0:00:01.190,0:00:02.851
This is a map of New York State

0:00:02.875,0:00:06.393
that was made in 1937[br]by the General Drafting Company.

0:00:06.417,0:00:09.914
It's an extremely famous map[br]among cartography nerds,

0:00:09.938,0:00:12.659
because down here at the bottom[br]of the Catskill Mountains,

0:00:12.683,0:00:14.562
there is a little town called Roscoe --

0:00:14.586,0:00:17.284
actually, this will go easier[br]if I just put it up here --

0:00:17.308,0:00:20.838
There's Roscoe, and then right[br]above Roscoe is Rockland, New York,

0:00:20.862,0:00:24.675
and then right above that[br]is the tiny town of Agloe, New York.

0:00:24.699,0:00:27.758
Agloe, New York, is very famous[br]to cartographers,

0:00:27.782,0:00:30.058
because it's a paper town.

0:00:30.082,0:00:32.304
It's also known as a copyright trap.

0:00:32.328,0:00:35.682
Mapmakers -- because my map of New York[br]and your map of New York

0:00:35.706,0:00:39.372
are going to look very similar,[br]on account of the shape of New York --

0:00:39.396,0:00:44.169
often, mapmakers will insert[br]fake places onto their maps,

0:00:44.193,0:00:45.955
in order to protect their copyright.

0:00:45.979,0:00:48.867
Because then, if my fake place[br]shows up on your map,

0:00:48.891,0:00:52.546
I can be well and truly sure[br]that you have robbed me.

0:00:52.570,0:00:57.211
Agloe is a scrabblization of the initials[br]of the two guys who made this map,

0:00:57.235,0:01:00.156
Ernest Alpers and Otto [G.] Lindberg,

0:01:00.180,0:01:03.456
and they released this map in 1937.

0:01:03.480,0:01:06.799
Decades later, Rand McNally releases a map

0:01:06.823,0:01:10.847
with Agloe, New York, on it,[br]at the same exact intersection

0:01:10.871,0:01:13.139
of two dirt roads[br]in the middle of nowhere.

0:01:14.205,0:01:17.466
Well, you can imagine the delight[br]over at General Drafting.

0:01:17.490,0:01:20.702
They immediately call[br]Rand McNally, and they say,

0:01:20.726,0:01:24.320
"We've caught you![br]We made Agloe, New York, up.

0:01:24.344,0:01:26.398
It is a fake place. It's a paper town.

0:01:26.422,0:01:28.123
We're going to sue your pants off!"

0:01:29.003,0:01:33.490
And Rand McNally says,[br]"No, no, no, no, Agloe is real."

0:01:34.616,0:01:39.160
Because people kept going[br]to that intersection of two dirt roads --

0:01:39.184,0:01:40.208
(Laughter)

0:01:40.232,0:01:44.728
in the middle of nowhere, expecting[br]there to be a place called Agloe --

0:01:44.752,0:01:47.985
someone built a place[br]called Agloe, New York.

0:01:48.009,0:01:49.048
(Laughter)

0:01:49.072,0:01:52.453
It had a gas station, a general store,[br]two houses at its peak.

0:01:52.477,0:01:54.747
(Laughter)

0:01:55.596,0:02:00.074
And this is of course a completely[br]irresistible metaphor to a novelist,

0:02:00.098,0:02:04.709
because we would all like to believe[br]that the stuff that we write down on paper

0:02:04.733,0:02:07.525
can change the actual world[br]in which we're actually living,

0:02:07.549,0:02:09.938
which is why my third book[br]is called "Paper Towns".

0:02:09.962,0:02:14.501
But what interests me ultimately more[br]than the medium in which this happened,

0:02:14.525,0:02:16.906
is the phenomenon itself.

0:02:17.521,0:02:21.598
It's easy enough to say that the world[br]shapes our maps of the world, right?

0:02:21.622,0:02:26.049
Like the overall shape of the world[br]is obviously going to affect our maps.

