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Hi.

2
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I'd like to start by asking you all
to go to your happy place, please.

3
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Yes, your happy place,

4
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I know you've got one even if it's fake.

5
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(Laughter)

6
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OK, so, comfortable?

7
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Good.

8
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Now I'd like to you to mentally answer
the following questions.

9
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Is there any strip lighting
in your happy place?

10
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Any plastic tables?

11
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Polyester flooring?

12
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Mobile phones?

13
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No?

14
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You do surprise me.

15
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I think we all know that our happy place

16
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is meant to be
somewhere natural, outdoors -

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on a beach, fireside.

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We'll be reading or eating or knitting.

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And we're surrounded
by natural light and organic elements.

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Even ink and paper invokes more happiness

21
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than, well, daily reality.

22
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So it seems fair to say
that natural things make us happy.

23
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And happiness is a great motivator;
we strive for happiness.

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Perhaps that's why
we're always redesigning everything,

25
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in the hopes that our solutions
might feel more natural.

26
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So let's start there -

27
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with the idea that good design
should feel natural.

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Your phone is not very natural.

29
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And you probably think
you're addicted to your phone,

30
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but you're really not.

31
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We're not addicted to devices,

32
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we're addicted to the information
that flows through them.

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I wonder how long you would be happy
in your happy place

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without any information
from the outside world.

35
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Your phone is a conduit
to that information

36
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and before that,
we used personal computers.

37
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And before that,
we used telegraph wires and newspapers.

38
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Innovations that shrank the world.

39
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We are a little bit addicted there.

40
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How you feel about that is up to you.

41
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I'm interested in how we access
that information,

42
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how we experience it.

43
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We're moving from a time
of static information,

44
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held in books and libraries and bus stops,

45
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through a period of digital information,

46
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towards a period of fluid information,

47
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where your children will expect to be able
to access anything, anywhere at any time,

48
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from quantum physics
to medieval viticulture,

49
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from gender theory to tomorrow's weather,

50
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just like switching on a light bulb -

51
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Imagine that.

52
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It's the dawn of the light bulb,
about 1880.

53
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At that time,
electricity was considered dangerous.

54
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And mystical.

55
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And misunderstood.

56
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Information
is your children's electricity.

57
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Only they probably won't value it
very much

58
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in exactly the same way

59
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as you probably don't value
being able to switch on a light bulb.

60
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So, a lot of implications there.

61
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But let's stick with our principle
that humans love information.

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Humans also like simple tools.

63
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Your phone is not a very simple tool.

64
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A fork is a simple tool.

65
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(Laughter)

66
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I hope they're not planning
to give us sporks for lunch

67
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because we like
knives and spoons and forks

68
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And we don't like them made of plastic,

69
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in the same way I don't really like
my phone very much -

70
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it's not how I want
to experience information.

71
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I think there are better solutions
than a world mediated by screens.

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The Internet of things doesn't just mean
your phone talking to your fridge,

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it means everyday objects
that can behave like apps.

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Not just tweet
that your cheese is getting old.

75
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I don't hate screens, but I don't feel -

76
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and I don't think any of us feel that good

77
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about how much time
we spend slouched over them.

78
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Fortunately,

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the big tech companies seem to agree.

80
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They're actually heavily invested
in touch and speech and gesture,

81
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and also in senses -

82
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things that can turn
dumb objects, like cups,

83
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and imbue them with the magic
of the Internet,

84
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potentially turning this digital cloud

85
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into something we might touch and move.

86
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Before smart phones
this was actually the future,

87
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and it had names like
ubiquitous computing,

88
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and tangible media.

89
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You know, things you can feel.

90
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We're not all 25 after all.

91
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We need physical digital solutions

92
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for the problems
of ever decreasing font sizes

93
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and tiny fiddly keyboards.

94
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The parents in crisis over screen time

95
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need physical digital toys
teaching their kids to read,

96
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as well as family-safe app stores.

97
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And I think, actually,
that's already really happening.

98
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Reality is richer than screens.

99
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I mean, you're all here,
at the Opera House.

100
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And I think, intuitively, we know
that that's a better experience

101
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than watching on the live stream.

102
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(Laughter)

103
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But, why?

104
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They can see everything I do,
they can hear everything I say

105
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and I don't smell.

106
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I am fascinated by the science of this.

107
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I think it has something to do
with depth perception.

108
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Like, the screen is turning off
the bit of my brain

109
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telling me how hard
I'd have to throw a hackey sack

110
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to hit this gentleman in the fourth row.

111
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But I don't know.

112
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It's not very TEDx, really, is it,
to stand up here on the stage

113
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telling you all the things I don't know.

114
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But these are the things
that fascinate us

115
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and drive our creative practice.

116
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For example, I love books.

117
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For me they are time machines -
atoms and molecules bound in space,

118
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from the moment of their creation
to the moment of my experience.

119
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But frankly,

120
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the content's identical on my phone.

121
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So what makes this
a richer experience than a screen?

122
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I mean, scientifically.

123
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We need screens, of course.

124
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I'm going to show film,
I need the enormous screen.

125
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But there's more than you can do
with these magic boxes.

126
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Your phone is not
the Internet's door bitch.

127
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(Laughter)

128
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We can build things -
physical things,

129
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using physics and pixels,

130
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that can integrate the Internet
into the world around us.

