Magazine - TED by EU ERAM

Nr O c t obe r/ N o v em ber 2018

The future of humans p. 28

Editorial

any of us have fond memories of playing with dollhouses, most of which were machine-made of plastic. But the first dollhouse that Bill Robertson (TEDxKC Talk: Details matter: A micro mecha- nician in the modern era) ever built contained genuine cherry hardwood floors held in place with pegs (a pre-19thcentury installation technique). He also customized the depth of each room to match his niece’s arm measurements, in case she decided to reach all the way to the back.

in case she decided to reach all the way to the back. He also customized the depth of each room to match his niece’s arm measurements, in case she decided to reach all the way to the back. Many of us have fond memories of playing with dollhouses, most of which were machine-made of plastic. But the first dollhouse that Bill

Everything we do is driven by this goal: How can we best spread great ideas?

Many of us have fond memories of playing with dollhouses, most of which were machine-made of plastic. But the first dollhouse that Bill Robertson (TEDxKC Talk: Details matter: A micro mecha- nician in the modern era) ever built contained genuine cherry hardwood floors held in place with pegs (a pre-19th-century installation technique). He also customized the depth of each room to match his niece’s arm measurements,

Ideas worth spreading

Director Santi Cros Art director Santi Cros Marketing Santi Cros Editing and correction Santi Cros

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Robertson (TEDxKC Talk: Details matter: A micro mecha- nician in the modern era) ever built contained genuine cherry hardwood floors held in place with pegs (a pre-19th-century installation technique). He also customized the depth of each room to match his niece’s arm measurements,

Have col·laborated Santi Cros, Jordi Caralt, Charlotte Laureant, Nathalie Moritz, Philip Schmidth Alice Antunes.

Santi Cros, DIRECTOR

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Advertisment Santi Cros Print Santi Cros ISSN 2434-5614 Website www.ted.com

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Contents

16 Innovation 06 The big idea 06 Are we living in a post-truth era? 14 Emotional pain is as serious as physical pain

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16 Why what’s happening in Antarctica won’t stay in Antarctica.

22 Experience 22 Why we should spend quiet time alone every day 26 How to introduce yourself so you’ll be unforgettable

28 Conversation 28 Yuval Noah Harari

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The big idea HUMANS

The big idea

Are we living in a post-truth era? Shared fictions — in the form of news, religions, novels, sports, money, even brands — fill our lives, but that’s OK. It’s these shared beliefs that have helped humans cooperate and conquer the planet, explains historian Yuval Harari.

e are repeatedly told these days that we have entered the terrifying new era of post-truth, in which not just particular facts but entire histories might be faked. But if this is the era of post-truth, when, exactly, was the halcyon age of truth? And what

The rise of Putin and Trump? A cursory look at history reveals that propaganda and disinformation are nothing new. In fact, humans have always lived in the age of post-truth Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, who conquered this planet thanks

“Please note that I am not denying the effectiveness or potential benevolence of religion — just the opposite. Fiction is among the most effective tools in humanity’s tool kit” triggered our transition to the posttruth era? The internet? Social media?

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above all to the unique human ability to create and spread fictions. We are

the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws and can thereby cooperate effectively. Centuries ago, millions of Christians locked themselves inside a selfreinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible, while millions of Muslims put their unquestioning faith in the Quran. We have zero scientific evidence that Eve was tempted by the

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The big idea HUMANS

Ideologies

HUMANS The big idea serpent, that the souls of all infidels burn in hell after they die, or that the creator of the universe doesn’t like it when a Brahmin marries a Dalit — yet billions of people have believed in these stories for thousands of years. Some fake news lasts forever.

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I am aware that many people might be upset by my equating religion with fake news, but that’s exactly the point. When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that’s fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that’s a religion, and we are admonished not to call it “fake news” in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath). Please note that I am not denying the effectiveness or potential benevolence of religion — just the opposite. For better or worse, fiction is among the most effective tools in humanity’s

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tool kit. By bringing people together, religious creeds make large-scale human cooperation possible. They inspire people to build hospitals, schools and bridges in addition to armies and prisons. Much of the Bible may be fictional, but it can still bring joy to billions and can still encourage humans to be compassionate, courageous, and creative— just like other great works of fiction, such as Don Quixote, War and Peace and the Harry Potter books.

Of course, not all religious myths have been beneficent. On August 29, 1255, the body of a nine-year-old English boy called Hugh was found in a well in the town of Lincoln. Rumor quickly spread that Hugh had been ritually murdered by the local Jews. The story only grew with retelling, and one of the most renowned English chroniclers of the day, Matthew Paris, provided a detailed and gory

in Lincoln to fatten up, torture, and finally crucify the abandoned child. Nineteen Jews were tried and executed for the alleged murder. Similar blood libels became popular in other English towns, leading to a series of pogroms

description of how prominent Jews from throughout England gathered

in which whole Jewish communities were massacred. Eventually, in 1290,

Hugh Lincoln

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“The truth is, truth has never been high on the agenda of Homo sapiens. If you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you.”

