TED2014
Bran Ferren: To create for the ages, let's combine art and engineering
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When Bran Ferren was just 9, his parents took him to see the Pantheon in Rome — and it changed everything. In that moment, he began to understand how the tools of science and engineering become more powerful when combined with art, with design and beauty. Ever since, he's been searching for a convincing modern-day equivalent to Rome's masterpiece. Stay tuned to the end of the talk for his unexpected suggestion.
Bran Ferren - Technology designer
Once known for entertaining millions by creating special effects for Hollywood, theme parks and Broadway, Applied Minds cofounder Bran Ferren now solves impossible tech challenges with previously unimaginable inventions. Full bio
Once known for entertaining millions by creating special effects for Hollywood, theme parks and Broadway, Applied Minds cofounder Bran Ferren now solves impossible tech challenges with previously unimaginable inventions. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
Good morning.
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When I was a little boy,
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I had an experience that changed my life,
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and is in fact why I'm here today.
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That one moment
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profoundly affected how I think about
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art, design and engineering.
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As background, I was fortunate enough to grow up
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in a family of loving and talented artists
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in one of the world's great cities.
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My dad, John Ferren, who died when I was 15,
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was an artist by both passion and profession,
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as is my mom, Rae.
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He was one of the New York School
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abstract expressionists who,
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together with his contemporaries,
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invented American modern art,
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and contributed to moving the American zeitgeist
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towards modernism in the 20th century.
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Isn't it remarkable that, after thousands of years
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of people doing mostly representational art,
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that modern art, comparatively speaking,
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is about 15 minutes old,
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yet now pervasive.
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As with many other important innovations,
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those radical ideas required no new technology,
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just fresh thinking and a willingness to experiment,
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plus resiliency in the face of near-universal criticism
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and rejection.
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In our home, art was everywhere.
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It was like oxygen,
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around us and necessary for life.
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As I watched him paint,
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Dad taught me that art
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was not about being decorative,
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but was a different way of communicating ideas,
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and in fact one that could bridge the worlds
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of knowledge and insight.
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Given this rich artistic environment,
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you'd assume that I would have been compelled
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to go into the family business,
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but no.
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I followed the path of most kids
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who are genetically programmed
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to make their parents crazy.
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I had no interest in becoming an artist,
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certainly not a painter.
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What I did love was electronics and machines --
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taking them apart, building new ones,
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and making them work.
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Fortunately, my family also had engineers in it,
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and with my parents,
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these were my first role models.
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What they all had in common
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was they worked very, very hard.
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My grandpa owned and operated a sheet metal
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kitchen cabinet factory in Brooklyn.
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On weekends, we would go
together to Cortlandt Street,
together to Cortlandt Street,
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which was New York City's radio row.
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There we would explore massive piles
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of surplus electronics,
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and for a few bucks bring home treasures
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like Norden bombsights
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and parts from the first IBM tube-based computers.
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I found these objects both useful and fascinating.
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I learned about engineering and how things worked,
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not at school
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but by taking apart and studying
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these fabulously complex devices.
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I did this for hours every day,
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apparently avoiding electrocution.
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Life was good.
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However, every summer, sadly,
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the machines got left behind
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while my parents and I traveled overseas
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to experience history, art and design.
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We visited the great museums and historic buildings
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of both Europe and the Middle East,
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but to encourage my growing interest
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in science and technology,
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they would simply drop me off in places
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like the London Science Museum,
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where I would wander endlessly for hours by myself
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studying the history of science and technology.
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Then, when I was about nine years old,
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we went to Rome.
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On one particularly hot summer day,
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we visited a drum-shaped
building that from the outside
building that from the outside
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was not particularly interesting.
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My dad said it was called the Pantheon,
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a temple for all of the gods.
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It didn't look all that special from the outside,
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as I said, but when we walked inside,
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I was immediately struck by three things:
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First of all, it was pleasantly cool
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despite the oppressive heat outside.