131
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And I'm going to show you
a few examples of those.

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A while ago, I got to work
with a design agency, Berg,

133
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on an exploration of what the Internet
without screens might actually look like.

134
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And they showed us a range ways

135
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that light can work with simple senses
and physical objects

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to really bring the Internet to life,
to make it tangible.

137
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Like this wonderfully mechanical
YouTube player.

138
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And this was an inspiration to me.

139
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Next I worked with
the Japanese agency, AQ,

140
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on a research project into mental health.

141
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We wanted to create an object

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that could capture the subjective data
around mood swings

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that's so essential to diagnosis.

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This object captures your touch,

145
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so you might press it
very hard if you're angry,

146
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or stroke it if you're calm.

147
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It's like a digital emoji stick.

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And then you might revisit
those moments later,

149
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and add context to them online.

150
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Most of all,

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we wanted to create
an intimate, beautiful thing

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that could live in your pocket

153
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and be loved.

154
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The binoculars are actually
a birthday present

155
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for the Sydney Opera House's
40th anniversary.

156
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Our friends at Tellart in Boston
brought over a pair of street binoculars,

157
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the kind you might find
on the Empire State Building,

158
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and they fitted them with 360-degree views

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of other iconic world heritage sights -

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(Laughter)

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using Street View.

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And then we stuck them under the steps.

163
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So, they became this very physical,
simple re-appropriation,

164
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or like a portal to these other icons.

165
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So you might see Versailles
or Shackleton's Hut.

166
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Basically, it's virtual
reality circa 1955.

167
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(Laughter)

168
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The Cube started off
as an incredibly geeky

169
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code and video project,

170
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but it ended up being about what happens
when you put a phone in a box.

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A lot of our projects start off this way,

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as cardboard and sellotape.

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We made a web version of this,
it's a bit complicated

174
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and a touch screen version for phones,

175
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but what really stunned us
was how transformative it was.

176
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When we put the phone in the box.

177
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And then use the sensors on the phone

178
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to control the cube on the screen.

179
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We now call this Hide the tech.

180
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And it made it magical and emotional.

181
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In our office we use
hacky sacks to exchange URLs.

182
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This is incredibly simple,
it's like your Opal card.

183
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You basically put a website
on the little chip in here,

184
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and then you do this and ... bosh! -

185
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the website appears on your phone.

186
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It's about 10 cents.

187
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Treehugger is a project
that we're working on

188
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with Grumpy Sailor and Finch,
here in Sydney.

189
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And I'm very excited
about what might happen

190
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when you pull the phones apart
and you put the bits into trees,

191
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and that my children
might have an opportunity

192
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to visit an enchanted forest
guided by a magic wand,

193
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where they could talk to digital fairies
and ask them questions,

194
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and be asked questions in return.

195
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As you can see,

196
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we're at the cardboard stage
with this one.

197
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(Laughter)

198
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But I'm very excited

199
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by the possibility of getting kids
back outside without screens,

200
00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,680
but with all the powerful magic
of the Internet at their fingertips.

201
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And we hope to have something like this
working by the end of the year.

202
00:10:29,634 --> 00:10:32,301
So to make that all a bit more physical,

203
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we have a little lunchtime demo.

204
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Downstairs are a number of teddy bears

205
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who have lost
their surprisingly famous owners.

206
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They're all sitting
down by the Curiosity Coffee

207
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in the lobby, down there -
I don't know which one it's called -

208
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that one.

209
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(Laughter)

210
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And what we'd like you to do
is get together

211
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in a group,
maybe with people you don't know,

212
00:11:01,999 --> 00:11:05,021
get a bear and take him
for a walk around the concert hall

213
00:11:05,046 --> 00:11:08,102
and as you walk around,
the bear will tell you its life story.

214
00:11:08,266 --> 00:11:10,313
And we'd like you to gain clues from this,

215
00:11:10,361 --> 00:11:12,450
and work out who their owner might be.

216
00:11:12,458 --> 00:11:15,100
And then we'd like you
to bring them back, please.

217
00:11:15,125 --> 00:11:16,140
(Laughter)

218
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With an answer.

219
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I think there are even prizes.

220
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We are calling it

221
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TEDdyx

222
00:11:23,879 --> 00:11:26,593
(Laughter)

223
00:11:27,413 --> 00:11:29,093
So let's recap.

224
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Humans like natural solutions.

225
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:33,520
Humans love information.

226
00:11:33,560 --> 00:11:35,840
Humans need simple tools.

227
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These principles should underpin
how we design for the future,

228
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not just for the Internet.

229
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You may feel uncomfortable about the age
of information that we're moving into.

230
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You may feel challenged,
rather than simply excited.

231
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Guess what? Me too.

232
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It's a really extraordinary period
of human history.

233
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We are the people
that actually build our world,

234
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there are no artificial intelligences...

235
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yet.

236
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(Laughter)

237
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It's us - designers, architects,
artists, engineers.

238
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And if we challenge ourselves,

239
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I think that actually
we can have a happy place

240
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filled with the information we love,

241
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that feels as natural and as simple
as switching on a light bulb.

242
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And although it may seem inevitable,

243
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that what the public wants
is watches and websites and widgets,

244
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maybe we could give a bit of thought
to cork and light and hacky sacks.

245
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Thank you very much.

246
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(Applause)