You all for coming My name is normal
Trivedi I am part of the Center for

academic enrichment and
relocate in the class building and

we work on all sorts of programs
especially for undergraduate students and

so please come and visit us
anytime we're really here for you.

My area is academic transition
programs which is basically

G T one thousand and project one which

was firmly known as The First your reading
program and what we did was we took.

A suite made kind of project one
little bit of a bigger program and

said let's make the reading program a
component of it but let's make the actual.

Orientation of the kind of spirit of
the project one to be really about

helping to a bring Georgia Tech to
the students a lot of you have to

seek out resources and find where you
belong and find the right people and

so one we can sort of you can illustrate
who you are what you aspire to do and

over time can develop more of a community
by finding like minded people and

you can do that as soon as this summer and
so next year and on a lot of many of your

first year students many of you will be
soft by this time around next year and

will be able to be sort of mentors and
guide or got provide some guidance for

the first years who are coming in so we're
hoping in a couple years that this grows

and develops into something that's
really a great community and

one of the key parts of the all of
this is to have a common theme each

year and this year's theme is
digital lives and we're really

excited really happy to have Ted Chang
here to speak you know as you know he's

a science fiction author whose work really
is very interested in this question of

how we think of ourselves in
the world we want to live

in in relation to
the technology that we have and

it's such a pertinent question that all
of you really are in a position to.

Consider and think about right at the
beginning of your academic careers and for

some of you who are even you know ready to
graduate it's really a great moment for

you to sort of sit down and think about.

You know what is it that I want
to see do in this world and

how will the technology that I use and
produce and invent affect that.

And so we've had conversations Ted's
been here for a couple days now

we've had some great conversations
with students and with faculty and

staff on a range of issues from technology
obviously science fiction steampunk

Facebook privacy education lifelong.

Retro technology and if you haven't seen
the announcement the library is holding

a retro technology exhibit and is really
interested in having all of your.

Technology that is sort of old or
how are you think about that and

will display that so
we'll have maybe rotary phones gasp

in the display maybe i
Pods are kind of old now.

And we've had a lot of discussion we've
also had a great discussion about

sheepshead.

And how many of you actually
know what sheepshead is.

So similar to one hand there you go
I wish you were with us at dinner

we had a great conversation that you know
can can can we really actually Well they

actually services sheep's head here at
this restaurant like a giant sheep's head

but it turns out that sheep's
head is actually a fish.

And that really helped clarify the meal
and so so we have the kinds of.

This guy we have had all of our large
range of conversations Ted's really soft

spoken and incredibly humble guy and
he'll hate me saying this of course and

so I was really pleased
that one of our events.

Recording of a radio show
podcast yesterday some

student asked him about the movie her.

And which many of you
have perhaps seen and

his response was.

I I should say.

I hated her.

And it was really just sort of straight up
no no you know very very very honest and

it was it was really amazing to
see how you know him say that and

I hope maybe will be able to have
a conversation about why afterwards.

So before I turn it over I'm going to turn
it over to Professor leaves A Yeah Zick

and just before that I just want to
say if you thank you's to those who

would you who were able to make this
happen primarily to our our students and

especially our first year students who
have shown incredible enthusiasm and.

Have posted truly interesting thoughtful.

Some reflections on Mahara
about the reading and

it's really just been wonderful to read
them Ted has read them Ted has been

responding to a lot of you and so it's
just been a wonderful exchange between

between the two so
that's I thank you for doing that.

Also literature media and
communication for

making this a part of their
distinguished speakers series and

relieving the support of the chair Richard
it's and also Lisa who will introduce

in a moment the Georgia Tech library
is always a really partner with us and

they've been a partner for us with the
reading program for several years and so

we really appreciate their support.

Of undergraduate education and

the leadership of Dr Collins Potts
who is who really does think

unconventionally about a lot of things
in terms of undergraduate education and

I think all of you or who are students
are in good hands with his leadership.

In the writing communication program
with Dr Rebecca Burnett and Dr and

Euphrasie who who really lead a ship of

a lot of instructors teaching students
in a one level no two in among

other courses and those were the vehicles
to really talk and think about

Ted Chang's story in a meaningful way and
so I really really appreciate that.

Support for Project one and helping all of
you has been really campus wide and I and

I can't say enough about the support that
we've gotten also from student affairs.

From And and Dean STEIN So
thank you very much for doing.

So let me introduce Professor Lisi ASIC
many of you may know her already but

if you don't you should She
is a remarkable scholar and

the energy will just is infectious
right in your heart talking to leave

she is a she is an incredible.

Person to collaborate with
she is a professor perhaps or

of science fiction studies in our
department of literature media and

communication she's also director of L M
sees undergraduate studies the director of

tech and a past president of the science
fiction Research Association her

new book is forthcoming it's forthcoming
from Wesleyan University Press and

it's called women's work in science
fiction Please welcome Dr Yes

like.

Georgia Tech.

Good afternoon.

Well hello and welcome I'm
delighted that we can all be here.

As some of the rest of you
are going to learn right now.

Georgia Tech has a long standing
commitment to science fiction we were

one of the first institutes to teach
college level classes on the subject and

we started doing that in one nine
hundred seventy one today our science

fiction collection attack which has
between eleven and fourteen thousand items

depending on how you count it is
the largest in the southeast and

is considered one of the top twenty
collections of its kind in the world so

it's exciting to have with us today
because he is as City Arts puts it quote

the man who is the future
of science fiction.

Born in Port Jefferson New York Ted
graduated from Brown University with

a degree in Computer Science He's also
a graduate of the prestigious Clarion

writer's workshop and he currently divides
his time between freelance technical

writing and science fiction writing in
Bellevue Washington today Ted has written

fourteen short stories and novellas and
published one collection his fiction has

been featured in classic science fiction
venue such as the Magazine of Fantasy and

Science Fiction cutting edge
anthologies such as the.

Cabinet of curiosities.

And the prominent
scientific journal Nature.