Lincoln in the Canterbury Tales (“The Prioress’s Tale”). The tale culminates

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400 dC 1140 Bible

The story doesn’t end there. A century after the expulsion of the Jews, Geoffrey Chaucer included a blood libel modeled on the story of Hugh of

Again, some people might be offended by my comparison of the Bible to Harry Potter. If you are a scientifically minded Christian, you might argue that the holy book was never meant to be read as a factual account, but rather as a metaphorical story containing deep wisdom. We have to explore other ideologies. But isn’t that true of the Harry Potter stories too?

“Ancient religions have not been the only ones to use fiction to cement cooperation with others. More recently, each nation has created its own national mythology.”

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the entire Jewish population of England was expelled.

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Hitler

Trump

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The big idea HUMANS with the hanging of the Jews. Similar blood libels subsequently became a staple of every anti-Semitic movement from late medieval Spain to modern Russia. Hugh of Lincoln was buried in Lincoln Cathedral and venerated as a saint. He was reputed to perform various miracles, and his tomb continued to draw pilgrims even centuries after the expulsion of all Jews from England. Only in 1955 — ten years after the Holocaust — did Lincoln Cathedral repudiate the blood libel story, placing a plaque near Hugh’s tomb that reads:

HUMANS The big idea over and over.” Can any present-day fake-news peddler improve on that?

Ideologies in the XXI Century

Commercial firms also rely on fiction and fake news. Branding often involves retelling the same fictional story again and again, until people become convinced it is the truth. What images come to mind when you think about Coca-Cola? Do you think about healthy young people engaging in sports and having fun together? Or do you think about overweight diabetes patients lying in a hospital bed? Drinking lots of Coca-Cola will not make you young, will not make you healthy, and will not make you athletic — rather, it will increase your chances of suffering from obesity and diabetes. Yet for decades CocaCola has invested billions of dollars in linking itself to youth, health, and sports — and billions of humans subconsciously believe in this linkage.

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Muslims

“Trumped-up stories of “ritual murders” of Christian boys by Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln had its own legend and the alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255. Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom.” Well, some fake news only lasts seven hundred years. Ancient religions have not been the only ones to use fiction to cement cooperation. In more recent times, each nation has created its own national mythology, while movements such as communism, fascism and liberalism fashioned elaborate selfreinforcing credos. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda maestro, allegedly explained his method thus: “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” In Mein Kampf Hitler wrote, “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly — it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them

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Christians

Capitalists

There are four parts in the grapht. It shows the share of ideologies in the world population, the black one deals with the migrated people in Canada and the blue graph shows the natural increase of the population. In 1988/89 there was an enourmous growth.

The truth is, truth has never been high on the agenda of Homo sapiens. If you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you. False stories have an intrinsic advantage over the truth when it comes to uniting people. If you want to gauge group loyalty, requiring people to believe an absurdity is a far better test than asking them to believe the truth. If the chief says the sun rises in the west and sets in the east, only true loyalists will clap their hands. Similarly, if all your neighbors believe the same outrageous

effectively through consensual agreement rather than through fictions. In the economic sphere, money and corporations bind people together far more effectively than any god or holy book, even though they are just a human convention. In the case of a holy book, a true believer would say, “I believe that the book is sacred,” while in the case of the dollar, a true believer would say only, “I believe that other people believe that the dollar is valuable.” It is obvious that the dollar is just a human creation, yet people all over the world respect it. If so, why can’t humans abandon all myths and fictions and organize themselves on the basis of consensual conventions such as the dollar? Yet the difference between holy books and money is far smaller than it might seem. When most people see a dollar bill, they forget that it is just a human convention. As they see the green piece of paper with the picture of the dead white man, they see it as something valuable in and of itself. They hardly ever remind themselves, “Actually, this is a worthless piece of paper, but because other people view it as valuable, I can make use of it.” If you observed a human brain in an fMRI scanner, you would see that as someone is presented with a suitcase full of hundred-dollar bills, the parts of the brain that start buzzing with

“Actually, this is a worthless piece of paper, but because other people view it as valuable, I can make use of it. It's really really amazing” tale, you can count on them to stand together in times of crisis. If they are willing to believe only accredited facts, what does that prove? You might argue that in some cases it is possible to organize people

excitement are not the skeptical parts but the greedy parts. Conversely, in the vast majority of cases people begin to sanctify the Bible or the Vedas only after long and repeated exposure to others who view it as sacred. We learn

