Eric Berlow and Sean Gourley: Mapping ideas worth spreading

Translator: Ingrid Lezar Reviewer: Elri Marais

Eric Berlow: I'm an ecologist, and Sean's a physicist,

Eric Berlow: Ek's ’n ekoloog en Sean is ’n fisikus

and we both study complex networks.

en ons bestudeer komplekse netwerke.

And we met a couple years ago when we discovered

Toe ons ontmoet het, het ons ontdek

that we had both given a short TED Talk

dat ons albei al ’n kort TED Talk

about the ecology of war,

oor die ekologie van oorlog gegee het.

and we realized that we were connected

Die idees wat ons gemeen het,

by the ideas we shared before we ever met.

het ons verbind, voor ons mekaar geken het.

Toe dink ons: Daar is duisende praatjies,

And then we thought, you know, there are thousands

of other talks out there, especially TEDx Talks,

veral TEDx Talks,

that are popping up all over the world.

wat oral oor die wêreld opduik.

Hoe is hulle gekoppel

How are they connected,

and what does that global conversation look like?

en hoe lyk die globale gesprek?

So Sean's going to tell you a little bit about how we did that.

Sean sal vertel hoe ons dit aangepak het.

Sean Gourley: Exactly. So we took 24,000 TEDx Talks

Sean Gourley: Presies. So ons het 24 000 TEDx Talks

from around the world, 147 different countries,

oor die hele wêreld gevat, 147 lande,

and we took these talks and we wanted to find

en ons was op soek na

die onderliggende wiskundige strukture

the mathematical structures that underly

the ideas behind them.

van die idees agter die praatjies.

And we wanted to do that so we could see how

Ons wou sien hoe

they connected with each other.

die praatjies gekoppel is.

And so, of course, if you're going to do this kind of stuff,

Natuurlik, om so iets te doen,

you need a lot of data.

benodig jy baie data.

So the data that you've got is a great thing called YouTube,

Die data is ’n wonderlike ding genaamd YouTube,

and we can go down and basically pull

waarvanaf ons basies

all the open information from YouTube,

al die oop informasie kan trek:

all the comments, all the views, who's watching it,

Wie kyk, hoeveel van hulle kyk,

where are they watching it, what are they saying in the comments.

waar kyk hulle, wat sê hulle in die kommentare.

But we can also pull up, using speech-to-text translation,

Maar ons kan ook met spraak-tot-teks vertaling

we can pull the entire transcript,

die hele transkrip kry --

and that works even for people with kind of funny accents like myself.

selfs vir mense soos ek met snaakse aksente.

So we can take their transcript

So ons vat hulle transkrip

and actually do some pretty cool things.

en doen ’n paar kief dinge.

We can take natural language processing algorithms

Ons kan natuurliketaal- verwerkingsalgoritmes neem

to kind of read through with a computer, line by line,

en met ’n rekenaar, reël vir rëel, lees

extracting key concepts from this.

om sleutelkonsepte uit te haal.

And we take those key concepts and they sort of form

Die sleutelkonsepte vorm dan soortvan

this mathematical structure of an idea.

die wiskundige struktuur van ’n idee.

And we call that the meme-ome.

Ons noem dit die meemoom.

And the meme-ome, you know, quite simply,

Die meemoom is eenvoudig

is the mathematics that underlies an idea,

die wiskunde onderliggend aan ’n idee,

and we can do some pretty interesting analysis with it,

waarmee ons interessante ontleding doen,

wat ek nou met julle wil deel.

which I want to share with you now.

So elke idee het sy eie meemoom

So each idea has its own meme-ome,

and each idea is unique with that,

en elke idee is uniek daarin,

but of course, ideas, they borrow from each other,

maar idees leen natuurlik by mekaar,

they kind of steal sometimes,

hulle steel soms ’n bietjie

and they certainly build on each other,

en hulle bou beslis op mekaar.

and we can go through mathematically

Ons kan wiskundig ondersoek instel

and take the meme-ome from one talk

deur die meemoom van een praatjie

and compare it to the meme-ome from every other talk,

te vergelyk met dié van elke ander praatjie.

and if there's a similarity between the two of them,

As daar ooreenkomste tussen twee is,

we can create a link and represent that as a graph,

kan ons ’n skakel skep en dit as ’n grafiek voorstel,

just like Eric and I are connected.

net soos ek en Eric verbonde is.

