I got invited to an exclusive resort to deliver a talk about the digital future to what I assumed would be a couple of hundred tech executives. And I was there in the green room, waiting to go on, and instead of bringing me to the stage, they brought five men into the green room who sat around this little table with me. They were tech billionaires. And they started peppering me with these really binary questions, like: Bitcoin or Etherium? Virtual reality or augmented reality? I don't know if they were taking bets or what. And as they got more comfortable with me, they edged towards their real question of concern. Alaska or New Zealand?
Pozvan sam u ekskluzivno odmaralište da održim govor o digitalnoj budućnosti pred, kako sam pretpostavio, nekoliko stotina tehnoloških direktora. Bio sam u zelenoj sobi, čekajući da nastupim, i umesto da me izvedu na scenu, doveli su pet muškaraca u zelenu sobu koji su seli za jedan manji sto sa mnom. Radilo se o tehnološkim milijarderima. A počeli su da me saleću sa tim krajnje binarnim pitanjima, poput: bitkoin ili eterijum? Virtuelna stvarnost ili proširena stvarnost? Ne znam da li su se kladili ili šta već. I kako su postajali opušteniji sa mnom, počeli su da naginju ka pitanju koje ih zaista brine. Aljaska ili Novi Zeland?
That's right. These tech billionaires were asking a media theorist for advice on where to put their doomsday bunkers. We spent the rest of the hour on the single question: "How do I maintain control of my security staff after the event?" By "the event" they mean the thermonuclear war or climate catastrophe or social unrest that ends the world as we know it, and more importantly, makes their money obsolete. And I couldn't help but think: these are the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, yet they see themselves as utterly powerless to influence the future. The best they can do is hang on for the inevitable catastrophe and then use their technology and money to get away from the rest of us. And these are the winners of the digital economy.
Tako je. Ovi tehnološki milijarderi su tražili savet od teoretičara medija gde da postave bunkere za sudnji dan. Proveli smo ostatak sata na samo jednom pitanju: „Kako da održim kontrolu nad obezbeđenjem nakon događaja?“ Pod „događajem“ smatraju termonuklearni rat, klimatsku katastrofu ili društvene nemire koji će da dokrajče nama poznati svet, i što je još važnije, koji će njihov novac da učine prevaziđenim. I nisam mogao da se oduprem utisku: ovo su najimućniji, najmoćniji ljudi na svetu, a ipak na sebe gledaju kao krajnje nemoćne da utiču na budućnost. Najbolje što mogu je da sačekaju neizbežnu katastrofu i da onda iskoriste svoju tehnologiju i novac da pobegnu od nas ostalih. A ovo su pobednici digitalne ekonomije.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
The digital renaissance was about the unbridled potential of the collective human imagination. It spanned everything from chaos math and quantum physics to fantasy role-playing and the Gaia hypothesis, right? We believed that human beings connected could create any future we could imagine. And then came the dot com boom. And the digital future became stock futures. And we used all that energy of the digital age to pump steroids into the already dying NASDAQ stock exchange. The tech magazines told us a tsunami was coming. And only the investors who hired the best scenario-planners and futurists would be able to survive the wave.
Kod digitalne renesanse se radilo o neograničenom potencijalu kolektivne ljudske imaginacije. Obuhvatala je sve od teorije haosa, preko kvantne fizike, do fantazijskog igranja uloga i Gejine hipoteze, zar ne? Verovali smo da ljudska bića, kad su povezana, mogu da stvore bilo koju budućnost koju možemo da zamislimo. A onda je usledio internet procvat. I digitalna budućnost je postala berzanska budućnost. I koristili smo svu tu energiju digitalnog doba da bi upumpavali steroide u berzu NASDAQ koja je već na izdisaju. Tehnološki časopisi su nam rekli kako je cunami na pomolu. I da će jedino investitori koji zaposle najbolje planere scenarija i futuriste biti u stanju da prežive talas.
And so the future changed from this thing we create together in the present to something we bet on in some kind of a zero-sum winner-takes-all competition. And when things get that competitive about the future, humans are no longer valued for our creativity. No, now we're just valued for our data. Because they can use the data to make predictions. Creativity, if anything, that creates noise. That makes it harder to predict.