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It was very dark, the only source of light
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being an big open hole in the roof.
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Dad explained that this wasn't a big open hole,
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but it was called the oculus,
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an eye to the heavens.
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And there was something about this place,
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I didn't know why, that just felt special.
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As we walked to the center of the room,
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I looked up at the heavens through the oculus.
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This was the first church that I'd been to
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that provided an unrestricted view
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between God and man.
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But I wondered, what about when it rained?
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Dad may have called this an oculus,
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but it was, in fact, a big hole in the roof.
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I looked down and saw floor drains
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had been cut into the stone floor.
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As I became more accustomed to the dark,
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I was able to make out details of the floor
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and the surrounding walls.
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No big deal here, just the same statuary stuff
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that we'd seen all over Rome.
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In fact, it looked like the Appian Way
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marble salesman showed up
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with his sample book, showed it to Hadrian,
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and Hadrian said, "We'll take all of it."
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(Laughter)
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But the ceiling was amazing.
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It looked like a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome.
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I'd seen these before,
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and Bucky was friends with my dad.
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It was modern, high-tech, impressive,
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a huge 142-foot clear span
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which, not coincidentally, was exactly its height.
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I loved this place.
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It was really beautiful and unlike
anything I'd ever seen before,
anything I'd ever seen before,
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so I asked my dad, "When was this built?"
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He said, "About 2,000 years ago."
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And I said, "No, I mean, the roof."
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You see, I assumed that this was a modern roof
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that had been put on because the original
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was destroyed in some long-past war.
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He said, "It's the original roof."
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That moment changed my life,
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and I can remember it as if it were yesterday.
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For the first time, I realized people were smart
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2,000 years ago. (Laughter)
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This had never crossed my mind.
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I mean, to me, the pyramids at Giza,
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we visited those the year before,
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and sure they're impressive, nice enough design,
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but look, give me an unlimited budget,
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20,000 to 40,000 laborers, and about 10 to 20 years
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to cut and drag stone blocks
across the countryside,
across the countryside,
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and I'll build you pyramids too.
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But no amount of brute force
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gets you the dome of the Pantheon,
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not 2,000 years ago, nor today.
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And incidentally, it is still the largest
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unreinforced concrete dome that's ever been built.
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To build the Pantheon took some miracles.
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By miracles, I mean things that are
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technically barely possible,
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very high-risk, and might not be
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actually accomplishable at this moment in time,
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certainly not by you.
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For example, here are some
of the Pantheon's miracles.
of the Pantheon's miracles.
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To make it even structurally possible,
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they had to invent super-strong concrete,
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and to control weight,
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varied the density of the aggregate
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as they worked their way up the dome.
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For strength and lightness, the dome structure
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used five rings of coffers,
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each of diminishing size,
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which imparts a dramatic forced perspective
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to the design.
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It was wonderfully cool inside
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because of its huge thermal mass,
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natural convection of air rising up
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through the oculus,
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and a Venturi effect when wind blows across
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the top of the building.
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I discovered for the first time that light itself
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has substance.
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The shaft of light beaming through the oculus
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was both beautiful and palpable,
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and I realized for the first time
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that light could be designed.
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Further, that of all of the forms of design,
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visual design,
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they were all kind of irrelevant without it,
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because without light, you can't see any of them.
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I also realized that I wasn't the first person
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to think that this place was really special.
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It survived gravity, barbarians, looters, developers
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and the ravages of time to become
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what I believe is the longest
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continuously occupied building in history.
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Largely because of that visit,
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I came to understand that,
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contrary to what I was being told in school,
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the worlds of art and design
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were not, in fact, incompatible
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with science and engineering.
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I realized, when combined,
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you could create things that were amazing
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that couldn't be done in either domain alone.
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But in school, with few exceptions,
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they were treated as separate worlds,
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and they still are.
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My teachers told me that I had to get serious
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and focus on one or the other.
