Ken Jennings: Watson, Jeopardy and me, the obsolete know-it-all

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: David J. Kreps Finnemann Reviewer: Niels Justus

In two weeks time, that's the ninth anniversary

Om cirka to uger, er det niende jubilæum

of the day I first stepped out onto that hallowed "Jeopardy" set.

for den dag hvor jeg for første gang gik ud i det hæderkronede Jeopardy sæt.

I mean, nine years is a long time.

Jeg mener, ni år er lang tid.

And given "Jeopardy's" average demographics,

Og set i forhold til Jeopardys gennemsnitlige demografi,

I think what that means

tror jeg det betyder

is most of the people who saw me on that show are now dead.

at størstedelen af de mennesker der så mig i det show nu er døde.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

But not all, a few are still alive.

Men ikke alle, der er stadig et par stykker der lever.

Occasionally I still get recognized at the mall or whatever.

Det sker af og til at jeg stadig bliver genkendt i indkøbscenteret eller sådan noget.

And when I do, it's as a bit of a know-it-all.

Og når det sker, er det som en der ved det hele.

I think that ship has sailed, it's too late for me.

Jeg tror det skib er sejlet, det er for sent for mig.

For better or for worse, that's what I'm going to be known as,

I medgang og modgang, så er det sådan jeg bliver genkendt,

as the guy who knew a lot of weird stuff.

som fyren der kendte en masse skøre ting.

And I can't complain about this.

Og jeg kan ikke klage over dette.

I feel like that was always sort of my destiny,

Jeg har det som om det på en eller anden måde altid var min skæbne,

although I had for many years been pretty deeply in the trivia closet.

selvom jeg i mange år havde været meget dybt nede i småtings skabet.

If nothing else, you realize very quickly as a teenager,

Om ikke andet, bliver man som teenager virkelig hurtig klar over,

it is not a hit with girls to know Captain Kirk's middle name.

at det ikke er et hit hos pigerne at kende Kaptajn Kirks mellemnavn.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And as a result, I was sort of the deeply closeted kind of know-it-all for many years.

Og som resultat, var jeg på en eller anden måde det utrolig barrikaderede bedrevidende barn i mange år.

But if you go further back, if you look at it, it's all there.

Men hvis man går længere tilbage, hvis man kigger på det, er det hele der.

I was the kind of kid who was always bugging Mom and Dad

Jeg var den slags barn der altid irriterede mor og far

with whatever great fact I had just read about --

med en eller anden fantastisk oplysning jeg lige havde læst om --

Haley's comet or giant squids

Haleys komet eller kæmpe blæksprutter

or the size of the world's biggest pumpkin pie or whatever it was.

eller størrelsen på verdens største græskartærte, eller hvad det nu var.

I now have a 10-year-old of my own who's exactly the same.

Jeg har nu selv en tiårig der er nøjagtig på samme måde.

And I know how deeply annoying it is, so karma does work.

Og jeg ved hvor utrolig irriterende det er, så karma fungerer.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And I loved game shows, fascinated with game shows.

Og jeg elskede game shows , fascineret af game shows.

I remember crying on my first day of kindergarten back in 1979

Jeg kan huske at jeg græd den første dag i børnehaveklassen tilbage i 1979

because it had just hit me, as badly as I wanted to go to school,

fordi det slog mig, at uanset hvor meget jeg gerne ville gå i skole,

that I was also going to miss "Hollywood Squares" and "Family Feud."

så ville jeg også gå glip af Hollywood Squares og Family Feud.

I was going to miss my game shows.

Jeg ville gå glip af mine game shows.

And later, in the mid-'80s,

Og senere, i midten af 80'erne,

when "Jeopardy" came back on the air,

da Jeopardy kom tilbage i æteren,

I remember running home from school every day to watch the show.

kan jeg huske at jeg løb hjem fra skole hver dag for at se udsendelsen.

It was my favorite show, even before it paid for my house.

Det var mit yndlings show, selv inden det betalte for mit hus.

And we lived overseas, we lived in South Korea where my dad was working,

Og vi boede i udlandet, vi levede i Sydkorea hvor min far arbejdede,

where there was only one English language TV channel.

hvor der kun var en tv kanal hvor de talte engelsk.

There was Armed Forces TV,

Der var Armed Forces TV,

and if you didn't speak Korean, that's what you were watching.

og hvis man ikke talte koreansk, så var det det man så.

So me and all my friends would run home every day and watch "Jeopardy."

Så jeg og alle mine venner løb hjem hver dag og se Jeopardy.

I was always that kind of obsessed trivia kid.

Jeg var altid den slags barn der var besat af paratviden.

