Juan Enriquez :分享令人吃惊的新科技

===============================
http://dotsub.com/view/f63c0c80-5fa0-4e83-9ad1-c8122a69e17d
Juan Enriquez :分享令人吃惊的新科技
经济是个重要，而又常被避开的话题。 让我们来聊下它。 我想给你们看看目前的经济状况。 这是我自己身后的东西。
笑声
言归正传，当然我们需要记住的, 并且你们需要思考的是, 当你们在热焰上跳舞，后面会发生什么？ 所以在接下来的17.5分钟里，我着意要做的是 首先要谈一谈这火焰 目前我们所处的经济状况 接着我要提出三个趋势 这三个趋势已经在过去25年的TED大会上提到过 也会在这次的会议上涉及 并且我会尝试把它们联系到一起。 同时尝试展示给你们看终极的复苏会是怎样的。 这三个趋势是 细胞工程 组织工程 机器人工程 并且大家都会理解
不过，我们还是从经济讲起吧 有一些非常大的问题仍然存在 一个是杠杆化 杠杆化的问题是 它把美国的财政系统弄成了这个样子
（笑声）
一个普通的商业银行有9到10倍 这意味着你存进银行的每一块钱都能贷出大约9或者10块 一个普通的投资银行不是存款银行， 它是一个投资银行； 有着大约15到20倍。 结果美洲银行在9月份是32倍。 花旗银行有47倍。 喔哦。 这就是说每笔坏帐会坏上47倍。 那当然，就是为什么你们 做出了这么慷慨和美妙的捐赠 给这些人们。 当你们在想这件事情的时候， 你们会觉得好奇：那银行里现在还为你们存着些什么呢？ （笑声） 显然不是很棒
与此同时，政府扮的像圣诞老人一样 我们都爱圣诞老人不是吗？ 不过，圣诞老人有个问题是， 如果你回顾下这些人的所作所为而导致的“强制性开销” 以及他们所承诺给人们的事项。 结果到了1937年，38％都是“强制性开销” 在了我们所谓“权利”上。 到了07年变成了68%。 到2030年左右，会达到100％ 然而，如果我们再急不可耐的这里几万亿，那里几万亿 这个估算结果会提前 到2017年。 我们认为自己将有能力不让我们的孩子承担这些债务， 但，你猜怎么着？ 我们才开始偿还它们。 关于这些事情的问题是，现在支票到期了， 结果圣诞老人在夏天并不那么可爱了。 对吗？
笑声
这里是美国最大的投资商中的一位提出的一些建议。 这个人经营中国投资集团。 他是美国国库券的主要购买者。 他在11月出席了一次访谈。 这是他的第一条建议。 这是他的第二条建议。 顺便说一下， 中国国务院总理上周日在达沃斯又重申了这点。 情况已经不容乐观了 如果我们仍然不重视这些缺陷 结果就会是大量亏损。 仅此一项，就足以带来不堪设想的结果。
让我给你们看看情况会是怎样的。 我想我可以很有把握地说 我会是这个房间里唯一的万亿富翁。 这是一张真的钞票。 它值10万亿美元。 问题只是它其实并不值这么多。 上周是8块，这周就是4块， 下周只值1块了。 当我们支撑不了汇率的时候，这样的情况就会发生。 所以下次有类似这样可爱的人出现在你的门口时， 有时候这个东西叫克莱斯勒或者有时是福特或者别的名字， 你就要说不。 并且你必须开始不再使用“权益”这个词。 就眼前来说我们这样做的理由 就是我们没钱了。
如果你们去看看联邦政府的预算，就是这个样子的 橙色部分是自由资金， 别的都是强制性的。 在整件事情里即使我们切断通向阿拉斯加的桥也不会发生什么变化。 所以我们不得不开始计划要做的 就是封住医疗支出 因为这是一头将会要吞噬掉所有预算的怪物。 我们开始想要求人们 晚一点退休。 如果你是在60倒65岁之间正常退休， 你的退休金刚刚只受到一些影响。 如果你是50到60岁之间,我们希望你再多做两年。 如果你50不到,我们希望你再多做4年。 这样做合理的原因是， 当你祖父获得社会保障时， 他们在65岁时开始领，68岁时领完。 如今68岁算年轻了。 我们也需要每年削减军费3％。
并且限制其他强制开销。 我们不能再借这么多钱 否则利息会吞噬整个预算。 最后就剩下一个更小的政府。 如果我们不开始改变这个趋势， 就将会蒙受经济上的损失 就会沦为象冰岛一样 。 我知道你们在想什么。 这一切只有在地狱封冻了才会发生。 但是我提醒你今年11月维加斯的确下雪了。
笑声
