TED2009
Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain
A ex-Moonie Diane Benscoter expica como cultos fucionam
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Diane Benscoter fala sobre como entrou para os Moonies -- e permaneceu por cinco longos anos. Ela compartilha uma perspectiva de quem participou de cultos e movimentos extremistas e propõe uma nova maneira de pensar sobre os conflitos mais problemáticos da atualidade.
Diane Benscoter - Deprogrammer
Diane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences. Full bio
Diane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
My journey to coming here today
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Minha jornada pra chegar aqui hoje
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started in 1974.
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começou em 1974
00:24
That's me with the funny gloves.
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Eu sou aquela com luvas engraçadas
00:27
I was 17 and going on a peace walk.
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Eu tinha 17 anos e estava numa passeata pela paz
00:30
What I didn't know though, was most of those people, standing there
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O que eu não sabia, é que a maioria daquelas pessoas ali
00:33
with me, were Moonies.
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comigo, eram Moonies
00:35
(Laughter)
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(risos)
00:39
And within a week
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E em uma semana
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I had come to believe
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Eu acreditava
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that the second coming of Christ had occurred,
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que a segunda chegada de Cristo tinha ocorrido
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that it was Sun Myung Moon,
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e que ele era Sun Myung Moon,
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and that I had been specially chosen and prepared by God
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e que eu tinha sido especialmente escolhida e preparada por Deus
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to be his disciple.
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para ser seu discípulo
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Now as cool as that sounds,
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Por mais bacana que isso possa soar,
00:56
my family was not that thrilled with this.
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minha famíia não estava nada animada com isso.
00:58
(Laughter)
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(risos)
01:00
And they tried everything they could to get me out of there.
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E eles tentaram de tudo pra me tirar dali.
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There was an underground railroad of sorts
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Havia um tipo meio underground
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that was going on during those years. Maybe some of you remember it.
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nessa época, talvez alguns de vocês se lembrem.
01:07
They were called deprogrammers.
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Eram chamados desprogramadores.
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And after about five long years
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E após 5 longos anos
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my family had me deprogrammed.
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minha família me desprogramou.
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And I then became a deprogrammer.
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E então eu me tornei uma desprogramadora
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I started going out on cases.
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Eu comecei a sair em casos
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And after about five years of doing this,
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E após 5 anos fazendo isso
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I was arrested for kidnapping.
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Fui presa por sequestro
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Most of the cases I went out on
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A maioria dos casos que eu fui
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were called involuntary.
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eram chamados involuntários
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What happened was that the family
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O que ocorria era que a família
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had to get their loved ones some safe place somehow.
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tinha que levar seus amados para algum lugar seguro, de qualquer maneira
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And so they took them to some safe place.
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E então o levavam para algum lugar seguro
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And we would come in and talk to them, usually for about a week.
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E nós íamos lá e conversávamos com eles, normalmente por uma semana
01:49
And so after this happened,
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Então depois que isto ocorreu
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I decided it was a good time to turn my back on this work.
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Decidi que era uma boa hora para abandonar este trabalho
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And about 20 years went by.
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E 20 anos se passaram
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There was a burning question though that would not leave me.
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Havia uma questão me atormentando
02:05
And that was, "How did this happen to me?"
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E era: "Como isso foi acontecer comigo?"
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And in fact, what did happen to my brain?
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E na verdade, o que ocorreu com meu cérebro?
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Because something did.
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Porque algo aconteceu
02:14
And so I decided to write a book, a memoir,
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Então decidi escrever um livro, uma autobiografia
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about this decade of my life.
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sobre esta década da minha vida
02:19
And toward the end of writing that book
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E quando estava terminando o livro
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there was a documentary that came out.
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Saiu um documentário
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It was on Jonestown.
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Sobre Jonestown
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And it had a chilling effect on me.
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E teve um efeito muito forte em mim
02:30
These are the dead in Jonestown.
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Estes são os mortos em Jonestown
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About 900 people died that day,
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Umas 900 pessoas morreram naquele dia
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most of them taking their own lives.
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A maioria se suicidou
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Women gave poison to their babies,
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Mulheres deram veneno para seus bebês
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and watched foam come from their mouths as they died.
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e assistiram suas bocas espumarem enquanto morriam
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The top picture is a group of Moonies
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A foto de cima são Moonies
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that have been blessed by their messiah.
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que foram abençoados por seu messias
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Their mates were chosen for them.
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Seus parceiros eram escolhidos para eles
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The bottom picture is Hitler youth.
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A foto de baixo é a juventude de Hitler
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This is the leg of a suicide bomber.
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Esta é a perna de um homem-bomba
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The thing I had to admit to myself,
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O que tive que admitir para mim mesma,
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with great repulsion,
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com grande repulsa,
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was that I get it.
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era que eu tinha entendido
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I understand how this could happen.
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Entendi como isso podia acontecer
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I understand how someone's brain,
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Eu entendo como o cérebro de alguém,
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how someone's mind can come to the place
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como a mente de alguém chega a um ponto
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where it makes sense --
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em que faz sentido,
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in fact it would be wrong, when your brain is working like that --
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na verdade seria errado, quando seu cérebro está deste jeito,
03:25
not to try to save the world through genocide.
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não tentar salvar o mundo através do genocídio
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And so what is this? How does this work?
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Então o que é isso? Como funciona?