I remember being able to play Trivial Pursuit against my parents back in the '80s

Jeg kan huske at jeg var i stand til at spille Trivial Pursuit mod mine forældre tilbage i 80'erne

and holding my own, back when that was a fad.

og jeg svarede for mig, dengang det var en dille.

There's a weird sense of mastery you get

Det er en mærkelig følelse af magt man får

when you know some bit of boomer trivia that Mom and Dad don't know.

når man har et lille stykke interessant viden som mor og far ikke har.

You know some Beatles factoid that Dad didn't know.

Man kender et faktum om Beatles som far ikke kendte.

And you think, ah hah, knowledge really is power --

Og man tænker, ah hah, viden er i sandhed magt --

the right fact deployed at exactly the right place.

det rette faktum brugt på præcis det rigtige tidspunkt.

I never had a guidance counselor

Jeg havde aldrig en studievejleder

who thought this was a legitimate career path,

der mente at dette var en legitim karrierevej,

that thought you could major in trivia

der mente at man kunne have et hovedfag i paratviden,

or be a professional ex-game show contestant.

eller være professionel tidligere deltager i en tv-quiz.

And so I sold out way too young.

Så jeg solgte ud af mig selv for tidligt.

I didn't try to figure out what one does with that.

Jeg prøvede ikke at finde ud af hvad man gør med det.

I studied computers because I heard that was the thing,

Jeg studerede computere, fordi jeg havde hørt at det var emnet,

and I became a computer programmer --

og jeg blev computerprogrammør --

not an especially good one,

ikke en specielt god en af slagsen,

not an especially happy one at the time when I was first on "Jeopardy" in 2004.

ikke en specielt tilfreds en af slagsen da jeg var i Jeopardy for første gang i 2004.

But that's what I was doing.

Men det var det jeg gjorde.

And it made it doubly ironic -- my computer background --

Og jeg gjorde det dobbelt ironisk -- min computermæssige baggrund --

a few years later, I think 2009 or so,

et par år senere, jeg tror det var i 2009 eller så,

when I got another phone call from "Jeopardy" saying,

da jeg fik endnu et opkald fra Jeopardy der sagde,

"It's early days yet, but IBM tells us

"Det er stadig tidligt, men IBM fortæller os

they want to build a supercomputer to beat you at 'Jeopardy.'

at de vil bygge en supercomputer der kan slå dig i Jeopardy.

Are you up for this?"

Er du med på den?"

This was the first I'd heard of it.

Det var første gang jeg hørte om det.

And of course I said yes, for several reasons.

Og selvfølgelig sagde jeg ja, af adskillige årsager.

One, because playing "Jeopardy" is a great time.

For det første, fordi Jeopardi er sjovt.

It's fun. It's the most fun you can have with your pants on.

Det er sjovt. Det er det sjoveste man kan lave mens man har bukser på.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And I would do it for nothing.

Og jeg ville gøre det gratis.

I don't think they know that, luckily,

Jeg tror ikke at de vidste det, heldigvis,

but I would go back and play for Arby's coupons.

men jeg ville tage tilbage og spille for Arbys kuponer.

I just love "Jeopardy," and I always have.

Jeg elsker bare Jeopardy, og det har jeg altid gjort.

And second of all, because I'm a nerdy guy and this seemed like the future.

Og for det andet, fordi jeg er en nørdet fyr og dette så ud til at være fremtiden.

People playing computers on game shows

Mennesker der spiller mod computere på game shows

was the kind of thing I always imagined would happen in the future,

var den slags ting jeg altid havde forestillet mig ville ske i fremtiden,

and now I could be on the stage with it.

og nu kunne jeg være på scenen med den.

I was not going to say no.

Jeg ville ikke sige nej.

The third reason I said yes

Den tredje grund til at jeg sagde ja

is because I was pretty confident that I was going to win.

var fordi jeg var temmelig sikker på at jeg ville vinde.

I had taken some artificial intelligence classes.

Jeg havde taget nogle kurser i kunstig intelligens.

I knew there were no computers that could do what you need to do to win on "Jeopardy."

Jeg vidste at der ikke var nogen computere der kunne gøre det man skal for at kunne vinde i Jeopardy.

People don't realize how tough it is to write that kind of program

Folk er ikke klar over hvor svært det er at skrive sådan et program,

that can read a "Jeopardy" clue in a natural language like English

der kan læse en Jeopardy ledetråd i et naturligt sprog som det engelske,

and understand all the double meanings, the puns, the red herrings,

og forstå alle tvetydighederne, ordspil, sarkasmen,

unpack the meaning of the clue.

udfolde betydningen af ledetråden.

