the technological revolution will
redefine life as we know it and it’s
already well underway
are you ready theoretical physicist
Stephen Hawking tells us that artificial
intelligence will be the greatest event
in human history
he also said that it could spell the end
of the human race rakers well who
together with Peter diamantes founded
singularity University tells us that
artificial intelligence will eclipse
human intelligence by 2029
that’s only 11 years away Kurzweil
predicts that by the 2040s artificial
intelligence will be a billion times
more capable than human intelligence
advances in technology will create
radical change in every area of human
endeavor these changes will test our
competency our sense of community our
beliefs and our resolve and yet today by
any objective standard the vast majority
of us are unprepared for these changes
at a time when we should be planning and
preparing we are instead divided by race
age sex religion economics and identity
politics the politics of me versus the
politics of us and we are paralyzed by
political dysfunction so now what what
do we do next how do we survive and
thrive in this brave new world it all
begins
with our thoughts in 2014
Oprah Winfrey was interviewed at
Stanford University she was asked which
he had learned from the failures of her
philanthropic investments in Africa she
said I learned that you first have to
change the way a person thinks in order
to succeed she said you first have to
have a sense of aspiration a sense of
hopefulness she was right
we need to instill that sense of
aspiration and hopefulness
in ourselves and in our children we need
to instill it in all children including
the over 4 million homeless children and
the over 17 and a half million
fatherless children in America mindset
is critical and the same is true of
perspective success and survival in the
21st century will require that we see
the world and the issues we confront
more clearly we do that by broadening
our perspectives during my 30 years of
practicing law including while serving
as Nevada’s Attorney General I always
began each engagement the same way I
began by acquiring information I wanted
to see all sides of every issue that
view is called a helicopter perspective
it was that helicopter perspective that
allowed me to solve complex problems and
develop winning strategies while a
helicopter perspective has always been
important in a world that has become
increasingly divisive and polarized this
unique view has become even more
important why because we are now being
exposed to massive amounts of highly
targeted information that is
specifically designed to appeal to our
confirmation biases
this highly targeted information narrows
and hardens our perspectives and the
perspectives of others and a narrow
perspective is more likely to be
inaccurate knowing and understanding
this limitation should cause us all to
pause both in accepting what we believe
is true and in judging the opinions of
others it should cause us to not only be
far more tolerant of alternative
perspectives but to actually value them
and seek them out the broader our
perspective the greater our ability to
see the world and the issues we confront
more clearly success and survival will
also require that we leverage our
strengths and mitigate our weaknesses
our brains represent both our greatest
strengths and our greatest weakness
think of your brain as a double-edged
sword advances in neuroscience have
shown that we can sharpen that sword by
increasing ir our IQ we do that through
practice learning exercise improve
nutrition better sleep habits and
mindfulness we do it through a
commitment to lifelong learning advances
in neuroscience have also shown that our
brains are far more malleable than we
ever realized we now know that our
subconscious brain profoundly affects
both our thoughts and our actions even
our physiology these discoveries
highlight an area of strength our
ability to learn and an area of weakness
our susceptibility to outside influence
one such on-site influence is social
media social media and the ability of
virtually anyone to broadcast false
information
on a global scale directly into our
cellphones represents a relatively new
phenomenon it’s part of the first wave
of the technological revolution and it’s
already causing significant disruption
we saw the power of social media during
the Arab Spring we saw the potential
threat during America’s 2016 election we
see it’s growing significance everyday
in the caustic comments that fill our
social media threads and create
increased division among us social media
when paired with our brains malleability
raises new questions with potentially
far-reaching implications most of us
believe that when we make a decision we
understand the principle factors that
influenced us very often nothing could
research has shown the susceptibility of
our subconscious brain to outside
influence advertisers have been
exploiting this vulnerability for
generations today any individual
corporation or government can exploit
this very same vulnerability with
nothing more than a cellphone
fortunately studies have also shown that
we have the ability to control our
thoughts simply pausing to recognize and
acknowledge your thoughts can move the
brains processing of your thoughts from
the amygdala the emotional and reactive
portion of your brain to the prefrontal
cortex the region of the brain
responsible for conscious and deliberate
thought think about what this can mean
in your life we all get into arguments
occasionally simply pausing during an
argument can cause all involve parties
to become more less emotional and more
logical rather than getting hooked on
your thoughts
by treating them as truths or facts
recognizing your thoughts for what they
are transitory packets of sensory
information that may or may not
represent truths or facts will cause you
to see your thoughts more clearly less
emotionally and more logically rather
than assuming that your view or that of
your group is accurate stopping to
consider alternative perspectives that
you don’t normally consider can only
broaden and enhance your perspective
finally and perhaps most importantly
success and survival in the 21st century
will require that we recognize our
profound interdependence we can no
longer afford to see compassion and
cooperation as somehow optional or
aspirational compassion and cooperation
aren’t optional they’re necessary to our
mutual survival nature provides many
examples of how and why this is true
from our dependency when we’re young and
old to the way animals and even insects
behave during heavy rains fire ants to
avoid drowning lock their legs and self
assemble into floating rafts alone they
would perish together they survive
humans behave the same way in times of
crisis we’ve seen this during natural
disasters and during acts of terror all
across the globe
unlike the fire ant humans have the
added ability to plan and prepare we
need to use that ability to plan for our
collective future together before a
do something every day to broaden your
perspective do what you’re doing here
today listening to alternative views be
more open flexible and adaptive be an
example in your community of tolerance
optimism and compassion and perhaps most
importantly believe believe in yourself
believe in your children believe in your
future and believe in each other thank
you [Applause]