Is the winner by my count of eighteen
major science fiction awards so

that means he has one in about a quarter
awards for every story he's written and

this includes three or four nebulas three
Hugo's and four say you know words so

for those of you who don't know what this
means let me just tell you in short this

means that this is a man who is
universally acclaimed by writers and

fans alike across the globe.

Now as normal suggested earlier it's
also exciting to have Ted here with us

this afternoon for
a reason as you know his story

through the facts of truth of feeling
is this year's common reading for

Georgia Tech's project one program which
is also here as the inaugural speaker for

the school of literature media and
communications two thousand and

fourteen distinguished speaker series The
theme of this year's series is mobility

and we could not have asked for a better
science fiction author to help us think

through issues of scientific social and
psychological movement.

Ted is a master of the cognitive
breakthrough tale and those of you who

are in my class know what that is for
those of you better in your papers now.

And for those that you don't this is
a science fiction story type in which

characters and generally by extension
readers eventually discover that the world

is not what they thought it was and
that they must develop new patterns

of thought and behavior to meet
the challenges of their new reality.

As Ted put it when he was talking with
my science fiction class earlier today

science fiction is about getting people
to think about change a world that

is different from ours where the things
you take for granted are no longer true

as the truth of fact no this movement
from complacency to uncertainty

to a new engagement with
the world to his writing.

But cognitive breakthroughs
are not just fictional events

they are central to the process
of scientific discovery and

a fact of everyday life in our
increasingly techno scientific world and

that is what we'll be talking about with
us this afternoon so just so you know how

this is going to work we're going to begin
with Ted's lecture on mobile technology.

Then he'll participate in
a brief interview with the.

Radio program from will happen right up
here and after that we'll open the floor

for questions and you've heard from me and
so without further ado I'll give

you.

Thank you for
having me it's a real honor to be here.

It is.

A little weird for me to.

To be a science fiction writer
invited to speak at a university when

when I was not a grad such a thing would
pretty much never have happened but.

The world is changing and

sometimes science fiction writers
get invited to speak which I.

I think it's great so
thanks for being here.

So.

There is a senior research scientist
at Microsoft named Gordon Bell and

for the last fifteen years or so he's been
engaged in a project where he has been

saving a record of virtually
everything he does his computer stores

every keystroke he types on his keyboard
he records every phone conversation

he wears a camera around his neck that
automatically takes a thousand snapshots

a day including every person he
talks to and every room he enters.

He even keeps a copy of every page that
he reads when he is surfing the web.

What Gordon Bell is doing is
something called life logging.

He is keeping a detailed record of
everything he does every day of his life.

There are a number of people who
are engaged in life walking but

Gordon Bell has taking it further than
most because of his position as a research

scientist which he he was able to get
software custom designed for his needs.

And he uses that to help him navigate all
the information that he has collected.

However not even he has taken
life logging as far as it can go.

I remember attending a talk on
the future of personal computing

at around the time Gordon Bell
started work on his project and

the speaker pointed out that one day it
would be possible to keep a permanent

continuous video record of
every moment of your life.

And that was a pretty bold statement
at the time because back then a.

Gig gigabyte of hard disk space
cost about one hundred dollars so

people did not store
much video on hard disks.

But even that it was reasonable to
predict that computer storage would get

cheaper and cheaper.

Nowadays gigabyte of hard to
space costs less than ten cents.

We are not yet at the point where it would
be affordable to record continuous video

of your entire life but
we are definitely getting close.

And when we do reach that
point it will be possible for

you to wear a camera around your neck
that doesn't simply take snapshots but

actually records a video of
everything you see and do.

Now in recent months there has been a lot
of controversy over police officers

shooting unarmed civilians or otherwise
engaging in excessive use of force and

a lot of people are saying that every
police officer should be required to wear

a body camera so that every interaction
they have with a civilian gets recorded.

Now police officers might become the first
segment of society engaged in a form

of life logging but the trend will
almost certainly not stop there.

We are gradually becoming surrounded by
cameras which is why I want to talk about

some of the ways that it could affect us
to have continuous video of our lives.

Now the most obvious issue is privacy

when you talk to someone you don't want
them recording everything you say.

Gordon's Gordon Bell's girlfriend

often asks him to delete
things that she tells him.

A lot of people hate the idea of being
recorded with a cell phone video

camera when they're at a party.

And recently there there has been some
pushback against Google Glass some

establishments are banning it because they
want their patrons to feel comfortable.

And if we knew that everything we did
was being recorded we might all become

very guarded about what we say we
might all become like politicians

holding a press conference
twenty four hours a day.

Now it is entirely possible
that people's desire for.

Privacy will prevent video life
logging from ever taking off and

that we simply won't permit
people to record us.

However it is also the case that our
expectations of privacy are steadily

decreasing we have a lot less privacy
now than we did twenty years ago and

for the most part we have not complained.

A lot of young people who spend so
much time on social networks that

they are essentially living a significant
portion of their lives in public and

they don't even really understand
older people's objections to it.

Now privacy is an enormously
important issue and

we could talk about privacy issues for
hours but

that is not specifically what I
want to discuss here today so for

the purposes of this discussion let's
imagine a bit of a system of video life

walking in which all the privacy issues
have been resolved imagine just for

the sake of discussion that you wear a
device that records everything you see and

hear and say but the information is all
stored on a server that you keep in your

own home no one else has access to it
unless you explicitly share it with them

no one is going to embarrass you with
evidence of something foolish that you did

it is purely for
your own personal consumption.

So what is that like how does it affect
you if you have a complete video and

audio recording of your life.

The first thing to realize
is that a video life.

Does not have to be like the video of your
wedding that you hired someone to record

it's not something that you
watch just once in a while.

As search technology improves in the
future this video will become a database

that you can search just as
easily as you search the web.

For example assume that all the speech
recorded on your life log is

converted into text that makes it possible
to search on anything you said or.

Thing you heard.

Then you can launch queries like what
was the name of that book that my friend

Tom recommended when we had lunch.

A future search engine will also
have a lot of semantic information

about the imagery recorded on the video so
you can make a query like

what's the name of that musician
I met at that Christmas party.