Pa se budućnost izmenila iz nečega što stvaramo zajedno u sadašnjosti, u nešto na šta se kladimo u nekakvom takmičenju nulta suma u kome pobednik uzima sve. Kada sve postane toliko takmičarski nastrojeno po pitanju budućnosti, ljude više ne cene zbog naše kreativnosti. Ne, tada nas cene samo zbog naših podataka. Jer mogu da koriste podatke za predviđanja. Kreativnost, ako ništa drugo, stvara buku. To otežava predviđanje.
So we ended up with a digital landscape that really repressed creativity, repressed novelty, it repressed what makes us most human. We ended up with social media. Does social media really connect people in new, interesting ways? No, social media is about using our data to predict our future behavior. Or when necessary, to influence our future behavior so that we act more in accordance with our statistical profiles. The digital economy -- does it like people? No, if you have a business plan, what are you supposed to do? Get rid of all the people. Human beings, they want health care, they want money, they want meaning. You can't scale with people.
Pa smo završili sa digitalnim pejzažom koji zaista potiskuje kreativnost, potiskuje novine, potiskuje ono što nas najviše čini ljudima. Završili smo sa društvenim mrežama. Da li društvene mreže zaista povezuju ljude na nove, zanimljive načine? Ne, društvene mreže se svode na korišćenje naših podataka radi predviđanja našeg budućeg ponašanja. Ili, ako je neophodno, radi uticanja na naše buduće ponašanje kako bismo se ponašali više u skladu sa našim statističkim profilima. Digitalna ekonomija - da li je naklonjena ljudima? Ne, ako imate poslovni plan, šta bi trebalo da radite? Da se rešite svih ljudi. Ljudska bića žele zdravstvo, žele novac, žele smisao. Ne možete da rastete s ljudima.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Even our digital apps -- they don't help us form any rapport or solidarity. I mean, where's the button on the ride hailing app for the drivers to talk to one another about their working conditions or to unionize? Even our videoconferencing tools, they don't allow us to establish real rapport. However good the resolution of the video, you still can't see if somebody's irises are opening to really take you in. All of the things that we've done to establish rapport that we've developed over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, they don't work, you can't see if someone's breath is syncing up with yours. So the mirror neurons never fire, the oxytocin never goes through your body, you never have that experience of bonding with the other human being. And instead, you're left like, "Well, they agreed with me, but did they really, did they really get me?" And we don't blame the technology for that lack of fidelity. We blame the other person.
Ni naše digitalne aplikacije - ne pomažu nam da stvorimo bilo kakvu prisnost ili solidarnost. Mislim, gde je tipka na aplikaciji za prevoz putnika za vozače da međusobno razgovaraju o svojim uslovima rada ili da osnuju sindikat? Čak i naša oruđa za video-konferencije nam ne omogućavaju da postignemo istinsku prisnost. Koliko god bila dobra rezolucija snimka, i dalje ne možete da vidite da li se nečije dužice šire u znak istinskog prihvatanja. Sve što smo uradili kako bismo ostvarili prisnost, što smo razvijali stotinama hiljada godina evolucije, ne deluje, ne možete da vidite da li se nečiji dah sinhronizuje sa vašim. Stoga se neuroni ogledala ne pokreću, oksitocin nikad ne projuri kroz vaše telo, nikad nemate iskustvo povezivanja sa drugim ljudskim bićem. Umesto toga, ostajete u fazonu: „Pa, složili su se sa mnom, ali da li su zaista, da li su me zaista shvatili?“ A ne krivimo tehnologiju zbog tog odsustva vernosti. Krivimo drugu osobu.
You know, even the technologies and the digital initiatives that we have to promote humans, are intensely anti-human at the core. Think about the blockchain. The blockchain is here to help us have a great humanized economy? No. The blockchain does not engender trust between users, the blockchain simply substitutes for trust in a new, even less transparent way.
Znate, čak su i tehnologije i digitalne inicijative koje imamo da bi promovisali ljude u srži izrazito neljudske. Razmislite o blokčejnu. Blokčejn je tu da nam pomogne da imamo sjajnu humanu ekonomiju? Ne. Blokčejn ne izaziva poverenje među korisnicima, blokčejn je prosto zamena za poverenje na nov, čak i manje transparentan način.
