I would like to tell you all that you are all actually cyborgs, but not the cyborgs that you think. You're not RoboCop, and you're not Terminator, but you're cyborgs every time you look at a computer screen or use one of your cell phone devices. So what's a good definition for cyborg? Well, traditional definition is "an organism to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments." That came from a 1960 paper on space travel, because, if you think about it, space is pretty awkward. People aren't supposed to be there. But humans are curious, and they like to add things to their bodies so they can go to the Alps one day and then become a fish in the sea the next.
Gustaríame dicirvos a todos que sodes uns ciborgs pero non do tipo que imaxinades. Non sodes nin Robocop nin Terminator, pero sodes ciborgs cada vez que mirades un monitor ou usades algún dispositivo móbil. Cal sería unha boa definición de ciborg? A definición tradicional di que é un organismo "ao que se lle engadiron elementos esóxenos co fin de adaptarse a novos medios". O termo xurdiu nun artigo sobre viaxes espaciais en 1966. Porque, se vos parades a pensar, o espazo é bastante incómodo; suponse que a xente non debe estar alí. Pero os humanos son curiosos e gústalles engadir cousas ao corpo para poder ir aos Alpes un día e ser como un peixe no mar ao seguinte.
So let's look at the concept of traditional anthropology. Somebody goes to another country, says, "How fascinating these people are, how interesting their tools are, how curious their culture is." And then they write a paper, and maybe a few other anthropologists read it, and we think it's very exotic. Well, what's happening is that we've suddenly found a new species. I, as a cyborg anthropologist, have suddenly said, "Oh, wow. Now suddenly we're a new form of Homo sapiens, and look at these fascinating cultures, and look at these curious rituals that everybody's doing around this technology. They're clicking on things and staring at screens."
Consideremos o concepto da antropoloxía tradicional. Alguén vai a outro país e di: "Que fascinante é esta xente, que interesantes son as súas ferramentas, que curiosa é a súa cultura". E logo escriben un artigo, que se cadra lerán un par de antropólogos, e cremos que é algo moi exótico. Ben, o que ocorre é que de repente atopamos unha nova especie. Eu, como antropóloga ciborg, díxenme de pronto: "Vaia! Somos unha nova forma de homo sapiens. Mirade estas culturas fascinantes. Mirade estes rituais curiosos de toda esta xente arredor desta tecnoloxía. Clican nunhas cousas e logo miran fixamente as pantallas".
Now there's a reason why I study this, versus traditional anthropology. And the reason is that tool use, in the beginning -- for thousands and thousands of years, everything has been a physical modification of self. It has helped us to extend our physical selves, go faster, hit things harder, and there's been a limit on that. But now what we're looking at is not an extension of the physical self, but an extension of the mental self, and because of that, we're able to travel faster, communicate differently. And the other thing that happens is that we're all carrying around little Mary Poppins technology. We can put anything we want into it, and it doesn't get heavier, and then we can take anything out. What does the inside of your computer actually look like? Well, if you print it out, it looks like a thousand pounds of material that you're carrying around all the time. And if you actually lose that information, it means that you suddenly have this loss in your mind, that you suddenly feel like something's missing, except you aren't able to see it, so it feels like a very strange emotion.
Pero hai unha razón pola que estudo isto en lugar da antropoloxía tradicional. E a razón é que o uso de ferramentas nos principios, durante miles e miles de anos, implicou unha modificación física do ser. Axudounos a estende-lo noso eu físico, a ir máis rápido, a golpear cousas máis forte, e iso tivo un límite. Pero agora o que observamos non é unha estensión física do eu, senón unha estensión do eu mental. E por iso podemos viaxar máis rápido e comunicarnos de maneira diferente. E a outra cousa que ocorre é que todos levamos ás costas tecnoloxía do tipo Mary Poppins. Podemos engadirlle o que queiramos e non por iso pesará máis e logo podemos quitarlle o que sexa. Como é o interior dunha computadora? Ben, se se imprimise veríase como uns 450 quilos de material que van convosco todo o tempo. E se perdedes esa información créase de súpeto un baleiro mental e sentides como que vos falta algo, pero non o podedes ver e entón tedes unha sensación estraña.
The other thing that happens is that you have a second self. Whether you like it or not, you're starting to show up online, and people are interacting with your second self when you're not there. And so you have to be careful about leaving your front lawn open, which is basically your Facebook wall, so that people don't write on it in the middle of the night -- because it's very much the equivalent. And suddenly we have to start to maintain our second self. You have to present yourself in digital life in a similar way that you would in your analog life. So, in the same way that you wake up, take a shower and get dressed, you have to learn to do that for your digital self. And the problem is that a lot of people now, especially adolescents, have to go through two adolescences. They have to go through their primary one, that's already awkward, and then they go through their second self's adolescence, and that's even more awkward because there's an actual history of what they've gone through online. And anybody coming in new to technology is an adolescent online right now, and so it's very awkward, and it's very difficult for them to do those things.