如果你们不处理这些事，就将会发生的以下情况。 日本发生过一次财政地产危机 在80年代后期。 今天它的225家最大的企业 只有相当于18年前四分之一的价值。 我们现在不解决这个问题， 你是否乐意在2026年看到一个到琼斯3500点？ 因为这就是不处理这些事情的后果。 除非你希望这个人 不仅变成佛罗里达州的首席财政官，并且掌管美国经济， 我们最好处理好这些事情。 以上是目前的情况，就是火焰的部分。 这就是金融危机。
现在，在金融危机背后的是第二波更大的浪潮 这是我们需要讲的。 这股浪潮要大的多，也有力的多， 当然这是技术的浪潮。 在这里面最重要的是， 当我们在削减的同时，也需要增长。 不说别的，就只说新晋的公司 只占美国GDP的投资的0.02％ 却带来了17.8%的产出 这样的一群人比如在这个房间内的各位便是创造美国经济未来的人。 这是我们需要保持增长的部分。 我们不必毫无方向地发展。 因此让我们把浪漫派作家带进这场谈话中。 这是三个趋势合并到一起的地方 便是微生物工程 组织工程 机器人工程 所导向的复苏。 让我重述一些你们所见过的东西。
克雷格 凡特去年来到这里 并展示给大家第一个完全可编程的，运行起来就像计算机硬件般的细胞 你能植入DNA，并且启动它，变成另一个物种。 与此同时，在MIT的人们 开始制定生物器官的标准注册表。 可以把这些想像成一股生物界的震荡波。 你可以获得你的蛋白质，RNA,DNA,或者任何东西。 并开始制造东西。 在2006年他们组织了一些高中生和大学生 开始制造这些奇怪的小东西。 它们的确活了起来而不只是电路板
这是它们制造的第一个东西 细胞有这样的一个周期 起先它们不生长 接着以指数速度生长 然后又停止 研究生们希望找到一种方法能知道他们是处在什么阶段 所以他们改造了这些细胞 这样这些细胞就能在指数增长阶段时， 散发除鹿蹄草的味道 当它们停止生长就会闻起来像香蕉 这样你就能很方便地知道你的实验什么时候是顺利的 什么时候不起作用，以及它正处在什么阶段
在两年后这个实验又变得更复杂了一点 21个国家参与了进来，几十个团队 他们开始竞争 莱斯大学的团队开始改造红酒里的物质 把那些对你有好处的东西 放进啤酒 你可以提炼出白藜芦醇放进啤酒 当然，有一位评审走过时，发出这样的惊叹 哇哦！抗癌啤酒！上帝的确存在！
笑声
来自台湾得团队更雄心勃勃 他们想要这样修改细菌 让它们像你们得肾脏一样工作 4年前，我给你们看了这张图片。 人们惊叹不已， 因为克里夫 塔宾能在鸡身上多长一只翅膀出来 那时候这真是非常酷的东西 现在从细菌改造到生物组织制造 让我来展示给你们看这段时间里发生了什么
2年前，你们看这个生物。 一种几乎灭绝的生物，生活在霍奇米尔科,墨西哥 叫做蝾螈 它能再生自己的四肢 你能冷藏它的半颗心脏，它会再长出来 冷藏它的一半大脑，它会再长出来 几乎就像是离开国会 笑声 但是现在，你不必要那个动物再自我恢复， 因为你能在培养皿里制造克隆的老鼠的磨牙。 当然如果你能在培养皿里制造老鼠牙齿 你就也能在培养皿里生长人类的磨牙 这些不会让你感到惊奇吧？ 你们出生的时候是没有牙齿的 你把自己的牙齿全都给了牙仙 又长出了一副牙齿 但如果你失去了第二副牙齿，就不会再长出来了 除非，你是个律师
（笑声）
当然，我们大多数人， 我们知道怎样生长牙齿，所以我们能取出成人的干细胞， 放进一个能生物降解的模具，再生长出牙齿， 就能很方便地植入它。 我们也能用其他东西来做到这点 一个因为肺结核而生命垂危西班牙妇女获得了一个捐赠的气管， 他们把气管上所有的细胞都去除， 然后在那软骨上面散布了她的干细胞。 她再生了自己的气管， 72小时后它就被植入了。 现在她正和她的孩子一起嬉闹奔跑。 这是在维克丛林里的托尼阿塔拉实验室里发生的 他为受伤的士兵再生长耳朵， 他也再生膀胱。 在波士顿大约有九位女士带着再生的 膀胱四处走动， 相比起整个余生都要带着一大捆塑料袋 出门要愉快多了。
有点无趣了是吗？ 你们都理解发展的方向。 但是它变得更有趣了。 去年，这个小组能取走一颗心脏上所有得细胞， 只留下软骨。 接着，他们在那个心脏上散布来自一只老鼠的干细胞。 这些干细胞自我组织，并且这个心脏开始跳了。 生命出现了。
