[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
good evening I can see some of you are
still busy with checking the whatsapp
messages on your phones what if I tell
you in the future you might not even
have to hold your phone in your hand to
do this if you had the choice would you
implant your smartphone into your head
let us do a thought experiment and try
to imagine what it would be like if we
lived in a world where this would be
possible in that world you could access
all the functions of your phone using
your thoughts everything that you
usually see on the screen would be
displayed into your visual space sitting
here and listening to me you can look up
who was this guy called Alan musk again
just by thinking about him the answer
including a nice picture of mr. musk
would instantly be displayed in front of
you with a quick thought command you can
share what you see and hear with a
friend in Hong Kong who can participate
as if he would be here with us
oh if you happen to not like the talk at
all you can have a thought conversation
with your neighbour about what you had
for lunch none of this would require any
effort it would feel as natural and
intuitive as thinking is does it sound
great or terrible or maybe not so
different from what we do today maybe
you feel like that scenario is just some
wild science fiction but I guarantee you
it is not as of the grid as it might
seem
today tech companies and scientists all
around the world work on the development
of technologies that cross a new
frontier the frontier of our skin it is
very likely that during our lifetime
summer
are going to integrate some
technological device into our heads
there are two basic ingredients that we
will need to make such a device the
first one is all about perception we
would have to turn our eyes into this
place in order to melt our perception of
the outside world our front yard the
metro station with our virtual world our
Facebook and our email account this
blending of the two worlds we live in is
called augmented reality already today
you can buy glasses like microsoft’s
hololens that do exactly that
they display some text information or
some funny colorful arrows into your
visual fields that help you say install
a washing machine in your home in the
future instead of using these kind of
nasty glasses the display could be
integrated into an elegant contact lens
that is implanted into the eye currently
Google Samsung and Sony are working on
the development of smart lenses that
project images on the eye or that allow
you to make furrows using eye movements
let’s have a look at the second
ingredient when we use our phone in
daily life we do not only want to
perceive information on it but we want
to interact with that information we
want to scroll through pages search
things in the web sent messages to do
that we use our thumbs on the screen
would it be possible to do the same
thing using our thoughts there is no
such device that looks at your brain and
recognizes that you think damn it I
forgot Peters birthday today call him
now but what is possible is to recognize
basic building blocks of your thoughts
for example we can say given the
activity in your brain
there was a 74% chance that you are
thinking about the letter B right now
the technique to do that is called brain
computer interface and it is applied
mainly for a paralyzed patient
they can use the interface to
communicate with the outside world
without moving at all using their
thoughts they can write or control a
cursor on a computer screen in order to
do that however they have to wear a cap
with electrodes on the head they need to
be wired to a computer and the set of
things that they can actually do with it
is pretty limited so it is not really
practical to use for everyone in
everyday life but there was a bunch of
research going on that tries to make the
same technology applicable for healthy
people and to integrate it into the body
last year Silicon Valley superstar Alan
musk founded a new company it seems like
he got boards by building spaceships and
electric cars and now he wants to build
a device that is implanted into the
brain and that makes healthy people do
things with their thoughts the idea is
simple the implementation is
ridiculously complicated because much of
how the human brain encodes information
is still a mystery but this moment here
now it’s not the peak of technology
scary things are about to crawl out of
Silicon Valley and the most scary thing
is because these things happen in little
digestible steps rather than in one
revolutionary leap of development they
will probably feel normal as we go so
let’s try and keep a critical distance
here we are if we could combine a brain
computer interface with augmented
reality and plant them into our eyes and
brain and wirelessly connect them to a
computer we would have the magic done we
would have a smartphone integrated into
our head it is not at all off the grid
to wonder about that scenario so here
comes the important part of the question
do we want
to melt with technology do we want to
become cyborgs with magical abilities
my first intuitive answer to that
question was hell no I love to climb
mountains I love to dive in the ocean I
love to have conversations with people
made of flesh and blood I get depressed
by spending the whole day in front of a
computer screen and I feel like already
today I depend on technology far too
much and I certainly do not want it to
enter my last resort
my natural body but then I thought about
it again and does it really matter if
the technology I use is located inside
my pocket or inside my hand technology
is a crucial part of how I interact with
the world I use my smartphone for
communication for orientation to store
memories on it I also a part of my
