thank you so much for inviting me is a
pleasure to be here it's funny because
this is actually my second TED talk and
my first one I talked about making the
impossible possible because I built a
career around doing things that
everybody else you know would for a lot
of people I should say not this crowd
would say that's absolutely impossible
it's a subject that I really enjoy
talking about and when now they asked me
to come and speak with you all and talk
about the future of technology and I
went back to read the manifesto of Ted
and it talked about being very authentic
and being very real and really sharing
something about yourself and what this
brought up for me I've never actually
addressed before and it was just
absolutely fascinating because when I
sat back to think what is the future of
technology what does this really mean
it I realized for myself that I had
never actually thought about it I use
technology all the time I have a
master's in architecture I have a
master's in business I grew up around
technology my first patent was using
artificial intelligence technologies to
develop personalization systems so I'm
deeply entrenched in technology but I
never actually take the deep breath and
meditate on what is the future of
technology and the reason for that is
it's really really scary for me we have
the potential of you've seen so many
things already wearable technology music
I mean we've seen so many things already
this morning that really showcase the
power of what technology can do in our
lives but it's also something that can
be very destructive and so I thought
well that's not a really positive thing
to talk about so what I thought was I'd
share with you a little bit of my
background and why I come from this
perspective and how I really use this as
an opportunity to realize that it's in
fact thinking about the future of
technology that it uncovers
the ten secrets of who we are as people
so to give you a little bit of
background on myself I actually grew up
as a child I thought I would be a
missionary so I grew up in a very
religious family a very spiritual family
I went to Catholic schools my parents
would send us to CCD so basically
Catholic training we were always in
church we were raised very proper you
know this was my environment but what I
started to realize as I got older was
here was this little kid and I knew my
dad was doing really cool stuff I didn't
know quite what he was doing but really
cool stuff we lived in Washington DC
when I grew up and as a kid he would
take us into his office and show us
pictures I'm doing this I'm doing that
we just I just thought my dad was
brilliant like many of us do we think
our parents are just brilliant as I got
older I realized one day I went into his
office and he said well hey I've got it
I've got to show you something and I
said well what is that and he showed me
a picture and it was a hydrofoil does
anybody know what a hydrofoil is nobody
knows
okay so hydrofoil is basically a ship
built on top of basically you can
imagine like stilts but what a hydrofoil
is and what it's used for is basically
anti-submarine warfare so I realized in
that moment that what my dad was doing
and what I didn't know was he's building
all this stuff that nobody knew about
that he couldn't talk about because he's
working for the Department of Defense
he's using technology for warfare okay
so I realized this as a kid I see this
stealth I'm sorry I see this hydrofoil
and I'm thinking wow this is really
interesting and I'm not quite making the
connection and they don't never forget a
few years later after that that my dad
said hey kids I've got something to show
you and I said well what's this and he
said this is called the hopeless diamond
Havana it has anybody heard of that okay
does anyone know what a stealth bomber
is
okay that was the word used to define a
stealth bomber so my dad was involved in
designing the stealth bombers and as I
saw that I started really thinking oh my
gosh this is so interesting I'm growing
up in a household that's all love how do
we contribute to the world
we're spiritual I grew up thinking I'd
be a missionary
thank God I realized I was pretty
effective capitalist and became an
entrepreneur I can give back but still
I'm growing up in this environment
that's all love well love love and then
my dad at the same time is designing
things that he's an engineer and to him
this technology was cool he's just doing
what he was expected to do but when you
really think about it I mean you don't
even have to really think about it he's
designing the systems that were out
there for warfare and what I realized as
I got even older that the first company
that I built I built this company based
off of technology that came out of one
of my dad's companies and the technology
that he had designed was basically using
neural nets I mentioned that so
artificial intelligence technologies and
defense systems so we have helicopters
out there that are used in fighting and
basically every time a helicopter is you
know in the air and they think that the
helicopter the wings that's not the
right word I'm just not saying the
basically the rudders you know what I'm
talking about it thank you so if there's
a feeling that there might be a crack in
one of those every time they ground the
helicopter it costs $300,000 so my dad
designed technology that basically used
in neural networks and artificial
intelligence technology that would sit
on top of the black box and it would
identify it would predict with 99.7%
accuracy if there was likely to be a
crack in one of the wing tips okay
