Laura Schulz: The surprisingly logical minds of babies

Translator: Lucía Vila Rodríguez Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

Mark Twain summed up what I take to be

Mark Twain resumiu o que eu considero que é

one of the fundamental problems of cognitive science

un dos problemas fundamentais da ciencia cognitiva

cunha sinxela ocorrencia.

with a single witticism.

He said, "There's something fascinating about science.

Dixo, "A ciencia é fascinante.

One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture

Conséguense cantidades masivas de conxecturas

out of such a trifling investment in fact."

a partir dun investimento tan insignificante en feitos.”

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Twain meant it as a joke, of course, but he's right:

Twain quería facer unha broma, claro, pero ten razón:

There's something fascinating about science.

A ciencia é fascinante.

From a few bones, we infer the existence of dinosuars.

A partir duns cantos ósos, inferimos a existencia dos dinosauros.

From spectral lines, the composition of nebulae.

Das liñas espectrais, a composición das nebulosas.

From fruit flies,

A partir das moscas da froita,

the mechanisms of heredity,

os mecanismos da herdanza,

and from reconstructed images of blood flowing through the brain,

e de imaxes reconstruídas de sangue fluíndo a través do cerebro,

or in my case, from the behavior of very young children,

ou no meu caso, do comportamento de nenos moi pequenos,

we try to say something about the fundamental mechanisms

intentamos dicir algo sobre os mecanismos fundamentais

da cognición humana.

of human cognition.

In particular, in my lab in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT,

En concreto, no meu laboratorio no Dpto. de Cerebro e Ciencias Cognitivas, no MIT,

I have spent the past decade trying to understand the mystery

pasei a última década intentando entender o misterio

de por que os nenos aprenden tanto, a partir de tan pouco, e tan rápido.

of how children learn so much from so little so quickly.

Because, it turns out that the fascinating thing about science

Porque resulta que o que a ciencia ten de fascinante

is also a fascinating thing about children,

téñeno tamén de fascinante os nenos,

e é, dicíndoo de forma máis suave ca Mark Twain,

which, to put a gentler spin on Mark Twain,

is precisely their ability to draw rich, abstract inferences

precisamente a súa capacidade de extraer inferencias ricas e abstractas

rapidly and accurately from sparse, noisy data.

de forma rápida e precisa a partir de datos dispersos e confusos.

I'm going to give you just two examples today.

Vou dar só dous exemplos hoxe.

One is about a problem of generalization,

Un deles aborda un problema de xeneralización,

e o outro un de razoamento causal.

and the other is about a problem of causal reasoning.

And although I'm going to talk about work in my lab,

E aínda que vou falar do que facemos no meu laboratorio,

this work is inspired by and indebted to a field.

este traballo está inspirado por un campo e en débeda con el.

I'm grateful to mentors, colleagues, and collaborators around the world.

Estoulles agradecida a mentores, colegas e colaboradores de todo o mundo.

Let me start with the problem of generalization.

Quero comezar co problema de xeneralización.

Generalizing from small samples of data is the bread and butter of science.

Xeneralizar a partir de pequenas mostras de datos é o pan de cada día da ciencia.

We poll a tiny fraction of the electorate

Entrevistamos unha fracción mínima do electorado

and we predict the outcome of national elections.

e predicimos o resultado das eleccións nacionais.

We see how a handful of patients responds to treatment in a clinical trial,

Vemos como un puñado de pacientes responde a tratamento nun ensaio clínico,

e incorporamos fármacos ao mercado nacional.

and we bring drugs to a national market.

But this only works if our sample is randomly drawn from the population.

Pero isto soamente funciona se a mostra se extrae aleatoriamente da poboación.

If our sample is cherry-picked in some way --

Se a nosa mostra ten algunha manipulación

--por exemplo, entrevistamos só votantes urbanos,

say, we poll only urban voters,

or say, in our clinical trials for treatments for heart disease,

ou nos nosos ensaios clínicos de tratamentos para doenzas cardíacas

we include only men --

incluímos só homes--

the results may not generalize to the broader population.

os resultados poden non ser xeneralizables a toda a poboación.