thinking to it in that sense my
smartphone is a part of me I already am
a cyborg
implanting the same functions I used
today into my head just represents a
more direct form of access to them if we
are so afraid of what technology will do
to us once it is located inside of our
body we should also be concerned about
what it does to us today why do we feel
like we get lost in a virtual world at
times I believe this happens simply
because very often we use technology in
an unhealthy way if you cannot have a
conversation with your friends without
checking the messages on your phone
every five minutes that’s not the fault
of whatsapp if you feel like your
understanding of what goes on in the
world becomes more and more superficial
that’s not the fault of media and if you
cannot find the way to your grandma’s
place on your own even though you drove
there for a million times
that’s not the fault of Google Maps if
you feel like any of the ways you use
technology is not doing you good then
it’s up to you to change it train
yourself communicate digitally but be
able to put your phone away when you
want to immerse in a real-life
conversation focus on some comprehensive
articles instead of getting distracted
by random headlines of trashy news use
Google Maps once and next time try to
find the way from your own memory
technology is not good or bad it is a
powerful tool that is at our disposal
and there are better ways to make use of
it and worse once it’s up to you to
judge I found a powerful criterion that
works for myself I want to use
technology only in a way that enables me
to dive deeper in the real world what do
I mean by that earlier this year I spent
some time traveling in Brazil which was
a mind-opening experience my phone
helped me to share this experience has
helped me to find couchsurfing hosts
Brazilians made of flesh and blood who
welcomed me at their homes it’s enabled
me to join hippie communities in the
middle of the jungle planting cacao and
banana trees thanks to different
language learning apps I taught myself
Portuguese so I could discuss everything
from Brazilian politics to Chaeronea
recipes with anyone I met if I use it in
the right way my phone becomes a vehicle
to immerse myself in the world in ways
that my grandma wouldn’t even dream
about playing candy crush on the other
hand does certainly not fulfill that
criterion of connecting me to the world
it sets me apart from it when we take
technology to the next level and melt
our bodies with it a whole bunch of new
options how to interact will pop up in
the newer technology universe there were
wild speculations going on about thought
communication about virtually beaming
yourself to another part of the world
about moving things in your environment
with your brain
no one knows which of these options will
become true let alone when there will
become true but what is certain is that
a multitude of very difficult ethical
issues would arise if we wire our brains
to the Internet how will they change
social interactions how can we make sure
that Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t track
everything we do and think what does
privacy even mean in such a world ask
these questions to any tech guru in
Silicon Valley and with a fancy sorry
letter in his hand he will swipe your
ethical concerns away with his one
killer argument Hey look he will tell
you every new technology in the history
of humanity had good sides and bad sides
and people always worried but would you
want to go back to 1852 riding around in
a stupid carriage no well then here we
go let me why your brain to computer now
but this is not a good argument
we cannot just project what happened in
the past to the future we have to deal
with the issues Google and Facebook are
not intrinsically evil but it lies in
their very nature to be driven by
economic motives rather than by
idealistic ones let us not leave the
stage to them when it comes to designing
our future because there is simply not
their task it is our task if we don’t
want to live in the technological utopia
that the CEOs in San Francisco are
dreaming of we better have a counter
concept how do we want technology to
shape our future in order to answer this
question we must leave our role as naive
consumers behind we have to pick out of
the pool of possible technological tools
those that enable us to do things better
those that connect us to the world
and don’t set us apart from it we need
public discussion about the ethics
behind the hot new ideas and building on
that discussion we can create political
organizations that can control the
growing power of tech companies they can
make laws that guarantee that we as
users always stay in full control that
there’s always the option to turn off
the phone in your head they can set
financial incentives to create
non-abusive technologies technologies
that serve society and they do not
disrupt it because why would anyone
create a non abusive technology if you
can make much more money with an abusive
one that is what we should work but most
importantly let us not be so emotional
about the whole topic we shouldn’t be
afraid of technological progress per se
but we shouldn’t follow it with blind
enthusiasm either neither of these is a
constructive attitude let us make a
conscious choice as individuals as we
choose how to consume technology every
day and a society as we go about
designing our future I am looking
forward to immerse myself in the world
in ways that I cannot even conceive of
today and one day I might have planned a
smartphone into my head it does sound
scary but I believe once we found
solutions for our concerns this might in
which my being in the world I will still
be human or say as human as I am today
what about you thank you
you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
