Clouds. Have you ever noticed how much people moan about them? They get a bad rap. If you think about it, the English language has written into it negative associations towards the clouds. Someone who's down or depressed, they're under a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the horizon. I saw an article the other day. It was about problems with computer processing over the Internet. "A cloud over the cloud," was the headline. It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom metaphor. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so, I don't know, commonplace, that people don't notice them. They don't notice the beauty, but they don't even notice the clouds unless they get in the way of the sun. And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some blue-sky thinking. (Laughter) But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their youth. Who here can't remember thinking, well, looking and finding shapes in the clouds when they were kids? You know, when you were masters of daydreaming? Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, he described the clouds as the patron godesses of idle fellows two and a half thousand years ago, and you can see what he means. It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the breeze, and I think that's a pity. I think we should perhaps do a bit more of it. I think we should be a bit more willing, perhaps, to look at the beautiful sight of the sunlight bursting out from behind the clouds and go, "Wait a minute, that's two cats dancing the salsa!" (Laughter) (Applause) Or seeing the big, white, puffy one up there over the shopping center looks like the Abominable Snowman going to rob a bank. (Laughter) They're like nature's version of those inkblot images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills. Let's say you're in love. All right? And you look up and what do you see? Right? Or maybe the opposite. You've just been dumped by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. (Laughter) Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the Grim Reaper. (Laughter) Or maybe you see a topless sunbather. (Laughter) What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea. But one thing I do know is this: The bad press that clouds get is totally unfair. I think we should stand up for them, which is why, a few years ago, I started the Cloud Appreciation Society. Tens of thousands of members now in almost 100 countries around the world. And all these photographs that I'm showing, they were sent in by members. And the society exists to remind people of this: Clouds are not something to moan about. Far from it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your head in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your feet on the ground. And I want to show you why, with the help of some of my favorite types of clouds. Let's start with this one. It's the cirrus cloud, named after the Latin for a lock of hair. It's composed entirely of ice crystals cascading from the upper reaches of the troposphere, and as these ice crystals fall, they pass through different layers with different winds and they speed up and slow down, giving the cloud these brush-stroked appearances, these brush-stroke forms known as fall streaks. And these winds up there can be very, very fierce. They can be 200 miles an hour, 300 miles an hour. These clouds are bombing along, but from all the way down here, they appear to be moving gracefully, slowly, like most clouds. And so to tune into the clouds is to slow down, to calm down. It's like a bit of everyday meditation. Those are common clouds. What about rarer ones, like the lenticularis, the UFO-shaped lenticularis cloud? These clouds form in the region of mountains. When the wind passes, rises to pass over the mountain, it can take on a wave-like path in the lee of the peak, with these clouds hovering at the crest of these invisible standing waves of air, these flying saucer-like forms, and some of the early black-and-white