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The big idea HUMANS to respect holy books in exactly the same way we learn to respect paper currency. For this reason there is no strict division in practice between knowing that something is just a human convention and believing that something is inherently valuable. In many cases, people are ambiguous or forgetful about this division. To give another example, in a deep philosophical discussion about it, almost everybody would agree that corporations are fictional stories created by human beings. Microsoft isn’t the buildings it owns, the people it employs, or the shareholders it serves — rather, it is an intricate legal fiction woven by lawmakers and lawyers. Yet 99 percent of the time, we aren’t engaged in deep philosophical discussions, and we treat corporations as if they are real entities, just like tigers or humans. Blurring the line between fiction and reality can be done for many purposes, starting with “having fun” and going all the way to “survival.” You cannot play games or read novels unless you suspend disbelief. To really enjoy soccer, you have to accept the rules and forget for at least ninety minutes that they are merely human inventions.

HUMANS The big idea violence in the public space. Humans have a remarkable ability to know and not know at the same time. Or, more correctly, they can know something when they really think about it, but most of the time they don’t think about it, so they don’t know it. If you really focus, you realize that money is fiction. But you usually don’t think about it. If you are asked about it, you know that soccer is a human invention. But in the heat of a match, nobody asks. If you devote the time and energy, you can discover that nations are elaborate yarns. But in the midst of a war, you don’t have the time and energy. Truth and power can travel together only so far. Sooner or later they go their separate paths. If you want power, at some point you will have to spread fictions. If you want to know the truth about the world, at some point you will have to renounce power. You will have to admit things — for example, about the sources of your own power — that will anger allies, dishearten followers, or undermine social harmony. Scholars throughout history have faced this dilemma: Do they serve

why they were so powerful. Humans have the ability to know and not know at the same time. Or, more correctly, they can know something when they really think about it, but

Capitalism has made some people really really rich, but others have become so poor. When we were hunter gatherers everyone had everything they needed. Now we aren’t equal anymore.

Population living in extreme poverty, 2018

“Ancient religions have not been the only ones to use fiction to cement cooperation. More recently, each nation has created its own national mythology.”

If you don’t, you will think it utterly ridiculous for 22 people to go running after a ball. Soccer might begin with just having fun, but it can become far more serious stuff, as any English hooligan or Argentinian nationalist will attest. Humans have the ability to know and not know at the same time. Soccer can help formulate personal identities, it can cement large-scale communities, and it can even provide reasons for

power or truth? Should they aim to unite people by making sure everyone believes in the same story, or should they let people know the truth even at the price of disunity? The most powerful scholarly establishments — whether of Christian priests, Confucian mandarins or Communist ideologues — placed unity above truth. That’s

most of the time they don’t think about it, so they don’t know it. If you really focus, you realize that money is fiction. But you usually don’t think about it. But in the heat of a match, nobody asks. As a species, humans prefer power to truth. We spend far more time and effort on trying to control the world than on trying to understand it.

No data Source: World Bank

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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 100% OurWorldInData.org/extreme-poverty/ • CC BY-SA

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The big idea HUMANS

HUMANS The big idea

Heartbreak is very real

W Emotional pain is as serious as physical pain If we took emotional pain as seriously as physical pain, we’d all be kinder and more compassionate, both to each other and to ourselves when our hearts get broken, says psychologist Guy Winch.

Number of Heartbrakes and depressed people Worldwide

e desperately need a more open dialogue about how severely heartbreak impacts our emotions and functioning. And for such discussions to be productive, we have to disavow ourselves of the notion that there is something childish, embarrassing or inappropriate about feeling severe emotional anguish when our heart is broken, because heartbreak is devastating, at any age. We suffer emotional pain that is nearly “unbearable” for days, weeks and even months on end. Our body experiences stresses that can damage both our short-term and long-term health. Our ability to focus and concentrate, think creatively, problem-solve and generally function at our regular capacity becomes significantly impaired. Our lives are thrown upside down, leaving us questioning who we are and how to define ourselves going forward.

Heartbrakes

Everything matters

Depression

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Centuries ago, millions of Christians locked themselves inside a selfreinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible.

TED Talk by Guy Winch At some point in our lives, almost every one of us will have our heart broken. Imagine how different things would be if we paid more attention to this unique emotional pain. Psychologist Guy Winch reveals how recovering from heartbreak starts with a determination to fight our instincts to idealize and search for answers that aren’t there -and offers a toolkit on how to, eventually, move on. Our hearts might sometimes be broken, but we don’t have to break with them.

We repeatedly told these days that we have entered the terrifying new era of post-truth, above all to the unique human ability to create and spread fictions. We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws and can thereby cooperate effectively.