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However, urging me to specialize
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only caused me to really
appreciate those polymaths
appreciate those polymaths
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like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
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Benjamin Franklin,
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people who did exactly the opposite.
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And this led me to embrace
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and want to be in both worlds.
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So then how do these projects of unprecedented creative vision and technical complexity
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like the Pantheon actually happen?
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Someone themselves, perhaps Hadrian,
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needed a brilliant creative vision.
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They also needed the storytelling
and leadership skills
and leadership skills
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necessary to fund and execute it,
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and a mastery of science and technology
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with the ability and knowhow
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to push existing innovations even farther.
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It is my belief that to create
these rare game changers
these rare game changers
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requires you to pull off at least five miracles.
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The problem is, no matter how talented,
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rich or smart you are,
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you only get one to one and a half miracles.
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That's it. That's the quota.
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Then you run out of time, money, enthusiasm,
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whatever.
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Remember, most people can't even imagine
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one of these technical miracles,
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and you need at least five to make a Pantheon.
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In my experience, these rare visionaries
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who can think across the worlds of art,
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design and engineering
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have the ability to notice
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when others have provided enough of the miracles
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to bring the goal within reach.
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Driven by the clarity of their vision,
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they summon the courage and determination
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to deliver the remaining miracles
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and they often take what other people think to be
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insurmountable obstacles
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and turn them into features.
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Take the oculus of the Pantheon.
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By insisting that it be in the design,
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it meant you couldn't use much
of the structural technology
of the structural technology
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that had been developed for Roman arches.
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However, by instead embracing it
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and rethinking weight and stress distribution,
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they came up with a design that only works
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if there's a big hole in the roof.
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That done, you now get the aesthetic
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and design benefits of light, cooling
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and that critical direct connection with the heavens.
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Not bad.
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These people not only believed
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that the impossible can be done,
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but that it must be done.
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Enough ancient history.
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What are some recent examples of innovations
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that combine creative design
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and technological advances in a way so profound
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that they will be remembered
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a thousand years from now?
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Well, putting a man on the moon was a good one,
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and returning him safely to Earth wasn't bad either.
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Talk about one giant leap:
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It's hard to imagine a more profound moment
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in human history
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than when we first left our world
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to set foot on another.
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So what came after the moon?
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One is tempted to say that today's pantheon
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is the Internet,
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but I actually think that's quite wrong,
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or at least it's only part of the story.
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The Internet isn't a Pantheon.
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It's more like the invention of concrete:
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important, absolutely necessary
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to build the Pantheon,
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and enduring,
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but entirely insufficient by itself.
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However, just as the technology of concrete
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was critical in realization of the Pantheon,
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new designers will use the
technologies of the Internet
technologies of the Internet
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to create novel concepts that will endure.
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The smartphone is a perfect example.
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Soon the majority of people on the planet
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will have one,
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and the idea of connecting everyone
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to both knowledge and each other will endure.
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So what's next?
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What imminent advance will be
the equivalent of the Pantheon?
the equivalent of the Pantheon?
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Thinking about this,
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I rejected many very plausible
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and dramatic breakthroughs to come,
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such as curing cancer.
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13:00
Why? Because Pantheons are anchored
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13:04
in designed physical objects,
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13:07
ones that inspire by simply seeing
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13:09
and experiencing them,
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13:10
and will continue to do so indefinitely.
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13:13
It is a different kind of language, like art.
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13:18
These other vital contributions that extend life
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13:21
and relieve suffering are, of course, critical,
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13:23
and fantastic,
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but they're part of the continuum of
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13:27
our overall knowledge and technology,
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like the Internet.
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13:32
So what is next?
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13:34
Perhaps counterintuitively,
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I'm guessing it's a visionary idea
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13:38
from the late 1930s
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that's been revived every decade since:
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13:43
autonomous vehicles.
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2014
13:45
Now you're thinking, give me a break.
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13:47
How can a fancy version of cruise control
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be profound?