Or the code movement. I mean, education is great, we love education, and it's a wonderful idea that we want kids to be able to get jobs in the digital future, so we'll teach them code now. But since when is education about getting jobs? Education wasn't about getting jobs. Education was compensation for a job well done. The idea of public education was for coal miners, who would work in the coal mines all day, then they'd come home and they should have the dignity to be able to read a novel and understand it. Or the intelligence to be able to participate in democracy. When we make it an extension of the job, what are we really doing? We're just letting corporations really externalize the cost of training their workers.
Ili pokret kodiranja. Mislim, obrazovanje je sjajno, volimo obrazovanje i radi se o divnoj ideji: želimo da deca mogu da nađu poslove u digitalnoj budućnosti, pa ćemo ih sad podučavati kodiranju. Međutim, otkad se obrazovanje svodi na pronalaženje poslova? Nije se radilo o pronalaženju poslova. Obrazovanje je bilo nadoknada za dobro obavljen posao. Ideja javnog obrazovanja je bila da rudari uglja, koji su radili u rudnicima uglja čitav dan, potom bi došli kući i trebalo je da imaju dostojanstvo da mogu da čitaju roman i da ga razumeju. Ili da budu inteligentni i u stanju da učestvuju u demokratiji. Kada ga pretvorimo u produženu ruku posla, šta zaista radimo? Prosto dozvoljavamo korporacijama da zaista prebace na druge cenu obuke za svoje radnike.
And the worst of all really is the humane technology movement. I mean, I love these guys, the former guys who used to take the algorithms from Las Vegas slot machines and put them in our social media feed so that we get addicted. Now they've seen the error of their ways and they want to make technology more humane. But when I hear the expression "humane technology," I think about cage-free chickens or something. We're going to be as humane as possible to them, until we take them to the slaughter. So now they're going to let these technologies be as humane as possible, as long as they extract enough data and extract enough money from us to please their shareholders. Meanwhile, the shareholders, for their part, they're just thinking, "I need to earn enough money now, so I can insulate myself from the world I'm creating by earning money in this way."
A najgore od svega zaista je pokret humane tehnologije. Mislim, volim te momke, bivši momci koji bi uzeli algoritme iz slot mašina iz Las Vegasa i stavili bi ih u naše društvene mreže kako bismo se navukli. Sada su uvideli greške u svojim postupcima i žele da učine tehnologiju humanijom. Ali kad čujem izraz „humana tehnologija“, pomislim na kokoške van kaveza ili nešto slično. Bićemo što je moguće humaniji prema njima, dok ih ne povedemo u klanicu. Sada će da dozvole tim tehnologijama da budu što je moguće humanije, sve dok izvlače dovoljno podataka i dok izvlače dovoljno novca iz nas kako bi zadovoljili svoje akcionare. Istovremeno, akcionari sa svoje strane, oni prosto misle: „Moram da zaradim dovoljno novca sad, kako bih mogao da se izolujem od sveta koji stvaram zarađujući novac na ovaj način.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
No matter how many VR goggles they slap on their faces and whatever fantasy world they go into, they can't externalize the slavery and pollution that was caused through the manufacture of the very device.
Koliko god naočara za virtuelnu stvarnost da stave na lica i u kakav god fantastični svet da uđu, ne mogu da prebace na druge ropstvo i zagađenje koje je uzrokovano prilikom proizvodnje baš tih naočara.
It reminds me of Thomas Jefferson's dumbwaiter. Now, we like to think that he made the dumbwaiter in order to spare his slaves all that labor of carrying the food up to the dining room for the people to eat. That's not what it was for, it wasn't for the slaves, it was for Thomas Jefferson and his dinner guests, so they didn't have to see the slave bringing the food up. The food just arrived magically, like it was coming out of a "Start Trek" replicator. It's part of an ethos that says, human beings are the problem and technology is the solution.