UFO photos are in fact lenticularis clouds. It's true. A little rarer are the fallstreak holes. All right? This is when a layer is made up of very, very cold water droplets, and in one region they start to freeze, and this freezing sets off a chain reaction which spreads outwards with the ice crystals cascading and falling down below, giving the appearance of jellyfish tendrils down below. Rarer still, the Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud. Not a very snappy name. Needs a rebrand. This looks like a series of breaking waves, and it's caused by shearing winds -- the wind above the cloud layer and below the cloud layer differ significantly, and in the middle, in between, you get this undulating of the air, and if the difference in those speeds is just right, the tops of the undulations curl over in these beautiful breaking wave-like vortices. All right. Those are rarer clouds than the cirrus, but they're not that rare. If you look up, and you pay attention to the sky, you'll see them sooner or later, maybe not quite as dramatic as these, but you'll see them. And you'll see them around where you live. Clouds are the most egalitarian of nature's displays, because we all have a good, fantastic view of the sky. And these clouds, these rarer clouds, remind us that the exotic can be found in the everyday. Nothing is more nourishing, more stimulating to an active, inquiring mind than being surprised, being amazed. It's why we're all here at TED, right? But you don't need to rush off away from the familiar, across the world to be surprised. You just need to step outside, pay attention to what's so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everybody else misses it. One cloud that people rarely miss is this one: the cumulonimbus storm cloud. It's what's produces thunder and lightning and hail. These clouds spread out at the top in this enormous anvil fashion stretching 10 miles up into the atmosphere. They are an expression of the majestic architecture of our atmosphere. But from down below, they are the embodiment of the powerful, elemental force and power that drives our atmosphere. To be there is to be connected in the driving rain and the hail, to feel connected to our atmosphere. It's to be reminded that we are creatures that inhabit this ocean of air. We don't live beneath the sky. We live within it. And that connection, that visceral connection to our atmosphere feels to me like an antidote. It's an antidote to the growing tendency we have to feel that we can really ever experience life by watching it on a computer screen, you know, when we're in a wi-fi zone. But the one cloud that best expresses why cloudspotting is more valuable today than ever is this one, the cumulus cloud. Right? It forms on a sunny day. If you close your eyes and think of a cloud, it's probably one of these that comes to mind. All those cloud shapes at the beginning, those were cumulus clouds. The sharp, crisp outlines of this formation make it the best one for finding shapes in. And it reminds us of the aimless nature of cloudspotting, what an aimless activity it is. You're not going to change the world by lying on your back and gazing up at the sky, are you? It's pointless. It's a pointless activity, which is precisely why it's so important. The digital world conspires to make us feel eternally busy, perpetually busy. You know, when you're not dealing with the traditional pressures of earning a living and putting food on the table, raising a family, writing thank you letters, you have to now contend with answering a mountain of unanswered emails, updating a Facebook page, feeding your Twitter feed. And cloudspotting legitimizes doing nothing. (Laughter) And sometimes we need — (Applause) Sometimes we need excuses to do nothing. We need to be reminded by these patron goddesses of idle fellows that slowing down and being in the present, not thinking about what you've got to do and what you should have done, but just being here, letting your