0:02:26.503,0:02:29.818
But what I find a lot more[br]interesting is the way

0:02:29.842,0:02:33.383
that the manner in which we map[br]the world changes the world.

0:02:33.872,0:02:38.563
Because the world would truly be[br]a different place if North were down.

0:02:38.587,0:02:40.765
And the world would be[br]a truly different place

0:02:40.789,0:02:43.808
if Alaska and Russia weren't[br]on opposite sides of the map.

0:02:43.832,0:02:45.758
And the world would be a different place

0:02:45.782,0:02:48.942
if we projected Europe[br]to show it in its actual size.

0:02:49.930,0:02:54.083
The world is changed[br]by our maps of the world.

0:02:54.410,0:02:59.265
The way that we choose -- sort of,[br]our personal cartographic enterprise,

0:02:59.289,0:03:01.924
also shapes the map of our lives,

0:03:01.948,0:03:04.066
and that in turn shapes our lives.

0:03:04.090,0:03:08.745
I believe that what we map[br]changes the life we lead.

0:03:08.769,0:03:13.183
And I don't mean that in some, like,[br]secret-y Oprah's Angels network, like,

0:03:13.207,0:03:16.177
you-can-think-your-way-[br]out-of-cancer sense.

0:03:16.201,0:03:22.734
But I do believe that while maps don't[br]show you where you will go in your life,

0:03:22.758,0:03:24.749
they show you where you might go.

0:03:24.773,0:03:29.246
You very rarely go to a place[br]that isn't on your personal map.

0:03:29.853,0:03:32.968
So I was a really terrible student[br]when I was a kid.

0:03:32.992,0:03:35.664
My GPA was consistently in the low 2s.

0:03:36.535,0:03:39.296
And I think the reason that I was[br]such a terrible student

0:03:39.320,0:03:42.475
is that I felt like education[br]was just a series of hurdles

0:03:42.499,0:03:44.656
that had been erected before me,

0:03:44.680,0:03:48.307
and I had to jump over[br]in order to achieve adulthood.

0:03:48.331,0:03:50.815
And I didn't really want[br]to jump over these hurdles,

0:03:50.839,0:03:53.773
because they seemed completely[br]arbitrary, so I often wouldn't,

0:03:53.797,0:03:55.874
and then people would[br]threaten me, you know,

0:03:55.898,0:03:58.827
they'd threaten me with this[br]"going on [my] permanent record,"

0:03:58.851,0:04:01.060
or "You'll never get a good job."

0:04:01.084,0:04:02.563
I didn't want a good job!

0:04:03.003,0:04:05.599
As far as I could tell at eleven[br]or twelve years old,

0:04:05.623,0:04:08.775
like, people with good jobs woke up[br]very early in the morning,

0:04:08.799,0:04:10.804
(Laughter)

0:04:10.828,0:04:15.400
and the men who had good jobs,[br]one of the first things they did

0:04:15.424,0:04:19.347
was tie a strangulation item[br]of clothing around their necks.

0:04:19.924,0:04:21.972
They literally put nooses on themselves,

0:04:21.996,0:04:24.722
and then they went off to their jobs,[br]whatever they were.

0:04:25.455,0:04:27.485
That's not a recipe for a happy life.

0:04:27.918,0:04:31.837
These people -- in my, symbol-obsessed,[br]twelve year-old imagination --

0:04:31.861,0:04:34.420
these people who are strangling themselves

0:04:34.444,0:04:36.800
as one of the first things[br]they do each morning,

0:04:36.824,0:04:38.584
they can't possibly be happy.

0:04:38.608,0:04:41.020
Why would I want to jump[br]over all of these hurdles

0:04:41.044,0:04:43.044
and have that be the end?

0:04:43.068,0:04:44.235
That's a terrible end!

0:04:45.454,0:04:48.632
And then, when I was in tenth grade,[br]I went to this school,

0:04:48.656,0:04:51.418
Indian Springs School,[br]a small boarding school,

0:04:51.442,0:04:53.252
outside of Birmingham, Alabama.

0:04:53.276,0:04:56.791
And all at once I became a learner.

