[0:00:16] So there's lots of approaches one can use to go and try and make the world a better place, and one of these is destructive tactics. And you hear people say things like, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, and the only way things will get better is if blood flows on the streets. And we have to ask, why do people say things like that? Or at least I do.
[0:00:33] And so there's a bunch of things that build up to that belief, if that's what you believe. First, you have to believe that something's wrong with the world. And that has no disagreements with me. Then you have to believe that it's getting worse. And so that's less clear. In fact, a lot of empirical evidence suggests that this is not the case. The world is the most peaceful it's ever been, even if you include the world wars, by a lot of...
[0:00:57] The breadth of suffrage is greater. We go and we recognize the rights of people with different skin colors and of different genders. And of course, wealth has increased. And so there's lots of people talking about this. Pinker is one of them. But it seems like things are getting worse. And again, there's a lot of reasons for that. A lot of them have to do with us becoming more aware. So technology and improving technology means we're more aware of the world around us.
[0:01:25] Also, as you grow up, you become less sheltered and more aware of the different bad things that happen in the world. A growing population means that even if per capita problems fall, the total number can increase, and it's really easy to fixate on one particular problem and not see how the world as a whole is getting bigger.
[0:01:40] And then you have to believe that violence is necessary to resolve the situation, which I'm kind of skeptical of in a lot of cases, especially if the world's getting better. And then that the situation warrants violence. And our society sort of romanticizes violent corrections of injustice. So that's an easy thing for people to conclude. But there's really severe costs to using destructive tactics. And there's indirect ones that people don't think of. Like, you're going to go and empower authoritarianism. A police state really loves when somebody goes and uses destructive tactics.
[0:02:09] And you're going to go... It harms the rule of law. And it's really remarkable that we live in a society where we're able to try and peacefully resolve conflicts. But there's lots of other reasons people say things like this. So it's really tempting...
[0:02:23] Lots of people like to sound wise, and there's a certain cultural resonance to saying something like this. Also, there's no delayed gratification in going and smashing a window, so the course of action they're advocating for doesn't delay gratification and consequences are further off. And of course, I'm sure if you're really angry, there's a lot of catharsis to be found there.
[0:02:41] So I'm not saying that destructive tactics are always wrong, by the way. I'm just saying that I'm skeptical of a lot of the reasons people are saying things like this, especially if you read Reddit or something, and you'll see this everywhere, and it's not clear why people are saying these things.
[0:02:54] So there's other approaches we can take. We can use political tactics. We can go and do civil disobedience, so I don't know, maybe chain ourselves to offense or something. Or we could go and do what Alan Borovoy, the Canadian lawyer, has termed uncivil obedience, going and working within the system with things like litigation and trying to make the world a better place with that. He wrote a book on that. It's an excellent book.
[0:03:17] But then there's the type of tactics I'm most interested in, constructive tactics, going and trying to build things to make the world a better place. And so most people aren't bad people. If the moral thing is convenient to do, they will go and do the moral thing. It's just that often the moral thing isn't convenient. So an ethical issue that I'm really interested in and that I find personally really upsetting is the way we treat animals. In fact, it's probably...
[0:03:47] The issue that I find most upsetting. But I don't go and try to persuade people with eloquent speeches because I've observed that this doesn't work. Nobody cares. I can go and wax and wane about how horrible we treat animals all I want and most people will not be moved. But I anticipate that things are going to be fixed and here's how. So presently, most people eat meat. And there's sort of a cognitive dissonance there because they love their dog, but they really couldn't care less about the cow that was killed for their steak.
[0:04:16] There's a lot of people working on making synthetic meat, meat that can be produced in a laboratory without any animals being involved, without any animals suffering. There's a really cool company named Modern Meadows that's working on this. And it's not implausible that we might achieve that within the decade. And sometime after that, that it's going to be cheaper than regular meat because we can make it more efficiently and we don't have to candle livestock and whatever else. And once it's cheaper, I imagine that a lot of people will switch.