Now if you consider how many
times you use Google in a day

especially if you have
a cell phone a smartphone.

If you could do Google
searches on your own life

doesn't that sound like
something that might be useful.

Anything that you don't remember you can
just look up in your life log even trivial

stuff like what did I order for
dinner on my birthday last year.

So how will having this video

recording of your entire life
affect your native memories.

It is very tempting to believe that
it won't affect you at all and

that your memory will remain
as good as it is now and

you will only consult your video life
log when your native memory fails you.

But I don't believe that will happen
because we have many examples way

that technology has impaired
our ability to remember.

The oldest example of
this is the written word.

SOCRATES supposedly criticized
the invention of writing because it would

cause people to stop using their memory
he said it will implant forgetfulness

in their souls they will cease to exercise
memory because they rely on that which is

written calling things to remember it's
no longer from one within themselves but

by means of external marks.

And he definitely had a point.

When bards in ancient Greece performed
the Iliad and Odyssey to an audience

they were recited thousands of
lines of poetry from memory and

hardly anyone can do that
today because no one needs to.

That may seem like a very remote exam.

So let's consider some more modern ones.

Many people have become so

reliant on the turn by turn
directions provided by their G.P.S.

that they have trouble finding their
way around their own city without it.

A recent study found that people
under the age of thirty are less

likely to remember their own phone numbers
than older people because they don't

remember anyone's phone numbers all their
numbers are stored on their cell phone.

Now these are pretty glaring examples but

one that may be less obvious
is the Internet itself.

We all have ready access to Google so

we can all find out all sorts
of information right away.

Has that weakened our memory of
general knowledge about the world.

Again it is very tempting
to think that it hasn't but

there is good reason to
believe that it has.

A few years ago team of psychologists
conducted a study they presented people

with forty pieces of trivia which the
participants had to type into a computer.

Half of the participants were told that
what they had typed would be saved

while the other half were
told that it would be erased.

Later on they were tested on their
memory of what they had typed

the subjects who had been told it would
be a race had significantly better recall

than the ones we've been
told that would be saved.

It turns out that people don't pay
as much attention to what they read

when they think they'll be
able to look it up later.

Which makes complete sense when you
know that you can always look it up

why bother memorizing.

The more that you the more
you use the Internet

the more your brain shifts away
from remembering information and

shifts toward remembering how to
find the information you need.

I can actually see this happening in
myself I don't like it but I don't

know of a way to stop it aside from giving
up using the Internet altogether and

I am not willing to do that it
is something that sneaks up.

And you until it's too late.

That is why I can easily believe
we will eventually come to rely on

a video recording instead
of our own native memories

if it's not going to be a deliberate
choice but if our life logs become

as easily searchable as the web
is now our habits will evolve and

our brains will adapt to
reinforce those habits.

When we want to know what happened
to us we will start looking it up

instead of recalling it directly.

Now on the one hand this
may sound pretty dire

the prospect that our native
memories will atrophy and

we will become unable to remember our own
lives without consulting our life logs.

On the other hand if you think of your
life look as your memory then your

memory is actually improved you now have
a complete extraordinarily detailed memory

of everything that's happened to you.

So to imagine what it might be like
to have a perfect memory First

let's talk about what it is like
to have an imperfect memory.

The author Samuel Delaney wrote a memoir
in tile entitled The motion of light in

water and in it he talks a bit about
the experience of writing a memoir.

In the past when people asked him
about his father he would say.

My father died of lung cancer in one nine
hundred fifty eight when I was seventeen.

And Delaney has very clear memories of
the days leading up to his father's death

he remembers those father
listened to on the radio and

he listened to a piece of music called
Sonata for unaccompanied cello he even

remembers that it was the conductor
Penderecki who was performing it.

Twenty years later after Delaney
had become famous as an author

a couple of scholars wanted to write
a biographical essay about him.

These scholars pointed out
some discrepancies in his

account of his father's death.

Delaney was born in one
thousand nine hundred two so

he could not have been seventeen
in one nine hundred fifty eight.

The scholars did some more research and
discovered that the radio station

had not yet begun broadcasting
in one thousand fifty eight and

in fact Penderecki had not yet
recorded Sonata for unaccompanied cello.

Eventually they found a copy of a local
newspaper that carried his father's

obituary it turns out that his father died
in one thousand nine hundred sixty not

nine hundred fifty eight and Delaney was
eighteen when it happened not seventeen.

Now it's pretty unusual to remember

to misremember an event as significant
as the death of your father.

In Delaney's case it is especially
odd because if you read his memoir

it is clear that he has
a remarkably good memory.

So how did he get the year
of his father's death wrong.

Can't answer that question definitively
but he offers one possible explanation.

He started college of the month
before his father died and

he has very clear memories of that he
remembers the teachers he took classes

from and the new friends he made and the
extracurricular activities he participated

in it was a very exciting time for him.

In fact the emotional tenor
of those memories was so

different from that of his father's death

that he couldn't put them right next
to each other in his mental chronology.

It made more sense for his subconscious
to put two years of subjective experience

between his memories of starting college
and his memories of his father's death.

If it weren't for the documentation that
those biographers uncovered he would never

have believed that those two events
took place only a month apart.

Now I've always found this anecdote
of the ladies to be fascinating

because typically when you think about
the shortcomings of your memory you think

about the times you tried to remember
some facts but couldn't call it to mind.

But what about the events that you do or.

But that didn't actually happen that way

these are failures of your memory that
you don't even realize are failures.

And so after I read these memoir I began
to wonder how accurate is my own memory.

There are plenty of episodes in my
past that I remember very clearly but

I can't produce any documented
documentation to support my recollection.

How do I know that those events
happened the way I remember.

I cannot know for sure and
I have to say it is kind of disconcerting.

The example of villainy mis remembering
the year of his father's death is striking

and for that reason it may be hard for
the rest of us to relate to so

let's consider a much
more ordinary example.

The author Isaac Asimov wrote an
autobiography called in memory green and

in it he mentions that when he was young
his mother used to beat him with a rope.

Many years later he was having
a conversation with his mother and

she said he had always been a good boy.

