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Good morning.

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When I was a little boy,

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I had an experience that changed my life,

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and is in fact why I'm here today.

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That one moment, one moment,

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profoundly affected how I think about

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art, design, and engineering.

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As background, I was fortunate enough to grow up

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in a family of lovely and talented artists

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in one of the world's great cities.

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My dad, John Ferren, who died when I was 15,

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was an artist by both passion and profession,

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as is my mom, Rae.

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He was one of the New York school

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abstract expressionists who,

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together with his contemporaries,

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invented American modern art,

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and contributed to moving the American zeitgeist

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towards modernism in the 20th century.

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Isn't it remarkable that, after thousands of years

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of people doing mostly representational art,

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that modern art, comparatively speaking,

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is about 15 minutes old,

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yet now pervasive.

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As with many other important innovations,

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those radical ideas required no new technology,

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just fresh thinking and a willingness to experiment,

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plus resiliency in the face of near-universal criticism

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and rejection.

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In our home, art was everywhere.

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It was like oxygen,

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around us and necessary for life.

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As I watched him paint,

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dad taught me that art

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was not about being decorative,

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but it was a different way of communicating ideas,

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and in fact one that could bridge the worlds

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of knowledge and insight.

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Given this rich artistic environment,

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you'd assume that I would have been compelled

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to go into the family business,

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but no.

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I followed the path of most kids

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who are genetically programmed

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to make their parents crazy.

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I had no interest in becoming an artist,

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certainly not a painter.

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What I did love was electronics and machines,

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taking them apart, building new ones,

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and making them work.

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Fortunately, my family also had engineers in it,

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and with my parents,

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these were my first role models.

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What they all had in common

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was they worked very, very hard.

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My grandpa owned and operated a sheet metal

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kitchen cabinet factory in Brooklyn.

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On weekends, we would go[br]together to Cortland Street

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which was New York City's radio row.

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There we would explore massive piles

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of surplus electronics,

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and for a few bucks bring home treasures

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like Norton bombsights

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and parts from the first IBM tube-based computers.

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I found these objects both useful and fascinating.

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I learned about engineering and how things worked

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not at school

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but by taking apart and studying

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these fabulously complex devices.

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I did this for hours every day,

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apparently avoiding electrocution.

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Life was good.

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However, every summer, sadly,

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the machines got left behind

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while my parents and I traveled overseas

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to experience history, art, and design.

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We visited the great museums and historic buildings

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of both Europe and the Middle East,

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but to encourage my growing interest

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in science and technology,

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they would simply drop me off in places

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like the London Science Museum,

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where I would wander endlessly for hours by myself

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studying the history of science and technology.

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Then, when I was about nine years old,

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we went to Rome.

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On one particularly hot summer day,

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we visited a drum-shaped[br]building that from the outside

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was not particularly interesting.

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My dad said it was called the Pantheon,

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a temple for all of the gods.

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It didn't look all that special from the outside,

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as I said, but when we walked inside,

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I was immediately struck by three things.

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First of all, it was pleasantly cool

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despite the oppressive heat outside.

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It was very dark, the only source of light

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being an big open hole in the roof.

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Dad explained that this wasn't a big open hole,

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but it was called the Oculus,

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an eye to the heavens.

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And there was something about this place,

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I didn't know why, that just felt special.

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As we walked to the center of the room,

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I looked up at the heavens through the Oculus.

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This was the first church that I'd been to

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that provided an unrestricted view

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between God and man.

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But I wondered, what about when it rained?

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Dad may have called this an Oculus,

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but it was in fact a big hole in the roof.

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I looked down and saw floor drains

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had been cut into the stone floor.

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As I became more accustomed to the dark,

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I was able to make out details of the floor

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and the surrounding walls.

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No big deal, just the same statuary stuff

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that we'd seen all over Rome.

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In fact, it looked like the Appian Way

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of marble salesman showed up

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with his sample book, showed it to Hadrian,

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and Hadrian said, "We'll take all of it."

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(Laughter)

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But the ceiling was amazing.

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It looked like a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome.

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I'd seen these before,

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and Bucky was friends with my dad.

