WEBVTT

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Do you ever wonder why we're surrounded
with things that help us do everything

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faster and faster and faster?

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Communicate faster,

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but also work faster, bank faster,

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travel faster, find a date faster,

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cook faster, clean faster
and do all of it all at the same time?

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How do you feel about cramming
even more into every waking hour?

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Well, to my generation of Americans,

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speed feels like a birthright.

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Sometimes I think
our minimum speed is Mach 3.

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Anything less, and we fear
losing our competitive edge.

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But even my generation
is starting to question

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whether we're the masters of speed

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or if speed is mastering us.

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I'm an anthropologist
at the Rand Corporation,

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and while many anthropologists
study ancient cultures,

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I focus on modern day cultures
and how we're adapting

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to all of this change
happening in the world.

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Recently, I teamed up with an engineer,
Seifu Chonde, to study speed.

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We were interested both in how people
are adapting to this age of acceleration

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and its security and policy implications.

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What could our world look like in 25 years

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if the current pace of change
keeps accelerating?

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What would it mean for transportation,

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or learning, communication,

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manufacturing, weaponry

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or even natural selection?

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Will a faster future make us
more secure and productive?

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Or will it make us more vulnerable?

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In our research, people accepted
acceleration as inevitable,

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both the thrills and the lack of control.

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They fear that if they were to slow down,

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they might run the risk
of becoming obsolete.

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They say they're rather
burn out than rust out.

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Yet at the same time,

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they worry that speed could
erode their cultural traditions

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and their sense of home.

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But even people who are winning
at the speed game

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admit to feeling a little uneasy.

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They see acceleration as widening
the gap between the haves,

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the jet-setters who are buzzing around,

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and the have-nots,

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who are left in the digital dust.

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Yes, we have good reason to forecast
that the future will be faster,

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but what I've come to realize

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is that speed is paradoxical,

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and like all good paradoxes,

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it teaches us about the human experience,

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as absurd and complex as it is.

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The first paradox is that we love speed,

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and we're thrilled by its intensity.

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But our prehistoric brains
aren't really built for it,

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so we invent roller coasters
and race cars and supersonic planes,

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but we get whiplash, carsick,

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jet-lagged.

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We didn't evolve to multitask.

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Rather, we evolved to do one thing
with incredible focus,

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like hunt -- not necessarily
with great speed

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but with endurance for great distance.

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But now there's a widening gap
between our biology and our lifestyles,

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a mismatch between what our bodies are
built for and what we're making them do.

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It's a phenomenon my mentors have called
"Stone Agers in the fast lane."

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(Laughter)

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A second paradox of speed is that
it can be measured objectively. Right?

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Miles per hour, gigabytes per second.

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But how speed feels,

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and whether we like it,

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is highly subjective.

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So we can document

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that the pace at which we are adopting
new technologies is increasing.

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For example, it took 85 years
from the introduction of the telephone

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to when the majority of Americans
had phones at home.

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In contrast, it only took 13 years
for most of us to have smartphones.

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And how people act and react to speed

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varies by culture and among
different people within the same culture.

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Interactions that could be seen
as pleasantly brisk and convenient

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in some cultures

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could be seen as horribly rude in others.

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I mean, you wouldn't go asking
for a to-go cup at a Japanese tea ceremony

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so you could jet off
to your next tourist stop.

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Would you?

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A third paradox
is that speed begets speed.

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The faster I respond,
the more responses I get,

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the faster I have to respond again.

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Having more communication

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and information at our fingertips

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at any given moment

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was supposed to make decision-making
easier and more rational.

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But that doesn't really
seem to be happening.

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Here's just one more paradox:

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If all of these faster technologies
were supposed to free us from drudgery,

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why do we all feel so pressed for time?

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Why are we crashing our cars
in record numbers,

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because we think we have
to answer that text right away?

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Shouldn't life in the fast lane
feel a little more fun

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and a little less anxious?

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German speakers even have a word for this:

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"Eilkrankheit."

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In English, that's "hurry sickness."

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When we have to make fast decisions,

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autopilot brain kicks in,

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and we rely on our learned behaviors,

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our reflexes, our cognitive biases,

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to help us perceive and respond quickly.

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Sometimes that saves our lives, right?

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Fight or flight.

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But sometimes, it leads us astray
in the long run.

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Oftentimes, when our society
has major failures,

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they're not technological failures.

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They're failures that happen
when we made decisions too quickly

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on autopilot.

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We didn't do the creative
or critical thinking required

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to connect the dots

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or weed out false information

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or make sense of complexity.

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That kind of thinking can't be done fast.

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That's slow thinking.

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Two psychologists,
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky,

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started pointing this out back in 1974,

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and we're still struggling
to do something with their insights.

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All of modern history can be thought of as
one spurt of acceleration after another.

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It's as if we think
if we just speed up enough,

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we can outrun our problems.

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But we never do.

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We know this in our own lives,

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and policymakers know it, too.

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So now we're turning
to artificial intelligence

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to help us make faster
and smarter decisions

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to process this ever-expanding
universe of data.

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But machines crunching data
are no substitute

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for critical and sustained thinking

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by humans,

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whose Stone Age brains need a little time
to let their impulses subside,

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to slow the mind

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and let the thoughts flow.

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If you're starting to think
that we should just hit the brakes,

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that won't always be the right solution.

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We all know that a train that's going
too fast around a bend can derail,

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but Seifu, the engineer,

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taught me that a train that's going
too slowly around a bend can also derail.

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So managing this spurt of acceleration
starts with the understanding

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that we have more control over speed
than we think we do,

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individually and as a society.

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Sometimes, we'll need to engineer
ourselves to go faster.

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We'll want to solve gridlock,

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speed up disaster relief
for hurricane victims

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or use 3-D printing to produce
what we need on the spot,

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just when we need it.

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Sometimes, though, we'll want
to make our surroundings feel slower

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to engineer the crash
out of the speedy experience.

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And it's OK not to be
stimulated all the time.

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It's good for adults

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and for kids.

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Maybe it's boring,
but it gives us time to reflect.

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Slow time is not wasted time.

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And we need to reconsider
what it means to save time.

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Culture and rituals around the world
build in slowness,

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because slowness helps us reinforce
our shared values and connect.

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And connection is
a critical part of being human.

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We need to master speed,

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and that means thinking carefully about
the trade-offs of any given technology.

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Will it help you reclaim time that you
can use to express your humanity?

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Will it give you hurry sickness?
Will it give other people hurry sickness?

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If you're lucky enough to decide the pace
that you want to travel through life,

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it's a privilege.

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Use it.

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You might decide that you need
both to speed up

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and to create slow time:

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time to reflect,

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to percolate

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at your own pace;

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time to listen,

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to empathize,

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to rest your mind,

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to linger at the dinner table.

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So as we zoom into the future,

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let's consider setting
the technologies of speed,

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the purpose of speed

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and our expectations of speed

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to a more human pace.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)