redefine life as we know it and it’s
already well underway
are you ready theoretical physicist
Stephen Hawking tells us that artificial
intelligence will be the greatest event
in human history
he also said that it could spell the end
of the human race rakers well who
together with Peter diamantes founded
singularity University tells us that
artificial intelligence will eclipse
human intelligence by 2029
that’s only 11 years away Kurzweil
predicts that by the 2040s artificial
intelligence will be a billion times
more capable than human intelligence
advances in technology will create
radical change in every area of human
endeavor these changes will test our
competency our sense of community our
beliefs and our resolve and yet today by
any objective standard the vast majority
of us are unprepared for these changes
at a time when we should be planning and
preparing we are instead divided by race
age sex religion economics and identity
politics the politics of me versus the
politics of us and we are paralyzed by
political dysfunction so now what what
do we do next how do we survive and
thrive in this brave new world it all
begins
with our thoughts in 2014
Oprah Winfrey was interviewed at
Stanford University she was asked which
he had learned from the failures of her
philanthropic investments in Africa she
said I learned that you first have to
change the way a person thinks in order
to succeed she said you first have to
have a sense of aspiration a sense of
hopefulness she was right
we need to instill that sense of
aspiration and hopefulness
in ourselves and in our children we need
to instill it in all children including
the over 4 million homeless children and
the over 17 and a half million
fatherless children in America mindset
is critical and the same is true of
perspective success and survival in the
21st century will require that we see
the world and the issues we confront
more clearly we do that by broadening
our perspectives during my 30 years of
practicing law including while serving
as Nevada’s Attorney General I always
began each engagement the same way I
began by acquiring information I wanted
to see all sides of every issue that
view is called a helicopter perspective
it was that helicopter perspective that
allowed me to solve complex problems and
develop winning strategies while a
helicopter perspective has always been
important in a world that has become
increasingly divisive and polarized this
unique view has become even more
important why because we are now being
exposed to massive amounts of highly
targeted information that is
specifically designed to appeal to our
confirmation biases
this highly targeted information narrows
and hardens our perspectives and the
perspectives of others and a narrow
perspective is more likely to be
inaccurate knowing and understanding
this limitation should cause us all to
pause both in accepting what we believe
is true and in judging the opinions of
others it should cause us to not only be
far more tolerant of alternative
perspectives but to actually value them
and seek them out the broader our
perspective the greater our ability to
see the world and the issues we confront
more clearly success and survival will
also require that we leverage our
strengths and mitigate our weaknesses
our brains represent both our greatest
strengths and our greatest weakness
think of your brain as a double-edged
sword advances in neuroscience have
shown that we can sharpen that sword by
increasing ir our IQ we do that through
practice learning exercise improve
nutrition better sleep habits and
mindfulness we do it through a
commitment to lifelong learning advances
in neuroscience have also shown that our
brains are far more malleable than we
ever realized we now know that our
subconscious brain profoundly affects
both our thoughts and our actions even
our physiology these discoveries
highlight an area of strength our
ability to learn and an area of weakness
our susceptibility to outside influence
one such on-site influence is social
media social media and the ability of
virtually anyone to broadcast false
information
on a global scale directly into our
cellphones represents a relatively new
phenomenon it’s part of the first wave
of the technological revolution and it’s
already causing significant disruption
we saw the power of social media during
the Arab Spring we saw the potential
threat during America’s 2016 election we
see it’s growing significance everyday
in the caustic comments that fill our
social media threads and create
increased division among us social media
when paired with our brains malleability
raises new questions with potentially
far-reaching implications most of us
believe that when we make a decision we
understand the principle factors that
influenced us very often nothing could
research has shown the susceptibility of
our subconscious brain to outside
influence advertisers have been
exploiting this vulnerability for
generations today any individual
corporation or government can exploit
this very same vulnerability with
nothing more than a cellphone
fortunately studies have also shown that
we have the ability to control our
thoughts simply pausing to recognize and
acknowledge your thoughts can move the
brains processing of your thoughts from
the amygdala the emotional and reactive
portion of your brain to the prefrontal
cortex the region of the brain
responsible for conscious and deliberate
thought think about what this can mean
in your life we all get into arguments
occasionally simply pausing during an
argument can cause all involve parties
to become more less emotional and more
logical rather than getting hooked on
your thoughts
by treating them as truths or facts
recognizing your thoughts for what they
are transitory packets of sensory
information that may or may not
represent truths or facts will cause you
to see your thoughts more clearly less
emotionally and more logically rather
than assuming that your view or that of
your group is accurate stopping to
consider alternative perspectives that
you don’t normally consider can only
broaden and enhance your perspective
finally and perhaps most importantly
success and survival in the 21st century
will require that we recognize our
profound interdependence we can no
longer afford to see compassion and
cooperation as somehow optional or
aspirational compassion and cooperation
aren’t optional they’re necessary to our
mutual survival nature provides many
examples of how and why this is true
from our dependency when we’re young and
old to the way animals and even insects
behave during heavy rains fire ants to
avoid drowning lock their legs and self
assemble into floating rafts alone they
would perish together they survive
humans behave the same way in times of
crisis we’ve seen this during natural
disasters and during acts of terror all
across the globe
unlike the fire ant humans have the
added ability to plan and prepare we
need to use that ability to plan for our
collective future together before a
do something every day to broaden your
perspective do what you’re doing here
today listening to alternative views be
more open flexible and adaptive be an
example in your community of tolerance
optimism and compassion and perhaps most
importantly believe believe in yourself
believe in your children believe in your
future and believe in each other thank
you [Applause]
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