Present Shock -- When Everything Happend Now: Douglas Rushkoff at TEDxNYED
Summary
TLDRThe speaker reflects on the evolution of TED talks and digital technology. Originally, TED talks were unprepared and focused on live, human connection, but have since become more polished and distribution-driven. The speaker reminisces about the early internet's asynchronous nature, where thoughtful communication flourished. They critique how modern technology has shifted from participation to consumption and argue for reclaiming a 'read-write' world where people engage as creators, not just consumers. They advocate for peer-to-peer learning, especially with coding, and emphasize the importance of real-life connections alongside digital interactions.
Takeaways
- đ TED's original rules emphasized live, unprepared talks to foster authentic connections between the speaker and the audience.
- đ€ The evolution of TED has shifted towards polished, rehearsed presentations, often involving attempts to go viral with videos and PowerPoint slides.
- đ°ïž The early internet allowed people to reclaim time and engage thoughtfully through asynchronous communication, which was lost in today's always-on culture.
- đ¶ Early online spaces enabled more reflective and intelligent conversations, where people had time to craft thoughtful responses.
- đĄ The digital world should have remained a space for live, real-time interaction, but it became more about consumption than participation.
- đ ïž Technology has shifted from tools of creation and empowerment to mechanisms of constant engagement and consumption.
- đ Modern education is disrupted by technology, favoring passive content consumption over participatory, peer-to-peer learning.
- đ The internet should facilitate a culture of learning, where people share knowledge as peers, not just download content for personal advancement.
- đ§ Coding is best taught online, and it represents more than just engineering â it's a liberal art, helping people think critically about digital platforms.
- đ± The goal of digital culture should be to balance real-world interactions with online tools, using both to enhance human connection and creativity.
Q & A
What were the original rules for TED talks as learned from Richard Saul Wurman?
-The original rules for TED talks, as learned from Richard Saul Wurman in 1993 or 1994, were that speakers were not allowed to prepare, and they could not sell anything from the stage. They had 11 minutes to get up and share their ideas with the audience.
How does the speaker contrast TED talks from the past with the current format?
-The speaker notes that TED talks have shifted from spontaneous, unprepared presentations to more polished, practiced talks, often focused on selling ideas or products. There is now a bias towards distributing these talks via video, with the hope that they will go viral.
What does the speaker say about the live connection between people in a real space?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of live connections between people in real spaces, which Richard Saul Wurman recognized as valuable and unique in the digital age. This connection is now being overshadowed by the focus on digital distribution.
How does the speaker view the evolution of the internet in relation to its original promise?
-The speaker believes that the internet was originally seen as a tool to reclaim personal time and avoid the constraints of traditional work. However, over time, it has become an 'always-on' technology that keeps people constantly connected and responding, losing the asynchronous advantage it once provided.
What is the speakerâs critique of the current use of social media platforms like Facebook?
-The speaker criticizes social media platforms for creating a consumer-based relationship with technology. People, like 'Johnny,' might believe platforms like Facebook are there to help them make friends, but in reality, the platforms are designed to monetize users' social interactions and data.
How does the speaker relate the concept of 'read-only' vs. 'read-write' files to the world?
-The speaker reflects on their first experience with saving files on a computer and how it changed their perspective on the world. They realized that many systems (like law, money, and society) are treated as 'read-only'âfixed and unchangeableâwhen they could be 'read-write,' meaning open to change and interaction.
What does the speaker mean by the 'read-write universe'?
-The 'read-write universe' refers to the idea that the world is not fixed and can be modified or programmed, just like files on a computer. It is a metaphor for viewing systems, structures, and society as things that can be changed or reprogrammed by people.
How does the speaker see the role of technology in education?
-The speaker argues that while the internet could be a tool for participatory and peer-to-peer learning, it is often used to reinforce traditional, top-down education models. Online learning platforms frequently emphasize downloading pre-recorded lectures from famous professors rather than fostering interactive, real-time learning environments.
What are the three types of education the speaker believes coding should inspire?
-The speaker believes coding should inspire three types of education: 1) Coding as engineering, teaching the technical skill of programming, 2) Coding as a liberal art, teaching critical thinking about digital environments, and 3) Programming as culture, which involves understanding the cultural and societal implications of digital technology.
What does the speaker suggest is being lost in digital education?
-The speaker suggests that the live interaction and engagement between teachers and students are being lost in digital education. Professors are increasingly relying on scripted performances and losing the ability to respond to their audience in real time, reducing the richness of the learning experience.