He asked her how could I have been such
a good boy if you had to hit me with ropes

and his mother said never I
never hit you with ropes.

I think a lot of us have probably had
similar conversations with our parents

we remember things one way and
our parents remember it another.

And in this particular example I think the
discrepancy between Asimov's memory and

his mother's memory is
very easy to explain.

In the one thousand nine hundred thirty S.

when as a mother was a boy was perfectly
acceptable to beat your child with a rope.

A few decades later when Asimov was
having this conversation with his mother

it was much less so.

I don't think that his mother was
deliberately lying when she said she never

beat him I think it's that she thought
of herself as a good mother and so

she couldn't have done anything
that a good mother wouldn't do.

She subconsciously editor to her memory
to conform to contemporary standards

of childbearing.

Obviously if Asimov had been keeping
a video life log he could prove to

his mother that she used to hit him with a
rope he could act like the biographers who

show Delaney documentation that proved
his recollection was incorrect.

But that is not what I think
is the most interesting

thing about having a video life log.

The more interesting question is if
Asimov's mother had been keeping a life

log would she have been able to forget
that she used to hit her son with a rope.

Would she have been able to edit her
memory to make herself look good.

Neuroscientists have found that
the act of recalling a memory

can change the contents of the memory
by adding new associations to it.

This is why a person's recollection of an
event can change over repeated retellings

over time they are replacing their
memory of what actually happened

with their memory of the story
they've told over and over again.

This is how stories become exaggerated
how that fish that your uncle Cora once

started out as this big and
eventually turned into a fish this big.

But digital video is not going to change
no matter how many times you replay it

this means that if we consult earthly
life regularly our memories cannot evolve

over time in the same way.

In some contexts this is
undoubtedly a good thing for

example in matters of crimes or accidents.

What I witness is say they saw often
changes based on the wording of

the questions that the police X. asked
them or what they heard someone else say.

With video like logs that
would no longer be a problem.

But in the context of our memories of
our own lives is it a good thing or

a bad thing that our
memories change over time.

Psychologists once performed
a study where they asked people

their positions on a number of different
political questions like legalization of.

Marihuana rights of
the accused equality for women.

Then nine years later they went
back to the same people and

asked them how they felt about
those issues some people's

some people's views had stayed the same
while others views have changed.

But when they were asked to remember how
they felt about those issues nine years

ago they all said their views had
always been the same as they were now.

If they were in favor of legalizing
marijuana they claim debate always

been in favor of legalizing it even
if they had once been opposed to it.

This is what psychologists
call consistency bias.

The thought that we might be contradicting
ourselves makes us uncomfortable so

we unconsciously edit our
memories to avoid that problem.

I think this is what was at
work with Asimov's mother.

There was a different study in
which psychologists surveyed

a number of married women.

They asked them questions like how happy
they were with their marriages and

how many interests they had
in common with their husband.

Then ten years later they went back
to this woman and asked them the same

questions and also how had they
answered those questions ten years ago.

It turns out that many of the women
remembered their earlier responses

as being more negative
than they actually were.

They felt that their marriages had
improved over the years and this is what

psychologists call change bias we like the
idea that some things improve over time

that love grows deeper that we
get we draw closer and closer so

again we unconsciously edit our
memories to match that idea.

Both consistency bias and change bias
have the same underlying purpose

which is to make us feel
good about ourselves.

You may have heard the expression
Never let the facts get in the way of

telling a good story.

Well your memories are kind of story.

Making a palatable store.

Is the way all of our memories operate
Samuel Delaney as memory as a mom's

mother's memory my memory your memory.

We rewrite the past because we don't want
the facts to get in the way of the stories

we want to tell it is a way for
us to lie to ourselves.

We usually think that lying to yourself
is a bad habit but psychologists have

suggested that in limited quantities lying
to yourself can actually be good for you.

High self-esteem is usually an advantage
in life and it's probably easier to have

high self-esteem if your memories
are not completely accurate.

If your memory tells you that you've
usually been successful at the things

you've tried you are less likely to
be discouraged by new challenges.

Obviously if you lie to yourself too
much you become outright delusional and

that is not going to help you get ahead.

But there is a long way to go
before you reach that point.

There is plenty of room for you to lie to
yourself and still have it be beneficial

and I imagine that we have
all taken advantage of that.

But what happens when we all have video
life logs that make it impossible for

us to forget inconvenient things suppose
you're arguing with someone about

the death penalty which you oppose whereas
in the past you could claim that you would

always opposed it now that you know
now you know you used to support it.

What does that do to you.

What does it do to so
you to know that you and

your spouse were happier ten
years ago than you are now.

Will having a perfect memory reduce our
self-esteem and make it more difficult for

us to get through the day.

This makes it sound like Video life logs
are really bad idea but consider this.

Many of the things that you would rather
forget are exactly those things that

the people around you would
wish you would remember.

If you forget that you.

To beat your child with a rope
that may make you feel better but

it probably won't make
your child feel better.

When you forget the harm that you did to
others you were denying their experiences

which can be hurtful in and of itself.

So maybe keeping a life log is a good
idea because maybe the benefits of being

truthful to those around you will outweigh
the costs of being honest to yourself.

And this is actually consistent with what
you hear from people who are currently

interested in life logging they see
it as a means of self-improvement.

A lot of life loggers are involved
in something known as the quantified

self movement.

Right now the quantified self movement is
focused on recording your daily activity

as a way of improving your health so

it's all about using a smartphone app to
keep track of how many steps you've taken

in a day how many calories you
consume what your heart rate is.

But we could imagine that in
the future the quantified self movement

might become focused on
making you more honest.

Suppose you had an app that could check
the accuracy of any statement you made

about a past event if you said something
that was inconsistent with what you had

said or did before the app would notify
you that you were embellishing the truth.

Now some might say this app is a terrible
idea because the reason that we value

consistency is that it indicates the depth
of your commitment to your values and

you would lose that meaning if it comes
from mindlessly Abang a piece of software.