good evening I can see some of you are
still busy with checking the whatsapp
messages on your phones what if I tell
you in the future you might not even
have to hold your phone in your hand to
do this if you had the choice would you
implant your smartphone into your head
let us do a thought experiment and try
to imagine what it would be like if we
lived in a world where this would be
possible in that world you could access
all the functions of your phone using
your thoughts everything that you
usually see on the screen would be
displayed into your visual space sitting
here and listening to me you can look up
who was this guy called Alan musk again
just by thinking about him the answer
including a nice picture of mr. musk
would instantly be displayed in front of
you with a quick thought command you can
share what you see and hear with a
friend in Hong Kong who can participate
as if he would be here with us
oh if you happen to not like the talk at
all you can have a thought conversation
with your neighbour about what you had
for lunch none of this would require any
effort it would feel as natural and
intuitive as thinking is does it sound
great or terrible or maybe not so
different from what we do today maybe
you feel like that scenario is just some
wild science fiction but I guarantee you
it is not as of the grid as it might
seem
today tech companies and scientists all
around the world work on the development
of technologies that cross a new
frontier the frontier of our skin it is
very likely that during our lifetime
summer
are going to integrate some
technological device into our heads
there are two basic ingredients that we
will need to make such a device the
first one is all about perception we
would have to turn our eyes into this
place in order to melt our perception of
the outside world our front yard the
metro station with our virtual world our
Facebook and our email account this
blending of the two worlds we live in is
called augmented reality already today
you can buy glasses like microsoft’s
hololens that do exactly that
they display some text information or
some funny colorful arrows into your
visual fields that help you say install
a washing machine in your home in the
future instead of using these kind of
nasty glasses the display could be
integrated into an elegant contact lens
that is implanted into the eye currently
Google Samsung and Sony are working on
the development of smart lenses that
project images on the eye or that allow
you to make furrows using eye movements
let’s have a look at the second
ingredient when we use our phone in
daily life we do not only want to
perceive information on it but we want
to interact with that information we
want to scroll through pages search
things in the web sent messages to do
that we use our thumbs on the screen
would it be possible to do the same
thing using our thoughts there is no
such device that looks at your brain and
recognizes that you think damn it I
forgot Peters birthday today call him
now but what is possible is to recognize
basic building blocks of your thoughts
for example we can say given the
activity in your brain
there was a 74% chance that you are
thinking about the letter B right now
the technique to do that is called brain
computer interface and it is applied
mainly for a paralyzed patient
they can use the interface to
communicate with the outside world
without moving at all using their
thoughts they can write or control a
cursor on a computer screen in order to
do that however they have to wear a cap
with electrodes on the head they need to
be wired to a computer and the set of
things that they can actually do with it
is pretty limited so it is not really
practical to use for everyone in
everyday life but there was a bunch of
research going on that tries to make the
same technology applicable for healthy
people and to integrate it into the body
last year Silicon Valley superstar Alan
musk founded a new company it seems like
he got boards by building spaceships and
electric cars and now he wants to build
a device that is implanted into the
brain and that makes healthy people do
things with their thoughts the idea is
simple the implementation is
ridiculously complicated because much of
how the human brain encodes information
is still a mystery but this moment here
now it’s not the peak of technology
scary things are about to crawl out of
Silicon Valley and the most scary thing
is because these things happen in little
digestible steps rather than in one
revolutionary leap of development they
will probably feel normal as we go so
let’s try and keep a critical distance
here we are if we could combine a brain
computer interface with augmented
reality and plant them into our eyes and
brain and wirelessly connect them to a
computer we would have the magic done we
would have a smartphone integrated into
our head it is not at all off the grid
to wonder about that scenario so here
comes the important part of the question
do we want
to melt with technology do we want to
become cyborgs with magical abilities
my first intuitive answer to that
question was hell no I love to climb
mountains I love to dive in the ocean I
love to have conversations with people
made of flesh and blood I get depressed
by spending the whole day in front of a
computer screen and I feel like already
today I depend on technology far too
much and I certainly do not want it to
enter my last resort
my natural body but then I thought about
it again and does it really matter if
the technology I use is located inside
my pocket or inside my hand technology
is a crucial part of how I interact with
the world I use my smartphone for
communication for orientation to store
memories on it I also a part of my
thinking to it in that sense my