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It was modern, high-tech, impressive,

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a huge 142-foot clear span

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which not coincidentally was its exact height.

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I loved this place.

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It was really beautiful and unlike[br]anything I'd ever seen before,

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so I asked my dad, "When was this built?"

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He said, "About 2,000 years ago."

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And I said, "No, I mean, the roof."

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You see, I assumed that this was a modern roof

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that had been put on because the original

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was destroyed in some long-past war.

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He said, "It's the original roof."

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That moment changed my life,

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and I can remember it as if it were yesterday.

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For the first time, I realized people were smart

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2,000 years ago. (Laughter)

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This has never crossed my mind.

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I mean, to me, you know, the pyramids at Giza,

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we visited those the year before,

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and sure they're impressive, nice enough design,

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but look, give me an unlimited budget,

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20 to 40,000 laborers, and about 10 to 20 years

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to cut and drag stone blocks across the countryside,

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and I'll build you pyramids too.

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But no amount of brute force

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gets you the dome of the Pantheon,

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not 2,000 years ago, nor today.

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And incidentally, it is still the largest

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unreinforced concrete dome that's ever been built.

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To build the Pantheon took some miracles.

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By miracles, I mean things that are

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technically barely possible,

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very high risk, and might not be

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actually accomplishable at this moment in time,

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certainly not by you.

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For example, here are some[br]of the Pantheon's miracles.

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To make it even structurally possible,

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they had to invent super-strong concrete,

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and to control weight,

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varied the density of the aggregate

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as they worked their way up the dome.

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For strength and lightness, the dome structure

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used five rings of coffers,

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each of diminishing size,

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which imparts a dramatic forced perspective

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to the design.

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It was wonderfully cool inside

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because of its huge thermal mass,

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natural convection of air rising up

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through the Oculus,

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and a Venturi effect when wind blows across

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the top of the building.

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I discovered for the first time that light itself

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has substance.

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The shaft of light beaming through the Oculus

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was both beautiful and palpable,

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and I realized for the first time

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that light could be designed,

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further, that of all of the forms of design,

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visual design,

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they were all kind of irrelevant without it,

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because without light, you can't see any of them.

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I also realized that I wasn't the first person

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to think that this place was really special.

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It survived gravity, barbarians, looters, developers,

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and the ravages of time to become

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what I believe is the longest

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continuously occupied building in history.

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Largely because of that visit,

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I came to understand that,

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contrary to what I was being told in school,

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the worlds of art and design

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were not in fact incompatible

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with science and engineering.

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I realized, when combined,

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you could create things that were amazing

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that couldn't be done in either domain alone.

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But in school, with few exceptions,

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they were treated as separate worlds,

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and they still are.

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My teachers told me that I had to get serious

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and focus on one or the other.

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However, urging me to specialize

0:08:53.319,0:08:56.767
only caused me to really appreciate those polymaths

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like Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,

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Benjamin Franklin,

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people who did exactly the opposite.

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And this led me to embrace

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and want to be in both worlds.

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So then how do these projects of unprecedented creative vision and technical complexity

0:09:15.978,0:09:18.288
like the Pantheon actually happen?

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Someone themselves, perhaps Hadrian,

0:09:22.307,0:09:25.591
needed a brilliant creative vision.

0:09:25.591,0:09:28.415
They also needed the storytelling[br]and leadership skills

0:09:28.415,0:09:31.239
necessary to fund and execute it,

0:09:31.239,0:09:34.810
and a mastery of science and technology

0:09:34.810,0:09:36.230
with the ability and knowhow

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to push existing innovations even farther.

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It is my belief that to create[br]these rare game changers

0:09:44.950,0:09:47.911
requires you to pull off at least five miracles.

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The problem is, no matter how talented,

0:09:50.727,0:09:52.751
rich, or smart you are,

0:09:52.751,0:09:55.623
you only get one to one and a half miracles.

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That's it. That's the quota.

0:09:57.266,0:09:59.879
Then you run out of time, money, enthusiasm,

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whatever.

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Remember, most people can't even imagine

0:10:03.428,0:10:05.628
one of these technical miracles,

0:10:05.628,0:10:08.828
and you need at least five to make a Pantheon.