A outra cousa que ocorre é que un tedes un segundo eu. Gústevos ou non, estades comezando a aparecer en liña, e a xente está interactuando co voso segundo eu cando non estades alí. Por iso tedes que ser coidadosos ao expor o voso xardín dianteiro que é, basicamente, o muro de Facebook para que as persoas non escriban alí no medio da noite porque o efecto é máis ou menos o mesmo. E, de súpeto, temos que empezar a manter o noso segundo eu. Un ten que presentarse na vida dixital de maneira similar a como o faría na vida analóxica. Así que da mesma forma que cada día un se levanta, se ducha e se viste, tedes que aprender a facer iso para o voso eu dixital. E o problema é que moita xente hoxe en día, sobre todo os adolescentes, teñen que atravesar dúas adolescencias. Teñen que pasar pola primeira, e iso xa é algo incómodo, e despois teñen que pasar pola adolescencia do seu segundo eu. E iso é aínda máis incómodo porque hai unha historia real da súa actividade dixital. Calquera que entra nunha nova tecnoloxía é un adolescente dixitais hoxe en día. Por iso é moi incómodo e lle resulta moi difícil facer esas cousas.
So when I was little, my dad would sit me down at night and he would say, "I'm going to teach you about time and space in the future." And I said, "Great." And he said one day, "What's the shortest distance between two points?" And I said, "Well, that's a straight line. You told me that yesterday." I thought I was very clever. He said, "No, no, no. Here's a better way." He took a piece of paper, drew A and B on one side and the other and folded them together so where A and B touched. And he said, "That is the shortest distance between two points." And I said, "Dad, dad, dad, how do you do that?" He said, "Well, you just bend time and space, it takes an awful lot of energy, and that's just how you do it." And I said, "I want to do that." And he said, "Well, okay." And so, when I went to sleep for the next 10 or 20 years, I was thinking at night, "I want to be the first person to create a wormhole, to make things accelerate faster. And I want to make a time machine." I was always sending messages to my future self using tape recorders.
Cando era nena, meu pai adoitaba dicirme pola noite: "Vouche ensinar cousas sobre o tempo e o espazo no futuro". Eu dicíalle: "Xenial!" E un día dixo: "Cal é a distancia máis curta entre dous puntos?" Eu respondinlle: "É a liña recta. Dixéchesmo onte". Eu pensaba que era moi intelixente. El díxome: "Non, non, non. Hai unha maneira mellor". Colleu un anaco de papel, debuxou un A e un B a cada lado, e dobrouno de maneira que A e B se tocasen. E dixo: "Esa é a distancia máis curta entre dous puntos". Díxenlle: "Papi, papi, papi, como se fai?" Díxome: "Ben, só hai que doblar o tempo e o espazo, iso precisa dunha gran cantidade de enerxía, e así é como se fai". E díxenlle: "Quero facer iso". Respondeume: "Está ben". E así, cada noite durante os seguientes 10 ou 20 anos pensaba ao me deitar: "Quero se-la primeira persoa en crear un buraco de verme, para facer que as cousas aceleren máis rápido. E quero facer unha máquina do tempo". Sempre estaba a mandar mensaxes ao meu eu futuro usando grabadoras.
But then what I realized when I went to college is that technology doesn't just get adopted because it works. It gets adopted because people use it and it's made for humans. So I started studying anthropology. And when I was writing my thesis on cell phones, I realized that everyone was carrying around wormholes in their pockets. They weren't physically transporting themselves; they were mentally transporting themselves. They would click on a button, and they would be connected as A to B immediately. And I thought, "Oh, wow. I found it. This is great."
Pero logo decateime na universidade que a tecnoloxía non se adopta só porque funciona; adóptase porque a xente a usa e porque está feita para humanos. Así que empecei a estudar antropoloxía. E cando estaba escribindo a miña tese sobre teléfonos móbiles decateime de que todo o mundo levaba buracos de verme nos seus petos. Non os transportaban físicamente pero si que os transportaban mentalmente. Eles cun clic nun botón conectábanse nun intre coma A e B. E pensei: "Guau, atopeino, isto é xenial!"
So over time, time and space have compressed because of this. You can stand on one side of the world, whisper something and be heard on the other. One of the other ideas that comes around is that you have a different type of time on every single device that you use. Every single browser tab gives you a different type of time. And because of that, you start to dig around for your external memories -- where did you leave them? So now we're all these paleontologists that are digging for things that we've lost on our external brains that we're carrying around in our pockets. And that incites a sort of panic architecture -- "Oh no, where's this thing?" We're all "I Love Lucy" on a great assembly line of information, and we can't keep up.