How to fix a broken heart Guy Winch TED2017 12:25 min

Watch it at www.ted.com

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Innovation SCIENCE

SCIENCE Innovation This summer, we saw the largest iceberg ever — a piece of the Larsen C Ice Shelf — break off of Antarctica. The size of Delaware, or of Prince Edward Island (if you are from Canada), or of half of Wales (if you prefer European sizing), this berg holds one trillion tons of ice. It is expected to drift north and slowly melt into the ocean over the next 10 years or so, perhaps making it all the way to the equator before its last ice crystal vanishes into the sea. Even though the public may have been surprised by this collapse, the scientific community was not. I’ve

been working in glaciology for 20 years, and we’ve been observing a crack in the ice shelf grow and expecting a rupture for the last decade. While the size of the iceberg is significant, it’s far from the only

the cascading effects from these. You can think of an ice shelf as a cork made of ice that has slid off the land and is sitting on top of the ocean. It serves as a stopper for all the ice that is parked on the land. When that

“Ice shelves are disintegrating all over Antarctica and Greenland, but what scientists don’t yet know is how quickly we’ll experience the effects.” one being shed near the poles — ice shelves are disintegrating all over Antarctica and up in Greenland as well. What scientists don’t yet know is this: how quickly will we experience

cork is removed, the rest of the shelf disintegrates all the way back to what we call the grounding line, or the point at which ice is thick enough.

Global land-ocean temperature index- NASA

Why what’s happening in Antarctica won’t stay in Antarctica The loss of polar ice may seem like an abstract concern, but it’s one that will affect all of us, no matter where we live, says glaciologist and TED Senior Fellow Michele Koppes.

first went to work in Antarctica in 2000. I’m a glaciologist, and even though I’d grown up hiking near the glaciers of the Swiss Alps, the ice and landscape near the South Pole were completely different than anything I’d ever seen before. The

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ice was so vast that from the vantage of our airplane, it stretched all the way to the horizon and continued to extend for hours as we flew over it. The climate was so cold, windy and harsh there, one immediately feels like an intruder. Antarctica is not

made for humans, and rightfully so as there should be one place on this planet that we cannot put our sticky, oily handprints all over. But we are doing just that, even from our homes in temperate climes, and the ice in Antarctica is waking up and shifting.

This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature.: Seventeen of the 18 warmest years in the 136-year record all have occurred since 2001, with the exception of 1998.

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When these landslides run into lakes and the ocean, they can generate tsunamis. In early June, for example, a massive landslide and tsunami occurred with no warning in a fjord in western Greenland, inundating a village and killing four people. Global sea levels will

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also rise, because the Earth’s finite reserves of freshwater that were once stored as ice on the land, end up melting into the ocean instead. This infusion of cold freshwater into warm, salty seawater then changes the ocean’s thermohaline circulation — which is how heat and salt are carried

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throughout the world — and creates more extreme weather patterns. Every time you fly down to Antarctica, you reach a point about midway through the flight that’s called the Point of No Return — the point when the pilots have to decide whether weather conditions are stable enough.

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Innovation SCIENCE

SCIENCE Innovation

Maybe you’ll experience more frequent and larger wildfires, or more destructive landslides, or more catastrophic floods. Many farmers and ranchers will find their critical summer water supply drying up, threatening their crops and animals. Fisherfolk who ply the lakes, streams and rivers will see a decrease in aquatic species as some die off because those bodies of water are too warm, too low or too flashy to sustain them. In the Arctic Ocean, the

bottom-feeding fish and the marine mammals that consume them will die off because fjord waters will become turbid from the sediment left by melting ice. And all of these effects will be felt by those of us who depend on farming, ranching or fishing for our food. People will start moving inland, away from flood-prone coastal towns and cities (like Mumbai and Miami), and their migration will strain the resources of the places where they

relocate. And there are many other cascading effects from the loss of ice that will impact us in equally big and dramatic ways and that scientists are beginning to understand. All of the changes — whether they’re occurring in the land, sea or sky — are intertwined; they’re irreversible; they’re complex and cumulative; and they are happening more and more rapidly. The future is up to us, what we choose to do and what we don’t will have big impact on our tomorrow.

“We’ve passed the Point of No Return for our planet and its ice masses, and there’s no home base we humans can escape back to”

Greenland ice loss 2002-2016 - NASA

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People will start moving inland, away from flood-prone coastal towns and cities (like Mumbai and Miami), and their migration will strain the resources of the places where they relocate. And there are many other

cascading effects from the loss of ice that will impact us in equally big and dramatic ways and that scientists are beginning to understand. Global sea levels will also rise, because the Earth’s finite reserves of freshwater

Individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter brand name for global warming.

The Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization.

that were once stored as ice on the land, end up melting into the ocean instead. All of the changes — whether they’re occurring in the land, sea or sky — are intertwined; they’re irreversible; they’re complex and cumulative; and they are happening more and more rapidly. When these landslides run into lakes and the ocean, they can generate tsunamis. In early June, for example, a massive landslide and tsunami occurred with no warning in a fjord in western Greenland, inundating a village and killing four people. Many farmers and ranchers will find their critical summer water supply drying up, threatening their crops and animals.