Other people might say that it doesn't
matter how you get there if your goal is

to treat people more consistently what's
the harm in having software help you.

I don't know if an app like
this is a good idea or

not but I would not at all be surprised.

To see a market company marketing
something like this in the future.

Now on the other hand they
technology critic if Jenny.

Morozov has warned against what he calls
solution ism which is the tendency to

see everything as a problem that
can be solved with technology.

One could argue that inconsistency is
not a problem that needs to be solved.

Maybe if everyone is using life logs and
being reminded of their inconsistency as

theirs the result will be that our
attitude toward inconsistency will change.

Walt Whitman famously said do
I contradict myself very well

then I contradict myself I am
large I contain multitudes.

Maybe we will become more willing to
overlook inconsistent behavior in others

because we will know that we are guilty of
it ourselves maybe we will come to value

nuance more than we do now.

Whether we like it or not we are headed
toward a future in which remembering our

past is a task that we delegate to
a device instead of handling ourselves.

This may seem unnatural but we've been
heading away from a state of nature for

a long time.

As I mentioned earlier Socrates felt
something important would be lost

when people relied on writing to remember
things instead of using their own memories

and I'm sure that to
some extent he was right.

So I'd like to conclude with an anecdote
about the reliability of people's memories

when they had no devices
to help them remember.

In the northern part of what
is now the nation of Ghana

there used to be a kingdom
called gone south and

back around one thousand eight hundred
Gonzo was divided into seven districts

each with a separate chief the way
royal succession worked was that when

the king of died one of the seven
chiefs was chosen to be the new king.

According to the people of Gaza the reason
for this was that the original founder of

the had seven sons and he divided the
kingdom into seven districts and put one

son in charge of aides so the chief of
each district was actually at the center.

Of the original founder of the kingdom.

By the one nine hundred fifty S. after the
British had been administering the region

for many years Gunja no longer had seven
districts one district had been lost when

the British had redrawn the borders
another district of emerged with its

neighbor so now there were
only five districts in total.

And in the one nine hundred fifty S.
if you asked someone in Gaza

to explain their system of succession
they said the kingdom's original founder

had five sons and he divided
the kingdom into five districts and

put one to one son in charge of each.

The people have gone to did
not write down their history

they relied on their memories the only
reason that we know that their history

changed is because
the British wrote it down.

To the people have gone to it might
not have mattered if you pointed out

that the number of sons that the founder
had had changed over the years

because the point of that
explanation was not so

much to give a literal account of
how Gonzo was founded The point

was to tell a story that made
sense of the way things are now.

And we here in the United States can
certainly relate to that because

a lot of the history that we were taught
in elementary school was distorted to

paint a pretty picture and
make us feel better about ourselves.

In the same way that nations have myths
about how they came to be founded people

have myths about how they came
to be the way they are now.

We study historical documents in
an effort to dig beneath the myths and

find out what really happened in the past.

We believe it's important to engage in
this type of examination because we think

there is value in knowing the truth
even if it is unflattering.

Once you start keeping a video life log
you will have the ultimate documentation

of your personal history.

So the question is how much value is
there knowing the truth about yourself.

One of the reasons given for
studying history is that

whenever a nation lies to itself about
what it did in the past it commits and

injustice against certain
groups of people.

Is the same true with individuals.

When you lie to yourself about what you
did in the past are you hurting anyone.

Another reason that's often given for

studying history is to avoid
the mistakes of the past.

Would knowing more about the mistakes you
made in the past make you less likely to

repeat those mistakes in the future.

Mobile technology will eventually provide
us with a titanic amount of information

about ourselves including our mistakes
that is something I'm confident about.

Whether or not we will be able to make
good use of that information whether or

not we'll be able to derive wisdom from it
that is something that remains to be seen.

Thank

you.

Say thanks to Tad for

such a fascinating talk will be moving on
to the second part of the program now and

we have math you guys dial an atom with
you from the side lab radio program on rec

if you're not familiar with the show we've
been broadcasting for seven years now and

we air every Thursday night from seven
to eight P.M. and you can stream us off.

For two weeks after each show course
many of you won't have to stream this

particular show because you will be part
of it and so now we're going to move on

and we'll start the interview and then
we'll take questions from the audience.

All right thank you so much for

the talk first of all it was
really fascinating I think that.

One of our first questions is going to be
about the inspiration behind your story

but I think that your essay sort of or
your talk sort of gave us that so

instead I wonder if you could talk
a little bell a little bit about

the inspiration behind
the name of the story.

And I hope.

OK.

Well there is a.

There's a quote in the story
from the critic Roy Pascal

use talking about the.

The role of truth in autobiography and
he says that.

On the one hand.

There is there are the truths of fact and

on the other hand there is
the truth of the author's feelings.

And.

There's no way to tell you know beforehand
how closely those will line up.

So sometimes they will line
up sometimes they won't but.

It's going to require
a lot of investigation to.

Make that determination.

And.

So the title of a story you
know based on the Poet and

about the difference between these two.

All right thank you our next question.

Would be so obviously

talk you express some pretty
nuanced views about life blogging.

But one way potentially to read your
story would be as kind of a warning of

where we might be heading and we're
wondering if you could talk about your.

Years or Europe personal
relationship with technology.

Well OK so you know I work in
the technology industry and.

I'm a big fan of technology.

But you know I think that.

You know if it is it is important to.

Think about you will.

Think about the costs that.

That are entailed along alongside
all the benefits I think that.

Most people who promote technology
are only focused on the positives.

And I don't think it's a it's a deliberate
design deception on their part is that.

They genuinely only see the good side of.

Whatever new technology brings.

But I think that.

You know it is it is
true that all technology.

Or almost all the knowledge
that has has some.

In it that.

The most part we consider it a.

Fair trade that the benefits outweigh.

The downside but
I think it is important who are.

Member that there is a side.

And that we need.

To be conscious of what
we are giving up with.

Knowledge.

And your much so within the sort
of twins stories going on through

your story you have
a character who at first

does not and that is very.