0:04:56.815,0:04:59.011
And I became a learner,[br]because I found myself

0:04:59.035,0:05:01.059
in a community of learners.

0:05:01.083,0:05:02.846
I found myself surrounded by people

0:05:02.870,0:05:06.100
who celebrated intellectualism[br]and engagement,

0:05:06.124,0:05:10.297
and who thought that my ironic[br]oh-so-cool disengagement

0:05:10.321,0:05:12.175
wasn't clever, or funny,

0:05:12.199,0:05:15.961
but, like, it was a simple[br]and unspectacular response

0:05:15.985,0:05:18.259
to very complicated[br]and compelling problems.

0:05:18.692,0:05:21.185
And so I started to learn,[br]because learning was cool.

0:05:21.209,0:05:24.512
I learned that some infinite sets[br]are bigger than other infinite sets,

0:05:24.536,0:05:28.630
and I learned that iambic pentameter is[br]and why it sounds so good to human ears.

0:05:28.654,0:05:32.096
I learned that the Civil War[br]was a nationalizing conflict,

0:05:32.120,0:05:33.287
I learned some physics,

0:05:33.311,0:05:36.467
I learned that correlation shouldn't be[br]confused with causation --

0:05:36.491,0:05:38.284
all of these things, by the way,

0:05:38.308,0:05:42.560
enriched my life[br]on a literally daily basis.

0:05:42.584,0:05:46.170
And it's true that I don't use[br]most of them for my "job,"

0:05:46.194,0:05:48.108
but that's not what it's about for me.

0:05:48.132,0:05:50.083
It's about cartography.

0:05:50.107,0:05:52.368
What is the process of cartography?

0:05:52.392,0:05:55.553
It's, you know, sailing[br]upon some land, and thinking,

0:05:55.577,0:05:57.678
"I think I'll draw that bit of land,"

0:05:57.702,0:06:01.025
and then wondering, "Maybe there's[br]some more land to draw."

0:06:01.049,0:06:03.256
And that's when learning[br]really began for me.

0:06:03.280,0:06:05.916
It's true that I had teachers[br]that didn't give up on me,

0:06:05.940,0:06:08.258
and I was very fortunate[br]to have those teachers,

0:06:08.282,0:06:12.456
because I often gave them cause to think[br]there was no reason to invest in me.

0:06:12.924,0:06:16.030
But a lot of the learning[br]that I did in high school

0:06:16.054,0:06:19.233
wasn't about what happened[br]inside the classroom,

0:06:19.257,0:06:21.715
it was about what happened[br]outside of the classroom.

0:06:21.739,0:06:23.096
For instance, I can tell you

0:06:23.120,0:06:25.953
that "There's a certain Slant of light,[br]Winter Afternoons --

0:06:25.977,0:06:28.430
That oppresses, like the Heft[br]Of Cathedral Tunes --"

0:06:28.454,0:06:31.770
not because I memorized[br]Emily Dickinson in school

0:06:31.794,0:06:33.070
when I was in high school,

0:06:33.094,0:06:35.689
but because there was a girl[br]when I was in high school,

0:06:35.713,0:06:38.200
and her name was Amanda,[br]and I had a crush on her,

0:06:38.224,0:06:40.598
and she liked Emily Dickinson poetry.

0:06:40.622,0:06:43.306
The reason I can tell you[br]what opportunity cost is,

0:06:43.330,0:06:46.982
is because one day when I was playing[br]Super Mario Kart on my couch,

0:06:47.006,0:06:48.878
my friend Emmet walked in, and he said,

0:06:48.902,0:06:51.260
"How long have you been playing[br]Super Mario Kart?"

0:06:51.284,0:06:54.754
And I said, "I don't know,[br]like, six hours?" and he said,

0:06:54.778,0:06:58.146
"Do you realize that if you'd worked[br]at Baskin-Robbins those six hours,

0:06:58.170,0:07:00.428
you could have made 30 dollars,[br]so in some ways,

0:07:00.452,0:07:03.372
you just paid thirty dollars[br]to play Super Mario Kart."

