1 00:00:01,841 --> 00:00:03,603 So I thought I'd talk about identity. 2 00:00:03,627 --> 00:00:06,036 That's sort of an interesting enough topic to me. 3 00:00:06,060 --> 00:00:09,214 And the reason was, because when I was asked to do this, 4 00:00:09,238 --> 00:00:12,777 I'd just read, in one of the papers, I can't remember, 5 00:00:12,801 --> 00:00:16,180 something from someone at Facebook saying, well, 6 00:00:16,204 --> 00:00:17,820 "we need to make everybody use their real names." 7 00:00:17,844 --> 00:00:20,178 and then that's basically all the problems solved. 8 00:00:20,202 --> 00:00:22,123 And that's so wrong, 9 00:00:22,147 --> 00:00:26,066 that's such a fundamentally, reactionary view of identity, 10 00:00:26,090 --> 00:00:28,471 and it's going to get us into all sorts of trouble. 11 00:00:28,495 --> 00:00:29,829 And so what I thought I'd do 12 00:00:29,853 --> 00:00:33,834 is I'll explain four sort of problems about it, 13 00:00:33,858 --> 00:00:35,797 and then I'll suggest a solution, 14 00:00:35,821 --> 00:00:37,869 which hopefully you might find interesting. 15 00:00:37,893 --> 00:00:39,920 So just to frame the problem, 16 00:00:39,944 --> 00:00:41,510 what does authenticity mean? 17 00:00:41,534 --> 00:00:46,600 That's me, that's a camera phone picture of me 18 00:00:46,624 --> 00:00:47,580 looking at a painting. 19 00:00:47,604 --> 00:00:48,345 [What's the Problem?] 20 00:00:48,369 --> 00:00:49,477 That's a painting that was painted 21 00:00:49,501 --> 00:00:51,519 by a very famous forger, 22 00:00:51,543 --> 00:00:53,782 and because I'm not very good at presentations, 23 00:00:53,806 --> 00:00:56,521 I already can't remember the name that I wrote on my card. 24 00:00:56,545 --> 00:01:00,399 And he was incarcerated in, I think, Wakefield Prison 25 00:01:00,423 --> 00:01:03,965 for forging masterpieces by, I think, French Impressionists. 26 00:01:03,989 --> 00:01:07,144 And he's so good at it, that when he was in prison, 27 00:01:07,168 --> 00:01:08,520 everybody in prison, the governor and whatever, 28 00:01:08,544 --> 00:01:11,367 wanted him to paint masterpieces to put on the walls, 29 00:01:11,391 --> 00:01:12,659 because they were so good. 30 00:01:12,683 --> 00:01:14,043 And so that's a masterpiece, 31 00:01:14,067 --> 00:01:16,042 which is a fake of a masterpiece, 32 00:01:16,066 --> 00:01:22,705 and bonded into the canvas is a chip which identifies that as a real fake, 33 00:01:22,729 --> 00:01:24,237 if you see what I mean. 34 00:01:24,261 --> 00:01:25,429 (Laughter) 35 00:01:25,453 --> 00:01:27,672 So when we're talking about authenticity, 36 00:01:27,696 --> 00:01:33,134 it's a little more fractal than it appears and that's a good example to show it. 37 00:01:33,158 --> 00:01:37,115 I tried to pick four problems that will frame the issue properly. 38 00:01:37,139 --> 00:01:38,663 So the first problem, I thought, 39 00:01:38,687 --> 00:01:40,215 Chip and PIN, right? 40 00:01:40,239 --> 00:01:41,729 [Banks and legacies bringing down the system from within] 41 00:01:41,753 --> 00:01:42,601 [Offline solutions do not work online] 42 00:01:42,625 --> 00:01:45,217 I'm guessing everyone's got a chip and PIN card, right? 43 00:01:45,241 --> 00:01:46,983 So why is that a good example? 44 00:01:47,007 --> 00:01:50,458 That's the example of how legacy thinking about identity 45 00:01:50,482 --> 00:01:53,376 subverts the security of a well-constructed system. 46 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,167 That chip and PIN card that's in your pocket 47 00:01:56,191 --> 00:01:59,409 has a little chip on it that cost millions of pounds to develop, 48 00:01:59,433 --> 00:02:00,986 is extremely secure, 49 00:02:01,010 --> 00:02:03,249 you can put scanning electron microscopes on it, 50 00:02:03,273 --> 00:02:05,425 you can try and grind it down, blah blah blah. 51 00:02:05,449 --> 00:02:08,914 Those chips have never been broken, whatever you read in the paper. 