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13:52
Look, much of our world
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has been designed around
roads and transportation.
roads and transportation.
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13:58
These were as essential to the success
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14:00
of the Roman Empire
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14:01
as the interstate highway system
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1985
14:03
to the prosperity and development
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14:05
of the United States.
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14:07
Today, these roads that interconnect our world
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are dominated by cars and trucks
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14:12
that have remained largely unchanged
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14:14
for 100 years.
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14:17
Although perhaps not obvious today,
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autonomous vehicles will be the key technology
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14:24
that enables us to redesign our cities
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and, by extension, civilization.
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14:30
Here's why:
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Once they become ubiquitous,
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14:33
each year, these vehicles will save
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14:36
tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone
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14:39
and a million globally.
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14:42
Automotive energy consumption and air pollution
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14:45
will be cut dramatically.
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14:47
Much of the road congestion
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14:49
in and out of our cities will disappear.
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14:52
They will enable compelling new concepts
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14:55
in how we design cities, work,
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14:58
and the way we live.
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15:00
We will get where we're going faster
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15:02
and society will recapture vast amounts
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15:05
of lost productivity
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15:06
now spent sitting in traffic basically polluting.
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15:10
But why now? Why do we think this is ready?
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15:13
Because over the last 30 years,
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15:15
people from outside the automotive industry
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have spent countless billions
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15:20
creating the needed miracles,
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15:21
but for entirely different purposes.
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15:24
It took folks like DARPA, universities,
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15:27
and companies completely
outside of the automotive industry
outside of the automotive industry
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15:30
to notice that if you were clever about it,
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autonomy could be done now.
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15:35
So what are the five miracles
needed for autonomous vehicles?
needed for autonomous vehicles?
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15:38
One, you need to know
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15:40
where you are and exactly what time it is.
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15:43
This was solved neatly by the GPS system,
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15:45
Global Positioning System,
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15:46
that the U.S. Government put in place.
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15:49
You need to know where all the roads are,
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15:52
what the rules are, and where you're going.
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15:54
The various needs of personal navigation systems,
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15:57
in-car navigation systems,
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15:59
and web-based maps address this.
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16:02
You must have near-continuous communication
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16:04
with high-performance computing networks
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16:06
and with others nearby
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16:08
to understand their intent.
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16:11
The wireless technologies
developed for mobile devices,
developed for mobile devices,
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16:14
with some minor modifications,
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16:16
are completely suitable to solve this.
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2959
16:19
You'll probably want some restricted roadways
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16:22
to get started
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16:23
that both society and its lawyers
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2478
16:25
agree are safe to use for this.
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16:27
This will start with the HOV lanes
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16:29
and move from there.
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16:31
But finally, you need to recognize
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16:34
people, signs and objects.
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2103
16:36
Machine vision, special sensors,
and high-performance computing
and high-performance computing
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3054
16:39
can do a lot of this,
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1572
16:40
but it turns out a lot is not good enough
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2558
16:43
when your family is on board.
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1941
16:45
Occasionally, humans will
need to do sense-making.
need to do sense-making.
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3521
16:48
For this, you might actually have to wake up
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3612
16:52
your passenger and ask them what the hell
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2096
16:54
that big lump is in the middle of the road.
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2802
16:57
Not so bad, and it will give us a sense of purpose
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16:59
in this new world.
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1853
17:01
Besides, once the first drivers explain
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2740
17:04
to their confused car
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1326
17:05
that the giant chicken at the fork in the road
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2666
17:08
is actually a restaurant,
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1543
17:09
and it's okay to keep driving,
404
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2304
17:12
every other car on the surface of the Earth
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3420
17:15
will know that from that point on.
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2922
17:18
Five miracles, mostly delivered,
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2263
17:20
and now you just need a clear vision
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1878
17:22
of a better world filled with autonomous vehicles
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2837
17:25
with seductively beautiful
and new functional designs
and new functional designs
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3613
17:29
plus a lot of money and hard work
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2454
17:31
to bring it home.