So scientists care whether evidence is randomly sampled or not,

Por tanto aos científicos impórtalles se a mostra se recolleu ou non ao chou,

pero que ten iso que ver cos bebés?

but what does that have to do with babies?

Well, babies have to generalize from small samples of data all the time.

Os bebés teñen que xeneralizar seguido a partir de pequenas mostras de datos.

They see a few rubber ducks and learn that they float,

Ven uns poucos parrulos de goma e aprenden que flotan,

or a few balls and learn that they bounce.

ou algunhas pelotas e aprenden que botan.

And they develop expectations about ducks and balls

E desenvolven expectativas sobre os parrulos e as pelotas

that they're going to extend to rubber ducks and balls

que aplicarán a uns e outras

for the rest of their lives.

o resto das súas vidas.

And the kinds of generalizations babies have to make about ducks and balls

E os tipos de xeneralizacións que deben facer sobre parrulos e pelotas,

they have to make about almost everything:

deben facelos para case todo:

shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings.

zapatos e barcos e lacre e verzas e reis.

So do babies care whether the tiny bit of evidence they see

Entón aos bebés impórtalles se o pequeno anaco de proba que ven

representa de forma plausíbel unha poboación maior?

is plausibly representative of a larger population?

Let's find out.

Descubrámolo.

I'm going to show you two movies,

Vou amosar dous vídeos,

one from each of two conditions of an experiment,

un por cada suposto dun experimento,

and because you're going to see just two movies,

e como só se verán dous vídeos,

you're going to see just two babies,

só se verán dous bebés,

and any two babies differ from each other in innumerable ways.

e un par calquera de bebés difire de calquera outro de innumerábeis formas.

But these babies, of course, here stand in for groups of babies,

Pero estes bebés, por suposto, representan aquí a grupos de bebés,

and the differences you're going to see

e as diferenzas que se van ver

represent average group differences in babies' behavior across conditions.

representan as diferenzas grupais medias

no comportamento dos bebés en cada suposto.

En cada vídeo verase un bebé facendo tal vez

In each movie, you're going to see a baby doing maybe

just exactly what you might expect a baby to do,

xusto o que se agardaría que fixese,

and we can hardly make babies more magical than they already are.

e dificilmente podemos volver os bebés máis máxicos do que xa son.

Pero para min o máxico,

But to my mind the magical thing,

e ao que quero que se lle preste atención,

and what I want you to pay attention to,

is the contrast between these two conditions,

é o contraste entre estes dous supostos,

because the only thing that differs between these two movies

porque o único que difire entre os dous vídeos

is the statistical evidence the babies are going to observe.

son os datos estatísticos que os bebés van observar.

We're going to show babies a box of blue and yellow balls,

Imos ensinarlles unha caixa de bólas azuis e amarelas,

and my then-graduate student, now colleague at Stanford, Hyowon Gweon,

e a que era a miña estudante graduada, hoxe compañeira en Stanford, Hyowon Gweon,

is going to pull three blue balls in a row out of this box,

vai sacar tres bólas azuis seguidas desta caixa,

and when she pulls those balls out, she's going to squeeze them,

e despois de sacalas, vainas apertar,

and the balls are going to squeak.

e as bólas van chiar.

And if you're a baby, that's like a TED Talk.

E se es un bebé, iso é como un charla TED.

It doesn't get better than that.

Non pode haber nada mellor.

(Risas)

(Laughter)

But the important point is it's really easy to pull three blue balls in a row

Pero o importante é que é moi sinxelo sacar tres bólas azuis seguidas

out of a box of mostly blue balls.

dunha caixa que ten sobre todo bólas azuis.

You could do that with your eyes closed.

Poderíase facer cos ollos pechados.

It's plausibly a random sample from this population.

Pódese admitir que é unha mostra aleatoria desta poboación.