Outlines
đ€ The Evolution of TED Talks
The speaker reflects on the original rules of TED Talks as introduced by Richard Saul Wurman in the 1990s, emphasizing authenticity and spontaneity. The speaker contrasts this with the current practice, where talks are often polished presentations aimed at widespread distribution. The essence of early TED was to celebrate live, real-time interaction rather than rehearsed performances or promotion of projects.
đ» The Digital Revolution: From Asynchronous to Always On
The speaker reminisces about the early days of the internet in the late 80s and 90s, where it was seen as a tool for reclaiming personal time and breaking away from traditional work structures. Online communication, facilitated by modems and bulletin boards, encouraged deep, thoughtful interaction. However, the speaker laments that digital technology has now become an 'always-on' culture, diminishing the reflective nature of early online engagement.
đ Read-Only vs. Read-Write Universe
The speaker reflects on the shift from passive consumption to active participation in the digital world. They recount a personal revelation about 'read-only' vs. 'read-write' files, drawing a parallel to how systems and institutions (like the law or the city grid) are often seen as immutable when, in fact, they can be altered. The speaker highlights the potential power of embracing a read-write mentality in a world increasingly programmed by human decisions.
đ± Technology: From Participation to Consumption
The speaker critiques the modern relationship with technology, focusing on how platforms like Facebook have shifted from being tools for human connection to instruments for data collection and monetization. The shift from active participation to passive consumption is explored, especially in the context of education. The speaker worries that digital education is reinforcing old hierarchies rather than fostering true engagement and peer-to-peer learning.
đ« The Future of Education: Peer-to-Peer Learning
The speaker advocates for a new model of digital education, one that fosters peer-to-peer cultures of learning instead of reinforcing traditional top-down structures. They suggest that education should move beyond content consumption and instead build platforms for active exchange and collaboration, where learners become teachers. The speaker also highlights the importance of teaching coding, both as a technical skill and as a way to critically engage with digital environments.
đ Coding as Culture: Embracing the Read-Write Universe
The speaker concludes by emphasizing the cultural significance of coding and the internet. They argue that people should transition from being passive consumers to active creators in a peer-to-peer, read-write world. The speaker stresses the importance of using technology to foster real-world connections and values live interaction, while leaving the online space for asynchronous collaboration. They encourage a balance between virtual and real-life engagement in building a more participatory digital culture.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄLive Connection
đĄAsynchronous Communication
đĄRead-Only vs. Read-Write
đĄDigital Consumption
đĄMonetization of Social Graphs
đĄPeer-to-Peer Learning
đĄConstructivist Education
đĄCode as a Liberal Art
đĄProgrammed Environments
đĄReal-Time Interaction
Highlights
The original TED rules from the 1990s emphasized no preparation and no selling from the stage, focusing on live, spontaneous sharing.
TED has shifted over time to become more about prepared, practiced talks often aimed at distributing content to a wider audience.
The value of live, real-time connections between people was a key insight by TED's founder Richard Saul Wurman in the digital age.
Early internet culture was seen as a way to reclaim time from traditional work structures, offering flexibility and creativity.
The internet initially encouraged asynchronous engagement, allowing users to think deeply before contributing to discussions.
The speaker highlights how online communication made people sound smarter than they often did in real life due to the time allowed for reflection.
Thereâs a critical shift from viewing technology as participatory and creative to seeing it as a consumption-driven tool.
Digital platforms like Facebook are often misinterpreted as tools for social connection, while their true purpose is to monetize user data.
The internet has evolved from an open-source, read-write environment into a more locked-down, consumer-driven ecosystem.
The speaker views the disruption of education by digital platforms as problematic when it reinforces passive consumption of content instead of participatory learning.
Successful educational platforms should create peer-to-peer cultures of learning rather than focusing solely on distributing lectures from elite professors.
Thereâs a call for digital education to focus on coding not just as a technical skill but as a form of critical thinking and cultural engagement.
Code should be taught not only as engineering but also as a liberal art, encouraging critical thinking about the impact of digital environments.
Programming can inspire cultural participation, moving people from passive consumers to creators in a peer-to-peer society.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of real-world, face-to-face connections, which are becoming rare in the digital age.