0:10:08.828,0:10:11.268
In my experience, these rare visionaries

0:10:11.268,0:10:13.428
who can think across the worlds of art,

0:10:13.428,0:10:15.148
design, and engineering,

0:10:15.148,0:10:17.052
have the ability to notice

0:10:17.052,0:10:19.436
when others have provided enough of the miracles

0:10:19.436,0:10:22.407
to bring the goal within reach.

0:10:22.407,0:10:24.998
Driven by the clarity of their vision,

0:10:24.998,0:10:27.138
they summon the courage and determination

0:10:27.138,0:10:29.359
to deliver the remaining miracles

0:10:29.359,0:10:32.878
and they often take what other people think to be

0:10:32.878,0:10:35.263
insurmountable obstacles

0:10:35.263,0:10:36.863
and turn them into features.

0:10:36.863,0:10:39.743
Take the Oculus of the Pantheon.

0:10:39.743,0:10:41.703
By insisting that it be in the design,

0:10:41.703,0:10:44.391
it meant you couldn't use much[br]of the structural technology

0:10:44.391,0:10:47.519
that had been developed for Roman arches.

0:10:47.519,0:10:50.526
However, by instead embracing it

0:10:50.526,0:10:52.975
and rethinking weight and stress distribution,

0:10:52.975,0:10:55.441
they came up with a design that only works

0:10:55.441,0:10:57.407
if there's a big hole in the roof.

0:10:57.407,0:11:00.167
That done, you now get the aesthetic

0:11:00.167,0:11:04.825
and design benefits of light cooling

0:11:04.825,0:11:08.156
and that critical direct connection with the heavens.

0:11:08.156,0:11:10.002
Not bad.

0:11:10.002,0:11:12.002
These people not only believed

0:11:12.002,0:11:14.092
that the impossible can be done,

0:11:14.092,0:11:17.099
but that it must be done.

0:11:17.099,0:11:19.306
Enough ancient history.

0:11:19.306,0:11:21.794
What are some recent examples of innovations

0:11:21.794,0:11:24.210
that combine creative design

0:11:24.210,0:11:27.530
and technological advances in a way so profound

0:11:27.530,0:11:29.106
that they will be remembered

0:11:29.106,0:11:30.707
a thousand years from now?

0:11:30.707,0:11:33.834
Well, putting a man on the moon was a good one,

0:11:33.834,0:11:36.866
and returning him safely to earth wasn't bad either.

0:11:36.866,0:11:39.235
Talk about one giant leap:

0:11:39.235,0:11:41.530
it's hard to imagine a more profound moment

0:11:41.530,0:11:43.165
in human history

0:11:43.165,0:11:44.938
than when we first left our world

0:11:44.938,0:11:46.922
to set foot on another.

0:11:46.922,0:11:48.988
So what came after the moon?

0:11:48.988,0:11:52.092
One is tempted to say that today's pantheon

0:11:52.092,0:11:53.842
is the internet,

0:11:53.842,0:11:56.234
but I actually think that's quite wrong,

0:11:56.234,0:11:58.474
or at least it's only part of the story.

0:11:58.474,0:12:01.513
The internet isn't a Pantheon.

0:12:01.513,0:12:04.242
It's more like the invention on concrete:

0:12:04.242,0:12:06.740
important, absolutely necessary

0:12:06.740,0:12:08.349
to build the Pantheon,

0:12:08.349,0:12:09.690
and enduring,

0:12:09.690,0:12:12.666
but entirely insufficient by itself.

0:12:12.666,0:12:15.306
However, just as the technology of concrete

0:12:15.306,0:12:19.277
was critical in realization of the Pantheon,

0:12:19.277,0:12:22.430
new designers will use the[br]technologies of the internet

0:12:22.430,0:12:25.690
to create novel concepts that will endure.

0:12:25.690,0:12:27.702
Smart phone is a perfect example.

0:12:27.702,0:12:29.525
Soon the majority of people on the planet

0:12:29.525,0:12:30.781
will have one,

0:12:30.781,0:12:32.966
and the idea of connecting everyone

0:12:32.966,0:12:36.616
to both knowledge and each other will endure.