And if you can reach into a box at random and pull out things that squeak,

E se podes meter a man aleatoriamente nunha caixa e sacar cousas que chían,

then maybe everything in the box squeaks.

ao mellor todo o que hai na caixa chía.

So maybe babies should expect those yellow balls to squeak as well.

Así que tal vez os bebés deberían esperar que as bólas amarelas chíen tamén.

Now, those yellow balls have funny sticks on the end,

As bólas amarelas teñen divertidos paus nun extremo,

so babies could do other things with them if they wanted to.

que permiten facer con elas outras cousas se se quere.

They could pound them or whack them.

Poderían axitalas ou bater con elas.

But let's see what the baby does.

Pero vexamos qué fai o bebé.

(Video) Hyowon Gweon: See this? (Ball squeaks)

(Vídeo) Ves isto? (A bóla chía)

Did you see that? (Ball squeaks)

Viches iso? (A bóla chía)

Xenial.

Cool.

See this one?

Ves estoutra?

(Ball squeaks)

(A bóla chía)

Wow.

Uaau.

Laura Schulz: Told you. (Laughs)

Díxenvolo. (Ri)

(Video) HG: See this one? (Ball squeaks)

Viches esta? (A bóla chía)

Hey Clara, this one's for you. You can go ahead and play.

Clara, agora esta é para ti. Veña, podes collela e xogar.

(Laughter)

(Barullo) (Risas)

LS: I don't even have to talk, right?

LS: Non teño nin que dicir nada, verdade?

All right, it's nice that babies will generalize properties

Vale, está ben que os bebés xeneralicen propiedades

das bólas azuis ás bolas amarelas.

of blue balls to yellow balls,

and it's impressive that babies can learn from imitating us,

E é impresionante que poidan aprender imitándonos.

but we've known those things about babies for a very long time.

Pero sabemos iso dos bebés dende hai moito tempo.

The really interesting question

A pregunta realmente interesante é

que ocorre cando lles amosamos aos bebés exactamente a mesma cousa,

is what happens when we show babies exactly the same thing,

and we can ensure it's exactly the same because we have a secret compartment

podemos asegurar que é a mesma porque temos un compartimento secreto

and we actually pull the balls from there,

e en realidade sacamos as bólas del,

but this time, all we change is the apparent population

pero esta vez o que cambiamos foi a poboación aparente

from which that evidence was drawn.

da que extraemos as mostras.

Esta vez amosarémoslles aos bebés tres bólas azuis

This time, we're going to show babies three blue balls

pulled out of a box of mostly yellow balls,

sacadas dunha caixa que ten sobre todo bólas amarelas,

e saben que?

and guess what?

You [probably won't] randomly draw three blue balls in a row

Non se poden sacar aleatoriamente tres bólas azuis seguidas

out of a box of mostly yellow balls.

dunha caixa que ten sobre todo bólas amarelas.

That is not plausibly randomly sampled evidence.

Esa non é unha mostra aleatoria.

That evidence suggests that maybe Hyowon was deliberately sampling the blue balls.

Esa proba suxire que ao mellor Hyowon estivo amosando deliberadamente as azuis.

Maybe there's something special about the blue balls.

Tal vez as bólas azuis teñen algo especial

Maybe only the blue balls squeak.

Tal vez soamente as bólas azuis chían.

Let's see what the baby does.

Vexamos o que fai o bebé.

(Video) HG: See this? (Ball squeaks)

(Vídeo) Ves isto? (A bóla chía)

See this toy? (Ball squeaks)

Ves este xoguete? (A bóla chía)

Oh, that was cool. See? (Ball squeaks)

Oh, que xenial. Ves? (A bóla chía)

Now this one's for you to play. You can go ahead and play.

Agora esta é para que xogues ti. Veña, podes xogar.

(Barullo) (Risas)

(Fussing) (Laughter)

LS: So you just saw two 15-month-old babies

LS: Acabades de ver dous bebés de 15 meses

do entirely different things

facendo dúas cousas totalmente diferentes

based only on the probability of the sample they observed.

baseadas só na probabilidade da mostra que observaron.