Averting the climate crisis Michele Koppes TED2016 16:42 min

Global sea levels will also rise, because the Earth’s finite reserves of freshwater that were once stored as ice on the land, end up melting into the ocean instead. This infusion of cold freshwater into warm, salty seawater then changes the ocean’s thermohaline circulation — which is how heat and salt are carried throughout the world — and creates more extreme weather patterns.

Watch his full TED Talk at www.ted.com

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Innovation

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Innovation

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Experience HUMANS

HUMANS Experience

Why we should spend quiet time alone every day

Anxiety and depression are raising exponentially

By not giving ourselves the minutes — or hours — free of devices and distractions, we risk losing our ability to know who we are and what’s important to us, says physicist and writer Alan Lightman.

n 2016, the Harvard biologist emeritus and naturalist E.O. Wilson (TED Talk: Advice to a young scientist) published Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life, in which he proposes that half the earth’s surface be designated and protected as conservation land. Just since 1970, human beings have destroyed more

than 30 percent of forests and the marine ecosystem, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. The destruction has been an unintended consequence of population growth, the desire for increased material wealth and comfort, and the associated need for

“I would like to make a bold proposal: that half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection”

more energy. It’s also been driven by the inexorable imperative of capitalism and the powerful desire of certain individuals to increase their personal wealth. Wilson’s proposal might be difficult to achieve, but it represents a recognition of the importance of our natural environment and the forces that threaten it. The destruction of our inner selves via the wired world is an even more recent, and more subtle, phenomenon. The loss of slowness, of

time for reflection and contemplation, of privacy and solitude, of silence, of the ability to sit quietly in a chair for fifteen minutes without external stimulation — all have happened quickly and almost invisibly. A hundred and fifty years ago, the telephone didn’t exist. Fifty years ago, the Internet didn’t exist. Twenty-five years ago, Google didn’t exist. The situation is dire. Just as with global warming, we may already be near the point of no return. Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves. We are losing our ability to know who we are and what is important to us. We are creating a global machine in which each of us is a mindless and reflexive cog, relentlessly driven by the speed, noise, and artificial urgency of the wired world. What can we do? Somehow, we need to create a new habit of mind, as individuals and as a society. We need a mental attitude that values and protects stillness, privacy, solitude, slowness, personal reflection; that honors the inner self; that allows each of us to wander about without

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schedule within our own minds. Wilson’s proposal is bold, and I would like to make a similarly bold proposal: that half our waking minds be designated and saved for quiet reflection. Otherwise, we are destroying our inner selves and our creative capacities. Different moments throughout the day can be devoted to contemplation and stillness, free from the external world. How do we cultivate a contemplative habit of mind? Twenty years ago, a friend who taught high school in Arlington, Massachusetts, started something new with her students. At the beginning of each class, she rang a bell and asked them to remain silent for four minutes. As she wrote later, “I explained [to my students] that I felt our school days were too fast-paced and filled with noise, that silence could help us leave behind the previous class, and prepare to be present for this one. That it was a time to clear our heads. I said we were aiming for internal and external stillness.” The results were miraculous, she told me. Both she and the students were calmer and more centered.

Clinical depression has surged to epidemic proportions in recent decades, from little-mentioned misery at the margins of society to a phenomenon that is rarely far from the news. It is widespread in classrooms and boardrooms, refugee camps and inner cities, farms and suburbs. Women are more likely to be depressed than men. Depression is the leading global disability, and unipolar (as opposed to bipolar) depression is the 10th leading cause of early death, it calculates. The link between suicide, the second leading cause of death for young people aged 15-29, and depression is clear, and around the world two people kill themselves every minute.

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Experience HUMANS

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In recent years, numerous organizations — such as Mindful Schools and Mindful Education — have been created to introduce periods of quiet and meditation into primary and secondary schools. For example, in 2015, mind-body educator Stacy Sims started a program called Mindful Music Moments in which students listen to four minutes of classical music during the morning announcement period — similar to the idea of my friend in Massachusetts. Mindful Music Moments now operates in 65 K-12 schools, camps, and social service organizations, most of them in Cincinnati.

But shouldn’t we who created that world take more responsibility? We are victims ourselves, but we are also the perpetrators. Don’t we owe all of our children a world in which their contemplative lives are valued and supported? Don’t we owe it to ourselves? How do we cultivate a contemplative habit of mind? Twenty years ago, a friend who taught high school in Arlington, Massachusetts, started something new with her students. At the beginning of each class, she rang

Although changing habits of mind is difficult, it can be done. With a little determination, each of us can find a half hour a day to waste time. And when we do so, we give ourselves a gift. It is a gift to our spirit. It is an honoring of that quiet, whispering voice. It is a liberation from the cage of the wired world. It is freedom. Decades ago, when I was that boy walking home from school through the woods, following turtles as they slowly lumbered down a dirt path, wasting hours as I watched tadpoles in the shallows or the sway of water

“Don’t we owe all of our children a world in which their contemplative lives are valued and supported? Don’t we owe it to ourselves?”