52 00:02:08,938 --> 00:02:12,148 And for a joke, we take that super-secure chip 53 00:02:12,172 --> 00:02:15,662 and we bond it to a trivially counterfeitable magnetic stripe 54 00:02:15,686 --> 00:02:19,284 and for very lazy criminals, we still emboss the card. 55 00:02:19,308 --> 00:02:22,791 So if you're a criminal in a hurry and you need to copy someone's card, 56 00:02:22,815 --> 00:02:24,992 you can just stick a piece of paper on it and rub a pencil over it 57 00:02:25,016 --> 00:02:26,875 just to sort of speed things up. 58 00:02:26,899 --> 00:02:29,971 And even more amusingly, and on my debit card too, 59 00:02:29,995 --> 00:02:32,362 we print the name and the SALT code and everything else on the front too. 60 00:02:32,386 --> 00:02:35,701 Why? 61 00:02:35,725 --> 00:02:39,810 There is no earthly reason why your name is printed on a chip and PIN card. 62 00:02:39,834 --> 00:02:41,445 And if you think about it, 63 00:02:41,469 --> 00:02:44,563 it's even more insidious and perverse than it seems at first. 64 00:02:44,587 --> 00:02:46,377 Because the only people that benefit 65 00:02:46,401 --> 00:02:48,951 from having the name on the card are criminals. 66 00:02:48,975 --> 00:02:50,592 You know what your name is, right? 67 00:02:50,616 --> 00:02:51,493 (Laughter) 68 00:02:51,517 --> 00:02:53,745 And when you go into a shop and buy something, 69 00:02:53,769 --> 00:02:56,705 it's a PIN, he doesn't care what the name is. 70 00:02:56,729 --> 00:02:59,364 The only place where you ever have to write your name on the back 71 00:02:59,388 --> 00:03:00,534 is in America at the moment. 72 00:03:00,558 --> 00:03:01,745 And whenever I go to America, 73 00:03:01,769 --> 00:03:03,545 and I have to pay with a mag stripe on the back of the card, 74 00:03:03,569 --> 00:03:05,427 I always sign it Carlos Tethers anyway, 75 00:03:05,451 --> 00:03:07,235 just as a security mechanism, 76 00:03:07,259 --> 00:03:09,473 because if a transaction ever gets disputed, 77 00:03:09,497 --> 00:03:11,450 and it comes back and it says Dave Birch, 78 00:03:11,474 --> 00:03:13,189 I know it must have been a criminal, 79 00:03:13,213 --> 00:03:16,024 because I would never sign it Dave Birch. 80 00:03:16,048 --> 00:03:17,714 (Laughter) 81 00:03:17,738 --> 00:03:19,505 So if you drop your card in the street, 82 00:03:19,529 --> 00:03:21,277 it means a criminal can pick it up and read it. 83 00:03:21,301 --> 00:03:21,982 They know the name, 84 00:03:22,006 --> 00:03:23,911 from the name they can find the address, 85 00:03:23,935 --> 00:03:26,326 and then they can go off and buy stuff online. 86 00:03:26,350 --> 00:03:28,538 Why do we put the name on the card? 87 00:03:28,562 --> 00:03:32,257 Because we think identity is something to do with names, 88 00:03:32,281 --> 00:03:35,952 and because we're rooted in the idea of the identity card, 89 00:03:35,976 --> 00:03:37,068 which obsesses us. 90 00:03:37,092 --> 00:03:39,664 And I know it crashed and burned a couple of years ago, 91 00:03:39,688 --> 00:03:44,219 but if you're someone in politics or the home office or whatever, 92 00:03:44,243 --> 00:03:45,624 and you think about identity, 93 00:03:45,648 --> 00:03:48,839 you can only think of identity in terms of cards with names on them. 94 00:03:48,863 --> 00:03:51,985 And that's very subversive in a modern world. 95 00:03:52,009 --> 00:03:54,241 So the second example I thought I'd use 96 00:03:54,265 --> 00:03:56,307 is chatrooms. 97 00:03:56,331 --> 00:03:57,111 [Chatrooms and Children] 98 00:03:57,135 --> 00:03:59,301 I'm very proud of that picture, that's my son 99 00:03:59,325 --> 00:04:03,377 playing in his band with his friends for the first-ever gig, 100 00:04:03,401 --> 00:04:05,346 I believe you call it, where he got paid. 101 00:04:05,370 --> 00:04:06,133 (Laughter) 102 00:04:06,157 --> 00:04:08,011 And I love that picture. 103 00:04:08,035 --> 00:04:10,777 I like the picture of him getting into medical school a lot better, 104 00:04:10,801 --> 00:04:11,477 (Laughter) 105 00:04:11,501 --> 00:04:13,590 I like that picture for the moment. 106 00:04:13,614 --> 00:04:14,565 Why do I use that picture? 107 00:04:14,589 --> 00:04:19,654 Because that was very interesting, watching that experience as an old person. 