Bina Venkataraman: The power to think ahead in a reckless age
Bina Venkatamaran: Moć razmišljanja unaprijed u nesmotrenom dobu
Bina Venkataraman is an MIT professor and author of the forthcoming book "The Optimist's Telescope." Full bio
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for the blood of the American-born.
za krvlju Amerikanaca.
I got an unexpected gift.
dobila sam neočekivan dar.
na koja ću ga ponijeti.
at the time I got it,
a powerful metaphor for my work.
metafora za moj rad.
like there's no time but the present.
drugog vremena osim sadašnjosti.
seems to dominate our lives,
dominira našim životima,
in the number of steps we took today
brojem koraka koje smo učinili danas
from a high-profile figure.
in making immediate profits
zaokupiti se trenutnim profitom
for future invention.
za buduće inovacije.
for governments to stand by
to feed future generations.
hranili buduće naraštaje.
to be remembered as good ancestors.
kao dobrih predaka.
our species evolved to think ahead,
razvila se tako da misli unaprijed,
that we have "mental time travel,"
"mentalnim putovanjem kroz vrijeme",
everything we call human civilization,
što danas zovemo ljudskom civilizacijom,
o ljudskim slobodama,
u umovima ljudi.
using this superpower quite enough,
dovoljno tu supermoć,
businesses and institutions are designed.
su pogrešno osmišljene.
that's impairing our foresight.
oštećuje naše predviđanje.
about the three key mistakes
profits of a company
prije kraja burzovnog razdoblja,
is going to grow its market share
svoj udio u tržištu
that kids bring back from school,
koje nam djeca donose iz škole,
what's great for those kids' learning
onoga što djeca nauče,
what really matters in the future.
doista bitno za budućnost.
that impairs our foresight
koja oštećuje naše predviđanje
or a business leader
ili poslovnog lidera
those disasters in the first place,
katastrofe uopće dođe,
by protecting communities from floods
stvarajući zaštitu od poplava,
that impairs our foresight
oštećuje naše predviđanje
on predicting exactly what's next,
onog što je neposredno sljedeće,
or algorithms to do that.
horoskopima ili algoritmima.
all the possibilities the future holds.
zamišljanje svih mogućnosti za budućnost.
emerged in 2014 in West Africa,
Africi 2014. godine,
had early warning signs
svijetu imali su rane znakove uzbune
that outbreak might spread,
zaraza mogla raširiti,
da će se doista proširiti
in time to intervene,
na vrijeme da to suzbiju,
to kill more than 11,000 people.
da je ubila 11 tisuća ljudi.
and good forecasts
i dobrim prognozama
how dangerous they can be.
opasni uragani mogu biti.
that I've described,
koje sam opisala,
better decisions about the future
bolje odluke o budućnosti,
pomažu u predviđanju,
da razmišljamo unaprijed.
like the telescopes
when they scanned the horizon.
koristili kada su promatrali obzor.
across distance and the ocean,
across time to the future.
vrijeme u budućnost.
few of the tools
the long game pay now.
isplati odmah sada.
I spent some time with in Kansas.
kojim sam provela neko vrijeme u Kansasu.
are grown around the world today
na svijetu danas
of the fertile topsoil
buduće naraštaje.
with a group of scientists,
which have deep roots
žitne kulture dubokih korijena
površinski sloj zemlje na farmi,
and protecting future harvests.
i štiteći buduće žetve.
to grow these crops in the short run,
poljoprivrednike da uzgajaju ovu kulturu,
the annual yields of the crops
to make cereal and beer using the grains
žitne pahuljice i pivo koristeći žito,
by doing what's good for tomorrow.
danas čineći dobro za sutrašnjicu.
by George Washington Carver
koristio se njome
after the Civil War
of Carver's 300 uses for the peanut,
Carverovih 300 upotreba kikirikija,
that he came up with
why Carver did that.
zašto je Carver to učinio.
poor Alabama sharecroppers
uzgajivačima u Alabami
kikirikija na njihovim poljima
peanuts in their fields
would be better a few years later.
bolji nekoliko godina poslije.
