we’ve made
in just a few short centuries I see that
progress through the lens of scientific
enlightenment and technological
advancement technology is essentially a
superpower it has solved so many of the
world’s greatest challenges and I
believe that scientists and engineers
have a super-sized capacity to shape the
future for the better in fact I believe
that scientists and engineers they’re
the superheroes of our era and I think
we need them now more than ever
climate change poses an existential
threat to our way of life
there are 1.5 billion people who are
malnourished or starving in this world
and yes we may have conquered smallpox
but a child dies every 30 seconds from
malaria malaria did you know that it’s
estimated that malaria has killed over
50% of the Homo sapiens who have ever
walked this earth and did you know that
it can cost as little as two dollars and
50 cents to manufacture and distribute
an insecticide coated mosquito net that
can literally save someone’s life
there’s a famous argument made by the
Australian ethicist Peter Singer that
had a profound impact on my life it goes
like this
imagine you’re walking in the park and a
pair of fancy brand new shoes and you’re
walking by a lake
and you see a child drowning in the
water
and you have the ability to jump in and
save her and there’s no one else around
but you don’t have time to take off your
shoes do you jump in and save the child
do you yes of course yes of course I’m
like looking in the audience I’m like ah
who’s not raising their hand
ah of course you save the child when
asked most people say that you have a
moral obligation to save the child it’s
morally indefensible not to the reason
that if you are aware of someone in need
and you have the means to help then you
have a moral obligation to do what’s
right it’s your responsibility and I
suspect many of us don’t feel this way
when it comes to things like climate
change or global hunger or malaria yes
we acknowledge the cosmic injustice of
it all but we think ourselves incapable
of doing anything about it and so we
reason that we’re not morally
responsible it’s as if we see the child
but we can’t swim but this is a myth and
it is a myth that is as pervasive as it
is pernicious and it’s because these
challenges have solutions we know that
these problems are not intractable we
know that they have answers there’s
enough food in the world to feed 15
billion people global hunger is not set
in stone more solar energy hits the
square mileage of Texas that all of the
world’s power plants combined reliance
on fossil fuels is not set in stone and
given that people’s lives are at stake
and given that we have the technological
capacity to rise to the challenge I ask
can we afford not to so back to the
superheroes of our era you would think
that armed with such a superpower and
with such morally compelling motivation
you would think that we would see waves
of eager enthusiastic bright-eyed
idealistic optimistic young
technologists scientists and engineers
who are being the change they want to
see in this world and who are harnessing
the power of technology to change the
world for the better right wrong in fact
it’s too often the exact opposite there
is a vast infrastructural pipeline at
play that
commodifies brilliance and it seduces
the superheroes of our era with
six-figure starting salaries and swanky
offices in Silicon Valley and Wall
Street I see the brightest minds of my
generation flock westward in an annual
pilgrimage to Palo Alto and to Menlo
Park so that they can optimize ad
algorithms for mr. Zuckerberg
I love snapchat I love snapchat don’t
get me wrong I really do but in a world
of climate change and inaccessible
healthcare and gender inequalities and
ocean acidification and malaria like do
we really need all our precious time our
precious technological resources spent
building apps that allow us to send
disappearing nudes this is what I wanted
to change this is what I wanted to
change at least just a little bit to
shift the paradigm I wanted to do my
part in changing this at least a little
bit I wanted to show that you have other
options and I wanted to show the
superheroes of our era that you have
more moral agency than you think you
have a moral responsibility that you
don’t even know and that’s why I
together with one of my closest friends
in the world we created impact labs
impact labs was designed to inspire and
empower the next generation of
superheroes we wanted to create an
environment in which young technologists
could critically explore how they could
optimally leverage their skills for
social good and that’s exactly what we
did last year we created the inaugural
impact fellowship in which we gathered
35 computer science students from all
around the world and for two weeks
we studied advanced software engineering
by day from amazing instructors and by
night we heard from amazing speakers in
the social impact arena people from NGOs
and think tanks and research
institutions and philanthropic
organizations and social startups and
impact investment firms people who were
leveraging technology to build a more
equitable sustainable world the best
part was actually when the students
themselves they teamed up with one
another and they created their own
social startup that addressed one of the
UN sustainable development goals one
team of women to give you an example
they built Airbnb for safe houses so if
you’re a victim of domestic abuse you
could log on to this app and it would
safely and anonymously pair you with a
volunteer shelter so you could extricate
yourself from the violence another team
they created a platform that uses SMS
based services to create a heat map of
water
illnesses so that you can track the
spread of contaminated water supplies in
the developing world these are the ideas
that emerged in just two weeks when we
gave young technologists the audacity to
think beyond taxi-hailing apps and as
amazing as it was we wanted to go bigger
and that’s why we put on our second
initiative the impact summit which
applied this themes to over 250 students
and over the weekend we heard from over
60 incredible speakers with technical
workshops we put on a Career Expo and no
Facebook Google Microsoft Amazon Twitter
penalty are allowed we only highlighted
the companies that are doing well by
doing good we put out a blockchain for
social impact hackathon and we put on a
social startup competition where we were
able to give out over $40,000 worth of
prize money to young student
entrepreneurs working on social ventures
but even these initiatives were just the
beginning I know that there’s so much
more that we’re capable of achieving I
dream of an impact fellowship in every
major city across the country I dream of
an impact Academy where we’re focusing
on middle school and high school
students and encouraging them to enter
STEM fields for social good I dream of
an impact accelerator where we rink you
baiting small enterprises I dream of an
impact fund where we can invest in
social entrepreneurs and I dream of an
impact research facility where we can
develop cures for humanity’s most
life-threatening illnesses I know that
we’re capable of achieving this I know
it I just know it in my heart and I
think that the only risk here is in
thinking small technology is our super
power technology is our super power but
it doesn’t just go for those of us that
can code each and every one of us has a
responsibility and obligation and no one
is exempt we have the ability to make
profound impact on this planet as
individuals but together when we work
collectively we can be unstoppable to
borrow another’s words never doubt that
a small group of thoughtful committed
citizens can change the world indeed it
is the only thing that ever has my goal
is to get each and every one of us in
this audience and watching this online
to think critically about the impact we
know that we are capable of achieving in
this world ask yourself ok now how do I
get there
what am I uniquely suited to do on this
earth and if I can achieve that impact
today what are the step
that I can take today so that I can
achieve that impact tomorrow who are the
people I need to surround myself with so
that my values don’t erode and one of
the skills I’ll need to get there and if
I don’t have those skills how do I start
learning those skills today I ask you to
envision a world in which we all use our
superpowers optimistically and
relentlessly and I envision a world in
which I’m putting on my tuxedo to go to
the big celebration of 10 years without
malaria and my little girl can look at
me and she can say daddy what’s the
malaria and I can look at her and I can
say exactly thank you so much [Applause]
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