108 00:04:19,678 --> 00:04:21,097 So him and his friends, 109 00:04:21,121 --> 00:04:23,975 they get together, they booked a room, like a church hall, 110 00:04:23,999 --> 00:04:25,825 and they got all their friends who had bands, 111 00:04:25,849 --> 00:04:27,135 and they got them together, 112 00:04:27,159 --> 00:04:28,636 and they do it all on Facebook, 113 00:04:28,660 --> 00:04:32,434 and then they sell tickets, and the first band on the - 114 00:04:32,458 --> 00:04:33,319 I was going to say "menu," 115 00:04:33,343 --> 00:04:35,629 that's probably the wrong word for it, isn't it? 116 00:04:35,653 --> 00:04:37,559 The first band on the list of bands 117 00:04:37,583 --> 00:04:42,116 that appears at some public music performance of some kind 118 00:04:42,140 --> 00:04:44,285 gets the sales from the first 20 tickets, 119 00:04:44,309 --> 00:04:46,105 then the next band gets the next 20, 120 00:04:46,129 --> 00:04:47,091 and so on. 121 00:04:47,115 --> 00:04:48,427 They were at the bottom of the menu, 122 00:04:48,451 --> 00:04:50,545 they were like fifth, I thought they had no chance. 123 00:04:50,569 --> 00:04:52,807 He actually got 20 quid. Fantastic, right? 124 00:04:52,831 --> 00:04:54,904 But my point is, that all worked perfectly, 125 00:04:54,928 --> 00:04:57,685 except on the web. 126 00:04:57,709 --> 00:04:59,878 So they're sitting on Facebook, 127 00:04:59,902 --> 00:05:02,744 and they're sending these messages and arranging things 128 00:05:02,768 --> 00:05:05,063 and they don't know who anybody is, right? 129 00:05:05,087 --> 00:05:06,694 That's the big problem we're trying to solve. 130 00:05:06,718 --> 00:05:08,661 If only they were using the real names, 131 00:05:08,685 --> 00:05:11,352 Then you wouldn't be worried about them on the Internet. 132 00:05:11,376 --> 00:05:12,597 And so when he says to me, 133 00:05:12,621 --> 00:05:16,963 "Oh, I want to go to a chatroom to talk about guitars" or something, 134 00:05:16,987 --> 00:05:20,212 I'm like, "oh, well, I don't want you to go into a chatroom 135 00:05:20,236 --> 00:05:23,570 to talk about guitars, because they might not all be your friends, 136 00:05:23,594 --> 00:05:25,833 and some of the people that are in the chatroom 137 00:05:25,857 --> 00:05:29,390 might be perverts and teachers and vicars." 138 00:05:29,414 --> 00:05:31,215 (Laughter) 139 00:05:31,239 --> 00:05:34,144 I mean, they generally are, when you look in the paper, right? 140 00:05:34,168 --> 00:05:37,200 So I want to know who all the people in the chatroom are. 141 00:05:37,224 --> 00:05:38,939 So okay, you can go in the chatroom, 142 00:05:38,963 --> 00:05:41,963 but only if everybody in the chatroom is using their real names, 143 00:05:41,987 --> 00:05:46,328 and they submit full copies of their police report. 144 00:05:46,352 --> 00:05:49,448 But of course, if anybody in the chatroom asked for his real name, 145 00:05:49,472 --> 00:05:51,690 I'd say no. You can't give them your real name. 146 00:05:51,714 --> 00:05:54,390 Because what happens if they turn out to be perverts, 147 00:05:54,414 --> 00:05:57,063 and teachers and whatever. 148 00:05:57,087 --> 00:05:58,802 So you have this odd sort of paradox 149 00:05:58,826 --> 00:06:01,133 where I'm happy for him to go into this space 150 00:06:01,157 --> 00:06:03,075 if I know who everybody else is, 151 00:06:03,099 --> 00:06:05,438 but I don't want anybody else to know who he is. 152 00:06:05,462 --> 00:06:07,614 And so you get this sort of logjam around identity 153 00:06:07,638 --> 00:06:09,250 where you want full disclosure from everybody else, 154 00:06:09,274 --> 00:06:10,545 but not from yourself. 155 00:06:10,569 --> 00:06:12,552 And there's no progress, we get stuck. 156 00:06:12,576 --> 00:06:14,862 And so the chatroom thing doesn't work properly, 157 00:06:14,886 --> 00:06:19,227 and it's a very bad way of thinking about identity. 158 00:06:19,251 --> 00:06:22,162 So on my RSS feed, I saw this thing about - 159 00:06:22,186 --> 00:06:24,758 I just said something bad about my RSS feed, didn't I? 160 00:06:24,782 --> 00:06:26,513 I should stop saying it like that. 161 00:06:26,537 --> 00:06:28,046 For some random reason, I can't imagine, 162 00:06:28,070 --> 00:06:30,202 something about cheerleaders turned up in my inbox. 163 00:06:30,226 --> 00:06:32,179 And I read this story about cheerleaders, 164 00:06:32,203 --> 00:06:33,628 and it's a fascinating story. 