这或许是最终极的论文之一。 美国和日本都完成了这项实验，在同一时间发表， 然后去年又将皮肤细胞重新激活成干细胞。 这以为着你可以把这里的东西拿出来， 变成你身体里的任何东西。 这正在变得普遍，发展得非常快， 向一系列领域发展。
第三个趋势：机器人。 我们这年龄的人从年轻一直到现在还在期待 家里会有“杰森一家”里的罗茜和罗伯特。 我们现在得到的就是地板清洁器。 笑声 我们也希望这个机器人来为我们预警。 也没发生。 这些机器人是为了一个平等的世界而制造的不是吗？ 罗茜在滑板周围奔跑 其他的在平的线路上跑着。 如果你得不到一个平等的世界，就不好了。 这就是为什么今天我们设计的机器人有些不同。
这是波士顿动力的“大狗”。 这是你目前能看到的最接近物理图林测试的项目。 好了，让我提醒你们，图林测试就是你在一堵墙边， 和墙另一边的某人交谈 同时并不清楚那个东西是人还是动物 这是在当电脑接近了人类的智力的时候。 这不是一个智力图林测试， 但这的确是目前最接近物理图林测试的。 并且这东西移动的非常快， 顺便说下，它能负重350磅。 这些不仅仅是有趣的机器人。 还有苍蝇尺寸的 是由哈佛的罗伯特伍德制造的。 你也会看到斯坦福制造的黏性机器人。 把这些放到一起来看， 把细胞，生物组织工程，和机械工程放到一起， 你开始会发现些非常奇怪的问题
去年的奥林匹克运动会上，这位男士， 打破了好几项特奥会的世界纪律， 并尝试参加常规的奥林匹克。 关于奥斯卡 皮斯特里斯的问题是 他生来腿的下半部分就没有骨头。 他带来另一种评判方式， 他上诉要求要求参赛， 并且胜诉了。 但当时还没被认证。 下界奥林匹克，你能打赌是奥斯卡或是奥斯卡的后继者， 会取得胜利。 并且在两到三界比赛之后，他们就会变的无可匹敌。
当你把这些趋势放到一起，你开始思考这些意味着什么？ 让完全失聪的人再度听到声音 记得助听器的演变史吗？ 你的祖父辈使用这些大圆筒， 你的父辈使用这些奇怪的 会在吃饭时发出怪声的盒子， 现在我们有了这些没人看的见的小设备。 目前又有把耳蜗植入 进入人们的脑袋内让失聪的人开始能听见。 现在，他们不仅能像你我一样聆听。 但是在10到15代产品演化后他们将能做到， 这些是机械的世代，不是人类的世代 在他们可以像你我一样听得大约2到3年以后， 他们或许能听见蝙蝠如何歌唱，鲸鱼是如何交谈， 狗儿如何聊天，或者其他的声调， 他们会能够集中他们的听力， 能够增加敏感度或者降低敏感度， 做许多我们不能做的事情。
同样的事也会发生在视力上。 德国有一个小组开始改造眼睛 让盲人能开始看见亮暗。 还比较简单。 然后他们会开始看见形状。 接着能看见颜色，后来就是真的看见东西了， 直到有一天，他们能像你我般看。 过了几年，他们就能看见紫外线了， 又能看见红外线了，能聚焦视力了， 可以在微距上看东西。 他们将做你我不能做的事情。 这些事情都汇集到一起， 这是一个特别重要的需要大家来理解的事情， 当我们在担心目前的热焰的时候， 也要放眼未来。
当然，未来是往回看200年， 因为下周是达尔文诞辰200周年。 也是“物种起源”出版150周年。 达尔文，当然，认为进化是自然状态。 是所有生命的自然状态，包括类人生物。 一共有22种类人物种 它们经过进化并在各处漫游， 然后灭绝了。 类人进化是很普遍的。 原因是，当你在看类人猿化石纪录的时候， 直立人，海德堡人，佛罗勒斯人，尼安德特人， 以及智人，都有重叠。 这种事的通常得情况就是有重叠类型的类人物种， 而不仅仅就是一种。
你在想那些事情的含义时， 这里有个宇宙的简史。 宇宙在137亿年前出现， 接着出现了所有的恒星及行星， 还有星系，银河系。 地球时45亿年前出现的， 40亿年后出现了生命， 600万年前出现的类人猿， 我们这样的类人时在150万年前出现的。 哒哒！ 或许，宇宙起源的原因 以及所有的星系，所有的行星，所有的能量， 所有的暗物质以及别的东西 就是为了创造这间房间里的一切。 或许不是。 这个观点或许略微有些自大。 （笑声） 如果这不是宇宙的意义，那还会是什么？ （笑声）
我想我们将会看到的是一种不同的类人物种。 我们会从智人变成演化人。 我认为这并不是1000年以后的事情。 我们中的大多数都将会去了解下， 我们的子孙后代将会这样去生存。 演化人会将这三种趋势带到一起 变成一种直接且谨慎地控制 它自身以及它后继物种的进化的类人。 当然，那将会是终极的复苏。
非常感谢。 掌声