The kind of thing that a three- or four-year-old human, little kid could do,

Den slags ting som et tre-, fireårigt menneske, lille barn kan gøre,

very hard for a computer.

er meget svært for en computer.

And I thought, well this is going to be child's play.

Og jeg tænkte, jamen det her kommer til at være barnemad.

Yes, I will come destroy the computer and defend my species.

Ja, jeg vil møde op og ødelægge computeren og forsvare arten.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

But as the years went on,

Men som tiden gik,

as IBM started throwing money and manpower and processor speed at this,

i takt med at IBM begyndte at kaste penge og mandetimer og processor hastighed efter dette,

I started to get occasional updates from them,

begyndte jeg at få sporadiske opdateringer fra dem,

and I started to get a little more worried.

og jeg begyndte at blive lidt mere bekymret.

I remember a journal article about this new question answering software that had a graph.

Jeg kan huske, at der i et blad var en artikel om denne nye spørgsmål/svar software med en graf.

It was a scatter chart showing performance on "Jeopardy,"

Det var et punktdiagram der viser præstationen på Jeopardy,

tens of thousands of dots representing "Jeopardy" champions up at the top

titusindevis af prikker der repræsenterede Jeopardy vinderne i toppen

with their performance plotted on number of --

med deres præstation plottet ind --

I was going to say questions answered, but answers questioned, I guess,

Jeg skulle til at sige besvarede spørgsmål, men svar der blev stillet spørgsmål til, mener jeg,

clues responded to --

ledetråd der blev svaret på --

versus the accuracy of those answers.

imod nøjagtigheden af de svar.

So there's a certain performance level that the computer would need to get to.

Der er et bestemt præstations niveau som computeren skulle nå.

And at first, it was very low.

Og i starten var det meget lavt.

There was no software that could compete at this kind of arena.

Der var ikke nogen software der kunne konkurrere i denne slags arena.

But then you see the line start to go up.

Men så ser man at linjen begynder at gå opad.

And it's getting very close to what they call the winner's cloud.

Og den kommer meget tæt på det man kalder vinderskyen.

And I noticed in the upper right of the scatter chart

Og jeg lagde mærke til nogle mørkere prikker i det øvre højre

some darker dots, some black dots, that were a different color.

hjørne af punktdiagrammet, nogle sorte prikker, der havde en anden farve.

And thought, what are these?

Og jeg tænkte, hvad er det?

"The black dots in the upper right represent 74-time 'Jeopardy' champion Ken Jennings."

"De sorte prikker i det øvre, højre hjørne repræsenterer Jeopardy mesteren Ken Jennings der har vundet 74 gange."

And I saw this line coming for me.

Og jeg så denne linje komme efter mig.

And I realized, this is it.

Og jeg blev klar over, at det var det.

This is what it looks like when the future comes for you.

Det er sådan her det ser ud, når fremtiden kommer efter en.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

It's not the Terminator's gun sight;

Det er ikke Terminatorens sigtekorn;

it's a little line coming closer and closer to the thing you can do,

det er en lille linje der kommer tættere og tættere på den ting man kan finde ud af,

the only thing that makes you special, the thing you're best at.

den eneste ting der gør en speciel, den ting man er bedst til.

And when the game eventually happened about a year later,

Og da spillet i sidste ende blev spillet cirka et år senere,

it was very different than the "Jeopardy" games I'd been used to.

var det meget anderledes end de Jeopardy spil jeg havde været vant til.

We were not playing in L.A. on the regular "Jeopardy" set.

Vi spillede ikke i L.A. på den sædvanlige Jeopardy kulisse.

Watson does not travel.

Watson rejser ikke.

Watson's actually huge.

Watson er faktisk kæmpestor.

It's thousands of processors, a terabyte of memory,

Det er tusindevis af processorer, en terabyte hukommelse,

trillions of bytes of memory.

trillioner af bytes af hukommelse.

We got to walk through his climate-controlled server room.

Vi gik igennem dette klima-kontrollerede server lokale.

The only other "Jeopardy" contestant to this day I've ever been inside.

Den eneste anden Jeopardy deltager som jeg til dags dato har været inden i.

And so Watson does not travel.

Så Watson rejser ikke.

You must come to it; you must make the pilgrimage.

Man skal komme til den; man skal tage pilgrimsrejsen.

So me and the other human player

Jeg og en anden menneskelig spiller

wound up at this secret IBM research lab

endte på dette hemmelige IBM forsknings laboratorium

in the middle of these snowy woods in Westchester County

midt i denne snefyldte skov i Westchester County

to play the computer.

for at spille imod computeren.

And we realized right away

Og vi blev med det samme klar over

that the computer had a big home court advantage.

at computeren havde en stor hjemmebanefordel.

