[Script Info]
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[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:01.43,0:00:04.17,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The most fascinating thing about science is the ideas,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.17,0:00:07.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's the lifting of the human spirit.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.12,0:00:17.54,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We can justify what we do by the technological spinoffs,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:17.54,0:00:24.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's true General Relativity is esoteric, but you couldn't use your GPS machine without it.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:24.09,0:00:27.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Turns out the effects of General Relativity into satellites have to be incorporated,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:27.58,0:00:32.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if not, within a second you'd lose all knowledge of where you were on Earth with the GPS satellites, so
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.30,0:00:37.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's true that even the most esoteric ideas sometimes have technological spinoffs,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.26,0:00:45.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I think it is misplaced to argue for doing fundamental research just because of these technological spinoffs.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.71,0:00:50.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The questions themselves have to be worth asking to be able to spend the money on it,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:50.50,0:00:56.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but having said that, it is absolutely true that our current standard of living
Dialogue: 0,0:00:56.83,0:01:02.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,vitally depends on the curiosity-driven research that was done a generation or two before.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:10.23,0:01:14.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Discoveries come along that change everything when you didn't expect it,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.72,0:01:17.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they come along because you didn't know what you were looking for,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.49,0:01:21.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and if we stop investing in fundamental research now,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:21.26,0:01:25.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it is true that our standard of living a generation from now, our children,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:25.67,0:01:28.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the legacy we leave our children, will be much poorer,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.81,0:01:32.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in fact, it's one of the reasons why I argue that not just to live off selling natural resources,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.95,0:01:36.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but to think about the future, about doing fundamental research,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.03,0:01:43.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because the countries that are going to be able to compete in the XXI Century are those that are best at technology and ideas, and research.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.43,0:01:48.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So there is of course, not just this altruistic, idealistic notion of understanding the Universe,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.69,0:01:54.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if we want to address the challenges of the XXI Century, from energy and climate change,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:54.59,0:01:57.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we need to invest in fundamental research now.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.04,0:02:01.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm always worried about predictions about the future,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:01.79,0:02:05.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and people always ask me what's the next big thing, and I say if I knew I'd be doing it,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.88,0:02:12.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but what I'm convinced of, is that the most important things that we know 50 years from now,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:12.43,0:02:14.83,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,will be things we have no idea about right now.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:14.83,0:02:19.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Nature continues to surprise us in ways we could never have expected.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:19.50,0:02:22.86,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Nature is much more imaginative than the human imagination is,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.86,0:02:28.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in order to make progress, we keep having to question nature, explore it,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.03,0:02:32.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because it will yield those surprises that will change, not just our picture of ourselves,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:32.05,0:02:34.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but the way we carry out our lives.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.43,0:02:42.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As far as I know, people don't ask the question:
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.30,0:02:47.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"What's the value of a Mozart symphony or a Picasso painting?"
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.19,0:02:49.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Science is a cultural activity,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:49.100,0:02:53.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's produced some of the most amazing ideas that humans have ever thought about.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:53.69,0:02:58.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the cultural value of science, of understanding where we are, where we come from,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:58.67,0:03:04.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is the same as art, music and literature. Great art, music and literature forces us to reasess our place in the Cosmos.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.58,0:03:11.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's what science does at its best, and if we are so empoverished that we have to stop asking questions,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:11.14,0:03:15.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but where we come from and we're we going, it's indeed a sad time.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.78,0:03:19.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are the most interesting questions the humans have ever asked,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:19.78,0:03:26.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and by comparison to the money we spend in many other things, that is, in my opinion, much more useless,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.03,0:03:27.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the investment is very small.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:27.88,0:03:33.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so, if we are at the point where we have to say: "look, we can't stop asking these esoteric questions,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:33.95,0:03:39.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that change our picture of ourselves, then it's a sad time for humanity.