0:07:03.396,0:07:05.654
And I was, like, "I'll take that deal."

0:07:05.678,0:07:08.027
(Laughter)

0:07:08.051,0:07:11.976
But I learned what opportunity cost is.

0:07:13.079,0:07:16.761
And along the way, the map[br]of my life got better.

0:07:16.785,0:07:19.642
It got bigger; it contained more places.

0:07:19.666,0:07:21.631
There were more things that might happen,

0:07:21.655,0:07:23.614
more futures I might have.

0:07:24.662,0:07:27.949
It wasn't a formal, organized[br]learning process,

0:07:27.973,0:07:29.704
and I'm happy to admit that.

0:07:29.728,0:07:32.860
It was spotty, it was inconsistent,[br]there was a lot I didn't know.

0:07:32.884,0:07:35.178
I might know, you know, Cantor's idea

0:07:35.202,0:07:38.035
that some infinite sets are larger[br]than other infinite sets,

0:07:38.059,0:07:40.956
but I didn't really understand[br]the calculus behind that idea.

0:07:40.980,0:07:42.995
I might know the idea of opportunity cost,

0:07:43.019,0:07:45.329
but I didn't know the law[br]of diminishing returns.

0:07:45.353,0:07:48.326
But the great thing about imagining[br]learning as cartography,

0:07:48.350,0:07:50.438
instead of imagining it[br]as arbitrary hurdles

0:07:50.462,0:07:51.820
that you have to jump over,

0:07:51.844,0:07:55.316
is that you see a bit of coastline,[br]and that makes you want to see more.

0:07:55.340,0:07:57.777
And so now I do know[br]at least some of the calculus

0:07:57.801,0:07:59.533
that underlies all of that stuff.

0:07:59.557,0:08:01.327
So, I had one learning community

0:08:01.351,0:08:03.965
in high school, then I went[br]to another for college,

0:08:03.989,0:08:05.289
and then I went to another,

0:08:05.313,0:08:07.909
when I started working[br]at a magazine called "Booklist,"

0:08:07.933,0:08:11.286
where I was an assistant, surrounded[br]by astonishingly well-read people.

0:08:11.310,0:08:12.836
And then I wrote a book.

0:08:12.860,0:08:15.060
And like all authors dream of doing,

0:08:15.084,0:08:17.013
I promptly quit my job.

0:08:17.037,0:08:18.626
(Laughter)

0:08:18.650,0:08:20.626
And for the first time since high school,

0:08:20.650,0:08:25.253
I found myself without a learning[br]community, and it was miserable.

0:08:25.277,0:08:26.711
I hated it.

0:08:26.735,0:08:30.109
I read many, many books[br]during this two-year period.

0:08:30.133,0:08:31.896
I read books about Stalin,

0:08:31.920,0:08:35.411
and books about how the Uzbek people[br]came to identify as Muslims,

0:08:35.435,0:08:37.785
and I read books about[br]how to make atomic bombs,

0:08:37.809,0:08:40.958
but it just felt like I was[br]creating my own hurdles,

0:08:40.982,0:08:44.338
and then jumping over them myself,[br]instead of feeling the excitement

0:08:44.362,0:08:48.011
of being part of a community of learners,[br]a community of people

0:08:48.035,0:08:51.018
who are engaged together[br]in the cartographic enterprise

0:08:51.042,0:08:54.598
of trying to better understand[br]and map the world around us.

0:08:54.979,0:08:58.068
And then, in 2006, I met that guy.

0:08:58.092,0:08:59.243
His name is Ze Frank.

0:08:59.267,0:09:01.904
I didn't actually meet him,[br]just on the Internet.

0:09:02.455,0:09:07.458
Ze Frank was running, at the time,[br]a show called "The Show with Ze Frank,"

0:09:07.482,0:09:08.956
and I discovered the show,

0:09:08.980,0:09:12.214
and that was my way back[br]into being a community learner again.

0:09:12.238,0:09:14.393
Here's Ze talking about Las Vegas:

0:09:15.823,0:09:19.342
(Video) Ze Frank: Las Vegas was built[br]in the middle of a huge, hot desert.