Let me show you the experimental results.

Quero ensinar os resultados experimentais.

On the vertical axis, you'll see the percentage of babies

No eixe vertical, pódese ver a porcentaxe de bebés

who squeezed the ball in each condition,

que apertaron a bóla en cada suposto,

and as you'll see, babies are much more likely to generalize the evidence

e como se ve, os bebés tenden moito máis a xeneralizar a mostra

when it's plausibly representative of the population

cando é representativa da poboación

than when the evidence is clearly cherry-picked.

ca cando está claramente manipulada.

And this leads to a fun prediction:

E isto lévanos a unha predición curiosa:

Suppose you pulled just one blue ball out of the mostly yellow box.

supoñamos que sacamos só unha bóla azul

da caixa que ten sobre todo bólas amarelas.

You [probably won't] pull three blue balls in a row at random out of a yellow box,

Non se poderían sacar aleatoriamente 3 bólas azuis seguidas dunha caixa amarela

but you could randomly sample just one blue ball.

pero poderíase sacar soamente unha.

That's not an improbable sample.

Non é unha mostra improbable.

And if you could reach into a box at random

E se se puidese meter a man ao chou nunha caixa

and pull out something that squeaks, maybe everything in the box squeaks.

e sacar algo que chía, tal vez todo o da caixa chíe.

So even though babies are going to see much less evidence for squeaking,

Entón, aínda que os bebés van observar moita menos probas para chíos,

and have many fewer actions to imitate

e contan con moitas menos accións que imitar

in this one ball condition than in the condition you just saw,

neste suposto dunha única bóla ca no que vimos antes,

we predicted that babies themselves would squeeze more,

predicimos que os bebés por si sós apertarían a bóla máis veces,

and that's exactly what we found.

e iso é exactamente o que atopamos.

So 15-month-old babies, in this respect, like scientists,

Así que aos bebés de 15 meses, neste sentido, como científicos,

care whether evidence is randomly sampled or not,

impórtalles se a proba é unha mostra representativa ou non,

and they use this to develop expectations about the world:

e usan isto para desenvolver expectativas sobre o mundo:

what squeaks and what doesn't,

qué chía e qué non,

what to explore and what to ignore.

qué explorar e qué ignorar.

Let me show you another example now,

Agora quero amosar outro exemplo,

this time about a problem of causal reasoning.

esta vez sobre un problema de razoamento causal.

E comeza cun problema de proba confusa

And it starts with a problem of confounded evidence

that all of us have,

que todos temos:

which is that we are part of the world.

o feito de que formamos parte do mundo.

And this might not seem like a problem to you, but like most problems,

Isto pode non parecer un problema, pero como a maior parte deles,

it's only a problem when things go wrong.

maniféstase só cando as cousas van mal.

Take this baby, for instance.

Velaquí este bebé, por exemplo.

Things are going wrong for him.

As cousas están indo mal para el.

He would like to make this toy go, and he can't.

Gustaríalle facer funcionar o seu xoguete, e non pode.

I'll show you a few-second clip.

Amosarei un vídeo duns poucos segundos.

And there's two possibilities, broadly:

En xeral, hai dúas posibilidades:

Maybe he's doing something wrong,

ou el está facendo algo mal,

or maybe there's something wrong with the toy.

ou algo non funciona no xoguete.

Así que no seguinte experimento,

So in this next experiment,

darémoslles aos bebés só unha mínima porción de datos estatísticos

we're going to give babies just a tiny bit of statistical data

supporting one hypothesis over the other,

que apoian unha das hipóteses sobre a outra,

e veremos se os bebés poden usar iso para tomar decisións diferentes

and we're going to see if babies can use that to make different decisions

about what to do.

sobre qué facer.

Here's the setup.

Velaquí o plan.

Hyowon vai intentar que o xoguete funcione, e conségueo.

Hyowon is going to try to make the toy go and succeed.