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1596
17:33
The beginning is now only a handful of years away,
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3022
17:36
and I predict that autonomous vehicles
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1868
17:38
will permanently change our world
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2071
17:40
over the next several decades.
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4184
17:44
In conclusion, I've come to believe
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2652
17:47
that the ingredients for the next Pantheons
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2238
17:49
are all around us,
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1387
17:50
just waiting for visionary people
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2187
17:52
with the broad knowledge,
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1734
17:54
multidisciplinary skills,
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1610
17:56
and intense passion
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1868
17:58
to harness them to make their dreams a reality.
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5086
18:03
But these people don't spontaneously
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2496
18:05
pop into existence.
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1339
18:06
They need to be nurtured and encouraged
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1839
18:08
from when they're little kids.
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1779
18:10
We need to love them and help them
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1860
18:12
discover their passions.
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1719
18:14
We need to encourage them to work hard
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2214
18:16
and help them understand that failure
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2437
18:18
is a necessary ingredient for success,
433
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2871
18:21
as is perseverance.
434
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2181
18:23
We need to help them to find their own role models,
435
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3098
18:26
and give them the confidence
to believe in themselves
to believe in themselves
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2672
18:29
and to believe that anything is possible,
437
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2777
18:32
and just as my grandpa did when
he took me shopping for surplus,
he took me shopping for surplus,
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3509
18:35
and just as my parents did
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1783
18:37
when they took me to science museums,
440
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2022
18:39
we need to encourage them to find their own path,
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3281
18:43
even if it's very different from our own.
442
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2657
18:45
But a cautionary note:
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1408
18:47
We also need to periodically pry them away
444
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2434
18:49
from their modern miracles,
445
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1469
18:50
the computers, phones, tablets,
446
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1971
18:52
game machines and TVs,
447
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1594
18:54
take them out into the sunlight
448
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2244
18:56
so they can experience both the natural
449
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2129
18:58
and design wonders of our world,
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2897
19:01
our planet and our civilization.
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2242
19:04
If we don't, they won't understand
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2927
19:07
what these precious things are
453
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1882
19:08
that someday they will be resopnsible
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2595
19:11
for protecting and improving.
455
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2282
19:13
We also need them to understand
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1643
19:15
something that doesn't seem adequately appreciated
457
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3029
19:18
in our increasingly tech-dependent world,
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2463
19:20
that art and design
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1683
19:22
are not luxuries,
460
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1913
19:24
nor somehow incompatible
461
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1826
19:26
with science and engineering.
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1869
19:28
They are in fact essential to what makes us special.
463
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5575
19:33
Someday, if you get the chance,
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2515
19:36
perhaps you can take your kids
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1537
19:37
to the actual Pantheon,
466
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1771
19:39
as we will our daughter Kira,
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2660
19:42
to experience firsthand
468
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2078
19:44
the power of that astonishing design,
469
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4257
19:48
which on one otherwise unremarkable day in Rome,
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3744
19:52
reached 2,000 years into the future
471
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3027
19:55
to set the course for my life.
472
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2658
19:58
Thank you.
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2131
20:00
(Applause)
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4308
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bran Ferren - Technology designerOnce known for entertaining millions by creating special effects for Hollywood, theme parks and Broadway, Applied Minds cofounder Bran Ferren now solves impossible tech challenges with previously unimaginable inventions.
Why you should listen
After dropping out of MIT in 1970, Bran Ferren became a designer and engineer for theater, touring rock bands, and dozens of movies, including Altered States and Little Shop of Horrors, before joining Disney as a lead Imagineer, then becoming president of R&D for the Walt Disney Company.
In 2000, Ferren and partner Danny Hillis left Disney to found Applied Minds, a playful design and invention firm dedicated to distilling game-changing inventions from an eclectic stew of the brightest creative minds culled from every imaginable discipline.
Bran Ferren | Speaker | TED.com