(Music)
(Muzika)
Roughly 43,000 years ago, a young cave bear died in the rolling hills on the northwest border of modern day Slovenia. A thousand years later, a mammoth died in southern Germany. A few centuries after that, a griffon vulture also died in the same vicinity. And we know almost nothing about how these animals met their deaths, but these different creatures dispersed across both time and space did share one remarkable fate. After their deaths, a bone from each of their skeletons was crafted by human hands into a flute.
Pre oko 43 000 godina, mladi pećinski medved je uginuo u strmim brdima na severozapadnoj granici današnje Slovenije. Hiljadu godina kasnije, mamut je uginuo u južnoj Nemačkoj. Nekoliko vekova potom, beloglavi sup je takođe uginuo u istoj oblasti. A mi ne znamo gotovo bilo šta o tome kako su umrle ove životinje, ali ova različita stvorenja raštrkana i u vremenu i prostoru dele neverovatnu sudbinu. Nakon njihove smrti, kosti od njihovih skeleta su ljudske ruke izdeljale u frulu.
Think about that for a second. Imagine you're a caveman, 40,000 years ago. You've mastered fire. You've built simple tools for hunting. You've learned how to craft garments from animal skins to keep yourself warm in the winter. What would you choose to invent next? It seems preposterous that you would invent the flute, a tool that created useless vibrations in air molecules. But that is exactly what our ancestors did.
Razmislite o tome na tren. Zamislite da ste pećinski čovek od pre 40 000 godina. Ovladali ste vatrom. Napravili ste jednostavna oruđa za lov. Naučili ste kako da napravite odeću od životinjske kože kako biste se grejali tokom zime. Šta biste odlučili da izumite sledeće? Čini se apsurdnim da biste izumeli frulu, oruđe koje je stvaralo beskorisne vibracije u molekulima vazduha. Ali baš to su naši preci uradili.
Now this turns out to be surprisingly common in the history of innovation. Sometimes people invent things because they want to stay alive or feed their children or conquer the village next door. But just as often, new ideas come into the world simply because they're fun. And here's the really strange thing: many of those playful but seemingly frivolous inventions ended up sparking momentous transformations in science, in politics and society.
Sad, ispostavlja se da je ovo iznenađujuće uobičajeno u istoriji izuma. Ponekad ljudi izume nešto jer žele da prežive ili da hrane svoju decu ili da osvoje susedno selo. No jednako često, nove ideje nastaju prosto jer su zabavne. A evo šta je zaista čudno: mnogi od ovih razigranih, ali naoko frivolnih izuma su na kraju podstakli značajne transformacije u nauci, politici i društvu.
Take what may be the most important invention of modern times: programmable computers. Now, the standard story is that computers descend from military technology, since many of the early computers were designed specifically to crack wartime codes or calculate rocket trajectories. But in fact, the origins of the modern computer are much more playful, even musical, than you might imagine. The idea behind the flute, of just pushing air through tubes to make a sound, was eventually modified to create the first organ more than 2,000 years ago. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of triggering sounds by pressing small levers with our fingers, inventing the first musical keyboard. Now, keyboards evolved from organs to clavichords to harpsichords to the piano, until the middle of the 19th century, when a bunch of inventors finally hit on the idea of using a keyboard to trigger not sounds but letters. In fact, the very first typewriter was originally called "the writing harpsichord."
Uzmite nešto što je možda najvažniji izum savremnog doba: kompjuteri za programiranje. Sad, uobičajena je priča da kompjuteri potiču od vojne tehnologije, pošto su mnogi od ranih kompjutera bili naročito dizajnirani da dešifruju vojne šifre ili da računaju putanje raketa. Međutim, nastanak savremenog kompjutera je daleko razigraniji, čak muzikalniji, nego što mislite. Ideja za frulu, da prosto istiskujete vazduh kroz cevi kako biste stvorili zvuk, je kasnije modifikovana da bi nastale prve orgulje pre vše od 2 000 godina. Nekome je pala na pamet briljantna ideja da stvara zvuk pritiskajući male poluge našim prstima, stvarajući tako prvu muzičku klavijaturu. Sad, klavijature su se razvijale od orgulja preko klavikorda i cimbala do klavira, sve do sredine 19. veka, kada je hrpi izumitelja konačno pala na pamet ideja da koriste klavijaturu da bi stvarali, ne zvuk, već slova. Zapravo, prva pisaća mašina je prvobitno nazivana "cimbalom za pisanje".