There was a big Watson logo in the middle of the stage.

Der var et stort Watson logo på midten af scenen.

Like you're going to play the Chicago Bulls,

Ligesom når man skal til at spille imod Chicago Bulls,

and there's the thing in the middle of their court.

og der er den ting i midten af deres bane.

And the crowd was full of IBM V.P.s and programmers

Og publikummet var fuldt af chefer og programmører fra IBM

cheering on their little darling,

der heppede på deres lille skat,

having poured millions of dollars into this

efter have hældt millioner af dollars i den

hoping against hope that the humans screw up,

og håbede imod oddsene at menneskene begik en fejltagelse,

and holding up "Go Watson" signs

og holdte "Go Watson" skilte op

and just applauding like pageant moms every time their little darling got one right.

og klappede som mødre til en skønhedskonkurrence, hver gang deres lille skat gav et rigtigt svar.

I think guys had "W-A-T-S-O-N" written on their bellies in grease paint.

I tror at gutterne havde skrevet "W-A-T-S-O-N" hen over deres mave med oliemaling.

If you can imagine computer programmers with the letters "W-A-T-S-O-N" written on their gut,

Hvis man kan forestille sig computer programmører med bogstaverne "W-A-T-S-O-N" skrevet hen over deres mave,

it's an unpleasant sight.

er det et ubehageligt syn.

But they were right. They were exactly right.

Men de havde ret. De havde fuldstændig ret.

I don't want to spoil it, if you still have this sitting on your DVR,

Jeg vil ike afsløre det, hvis man stadig har optagelsen på recorderen,

but Watson won handily.

men Watson vandt nemt.

And I remember standing there behind the podium

Og jeg kan huske at jeg stod der bag podiet

as I could hear that little insectoid thumb clicking.

hvor jeg kunne høre denne lille insektlignende tommelfinger klikke.

It had a robot thumb that was clicking on the buzzer.

Den havde en robot tommelfinger der trykkede på knappen.

And you could hear that little tick, tick, tick, tick.

Og man kunne høre det lille tick, tick, tick, tick.

And I remember thinking, this is it.

Og jeg kan huske at jeg tænkte, nu sker det.

I felt obsolete.

Jeg følte mig undværlig.

I felt like a Detroit factory worker of the '80s

Jeg følte mig som en fabriksarbejder i Detroit i 80'erne

seeing a robot that could now do his job on the assembly line.

der så en robot der nu kunne klare hans job på samlebåndet.

I felt like quiz show contestant was now the first job that had become obsolete

Jeg følte at game show deltager nu var det første job der var blevet undværligt

under this new regime of thinking computers.

under dette nye regime af tænkende computere.

And it hasn't been the last.

Og det var ikke den sidste.

If you watch the news, you'll see occasionally --

Hvis man ser nyhederne, vil man af og til se --

and I see this all the time --

og jeg ser det hele tiden --

that pharmacists now, there's a machine that can fill prescriptions automatically

at farmaceuter nu, der er en maskine der automatisk kan fylde recepter

without actually needing a human pharmacist.

uden at der faktisk er brug for en menneskelig apoteker.

And a lot of law firms are getting rid of paralegals

Og mange advokatfirmaer fyrer nu juridiske assistenter

because there's software that can sum up case laws and legal briefs and decisions.

fordi der findes software der kan opsummere retspraksis og sagsresumé og afgørelser.

You don't need human assistants for that anymore.

Man har ikke brug for menneskelige assistenter for det mere.

I read the other day about a program where you feed it a box score

Den anden dag læste jeg om et program hvor man giver den stillingen

from a baseball or football game

fra en baseball eller fodboldkamp

and it spits out a news article as if a human had watched the game

og den spytter en artikel ud som om et menneske havde set kampen

and was commenting on it.

og kommenterede den.

And obviously these new technologies can't do as clever or creative a job

Og selvfølgelig kan disse nye teknologier ikke udføre et lige så smart eller kreativt arbejde

as the humans they're replacing,

som de mennesker de erstatter,

but they're faster, and crucially, they're much, much cheaper.

men de er hurtigere, og afgørende, de er meget, meget billigere.

So it makes me wonder what the economic effects of this might be.

Det får mig til at mig over den økonomiske effekt som dette kunne have.

I've read economists saying that, as a result of these new technologies,

Jeg har læst om økonomer der siger, at som resultat af disse nye teknologier,

we'll enter a new golden age of leisure

vil vi gå ind i en ny gylden alder af bekvemmelighed

when we'll all have time for the things we really love

når vi alle har tid til de ting vi virkelig holder af

because all these onerous tasks will be taken over by Watson and his digital brethren.

fordi alle disse byrdefulde opgaver vil blive overtaget af Watson og hans digitale søskende.

