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Sarah Parcak: A hundred years ago,
archaeology was for the rich,
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fifty years ago it was for men.
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But we are expanding it to the world.
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I wish for us to discover
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the millions of unknown
archaeological sites around the world.
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By creating a 21st-century army
of global explorers,
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we'll find and protect
the world's hidden heritage.
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So how are we going to do this?
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[Great Big Story
in partnership with TED]
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Narrator: They had a big idea
to change the world.
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But they couldn't do it alone.
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(Voices overlapping) So, my wish ...
My wish ... I wish ...
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My wish ...
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And now, here is my wish ...
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[Torchbearers]
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[Ideas in action]
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SP: I am an archaeologist
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and I specialize in using satellite
imagery to map ancient landscapes,
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the really fun title is Space Archaeology.
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You of course want to record
maybe how thick something is,
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which you can't measure from space
whether that's soil or snow.
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When I won the prize, I had
to present this completely crazy wish.
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I had to present the case
for archaeology to the world.
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Why does it matter, so what?
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The reality is, there aren't
enough of us scientists,
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we've got to give more people
opportunities to become explorers.
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GlobalXplorer is an online
crowdsourcing platform
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that allows anyone in the world
to help map ancient sites
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by looking at satellite imagery.
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And it's this idea
that everyone in the world
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can make a contribution to science.
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It can be anyone.
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(Music)
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Doris Jones: I'm Doris Jones,
I'm 90 years old, I live alone
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except for my two kitties.
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And I need something to do.
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I play games, I like Sudoku,
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and I play Mahjong with friends on Friday.
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(Music)
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And I'm an armchair archaeologist.
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(Music)
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Why don't you want to work? Down.
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Down, let's work.
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SP: Doris is one of our top contributors,
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she's a space archaeologist,
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she's looked at many,
many thousands of tiles.
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People like her are just a gift
to GlobalXplorer.
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DJ: Right now, I'm looking at a tile
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but it has a wall, probably for animals.
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But it has a number of what
look more like trails and roads.
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I'll go to the next one.
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SP: All you have to do is look
at an image and look carefully,
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and you see that there
could potentially be a new site there.
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Doris just has this passion and energy,
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an excitement for exploration.
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She's able to give back
and really contribute in a meaningful way.
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(Skype dial tone)
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SP: Doris!
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DJ: Hi.
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SP: I'm actually crying right now,
because I'm overwhelmed with emotion.
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DJ: Well, thank you.
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SP: I just had to see your face
and say, "Thank you."
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DJ: I really admire what you're doing.
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And I really enjoy the program.
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SP: When did your love for archaeology
and paleontology and science start?
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DJ: Well, in the middle 50s
my husband and I were in the back yard
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digging a garden,
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it was late fall and we were getting
ready for next spring.
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And I saw a strange-looking
white rock on the ground.
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I picked it up and he said,
"Let me see that."
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I showed it to him, he said,
"You know what this is?"
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I told him I didn't.
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He said, "This is a fossil."
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And we took out to the creek
and started looking for fossils.
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From then on, there was no turning back.
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SP: That's wonderful.
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DJ: So then I collected for years.
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And after all those years,
of course I've got all those memories.
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But that's a type of thing ...
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It's not just hunting the fossils
but the experiences.
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And you just learn
and really live and enjoy.
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And I think the fun is in the hunt.
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You know, like it's like ...
well, like the rainbow --
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at the end of the rainbow
is a pot of gold.
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So GlobalXplorer was kind of my rainbow.
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And even at my age
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I can continue to hunt
for lost civilizations.
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SP: I want to tell you about
some of the incredible things
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that happened as a result
of your discoveries.
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We're now beginning to take
thousands of features
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that people like you have found
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and we're sharing them
with archaeologists who work in Peru.
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They're beginning to confirm
the things the crowd has found.
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So, in other words, the platform works.
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Ultimately, this technology
is helping us to rewrite our history.
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DJ: We need to know our history.
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We're all one peoples.
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It's all our history, we're all here
on this little ball of dirt.
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SP: I believe we have barely
scratched the surface
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in terms of what's left to discover.
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And the greatest story ever told
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is the story of our shared human journey.
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But the only way that
we're going to be able to write it
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is if we do it together.