Flutes and music led to even more powerful breakthroughs. About a thousand years ago, at the height of the Islamic Renaissance, three brothers in Baghdad designed a device that was an automated organ. They called it "the instrument that plays itself." Now, the instrument was basically a giant music box. The organ could be trained to play various songs by using instructions encoded by placing pins on a rotating cylinder. And if you wanted the machine to play a different song, you just swapped a new cylinder in with a different code on it. This instrument was the first of its kind. It was programmable.
Frule i muzika su doveli čak i do moćnijih revolucionarnih izuma. Pre oko hiljadu godina, na vrhuncu islamske renesanse, tri brata iz Bagdada su dizajnirala spravu automatske orgulje. Nazvali su je "instrument koji svira samog sebe". Sad, instrument je u suštini bio džinovska muzička kutija. Orgulje su mogle da budu obučene da sviraju niz pesama koristeći uputstva šifrovana tako što su stavljali igle na rotirajući cilindar. A ako biste poželeli da mašina svira drugu pesmu, prosto biste stavili novi cilindar sa drugačijom šifrom. Ovo je bio prvi instrument te vrste. Bilo ga je moguće programirati.
Now, conceptually, this was a massive leap forward. The whole idea of hardware and software becomes thinkable for the first time with this invention. And that incredibly powerful concept didn't come to us as an instrument of war or of conquest, or necessity at all. It came from the strange delight of watching a machine play music.
Konceptualno je ovo bio veliki skok napred. Čitava ideja o hardveru i softveru postaje zamisliva, prvi put, zahvaljujući ovom izumu. A taj neverovatno moćan koncept nije za nas bio oruđe rata ili osvajanja, pa čak ni nužde. Potekao je od čudesnog užitka posmatranja mašine kako svira.
In fact, the idea of programmable machines was exclusively kept alive by music for about 700 years. In the 1700s, music-making machines became the playthings of the Parisian elite. Showmen used the same coded cylinders to control the physical movements of what were called automata, an early kind of robot. One of the most famous of those robots was, you guessed it, an automated flute player designed by a brilliant French inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson.
Zapravo, ideju o mašinama za programiranje je oko 700 godina isključivo muzika održavala u životu. Mašine koje prave muziku su 1700-ih postale igračke pariske elite. Zabavljači su koristili identične šifrovane cilindre da bi kontrolisali fizičke pokrete takozvanih automata, ranijih verzija robota. Jedan od najpoznatijih ovih robota je bio, pogađate, automatizovani svirač frule kog je dizajnirao sjajni francuski izumitelj po imenu Žak de Vokanso.
And as de Vaucanson was designing his robot musician, he had another idea. If you could program a machine to make pleasing sounds, why not program it to weave delightful patterns of color out of cloth? Instead of using the pins of the cylinder to represent musical notes, they would represent threads with different colors. If you wanted a new pattern for your fabric, you just programmed a new cylinder. This was the first programmable loom.
I dok je De Vokanso dizajnirao svog robota muzičara, javila mu se druga ideja. Ako možemo da programiramo mašinu da pravi ugodne zvuke, zašto je ne programirati da tka divne šare boja i tkanina? Umesto upotrebe igala na cilindru u predstavljanju muzičkih nota, koristili bi ih za stvaranje niti različitih boja. Ako želite novu šaru za vašu tkaninu, prosto programirate novi cilindar. Ovo je bio prvi razboj na programiranje.