Entón eu vou intentalo dúas veces e fracasar as dúas,

I am then going to try twice and fail both times,

and then Hyowon is going to try again and succeed,

despois Hyowon vai intentalo outra vez e conseguilo,

and this roughly sums up my relationship to my graduate students

o que resume en xeral a miña relación cos meus estudantes de posgrao

in technology across the board.

no que ten que ver coa tecnoloxía.

Pero o importante aquí é que proporciona algunha proba

But the important point here is it provides a little bit of evidence

that the problem isn't with the toy, it's with the person.

de que o problema non é o xoguete, senón a persoa.

Some people can make this toy go,

Algunhas poden facer que o xoguete funcione,

and some can't.

e outras non.

Now, when the baby gets the toy, he's going to have a choice.

Agora, cando o bebé consegue o xoguete, vai ter unha elección.

His mom is right there,

Súa nai está xusto alí,

so he can go ahead and hand off the toy and change the person,

polo que pode ir e darlle o xoguete e cambiar a persoa,

but there's also going to be another toy at the end of that cloth,

pero tamén vai haber outro xoguete no bordo desa tea,

and he can pull the cloth towards him and change the toy.

así que pode tirar da tea cara a el e cambiar o xoguete.

So let's see what the baby does.

Vexamos logo qué fai o bebé.

(Video) HG: Two, three. Go! (Music)

(Vídeo) HG: Dous, tres. Xa! (Música)

LS: One, two, three, go!

LS: Un, dous, tres. Xa!

Arthur, I'm going to try again. One, two, three, go!

Arthur, vou intentalo outra vez. Un, dous, tres. Xa!

YG: Arthur, let me try again, okay?

HG: Arthur, déixame probar outra vez, si?

One, two, three, go! (Music)

Un, dous, tres. Xa! (Música)

Look at that. Remember these toys?

Mira. Acórdaste destes xoguetes?

See these toys? Yeah, I'm going to put this one over here,

Ves estes xoguetes? Si, vou poñer este por aquí,

and I'm going to give this one to you.

e a ti vouche dar este.

You can go ahead and play.

Veña, xa podes xogar.

LS: Okay, Laura, but of course, babies love their mommies.

LS: Vale, Laura, pero claro, os bebés quérenlles ás súas mamás.

Of course babies give toys to their mommies

Normal que lles dean os xoguetes a ela

cando non conseguen que funcionen.

when they can't make them work.

De novo, a pregunta realmente importante é que ocorre cando cambiamos

So again, the really important question is what happens when we change

the statistical data ever so slightly.

os datos estatísticos só levemente.

This time, babies are going to see the toy work and fail in exactly the same order,

Agora, os bebés van ver o xoguete funcionar e fallar xusto na mesma orde,

but we're changing the distribution of evidence.

pero imos cambiar a distribución da proba.

This time, Hyowon is going to succeed once and fail once, and so am I.

Agora, Hyowon vai conseguilo unha vez e fracasar outra, e eu tamén.

And this suggests it doesn't matter who tries this toy, the toy is broken.

O que suxire que non importa quen proba este xoguete, está roto.

It doesn't work all the time.

Non funciona nunca.

De novo, o bebé vai ter que tomar unha decisión.

Again, the baby's going to have a choice.

A súa nai está xusto ao lado, así que pode cambiar a persoa,

Her mom is right next to her, so she can change the person,

and there's going to be another toy at the end of the cloth.

e haberá outro xoguete ao final da tea.

Vexamos que fai.

Let's watch what she does.

(Video) HG: Two, three, go! (Music)

HG: Dous, tres, xa! (Música)

Let me try one more time. One, two, three, go!

Déixame probar outra vez. Un, dous, tres, xa!

Hmm.

Umm.

LS: Let me try, Clara.

LS: Déixame probar a min, Clara.

One, two, three, go!

Un, dous, tres, xa!

Umm, déixame probar outra vez.

Hmm, let me try again.

One, two, three, go! (Music)

Un, dos, tres, xa! (Música)

HG: Vou poñer este por aquí,

HG: I'm going to put this one over here,

and I'm going to give this one to you.

e vouche dar este a ti.