0:12:36.616,0:12:38.054
So what's next?

0:12:38.054,0:12:40.838
What imminent advance will be[br]the equivalent of the Pantheon?

0:12:40.838,0:12:42.488
Thinking about this,

0:12:42.488,0:12:45.022
I rejected many very plausible

0:12:45.022,0:12:46.962
and dramatic breakthroughs to come,

0:12:46.962,0:12:48.918
such as curing cancer.

0:12:48.918,0:12:52.271
Why? Because Pantheons are anchored

0:12:52.271,0:12:55.206
in designed physical objects,

0:12:55.206,0:12:57.344
ones that inspire by simply seeing

0:12:57.344,0:12:59.081
and experiencing them,

0:12:59.081,0:13:02.277
and will continue to do so indefinitely.

0:13:02.277,0:13:06.511
It is a different kind of language, like art.

0:13:06.511,0:13:09.236
These other vital contributions that extend life

0:13:09.236,0:13:11.899
and relieve suffering are, of course, critical,

0:13:11.899,0:13:13.848
and fantastic,

0:13:13.848,0:13:15.656
but they're part of the continuum of

0:13:15.656,0:13:17.968
our overall knowledge and technology,

0:13:17.968,0:13:20.584
like the internet.

0:13:20.584,0:13:22.928
So what is next?

0:13:22.928,0:13:24.632
Perhaps counterintuitively,

0:13:24.632,0:13:26.760
I'm guessing it's a visionary idea

0:13:26.760,0:13:28.568
from the late 1930s

0:13:28.568,0:13:31.788
that's been revived every decade since:

0:13:31.788,0:13:33.848
autonomous vehicles.

0:13:33.848,0:13:35.710
Now you're thinking, give me a break?

0:13:35.710,0:13:38.306
How can a fancy version of cruise control

0:13:38.306,0:13:40.791
be profound?

0:13:40.791,0:13:43.160
Look, much of our world

0:13:43.160,0:13:46.488
has been designed around roads and transportation.

0:13:46.488,0:13:48.271
These were as essential to the success

0:13:48.271,0:13:49.800
of the Roman Empire

0:13:49.800,0:13:51.831
as the interstate highway system

0:13:51.831,0:13:53.640
to the prosperity and development

0:13:53.640,0:13:55.528
of the United States.

0:13:55.528,0:13:58.546
Today, these roads that interconnect our world

0:13:58.546,0:14:00.952
are dominated by cars and trucks

0:14:00.952,0:14:03.175
that have remained largely unchanged

0:14:03.175,0:14:05.096
for a hundred years.

0:14:05.096,0:14:08.527
Although perhaps not obvious today,

0:14:08.527,0:14:13.265
autonomous vehicles will be the key technology

0:14:13.265,0:14:16.273
that enables us to redesign our cities

0:14:16.273,0:14:18.521
and, by extension, civilization.

0:14:18.521,0:14:20.169
Here's why:

0:14:20.169,0:14:21.968
once they become ubiquitous,

0:14:21.968,0:14:24.305
each year, these vehicles will save

0:14:24.305,0:14:27.521
tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone

0:14:27.521,0:14:30.433
and a million globally.

0:14:30.433,0:14:33.209
Automotive energy consumption and air pollution

0:14:33.209,0:14:35.889
will be cut dramatically.

0:14:35.889,0:14:37.633
Much of the road congestion

0:14:37.633,0:14:41.104
in and out of our cities will disappear.

0:14:41.104,0:14:43.777
They will enable compelling new concepts

0:14:43.777,0:14:46.429
in how we design cities, work,

0:14:46.429,0:14:48.305
and the way we live.

0:14:48.305,0:14:50.882
We will get where we're going faster

0:14:50.882,0:14:53.726
and society will recapture vast amounts

0:14:53.726,0:14:55.494
of lost productivity

0:14:55.494,0:14:58.566
now spent sitting in traffic basically polluting.

0:14:58.566,0:15:02.070
But why now? Why do we think this is ready?