Very much in favor of learning how the two
would sort of augment their memory and

a character who at first is very
interested very disinterested in learning

to augment their memory and there's pros
and cons to each side as you very well in

numerated Is it possible though
to to reconcile the two sides in

some ways of some possible to to
reach some sort of middle ground or

compromise state do you think.

Well I guess I'm not sure what.

I can elaborate if I'd like to please
do so say in your own life if you

were to get the chance to to life log and
you had

such a search engine as the kind that you
describe in your story would you do so

would you take any mitigating factors
involved in any any preparations to

avoid from the rest that you talk about
in your story in your talk just now.

Well right now I think I would
be very reluctant to adopt.

That new technology but the.

Problem is that.

Most of us are.

Left with don't see
the benefit of new technology.

Before it arrives.

Before.

People had a smartphone.

People who were not most people were.

Clamoring for

smartphones they were perfectly happy
with their regular No cell phones.

Before everyone carried cell
phones they didn't really.

People were not really clamoring for
portable phones a lot of people think why

do I want to have a phone
with me all the time.

Most of the time we are.

Not.

We're not.

Feeling and powerful need that.

New technology built most of the time
new technology is introduced

we become accustomed to it and then we
find that we can't live without it.

So.

I so I recognize that.

You know there are technologies that I.

That I am reliant on now which I
did not use to be reliable You know

I think it's very handy that like for
instance my Tivo records Philip Philip and

so so I don't have to watch it when it
airs but you know there was a time when

you know I was perfectly happy you know.

Watching television shows when they
aired and you know I was never you know

cursing the heavens like when will
someone you know relieve the suffering

and let me watch T.V. you know or
I or I would just set a P.C.R.

thing like that was a perfectly
acceptable solution you know.

I was not clamoring for people but you
know eventually you know one of the like

that now you know I'm accustomed to it I
think that is the pattern with lots and

lots of technologies so.

I think that.

There will there will be.

A similar process as.

Work with new technologies there are a lot
of new technologies if you ask you know

if they would use them I don't
really see the need for them but

ask me again in twenty years and
I I happen to know that my position will

change just as it has in the past.

All right so our next question is about
a technology that's been around for

a while narrative and your story.

One conversation of the truth of fact the
truth of feeling would be that it's about

the importance of their that and
storytelling to human life and

I was wondering if you could talk about
that and how you define that importance

personally in society totally.

Well I guess I.

Am not sure that I would classify
narrative as a technology or

just story telling is that now maybe not.

So a so if we just say we just focus
on the question of the importance of

storytelling that sounds good yeah.

Well I think.

Storytelling is.

A central importance to all of
us there's a line in the story

that said people are made of stories and
I think that's true we are engaged

in storytelling all the time we're
not maybe doing it consciously or

deliberately but we are doing it we are.

Constructing narrative so.

Some neuroscientists.

Argue that consciousness itself is a kind
of fiction it is a narrative that our

brain constructing out of these succession
of sensory images that we receive.

So.

You know.

When we we.

As infants when we you know mature
enough that we sort of mean some sense

of the passage of time that we exist in
time that we that there is a path there is

a future that I've been
to occur in a sequence.

We are beginning to construct
narratives in our minds.

When we when we talk about what has
happened you know we are telling stories

that is something that I think is.

Really sort of intrinsic to the way that.

We understand the world I don't think
that there is a way to get around that.

All right and then for students or
people in general who enjoy

the truth factor to the fiction are there
other authors or stories that you would

recommend they check out.

Well.

I'm not I can't think of anything like
that are specifically like this story.

But you know there are certainly
there's a lot of science fiction and

fantasy out there which I think.

You know people would enjoy.

There there's a.

Recent novel.

We're all completely beside
ourselves like here in.

THE PEN Faulkner Award and
currently of the Man Booker Prize

and.

That's a that's a that's a terrific novel
and logic would say it's not really so

I think and you know.

Under.
Definition though it is not but

it is I think of interest.

To science fiction readers if you
are interested you know a lot of

you know the questions that.

Science fiction and you know often in
the you soon I think will lie that in

the novel it is about a woman who.

Whose father raised her as part of a sort
of a kind of a psychological experiment.

And you know what were the.

Long term repercussions of that.

And I think you know it raises a lot of.

Interesting questions about.

What it is to be a person with you
know what we consider though well

I'll certainly you know
recommend that not.

So I think that now we are ready for
the Q. and A session.

I'm fairly certain someone
supposed to be leading.

But I'm not sure who.

All right well now I mean I'm I can.

But anyway if you are interested in asking
a question to Ted while we have him here

wonderful resource if you could go ahead
in line up by these two microphones you

can see on either side here that allow
you to actually ask your question so

we can hear it which is useful for
asking questions.

All right we can go ahead and
start over here on the left.

Hi Do you have a methodology or
framework for

how you analyze technology and break
break down the good and bad for example.

In consulting there's doing
a pre-mortem where you just decide OK

here's a situation here's what happens
when it goes horribly wrong let's end.

Maj and what it was do you do anything
like that when you're writing stories.

Not so.

Not exactly like that.

Well I should say that.

I'm less interested in scenario
when technology is still horribly

wrong because I think that is a very.

It's a very common.

Tactic which.

Really kind of leads to
a fear up technology.

The.

Underlying message of a lot of Hollywood
movies is that you know technology used

bad it will inevitably go wrong and then.

Cost cost us many lives.

And then if we can just
destroy that new technology.

Everything will be OK.

I guess what I am more interested
in is what is the downside

if this works exactly as planned.

Because.

I think that.

Even when technology works
exactly as it is intended to do.

There it's going to be a downside
someone is going to be

unhappy about it someone's
life will be made worse by it.

And.

I think that is that is
a productive strategy for

thinking about technologies that
a lot of science fiction are you can.

I realize that it's.

You know it's not something that
businesses probably find very

productive but.

I guess.

I think it would be nice.

If you can says.

I had more of a kind of a like
a social conscience because

that would mean thinking about some
of these questions yeah I don't think

that they do right now thank you
very much we can go over there.

Mr Chang I read stories of your life and
others and it was very influential for

me and one of the things I really
liked about it with the idea.