0:09:19.366,0:09:22.062
Almost everything here was brought[br]from somewhere else --

0:09:22.086,0:09:24.262
the sort of rocks, the trees,[br]the waterfalls.

0:09:24.286,0:09:27.295
These fish are almost as out of place[br]as my pig that flew.

0:09:27.319,0:09:30.185
Contrasted to the scorching desert[br]that surrounds this place,

0:09:30.209,0:09:31.363
so are these people.

0:09:31.387,0:09:35.318
Things from all over the world have been[br]rebuilt here, away from their histories,

0:09:35.342,0:09:38.090
and away from the people[br]that experience them differently.

0:09:38.114,0:09:41.294
Sometimes improvements were made --[br]even the Sphinx got a nose job.

0:09:41.318,0:09:44.209
Here, there's no reason to feel[br]like you're missing anything.

0:09:44.233,0:09:47.203
This New York means the same to me[br]as it does to everyone else.

0:09:47.227,0:09:50.784
Everything is out of context, and that[br]means context allows for everything:

0:09:50.808,0:09:52.738
Self Parking, Events Center, Shark Reef.

0:09:52.762,0:09:56.360
This fabrication of place could be one[br]of the world's greatest achievements,

0:09:56.384,0:09:58.405
because no one belongs here;[br]everyone does.

0:09:58.429,0:10:01.453
As I walked around this morning,[br]I noticed most of the buildings

0:10:01.477,0:10:04.217
were huge mirrors reflecting[br]the sun back into the desert.

0:10:04.241,0:10:05.402
But unlike most mirrors,

0:10:05.426,0:10:08.801
which present you with an outside view[br]of yourself embedded in a place,

0:10:08.825,0:10:10.270
these mirrors come back empty.

0:10:10.294,0:10:12.473
John Green: Makes me[br]nostalgic for the days

0:10:12.497,0:10:14.679
when you could see[br]the pixels in online video.

0:10:14.703,0:10:15.710
(Laughter)

0:10:15.734,0:10:19.820
Ze isn't just a great public intellectual,[br]he's also a brilliant community builder,

0:10:19.844,0:10:22.705
and the community of people[br]that built up around these videos

0:10:22.729,0:10:24.741
was in many ways a community of learners.

0:10:24.765,0:10:28.289
So we played Ze Frank at chess[br]collaboratively, and we beat him.

0:10:28.313,0:10:32.726
We organized ourselves to take a young man[br]on a road trip across the United States.

0:10:32.750,0:10:34.701
We turned the Earth into a sandwich,

0:10:34.725,0:10:38.434
by having one person hold a piece of bread[br]at one point on the Earth,

0:10:38.458,0:10:40.587
and on the exact opposite[br]point of the Earth,

0:10:40.611,0:10:43.123
have another person[br]holding a piece of bread.

0:10:43.593,0:10:49.601
I realize that these are silly ideas,[br]but they are also "learny" ideas,

0:10:49.625,0:10:51.547
and that was what was so exciting to me,

0:10:51.571,0:10:55.161
and if you go online, you can find[br]communities like this all over the place.

0:10:55.185,0:10:57.066
Follow the calculus tag on Tumblr,

0:10:57.090,0:10:59.741
and yes, you will see people[br]complaining about calculus,

0:10:59.765,0:11:02.435
but you'll also see people[br]re-blogging those complaints,

0:11:02.459,0:11:05.643
making the argument that calculus[br]is interesting and beautiful,

0:11:05.667,0:11:09.620
and here's a way in to thinking about[br]the problem that you find unsolvable.

0:11:09.644,0:11:12.240
You can go to places like Reddit,[br]and find sub-Reddits,

0:11:12.264,0:11:14.882
like "Ask a Historian" or "Ask Science,"

0:11:14.906,0:11:18.137
where you can ask people[br]who are in these fields

0:11:18.161,0:11:19.629
a wide range of questions,

0:11:19.653,0:11:21.994
from very serious ones to very silly ones.