--------------------
Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling new science
There's a great big elephant in the room called the economy. So let's start talking about that. I wanted to give you current picture of the economy. That's what I have behind myself.

(Laughter)

But of course what we have to remember is this. And what you have to think about is, when you're dancing in the flames, what's next? So what I'm going to try to do in the next 17 and a half minutes is I'm going to talk first about the flames -- where we are in the economy -- and then I'm going to take three trends that have taken place at TED over the last 25 years and that will take place in this conference and I will try and bring them together. And I will try and give you a sense of what the ultimate reboot looks like. Those three trends are the ability to engineer cells, the ability to engineer tissues and robots. And somehow it will all make sense.

But anyway, let's start with the economy. There's a couple of really big problems that are still sitting there. One is leverage. And the problem with leverage is it makes the U.S. financial system look like this.

(Laughter)

So, a normal commercial bank has nine to 10 times leverage. That means for every dollar you deposit it loans out about nine or 10. A normal investment bank is not a deposit bank, it's an investment bank; it has 15 to 20 times. It turns out that B of A in September had 32 times. And your friendly Citibank had 47 times. Oops. That means every bad loan goes bad 47 times over. And that, of course, is the reason why all of you are making such generous and wonderful donations to these nice folks. And as you think about that, You've got to wonder: so what do banks have in store for you now? (Laughter) It ain't pretty.