Of editing your unconscious
kind of ideas in order to

see those come up kind of thing for
the very smart people or

to others and so I was wondering your
take on that you know about her and

stuff like that the impression that
I had heard was watching it was that

continuously through every experience
every interaction she was editing her.

Kind of.

Underlying thing in order to make
her more appealing to you know.

Well yes I think that that is one of the.

One of the problems with
the movie her is that.

The AI woman in the story.

Is.

Perfectly accommodating and.

I think this is kind of.

A pernicious myth to propagate because.

You know one thing it is not realistic no
one is perfectly accommodating you know

and or another you know it is I don't
think it's a good thing I don't think it's

a good thing or someone to have
a relationship in which their partner is

perfectly endlessly accommodating
to their needs I think that.

That is.

That that leads you know the.

The person you become you
know sort of infant tile and.

Mature I think that you know the.

The heart of like
a mature relationship is.

Being able to you know.

Manage compromise and
you know subsume sometimes your desires or

those of your partner and.

I don't think that.

I don't think that issue is really
addressed in the movie Herman and that is

one of the reasons why I dislike that
the only thing I would say about that is.

There to maybe not her but I think
the technology itself would necessarily be

accommodating to that individual that's
a moment but the idea of being that is

that it's technological advance would look
at the long term and say what do I have to

do to make this person of that's that they
can be in order to both propagate into

the future itself the a idea
the future as well as lead toward

developing as much intelligence in
the universe as possible which I think.

Was kind of a niche.

Well.

You know I think that.

I think the movie sort of
toys with those ideas or

hints at those ideas at the very but
I don't actually think that there's in

the groundwork laid with that
ending anywhere else in the movie.

I don't think that.

You know.

In retrospect there are things that
happened the movie which you know those

things will make more sense
now when we consider that.

The AI has what sort of age and long long
term planning I don't think that with

long term planning I think the
screenwriter simply came up with an idea.

And.

When I was watching it I had.

Yes thanks for the question sorry we don't
want to very move on I just was very.

Greats All right thank you for
your question let's go over here all right

do you believe it possible to generate
a computer program that could possibly

include our memory biases as
our natural memory does and

if so do you think we should use it.

OK so if we devised a program that
was fallible in the same way that

our native memories are fallible.

Yes I think I think
that would be possible.

I guess.

The question is would you
how would you market that.

Because.

It's not at all clear to me how
you would you know how a business

would make the case that you know.

That this.

Is this memory system that was.

Prone to error you know.

How would they make that a selling point.

When especially when you yourself
already have in your brain a memory

system that is prone to error it seems
like you know again just from a pure This

is perfect if you know it's easier to
sell something that is infallible and

let your customer deal with
the consequences of that then.

Yeah I'm not sure.

How how how you how you market that but

you know that is that is an interesting
idea if there is a way if there.

Might be a scenario in which someone
could find a way to sell that.

But yeah I'm not sure what that
is off the top of my head.

All right thank you thank you
very much for the question.

You were here again.

And comments last questions.

You know her not merely remembering that
she him one of the things that I thought

about when recording actual events is that
them what doesn't get reported seeing

an emotional state near a tree and
Tim and.

Now we watch videos all the time
of what events happened but

of our global what happened leading
to that what might have happened

to that person's day before they decided
to cut someone off in the highway and

say you have to maybe understand all of
that up to the earth true intention at

that time to recording the action and
inducing I see it being needed but

then still it doesn't solve everything
the other thought was that.

So we have all this technology to remember
things that we're not wasting time

remembering this phone number some of the
name and birth dates and all of that stuff

I think to free us to have our minds
focus on things that are important but

we don't really use that time.

The focus on things or think about things
we probably should I think that now we

have more time to think about things that
are more important to us as human beings

than to sit around like a long time ago if
let's say you're working out on a farm and

your choices were to take over the family
business and focus on that you don't sit

around much most people anyway thinking
deeply about you know why I'm here and

always there is and now today we have time
to really think about stuff like that but

we're not really doing that
well watching reality he.

OK So on your first question.

Here's a question about context.

Yes a recording of an event in
isolation you know if we don't know

what people were thinking or
what happened that led up to it but

you know if we had you know continuous
video recording you know we had continuous

and uninterrupted record of what.

All the participants had experience
in the last twenty four hours or

you know even going further back then
we would have a pretty good idea of

the context we wouldn't know their
mental states but certainly.

We would have.

There were I think there would be.

Just we would have a lot more information
and you know they could we would

not be able to easily say well this is
taken out of context because you will

just rewind porn up up our back we can
let you know we won you know like OK

then you know then they you know then
they could make a case well OK so

having read this far let me tell
you what my mental states were.

And you know there's going
to be some room there or

yes maybe they will maybe they will we'll.

Lie about what their mental states
were leading up to that but

I think that will be a much
narrower range of sort of room for

dispute than exists currently so.

I think that.

You know even if this video like
look doesn't go to sleep and

all day I think it sort of reduces
the possibility that narrows the reigns

on which you know people and
argue about what happened.

So the second question about
are we making good use of the.

The time and the how kind of past the that
we are you know that we re up with all

this stuff you know I think I think
yes it is a very good question as to

whether we are actually doing
anything good with all this all these

cycles that we now have it is
not at all clear to me that.

That's a plea deal are we all
creative Superman you know

are we is that suddenly
everyone you know just.

You know the stuff really of artistic
genius now I don't think so.

So again you know I think you have this.

You know yes the argument has always
been the argument all the labor saving

technologies as in that you know.

You more interesting things.

But I think one of the questions we have
to ask is What are those more interesting

things are we actually coming up
with more interesting things to do

with the time we have you know.

Maybe not maybe not and
you know that is you see I think.

You know that's that's a question that I

think most businesses are actually
interested in asking.

They don't they don't investigate
that that side of things but

again you know maybe they should.

Thank you so much Mr Chen.

And you just talk about like a life log
and asks you questions about it like so

do you speaking front of camera
like hive who are writing by and

or and what time do you usually write
the time log you do the average day and

night questions like I am I plan to like
to read a lifelong battle I find a T.V.

coach you like keeping each of your long
time that you have some suggestions for

that.