165 00:06:33,652 --> 00:06:35,843 This happened a couple of years ago in the U.S. 166 00:06:35,867 --> 00:06:38,568 There were some cheerleaders in a team at a high school 167 00:06:38,592 --> 00:06:41,451 in the U.S., and they said mean things 168 00:06:41,475 --> 00:06:42,637 about their cheerleading coach, 169 00:06:42,661 --> 00:06:44,848 as I'm sure kids do about all of their teachers 170 00:06:44,872 --> 00:06:46,175 all of the time, 171 00:06:46,199 --> 00:06:48,255 and somehow the cheerleading coach found out about this. 172 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:49,719 She was very upset. 173 00:06:49,743 --> 00:06:51,886 And so she went to one of the girls, and said, 174 00:06:51,910 --> 00:06:54,006 "you have to give me your Facebook password." 175 00:06:54,030 --> 00:06:57,695 I read this all the time, where even at some universities 176 00:06:57,719 --> 00:06:58,595 and places of education, 177 00:06:58,619 --> 00:07:00,324 kids are forced to hand over their Facebook passwords. 178 00:07:00,348 --> 00:07:03,079 So you've got to give them your Facebook password. 179 00:07:03,103 --> 00:07:03,952 She was a kid! 180 00:07:03,976 --> 00:07:05,138 What she should have said 181 00:07:05,162 --> 00:07:06,368 is, "my lawyer will be calling you 182 00:07:06,392 --> 00:07:07,158 first thing in the morning. 183 00:07:07,182 --> 00:07:09,279 It's an outrageous imposition 184 00:07:09,303 --> 00:07:11,138 on my 4th Amendment right to privacy, 185 00:07:11,162 --> 00:07:11,923 and you're going to be sued 186 00:07:11,947 --> 00:07:12,518 for all the money you've got." 187 00:07:12,542 --> 00:07:13,574 That's what she should have said. 188 00:07:13,598 --> 00:07:14,553 But she's a kid, 189 00:07:14,577 --> 00:07:16,372 so she hands over the password. 190 00:07:16,396 --> 00:07:18,422 The teacher can't log into Facebook, 191 00:07:18,446 --> 00:07:21,594 because the school has blocked access to Facebook. 192 00:07:21,618 --> 00:07:23,507 So the teacher can't log into Facebook until she gets home. 193 00:07:23,531 --> 00:07:25,205 So the girl tells her friends, 194 00:07:25,229 --> 00:07:25,766 guess what happened? 195 00:07:25,790 --> 00:07:27,362 The teacher logged in, she knows. 196 00:07:27,386 --> 00:07:29,203 So the girls just all logged into Facebook on their phones, 197 00:07:29,227 --> 00:07:31,070 and deleted their profiles. 198 00:07:31,094 --> 00:07:33,955 And so when the teacher logged in, there was nothing there. 199 00:07:33,979 --> 00:07:39,607 My point is, those identities, they don't think about them the same way. 200 00:07:39,631 --> 00:07:43,336 Identity is, especially when you're a teenager, a fluid thing. 201 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:44,941 You have lots of identities. 202 00:07:44,965 --> 00:07:47,191 And you can have an identity, you don't like it, 203 00:07:47,215 --> 00:07:50,787 because it's subverted in some way, or it's insecure, or it's inappropriate, 204 00:07:50,811 --> 00:07:52,869 you just delete it and get another one. 205 00:07:52,893 --> 00:07:56,193 The idea that you have an identity that's given to you by someone, 206 00:07:56,217 --> 00:07:57,012 the government or whatever, 207 00:07:57,036 --> 00:07:59,131 and you have to stick with that identity and use it in all places, 208 00:07:59,155 --> 00:08:00,839 that's absolutely wrong. 209 00:08:00,863 --> 00:08:03,871 Why would you want to really know who someone was on Facebook, 210 00:08:03,895 --> 00:08:06,753 unless you wanted to abuse them and harass them in some way? 211 00:08:06,777 --> 00:08:09,384 And it just doesn't work properly. 212 00:08:09,408 --> 00:08:11,598 And my fourth example is there are some cases 213 00:08:11,622 --> 00:08:14,031 where you really want to be - 214 00:08:14,055 --> 00:08:17,601 In case you're wondering, that's me at the G20 protest. 215 00:08:17,625 --> 00:08:21,277 I wasn't actually at the G20 protest, but I had a meeting at a bank 216 00:08:21,301 --> 00:08:24,710 on the day of the G20 protest, and I got an email from the bank 217 00:08:24,734 --> 00:08:29,271 saying please don't wear a suit, because it'll inflame the protesters. 218 00:08:29,295 --> 00:08:31,045 I look pretty good in a suit, frankly, 219 00:08:31,069 --> 00:08:32,735 so you can see why it would drive them 220 00:08:32,759 --> 00:08:34,236 into an anti-capitalist frenzy. 221 00:08:34,260 --> 00:08:34,771 (Laughter) 222 00:08:34,795 --> 00:08:35,700 So I thought, well, look. 223 00:08:35,724 --> 00:08:38,869 If I don't want to inflame the protesters, 224 00:08:38,893 --> 00:08:39,785 the obvious thing to do 225 00:08:39,809 --> 00:08:41,190 is go dressed as a protester. 