The government, meanwhile, has been acting like Santa Claus. We all love Santa Claus, right? But the problem with Santa Clause is, if you look at the mandatory spending of what these folks have been doing, and promising folks, it turned out that in 1967, 38 percent was mandatory spending on what we call "entitlements." And then by 2007 it was 68 percent. And we weren't supposed to run into 100 percent until about 2030. Except we've been so busy giving away a trillion here, a trillion there, that we've brought that date of reckoning forward to about 2017. And we thought we were going to be able to lay these debts off on our kids, but, guess what? We're going to start to pay them. And the problem with this stuff is, now that the bill's come due, it turns out Santa isn't quite as cute when it's summertime. Right?

(Laughter)

Here's some advice from one of the largest investors in the United States. This guy runs the China Investment Corporation. He is the main buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds. And he gave an interview in December. Here's his first bit of advice. And here's his second bit of advice. And, by the way, the Chinese Prime Minister reiterated this at Davos last Sunday. This stuff is getting serious enough that if we don't start paying attention to the deficit, we're going to end up losing the dollar. And then all bets are off.

Let me show you what it looks like. I think I can safely say that I'm the only trillionaire in this room. This is an actual bill. And it's 10 trilliion dollars. The only problem with this bill is it's not really worth very much. That was eight bucks last week, four bucks this week, a buck next week. And that's what happens to currencies when you don't stand behind them. So the next time somebody as cute as this shows up on your doorstep, and sometimes this creature's called Chrysler and sometimes Ford and sometimes ... whatever you want -- you've just got to say no. And you've got to start banishing a word that's called "entitlement." And there reason we have to do that in the short term is because we have just run out of cash.

If you look at the federal budget, this is what it looks like. The orange slice is what's discretionary. Everything else is mandated. It makes no difference if we cut out the bridges to Alaska in the overall scheme of things. So what we have to start thinking about doing is capping our medical spending because that's a monster that's simply going to eat the entire budget. We've got to start thinking about asking people to retire a little bit later. If you're 60 to 65 you retire on time. Your 401(k) just got nailed. If you're 50 to 60 we want you to work two years more. If you're under 50 we want you to work four more years. The reason why that's reasonable is, when your grandparents were given Social Security, they got it at 65 and were expected to check out at 68. 68 is young today. We've also got to cut the military about three percent a year.

We've got to limit other mandatory spending. We've got to quit borrowing as much because otherwise the interest is going to eat that whole pie. And we've got to end up with a smaller government. And if we don't start changing this trend line, we are going to lose the dollar and start to look like Iceland. I got what you're thinking. This is going to happen when hell freezes over. But let me remind you this December it did snow in Vegas.

(Laughter)

Here's what happens if you don't address this stuff. So, Japan had a fiscal real estate crisis back in the late '80s. And its 225 largest companies today are worth one quarter of what they were 18 years ago. We don't fix this now, how would you like to see a Dow 3,500 in 2026? Because that's the consequence of not dealing with this stuff. And unless you want this person to not just become the CFO of Florida, but the United States, we'd better deal with this stuff. That's the short term. That's the flame part. That's the financial crisis.

Now, right behind the financial crisis there's a second and bigger wave that we need to talk about. That wave is much larger, much more powerful, and that's of course the wave of technology. And what's really important in this stuff is, as we cut, we also have to grow. Among other things, because startup companies are .02 percent of U.S. GDP investment and they're about 17.8 percent of output. It's groups like that in this room that generate the future of the U.S. economy. And that's what we've got to keep growing. We don't have to keep growing this bridges to nowhere. So let's bring a romance novelist into this conversation. And that's where these three trends come together. That's where the ability to engineer microbes, the ability to engineer tissues, and the ability to engineer robots begin to lead to a reboot. And let me recap some of the stuff you've seen.