Podseća me na mali lift Tomasa Džefersona. Sad, volimo da mislimo kako je napravio mali lift ne bi li poštedeo svoje robove svog tog rada kod iznošenja hrane gore u trpezariju kako bi ljudi jeli. Nije služio tome, nije postojao zbog robova, već zbog Tomasa Džefersona i njegovih prijatelja za večerom kako ne bi morali da gledaju roba kako im donosi hranu. Hrana je prosto magično stizala, kao da izlazi iz replikatora iz „Zvezdanih staza“. Deo je uverenja koje kaže: ljudska bića su problem, a tehnologija je rešenje.
We can't think that way anymore. We have to stop using technology to optimize human beings for the market and start optimizing technology for the human future. But that's a really hard argument to make these days, because humans are not popular beings. I talked about this in front of an environmentalist just the other day, and she said, "Why are you defending humans? Humans destroyed the planet. They deserve to go extinct."
Ne možemo više da razmišljamo na taj način. Moramo prestati da koristimo tehnologiju zarad optimizovanja ljudi za tržište i da počnemo da optimizujemo tehnologiju za ljudsku budućnost. Međutim, taj argument je veoma teško izneti ovih dana jer ljudi nisu popularna bića. Razgovarao sam o ovome pred jednom ekološkinjom pre neki dan, a ona je rekla: „Zašto braniš ljude? Ljudi su uništili planetu. Zaslužuju da izumru.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Even our popular media hates humans. Watch television, all the sci-fi shows are about how robots are better and nicer than people. Even zombie shows -- what is every zombie show about? Some person, looking at the horizon at some zombie going by, and they zoom in on the person and you see the person's face, and you know what they're thinking: "What's really the difference between that zombie and me? He walks, I walk. He eats, I eat. He kills, I kill." But he's a zombie. At least you're aware of it. If we are actually having trouble distinguishing ourselves from zombies, we have a pretty big problem going on.
Čak i naši popularni mediji mrze ljude. Pogledajte televiziju, sve naučnofantastične serije su o tome kako su roboti bolji i draži od ljudi. Pa i serije o zombijima - o čemu se radi u svakoj seriji o zombijima? O nekoj osobi koja posmatra horizont kuda prolazi nekakav zombi i onda zumiraju osobu i vidite ljudsko lice i znate o čemu razmišlja: „U čemu je zaista razlika između zombija i mene? On hoda, ja hodam. On jede, ja jedem. On ubija, ja ubijam.“ Međutim, on je zombi. Vi ste bar svesni toga. Ako se zapravo mučimo da razlikujemo sebe od zombija, u prilično smo velikom problemu.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And don't even get me started on the transhumanists. I was on a panel with a transhumanist, and he's going on about the singularity. "Oh, the day is going to come really soon when computers are smarter than people. And the only option for people at that point is to pass the evolutionary torch to our successor and fade into the background. Maybe at best, upload your consciousness to a silicon chip. And accept your extinction."
Nemojte ni da mi pominjete transhumaniste. Bio sam na panelu sa transhumanistom i on je raspredao o singularnosti. „Oh, sve je bliži dan kada će kompjuteri da budu pametniji od ljudi. I jedina opcija za ljude će tada da bude da predaju evolutivnu baklju našim naslednicima i da nestanemo u pozadini. U najboljem slučaju, pak, prebacićemo našu svesnost na silicijumski čip. I prihvatićemo naše izumiranje.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And I said, "No, human beings are special. We can embrace ambiguity, we understand paradox, we're conscious, we're weird, we're quirky. There should be a place for humans in the digital future." And he said, "Oh, Rushkoff, you're just saying that because you're a human."
A ja sam rekao: „Ne, ljudska bića su posebna. Možemo da prigrlimo dvosmislenost, razumemo paradoks, svesni smo, čudni smo, ekscentrični smo. Trebalo bi da postoji mesto za ljude u digitalnoj budućnosti.“ A on je rekao: „Ah, Raškofe, ti samo tako govoriš jer si čovek.“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
As if it's hubris. OK, I'm on "Team Human." That was the original insight of the digital age. That being human is a team sport, evolution's a collaborative act.
Kao da se radi o aroganciji. U redu, ja sam u „Ekipi ljudi“. To je bilo prvobitno zapažanje digitalnog doba. Da je biti čovek ekipni sport, evolucija je čin saradnje.