226 00:08:41,214 --> 00:08:43,208 So I went dressed completely in black, 227 00:08:43,232 --> 00:08:45,092 you know, with a black balaclava, 228 00:08:45,116 --> 00:08:45,926 I had black gloves on, 229 00:08:45,950 --> 00:08:47,563 but I've taken them off to sign the visitor's book. 230 00:08:47,587 --> 00:08:48,135 (Laughter) 231 00:08:48,159 --> 00:08:50,318 I'm wearing black trousers, black boots, 232 00:08:50,342 --> 00:08:51,724 I'm dressed completely in black. 233 00:08:51,748 --> 00:08:52,898 I go into the bank at 10 o'clock, 234 00:08:52,922 --> 00:08:53,863 go, "Hi, I'm Dave Birch, 235 00:08:53,887 --> 00:08:55,139 I've got a 3 o'clock with so and so there." 236 00:08:55,163 --> 00:08:56,580 Sure. They sign me in. 237 00:08:56,604 --> 00:08:59,351 There's my visitor's badge. 238 00:08:59,375 --> 00:09:00,242 (Laughter) 239 00:09:00,266 --> 00:09:01,560 So this nonsense 240 00:09:01,584 --> 00:09:03,614 about you've got to have real names on Facebook and whatever, 241 00:09:03,638 --> 00:09:05,849 that gets you that kind of security. 242 00:09:05,873 --> 00:09:10,368 That gets you security theater, where there's no actual security, 243 00:09:10,392 --> 00:09:13,706 but people are sort of playing parts in a play about security. 244 00:09:13,730 --> 00:09:14,831 And as long as everybody learns their lines, 245 00:09:14,855 --> 00:09:16,367 everyone's happy. 246 00:09:16,391 --> 00:09:19,231 But it's not real security. 247 00:09:19,255 --> 00:09:22,473 Especially because I hate banks more than the G20 protesters do, 248 00:09:22,497 --> 00:09:23,658 because I work for them. 249 00:09:23,682 --> 00:09:26,485 I know that things are actually worse than these guys think. 250 00:09:26,509 --> 00:09:28,282 (Laughter) 251 00:09:29,872 --> 00:09:34,942 But suppose I worked next to somebody in a bank 252 00:09:34,966 --> 00:09:37,974 who was doing something. 253 00:09:44,744 --> 00:09:46,910 Suppose I was sitting next to a rogue trader, 254 00:09:46,934 --> 00:09:49,213 and I want to report it to the boss of the bank. 255 00:09:49,237 --> 00:09:50,629 So I log on to do a little bit of whistleblowing. 256 00:09:50,653 --> 00:09:53,094 I send a message, this guy's a rogue trader. 257 00:09:53,118 --> 00:09:54,892 That message is meaningless 258 00:09:54,916 --> 00:09:57,840 if you don't know that I'm a trader at the bank. 259 00:09:57,864 --> 00:09:59,769 If that message just comes from anybody, 260 00:09:59,793 --> 00:10:02,426 it has zero information value. 261 00:10:02,450 --> 00:10:04,919 There's no point in sending that message. 262 00:10:06,463 --> 00:10:09,206 But if I have to prove who I am, 263 00:10:09,230 --> 00:10:10,611 I'll never send that message. 264 00:10:10,635 --> 00:10:14,464 It's just like the nurse in the hospital reporting the drunk surgeon. 265 00:10:14,488 --> 00:10:17,385 That message will only happen if I'm anonymous. 266 00:10:17,409 --> 00:10:22,176 So the system has to have ways of providing anonymity there, 267 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:24,439 otherwise we don't get where we want to get to. 268 00:10:24,463 --> 00:10:27,109 So four issues. So what are we going to do about it? 269 00:10:27,133 --> 00:10:31,796 Well, what we tend to do about it 270 00:10:31,820 --> 00:10:34,184 is we think about Orwell space. 271 00:10:34,208 --> 00:10:37,330 And we try to make electronic versions 272 00:10:37,354 --> 00:10:39,637 of the identity card that we got rid of in 1953. 273 00:10:39,661 --> 00:10:42,394 So we think if we had a card, 274 00:10:42,418 --> 00:10:43,733 call it a Facebook login, 275 00:10:43,757 --> 00:10:45,030 which proves who you are, 276 00:10:45,054 --> 00:10:46,921 and I make you carry it all the time, 277 00:10:46,945 --> 00:10:47,739 that solves the problem. 278 00:10:47,763 --> 00:10:49,897 And of course, for all those reasons I've just outlined, 279 00:10:49,921 --> 00:10:50,889 it doesn't, and it might, actually, 280 00:10:50,913 --> 00:10:51,961 make some problems worse. 281 00:10:51,985 --> 00:10:54,784 The more times you're forced to use your real identity, 282 00:10:54,808 --> 00:10:57,024 certainly in transactional terms, 283 00:10:57,048 --> 00:10:59,906 the more likely that identity is to get stolen and subverted. 