Craig Venter showed up last year and showed you the first fully programmable cell that acts like hardware where you can insert DNA and have it boot up as a different species. In parallel, the folks at MIT have been building a standard registry of biological parts. So think of it as a Radio Shack for biology. You can go out and get your proteins, your RNA, your DNA, whatever. And start building stuff. In 2006 they brought together high school students and college students and started to build these little odd creatures. They just happened to be alive instead of circuit boards.

Here was one of the first things they built. So, cells have this cycle. First they don't grow. Then they grow exponentially. Then they stop growing. Graduate students wanted a way of telling which stage they were in. So they engineered these cells so that when they're growing in the exponential phase, they would smell like wintergreen. And when they stopped growing they would smell like bananas. And you could tell very easily when your experiment was working and wasn't, and where it was in the phase.

This got a bit more complicated two years later. 21 countries came together. Dozens of teams. They started competing. The team from Rice University started to engineer the substance in red wine that makes red wine good for you into beer. So you take resveratrol and you put it into beer. Of course, one of the judges is wandering by, and he goes, "Wow! Cancer-fighting beer! There is a God."

(Laughter)

The team from Taiwan was a little bit more ambitious. They tried to engineer bacterias in such a way that they would act as your kidneys. Four years ago, I showed you this picture. And people oohed and ahhed, because Cliff Tabin had been able to grow an extra wing on a chicken. And that was very cool stuff back then. But now moving from bacterial engineering to tissue engineering, let me show you what's happened in that period of time.

Two years ago, you saw this creature. An almost-extinct animal from Xochimilco, Mexico called an axolotl that can re-generate its limbs. You can freeze half its heart. It regrows. You can freeze half the brain. It regrows. It's almost like leaving Congress. (Laughter) But now, you don't have to have the animal itself to regenerate, because you can build cloned mice molars in petri dishes. And, of course if you can build mice molars in petri dishes, you can grow human molars in petri dishes. This should not surprise you, right? I mean, you're born with no teeth. You give away all your teeth to the tooth fairy. You regrow a set of teeth. But then if you lose one of those second set of teeth, they don't regrow, unless, if you're a lawyer.

(Laughter)

But, of course, for most of us, we know how to grow teeth, and therefore we can take adult stem teeth, put them on a biodegradable mold, regrow a tooth, and simply implant it. And we can do it with other things. So, a Spanish woman who was dying of TB had a donor trachea, they took all the cells off the trachea, they spraypainted her stem cells on to that cartilage. She regrew her own trachea, and 72 hours later it was implanted. She's now running around with her kids. This is going on in Tony Atala's lab in Wake Forest where he is regrowing ears for injured soldiers, and he's also regrowing bladders. So there are now nine women walking around Boston with regrown bladders, which is much more pleasant than walking around with a whole bunch of plastic bags for the rest of your life.

This is kind of getting boring, right? I mean, you understand where this story's going. But, I mean it gets more interesting. Last year, this group was able to take all the cells off a heart, leaving just the cartilage. Then, they sprayed stem cells on to that heart, from a mouse. Those stem cells self-organized, and that heart started to beat. Life happens.

This may be one of the ultimate papers. This was done in Japan and in the U.S., published at the same time, and it rebooted skin cells into stem cells, last year. That meant that you can take the stuff right here, and turn it into almost anything in your body. And this is becoming common, it's moving very quickly, it's moving in a whole series of places.

Third trend: robots. Those of us of a certain age grew up expecting that by now we would have Rosie the Robot from "The Jetsons" in our house. And all we've got is a Roomba. (Laughter) We also thought we'd have this robot to warn us of danger. Didn't happen. And these were robots engineered for a flat world, right? So, Rosie runs around on skates and the other one ran on flat threads. If you don't have a flat world, that's not good, which is why the robot's we're designing today are a a little different.