I believe that we can develop a new habit of mind toward the wired world, but it will take time. We will first need to recognize the danger. Certainly, younger people should take some responsibility for their addiction to the wired world at the expense of their inner selves.

a bell and asked them to remain silent for four minutes. I believe that we can develop a new habit of mind toward the wired world, but it will take time. Each student would be required to take at least one such course each semester.

grasses in the wind, I was free. We cannot return to that world, nor would we necessarily want to, but we can create some of that space within our world today. We can create a preserve within our own minds.

To start developing new habits of mind: For K-12 students, a ten-minute period of silence sometime during the school day. Students could quietly write down thoughts in a notebook during this time. Different schools have different cultures, and each school will know how best to institute this period of silence.

For college students, “introspective intensive” courses created by each academic department. Each student would be required to take at least one such course each semester. Introspective courses, while based in the particular subject matter of the department — for example, history or chemistry — would have a reduced load of reading and assignments and encourage students to use the free time to reflect on what they are learning and relate it to their lives and life goals.

In the workplace, a quiet room or similar space where employees are permitted and encouraged to spend a half hour each day meditating, reflecting, or simply being silent. Smartphones and

computers would not be allowed in the quiet room. This period of quiet would not be part of the regular lunch break.

For families, an unplugged hour during the evening, perhaps during dinner, in which all phones, smartphones, computers, and other devices are turned off. Dinner should be a time for quiet conversation.

In her TED Talk Hannah Fry discusses the distinctions between how scientists try to name things -- to identify and to distill, so that there is only a single meaning of a thing, like an equation -- and the artist tries to avoid naming things. The scientist works by formulating questions that have definite answers, while in the arts, the answer is less important, and often an answer does not exist. But the truths are different. Shet works by formulating questions that have definite answers, while in the arts, the answer is less important, and often an answer does not exist. But the truths are different. In the sciences, it is truth in the world of mass and force -- the external world -- and in the arts, it is truth in the world of the mind and the heart -- the internal world.

Individuals should think about how they spend their time each day and try to build in a half hour away from the wired world, such as taking a walk while unplugged, reading, or simply sitting quietly.

For society as a whole, mandated screen-free zones in public spaces, where digital devices are forbidden, and labor laws in which workers are guaranteed a half hour each day of quiet time at the workplace for every person.

The physicist as novelist Hannah Fry TEDx2014 19:13 min Watch it at www.ted.com

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Experience BUSINESS

BUSINESS Experience

How to introduce yourself so you’ll be unforgettable If you can move beyond the boring basics when you’re asked “What do you do?”, you’ll set yourself up for new relationships, opportunities and revelations, says introduction expert Joanna Bloor.

ingling at a work event inevitably means being asked the question “What do you do?” over and over again. After years of repetition and conditioning, most of us respond with “I’m job title X at company Y.” And while this is the answer people expect, it’s also likely to linger in your new acquaintance’s mind only until it’s replaced by what the next person says to them. “Answering with your title and company is the cultural norm. But when you do, you’re missing out on an opportunity for the other person

to know who you actually are. You are not just your job,” says Joanna Bloor, CEO of Amplify Labs. She specializes in helping people discover and articulate what makes them distinctive so that they can form deeper connections with others. And it all starts with how you introduce yourself. Bloor’s own answer demonstrates the power of an original response. If she answers “I’m CEO of Amplify Labs,” her questioner will probably go on to ask about what it’s like to be a CEO or

what is Amplify Labs. But those lines of conversation don’t really allow a person to really know Bloor. So, when she’s asked “What do you do?”, she replies: “Do you like your own answer to the question ‘What do you do?’?” People invariably admit they don’t. She then says, “I know — everyone struggles with it, yet the answer can have massive impact. I work with people on crafting an answer that is bold, compelling, authentic and unique. I help you tell people why you’re awesome.”And while this is the answer people expect, it’s also the key.

1. Go beyond your title. The first thing you need to do is figure out who you actually are. Bloor asks her clients, “What is it you would like to be known for?” It’s an uncomfortable question, but she finds it jolts people out of their comfort zones. Rather than relying on previous accomplishments, you’re forced to consider what you’d like your impact to be.

2. Think about the problems that only you can solve. Bloor believes that everyone, no matter their job or industry, is essentially a problem solver. So when she interviews people to help them discover their unique story, she’s also trying to find out the problems they’re particularly good at solving.

