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You and I, have one thing in common.
You and I, we are part of a privileged elite.
You and I, we are one
of the 10 species
that use tools to improve their lives.
When we think of tools, we immediately think
about hand tools, like a wrench.
But what is actually a tool?
I developed this "insight" recently, not far from here
the eagle animal park in Kintzheim, in Alsace.
The bird you see in the picture
is called an Egyptian Vulture.
It drops a stone
to break ostrich eggs and get to the contents.
It's a tool !
It's a tool !
When we imagine prehistoric humans,
we think of them as primitive
hunters of mammoths.
In fact, prehistoric man
had needles
to sew skins together
and thus improve his clothing.
When we think of the Gauls, we first see Asterix and Obelix,
This last one… not being overweight‚ just somewhat wrapped.
Yet the Gauls invented the first grain harvester.
In 1896, when August and Louis Lumière projected their movie
"The Arrival of a train at La Ciotat"
an urban legend was that the crowd run away in a panic.
If we had not overcome this type of fear,
we never would have had a film like Avatar.
When I was ten I lived in Morocco,
my father managed a factory.
When one asked me what I wanted to do later,
I said "robotics engineer".
At the time, my motivations were not clear,
I often said, wrongly, "to avoid work"
Actually, for a long time I wondered why.
I wondered what were the underspanning motivations
for such a thought.
I came to the conclusion that I wanted to improve
human lives.
I wanted the work more enjoyable,
less repetitive.
That's why I wanted to build robots.
Robots are cool for geeks,
but for most, robots are scary.
There are also some unexpected consequences of inventions.
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone
so that normal people,
can call scholars to learn
and thus improve their lives.
A kind of TDEx before the time...
Fortunately (or unfortunately), other uses have developed.
Man has always created tools.
For me, the primary driver is to improve his life
and, occasionally, based on his level of altruism
the life of others.
So, I imagined of a simple process
for the implementation of technologies and tools.
Take little graph.
Horizontally, I put the time.
Vertically, I put the improvement of life.
Of course, there is no real unit
of measurement for "improving life"
(although there are people working
on the subject),
but let's assume...
Then I divide my cycle between three stages:
The initial phase of innovation and discovery.
Then we reach a stage of fear and questioning.
To finally arrive at what I call the quantum leap.
I'll take an example, more concrete and closer to us
and one I know quite well...
At the beginning of the Internet,
everyone quickly found it's great.
It was so great that it generated a financial bubble.
It exploded.
and created a lasting irrational fear that
"all internet companies will fail".
Now, this idea is solidly rooted in the minds
of many financial lenders of our beautiful region.
But fortunately, Web 2.0,
and now the Web Squared,
have emerged, allowing the quantum leap to take place.
Now what?
Man produces tools more complex tools..
This summer, while vacationing in the U.S.,
my wife and I, we purchased
a robot that vacuums the floors of our home.
This robot goes through my house automatically.
Our lives have been greatly improved.
Before we go on,
I think it is important to understand
that this curve is unending.
One of my favorite quotes is that of Thomas Watson,
author of the famous "Think" of IBM.
Tom Watson was the president of the company
for many years.
In 1943, he believed that the world market for computers
would be limited to five...
There are many such examples.
Where are we in the development of our internet tools?
Right now, I see one of these plateau.
This step comes as Web 2.0
and Web Squared slowly mature into practical applications.
You already can hear the irrational fears which appear:
I do not trust the Internet.
I do not trust Facebook.
I'm afraid to be fooled.
Where is my personal data?
How do I know if it is well protected?
My goal today is not to try to argue each of these points.
But just compare this novel environment with the conventional accepted world.
What guarantee offers your bank to protect your accounts?
What happens if you lose your car keys?
Just recall Père-Noël.fr?
Père-Noël.fr was one of the biggest disasters
in French e-commerce,
but it is now all forgotten.
Many of our tools have become real & complex machines.
And the reason we were raising all these questions
is simply because we do not
trust these machines.
Of course, we trust a number of machines:
dishwasher, car,
I just took the train to take me here,
with all the mechanisms set up by the SNCF and RFF...
I even trust an automatic vacuum cleaner
in my house.
Let's imagine together all we could do
if we would trust new generation internet machines.
Suppose that the machine understands my mails.
It could identify who are my best friends
(close friends, not those on Facebook).
As the machine has access to my address book,
it knows that one of my best friends lives in Massachusetts,
near Boston.
I am interested to know what is happening in Boston.
I am interested in what impacts my friend
such as the collapse of a Big Dig tunnel,
the Celtics being champions in 2008,
the Red Sox beating the Yankees regularly..
Continue to dream:
I just confirmed my flight to Las Vegas next October.
The machine knows me and can suggest
some interesting activities to do in "Sin City".
There is of course no relationship
with the pink phone mentioned earlier...
I believe Facebook knows...
I'll be in Morocco
for the second Ignite in Casablanca.
The machine can offer me some interesting information
about the Kingdom of Morocco.
I have many more examples,
but I must stay within my allocated 18 minutes
and I cannot reveal everything.
In addition, I do not want to search for all this information.
It must come automatically to me.
The machine should get it and bring it to me automatically.
I must be able to access my computer,
my phone, my TV, my tablet or any other media...
In conclusion, I quote a friend of mine
"we are what we share".
It is time to share with the machines.
If we trust the machines,
we will improve our lives.