Translator: Chryssa Takahashi Reviewer: Denise RQ
When you're invited to a TEDx presentation,
the first thing that you feel is you feel honored.
But when they tell you're going to be the first presentation up,
then the excitement disappears.
(Laughter)
Today, when I looked at many of my fellow speakers,
and I had the pleasure of meeting a few just as we're warming up,
I realized that quite a few of my fellow presenters work for NASA,
are associated with NASA, or with the European Space Agency.
So, I decided to put this up as my first slide.
This is Apollo 17, the spacecraft used for the last manned mission to the Moon.
I had to put it up
because that was the only piece of technology within my presentation
in a technology evolution event.
The second reason is because I personally feel
that this is the start of the digitalization era.
Among the numerous innovations within that mission,
there are two that stand out,
and have somehow found a way back to our lives today.
The first one is the in-memory computer.
That spacecraft had a 24-KB computer
that navigated the vehicle from Earth to the Moon.
To put things into perspective, 24 KB is what it takes
for a birthday singing card to play a singing song today.
The second piece of innovation was the world's first hand-held device.
That was a calculator called HP-35,
it was made by Hewlett-Packard,
and the 35 stood for the 35 buttons it had on it.
The name wasn't innovative,
but the innovation is now something
that all of us carry into our pockets today,
a hand-held device.
Twenty years from then, in June 1991,
my father woke me up abruptly one morning to take me to work.
That was my first day at work, right after school.
He had laid out everything:
samples, price list, order book, my new briefcase, two bus tickets.
He explained to me
that I would never take money from him again.
I had to earn my living.
And he gave me the only piece of technology
that was available at the time for a new sales guy.
That was a hand-held calculator by Casio.
So, 20 years, between the last manned mission to the Moon
and my first day at work, technology had barely evolved.
Now, fast forward two decades from that in today's world,
just think of the technology
that a young person that comes to work for my business has with him.
They have an iPad, they have an iPhone, a smart watch,
they are connected to social media,
they can procure from business networks, they can make video calls,
which was unprecedented at the time of the last manned mission,
or at the time that my first day at work was.
Try to put all of this into perspective
and think of all the things that have happened in our life.
In the last two decades, I have traveled the world extensively.
I'm honored to lead, across three continents,
one of the most innovative technology firms.
And I see technology evolution on a day-to-day basis,
how it affects us, how it affects our customers, the societies we live in.
That one thing that stands out, for which I'm here to talk to you today,
is how our DNA evolves.
Our lives evolve, our brain changes and our DNA is evolving,
and we have to take notice of it.
Alongside this innovation,
we also have the evolution of the senses.
Think about a smartphone, we touch it.
And then think about a wearable device, that's attached to a T-shirt,
that feels over all of our vital statistics.
And then feel of the technology that is on a smart watch
that gives us notifications and vibrations,
so that we understand that something interesting is happening:
a friend of us is nearby,
we've exceeded the heart rates when running,
or we've just completed a purchase in iTunes.
Then, think about sound.
Most of the people in this room use Shazam.
And in a few years from now,
the devices we carry on us will be listening to the environment,
and will be able to recognize, based on our preferences and behaviors,
the things that are of interest to us.
We will be able to procure through a television set at home
something that is of interest to us,
simply because an advertisement played, and our smartphone listened to it.
Think about Google Glasses, and how pioneering this was.
Think about the life of an architect or an engineer.
Think about digital or analogical reality,
how I can put together my plans in reality
and wearing smart glasses I can see exactly my deviations from the plan.
And then taking it a step further, think about blind people.
Think how their life can change,
when they have a drone flying over them with facial recognition,
understanding who they are and giving them directions
as to how they can walk via infrared or high-definition cameras.
Think the impact we make into these people's life,
simply by having a drone, which costs 100 euros, following them.
Then think about 3-dimensional printing.
We can print food, you can print a dessert,
you can print any dish you want, pasta, you can print meat.
And imagine the behavioral differences
we are going to have in a day-to-day dietary.
No different from what has happened in manufacturing;
manufacturing has had an unprecedented change.
We moved from mass-producing goods to custom-printed goods.
Think about smell.
Devices that sense gas have been around for more than three decades.
Initially in mines, now in workplaces, most recently in every home.
Now think about a plug-in in your iPhone that can emit senses
so that you have
an unprecedented experience alongside your video call.
You can smell the flower
the other person is holding on the other side of the line.
Our brain receives an amazing number of data
which comes from our senses, predominantly from our senses.
Our brain has a fantastic ability to evolve.
This is called [plasticity].
This is something that we need to use however.
We have two choices:
to stay idle
- for instance, just enjoy the friendships we have on Facebook -
or to be dynamic and proactive,
in other words, to take advantage of the Facebook technology,
of the social media, the business networks,
and the technology that is out there.
Now, the impact that comes to our lives goes of course way beyond the senses.
It changes our life.
Think about smart cities of tomorrow.
We've been involved in a couple of very interesting projects,
landmark projects, because they were the first.
One was in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil,
whereby there were millions of sensors, and cameras,
and points that could receive data
that were all fed in a single in-memory computer;
similar technology to the Apollo 17.
And that analyzes all the events, whether it's data, power outage,
traffic, material changes in the social environment we live in
through what people twit or write on Facebook or LinkedIn.
And all of this can be analyzed in a single computer
so that the city can prevent things,
can manage the aftermath of accidents, or big events.
Another life changing project has happened
in Istanbul, in Turkey.
There, using again in-memory technology,
but also pieces of hand-held devices,
we've managed to put together a system that compares images from satellites
so that we know exactly what has happened before and after a major earthquake.
This way, the security services know exactly
where they have to attend and focus on the areas
where they have to attend before and after the earthquake.
But despite all of these evolutions,
and the ones that my fellow presenters will explain to you momentarily,
you look at the unemployment rate in Europe
and the unemployment between the young remains at 50%
in most European countries.
And then you hear that the IT sector in Europe has 100,000 vacancies.
And this is the biggest oxymoron we have in the society.
There is a major disconnect
between the opportunities that lie ahead with technology,
the changes that this evolution has brought to our life,
and particularly to our DNA,
and the reality, our ability to capitalize on those opportunities.
And now, we hear a lot of people talking about the lost generation.
I am here today to help the young understand
that the evolution does not go together with a lost generation.
There is no such thing as a lost generation.
Think about 1972: the hand-held device;
two decades later, my first day at work;
two decades later - this is today - all the technology we have in our hands;
and the difference in the opportunity
that a person on their first day at work has
versus the opportunity that I had on my first day at work.
Think how I evolved
and then think how you can take advantage of what is out there
and make your life different, make your life better.
There is no such thing as a lost generation
because this generation is full of opportunity.
There is a lot of innovation and a lot of technology
that opens up new horizons.
For the first time, this country has entrepreneurs after many, many years.
For the first time, this country has technology startups
which is something that couldn't have been possible a few years ago.
Now imagine! Imagine what you can do.
You've made the first day today, ladies and gentlemen,
you have come here, you've come here to hear about evolution.
Grasp the opportunity.
There is a lot of opportunity out there
and convert [it] into a brighter future for you.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)