Well OK so I do not engage in
any form of life looking and so

I can't offer any suggestions
on how to go about it but

I mean certainly there are there
are other people who are decent and so

there are certainly resources online
that you could look into or advice

on how to begin life walking or even
what technology is currently available.

Yeah personally I I I.

I.
I don't like the whole.

Idea of.

Recording everything that I do.

I'm not exactly thrilled that this talk
is being recorded but I you know I I have

you know I have to acknowledge you
know the inevitability of that.

Of all the not a question like so
why why do I become a writer so and

your experience why did I become a writer.

It was something that I have always
wanted to do I started writing when I was

twelve years old started
trying to you know.

Write.

Stories and.

I see send them to magazines I
have always been interested in.

I guess I've always been interested
in telling stories that feel like.

There are ideas that I have which
I need to get out there and.

So I have continued to work at that.

You know ever since.

And.

I've been fortunate that sometimes
people have enjoyed them but.

I've I feel like you know there are there
is and there is a need that I have

to get these ideas out there which.

So I would probably keep doing
it even without the audience.

Thank you.

Thanks as a tech side note
to this question this

question is not mine it's
coming from Jason Ellis

who's been following the feet
of our discussion on twit.

Asked me to ask it to you and

he was really influential in bringing the
story into the project one discussion so

I felt compelled Jason's question is
Ted What recommendations do you have for

engineering students so
that they might have foresight or

ethics about the effects of their work.

Well that's a tough one.

I guess.

You know this is something that
I sort of addressed in a couple

of the previous questions about.

You know thinking about some of the.

Long term consequences of new technologies
that you have the of what every

technology is we're developing.

And.

Trying to.

Yeah so even if even if the technology
isn't working exactly as planned.

Think about who might object
to it who might oppose it and.

And don't simply dismiss that as
well those people are Luddites

people are crazy or back.

There.

You know there may be valid
objections to your technology.

And.

Again you know nowadays difference
is all about short term profit and.

You know we don't really care
about the long term consequences.

And I think that.

It is it is a.

Would be would be a real improvement
if more people working in technology

were to think about.

The broader consequences of what they are.

I'll mention this thing because
I think normal what you do.

There is an interesting factoid in the New
York Times some years ago the amount of

gold in an average cell phone is just like
a few micrograms there are a few contacts

in the internal circuitry of
your cell phone which goal.

Is a very small amount.

But those few micrograms gold.

Resulted in about one hundred pounds of
toxic waste because the way gold is mined.

Mining gold requires.

Basically sifting through tons and
tons of rock with mercury

so the that bit of gold that is
in your cell phone that required

that produced one hundred pounds
of toxic waste right now there is

there is no other giant
piles of toxic waste.

Or every cell phone that you toss away
every cell phone that you every time you

were upgrading a cell phone you know
another hundred pounds of toxic waste.

That's I think something worth thinking
about you really need that new cell phone.

Sure it's cool but you really need it.

Is your is your current
phone really that bad that.

You just cannot live without the new one.

The idea that you need to upgrade your so
your cell phone every two years or

eighteen months you know
that you know from.

What other what other.

Sizable piece of technology in.

The way that rapidly when it
is still perfectly functional.

That's something we're thinking about.

We probably have time for just these last
two questions I just let people know.

So one of the things you talked
about earlier in the interview and

I believe was also a theme of your

of your book trips actually feeling is
the loss of humanity in technology.

But what do you constitute is humanity is
this thing that we call humanity just so

sad do we feel for
something that we're used to or

like what gives something soon and.

That's a good question that I mean I I
think that is something that we have to

you know decide for
ourselves collectively.

You know.

Someone you know two thousand years
ago they were to look at our life now

they would say that we have lost
a lot of our cue madly because

we no longer have many of the you know.

Have many of us feel you no longer
engage in many of the activities

that they consider an essential part of.

Being human.

And.

You know so our ideas of what you
know what constitutes you know.

Being an authentic person that that is
something that will continually evolve.

But you know I guess all.

You know so you know.

It will change will inevitably change and

you know our ideas of what it means to be
an authentic person in the future will be

different than our ideas now I guess.

I would just say that I hope that.

It is a.

Considered evolution rather than
a sort of an automatic unthinking one.

That.

We you know spend some time.

Thinking about what it is that
we value and you know what.

What we want to keep.

You know.

And again what.

Have an awareness of
what we're giving up and.

Making sure that you know
the tradeoffs are a worthwhile.

Thank you.

What ways if any do you think your
experience with computer science has more

than your use of technology
as it relates to memory.

I I don't.

I don't know if I have a good answer but
that.

You know I guess.

I don't I don't think that you know my
experience in computer science had.

An enormous impact on my
views on memory except

of a I spoke with it's worth saying that.

The more time that you spend
with computers I think.

You.

Need to remember that our brains are not
computers that our brains do not work like

a theatre I think a lot of people spend
a lot of time with computers or the forget

that they assume that or if they're so
used to the idea of thinking of.

Their brain as intruders that they don't
even question that notion in the war but

that is not.

The.

Not reality or brain or not computer and.

I think that.

You know we live in such
a technologically saturated society that.

We.

Rest think of ourselves in terms of.

Wear and hardware.

And.

We need to.

Remember that we are not software
running on on hardware there is.

Just about nothing that
our brain how in the year.

That is.

That is that is a metaphor that I
think a lot of people who literally.

Make you.

Think you all so much for
your questions and they for

coming to this event thank you very
much the change of thank you yes.

Coming and also.

Of applause for Matthew and
Adam for moderating discussion so

much thank you.

So the conversation will
continue of course.

But they'll be a series of events
including one that's happening right now

with the library there's
a retro tech exhibit and so

over the next month all of October
we'll have a series of technologies

including a calculator and
older nineteenth century

stuff is well represented in some fashion
but it will be an interesting exhibit

it'll be all the library in the cleft
building so thank you very much and.

Have a lovely evening.