imagination lift from the everyday concerns down here and just being in the present, it's good for you, and it's good for the way you feel. It's good for your ideas. It's good for your creativity. It's good for your soul. So keep looking up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Oblaci. Da li ste primetili koliko ljudi jadikuje zbog njih? Oni su na lošem glasu. Ako malo razmislite, u engleskom jeziku oblaci imaju negativne asocijacije. Ako je neko potišten ili depresivan, nad njim se nadvio oblak. Ako se nazire neka loša vest, kaže se da je na horizontu oblačno. Video sam jedan članak pre nekoliko dana. Bio je o problemima procesora nad internetom. Naslov je bio: "Oblak nad oblakom". Izgleda da je oblak svakome standardna metafora za pesimizam. Po meni, oni su divni, zar ne? Samo smo propustili njihovu lepotu jer su sveprisutni, pa ih obično ljudi i ne primećuju. Ne zapažaju lepotu, ne zapažaju ni oblake, dok ne zaklone sunce. Ljudi razmišljaju o oblacima kao o stvarima koje smetaju. Razmišljaju o njima kao o nečem što nervira, što je dosadna prepreka, onda odjure i maštaju. (Smeh) Ali većina ljudi, kada zastanete da ih pitate, priznaće da krije u sebi neku čudnu naklonost prema oblacima. To je neka nostalgična naklonost i tera ih da misle o mladosti. Ko ovde ne može da se seti gledanja u oblake i nalaženja raznih oblika kada smo bili deca? Sećate se, kada ste bili majstori sanjarenja. Aristofan, drevni grčki dramski pisac, opisao je oblake kao boginje zaštitnice usamljenih momaka, pre dve i po hiljade godina, i možete razumeti šta je time mislio. Samo u sadašnjosti, mi odrasli nerado dozvoljavamo sebi zadovoljstvo da dozvolimo mašti da plovi po povetarcu i mislim da je to šteta. Mislim da bi trebalo više pustiti mašti na volju. Trebalo bi da smo više voljni da pogledamo divan prizor probijanja sunčevih zraka iza oblaka i da kažemo: "Čekaj samo, pa ovo su dve mačke koje plešu salsu!" (Smeh) (Aplauz) Ili ako pogledate ovaj veliki, beli, pufnasti, iznad tržnog centra, izgleda kao neki Užasni Sneško koji će opljačkati banku. (Smeh) Oni su odgovor prirode na mrlje od mastila, znate, koje su psihijatri pokazivali pacijentima '60-tih godina, i ako uzmete u obzir oblike koje vidite u oblacima, uštedećete na računu za psihoanalizu. Recimo da ste zaljubljeni. U redu? Pogledate gore i šta vidite? Dobro? Ili možda suprotno. Upravo vas je odbacio partner i gde god da gledate, vidite parove koji se ljube. (Smeh) Možda imate trenutak egzistencijalne strepnje. Možda razmišljate o svojoj smrtnosti. I tamo, na horizontu, je Smrt, sa velikim S. (Smeh) Možda vidite nekog ko se sunča u toplesu. (Smeh) Šta bi to značilo? Šta bi to značilo? Nemam pojma. Ali jedno znam: primedbe u vezi sa oblacima su potpuno nepravedne. Trebalo bi da se zauzmemo za njih, zato sam pre nekoliko godina osnovao Društvo za uvažavanje oblaka. Ima desetine hiljada članova u skoro 100 zemalja u svetu. Sve ove slike koje prikazujem poslali su članovi društva. Društvo postoji da bi podsetilo ljude na sledeće: ne treba jadikovati u vezi sa oblacima. Daleko od toga. Oni su, u stvari, najraznolikiji, najsugestivniji, najpoetičniji aspekt prirode. Ako ponekad živite u oblacima, to vam pomaže da čvrsto stojite na zemlji. A pokazaću vam i zašto, uz pomoć nekih mojih omiljenih tipova oblaka. Da počnemo sa ovim. Ovo je oblak cirus, koji je nazvan po latinskoj reči za uvojak kose. Sastoji se uglavnom od ledenih kristala koji se stepenasto spuštaju iz gornjih delova troposfere i dok kristali padaju, prolaze kroz različite slojeve, sa raznim vetrovima ubrzavaju se i usporavaju, dajući ovim oblacima izgled kao da su potezi urađeni četkom, ovi potezi se nazivaju padajući pramenovi. Ovi vetrovi gore mogu biti veoma žestoki. Mogu biti 300-500 km na sat. Oni jure, ali odavde izgleda kao da se kreću graciozno, polako, kao većina oblaka. Uskladiti se sa oblacima znači usporiti, smiriti se. To je vrsta svakodnevne meditacije. Ovo su obični oblaci. A šta je sa retkom vrstom, kao što su lentikularni oblaci NLO