So that's theory, that's great.

So dis die teorie, lieflik.

Let's see how it works in actual practice.

Kom ons kyk hoe die toepassing werk.

So what we've got here now is the global footprint

Hier is die globale voetspoor

van al die TEDx Talks oor die laaste vier jaar

of all the TEDx Talks over the last four years

exploding out around the world

soos hulle oral ontplof,

from New York all the way down to little old New Zealand in the corner.

van New York al die pad tot in ou Nieu-Seeland in die hoek.

And what we did on this is we analyzed the top 25 percent of these,

Hier het ons die top 25 persent ontleed

en begin sien waar die verbindings voorkom,

and we started to see where the connections occurred,

where they connected with each other.

waar hulle met mekaar skakel.

Cameron Russell oor beeld en skoonheid,

Cameron Russell talking about image and beauty

connected over into Europe.

oorkant in Europa gekoppel.

We've got a bigger conversation about Israel and Palestine

’n Groter gesprek oor Israel en Palestina,

radiating outwards from the Middle East.

wat vanuit die Midde-Ooste uitstraal.

And we've got something a little broader

Iets breër, soos groot data,

like big data with a truly global footprint

het ’n waarlik globale voetspoor --

reminiscent of a conversation

dit laat mens dink aan ’n gesprek

that is happening everywhere.

wat oral plaasvind.

So from this, we kind of run up against the limits

Hier tref ons egter reeds die perke

van wat geografiese projeksie kan doen,

of what we can actually do with a geographic projection,

but luckily, computer technology allows us to go out

maar gelukkig kan ons met rekenaars

into multidimensional space.

in ’n meerdimensionele ruimte werk.

Ons bring die netwerkprojeksie in

So we can take in our network projection

en pas ’n fisiese model se berekeninge toe:

and apply a physics engine to this,

and the similar talks kind of smash together,

Soortgelyke praatjies bondel op

and the different ones fly apart,

en verskillendes skiet uitmekaar

and what we're left with is something quite beautiful.

en op die ou end het ons iets mooi.

EB: So I want to just point out here that every node is a talk,

EB: Ek wil net uitwys dat elke nodus ’n praatjie is.

they're linked if they share similar ideas,

Hulle is gekoppel as hulle soortgelyke idees gemeen het

and that comes from a machine reading

en dis op ’n masjienlesing

of entire talk transcripts,

van volledige praatjie-afskrifte gebaseer.

and then all these topics that pop out,

Al die onderwerpe wat dan opkom,

they're not from tags and keywords.

kom nie van merkers of sleutelwoorde af nie.

They come from the network structure

Dis op ’n netwerkstruktuur

of interconnected ideas. Keep going.

van onderling verbonde idees gebaseer. Gaan voort.

SG: Absolutely. So I got a little quick on that,

SG: Absoluut. Ek was bietjie vinnig,

but he's going to slow me down.

maar hy sal my in toom hou.

We've got education connected to storytelling

Ons het opvoeding gebonde aan vertelkuns,

triangulated next to social media.

langs sosiale media getrianguleer.

You've got, of course, the human brain right next to healthcare,

Die menslike brein is reg langs gesondheidsorg,

soos mens sou vermoed,

which you might expect,

but also you've got video games, which is sort of adjacent,

maar daar's ook videospeletjies, half aangrensend,

as those two spaces interface with each other.

soos die twee ruimtes met mekaar koppel.

But I want to take you into one cluster

Ek wil julle in een tros invat

wat vir my besonders belangrik is: die omgewing.

that's particularly important to me, and that's the environment.

And I want to kind of zoom in on that

Ek wil daar inzoem

and see if we can get a little more resolution.

sodat ons nog resolusie kan kry.

So as we go in here, what we start to see,

Ons begin sien,

weer met die fisiese model se berekeninge toegepas,

apply the physics engine again,

we see what's one conversation

dat een gesprek

is actually composed of many smaller ones.

deur baie kleiner gesprekke opgemaak word.