3. Ask your friends and colleagues for input. It’s often hard for people to see their own skills. “The thing you are fantastic at can be as natural to you as breathing, so you don’t value it,” says Bloor. If you’re

Be warned: crafting your intro takes a bit of time and effort. But as the world of work continues to change in ways we can’t anticipate, knowing what sets you apart from the pack is crucial. Here, Bloor tell us how you can come up with your new response to “What do you do?” After you’ve crafted your opener, practice it on five people you know well. Then, a few days later, ask them ‘What do you remember most about my intro?” Their few-days-later response will tell you what is most memorable about your opener. When you first start trying out a new way of introducing yourself, you’ll probably feel nervous. Bloor suggests prefacing it with, “I’ve just learned a

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having a difficult time identifying your talents, she suggests you turn to the people who know you well and ask them “What is it you see that I do well and that I’m unaware is really special?”

4. Flash back to your childhood. Still stumped? Step into a time machine, and think back to your eight-year-old self. What were you great at during that age? According to Bloor, that special skill can often apply to your present and future selves and help you see how you’re different from everyone else. For example, when Bloor was eight, she had a great sense of direction and easily memorized routes while hiking with her father. That skill translated into her previous career of building software for companies — she could visualize 3D maps of software architecture.

5. Show a little vulnerability. People should think about how they spend their time each day and try to build in a half hour away from the wired world, such as taking a walk while unplugged, reading, or simply sitting quietly.

new way of introducing myself and I’m experimenting with it. Can I try it out on you?” People love to be asked for their advice or input. The truth is, it will always be easier to say the stilted “I’m job X at company Y,” stumble through small talk, and then move on to the next person and glass of wine. In addition, when you give a nontraditional introduction, you will inevitably run into some staid folks who don’t get it. But Bloor urges people to persist. She recently coached a woman named Rumi, whose standard intro was “I’m a copywriter.” After the two women worked together, Rumi realized what her secret strength is: her ability to

be the other person in her writing. What’s more, the process of crafting a new opener made Rumi realize that “the part of me that I am ashamed of — being the perpetual outsider — is the very place from which my bulletproof power springs forth.” Like Rumi, you may find that coming up with an authentic, personal introduction leads to deeper revelations in your life. “We all want to learn and figure out why we matter on this planet and in this life,” says Bloor. “And it can start with being able to answer the question ‘What do you do?’ better.”

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Conversation

Conversation TED: You are now a highly successful public intellectual. In what ways has international recognition changed you? Yuval: Well I have much less time. I find myself travelling around the world and going to conferences and giving interviews, basically repeating what I think I already know, and having less and less time to research new stuff. Just a few years ago I was an anonymous professor of history specialising in medieval history and my audience was about five people around the world who read my articles. So it’s quite shocking to be now in a position that I write something and there is a potential of millions of people will read it. Overall I’m happy with what’s happened. You don’t want to just speak up, you also want to be heard. It’s a privilege that I now have such an audience.

Yuval Noah Harari Yuval is an Israeli historian and a tenured professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has written two bestsellers: Sapiens, which examined the course of early human history, and Homo Deus, which speculated on where we might be heading as a post-human species. His new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, is an exploration of the difficulties that confront us at the present.

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How do you set about deciding what are the most pressing questions of the age? Actually in a way this was the easiest book to write because it was written in conversation with the public. Its contents were decided largely by the kinds of questions I was asked in interviews and public appearances. My two previous books were about the longterm past of humankind and the long-term future. But you can’t live in the past and you can’t live in the future. You can live only in the present. So unless you can take these long-term insights and say

something abut the immigration crisis, or Brexit or fake news, what’s the point? Do you think people understand the implications of the bio- and infotech revolutions that are under way? Five years ago artificial intelligence sounded like science fiction. Even though in the academic world and private business people were aware of the potential at least, in the political field and public discourse you hardly heard anything about it. Then a couple of governments realised what is happening. My impression is that the Chinese realised first what was going on. I think this stems from their national trauma from the industrial revolution, when they missed the train and they were left behind and suffered terribly. They will do anything to be in the front of the AI revolution. Over the last year or so, the Europeans and Americans also realised. And now we are heading towards a full-scale arms race of artificial intelligence, which is very, very bad news. Why is liberalism under particular threat from big data? Liberalism is based on the assumption that you have privileged access to your own inner world of feelings and thoughts and choices, and nobody outside you can really understand you. This is why your feelings are the highest authority in your life and also in politics and economics – the voter knows best, the customer is always right. Even though neuroscience shows us that there is no such thing as free will, in practical terms it made sense because nobody could understand and manipulate your innermost feelings. But now the merger of biotech and infotech in neuroscience and the ability to gather enormous amounts of data on each individual and process them effectively means we are very close to the point where an external system can understand your feelings better than you. We’ve already seen a glimpse of it in the last epidemic of fake news.