I've heard other people say quite the opposite,

Jeg har hørt andre mennesker der siger det modsatte,

that this is yet another tier of the middle class

at dette er endnu et lag af middelklassen

that's having the thing they can do taken away from them by a new technology

der oplever at den ting de holder af bliver taget fra dem af en ny teknologi

and that this is actually something ominous,

og at dette faktisk er noget ildevarslende,

something that we should worry about.

noget som vi skal være bekymret over.

I'm not an economist myself.

Jeg er ikke økonom selv.

All I know is how it felt to be the guy put out of work.

Jeg ved kun hvordan det føltes at være fyren der bliver gjort arbejdsløs.

And it was friggin' demoralizing. It was terrible.

Og det var pokkers demoraliserende. Det var forfærdeligt.

Here's the one thing that I was ever good at,

Her var den ene ting jeg nogensinde var god til,

and all it took was IBM pouring tens of millions of dollars and its smartest people

og det eneste det krævede for at kunne gøre det samme, var at IBM hældte et tocifret millionbeløb og deres klogeste folk

and thousands of processors working in parallel

og tusindevis af processorer

and they could do the same thing.

der arbejdede parallel.

They could do it a little bit faster and a little better on national TV,

De kunne gøre det lidt hurtigere og lidt bedre på landsdækkende TV,

and "I'm sorry, Ken. We don't need you anymore."

og "Jeg er ked af det, Ken. Vi har ikke brug for dig mere."

And it made me think, what does this mean,

Og det fik mig til at tænke, hvad dette betyder,

if we're going to be able to start outsourcing,

hvis vi bliver i stand til at outsource,

not just lower unimportant brain functions.

ikke kun de lavere, ubetydelige hjernefunktioner.

I'm sure many of you remember a distant time

Jeg er sikker på at mange af jer kan huske en fjern fortid

when we had to know phone numbers, when we knew our friends' phone numbers.

hvor vi alle skulle huske telefonnumre, da vi kendte vores venners telefonnumre.

And suddenly there was a machine that did that,

Og pludselig var der en maskine der gjorde det,

and now we don't need to remember that anymore.

og nu behøver vi ikke at huske det mere.

I have read that there's now actually evidence

Jeg har læst at der nu faktisk findes beviser på

that the hippocampus, the part of our brain that handles spacial relationships,

at hippocampus, den del af vores hjerne der håndterer rummelige forhold,

physically shrinks and atrophies

fysisk krymper og svinder ind

in people who use tools like GPS,

hos mennesker der bruger værktøjer som GPS,

because we're not exercising our sense of direction anymore.

fordi vi ikke længere træner vores retningssans mere.

We're just obeying a little talking voice on our dashboard.

Vi adlyder bare en lille talende stemme på vores instrumentbræt,

And as a result, a part of our brain that's supposed to do that kind of stuff

Og resultatet er, at en stor del af vores hjerne der skal gøre den slags ting

gets smaller and dumber.

bliver mindre og mindre.

And it made me think, what happens when computers are now better

Og jeg tror det fik mig til at tænke, hvad sker der når computerne nu er bedre

at knowing and remembering stuff than we are?

til at vide og huske ting end vi er?

Is all of our brain going to start to shrink and atrophy like that?

Vil hele vores hjerne begynde at krympe og svinde ind på den måde?

Are we as a culture going to start to value knowledge less?

Begynder vi som kultur at sætte mindre og mindre pris på viden?

As somebody who has always believed in the importance of the stuff that we know,

Som en person der altid har troet på vigtigheden af de ting vi ved,

this was a terrifying idea to me.

var dette en frygtindgydende ide for mig.

The more I thought about it, I realized, no, it's still important.

Jo mere jeg ved om det, blev jeg klar over, nej, det er stadig vigtigt.

The things we know are still important.

De ting vi ved er stadig vigtige.

I came to believe there were two advantages

Jeg begyndte at tro på at der er to fordele

that those of us who have these things in our head have

som de af os der har ting i vores hoved har

over somebody who says, "Oh, yeah. I can Google that. Hold on a second."

frem for nogen der siger, "Nå ja. Det kan jeg Google. Vent et øjeblik."

There's an advantage of volume, and there's an advantage of time.

Der er en fordel ved volumen, og der er en fordel i tid.

The advantage of volume, first,

Først fordelen ved volume,

just has to do with the complexity of the world nowadays.

det har bare at gøre med kompleksiteten i nutidens verden.

There's so much information out there.

Der er så meget information derude.