saved a ton of money for our defense
systems a ton of money for people going
to war well I looked at that technol
jee-in thought well what if you apply it
to the Internet what if you and this is
back in mid 96 97 but what if you
actually used that technology and
instead of sticking it on the black box
stick it on the black box of the zeros
and ones that are going across the
internet and that can uncover the trends
of the communication happening on the
Internet and so I took that technology
and built out an application that became
my first patent and that's now what is
today what we know is personalization
technologies I'd like to think that I'm
the only one who create it I'm not I
just happen to be one that created one
of them but the point of that was we're
taking the technology we use for massive
destruction massive destruction and
instead use it in a very very positive
way so what I like to do whenever I'm
listening to a presentation is I like to
walk away with okay well what are these
10 secrets to what it actually calls us
to think about ourselves and the first
point is the power of belief okay and so
what I'll give you as a little story
that goes along with each one of these
points to do anything in life you have
to actually believe that you can do it
so in a story and I shared it at my last
TED talk but it's just so effective to
really showcase the power of belief and
that is I mentioned Here I am a little
bit a little kid living in this
environment of love love war war so
that's what was going on in my world
well when I was in the fourth grade
actually in the third grade the
principal of the school called my
parents up and said your daughter is
failing out of school and my parents
obviously knew this and raised to be
sort of straight-a students parents like
what's going on and the principal said I
need you to come in have a talk with
with us about what we wanted what we
recommend for your daughter so my
parents went in for this meeting and the
principal sat my parents down and they
said dr. mrs. Van der velt
we actually think that your child the
term we would use today is
learning-disabled the term that they use
then was dynamism era your
child is
we can't do anything with her she's
failing out of school she is no longer
allowed to go here we are sending her
off to the special school so now you
have my parents going no no no this
can't be right you know I'm brilliant
right
I'm just brilliant no this can't be
right the principal said we are
absolutely not letting her into this
school there is a school that is way
across the other side of town that would
take me and it was for the special kids
Hey
well what ended up happening in that
next year as I was getting ready to go
to school in the fourth grade is this
school really was very far away from our
home and my dad working in defense
systems and my mom trying to raise the
kids in this loving environment didn't
have time to actually shuttle me across
the city to take me to the school so my
dad found a loophole in the school
busing laws for kids basically if you
live so far away that you actually get
busing so my dad called the school board
and he said my daughter you're gonna
make her go to that school it deserves
busing and they said well no she's the
only one from this area we can't afford
the bus just your daughter over there my
dad said actually it's right here it
says she deserves the bus saying well
first day of school in the fourth grade
the bus shows up and you've heard the
joke of when you're making fun of your
friends or they're making fun of you and
they're like oh you really can't that
rode the short bus okay well I was that
kid except the only thing was that the
school board had run out of short buses
so what showed up at my house every day
was a long yellow bus that would seat
like 60 kids showed up just to pick me
up and my driver was a little
african-american man named shorty who
I'm in the fourth grade so maybe I'm
this tall shorty was shorter than I was
so you can imagine what this looked like
we've got shorty we've got Ingrid on the
long yellow school
well we would get to school and people
would kid kidding me and they'd say oh
you're writing the special Scott the
special bus and you're in the special
school and because I was taking up so
much space when the bus would arrive to
school that the school board said well
you guys arrived last after everybody
else is in so you don't take up any in
space and you can also be the first to
leave so that you get out before
everybody else so now I had all this
special like I got to ride blast I got
to go you know first all of that well in
my mind I'm hearing you're special
you're special you're special and kids
are making fun of me you're in the
special class and the special bus for
the special students special special
special they were really making fine but
for me I'm hearing I am awesome
I'm the rod okay so I spent three years
thinking I was the most awesomeness kid
on the planet okay and at the same time
my parents continued to try to figure
out why is this happening with our
daughter
why is she being sent off to school
what's going on
well the long story short they didn't
believe they didn't believe which they
were being told and so what ended up
happening was through the use of
technology back in the day they realized
that I had hearing problems that had
those not been addressed who knows where
I would have been today but through the
use of technology they figured out that
these are problems that are fixable
and they believed they believed in the
power of possibility so when I think
about technology and the 10 secrets that