0:11:22.018,0:11:24.950
But to me, the most interesting[br]communities of learners

0:11:24.974,0:11:27.837
that are growing up on the Internet[br]right now are on YouTube,

0:11:27.861,0:11:29.457
and admittedly, I am biased.

0:11:29.481,0:11:34.015
But I think in a lot of ways,[br]the YouTube page resembles a classroom.

0:11:34.039,0:11:35.863
Look for instance at "Minute Physics,"

0:11:35.887,0:11:38.680
a guy who's teaching[br]the world about physics:

0:11:38.704,0:11:40.205
(Video) Let's cut to the chase.

0:11:40.229,0:11:43.587
As of July 4, 2012, the Higgs boson[br]is the last fundamental piece

0:11:43.611,0:11:47.091
of the standard model of particle physics[br]to be discovered experimentally.

0:11:47.115,0:11:49.169
But, you might ask,[br]why was the Higgs boson

0:11:49.193,0:11:50.679
included in the standard model,

0:11:50.703,0:11:53.973
alongside well-known particles[br]like electrons and photons and quarks,

0:11:53.997,0:11:56.517
if it hadn't been discovered[br]back then in the 1970s?

0:11:56.541,0:11:58.541
Good question. There are two main reasons.

0:11:58.565,0:12:01.824
First, just like the electron[br]is an excitation in the electron field,

0:12:01.848,0:12:04.642
the Higgs boson is simply a particle[br]which is an excitation

0:12:04.666,0:12:06.649
of the everywhere-permeating Higgs field.

0:12:06.673,0:12:08.917
The Higgs field in turn[br]plays an integral role

0:12:08.941,0:12:10.870
in our model for the weak nuclear force.

0:12:10.894,0:12:14.054
In particular, the Higgs field[br]helps explain why it's so weak.

0:12:14.078,0:12:16.142
We'll talk more about this[br]in a later video,

0:12:16.166,0:12:20.000
but even though weak nuclear theory was[br]confirmed in the 1980s, in the equations,

0:12:20.024,0:12:23.736
the Higgs field is so inextricably jumbled[br]with the weak force, that until now

0:12:23.760,0:12:26.927
we've been unable to confirm[br]its actual and independent existence.

0:12:26.951,0:12:28.726
JG: Or here's a video that I made

0:12:28.750,0:12:31.959
as part of my show "Crash Course,"[br]talking about World War I:

0:12:31.983,0:12:35.354
(Video) The immediate cause was[br]of course the assassination in Sarajevo

0:12:35.378,0:12:37.389
of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand,

0:12:37.413,0:12:41.839
on June 28, 1914, by a Bosnian-Serb[br]nationalist named Gavrilo Princip.

0:12:41.863,0:12:43.305
Quick aside: It's worth noting

0:12:43.329,0:12:45.821
that the first big war[br]of the twentieth century began

0:12:45.845,0:12:47.066
with an act of terrorism.

0:12:47.090,0:12:49.421
So Franz Ferdinand[br]wasn't particularly well-liked

0:12:49.445,0:12:53.079
by his uncle, the emperor Franz Joseph --[br]now that is a mustache!

0:12:53.103,0:12:56.878
But even so, the assassination led Austria[br]to issue an ultimatum to Serbia,

0:12:56.902,0:13:00.114
whereupon Serbia accepted some,[br]but not all, of Austria's demands,

0:13:00.138,0:13:02.698
leading Austria to declare[br]war against Serbia.

0:13:02.722,0:13:06.103
And then Russia, due to its alliance[br]with the Serbs, mobilized its army.

0:13:06.127,0:13:08.437
Germany, because it had[br]an alliance with Austria,

0:13:08.461,0:13:09.958
told Russia to stop mobilizing,

0:13:09.982,0:13:13.241
which Russia failed to do, so then Germany[br]mobilized its own army,

0:13:13.265,0:13:16.334
declared war on Russia,[br]cemented an alliance with the Ottomans,

0:13:16.358,0:13:19.937
and then declared war on France,[br]because, you know, France.