0:15:02.070,0:15:04.110
Because over the last 30 years,

0:15:04.110,0:15:06.142
people from outside the automotive industry

0:15:06.142,0:15:08.235
have spent countless billions

0:15:08.235,0:15:10.094
creating the needed miracles,

0:15:10.094,0:15:12.718
but for entirely different purposes.

0:15:12.718,0:15:15.470
It took folks like DARPA, universities,

0:15:15.470,0:15:18.326
and companies completely[br]outside of the automotive industry

0:15:18.326,0:15:20.950
to notice that if you were clever about it,

0:15:20.950,0:15:23.588
autonomy could be done now.

0:15:23.588,0:15:26.694
So what are the five miracles[br]needed for autonomous vehicles?

0:15:26.694,0:15:28.446
One, you need to know

0:15:28.446,0:15:31.486
where you are and exactly what time it is.

0:15:31.486,0:15:33.894
This was solved neatly by the GPS system,

0:15:33.894,0:15:35.438
Global Positioning System,

0:15:35.438,0:15:37.734
that the U.S. Government put in place.

0:15:37.734,0:15:39.934
You need to know where all the roads are,

0:15:39.934,0:15:43.190
what the rules are, and where you're going.

0:15:43.190,0:15:45.727
The various needs of personal navigation systems,

0:15:45.727,0:15:47.714
in car navigation systems,

0:15:47.714,0:15:50.254
and web based maps address this.

0:15:50.254,0:15:53.025
You must have near-continuous communication

0:15:53.025,0:15:55.096
with high-performance computing networks

0:15:55.096,0:15:56.844
and with others nearby

0:15:56.844,0:15:59.190
to understand their intent.

0:15:59.190,0:16:03.176
The wireless technologies[br]developed for mobile devices,

0:16:03.176,0:16:04.952
with some minor modifications,

0:16:04.952,0:16:07.496
are completely suitable to solve this.

0:16:07.496,0:16:10.339
You'll probably want some restricted roadways

0:16:10.339,0:16:11.930
to get started

0:16:11.930,0:16:13.992
that both society and its lawyers

0:16:13.992,0:16:16.048
agree are safe to use for this.

0:16:16.048,0:16:17.744
This will start with the HOV lanes

0:16:17.744,0:16:19.617
and move from there.

0:16:19.617,0:16:22.320
But finally, you need to recognize

0:16:22.320,0:16:24.624
people, signs, and objects.

0:16:24.624,0:16:27.554
Machine vision, special sensors,[br]and high performance computing

0:16:27.554,0:16:29.296
can do a lot of this,

0:16:29.296,0:16:31.408
but it turns out a lot is not good enough

0:16:31.408,0:16:33.640
when your family is on board.

0:16:33.640,0:16:37.208
Occasionally, humans will need to do sense-making.

0:16:37.208,0:16:40.560
For this, you might actually have to wake up

0:16:40.560,0:16:42.900
your passenger and ask them what the hell

0:16:42.900,0:16:45.887
that big lump is in the middle of the road.

0:16:45.887,0:16:47.740
Not so bad, and it will give us a sense of purpose

0:16:47.740,0:16:49.884
in this new world.

0:16:49.884,0:16:52.717
Besides, once the first drivers explain

0:16:52.717,0:16:54.092
to their confused car

0:16:54.092,0:16:56.140
that the giant chicken at the fork in the road

0:16:56.140,0:16:58.206
is actually a restaurant,

0:16:58.206,0:17:00.264
and it's okay to keep driving,

0:17:00.264,0:17:03.777
every other car on the surface of the earth

0:17:03.777,0:17:06.836
will know that from that point on.

0:17:06.836,0:17:08.900
Five miracles, mostly delivered,

0:17:08.900,0:17:11.100
and now you just need a clear vision

0:17:11.100,0:17:13.860
of a better world filled with autonomous vehicles

0:17:13.860,0:17:17.092
with seductively beautiful and new functional designs

0:17:17.092,0:17:19.789
plus a lot of money and hard work

0:17:19.789,0:17:21.601
to bring it home.