Co tempo, o tempo e o espazo comprimíronse gracias a isto. Un pode estar nunha punta do mundo murmurar algo e ser escoitado na outra punta. Outra das ideas que andan dando voltas é que un ten distintos tipos de tempo en cada un dos dispositivos que usa. Cada pestana do navegador danos un tipo de tempo diferente. E debido a isto un empeza a escarvar buscando as memorias externas...onde as deixaches? Así que agora todos somos paleontólogos escarvando en busca de cousas perdidas nos nosos cerebros externos que levamos no peto. E isto provoca unha especie de arquitectura do pánico. Ai Deus! Onde o puxen? Somos todos como "Eu amo a Lucy" nunha gran liña de producción de información e non podemos mante-lo ritmo.
And so what happens is, when we bring all that into the social space, we end up checking our phones all the time. So we have this thing called ambient intimacy. It's not that we're always connected to everybody, but at anytime we can connect to anyone we want. And if you were able to print out everybody in your cell phone, the room would be very crowded. These are the people that you have access to right now, in general -- all of these people, all of your friends and family that you can connect to.
E o que termina pasando cando levamos todo iso ao espazo social é que miramos o teléfono todo o tempo. Temos algo chamado "intimidade ambiente". Non se trata de estar sempre conectado con todos senón que en calquera momento podemos conectarnos con calquera. E se puidesemos imprimir tódolos contactos do teléfono a sala estaría abarrotada de xente. Estas son as persoas ás que tedes acceso agora mesmo, en xeral, todas estas persoas, tódolos amigos e familiares cos que podedes contactar.
And so there are some psychological effects that happen with this. One I'm really worried about is that people aren't taking time for mental reflection anymore, and that they aren't slowing down and stopping, being around all those people in the room all the time that are trying to compete for their attention on the simultaneous time interfaces, paleontology and panic architecture. They're not just sitting there. And really, when you have no external input, that is a time when there is a creation of self, when you can do long-term planning, when you can try and figure out who you really are. And then, once you do that, you can figure out how to present your second self in a legitimate way, instead of just dealing with everything as it comes in -- and oh, I have to do this, and I have to do this, and I have to do this. And so this is very important. I'm really worried that, especially kids today, they're not going to be dealing with this down-time, that they have an instantaneous button-clicking culture, and that everything comes to them, and that they become very excited about it and very addicted to it.
Hai algúns efectos psicolóxicos derivados disto. Un que me preocupa moito é que as persoas xa non dedican tempo ningún a reflexionar e que non desaceleran nin paran, ao estar preto de todas esas persoas da sala todo o tempo que tratan de competir pola súa atención nas distintas interfaces concurrentes; paleontoloxía e arquitectura do pánico. Non só están sentados alí. E, realmente, cando un non ten impulsos externos; nese momento é cando se produce a creación do eu, cando podedes facer plans a longo prazo, cando podedes tratar de descubrir quen sodes en realidade. E logo, unha vez que o facedes, podedes pensar como presentar o segundo eu de maneira lexítima, no canto de enfrontarse a todo tal e como vén e estar: "oh, teño que facer isto, e isto, e isto outro". Por iso isto é moi importante. Preocúpame moito que, sobre todo os nenos de hoxe, non van experimentar este tempo de inactividade xa que teñen unha cultura do clic instantáneo e que todo vén a eles; iso entusiásmalles moito e xéralles dependencia.
So if you think about it, the world hasn't stopped either. It has its own external prosthetic devices, and these devices are helping us all to communicate and interact with each other. But when you actually visualize it, all the connections that we're doing right now -- this is an image of the mapping of the Internet -- it doesn't look technological. It actually looks very organic. This is the first time in the entire history of humanity that we've connected in this way. And it's not that machines are taking over. It's that they're helping us to be more human, helping us to connect with each other.
Así que, se o pensan ben, o mundo tampouco se detivo. Ten as súas propias próteses externas e estes dispositivos axúdannos a todos a comunicarnos e interactuar uns con outros. Pero cando o visualizamos realmente, tódalas conexións que temos agora mesmo -esta é unha imaxe da interconxión de Internet- non parece moi tecnolóxico; parece máis ben algo orgánico. Esta é a primeira vez en toda a historia da Humanidade que nos conectamos desta forma. E non é que as máquinas estean a toma-lo control; senón que nos están axudando a ser máis humanos, nos están axudando a conectarnos mutuamente.
The most successful technology gets out of the way and helps us live our lives. And really, it ends up being more human than technology, because we're co-creating each other all the time. And so this is the important point that I like to study: that things are beautiful, that it's still a human connection -- it's just done in a different way. We're just increasing our humanness and our ability to connect with each other, regardless of geography. So that's why I study cyborg anthropology.
A tecnoloxía máis exitosa faise á un lado e axúdanos a vivi-las nosas vidas. E, en realidade, acaba sendo algo máis humano que tecnolóxico porque estamos co-creándonos uns aos outros todo o tempo. E este é o punto importante que me gustaría estudar: que as cousas son hermosas, que todavía existe unha conexión humana; só que se realiza dun modo diferente. Estamos aumentando a nosa humanidade e a nosa capacidade de conectarnos uns cos outros malia a xeografía. É por iso que estudo antropoloxía ciborg.
Thank you.
Grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)