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[This is an improvised talk (and intro)
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based on a suggested topic
from the audience.
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The speaker doesn't know
the content of the slides.]
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Moderator: Our next speaker --
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(Laughter)
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is an --
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incredibly --
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(Laughter)
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Is an incredibly experienced linguist
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working at a lab at MIT
with a small group of researchers,
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and through studying our language
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and the way that we communicate
with other people,
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he has stumbled upon
the secret of human intimacy.
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Here to give us his perspective,
please welcome to the stage,
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Anthony Veneziale.
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(Applause)
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(Laughter)
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Anthony Veneziale: You might think
I know what you're going through.
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You might be looking at me
here on the red dot,
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or you might be looking
at me on the screen.
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There's a one sixth of a second delay.
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Did I catch myself? I did.
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I could see myself before I turned,
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and that small delay
creates a little bit of a divide.
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(Laughter)
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And a divide is exactly what happens
with human language,
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and the processing of that language.
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I of course am working
out of a small lab at MIT.
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(Laughter)
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And we are scraping
for every insight that we can get.
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(Laughter)
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This is not often associated
with a computational challenge,
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but in this case,
we found that persistence of vision
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and auditory intake
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actually have more in common
than we ever realized,
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and we can see it in this first slide.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Immediately your processing goes to,
"Is that a hard-boiled egg?"
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(Laughter)
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"Is that perhaps the structural
integrity of the egg
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being able to sustain
the weight of what seems to be a rock?
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Aha, is it in fact a real rock?"
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We go to questions
when we see visual information.
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But when we hear information,
this is what happens.
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(Laughter)
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The floodgates in our mind
open much like the streets of Shanghai.
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(Applause)
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So many pieces of information to process,
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so many ideas, concepts, feelings,
and, of course, vulnerabilities
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that we don't often wish to share.
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And so we hide,
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and we hide behind what we like to call
the floodgate of intimacy.
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(Laughter)
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And what might that floodgate be holding?
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What is the dike upon which it is built?
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Well, first off --
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(Laughter)
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we found that it's different
for six different genotypes.
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(Applause)
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And, of course, we can start
categorizing these genotypes
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into a neuronormative experience
and a neurodiverse experience.
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(Laughter)
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On the right-hand side of the screen,
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you're seeing spikes
for the neurodiverse thinking.
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Now, there are generally
only two emotional states
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that a neurodiverse brain can tabulate
and keep count of at any given time,
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thereby eliminating the possibility
for them to be emotionally, sometimes,
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attuned to the present situation.
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But on the left-hand side,
you can see the neuronormative brain,
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which can often handle
about five different pieces
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of emotional cognitive information
at any given time.
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These are the slight variances
that you are seeing
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in the 75, 90, and 60 percentile,
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and then of course
that dramatic difference
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of the 25, 40, and 35 percentile.
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(Laughter)
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But of course, what is the neural network
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that is helping to bridge and build
these different discrepancies?
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(Laughter)
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Fear.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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And as we all know,
fear resides in the amygdala,
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and it is a very natural response,
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and it is very closely linked
with visual perception.
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It is not as closely linked
with verbal perception,
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so our fear receptors
often will be going off
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in advance of any of our cognitive usage
around verbal and words
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and cues of language.
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So as we see these fear moments,
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we of course are taken aback.
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We stumble in a certain direction,
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generally away from the intimacy.
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(Laughter)
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Now of course, there's a difference
between the male perception
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and the female perception
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and of trans and those who are in between,
all of those as well,
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and outside of the gender spectrum.
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(Laughter)
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But fear is the central
underlying underpinning
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of all of our response systems.
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Fight-or-flight is one of the earliest,
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some say reptilian,
response to our environment.
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How can we disengage or unhook ourselves
from the horns of the amygdala?
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(Laughter)
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Well, I'd like to tell you
the secret right now.
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(Applause)
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This is all making
much, much too much sense.
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(Laughter)
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The secret lies
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in turning our backs to one another,
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and I know that that sounds
absolutely like the opposite
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of what you were expecting,
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but when in a relationship
you turn your back to your partner
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and place your back upon their back --
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(Laughter)
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you eliminate visual cues.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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You are more readily available
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to failing first,
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and failing first --
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(Laughter)
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far outweighs the lengths we go to
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to appeal to others,
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to our partners, and to ourselves.
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We spend billions and billions of dollars
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on clothing, on makeup,
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on the latest trend of glasses,
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but what we don't spend money and time on
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is connecting with each other
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in a way that is truthful
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and honest
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and stripped of those visual receptors.
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(Applause)
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(Laughter)
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It sounds hard, doesn't it?
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(Laughter)
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But we want to be aggressive about this.
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We don't want to just sit on the couch.
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As a historian said earlier today,
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it's important to get up
and circumvent sometimes that couch.
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And how can we do it?
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Well yes, ice is a big part of it.
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Insights, compassion and empathy:
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I, C, E.
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(Applause)
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And when we start using this ice method,
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well, the possibilities become
much bigger than us.
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In fact, they become smaller than you.
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On a molecular level,
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I believe that that insight
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is the unifying theme
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for every talk you have seen so far at TED
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and will continue as we of course embark
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on this journey here on this tiny planet,
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on the ledge, on the precipice,
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as we are seeing, yes,
death is inevitable.
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(Laughter)
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Will it meet all of us at the same time
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I think is the variable we are inquiring.
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(Laughter)
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I think that timeline gets a bit longer
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when we use ice
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and when we rest our backs
upon one another
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and build together,
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leaving behind the fear
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and working towards --
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(Laughter)
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they'll edit this part out --
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(Laughter)
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a ripened experience of love,
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compassion,
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intimacy based on a truth
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that you are sharing from your mind's eye
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and the heart that we all can touch,
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tactilely feel,
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have maybe potentially a mushy experience
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that we don't just throw out
because it is browned,
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but let us slice in half
the experience we have gathered,
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let us seed what the heart, the core,
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the seed of that idea in each of us is,
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and let us share it back to back.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)