You can go ahead and play.

Veña, xa podes xogar.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

LS: Let me show you the experimental results.

LS: Amosarei agora os resultados experimentais.

On the vertical axis, you'll see the distribution

No eixe vertical, vese a distribución

of children's choices in each condition,

das eleccións dos nenos baixo cada suposto,

and you'll see that the distribution of the choices children make

e vese que a distribución das eleccións que fan

depends on the evidence they observe.

depende da proba que observan.

So in the second year of life,

No segundo ano de idade,

babies can use a tiny bit of statistical data

os bebés poden usar unha fracción mínima de datos estatísticos

to decide between two fundamentally different strategies

para decidir entre dúas estratexias fundamentalmente diferentes

for acting in the world:

para actuar no mundo:

asking for help and exploring.

pedir axuda e explorar.

I've just shown you two laboratory experiments

Acabo de amosar dous experimentos de laboratorio

dos literalmente centos neste campo que chegan a conclusións similares,

out of literally hundreds in the field that make similar points,

because the really critical point

porque o auténtico punto clave

is that children's ability to make rich inferences from sparse data

é que a capacidade dos nenos

para facer ricas inferencias partindo de datos dispersos

underlies all the species-specific cultural learning that we do.

serve de base a toda a nosa aprendizaxe cultural específica como especie.

Children learn about new tools from just a few examples.

Os nenos aprenden sobre novas ferramentas a partir duns poucos exemplos.

They learn new causal relationships from just a few examples.

Aprenden novas relacións causais a partir duns poucos exemplos.

They even learn new words, in this case in American Sign Language.

Incluso aprenden palabras novas , neste caso en lingua de signos americana.

I want to close with just two points.

Quero concluír con só dúas cousas.

A quen seguise o meu campo (o do cerebro e as ciencias cognitivas)

If you've been following my world, the field of brain and cognitive sciences,

for the past few years,

durante os últimos anos,

three big ideas will have come to your attention.

chamaríanlle a atención tres grandes ideas.

A primeira é que esta é a era do cerebro.

The first is that this is the era of the brain.

And indeed, there have been staggering discoveries in neuroscience:

E por suposto, houbo descubrimentos impresionantes en neurociencia:

localizing functionally specialized regions of cortex,

localizar rexións do córtex funcionalmente especializadas,

turning mouse brains transparent,

facer transparentes os cerebros de ratos,

activating neurons with light.

activar neuronas con luz.

A second big idea

Unha segunda grande idea

is that this is the era of big data and machine learning,

é que esta é a era dos datos masivos e da aprendizaxe automática,

e a aprendizaxe automática promete revolucionar a nosa comprensión

and machine learning promises to revolutionize our understanding

of everything from social networks to epidemiology.

de todo, dende as redes sociais ata a epidemioloxía.

And maybe, as it tackles problems of scene understanding

E tal vez, á vez que afronta problemas de comprensión do contexto

and natural language processing,

e de procesamento da linguaxe natural,

to tell us something about human cognition.

poida desvelarnos algo sobre a cognición humana.

And the final big idea you'll have heard

E a gran idea final que escoitarían

is that maybe it's a good idea we're going to know so much about brains

é que pode ser boa idea saber tanto sobre os cerebros

e ter tanto acceso a datos masivos,

and have so much access to big data,

because left to our own devices,

porque pola nosa conta,

humans are fallible, we take shortcuts,

os humanos somos falíbeis, buscamos atallos,

we err, we make mistakes,

erramos, temos fallos,

we're biased, and in innumerable ways,

non somos neutrais, e de formas innumerables,

we get the world wrong.

chegamos a ideas falsas sobre o mundo.

I think these are all important stories,

Eu creo que todas estas son noticias importantes,

and they have a lot to tell us about what it means to be human,

e que teñen moito que contarnos sobre qué significa ser humano,

but I want you to note that today I told you a very different story.

pero gustaríame destacar que hoxe tratei unha noticia moi distinta.