it uncovers about who you are it's the
power of belief first of all second of
all it really and again this it was
really this talk that made me stand back
and go what what is this bringing up for
me and the realization was am i a person
out in the world that is here to help
people work hurt people so I mentioned
the story about my first technology
company I took a piece of technology
that was used in warfare and was able to
apply it into the internet to build
personalization technologies that would
bring people together and create a
community so am i a person are you a
person who fundamentally sees yourself
as somebody who helps people or not in
this room
hurts people okay the third thing it
brought up was the question about Who I
am as a person my intention and my
integrity the second company that I
started was also a data analysis company
and data mining company that company
what was interesting about that and
going back to integrity and intention
the woman who started that company and
then I helped her build it up and we
sold it off was she had developed
technology that would essentially
identify bank robbers so it was doing
real-time data analysis to identify bank
fraud and bank robbers we took that same
technology and plighted to databases
that would study molecular biology and
was able to identify cures for some of
our simple diseases so again what is my
integrity and intention do I want to
hurt or help before things and I love
this one I love talking about if you're
ever gonna do anything big in life you
got to be comfortable being
uncomfortable so how many of you maybe
three weeks ago saw the real time I'm a
skydiver do we have any skydivers in the
room oh good we got you my people all
right so did you guys see the video of
Felix so the guy who jumped from space
and landed how amazing is that that took
years to put together to develop from a
technology standpoint the ability to get
him to space the ability to get him into
a suit that would safely bring him down
to the ground I mean we're talking about
a guy who had 832 miles an hour and if
you've never sky dived in your life when
you skydive you go 120
an hour and it feels pretty good you
when you're in the air it's perfectly
fine
this guy spinning out of control 832
miles an hour I kept saying to my
husband who's professional skydiver it's
like I can't believe his head's not
getting ripped off for his arms aren't
getting ripped off you know but the
technology is there to be able to do
incredible things like this now but you
got to know that that guy I mean he's
got some cojones you know you gotta be
comfortable being uncomfortable if
you're ever gonna make a huge difference
in life the next point is this really
called me to just ask myself again okay
with everything that technology enables
us to do do I want to be a local player
or do I want to be a global player and
for me after my last two companies sold
I was very very committed to the idea of
entrepreneurship globally global
sustainability my last two companies
were green energy companies and then
women as entrepreneurs and I set out on
a goal to empower a billion women by
2020 by providing them the tools
technology and resources they need to be
successful
essentially I'm working on building an
engine that will support women
entrepreneurs around the world so we've
already started I've teamed up with tho
and we're building that out but this is
something that even ten years ago if you
had said I want to build a global
business like this she wouldn't even
have necessarily thought it was possible
so it just really raises the question do
I want to be local do I want to be
global the next point is realising the
full power of your mind we've seen a lot
of people here today talk about
prosthetic devices one of the stories I
saw just last week in the paper was a
man who had or a company that had
developed a prosthetic device that
basically connects your mind to the
device and they were saying people with
prosthetic devices in their legs when
they try to go upstairs you've seen them
they have to swing their leg around they
can't get their leg to go like this and
now connecting the mind waves to that
device they've now solved this problem
so that somebody can walk like this so
just the power of our mind to do really
great
things do you do I believe in no limits
obviously we have technology that can
take us to space number eight is a my
patient one key point here is it takes a
lot less time to destroy something than
it does to build take Osama bin Laden
since we've been talking I've been
talking war took absolutely no time when
they finally got on scene to destroy
that place it took ten years to actually
build up and actually find the guy okay
number nine am i brave okay this one I
wanted to bring up specifically today
because I actually wanted to throw up
when I was talking about giving this
presentation I love to speak in public I
love to talk with all of you and I love
the opportunity to be here but it was
making me sick to feel like I was going
to admit that we were using technology
that was used in war that called me to
really answer the questions about Who am
I as a person and what's the difference
I want to make in the world and then the
last point that I want to bring up is
what is the legacy that you want to
leave so this is really the biggest one
with technology being where it is today
you have the opportunity to make
whatever the difference is you want in
the world what is the legacy you want to
leave I know for me it's empowering a
billion women by 2020 and with that
thank you very much I really appreciate
it