Being a Renaissance man or woman,

At være en renæssance mand eller kvinde,

that's something that was only possible in the Renaissance.

der er noget der kun kunne lade sig gøre under renæssancen.

Now it's really not possible

Nu er det i virkeligheden ikke muligt

to be reasonably educated on every field of human endeavor.

at være rimelig uddannet i hvert af menneskets bestræbelser.

There's just too much.

Der er bare for meget.

They say that the scope of human information

De siger at omfanget af menneskets information

is now doubling every 18 months or so,

fordobles cirka hver 18. måned,

the sum total of human information.

sammen af menneskets totale information.

That means between now and late 2014,

Det betyder, at fra nu og til slutningen af 2014,

we will generate as much information, in terms of gigabytes,

vil vi generere lige så meget information, målt i gigabyte,

as all of humanity has in all the previous millenia put together.

som hele menneskeheden har samlet i det foregående årtusinde.

It's doubling every 18 months now.

Det fordobles hver 18. måned nu.

This is terrifying because a lot of the big decisions we make

Det er frygtindgydende fordi mange af de store beslutninger vi træffer,

require the mastery of lots of different kinds of facts.

kræver at man mestrer mange forskellige fakta.

A decision like where do I go to school? What should I major in?

En beslutning som hvor man skal gå i skole? Hvad skal mit hovedfag være?

Who do I vote for?

Hvad skal jeg stemme på?

Do I take this job or that one?

Tager jeg dette arbejde eller det andet?

These are the decisions that require correct judgments

Dette er beslutninger der kræver den rigtige dømmekraft

about many different kinds of facts.

om mange forskellige faktum.

If we have those facts at our mental fingertips,

Hvis vi har de fakta i vores mentale fingerspidser,

we're going to be able to make informed decisions.

er vi stand til at træffe kvalificeret beslutninger.

If, on the other hand, we need to look them all up,

Hvis, på den anden side, vi skal slå det hele op,

we may be in trouble.

kan vi få problemer.

According to a National Geographic survey I just saw,

Ifølge et studie fra National Geographic jeg lige så,

somewhere along the lines of 80 percent

er det noget i retningen af 80 procent

of the people who vote in a U.S. presidential election about issues like foreign policy

af menneskene der stemmer til præsidentvalget i USA omkring emner som udenlands politik

cannot find Iraq or Afghanistan on a map.

ikke kan finde Irak eller Afghanistan på et kort,

If you can't do that first step,

Hvis man ikke kan tage dette første skridt,

are you really going to look up the other thousand facts you're going to need to know

vil man så virkelig slå alle de andre tusinde fakta op, som man har brug for at vide

to master your knowledge of U.S. foreign policy?

for at have en god viden om USAs udenrigspolitik?

Quite probably not.

Højst sandsynligt ikke.

At some point you're just going to be like,

På et tidspunkt siger man sikkert,

"You know what? There's too much to know. Screw it."

"Ved du hvad? Der er for meget man skal vide. Glem det."

And you'll make a less informed decision.

Og man tager beslutninger der er mindre kvalificerede.

The other issue is the advantage of time that you have

Den anden ting er fordelen af den tid man har

if you have all these things at your fingertips.

hvis man har alle disse ting i fingerspidserne.

I always think of the story of a little girl named Tilly Smith.

Jeg tænker altid på historien om en lille pige der hedder Tilly Smith.

She was a 10-year-old girl from Surrey, England

Hun var en tiårig pige fra Surrey, England

on vacation with her parents a few years ago in Phuket, Thailand.

der var på ferie med hendes forældre for et par år siden i Phuket, Thailand.

She runs up to them on the beach one morning

En morgen på stranden løber hun op til dem

and says, "Mom, Dad, we've got to get off the beach."

og siger, "Mor, far, vi skal væk fra stranden."

And they say, "What do you mean? We just got here."

Og de siger, "Hvad mener du? Vi er først lige kommet."

And she said, "In Mr. Kearney's geography class last month,

Og hun sagde, "Sidste måned i Mr. Kearneys geografi time,

he told us that when the tide goes out abruptly out to sea

fortalte han os at når tidevandet pludselig forsvinder ud i havet

and you see the waves churning way out there,

og man ser at bølgerne krøller helt derude,

that's the sign of a tsunami, and you need to clear the beach."

så er det et tegn på en tsunami, og man skal væk fra stranden."

What would you do if your 10-year-old daughter came up to you with this?

Hvad ville man gøre hvis ens 10 årige datter kommer hen til en og fortæller det?

Her parents thought about it,

Hendes forældre tænkte over det,

and they finally, to their credit, decided to believe her.

og til slut, til deres ære, besluttede de sig for at tro på hende.

