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good evening everyone so to start off I
want to make you aware of your ability
to be present here and the reason you
were able to arrive at this theater in
the first place that reason is you're a
homo sapien
you're an intelligent being that's aware
of itself now they're no Neanderthals
walking through that door there's a
reason why were the only human species
that's alive and operating in this world
today
now most people can piece together that
we came from some you know monkey
humanoid version of us that was replaced
by a superior species and so on
like you know this common depiction
suggests that's not entirely true you
know the reality is that several human
species coexisted with us so the logical
reason you're here today is that we
conquered all of our human
contemporaries but how given more
thought you'll realize how unlikely our
existence is I mean consider this let's
say you take me by the way I'm six foot
three let's say you face me one I want a
fight to the death with a mammoth now
show of hands be completely honest two
things that I would win okay we got one
thank you what about me versus a gorilla
or perhaps a lion or a Neanderthal so I
mean I appreciate you all believing in
me but you're somewhat justified I would
lose all of those fights the fur reason
almost sapiens weren't the most muscular
they weren't the best adapted to cold
they weren't the best foragers in fact
they were pretty much faceless creatures
in the food chain for hundreds of
thousands of years up until very
recently if for a weak as individual
weak as individuals what empowers us as
a race the answered this question you
know
it's something that occurred it's
extraordinary it's something that
occurred 70,000 years ago that it's
amazing
it occurred 70,000 years ago and it's
small but revolutionary cognitive leap
that granted us unprecedented power once
we gained this power you know we
destroyed everything in our path every
behemoth we encountered we wiped off the
face of the earth including other humans
to him just thousands of years before we
were we would cower in fear so what was
this great power and what was this grand
revolution before I answered this
question I need to acknowledge a
brilliant thinker of our generation who
inspired this TED talk his name is
Yvonne no Harare author of bestseller
sapiens which you may have heard of and
there's book details you know the unique
history of Homo sapiens in this
presentation I'll outline source of our
world dominance and you know the
directions that he could take us so our
story begins about 2.5 million years ago
in Africa with the genus Homo first
appeared see these archaic humans
dispersed settling Africa you know the
Middle East Eurasia and eventually North
America
so each geography that was presented to
humans you know nature nature evolved us
as for what it demanded from us so
that's how we you know it branched into
multiple species as per Darwin's theory
of natural selection we can reason that
several that of rather Homo sapiens need
to acquire evolutionary traits that gave
a survival advantages now some people
would attribute our success to the
innovation of stone tools in the
conquering of fire but then multiple
human species had these technologies
available to them so what was special
about us it turns out we're the only
surviving human species today because we
have the ability to make up stuff and
have everyone believe in it really this
is amazing to me it's certainly not
intuitive
I'll illustrate this with an example
now that's a familiar figure right there
president Trump president Trump is an
American you know in America it's
generally commendable to be a patriot
which certainly mr. Trump is and he
believes in you know national affairs he
you know adheres to federal laws yet
there's no there's no evidence there's
no geographical evidence with the actual
existence of his homeland called the
United States in fact America is just an
imaginary its imaginary line on the map
whose existence has been asserted to us
by some Authority who we believe in so
we've accepted it as universal truth but
the myth of the United States
facilitated the cooperation of millions
of Americans millions of Americans can
work in partnership with mr. Trump
because they believe in the entities and
the systems that constitute the USA and
this is why you and I are here today
I'll refer back to my one-on-one example
we already established that I would lose
to a Neanderthal and one on one fight to
the death but if you United 1,000
sabians who believe in defending their
forests let's say versus a thousand
piano those who can't unite to save
their lives quite literally than the
Neanderthals don't stand a chance and
that's how Homo sapiens came to dominate
the world by about 10,000 BC we had you
know transcended the food chain and we
had outlived every human species that
ever existed on this planet and this
only sprouted from one cognitive ability
we use our mitts every day today they've
merged with our sense of reality in
today's era we use our powers to unite
billions within the philosophy that
science stick technology will make our
lives better but it's the cognitive
revolution enough to take us to the