It's a story about minds and not brains,

Unha noticia sobre mentes, non sobre cerebros,

and in particular, it's a story about the kinds of computations

e en particular, sobre o tipo de computación

that uniquely human minds can perform,

que só as mentes humanas poden realizar,

which involve rich, structured knowledge and the ability to learn

que implican coñecementos ricos e estruturados e capacidade de aprender

from small amounts of data, the evidence of just a few examples.

a partir de pequenas cantidades de datos, coa proba de só uns poucos exemplos.

And fundamentally, it's a story about how starting as very small children

E fundamentalmente, é unha noticia sobre como dende meniños

and continuing out all the way to the greatest accomplishments

e continuando todo o camiño ata os máis grandes logros

of our culture,

da nosa cultura,

we get the world right.

conseguimos entender ben o mundo.

Folks, human minds do not only learn from small amounts of data.

Amigos, as mentes humanas non aprenden só a partir de pequenas cantidades de datos

Human minds think of altogether new ideas.

As mentes humanas pensan ideas totalmente novas.

Human minds generate research and discovery,

As mentes humanas xeran investigación e descubrimento,

and human minds generate art and literature and poetry and theater,

e as mentes humanas xeran arte e literatura e poesía e teatro,

e as mentes humanas coidan doutros seres humanos:

and human minds take care of other humans:

our old, our young, our sick.

os nosos maiores, a nosa mocidade, os nosos enfermos.

We even heal them.

Incluso os curamos.

In the years to come, we're going to see technological innovations

Nos próximos anos, imos ver innovacións tecnolóxicas

beyond anything I can even envision,

máis alá do que podo concibir,

but we are very unlikely

pero hai moi poucas probabilidades

to see anything even approximating the computational power of a human child

de que vexamos algo que se aproxime sequera

ao poder computacional dun neno humano,

in my lifetime or in yours.

no resto da miña vida ou da vosa.

If we invest in these most powerful learners and their development,

Se investimos nestes potentísimos aprendices e no seu desenvolvemento,

in babies and children

en bebés e cativos,

and mothers and fathers

e nais e pais

and caregivers and teachers

e coidadores e profesores

do xeito que investimos nas nosas outras poderosísimas e elegantes formas

the ways we invest in our other most powerful and elegant forms

of technology, engineering and design,

de tecnoloxía, enxeñaría e deseño,

we will not just be dreaming of a better future,

non estaremos simplemente soñando cun mellor futuro,

we will be planning for one.

estaremos planificándoo.

Thank you very much.

Moitísimas grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

Chris Anderson: Laura, thank you. I do actually have a question for you.

Chris Anderson: Grazas, Laura. Quería facerche unha pregunta.

First of all, the research is insane.

Antes de nada, esta investigación é de tolos.

I mean, who would design an experiment like that? (Laughter)

Quen deseñaría un experimento coma ese? (Risas)

Vino unhas cantas veces,

I've seen that a couple of times,

and I still don't honestly believe that that can truly be happening,

e sigo sen acabar de crer que poida estar ocorrendo de verdade,

pero outras persoas fixeron experimentos similares; está comprobado.

but other people have done similar experiments; it checks out.

The babies really are that genius.

Os bebés son realmente xenios.

LS: You know, they look really impressive in our experiments,

LS: Parecen realmente impresionantes nos nosos experimentos,

but think about what they look like in real life, right?

pero pensa no que fan na vida real, non?

It starts out as a baby.

Todo comeza cun bebé.

Eighteen months later, it's talking to you,

Dezaoito meses despois, estache falando,

and babies' first words aren't just things like balls and ducks,

e as primeiras palabras dos bebés non van de pelotas e parrulos,

they're things like "all gone," which refer to disappearance,

son cousas como “non ta” que se refire á desaparición,

or "uh-oh," which refer to unintentional actions.

ou “uh oh”, para referirse a accións involuntarias.

It has to be that powerful.

Ten que ser así de poderoso.

It has to be much more powerful than anything I showed you.

Ten que ser moito máis poderoso que o que ensinei.