to be lucrative for them in the short run.
isplativo u kratkom roku.
about another tool for foresight.
alatu za predviđanje.
as keeping the memory of the past alive
sjećanja na prošlost živim
of the nuclear reactor disaster there
nesreće u nuklearnom reaktoru,
and tsunami of 2011.
i tsunamija 2011. godine.
about the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station,
Onagawa postaju za nuklearnu energiju,
to the epicenter of that earthquake
epicentru tog potresa
that we all know about.
za koju svi jako dobro znamo.
actually fled to the nuclear power plant
pobjegli u tvornicu nuklearne energije
tek jednog inženjera,
to build that power plant
da izgradi tu nuklearku
and with a higher sea wall.
s višim zidom zaštite od vode.
u svome rodnom gradu,
in the year 869 after a tsunami.
nakon tsunamija.
that allowed him to imagine
omogućilo mu je da zamisli
as creating shared heirlooms.
zajedničkih nasljeđa.
on the Pacific coast of Mexico,
meksičkoj obali Tihog oceana,
their lobster harvest there
by treating it as a shared resource
kao zajednički izvor
children and grandchildren.
djecu i unuke.
the breeding lobster out of the ocean.
koji se pare iz oceana.
there are more than 30 fisheries
preko 30 ribarskih udruga
vaguely similar to this.
in the fisheries known as catch shares
znane kao udjeli u izlovu,
from the ocean today
iz oceana koliko mogu,
many more tools of foresight
alata za predviđanje
beyond near-term stock prices,
dalje od kratkoročne cijene dionica,
of campaign financiers.
koje financiraju kampanje.
as many of these tools as we can
organizirati što više tih alata
to imagine what lies ahead.
što dolazi u budućnosti.
as you can imagine.
sve to neće biti jednostavno.
we can pick up in our own lives,
uzeti iz vlastitog života,
in businesses or in communities,
naših poslova i zajednica,
is the instrument I shared with you.
jest instrument koji sam vam pokazala.
for my great-grandfather.
music and art critic in India
glazbe i umjetnosti u Indiji,
to protect this instrument
da zaštiti ovaj instrument
was pawning off all their belongings,
zalagala sve što su posjedovali,
to the next generation,
je predao sljedećem naraštaju,
the sound of this instrument,
zvuk ovoga instrumenta,
in the Himalayan fog.
zalutaloga u magli Himalaje.
a voice from the past.
playing the dilruba.
kako svira dilrubu.
like a cat's dying somewhere,
da mačka negdje umire,
than just owning it for today.
pukog posjedovanja za danas.
as both a descendant and an ancestor.
i kao potomka i kao pretka.
bigger than my own.
priče koja je veća od moje vlastite.
we can reclaim foresight:
povratiti predviđanje:
as the good ancestors we long to be,
kakvima žudimo biti,
can resonate for generations.
odjekivati naraštajima.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Bina Venkataraman - Writer, futuristBina Venkataraman is an MIT professor and author of the forthcoming book "The Optimist's Telescope."
Why you should listen
For more than six years, Bina Venkataraman has been traveling around the world studying how people and communities think about the future. Her curiosity as a former journalist, and her firsthand experience in the Obama White House, led her to question whether the shortsightedness rampant in today's societies is inevitable -- or actually "a choice we're making."
During the Obama years, Venkataraman built partnerships among communities, companies and government to prepare for coming pandemics, wildfires and rising seas. In 2014, she launched the White House Climate Data Initiative to bring actionable climate science to people making decisions around the globe. Previously, she was a science journalist for the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Now, she teaches students at MIT to use scientific knowledge in service of society.
As Venkataraman writes: "For as long as I can remember, I have suspected that the future of humanity depended on the future of the planet. I have since found this to be the most compelling story of our time. As I imagine what lies in our shared future, from gene-editing to the climate crisis, I see both dangers and extraordinary potential."
Venkataraman wrote her first book, The Optimist's Telescope (to be published by Riverhead on August 27, 2019), to help people today better shape their own future and that of coming generations.
Bina Venkataraman | Speaker | TED.com