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Narrator: From the very beginning,
we’ve sought to improve the way we live.
For centuries, we’ve worked
to make our world more efficient,
productive, accessible, and safe.
We’ve sought to make our world work better.
While each leap of progress
has required its own intelligence and hard work,
many seem to follow a distinct pattern.
Think about how we came to explore space.
At first, we observed with only our eyes.
Then we invented tools to see farther, deeper,
and with greater detail.
But seeing with greater acuity wasn’t enough.
So we created maps.
Mapping revealed relative position, scale,
relationships, patterns.
Over time, we came to understand
the dynamic relationships of the celestial bodies—
the rules, principles, and laws that govern our solar system.
Seeing, mapping, and understanding
culminated in a powerful force: belief.
John F. Kennedy: We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things.
Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Because that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills.
Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept,
one we are unwilling to postpone,
and one we intend to win.
Narrator: Our shared belief spurred us to action
and emboldened us to redefine what is possible.
This is the pattern of progress:
seeing how our world behaves,
mapping what we find,
understanding causes and effects,
believing we can create new outcomes...
and acting to design, build, and improve the systems around us.
Today we can follow the very same path—
aided by deeper science and technology.
We can address some of our most pressing challenges:
from the way we heal...
to the way we move people and goods...
to the way we feed our nations.
Rice feeds half of the world every day.
But this commodity is highly susceptible
to disease, drought, and pests.
Which is why, as populations grow,
many nations' food security is at stake.
For centuries, we have attempted to breed more resilient crops.
But now we can make advancements faster.
One approach is to see rice as it has never been seen before:
as genetic code.
Every grain of rice has within it
the capability to be more resilient.
The challenge is to find that capability.
For seven years, a consortium of scientists
from Asia, Europe, and the Americas
took on that task and mapped the entire rice genome.
By exploring this map,
we’re identifying which genes allow rice
to resist drought and disease.
And by using advanced computation,
we are speeding these discoveries,
which allows us
to more precisely breed resilient rice...
and put it into the field faster...
to safeguard our food supply.
For decades,
increasingly more sensitive and capable instruments
have allowed us to see every heartbeat, every cell,
every biological change as a data point.
But only now do we have the ability to map this vast data
into a more comprehensive picture...
To see beyond even the complex systems of an individual...
To map the patterns across entire populations...
To compare these patterns with your data—
factoring in genetic makeup, environment,
and medical history—
to understand what makes you sick.
Researchers and doctors
are beginning to personalize medical care—
from treatments customized to your genetic makeup,
to dosages tailored to your biological traits,
to regimens suited to your individual metabolism.
It’s the foundation of smarter medicine.
Every day, people and goods must travel from Point A to Point B.
But a significant problem stands in the way.
It’s hard to think of traffic
as anything other than an unsolvable problem.
But what if we looked at it in an entirely different way?
What if we saw traffic as data?
Today, in Stockholm, Singapore, and Brisbane,
intricate networks of sensors monitor traffic in real time.
We can see the temperature of the road,
the condition of bridges,
the type, speed, and position of vehicles,
even the cargo they’re carrying.
This data can be organized into dynamic maps that reveal
a systemwide view of causes and effects.
And models can help us understand
why traffic forms in the first place
and predict how it will evolve.
This allows us to take action
and dynamically control transportation systems:
changing the timing of traffic lights,
coordinating emergency crews,
and adjusting the price of tolls and parking.
The systems of our world are complex, constantly changing,
and ever evolving.
Approaches like these are enabling us
to take actions as conditions emerge
to make our systems flow better.
This is the pattern of progress,
an approach to tackling challenges
from the grand to the everyday.
Today, we can see more clearly than ever
how our world behaves...
in real time, as life is unfolding,
from the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large.
We map our findings...
more accurately and completely.
We understand cause and effect...
in increasingly complex systems:
the systems that support our businesses, our industries,
our cities, and our economies.
Today we can improve the infrastructures and processes
that we most depend on.
We have more tools, more technology,
more science at our disposal than ever before.
So what belief can we now build?
Which actions must we take?
How will we make the world work better? �