oblika? Ovi oblaci formiraju se u planinskim područjima. Kako vetar prolazi, kako se diže da prođe iznad planine, može se pretvoriti u talasastu stazu u zavetrini na vrhu, sa ovim oblacima koji lebde na vrhu nevidljivih vazdušnih talasa, ovi oblici koji liče na leteće tanjire, i neke od prvih crno-belih fotografija NLO, u stvari su lentikularni oblaci. Zaista. Malo ređi su oblaci sa otvorima. Ovo se dešava kada se omotač sastoji od vrlo hladnih kapljica vode, i na jednom mestu počne zamrzavanje, i to pokreće lančanu reakciju koja se širi prema spolja sa ledenim kristalima koji stepenasto padaju i izgledaju odozdo kao kraci meduze. Još je ređa vrsta oblaka, Kelvin-Helmholc oblak. Nije neki moderan naziv. Treba da mu se promeni ime. Izgleda kao serija talasa koji se lome, prouzrokovan promenljivim vetrovima - iznad i ispod sloja oblaka značajno se razlikuju a u sredini, između, imamo talasanje vazduha i ako je razlika u brzinama prava, vrhovi talasa uvijaju se u ove isprekidane talasaste vrtloge. Oni su ređi oblaci od cirusa ali ne baš toliko. Ako pogledate gore i obratite pažnju na nebo, pre ili kasnije ćete ih videti možda ne ovako dramatične, ali videćete. Videćete i kod vas. Oblaci su najpravičniji prikaz prirode, jer svi imamo fantastičan pogled na nebo. Ovi oblaci, ovi ređi oblaci, podsećaju nas na to, da egzotiku možemo naći svakodnevno. Ništa nije zdravije, stimulativnije za aktivni, znatiželjni um, od iznenađenja oduševljenja. Zato smo svi na TED-u, zar ne? Ali ne morate bežati od poznatog u svet da biste se iznenadili. Treba samo da iskoračite, da obratite pažnju na ono što je tako uobičajeno, svakodnevno, ovozemaljsko, da niko i ne primećuje. Jedan oblak koji se retko propušta je ovaj: olujni oblak kumulonimbus. On proizvodi grmljavinu, munju i grad. Ovi oblaci šire se na vrhu u ovaj ogroman oblik nakovnja i prostiru se na 16 km visoko u atmosferu. Oni su izraz veličanstvene arhitekture naše atmosfere. Ali odozdo oni su oličenje moćne, elementarne sile i snage koja pokreće atmosferu. Biti prisutan znači biti povezan sa energičnom kišom i gradom, osećati povezanost sa atmosferom. To je podsećanje da smo mi stvorenja koja naseljavaju ovaj vazdušni okean. Ne živimo ispod neba. Živimo unutar njega. Ta veza, ta intuitivna veza sa atmosferom meni se čini kao protivotrov. To je protivotrov koji moramo osetiti prema rastućoj tendenciji da stvarno možemo iskusiti život gledajući ga na ekranu kompjutera ili kad smo u wi-fi zoni. Ali oblak koji najbolje izražava zašto je posmatanje oblaka vrednije danas, nego ikada ranije, je ovaj kumulus. On nastaje kad je sunčan dan. Kada zatvorite oči i pomislite na oblak verovatno mislite na ovaj. Svi oni oblici oblaka sa početka bili su kumulusi. Oštri, jasni obrisi ovih formacija najbolji su za pronalaženje raznih oblika u njima. Podseća nas na besciljnu prirodu posmatranja oblaka, koliko je to spontana aktivnost. Nećete promeniti svet ako ležite na leđima zureći u nebo. To je beznačajna aktivnost, baš je zato toliko važna. Digitalni svet kuje zaveru da bismo se osećali večito užurbani, neprestano zauzeti. Znate, kada niste pod pritiskom zarađivanja za život, obezbeđivanja hrane i podizanja porodice, pisanja pisama zahvalnosti, kada morate odgovoriti na brdo imejlova na koje niste odgovorili, morate ažurirati Fejsbuk stranicu, i tvitovati. A posmatranje oblaka vam daje za pravo da ne radite ništa. (Smeh) Ponekad treba - (Aplauz) Ponekad nam trebaju izgovori da ne bismo ništa radili. Treba da nas podsećaju ove boginje zaštitnice usamljenih momaka da usporimo, da budemo prisutni u sadašnjosti, da ne mislimo o tome šta treba da radimo i šta je trebalo da uradimo, nego samo da postojimo, da dozvolimo mašti da nas uzdigne od svakodnevnih briga i da jednostavno budemo prisutni u sadašnjosti, to je za vaše dobro, dobro je za vaše raspoloženje. Dobro je za ideje. Dobro je za kreativnost. Dobro je za dušu. Nastavite da gledate gore, divite se prolaznoj lepoti i zapamtite: živite sa glavom u oblacima. Mnogo vam hvala. (Aplauz)