Now, the cylinders were too expensive and time-consuming to make, but a half century later, another French inventor named Jacquard hit upon the brilliant idea of using paper-punched cards instead of metal cylinders. Paper turned out to be much cheaper and more flexible as a way of programming the device. That punch card system inspired Victorian inventor Charles Babbage to create his analytical engine, the first true programmable computer ever designed. And punch cards were used by computer programmers as late as the 1970s.
Cilindri su bili suviše skupi i njihova izrada je dugo trajala, ali nekoliko vekova kasnije, drugi francuski izumitelj, po imenu Žakard, došao je na briljantnu ideju da koristi kartice od izbušenog papira umesto metalnih cilindara. Papir se ispostavio kao jeftiniji i fleksibilniji kao sprava za programiranje. Ovaj sistem izbušenih karti je inspirisao viktorijanskog izumitelja Čarlsa Babidža da napravi svoj analitički motor, prvi istinski kompjuter za programiranje koji je ikad dizajniran. A probušene kartice su koristili kompjuterski programeri sve do 1970-ih.
So ask yourself this question: what really made the modern computer possible? Yes, the military involvement is an important part of the story, but inventing a computer also required other building blocks: music boxes, toy robot flute players, harpsichord keyboards, colorful patterns woven into fabric, and that's just a small part of the story. There's a long list of world-changing ideas and technologies that came out of play: public museums, rubber, probability theory, the insurance business and many more.
Stoga se zapitajte sledeće: šta je zaista omogućilo nastanak savremenih kompjutera? Da, angažman vojske je važan deo priče, ali je nastanak kompjutera takođe zahtevao drugu građu: muzičke kutije, igračke robote svirače frule, cimbalove klavijature, raznobojne šare istkane na platnu, a to je samo mali deo priče. Imamo dugu listu ideja i tehnologija koje su promenile svet a nastale su iz igre: javni muzeji, guma, teorija verovatnoće, posao sa osiguranjem i mnogi drugi.
Necessity isn't always the mother of invention. The playful state of mind is fundamentally exploratory, seeking out new possibilities in the world around us. And that seeking is why so many experiences that started with simple delight and amusement eventually led us to profound breakthroughs.
Nužda nije uvek majka izuma. Razigrano stanje uma je suštinski istraživački naklonjeno, traga za novim mogućnostima u svetu oko nas. A to traganje je razlog zašto su mnoga iskustva, koja su počela prostim oduševljenjem i razonodom, na kraju nas dovela do istinski revolucionarnih otkrića.
Now, I think this has implications for how we teach kids in school and how we encourage innovation in our workspaces, but thinking about play and delight this way also helps us detect what's coming next. Think about it: if you were sitting there in 1750 trying to figure out the big changes coming to society in the 19th, the 20th centuries, automated machines, computers, artificial intelligence, a programmable flute entertaining the Parisian elite would have been as powerful a clue as anything else at the time. It seemed like an amusement at best, not useful in any serious way, but it turned out to be the beginning of a tech revolution that would change the world.
Smatram da ovo ima implikacije za to kako obrazujemo decu u školama i kako podstičemo inovacije na našem radnom mestu, ali razmišljanje o igri i užitku na ovaj način takođe pomaže da otkrijemo šta sledi. Razmislite o tome: kad biste sedeli tamo 1750, pokušavajući da otkrijete nadolazeće velike promene u društvu u XIX i XX veku: automatizovane mašine, kompjutere, veštačku inteligenciju, frula na programiranje koja zabavlja parisku elitu bi bila jednako moćan trag kao bilo šta drugo iz tog vremena. Činilo se kao zabava, u najboljem slučaju, beskorisno na bilo koji ozbiljan način, ali se ispostavilo da je to bio početak tehnološke revolucije koja je promenila svet.
You'll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.
Zateći ćete budućnost gde god se ljudi najviše zabavljaju.