284 00:10:59,930 --> 00:11:02,170 The goal is to stop people from using identity 285 00:11:02,194 --> 00:11:04,347 in transactions which don't need identity, 286 00:11:04,371 --> 00:11:06,856 which is actually almost all transactions. 287 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:09,153 Almost all of the transactions you do 288 00:11:09,177 --> 00:11:10,841 are not, who are you? 289 00:11:10,865 --> 00:11:12,975 They're, are you allowed to drive the car, 290 00:11:12,999 --> 00:11:14,523 are you allowed in the building, 291 00:11:14,547 --> 00:11:15,380 are you over 18, 292 00:11:15,404 --> 00:11:17,495 etcetera, etcetera. 293 00:11:17,519 --> 00:11:19,326 So my suggestion-I, like James, 294 00:11:19,350 --> 00:11:22,487 think that there should be a resurgence of interest in R & D. 295 00:11:22,511 --> 00:11:23,272 I think this is a solvable problem. 296 00:11:23,296 --> 00:11:25,092 It's something we can do about. 297 00:11:25,116 --> 00:11:27,040 Naturally, in these circumstances, 298 00:11:27,064 --> 00:11:28,414 I turn to Doctor Who. 299 00:11:28,438 --> 00:11:30,550 Because in this, 300 00:11:30,574 --> 00:11:32,194 as in so many other walks of life, 301 00:11:32,218 --> 00:11:35,147 Doctor Who has already shown us the answer. 302 00:11:35,171 --> 00:11:35,961 So I should say, 303 00:11:35,985 --> 00:11:38,292 for some of our foreign visitors, 304 00:11:38,316 --> 00:11:42,146 Doctor Who is the greatest living scientist in England, 305 00:11:42,170 --> 00:11:43,723 (Laughter) 306 00:11:43,747 --> 00:11:46,523 and a beacon of truth and enlightenment to all of us. 307 00:11:46,547 --> 00:11:50,593 And this is Doctor Who with his psychic paper. 308 00:11:50,617 --> 00:11:52,763 Come on, you guys must have seen Doctor Who's psychic paper. 309 00:11:52,787 --> 00:11:54,763 You're not nerds if you say yes. 310 00:11:54,787 --> 00:11:56,899 Who's seen Doctor Who's psychic paper? 311 00:11:56,923 --> 00:11:59,329 Oh right, you were in the library the whole time studying I guess. 312 00:11:59,353 --> 00:12:01,399 Is that what you're going to tell us? 313 00:12:01,423 --> 00:12:02,661 Doctor Who's psychic paper 314 00:12:02,685 --> 00:12:04,781 is when you hold up the psychic paper, 315 00:12:04,805 --> 00:12:06,319 the person, in their brain, 316 00:12:06,343 --> 00:12:08,668 sees the thing that they need to see. 317 00:12:08,692 --> 00:12:11,027 So I want to show you a British passport, 318 00:12:11,051 --> 00:12:12,053 I hold up the psychic paper, 319 00:12:12,077 --> 00:12:13,533 you see a British passport. 320 00:12:13,557 --> 00:12:15,329 I want to get into a party, 321 00:12:15,353 --> 00:12:16,936 I hold up the psychic paper, 322 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:18,389 I show you a party invitation. 323 00:12:18,413 --> 00:12:20,464 You see what you want to see. 324 00:12:20,488 --> 00:12:23,679 So what I'm saying is we need to make an electronic version of that, 325 00:12:23,703 --> 00:12:25,876 but with one tiny, tiny change, 326 00:12:25,900 --> 00:12:28,472 which is that it'll only show you the British passport 327 00:12:28,496 --> 00:12:29,688 if I've actually got one. 328 00:12:29,712 --> 00:12:30,907 It'll only show you the party invitation 329 00:12:30,931 --> 00:12:32,304 if I actually have one. 330 00:12:32,328 --> 00:12:35,328 It will only show you that I'm over 18 if I actually am over 18. 331 00:12:35,352 --> 00:12:37,652 But nothing else. 332 00:12:37,676 --> 00:12:42,427 So you're the bouncer at the pub, you need to know that I'm over 18, 333 00:12:42,451 --> 00:12:44,451 instead of showing you my driving license, 334 00:12:44,475 --> 00:12:46,292 which shows you I know how to drive, 335 00:12:46,316 --> 00:12:48,888 what my name is, my address, all these kind of things, 336 00:12:48,912 --> 00:12:50,467 I show you my psychic paper, 337 00:12:50,491 --> 00:12:53,633 and all it tells you is am I over 18 or not. 338 00:12:53,657 --> 00:12:55,069 Right. 339 00:12:55,093 --> 00:12:56,407 Is that just a pipe dream? 