They told the lifeguard, they went back to the hotel,

De fortalte livredderen at de ville tilbage til hotellet,

and the lifeguard cleared over 100 people off the beach, luckily,

og og livredderen fik mere end 100 mennesker væk fra stranden, heldigvis,

because that was the day of the Boxing Day tsunami,

fordi det var dagen tsunamien

the day after Christmas, 2004,

dagen efter jul, 2004,

that killed thousands of people in Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean.

der dræbte tusindevis af mennesker i sydøstasien og rundt omkring det indiske ocean.

But not on that beach, not on Mai Khao Beach,

Men ikke på den strand, ikke på Mai Khao Beach,

because this little girl had remembered one fact from her geography teacher a month before.

fordi denne lille pige havde husket et af de faktum som hendes geografi lærer havde lært hende en måned forinden.

Now when facts come in handy like that --

Når fakta er lige ved hånden på den måde --

I love that story because it shows you the power of one fact,

Jeg elsker den historie fordi det viser magten ved et faktum,

one remembered fact in exactly the right place at the right time --

et faktum der blev husket på præcis det rigtige sted på det rigtige tidspunkt --

normally something that's easier to see on game shows than in real life.

normalt noget der er nemmere at se på game shows end i virkeligheden.

But in this case it happened in real life.

Men i dette tilfælde skete det i virkeligheden.

And it happens in real life all the time.

Og det sker hele tiden i virkeligheden.

It's not always a tsunami, often it's a social situation.

Det er ikke altid en tsunami, tit er det en social begivenhed.

It's a meeting or job interview or first date

Det er et møde eller en ansættelsessamtale eller en første date

or some relationship that gets lubricated

eller et forhold der bliver smurt

because two people realize they share some common piece of knowledge.

fordi to mennesker bliver klar over at de deler et stykke viden.

You say where you're from, and I say, "Oh, yeah."

Man fortæller hvor man kommer fra, og jeg siger "Nå ja."

Or your alma mater or your job,

Eller ens universitet eller ens job,

and I know just a little something about it,

og jeg ved en lille smule om det,

enough to get the ball rolling.

nok til at få bolden til at rulle.

People love that shared connection that gets created

Folk elsker den delte forbindelse der opstår

when somebody knows something about you.

når nogen ved noget om en.

It's like they took the time to get to know you before you even met.

Det er som om de tog sig tiden til at lære en at kende inden de mødte en.

That's often the advantage of time.

Det er tit fordelen ved tiden.

And it's not effective if you say, "Well, hold on.

Og det er ikke effektivt hvis man siger, "Jamen, vent et øjeblik.

You're from Fargo, North Dakota. Let me see what comes up.

Du kommer fra Fargo, North Dakota. Lad mig se hvad der popper op.

Oh, yeah. Roger Maris was from Fargo."

Nå ja. Roger Maris kom fra Fargo."

That doesn't work. That's just annoying.

Det fungerer ikke. Det er bare irriterende.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

The great 18th-century British theologian and thinker, friend of Dr. Johnson,

Den store teolog og tænker i det 18. århundrede, ven med Dr. Johnson,

Samuel Parr once said, "It's always better to know a thing than not to know it."

Samuel Parr, sagde engang, "Det er altid bedre at vide noget end ikke at vide det."

And if I have lived my life by any kind of creed, it's probably that.

Og hvis jeg har levet mit liv efter en eller anden form for motto, så er det det.

I have always believed that the things we know -- that knowledge is an absolute good,

Jeg har altid troet på de ting vi ved -- at viden er et absolut gode,

that the things we have learned and carry with us in our heads

at de ting vi har lært og bærer med os i vores hoveder

are what make us who we are,

er det der gør os til den vi er,

as individuals and as a species.

som individer og som art.

I don't know if I want to live in a world where knowledge is obsolete.

Jeg ved ikke om jeg vil leve i en verden hvor viden er overflødig.

I don't want to live in a world where cultural literacy has been replaced

Jeg vil ikke leve i en verden hvor den kulturelle kompetence er blevet erstattet

by these little bubbles of specialty,

af disse små bobler af specielle ting,

so that none of us know about the common associations

så ingen af os kender til de fælles associationer

that used to bind our civilization together.

som plejede at binde vores civilisation sammen.

I don't want to be the last trivia know-it-all

Jeg vil ikke være den sidste paratviden-kender

sitting on a mountain somewhere,

der sidder på et bjerg et eller andet sted,

reciting to himself the state capitals and the names of "Simpsons" episodes

og fremsiger hovedstader og navnene på "Simpsons" episoder for sig selv

and the lyrics of Abba songs.

og teksten til Abba sange.