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And how I've come to view what happened to me
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Então vejo o que aconteceu comigo
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is a viral, memetic infection.
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como uma infecção viral memética
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For those of you who aren't familiar with memetics,
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Para os não familiares com a memética
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a meme has been defined as
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um meme foi definido como
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an idea that replicates in the human brain
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uma idéia que se reproduza no cérebro humano
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and moves from brain to brain like a virus,
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e vai de cérebro pra cérebro como um vírus
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much like a virus. The way a virus works is --
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bem parecido com um vírus. Um vírus
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it can infect and do the most damage to someone
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pode infectar alguém e causar mais danos
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who has a compromised immune system.
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a quem tem sistema imune comprometido
04:04
In 1974, I was young, I was naive,
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E 1974, eu era jovem, inexperiente, inocente
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and I was pretty lost in my world.
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e estava perdida em meu mundo
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I was really idealistic.
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Eu era realmente idealista
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These easy ideas to complex questions are very appealing
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Estas idéias fáceis para questões complexas são muito convincentes
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when you are emotionally vulnerable.
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quando você é emocionalmente vulnerável
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What happens is that
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O que ocorre é que
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circular logic takes over.
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a lógica circular domina
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"Moon is one with God.
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"Moon é o mesmo que Deus
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God is going to fix all the problems in the world.
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Deus vai resolver todos os problemas do mundo
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All I have to do is humbly follow.
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Tudo que tenho que fazer é humildemente seguir
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Because God is going to stop war and hunger --
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Porque Deus vai acabar com a guerra e a fome --
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all these things I wanted to do --
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todas estas coisa que eu queria fazer
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all I have to do is humbly follow.
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Tudo que tenho que fazer é humildemente seguir
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Because after all, God is [working through] the messiah. He's going to fix all this."
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Porque afinal de contas, Deus é o messias. Ele vai resolver tudo."
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It becomes impenetrable.
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Se torna impenetrável
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And the most dangerous part of this
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E a parte mais perigosa disso
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is that is creates "us" and "them,"
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é que cria "nós" e "eles",
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"right" and "wrong,"
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"certo" e "errado",
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"good" and "evil."
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"bom" e "mau"
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And it makes anything possible,
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E faz qualquer coisa possível
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makes anything rationalizable.
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Torna tudo racionalizável
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And the thing is, though,
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E a questão é, entretanto,
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if you looked at my brain
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que se você olhasse pro meu cérebro
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during those years in the Moonies --
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durante aqueles anos nos Moonies --
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neuroscience is expanding exponentially,
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A neurociência está progredindo exponencialmente,
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as Ray Kurzweil said yesterday. Science is expanding.
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como Ray Kurzweil disse ontem. A ciência está expandindo
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We're beginning to look inside the brain.
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Estamos começando a olhar dentro do cérebro
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And so if you looked at my brain, or any brain that's infected with
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E se você olhasse pro meu cérebro, ou qualquer cérebro infectado
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a viral memetic infection like this,
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com um meme viral como este,
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and compared it to anyone in this room,
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e comparasse com qualquer um nessa sala,
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or anyone who uses critical thinking on a regular basis,
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ou qualquer um que use o raciocínio crítico regularmente,
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I am convinced it would look very, very different.
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Estou convencida de que se pareceriam muito diferentes
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And that, strange as it may sound,
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E por mais estranho que pareça,
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gives me hope.
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isto me dá esperança
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And the reason that gives me hope
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E me dá esperança porque
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is that the first thing is to admit
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a primeira coisa a fazer é admitir
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that we have a problem.
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que temos um problema.
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But it's a human problem. It's a scientific problem, if you will.
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Mas é um problema humano. Científico, se você preferir.
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It happens in the human brain. There is no evil force out there to get us.
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Acontece no cérebro humano. Não há força maligna lá fora para nos pegar
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And so this is something that, through research and education,
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E então isto é algo que, através de pesquisa e educação,
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I believe that we can solve.
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Acredito que podemos resolver.
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And so the first step is to realize
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E o primeiro passo é perceber
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that we can do this together,
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que podemos fazer isso juntos,
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and that there is no "us" and "them."
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e que não existe "nós" e "eles"
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Thank you very much. (Applause)
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Muito Obrigada (Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Diane Benscoter - DeprogrammerDiane Benscoter, an ex-Moonie, is now invested in finding ways to battle extremist mentalities and their potentially deadly consequences.
Why you should listen
At 17, Diane Benscoter joined The Unification Church -- the religious cult whose members are commonly known as “Moonies.” After five long years, her distressed family arranged to have her deprogrammed. Benscoter then left The Unification Church, and was so affected by her experience that she became a deprogrammer herself. She devoted her time to extracting others from cults, until she was arrested for kidnapping. The shock of her arrest caused her to abandon her efforts for almost 20 years.
Now, after decades of research and study, Diane has begun to speak about her experiences. She recently completed a memoir describing her years as a member of The Unification Church and as a deprogrammer.
Furthermore, she has embarked on a new project to define “extremist viral memetic infections”. She believes that defining extremism as a memetic infection, from a cognitive neurological perspective, might allow us to develop better memes that would inoculate against the memes of extremist thought. These inoculating memes could prevent the spread of extremist viral memetic infections and their inherent dangers.
Diane Benscoter | Speaker | TED.com