9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (Ian Goldin) Great, thank you: it's [br]wonderful to be with educators 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who care about the intersection[br]of learning and technology, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because that's going to shape the future. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Whether we're able [br]to get this right or not 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 will determine whether we have[br]a glorious 21st century 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or a period of unmitigated risks. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The walls are coming down everywhere[br]and it's difficult to not think about this, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 being so close to it, here in Berlin, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 25 years ago, these walls coming down. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it's not just about physical walls[br]coming down, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's about mental walls,[br]it's about financial walls, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's about technological walls. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All the walls are coming down,[br]and it's that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that makes this the most exciting century [br]in the history of humanity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It changes all of our lives[br]in surprising ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it has certainly changed mine. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was living in Paris [br]when this wall came down. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I didn't imagine that it would touch me[br]personally. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I thought it was about Eastern Europe,[br]about the Cold War, about something else. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But within 6 months, I would, [br]much to my surprise, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was invited to have dinner with[br]President Mandela in Paris. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He wasn't president then, [br]he had just been released from prison. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But he was released [br]because the Cold War ended. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the defining feature of this period[br]we live in our lives 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that what happens elsewhere will[br]dramatically affect us in new ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's this change that results [br]from the walls coming down. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it's this change that will shape[br]education going forward 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and technological progress. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And of course, the other fundamental [br]period of -- in this time -- 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is technology, technology, [br]which got off the ground 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 at the same time as the Berlin Wall[br]came down, over 25 years. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This exponential growth in[br]virtual connectivity. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And now we have a world of 5 billion[br]literate, educated people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whereas we had a world, only 30 years ago, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of well less than a billion [br]connected people 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 4 billion more literate connected people[br]in the world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and this is the engine of change, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where the people in the slums of Mumbai,[br]Soweto's Al Pano (check) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or in apartments in Berlin, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they will contribute to change [br]in surprising new ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they're coming together. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There is a release of individual genius. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you believe in the random distribution[br]of exceptional capabilities, which I do, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there is just more people out there,[br]educated, connected, giving, learning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But I also believe in collective genius, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the capabilities of people [br]coming together, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to form teams, to learn from each other 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 through the methods that [br]we learned about this morning. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and in other ways. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So new cures for cancer being developed[br]in 24 hours cycles around the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 My lab in Oxford doing this with people [br]in Beijing and San Francisco, in Palo Alto 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and all over, in real time. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There is no sleep on innovation any more. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that's the power, the engine,[br]which brings change. 3:01