This is Boston Dynamics' "BigDog." And this is about as close as you can get to a physical Turing test. OK, so let me remind you, a Turing test is where you've got a wall, you're talking to somebody on the other side of the wall, and when you don't know if that thing is human or animal -- that's when computers have reached human intelligence. This is not an intelligence Turing rest, but this is as close as you can get to a physical Turing test. And this stuff is moving very quickly, and by the way, that thing can carry about 350 pounds of weight. These are not the only interesting robots. You've also got flies, the size of flies, that are being made by Robert Wood at Harvard. You've got Stickybots that are being made at Stanford. And as you bring these things together, as you bring cells, biological tissue engineering and mechanics together, you begin to get some really odd questions.

In the last Olympics, this gentleman, who had several world records in the Special Olympics, tried to run in the normal Olympics. The only issue with Oscar Pistorius is he was born without bones in the lower part of his legs. He came within about a second of qualifying. He sued to be allowed to run, and he won the suit, but didn't qualify by time. Next Olympics, you can bet that Oscar, or one of Oscar's successors, is going to make the time. And two or three Olympics after that, they are going to be unbeatable.

And as you bring these trends together, and as you think of what it means to take people who are profoundly deaf, who can now begin to hear -- I mean, remember the evolution of hearing aids, right? I mean, your grandparents had these great big cones, and then your parents had these odd boxes that would squawk at odd times during dinner, and now we have these little buds that nobody sees. And now you have cochlear implants that go into people's heads and allow the deaf to begin to hear. Now, they can't hear as well as you and I can. But, in 10 or 15 machine generations they will, and these are machine generations, not human generations. And about two or three years after they can hear as well as you and I can, they'll be able to hear maybe how bats sing, or how whales talk, or how dogs talk, and other types of tonal scales. They'll be able to focus their hearing, they'll be able to increase the sensitivity, decrease the sensitivity, do a series of things that we can't do.

And the same thing is happening in eyes. This is a group in Germany that's beginning to engineer eyes so that people who are blind can begin to see light and dark. Very primitive. And then they'll be able to see shape. And then they'll be able to see color, and then they'll be able to see in definition, and one day, they'll see as well as you and I can. And a couple of years after that, they'll be able to see in ultraviolet, they'll be able to see in infrared, they'll be able to focus their eyes, they'll be able to come into a microfocus. They'll do stuff you and I can't do. All of these things are coming together, and it's a particularly important thing to understand, as we worry about the flames of the present, to keep an eye on the future.

And, of course, the future is looking back 200 years, because next week is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. And it's the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species." And Darwin, of course, argued that evolution is a natural state. It is a natural state in everything that is alive, including hominids. There have actually been 22 species of hominids that have been around, have evolved, have wandered in different places, have gone extinct. It is common for hominids to evolve. And that's the reason why, as you look at the hominid fossil record, erectus, and heildelbergensis, and floresiensis, and neanderthals, and Homo sapiens, all overlap. The common state of affairs is to have overlapping versions of hominids, not one.

And as you think of the implications of that, here's a brief history of the universe. The universe was created 13.7 billion years ago, and then you created all the stars, and all the planets, and all the galaxies, and all the Milky Ways. And then you created Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, and then you got life about four billion years ago, and then you got hominids about 0.006 billion years ago, and then you got our version of hominids about 0.0015 million years ago. Ta-dah! Maybe, the reason for creation of the universe, and all the galaxies, and all the planets, and all the energy, and all the dark energy, and all the rest of stuff is to create what's in this room. Maybe not. That would be a mildly arrogant viewpoint. (Laughter) So, if that's not the purpose of the universe, then what's next? (Laughter)

I think what we're going to see is we're going to see a different species of hominid. I think we're going to move from a Homo sapiens into a Homo evolutis. And I think this isn't 1,000 years out. I think most of us are going to glance at it, and our grandchildren are going to begin to live it. And a Homo evolutis brings together these three trends into a hominid that takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of his species, her species and other species. And that, of course, would be the ultimate reboot.

Thank you very much. (Applause)