I feel like our civilization works when this is a vast cultural heritage that we all share

Det er som om vores civilisation fungerer når dette er en stor kulturel arv, som vi alle deler,

and that we know without having to outsource it to our devices,

og det ved vi uden at skulle outsource det til vores apparater,

to our search engines and our smartphones.

til vores søgemaskiner og vores smartphones.

In the movies, when computers like Watson start to think,

I filmene, når computere som Watson begynder at tænke,

things don't always end well.

ender tingene ikke altid godt.

Those movies are never about beautiful utopias.

De film handler aldrig om smukke utopier.

It's always a terminator or a matrix or an astronaut getting sucked out an airlock in "2001."

Det er altid en terminator eller en matrix eller en astronaut der bliver suget ud af en luftsluse i "Rumrejsen år 2001."

Things always go terribly wrong.

Det går altid grueligt galt.

And I feel like we're sort of at the point now

Og jeg har det som om vi nu er på det punkt

where we need to make that choice of what kind of future we want to be living in.

hvor vi skal træffe det valg om hvilken slags fremtid vi vil leve i.

This is a question of leadership,

Dette er et spørgsmål om lederskab,

because it becomes a question of who leads the future.

fordi det bliver et spørgsmål om hvem der leder fremtiden.

On the one hand, we can choose between a new golden age

På den ene side, kan vi vælge mellem en ny gylden tidsalder,

where information is more universally available

hvor information universelt er mere tilgængeligt

than it's ever been in human history,

end det nogensinde har været i den menneskelige historie,

where we all have the answers to our questions at our fingertips.

hvor vi alle har svarene på vores spørgsmål på fingerspidserne.

And on the other hand,

Og på den anden side,

we have the potential to be living in some gloomy dystopia

har vi potentialet til at komme til at leve i en dyster utopi

where the machines have taken over

hvor maskinerne har taget over

and we've all decided it's not important what we know anymore,

og vi har alle besluttet at det ikke er vigtigt hvad vi alle ved mere,

that knowledge isn't valuable because it's all out there in the cloud,

viden er ikke værdifuldt fordi det er alt sammen der ude i skyen,

and why would we ever bother learning anything new.

og hvorfor skulle vi nogensinde bekymre os med at lære noget nyt.

Those are the two choices we have. I know which future I would rather be living in.

Det er de to valgmuligheder vi har. Jeg ved hvilken fremtid jeg helst vil leve i.

And we can all make that choice.

Og vi kan alle træffe det valg.

We make that choice by being curious, inquisitive people who like to learn,

Vi træffer det valg ved at være nysgerrige og spørgende mennesker der kan lide at lære,

who don't just say, "Well, as soon as the bell has rung and the class is over,

der ikke bare siger, "Jamen, så snart klokken har ringet og timen er forbi,

I don't have to learn anymore,"

behøver jeg ikke at lære mere."

or "Thank goodness I have my diploma. I'm done learning for a lifetime.

eller "Tak skæbne for at jeg har mit diplom. Jeg har lært nok i dette liv.

I don't have to learn new things anymore."

Jeg behøver ikke at lære nye ting mere."

No, every day we should be striving to learn something new.

Nej, hver dag bør vi stræbe efter at lære noget nyt.

We should have this unquenchable curiosity for the world around us.

Vi bør have denne uslukkelige nysgerrighed for verden omkring os.

That's where the people you see on "Jeopardy" come from.

Det er der hvor folkene man ser på Jeopardy kommer fra.

These know-it-alls, they're not Rainman-style savants

Disse alvidende, de er Rainman-agtige lærde

sitting at home memorizing the phone book.

der sidder hjemme og lærer telefonbogen udenad.

I've met a lot of them.

Jeg har mødt mange af dem.

For the most part, they are just normal folks

I det store hele, er de bare almindelige mennesker

who are universally interested in the world around them, curious about everything,

der er almindeligt interesserede i verden omkring dem, nysgerrige på det hele,

thirsty for this knowledge about whatever subject.

tørstige efter denne viden om hvilket som helst emne.

We can live in one of these two worlds.

Vi kan leve i en af de to verdener.

We can live in a world where our brains, the things that we know,

Vi kan leve i en verden hvor vores hjerne, de ting vi ved,

continue to be the thing that makes us special,

fortsætter med at være den ting der gør os specielle,

or a world in which we've outsourced all of that to evil supercomputers from the future like Watson.

eller en verden hvor vi har udliciteret al det til onde supercomputere fra fremtiden som Watson.

Ladies and gentlemen, the choice is yours.

Mine damer og herrer, valget er jeres.

Thank you very much.

Mange tak.