[0:04:42] And that a lot of people, once they've switched, a lot of people will grow up never having eaten meat. And without that cognitive dissonance and without people having eaten meat, I anticipate that lots of people will be incredulous that we could ever have been so cruel. Just like nowadays we go and we see lots of people can't believe that we could have ever kept people of different skin colors as slaves or imagine how somebody could have been so cruel. So technology is really remarkable in that it allows us to go and...
[0:05:13] Approach problems that otherwise are not, they're not things that can be approached in other means. So lots of people often don't even recognize death as a whole as an issue, as a moral issue. And lots of people would argue with me that it is. But I think that not only is it sad if somebody dies in a war or somebody dies of a heart attack, but it's also sad if they just die in any way.
[0:05:35] And there's actually a lot of work being done. In labs, scientists are able to go and flip genetic switches in different model organisms and be able to go and drastically extend their lifestyles.
[0:05:50] And another thing is scarcity. So we talk about unequal distribution of resources, but there's a deeper problem, which is that there's a finite amount of resources to begin with. Why is that? Why does it have to be the case? So my actual work lies with these remarkable devices called 3D printers, where we're able to go and produce objects without human involvement. They're able to just go and take some resources, in the case of the ones I work with, plastic, and go and make 3D objects from a model.
[0:06:18] Another example or another thing that's interesting to talk about is invasion of privacy. So somebody can go and read your private diary or eavesdrop on a conversation that you are having and there's nothing you can do about that, except there is. Modern technology provides us with cryptography and you're able to go and use mathematics to go and secure your conversations and to go and securely store information.
[0:06:42] If you want to. And this is really remarkable, because it's not a right like most of our rights, which, while they may be enshrined in Canadian law or international law, or deeply held by many people, still continue to exist at the whims of powerful people. When we use technology to go and try and handle rights issues, we're able to make facts be true, and we're able to go and sort of embed human rights or ethical ideals simply in the nature of reality. So you can get involved in this.
[0:07:11] You are capable of doing remarkable things with technology. You are capable of programming and learning how to program. You are capable of understanding mathematics.
[0:07:19] You are capable of understanding biology. You are capable of designing synthetic organisms. People are doing this. It's really cool. There's even biohacker spaces where they go and they do workshops where you'll go and you'll make bacteria go and genetically modify it to glow as an introduction to synthetic biology. You are capable of designing electronics. You are capable of understanding electronics and physics and going and doing remarkable things with that. You are capable of doing many, many remarkable things. And I think that a lot of people don't realize that.
[0:07:48] You're capable of doing them now. You don't need to go and wait 10 years to go and acquire facial hair or whatever it is that will signify you as an adult to the majority of the world. And the fact that many people won't take you seriously is not an insurmountable barrier. And you are capable of learning remarkable things right now. There are a lot of resources available to you. There are lots of lovely things.
[0:08:16] On the internet that will teach you many skills that you might want to learn. There are hackerspaces. And this is not only true in Toronto. I help run, as was mentioned, HacklabTO, which is one of the hackerspaces in Toronto. And we're basically a group of people who go and share a space and do really cool things with technology. We have a laser cutter and a 3D printer and things like this. There are hackerspaces around the world. There's one in British Columbia, in Vancouver, if that is to our friends over there.
[0:08:46] You are capable of doing all these things. And if you choose to go and get involved in technology, it might not always be glamorous in the ways that it might sound when I'm going and saying this. And in fact, a lot of the things you do will be boring to people outside of your field. And some of the things you will do will be genuinely boring. But there's also some rewards. There's really deep beauty in mathematics and in other fields of sciences.
[0:09:14] That you can't really see as an outsider because I can show you a picture of the Mandelbrot set and you can reflect on how beautiful it is. But the really beautiful ideas lie in what it is and understanding it. And so there's this reward that's really hard to appreciate until you've actually ventured into one of these fields, which is these beautiful ideas. And again, these are things you are capable of learning right now.
[0:09:40] And additionally, it teaches a way of thinking that's really beautiful, a way of understanding the world and critically thinking and seeking the truth that you don't really see in many other places. So in any case, thank you very much for your time. And if you are interested in getting into technology or the sciences or math, I may be a university dropout, but I may also have something to offer you. Have a great day.
[0:10:10] Thank you.