Yes, quite a lot. This is understandable. Sometimes it’s because they don’t really want to understand. Sometimes it’s because many of the issues are new and complicated. I don’t think reading a single book can clarify all these issues. It is the responsibility of scientists, certainly when they speak to the general public, to speak as clearly as possible. But I’m under no illusions that everyone will understand what I write in the same way I intended. You say if you want good information, pay good money for it. The Silicon Valley adage is information wants to be free, and to some extent the online newspaper industry has followed that. Is that wise? The idea of free information is extremely dangerous when it comes to the news industry. If there’s so much free information out there, how do you get people’s attention? This becomes the real commodity. At present there is an incentive in order to get your attention – and then sell it to advertisers and politicians and so forth – to create more and more sensational stories, irrespective of truth or relevance.

There’s always been fake news but what’s different this time is that you can tailor the story to particular individuals, because you know the prejudice of this particular individual. The more people believe in free will, that their feelings represent some mystical spiritual capacity, the easier it is to manipulate them, because they won’t think that their feelings are being produced and manipulated by some external system. You write in a clear and lucid style, but do readers still misunderstand you?

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Conversation We live in a moment of unprecedented change. Are humans built to withstand such rapid rates of change? We’ll have to wait and see. Whether we can do it again, there is no guarantee. My main fear is really psychological – whether we have the psychological resilience to sustain such a level of change. The rate of change has been accelerating for the past two centuries. My grandmother is 93 and she is OK. By and large we survive. Whether we can do it again, there is no guarantee. We must invest more resources in the psychological resilience of people. What does meditation mean to you and why is it important? For me it is a way to understand reality – about myself first of all and then reality about the rest of the world, without any stories and fictions and mythologies. Just to observe what is really happening. The most important question for me is how to tell the difference between fiction and reality, and that’s why meditation is such an important part of my life. Whether it’s important to other people, it depends on the person. My last chapter in the book is more personal because it’s about meditation.

Conversation I worried that people would think I’m saying that meditation will solve all the problems I raise. It can help people cope with stress but it’s definitely not the silver bullet that will save humankind from all its problems. How come you are appearing with Natalie Portman in London in September? It sounded like an interesting idea. She’s not just a movie star, she’s also a very intelligent person with a background in science and psychology. So it will be interesting to talk to someone who belongs in two camps. I think things probably look very different from where she is. Are you concerned that people will look to you as a wise man or seer with all the answers? Yes it is a concern, especially as I don’t have the answers, at least most of the answers. And I am familiar with the human tendency to want there to be somebody with all the answers and just to do what he or she says. And I’m definitely not that person. So I hope that people will read the book not as an infallible guide to living in the 21st century but as a list of questions. You can’t have answers before you have a debate. So we first need to start a debate.

To some extent, as evident in Homo Deus, you have big confidence in AI and biotechnology. Seeing that the popular TV shows today, like Westworld and Black Mirror, often touch the dark side of AI and technology, the question is: Should we go that way? I have great confidence that we are going in that direction, that AI and biotechnology will continue to develop and become more sophisticated and more influential. I don’t have great confidence that this is a good idea and that this will necessarily improve the world, because there are very great dangers. Whether we can do it again, there is no guarantee. I don’t think that Westworld is a very realistic scenario. I don’t worry about that. Westworld and many other science-fiction movies are obsessed with this confusing idea that robots and computers will get consciousness. They confuse artificial intelligence with artificial consciousness, and they don’t realize that the two are completely different things. Intelligence is the ability to solve a problem, consciousness is the ability to feel things — like love and hate and pain and pleasure. In humans, they go together. We solve problems by having

feelings. But computers work in a completely different way and there is absolutely no indication that computers are on the way to becoming conscious. They are on the way to becoming more intelligent than us, but not conscious. The same things are with airplanes and birds. Airplanes are now flying faster than birds, but airplanes never develop feathers -- they just fly in a different way. What really frightens me about AI is not robots gaining consciousness, it’s robots taking over jobs and governments are being unable to provide social solutions and retrain the people to protect them against the economic crisis. I’m worried about AI being used to create a dictatorial regime that constantly follows people. In Black Mirror, I think the most realistic frightening episode [Nosedive] in the series is about the social points, which is now being done in China. What you saw in this episode, it was about simple technologies, it was not about robots gaining consciousness. This is actually being done and this is very frightening. The greatest fear is not about apocalyptic scenarios of Westworld, it’s more the social and economic crisis that AI is likely to cause. (kes)

The future of humans and nature Yuval Noah TED2018 16:33 min

“Nature helps us be our best selves...

and it’s free.”

Watch his full TED Talk at www.ted.com

Just by going 30 minutes to nature you have quimical changes in your body and also in you mind. Everyone should do it. And it’s free.

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