0:13:19.961,0:13:23.414
(Laughter)

0:13:23.438,0:13:25.682
And it's not just physics[br]and world history

0:13:25.706,0:13:28.838
that people are choosing[br]to learn through YouTube.

0:13:28.862,0:13:31.240
Here's a video about abstract mathematics.

0:13:33.914,0:13:36.598
(Video) So you're me, and you're[br]in math class yet again,

0:13:36.622,0:13:38.624
because they make you go every single day.

0:13:38.648,0:13:41.915
And you're learning about, I don't know,[br]the sums of infinite series.

0:13:41.939,0:13:43.565
That's a high school topic, right?

0:13:43.589,0:13:47.505
Which is odd, because it's a cool topic,[br]but they somehow manage to ruin it anyway.

0:13:47.529,0:13:50.687
So I guess that's why they allow[br]infinite series in the curriculum.

0:13:50.711,0:13:53.863
So, in a quite understandable need[br]for distraction, you're doodling

0:13:53.887,0:13:56.819
and thinking more about what[br]the plural of "series" should be

0:13:56.843,0:14:00.485
than about the topic at hand: "serieses,"[br]"seriese," "seriesen," and "serii?"

0:14:00.509,0:14:03.808
Or is it that the singular should be[br]changed: one "serie," or "serum,"

0:14:03.832,0:14:06.276
just like the singular of "sheep"[br]should be "shoop."

0:14:06.300,0:14:07.793
But the whole concept of things

0:14:07.817,0:14:11.278
like 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 and so on[br]approaches one, is useful if, say,

0:14:11.302,0:14:13.065
you want to draw a line of elephants,

0:14:13.089,0:14:14.905
each holding the tail of the next one:

0:14:14.929,0:14:18.097
normal elephant, young elephant,[br]baby elephant, dog-sized elephant,

0:14:18.121,0:14:21.092
puppy-sized elephant, all the way[br]down to Mr. Tusks and beyond.

0:14:21.116,0:14:22.897
Which is at least a tiny bit awesome,

0:14:22.921,0:14:25.868
because you can get an infinite number[br]of elephants in a line,

0:14:25.892,0:14:28.345
and still have it fit across[br]a single notebook page.

0:14:28.369,0:14:30.991
JG: And lastly, here's Destin,[br]from "Smarter Every Day,"

0:14:31.015,0:14:33.424
talking about the conservation[br]of angular momentum,

0:14:33.448,0:14:34.925
and, since it's YouTube, cats:

0:14:34.949,0:14:38.060
(Video) Hey, it's me, Destin.[br]Welcome back to "Smarter Every Day."

0:14:38.084,0:14:41.426
So you've probably observed that cats[br]almost always land on their feet.

0:14:41.450,0:14:43.410
Today's question is: why?

0:14:43.434,0:14:46.190
Like most simple questions,[br]there's a very complex answer.

0:14:46.214,0:14:48.224
For instance, let me reword this question:

0:14:48.248,0:14:53.443
How does a cat go from feet-up[br]to feet-down in a falling reference frame,

0:14:53.467,0:14:56.432
without violating the conservation[br]of angular momentum?

0:14:56.456,0:14:57.467
(Laughter)

0:14:57.491,0:15:00.968
JG: So, here's something all four[br]of these videos have in common:

0:15:01.397,0:15:04.516
They all have more than half[br]a million views on YouTube.

0:15:04.540,0:15:07.609
And those are people watching[br]not in classrooms,

0:15:07.633,0:15:11.274
but because they are part[br]of the communities of learning

0:15:11.298,0:15:13.313
that are being set up by these channels.

0:15:13.686,0:15:16.417
And I said earlier that YouTube[br]is like a classroom to me,

0:15:16.441,0:15:19.124
and in many ways it is,[br]because here is the instructor --

0:15:19.148,0:15:22.166
it's like the old-fashioned classroom:[br]here's the instructor,

0:15:22.190,0:15:24.513
and then beneath the instructor[br]are the students,

0:15:24.537,0:15:26.608
and they're all having a conversation.