Even the trees in the forest, they're not all in competition with each other, they're connected with the vast network of roots and mushrooms that let them communicate with one another and pass nutrients back and forth. If human beings are the most evolved species, it's because we have the most evolved ways of collaborating and communicating. We have language. We have technology.
Čak se ni drveće u šumi međusobno ne takmiči, povezani su ogromnom mrežom korenja i gljiva koja im omogućava da međusobno komuniciraju i prenose hranljive stvari. Ako su ljudska bića najevoluiranija vrsta, to je zato što imamo najevoluiranije načine saradnje i komunikacije. Imamo jezik. Imamo tehnologiju.
It's funny, I used to be the guy who talked about the digital future for people who hadn't yet experienced anything digital. And now I feel like I'm the last guy who remembers what life was like before digital technology. It's not a matter of rejecting the digital or rejecting the technological. It's a matter of retrieving the values that we're in danger of leaving behind and then embedding them in the digital infrastructure for the future.
Smešno je, nekad sam bio lik koji je govorio o digitalnoj budućnosti ljudima bez bilo kakvog iskustva sa digitalnim. A sada se osećam kao poslednji čovek koji se seća kako je bilo pre digitalnih tehnologija. Ne radi se o odbacivanju digitalnog ili odbacivanju tehnologije. Radi se o vraćanju vrednosti koje smo u opasnosti da izgubimo, i da ih zatim ugradimo u digitalnu infrastrukturu budućnosti.
And that's not rocket science. It's as simple as making a social network that instead of teaching us to see people as adversaries, it teaches us to see our adversaries as people. It means creating an economy that doesn't favor a platform monopoly that wants to extract all the value out of people and places, but one that promotes the circulation of value through a community and allows us to establish platform cooperatives that distribute ownership as wide as possible. It means building platforms that don't repress our creativity and novelty in the name of prediction but actually promote creativity and novelty, so that we can come up with some of the solutions to actually get ourselves out of the mess that we're in.
A ne radi se o nuklearnoj fizici. Prosto je kao izgradnja društvene mreže koja umesto da nas uči da gledamo na ljude kao na dušmane, uči nas da gledamo na naše dušmane kao na ljude. To znači stvaranje ekonomije koja ne favorizuje platformski monopol koji želi da izvuče svu vrednost iz ljudi i mesta, već one koja promoviše kruženje vrednosti u zajednici i omogućuje nam da stvaramo platformsku saradnju koja raspodeljuje vlasništvo što je šire moguće. To znači izgradnju platformi koje ne potiskuju našu kreativnost i novine u ime predviđanja, već zapravo promovišu kreativnost i novine kako bismo mogli da smislimo nekakva rešenja da se izvučemo iz nereda u kome smo.
No, instead of trying to earn enough money to insulate ourselves from the world we're creating, why don't we spend that time and energy making the world a place that we don't feel the need to escape from.
Ne, umesto što pokušavamo da zaradimo dovoljno novca da bismo se izolovali od sveta koga stvaramo, zašto ne bismo potrošili to vreme i energiju da pretvorimo svet u mesto iz koga nemamo potrebu da bežimo.
There is no escape, there is only one thing going on here. Please, don't leave. Join us. We may not be perfect, but whatever happens, at least you won't be alone. Join "Team Human." Find the others. Together, let's make the future that we always wanted. Oh, and those tech billionaires who wanted to know how to maintain control of their security force after the apocalypse, you know what I told them? "Start treating those people with love and respect right now. Maybe you won't have an apocalypse to worry about."
Nema izlaza, ovde se radi o samo jednom. Molim vas, ne idite. Pridružite nam se. Možda nismo savršeni, ali šta god da se desi, bar nećete da budete usamljeni. Pridružite se „Ekipi ljudi“. Pronađite druge. Hajde da zajedno izgradimo budućnost kakvu smo oduvek želeli. Eh da, a tim milijarderima koji su želeli da znaju kako da održe kontrolu nad bezbednosnim snagama nakon apokalipse, znate šta sam im rekao? „Počnite da se odnosite prema tim ljudima sa ljubavlju i poštovanjem odmah. Možda nećete morati da brinete zbog apokalipse.“
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)