Transcripts
so the original rules for Ted as I
learned them from Richard Saul Wurman
back in gosh 1993 or 94 was that you
were not allowed to prepare you weren't
allowed to sell from the stage right you
basically had 11 minutes you got up and
you shared and it's interesting where
Ted's gone since then right I mean now
it's so much of it is I have this object
you know and once we get our funding it
will save the world and children in
India will eat and here's my PowerPoint
to show you how that's gonna happen and
you know and this this sort of practiced
this practice thing that's that's really
biased towards distribution right the
idea is I'm going to do this talk here
and then hopefully my video will be the
one that spreads but what what Richard
understood was that at the dawn of the
digital age that the live connection
between people in a space could become a
very valuable special unique thing right
and that bringing people into real time
in a real space together could finally
be appreciated for what it is because we
have this internet we have this digital
technology to do this other thing right
when the net first came around and for
me anyway in the late 80s early 90s the
thing that most of us thought was that
this was going to be a way that I could
reclaim my time from the man right we
were part of that that slacker era right
where we thought now we can stay at home
work on our underwear in our own time
and sell things directly to other people
if we want to and then not have to be in
that punch the clock Society anymore not
have to work all the time and I'd have
to sell our time and be sort of on yet
what have we done with these
technologies right as we've taken them
and turned them into always on
technology strap them onto our onto our
bodies and and keep ourselves responding
to them all the time right so we've
taken the asynchronous bias of digital
technology
and kind of forgotten about that and
used it the opposite way because the
beauty of the net in those early days
was how smart everybody sounded when you
when you engaged online well you used to
use modems it was a whole other world
that most have you probably never even
been exposed to right you would you
would log on to your computer you'd plug
it into the phone line you would log on
to a computer that was elsewhere on the
network you would download the
conversation that was in progress and
then you would engage in your own time
you would read this long bulletin board
conversation with all these smart people
and then you would think for hours or
even overnight how am I going to
contribute what am I going to say you
know and then you craft this perfect
paragraph or two over time and then you
upload it again you'd log back in and
upload it and see how people responded
to what you said the strange thing about
the net was you sounded smarter online
than you did in real life I mean imagine
that the internet was a place where you
sounded more intelligent than you do in
real life
and that was what Richard didn't want to
have happen here he wanted people to
have to oh no you're not going to get
that digital advantage you're not gonna
all get to sound like Christopher
Hitchens or William F Buckley or
something you're gonna have to get up
there and just do this thing in real
time which is tricky right it's the
thing that we that we tend not to not to
want to pay attention to anymore it's
the thing that we're that we're losing
touch with in a sense right when I first
engaged with the internet not only was
it a place where we could now program
our time it was a place where we could
program and the in the back in the day
with computers were as easy to program
as they were to use the first time I
ever used a computer it was in a seventh
grade computer lab where we basically
used basic and the first time I had to
save a file it asked me are you saving
this as a read-only file or a readwrite
file I was like what do they mean by
that that was a real
only filed something that people can
look at or is it a readwrite file
something that other people can look at
and change and edit oh my gosh it was a
profound moment for me because then I
looked at television and I said oh my
gosh
you mean these are all being saved as
read-only files but they could have been
readwrite files I start looking at
everything that way I looked at the law
of that way I looked at the Torah that
way I looked at money that wait a minute
these are read-only files but they're
only read-only files cuz they were saved
that way actually we live in a readwrite
universe it's a readwrite world it could
be if it wasn't locked down as read-only
so there was this there was this sense
of of not just wonder but power you know
I walked out into the New York City
streets and saw the grid pattern there
and for the first time understood that
the grid pattern of New York City
streets that's not just City right
that's New York City that was designed
by specific people it's a grid pattern
not through some nature didn't just
evolve it didn't come out of the ground
that way where people decided that's a
program and the whole world started to
look like programs not in a bad way it
was just embedded embedded with logic
you know the way this building is
structured we'll hear about from an
architect today the way this building is
structured in the way the hallways are
there's certain ideas about about
society about how things should be
everything started to look like a
program and everything looked up for
grabs everything looked open-source in
one way or another but as digital
technology evolved it seemed to be much
much less about that you know just as
Ted was less about the live moment about
programming this live interaction
between people the net seemed less of an
invitation to participate and more of an
invitation to consume you know when you
you average kid today you know you look
at Facebook and you think oh this is
look at this place Facebook is here to
help me make friends isn't that great
you know this is what this is for
right the distance between the user and
the program is so great we don't even
know what the programs were using her
for I talked to little Johnny and he