0:15:26.632,0:15:30.661
And I know that YouTube comments[br]have a very bad reputation

0:15:30.685,0:15:32.080
in the world of the Internet,

0:15:32.104,0:15:35.175
but in fact, if you go on comments[br]for these channels,

0:15:35.199,0:15:38.354
what you'll find is people engaging[br]the subject matter,

0:15:38.378,0:15:42.625
asking difficult, complicated questions[br]that are about the subject matter,

0:15:42.649,0:15:45.387
and then other people[br]answering those questions.

0:15:45.411,0:15:50.245
And because the YouTube page is set up so[br]that the page in which I'm talking to you

0:15:50.269,0:15:54.112
is on the exact -- the place where I'm[br]talking to you is on the exact same page

0:15:54.136,0:15:55.294
as your comments,

0:15:55.318,0:16:00.950
you are participating in a live and real[br]and active way in the conversation.

0:16:00.974,0:16:04.545
And because I'm in comments usually,[br]I get to participate with you.

0:16:04.569,0:16:07.023
And you find this[br]whether it's world history,

0:16:07.047,0:16:10.109
or mathematics, or science,[br]or whatever it is.

0:16:10.133,0:16:15.751
You also see young people using the tools[br]and the sort of genres of the Internet

0:16:15.775,0:16:18.852
in order to create places[br]for intellectual engagement,

0:16:18.876,0:16:20.476
instead of the ironic detachment

0:16:20.500,0:16:25.197
that maybe most of us associate with memes[br]and other Internet conventions --

0:16:25.221,0:16:27.745
you know, "Got bored. Invented calculus."

0:16:27.769,0:16:31.220
Or, here's Honey Boo Boo[br]criticizing industrial capitalism:

0:16:31.244,0:16:33.910
["Liberal capitalism is not at all[br]the Good of humanity.

0:16:33.934,0:16:37.493
Quite the contrary; it is the vehicle[br]of savage, destructive nihilism."]

0:16:37.517,0:16:39.801
In case you can't see[br]what she says ... yeah.

0:16:40.325,0:16:43.982
I really believe that these spaces,

0:16:44.006,0:16:49.039
these communities, have become[br]for a new generation of learners,

0:16:49.063,0:16:53.428
the kind of communities,[br]the kind of cartographic communities

0:16:53.452,0:16:57.995
that I had when I was in high school,[br]and then again when I was in college.

0:16:58.019,0:17:01.288
And as an adult, re-finding[br]these communities

0:17:01.312,0:17:04.622
has re-introduced me[br]to a community of learners,

0:17:04.646,0:17:09.544
and has encouraged me to continue[br]to be a learner even in my adulthood,

0:17:09.568,0:17:14.279
so that I no longer feel like learning[br]is something reserved for the young.

0:17:14.303,0:17:16.526
Vi Hart and "Minute Physics" introduced me

0:17:16.550,0:17:19.350
to all kinds of things[br]that I didn't know before.

0:17:19.754,0:17:21.433
And I know that we all hearken back

0:17:21.457,0:17:24.543
to the days of the Parisian salon[br]in the Enlightenment,

0:17:24.567,0:17:26.596
or to the Algonquin Round Table, and wish,

0:17:26.620,0:17:28.745
"Oh, I wish I could have been[br]a part of that,

0:17:28.769,0:17:31.614
I wish I could have laughed[br]at Dorothy Parker's jokes."

0:17:31.638,0:17:36.416
But I'm here to tell you that these places[br]exist, they still exist.

0:17:36.440,0:17:40.969
They exist in corners of the Internet,[br]where old men fear to tread.

0:17:40.993,0:17:41.996
(Laughter)

0:17:42.020,0:17:48.845
And I truly, truly believe that when[br]we invented Agloe, New York, in the 1960s,

0:17:48.869,0:17:52.667
when we made Agloe real,[br]we were just getting started.

0:17:53.246,0:17:54.398
Thank you.

0:17:54.422,0:17:57.003
(Applause)