smartphone is a part of me I already am
a cyborg
implanting the same functions I used
today into my head just represents a
more direct form of access to them if we
are so afraid of what technology will do
to us once it is located inside of our
body we should also be concerned about
what it does to us today why do we feel
like we get lost in a virtual world at
times I believe this happens simply
because very often we use technology in
an unhealthy way if you cannot have a
conversation with your friends without
checking the messages on your phone
every five minutes that’s not the fault
of whatsapp if you feel like your
understanding of what goes on in the
world becomes more and more superficial
that’s not the fault of media and if you
cannot find the way to your grandma’s
place on your own even though you drove
there for a million times
that’s not the fault of Google Maps if
you feel like any of the ways you use
technology is not doing you good then
it’s up to you to change it train
yourself communicate digitally but be
able to put your phone away when you
want to immerse in a real-life
conversation focus on some comprehensive
articles instead of getting distracted
by random headlines of trashy news use
Google Maps once and next time try to
find the way from your own memory
technology is not good or bad it is a
powerful tool that is at our disposal
and there are better ways to make use of
it and worse once it’s up to you to
judge I found a powerful criterion that
works for myself I want to use
technology only in a way that enables me
to dive deeper in the real world what do
I mean by that earlier this year I spent
some time traveling in Brazil which was
a mind-opening experience my phone
helped me to share this experience has
helped me to find couchsurfing hosts
Brazilians made of flesh and blood who
welcomed me at their homes it’s enabled
me to join hippie communities in the
middle of the jungle planting cacao and
banana trees thanks to different
language learning apps I taught myself
Portuguese so I could discuss everything
from Brazilian politics to Chaeronea
recipes with anyone I met if I use it in
the right way my phone becomes a vehicle
to immerse myself in the world in ways
that my grandma wouldn’t even dream
about playing candy crush on the other
hand does certainly not fulfill that
criterion of connecting me to the world
it sets me apart from it when we take
technology to the next level and melt
our bodies with it a whole bunch of new
options how to interact will pop up in
the newer technology universe there were
wild speculations going on about thought
communication about virtually beaming
yourself to another part of the world
about moving things in your environment
with your brain
no one knows which of these options will
become true let alone when there will
become true but what is certain is that
a multitude of very difficult ethical
issues would arise if we wire our brains
to the Internet how will they change
social interactions how can we make sure
that Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t track
everything we do and think what does
privacy even mean in such a world ask
these questions to any tech guru in
Silicon Valley and with a fancy sorry
letter in his hand he will swipe your
ethical concerns away with his one
killer argument Hey look he will tell
you every new technology in the history
of humanity had good sides and bad sides
and people always worried but would you
want to go back to 1852 riding around in
a stupid carriage no well then here we
go let me why your brain to computer now
but this is not a good argument
we cannot just project what happened in
the past to the future we have to deal
with the issues Google and Facebook are
not intrinsically evil but it lies in
their very nature to be driven by
economic motives rather than by
idealistic ones let us not leave the
stage to them when it comes to designing
our future because there is simply not
their task it is our task if we don’t
want to live in the technological utopia
that the CEOs in San Francisco are
dreaming of we better have a counter
concept how do we want technology to
shape our future in order to answer this
question we must leave our role as naive
consumers behind we have to pick out of
the pool of possible technological tools
those that enable us to do things better
those that connect us to the world
and don’t set us apart from it we need
public discussion about the ethics
behind the hot new ideas and building on
that discussion we can create political
organizations that can control the
growing power of tech companies they can
make laws that guarantee that we as
users always stay in full control that
there’s always the option to turn off
the phone in your head they can set
financial incentives to create
non-abusive technologies technologies
that serve society and they do not
disrupt it because why would anyone
create a non abusive technology if you
can make much more money with an abusive
one that is what we should work but most
importantly let us not be so emotional
about the whole topic we shouldn’t be
afraid of technological progress per se
but we shouldn’t follow it with blind
enthusiasm either neither of these is a
constructive attitude let us make a
conscious choice as individuals as we
choose how to consume technology every
day and a society as we go about
designing our future I am looking
forward to immerse myself in the world
in ways that I cannot even conceive of
today and one day I might have planned a
smartphone into my head it does sound
scary but I believe once we found
solutions for our concerns this might in
which my being in the world I will still
be human or say as human as I am today
what about you thank you
you
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