340 00:12:56,431 --> 00:12:58,100 Of course not, otherwise I wouldn't be here talking to you. 341 00:12:58,124 --> 00:13:01,184 So in order to build that and make it work, 342 00:13:01,208 --> 00:13:03,955 I'm only going to name these things, I'll not go into them, 343 00:13:03,979 --> 00:13:05,132 we need a plan, 344 00:13:05,156 --> 00:13:06,381 which is we're going to build this 345 00:13:06,405 --> 00:13:08,405 as an infrastructure for everybody to use, 346 00:13:08,429 --> 00:13:10,259 to solve all of these problems. 347 00:13:10,283 --> 00:13:12,307 We're going to make a utility, 348 00:13:12,331 --> 00:13:13,855 the utility has to be universal, 349 00:13:13,879 --> 00:13:14,738 you can use it everywhere, 350 00:13:14,762 --> 00:13:17,953 I'm just giving you little flashes of the technology as we go along. 351 00:13:17,977 --> 00:13:19,336 That's a Japanese ATM, 352 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:22,444 the fingerprint template is stored inside the mobile phone. 353 00:13:22,468 --> 00:13:23,431 So when you want to draw money out, 354 00:13:23,455 --> 00:13:24,928 you put the mobile phone on the ATM, 355 00:13:24,952 --> 00:13:26,193 and touch your finger, 356 00:13:26,217 --> 00:13:28,265 your fingerprint goes through to the phone, 357 00:13:28,289 --> 00:13:29,956 the phone says yes, that's whoever, 358 00:13:29,980 --> 00:13:32,160 and the ATM then gives you some money. 359 00:13:32,184 --> 00:13:35,197 It has to be a utility that you can use everywhere. 360 00:13:35,221 --> 00:13:36,983 It has to be absolutely convenient, 361 00:13:37,007 --> 00:13:40,150 that's me going into the pub. 362 00:13:40,174 --> 00:13:42,943 All the device on the door of the pub is allowed is, 363 00:13:42,967 --> 00:13:46,616 is this person over 18 and not barred from the pub? 364 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:49,946 And so the idea is, you touch your ID card to the door, 365 00:13:49,970 --> 00:13:51,905 and if I am allowed in, it shows my picture, 366 00:13:51,929 --> 00:13:53,366 if I'm not allowed in, it shows a red cross. 367 00:13:53,390 --> 00:13:54,981 It doesn't disclose any other information. 368 00:13:55,005 --> 00:13:56,893 It has to have no special gadgets. 369 00:13:56,917 --> 00:13:58,528 That can only mean one thing, 370 00:13:58,552 --> 00:14:00,219 following on from Ross's statement, 371 00:14:00,243 --> 00:14:01,697 which I agree with completely. 372 00:14:01,721 --> 00:14:02,809 If it means no special gadgets, 373 00:14:02,833 --> 00:14:04,183 it has to run on a mobile phone. 374 00:14:04,207 --> 00:14:05,286 That's the only choice we have, 375 00:14:05,310 --> 00:14:07,165 we have to make it work on mobile phones. 376 00:14:07,189 --> 00:14:08,099 There are 6.6 billion 377 00:14:08,123 --> 00:14:09,023 mobile phone subscriptions. 378 00:14:09,047 --> 00:14:11,059 My favorite statistic of all time, 379 00:14:11,083 --> 00:14:13,036 only 4 billion toothbrushes in the world. 380 00:14:13,060 --> 00:14:14,095 That means something, 381 00:14:14,119 --> 00:14:15,352 I don't know what. 382 00:14:15,376 --> 00:14:15,730 (Laughter) 383 00:14:15,754 --> 00:14:19,193 I rely on our futurologists to tell me. 384 00:14:19,217 --> 00:14:20,903 It has to be a utility which is extensible. 385 00:14:20,927 --> 00:14:22,188 So it has to be something 386 00:14:22,212 --> 00:14:23,778 that anybody could build on. 387 00:14:23,802 --> 00:14:25,666 Anybody should be able to use this infrastructure, 388 00:14:25,690 --> 00:14:28,120 you don't need permissions, licenses, whatever, 389 00:14:28,144 --> 00:14:31,311 anyone should be able to write some code to do this. 390 00:14:33,176 --> 00:14:34,417 You know what symmetry is, 391 00:14:34,441 --> 00:14:36,764 so you don't need a picture of it. 392 00:14:36,788 --> 00:14:37,928 This is how we're going to do it. 393 00:14:37,952 --> 00:14:38,962 We're going to do it using phones, 394 00:14:38,986 --> 00:14:39,588 and we're going to do it 395 00:14:39,612 --> 00:14:40,744 using mobile proximity. 396 00:14:40,768 --> 00:14:41,880 I'm going to suggest to you 397 00:14:41,904 --> 00:14:43,216 the technology to implement 398 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:44,502 Doctor Who's psychic paper 399 00:14:44,526 --> 00:14:46,146 is already here, and if any of you 400 00:14:46,170 --> 00:14:48,625 have got one of the new Barclay's debit cards 401 00:14:48,649 --> 00:14:49,854 with the contactless interface on it, 402 00:14:49,878 --> 00:14:51,545 you've already got that technology. 