The structure starts to emerge

Die struktuur kom te voorskyn:

where we see a kind of fractal behavior

Ons sien ’n soort fraktaalgedrag

of the words and the language that we use

van die woorde wat ons gebruik

to describe the things that are important to us

om dít wat vir ons belangrik is te beskryf,

all around this world.

oor die hele wêreld.

So you've got food economy and local food at the top,

So jy't voedselekonomie en plaaslike kos bo,

you've got greenhouse gases, solar and nuclear waste.

kweekhuisgas, sonkrag en kernafval.

What you're getting is a range of smaller conversations,

Mens kry ’n reeks kleiner gesprekke,

each connected to each other through the ideas

verbonde aan mekaar deur die idees

and the language they share,

en die taal wat hulle gemeen het,

creating a broader concept of the environment.

wat sodoende ’n breër begrip van die omgewing skep.

And of course, from here, we can go

Nou kan ons natuurlik

and zoom in and see, well, what are young people looking at?

inzoem en vra: Waarna kyk jong mense?

And they're looking at energy technology and nuclear fusion.

Energietegnologie en kernfusie.

This is their kind of resonance

Dit spreek tot hulle

for the conversation around the environment.

binne die gesprek rondom die omgewing.

If we split along gender lines,

As ons volgens geslag opdeel,

we can see females resonating heavily

kan ons sien wat tot vroue spreek:

with food economy, but also out there in hope and optimism.

voedselekonomie, maar ook hoop en optimisme.

And so there's a lot of exciting stuff we can do here,

Daar's baie opwindende dinge om hier te doen

and I'll throw to Eric for the next part.

en nou oor aan Eric.

EB: Yeah, I mean, just to point out here,

EB: Ja, ek wys net hier uit:

you cannot get this kind of perspective

Mens kan hierdie tipe perspektief

from a simple tag search on YouTube.

nie deur ’n enkele merkersoektog op YouTube kry nie.

Let's now zoom back out to the entire global conversation

Kom ons zoem uit tot die hele globale gesprek

out of environment, and look at all the talks together.

en kyk na al die praatjies saam.

Now often, when we're faced with this amount of content,

Dikwels, wanneer ons so baie inhoud het,

we do a couple of things to simplify it.

vereenvoudig ons dit.

We might just say, well,

Ons vra dalk:

what are the most popular talks out there?

Watter praatjies is die gewildste?

And a few rise to the surface.

’n Paar kom op.

There's a talk about gratitude.

Daar's een oor dankbaarheid.

There's another one about personal health and nutrition.

Daar's nog een oor persoonlike gesondheid en voeding.

And of course, there's got to be one about porn, right?

En daar móét een oor porno wees, of hoe?

And so then we might say, well, gratitude, that was last year.

Dan sê ons dalk, wel, dankbaarheid was laas jaar.

Watse praatjie is nóú "in"?

What's trending now? What's the popular talk now?

And we can see that the new, emerging, top trending topic

En ons sien die nuwe opkomende "in"-onderwerp

is about digital privacy.

is oor digitale privaatheid.

So this is great. It simplifies things.

Lieflik. Dis eenvoudiger.

But there's so much creative content

Maar daar's só baie kreatiewe inhoud

that's just buried at the bottom.

wat nog onder begrawe lê.

And I hate that. How do we bubble stuff up to the surface

Ek verpes dit. Hoe borrel ons daai goed boontoe,

that's maybe really creative and interesting?

die moontlik kreatiewe en interessante dinge?

Well, we can go back to the network structure of ideas

Ons kan terugkeer na die netwerkstruktuur van idees toe

to do that.

om dit te doen.

Onthou, dis daai netwerkstruktuur

Remember, it's that network structure

that is creating these emergent topics,

wat hierdie opkomende temas skep,

and let's say we could take two of them,

so ons kan twee vat,

like cities and genetics, and say, well, are there any talks

soos stede en genetika, en vra:

Is daar kreatiewe oorbrugging van dié twee uiteenlopende dissiplines?

that creatively bridge these two really different disciplines.

And that's -- Essentially, this kind of creative remix

Sulke kreatiewe hervermenging is, in wese,

is one of the hallmarks of innovation.

een van die kenmerke van innovasie.