thinks the Facebook's there to help him
make friends you go to Facebook what do
you think they're talking about there
how are we going to help little Johnny
make more friends deeper lasting human
relationships know they're there they're
thinking how are we going to monetize
Johnny's social graph
right how are we going to use big data
to predict what Johnny's gonna do and
then sell Johnny's future to himself
before he knows he's there himself not
evil or pernicious it's just what it is
right so our relationship to technology
became one of a consumer relationship to
this technology rather than one of of
craftspeople of participants we stopped
looking at how can we use technology to
create an exchange value with one
another and more about how can I if I am
gonna learn technology how am I going to
learn it in order to get a job in order
to sell my time to some company and then
come home and buy other stuff from some
other company right it's not about
seeing some kind of a Burning Man Etsy
like peer-to-peer real-time
transactional universe with alternative
currencies which of course is completely
possible with the authentication on a
cell phone but rather how am I going to
be a better consumer and a better worker
which brings me to education and when I
look at the way the net is currently
being used to disrupt education it seems
to be disrupting it from the perspective
of a consumer to the content provider so
I look at all these great
disintermediating technologies through
which people can now download the
courses of great professors you know
when education and we've just gotten to
the place in education where we were
realizing Oh education needs to be a bit
more constructivist and participatory
and the professor is not the provider of
information he's actually someone who
can bring out a conversation and create
engagement just when we're getting there
in the real classroom we take the
internet the great equalizer the great
peer-to-peer platform and we say oh this
is a way to reify that
kind of hero worship oh there's that
great professor who's gotten a hundred
thousand downloads on his lecture that's
the way you can learn you don't need to
go to some school and whatever and pay
that money and give them your time and
follow the path that they've prescribed
just because they've developed that
discipline over 500 years isn't any
reason you should look at it as anything
but an abuse of your you know god-given
agency to pick your own course and do
your own thing no come to the new ala
carte universe of the Internet
University and download that great thing
and meanwhile if you look at the
articles and blogs that the professor's
are writing they have to prepare there's
their speeches where they're scripted
right they've got to go into absolutely
scripted mode and teleprompter every
move everything they do right they lose
all of the live interaction they don't
have nodding heads they don't form
rapport with another person and in the
real world they can't see the people's
pupils are dilating or constricting it's
one performance it's lockdown or to me
that's not the opportunity of digital
education but the opportunity of digital
education is building platforms through
which people can create cultures of
learning peer to peer cultures of
learning it's different from going to a
classroom with a professor which should
be preserved which should be something
it's a different thing it's about a
peer-to-peer culture of learning that's
no longer about money it's no longer
about downloading some piece of
information you know the the most
successful companies I see and
organizations I see in this space are
ones that are creating platforms right
they look more like Etsy than they do
like MIT right they're platforms where
people can now exchange data and be
teachers to one another not worrying
about oh am I getting credit and money
for this no we're part of a culture of
learning moving forward the other thing
I find very encouraging online is the
teaching of computers online but if
there's one thing to teach with
computers its computers that's a great
thing I don't want to be learning my
Aristotle on it on an online discussion
board but I would I would like learning
my programming there it's a great place
it's a site-specific
place to teach code but there's really
three kinds of Education that coding
should be and should inspire right the
first is coding as engineering right
learn the language here's the course in
Python here's a course in Java and
here's how to do it nice interact teach
coding as engineering the skill of
coding right the second thing is code as
a liberal art which is maybe more
important for most people these days how
do I think critically about coding
environments how do I think critically
about Facebook about Twitter how does
this interface make me feel what is it
biased for what is it doing what are the
economics behind it what are the
embedded agendas how could they be
tweaked how could this be used
effectively the same way we look at
literature the same way we look at
architecture the same way we look at art
we should be able to look at our
platforms that are programmed
environments and finally and maybe most
importantly is programming as culture
the internet as culture what does it
mean to move from a passive industrial
age employee consumer role to one of a
creator in a peer-to-peer society what
does it mean to live in a readwrite
universe what does it mean to have
virtual representation and real-life
representation how do I use these right
not one or the other but how do I use
both of them as I move forward right for
me it's become about exploiting every
opportunity I have with real people in
the real world to connect on this level
that's becoming increasingly rare right
and then leaving the online space
leaving the digital space for what it is
right and that's hard to do right it's
hard to maintain eye-contact when we're
in a space that's designed for you know
video replication right but it can be
done it can be when you do it boy you
know you reconnect to something else
okay that's enough from me thanks a lot
and take care have a good day
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