403 00:14:51,569 --> 00:14:53,469 If you've ever been up to the big city, 404 00:14:53,493 --> 00:14:54,970 and used an Oyster card at all, 405 00:14:54,994 --> 00:14:57,065 does that ring any bells to anybody? 406 00:14:57,089 --> 00:14:57,811 The technology already exists. 407 00:14:57,835 --> 00:14:59,201 The first phones 408 00:14:59,225 --> 00:14:59,831 that have the technology built in, 409 00:14:59,855 --> 00:15:02,130 the Google Nexus, the S2, 410 00:15:02,154 --> 00:15:02,839 the Samsung Wifi 7.9, 411 00:15:02,863 --> 00:15:04,331 the first phones that have 412 00:15:04,355 --> 00:15:05,423 the technology built into them 413 00:15:05,447 --> 00:15:06,257 are already in the shops. 414 00:15:06,281 --> 00:15:07,969 So the idea that the gas man 415 00:15:07,993 --> 00:15:10,161 can turn up at my mom's door 416 00:15:10,185 --> 00:15:12,363 and he can show my mom his phone, 417 00:15:12,387 --> 00:15:13,698 and she can tap it with her phone, 418 00:15:13,722 --> 00:15:16,005 and it will come up with green if he really is from British Gas 419 00:15:16,029 --> 00:15:17,217 and allowed in, 420 00:15:17,241 --> 00:15:18,887 and it'll come up with red if he isn't, 421 00:15:18,911 --> 00:15:19,497 end of story. 422 00:15:19,521 --> 00:15:21,347 We have the technology to do that. 423 00:15:21,371 --> 00:15:22,582 And what's more, 424 00:15:22,606 --> 00:15:24,727 although some of those things sounded a bit counter-intuitive, 425 00:15:24,751 --> 00:15:27,515 like proving I'm over 18 without proving who I am, 426 00:15:27,539 --> 00:15:29,740 the cryptography to do that not only exists, 427 00:15:29,764 --> 00:15:31,969 it's extremely well-known and well-understood. 428 00:15:31,993 --> 00:15:34,624 Digital signatures, the blinding of public key certificates, 429 00:15:34,648 --> 00:15:36,368 these technologies have been around for a while, 430 00:15:36,392 --> 00:15:38,440 we've just had no way of packaging them up. 431 00:15:38,464 --> 00:15:41,157 So the technology already exists. 432 00:15:41,181 --> 00:15:44,845 We know it works, 433 00:15:44,869 --> 00:15:46,593 There are a few examples of the technology being used 434 00:15:46,617 --> 00:15:48,263 in experimental places. 435 00:15:48,287 --> 00:15:49,591 That's London Fashion Week, 436 00:15:49,615 --> 00:15:51,465 where we built a system with O2, 437 00:15:51,489 --> 00:15:54,232 that's for the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, 438 00:15:54,256 --> 00:15:55,355 you can see the persons 439 00:15:55,379 --> 00:15:57,116 walking in with their VIP band, 440 00:15:57,140 --> 00:15:57,600 it's just being checked 441 00:15:57,624 --> 00:15:58,700 by the Nokia phone that's reading the band. 442 00:15:58,724 --> 00:16:00,398 I'm only putting those up to show you 443 00:16:00,422 --> 00:16:01,627 these things are prosaic, 444 00:16:01,651 --> 00:16:03,509 this stuff works in these environments. 445 00:16:03,533 --> 00:16:04,962 They don't need to be special. 446 00:16:04,986 --> 00:16:10,881 So finally, I know that you can do this, 447 00:16:11,789 --> 00:16:14,669 because if you saw the episode of Doctor Who, 448 00:16:14,693 --> 00:16:16,569 the Easter special of Doctor Who, 449 00:16:16,593 --> 00:16:19,945 where he went to Mars in a bus, 450 00:16:19,969 --> 00:16:21,507 I should say again for our foreign students, 451 00:16:21,531 --> 00:16:23,180 that doesn't happen every episode. 452 00:16:23,204 --> 00:16:24,651 This was a very special case. 453 00:16:24,675 --> 00:16:27,892 So in the episode where he goes to Mars in a London bus, 454 00:16:27,916 --> 00:16:29,565 I can't show you the clip, 455 00:16:29,589 --> 00:16:32,589 due to the outrageous restrictions of Queen Anne-style copyright 456 00:16:32,613 --> 00:16:34,482 by the BBC, 457 00:16:34,506 --> 00:16:37,221 but in the episode where he goes to Mars in a London bus, 458 00:16:37,245 --> 00:16:41,355 Doctor Who is clearly shown getting on to the bus 459 00:16:41,379 --> 00:16:42,655 with the Oyster card reader 460 00:16:42,679 --> 00:16:44,223 using his psychic paper. 461 00:16:44,247 --> 00:16:46,315 Which proves that psychic paper 462 00:16:46,339 --> 00:16:48,030 has an MSE interface. 463 00:16:48,054 --> 00:16:50,064 Thank you very much.