Well here's one by Jessica Green

Hier's een deur Jessica Green

about the microbial ecology of buildings.

oor die mikrobiese ekologie van geboue.

It's literally defining a new field.

Dit omskryf letterlik ’n nuwe vakgebied.

And we could go back to those topics and say, well,

Ons kan terugkeer na daai temas toe en vra:

what talks are central to those conversations?

Watter praatjies is sentraal tot daai gesprekke?

In the cities cluster, one of the most central

In die stede-tros is een van die mees sentrales

was one by Mitch Joachim about ecological cities,

deur Mitch Joachim oor ekologiese stede

and in the genetics cluster,

en in die genetika-tros

we have a talk about synthetic biology by Craig Venter.

is ’n praatjie oor sintetiese biologie deur Craig Venter.

These are talks that are linking many talks within their discipline.

Hierdie praatjies verbind baie ander binne-in hulle dissipline.

We could go the other direction and say, well,

In die ander rigting kan ons vra:

what are talks that are broadly synthesizing

Watter praatjies is ’n breë samevatting

a lot of different kinds of fields.

van vele verskillende gebiede?

Hier het ons ’n ekologiese- diversiteitsmaat gebruik.

We used a measure of ecological diversity to get this.

Like, a talk by Steven Pinker on the history of violence,

Byvoorbeeld, Steven Pinker oor die geskiedenis van geweld:

very synthetic.

baie samevattend.

And then, of course, there are talks that are so unique

Daar is natuurlik praatjies wat só uniek is

they're kind of out in the stratosphere, in their own special place,

dat hulle in die stratosfeer dryf, op hulle eie spesiale plek.

and we call that the Colleen Flanagan index.

Ons noem dit die Colleen-Flanagan-indeks. (Gelag)

And if you don't know Colleen, she's an artist,

Wie haar nie ken nie: Sy's ’n kunstenaar.

and I asked her, "Well, what's it like out there

Ek't haar gevra: "Hoe ervaar jy

in the stratosphere of our idea space?"

die stratosfeer van jou ideeruimte?"

And apparently it smells like bacon.

Blykbaar ruik dit soos spek. (Gelag)

I wouldn't know.

Ek sou nie weet nie.

So we're using these network motifs

So ons gebruik hierdie netwerkmotiewe

to find talks that are unique,

om praatjies te vind wat uniek is,

of kreatief baie vakgebiede saamvat,

ones that are creatively synthesizing a lot of different fields,

ones that are central to their topic,

of sentraal tot hulle tema is,

and ones that are really creatively bridging disparate fields.

of uiteenlopende gebiede kreatief oorbrug.

Okay? We never would have found those with our obsession

Ons sou hulle nooit met ons obsessie

with what's trending now.

oor wat tans "in" is gekry het nie.

En dis alles op die argitektuur van kompleksiteit gebaseer,

And all of this comes from the architecture of complexity,

or the patterns of how things are connected.

of die patrone van hoe dinge gekoppel is.

SG: So that's exactly right.

SG: Presies.

We've got ourselves in a world

Ons bevind onsself in ’n wêreld

wat uiters kompleks is

that's massively complex,

en ons gebruik algoritmes om dit te filtreer

and we've been using algorithms to kind of filter it down

sodat ons daardeur kan navigeer.

so we can navigate through it.

And those algorithms, whilst being kind of useful,

En daardie algoritmes is wel behulpsaam,

maar ook geweldig nou, en ons kan beter doen,

are also very, very narrow, and we can do better than that,

because we can realize that their complexity is not random.

deur te besef dat hulle kompleksiteit nie willekeurig is nie.

It has mathematical structure,

Dit besit wiskundige struktuur

wat ons kan gebruik

and we can use that mathematical structure

to go and explore things like the world of ideas

om dinge soos die ideewêreld te verken,

om te sien wat gesê of nié gesê word nie

to see what's being said, to see what's not being said,

en om ’n bietjie meer mens

and to be a little bit more human

and, hopefully, a little smarter.

en, hopelik, ’n bietjie slimmer te wees.

Thank you.

Dankie.

(Applause)

(Applous)