future well what brought us here take us
there now today we're living and in an
extraordinary circumstance it's
incredible you know we living their
period of rapid growth in a vase
and production when I was reading
sapiens I realized that this is the
extraordinary circumstance of humanity I
looked at my own life and noticed that
how quickly it was changing
I witnessed the the transition from you
know a flip phone to a self-driving car
when I was young my brother used to have
a laptop and I was pretty thick but um
it had the ability to run video games
and you know listen to music and you
could browse the Internet as well and
when I was young it was just a marvel to
me how this machine could work well my
point is that we're changing rapidly
we're changing really really really fast
are the nature of our existence is
extremely volatile it's the product of
intelligent design the human mind not
natural law and this is why our future
is so difficult to predict and adapt to
there are two forces to emerging forces
of this era that are changing our
ability to think and work one concept is
AI artificial intelligence so what we're
doing with AI is essentially outsourcing
our decision-making analytical and
communicative skills to robots now this
chart shows a list of jobs that you know
are going to be replaced by AI in the
near future if you look there are some
notable examples like for example
teaching us healthcare and you know
customer service now jobs that you would
think have a human element to them but
kind of kind of kind of robot you know
understand the problem with your broken
iphone can a robot understand your
complex medical history you know the
terrifying reality is that not only are
robots on par with humans they're
actually exceeding them recently an AI
doctor developed by Babylon Health a
digital healthcare startup beat actual
human doctors on an exam designed to
test diagnostic abilities now if you
pair it and while this machine is only
suitable for medical advice it's on the
verge of
no diseases and even prescribing
medicines if you pair this machine but
let's say I don't know biometric sensor
implants that monitor your bodily
functions we're looking at an all
available robot machine that has
impeccable medical advice
now some people are even considering you
know replacing teachers you know China
has been testing AI teachers whose
algorithms replace personal standard
lectures with personalized tutoring one
student actually reported that when
utilizing these ultra specific lessons
he actually improved test scores and
allowed college admittance and lancelin
AI will only increase in the future but
if her cognitive abilities are
transferred to machines we already know
what powers they granted us now I'm not
saying that robots will take over the
future but we're toying with the same
capability of unifying an army but this
time with immortal machines and who
knows what outcomes will incur from that
not only are we revolutionising our
mental capability with AI we're also
changing the fundamental biology of
organisms now I want everyone to imagine
that you're a superhero and you can have
any superpower you want you know any
combination just whatever so for me I
would probably take Tony Stark's
intelligence
you know spider-man's web slashing
Hulk's body and probably Thor's hammer
and all obviously Morgan Freeman's voice
but the relevance of this example is
that we're doing just that with
biotechnology and genetic engineering we
can go crops in space have long lasting
fruit you know we can we can develop
seeds that are resistant to disease but
engineering pigs that have a gene that
produced bacon with healthy fats lab
engineering mosquitoes are being
released into the wild to limit the
spread of Zika
so these biotechnology creations produce
unprecedented Vantage's for human human
health human nutrition and productivity
these examples just constitute a spec of
our potential in
genetics were bending biology to our
whim and fancy transcending natural law
and the emergence of AI and the
advancements of genetic engineering will
be realized in our lifetime you will
live to see this change so where does
that leave us well in the future oh my
god in the future things get really
blurry where we separate from robots is
there a cognitive ability to imagine
what cannot be perceived in the real
world a robot cannot love cannot imagine
cannot you know believe in God will our
ability to create myths and stories
pushes to transcend the laws of physics
the design of genetic engineering and
the power of algorithm will we be able
to preserve our consciousness
electronically you know design our DNA
digitally or will the technologically
superior species emerge and Homo sapiens
fight to the death as we have with
Neanderthals it's entirely possible but
no one knows I mean is that it the
future of the human race is what abject
uncertainty honestly yes the future is
now in our hands the cognitive
revolution did its job we got us here
our future now is determined by the
principles we instill and our character
and its science as Abraham Lincoln once
famously said the best way to predict
the future is to create it thank you
you
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