0:17:21.601,0:17:24.468
The beginning is now only a handful of years away,

0:17:24.468,0:17:26.260
and I predict that autonomous vehicles

0:17:26.260,0:17:28.408
will permanently change our world

0:17:28.408,0:17:31.916
over the next several decades.

0:17:31.916,0:17:35.228
In conclusion, I've come to believe

0:17:35.228,0:17:37.436
that the ingredients for the next Pantheons

0:17:37.436,0:17:38.868
are all around us,

0:17:38.868,0:17:41.102
just waiting for visionary people

0:17:41.102,0:17:43.236
with the broad knowledge,

0:17:43.236,0:17:45.004
multidisciplinary skills,

0:17:45.004,0:17:46.700
and intense passion

0:17:46.700,0:17:51.247
to harness them to make their dreams a reality.

0:17:51.247,0:17:53.665
But these people don't spontaneously

0:17:53.665,0:17:55.391
pop into existence.

0:17:55.391,0:17:57.151
They need to be nurtured and encouraged

0:17:57.151,0:17:58.976
from when they're little kids.

0:17:58.976,0:18:00.714
We need to love them and help them

0:18:00.714,0:18:02.432
discover their passions.

0:18:02.432,0:18:04.599
We need to encourage them to work hard

0:18:04.599,0:18:07.144
and help them understand that failure

0:18:07.144,0:18:09.907
is a necessary ingredient for success,

0:18:09.907,0:18:12.104
as is perseverance.

0:18:12.104,0:18:15.248
We need to help them to find their own role models,

0:18:15.248,0:18:17.720
and give them the confidence[br]to believe in themselves

0:18:17.720,0:18:20.712
and to believe that anything is possible,

0:18:20.712,0:18:24.206
and just as my grandpa did when[br]he took me shopping for surplus

0:18:24.206,0:18:25.912
and just as my parents did

0:18:25.912,0:18:27.780
when they took me to science museums,

0:18:27.780,0:18:31.008
we need to encourage them to find their own path,

0:18:31.008,0:18:33.765
even if it's very different from our own.

0:18:33.765,0:18:35.388
But a cautionary note:

0:18:35.388,0:18:37.729
we also need to periodically pry them away

0:18:37.729,0:18:39.214
from their modern miracles,

0:18:39.214,0:18:41.097
the computers, phones, tablets,

0:18:41.097,0:18:42.856
game machines, and TVs,

0:18:42.856,0:18:44.808
take them out into the sunlight

0:18:44.808,0:18:47.321
so they can experience both the natural

0:18:47.321,0:18:50.048
and design wonders of our world,

0:18:50.048,0:18:52.352
our planet and our civilization.

0:18:52.352,0:18:54.880
If we don't, they won't understand

0:18:54.880,0:18:57.192
what these precious things are

0:18:57.192,0:18:59.864
that someday they will be resopnsible

0:18:59.864,0:19:01.992
for protecting and improving.

0:19:01.992,0:19:03.789
We also need to them to understand

0:19:03.789,0:19:06.312
something that doesn't seem adequately appreciated

0:19:06.312,0:19:09.144
in our increasingly tech-dependent world,

0:19:09.144,0:19:10.856
that art and design

0:19:10.856,0:19:12.785
are not luxuries,

0:19:12.785,0:19:14.626
nor somehow incompatible

0:19:14.626,0:19:16.464
with science and engineering.

0:19:16.464,0:19:21.502
They are in fact essential to what makes us special.

0:19:21.502,0:19:24.462
Someday, if you get the chance,

0:19:24.462,0:19:26.202
perhaps you can take your kids

0:19:26.202,0:19:27.939
to the actual Pantheon,

0:19:27.939,0:19:30.507
as we will our daughter Kyra,

0:19:30.507,0:19:32.523
to experience firsthand

0:19:32.523,0:19:36.919
the power of that astonishing design,

0:19:36.919,0:19:40.571
which on one otherwise unremarkable day in Rome

0:19:40.571,0:19:43.536
reached 2,000 years into the future

0:19:43.536,0:19:46.024
to set the course for my life.

0:19:46.024,0:19:48.448
Thank you.

0:19:48.448,0:19:52.448
(Applause)