Están descifrando o mundo enteiro.

They're figuring out the entire world.

Un neno de catro anos pode falarche sobre case todo.

A four-year-old can talk to you about almost anything.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

CA: And if I understand you right, the other key point you're making is,

CA: E se entendo ben, o outro punto clave que destacas é

we've been through these years where there's all this talk

que durante estes anos tivemos todo este debate

of how quirky and buggy our minds are,

sobre o peculiares e confusas que son as nosas mentes,

that behavioral economics and the whole theories behind that

coa economía condutual e teorías enteiras detrás

that we're not rational agents.

de que non somos axentes racionais.

You're really saying that the bigger story is how extraordinary,

E ti estás a dicir que este fenómeno é extraordinario,

and there really is genius there that is underappreciated.

e que en realidade hai xenialidade que está subestimada.

LS: One of my favorite quotes in psychology

Unha das miñas citas favoritas en psicoloxía

comes from the social psychologist Solomon Asch,

é do psicólogo social Solomon Asch,

and he said the fundamental task of psychology is to remove

que dixo que “o cometido fundamental da psicoloxía

the veil of self-evidence from things.

é eliminar o veo de autoevidencia das cousas”.

There are orders of magnitude more decisions you make every day

Hai millóns de decisións que se toman a diario

que interpretan ben o mundo.

that get the world right.

You know about objects and their properties.

Coñecemos os obxectos e as súas propiedades.

You know them when they're occluded. You know them in the dark.

Recoñecémolos cando están ocultos. Recoñecémolos na escuridade.

You can walk through rooms.

Camiñamos por cuartos.

You can figure out what other people are thinking. You can talk to them.

Podemos percibir o que pensan outros. Podemos falarlles.

Podemos navegar no espazo. Coñecemos os números.

You can navigate space. You know about numbers.

Entendemos as relacións causais. Entendemos o razoamento moral.

You know causal relationships. You know about moral reasoning.

E todo isto sen esforzo ningún, por iso non nos decatamos,

You do this effortlessly, so we don't see it,

pero así interpretamos ben o mundo,

but that is how we get the world right, and it's a remarkable

e moi difícil de entender.

and very difficult-to-understand accomplishment.

CA: Imaxino que hai persoas no público que comparten

CA: I suspect there are people in the audience who have

esa visión do crecente poder tecnolóxico

this view of accelerating technological power

que poderían cuestionar a túa afirmación de que nunca nas nosas vidas

who might dispute your statement that never in our lifetimes

un ordenador fará o que un neno de tres anos pode facer,

will a computer do what a three-year-old child can do,

pero está claro que en calquera situación,

but what's clear is that in any scenario,

our machines have so much to learn from our toddlers.

as nosas máquinas teñen moito que aprender dos nosos cativos.

LS: I think so. You'll have some machine learning folks up here.

LS: Eu tamén o creo. Aquí haberá partidarios da aprendizaxe automática.

I mean, you should never bet against babies or chimpanzees

Nunca deberías apostar contra os bebés ou os chimpancés

or technology as a matter of practice,

ou da tecnoloxía, en principio.

but it's not just a difference in quantity,

pero non se trata só dunha diferenza de cantidade,

it's a difference in kind.

é unha diferenza cualitativa.

We have incredibly powerful computers,

Temos ordenadores incriblemente potentes,

and they do do amazingly sophisticated things,

que fan cousas incriblemente sofisticadas,

por veces con enormes cantidades de datos.

often with very big amounts of data.

Human minds do, I think, something quite different,

As mentes humanas fan, para min, algo bastante diferente,

and I think it's the structured, hierarchical nature of human knowledge

e creo que é a natureza estruturada e xerarquizada do coñecemento humano

that remains a real challenge.

o que permanece como un verdadeiro desafío.

CA: Laura Schulz, wonderful food for thought. Thank you so much.

CA: Laura Schulz, un gran tema para reflexionar. Moitas grazas.

LS: Thank you. (Applause)

Grazas (Aplausos)