Maria Bezaitis: The surprising need for strangeness

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Prevoditelj: Mladen Barešić Recezent: Senzos Osijek

"Don't talk to strangers."

''Ne razgovaraj s neznancima.''

You have heard that phrase uttered

Desetljećima vam to ponavljaju

by your friends, family, schools and the media for decades.

vaši prijatelji, obitelj, škola i mediji.

It's a norm. It's a social norm.

To je norma. To je društvena norma.

But it's a special kind of social norm,

No, to je posebna vrsta društvene norme,

because it's a social norm that wants to tell us

jer to je društvena norma koja nam kaže

who we can relate to and who we shouldn't relate to.

s kime možemo, a s kime ne bismo trebali uspostavljati odnos.

"Don't talk to strangers" says,

''Ne razgovaraj s neznancima." znači:

"Stay from anyone who's not familiar to you.

''Kloni se svih onih koji ti nisu poznati.

Stick with the people you know.

Drži se ljudi koje poznaješ.

Stick with people like you."

Drži se ljudi sličnih sebi.''

How appealing is that?

Koliko je to privlačno?

It's not really what we do, is it, when we're at our best?

Tako se ne ponašamo kad se dobro osjećamo, zar ne?

When we're at our best, we reach out to people

Kad se dobro osjećamo, uspostavljamo komunikaciju s ljudima

who are not like us,

koji se od nas razlikuju,

because when we do that, we learn from people

jer, kad to činimo, učimo od ljudi

who are not like us.

koji nisu poput nas.

My phrase for this value of being with "not like us"

Moj izraz za ovaj oblik bivanja s onima ''koji nisu poput nas''

is "strangeness,"

jest ''neznanstvo''.

and my point is that in today's digitally intensive world,

Ono što želim istaknuti jest da u današnjem digitalno intenzivnom svijetu

strangers are quite frankly not the point.

neznanci, iskreno govoreći, nisu bitni.

The point that we should be worried about is,

Ono o čemu bismo trebali misliti jest

how much strangeness are we getting?

koliko "neznanstva" dobivamo?

Why strangeness? Because our social relations

Čemu "neznanstvo"? Stoga što su naši socijalni odnosi

are increasingly mediated by data,

sve više posredovani podacima,

and data turns our social relations into digital relations,

a podaci mijenjaju naše socijalne odnose u digitalne odnose.

and that means that our digital relations

To znači da naši digitalni odnosi

now depend extraordinarily on technology

sad jako ovise o tehnologiji

to bring to them a sense of robustness,

koja im donosi osjećaj punine i cjelovitosti,

a sense of discovery,

osjećaj otkrivanja,

a sense of surprise and unpredictability.

osjećaj iznenađenja i nepredvidivosti.

Why not strangers?

Zašto ne neznanci?

Because strangers are part of a world

Zato što su neznanci dio svijeta

of really rigid boundaries.

uistinu krutih okvira.

They belong to a world of people I know

Oni pripadaju svijetu ljudi koje znam

versus people I don't know,

nasuprot ljudima koje ne znam,

and in the context of my digital relations,

a u kontekstu mojih digitalnih odnosa,

I'm already doing things with people I don't know.

ja već koješta činim s ljudima koje ne poznajem.

The question isn't whether or not I know you.

Pitanje nije poznajem li te ili ne.

The question is, what can I do with you?

Pitanje je, što ja s tobom mogu činiti?

What can I learn with you?

Što ja s tobom mogu naučiti?

What can we do together that benefits us both?

Što možemo zajedno činiti, a da nam oboma koristi?

I spend a lot of time thinking about

Provodim mnogo vremena razmišljajući o tome

how the social landscape is changing,

kako se socijalna okolina mijenja,

how new technologies create new constraints

kako nove tehnologije konstruiraju nova ograničenja

and new opportunities for people.

i nove mogućnosti za ljude.

The most important changes facing us today

Najznačajnije promjene s kojima se danas susrećemo

have to do with data and what data is doing

povezane su s podacima i onim što podaci čine

to shape the kinds of digital relations

u oblikovanju određenih vrsta digitalnih odnosa

that will be possible for us in the future.

koji će biti mogući za nas u budućnosti.

The economies of the future depend on that.

Ekonomije budućnosti ovise o tome.

Our social lives in the future depend on that.

Naši socijalni odnosi u budućnosti ovise o tome.

The threat to worry about isn't strangers.

Prijetnja zbog koje se trebamo brinuti nisu stranci.

The threat to worry about is whether or not

Prijetnja zbog koje se trebamo brinuti jest dobivamo li ili ne

we're getting our fair share of strangeness.

fer udio stranosti.

Now, 20th-century psychologists and sociologists

Sada, psiholozi i sociolozi 20. stoljeća

were thinking about strangers,

razmišljali su o strancima,

but they weren't thinking so dynamically about human relations,

no nisu razmišljali tako dinamično o ljudskim odnosima,

and they were thinking about strangers

te su razmišljali o strancima

in the context of influencing practices.

u kontekstu utjecajnih praksi.

Stanley Milgram from the '60s and '70s,

Stanley Milgram iz 60-ih i 70-ih,

the creator of the small-world experiments,

kreator mali-svijet eksperimenata,

which became later popularized as six degrees of separation,

koji su kasnije postali popularni kao šest stupnjeva separacije,

made the point that any two arbitrarily selected people

i pokazali da postoji velika vjerojatnost da će se bilo kojih dvoje arbitrarno odabranih osoba

were likely connected from between five to seven intermediary steps.

povezati u pet do sedam posredovanih koraka.

His point was that strangers are out there.

Njegova poanta je bila da su stranci prisutni.

We can reach them. There are paths

Možemo doći do njih. Postoje putovi

that enable us to reach them.

koji nam omogućuju da dođemo do njih.

Mark Granovetter, Stanford sociologist, in 1973

Mark Granovetter, sociolog sa sveučilišta Stanford, 1973.

in his seminal essay "The Strength of Weak Ties,"

u svom prvobitnom eseju ''Snaga slabih veza'',

made the point that these weak ties

ističe da su te slabe veze

that are a part of our networks, these strangers,

koje su dio naših mreža, ti stranci,

are actually more effective at diffusing information to us

zapravo učinkovitiji u prenošenju informacija,

than are our strong ties, the people closest to us.

nego što su tu naše jake veze, ljudi koji su nam najbliži.

He makes an additional indictment of our strong ties

On dodatno optužuje naše jake veze

when he says that these people who are so close to us,

kada kaže da ti ljudi koji su nam bliski,

these strong ties in our lives,

te jake veze u našem životu,

actually have a homogenizing effect on us.

zapravo imaju homogenizirajući učinak na nas.

They produce sameness.

One stvaraju istovjetnost.

My colleagues and I at Intel have spent the last few years

Moji kolege i ja smo na Intel-u proveli zadnjih nekoliko godina

looking at the ways in which digital platforms

u proučavanju načina na koje digitalne platforme

are reshaping our everyday lives,

preoblikuju naše svakodnevne živote,

what kinds of new routines are possible.

koje vrste novih rutina su moguće.

We've been looking specifically at the kinds

Usmjerili smo se posebice na vrste

of digital platforms that have enabled us

digitalnih platformi koje su nam omogućile

to take our possessions, those things that used to be

da zauzmemo svoje posjede,

very restricted to us and to our friends in our houses,

te stvari koje su nama i našim prijateljima u našim domovima

and to make them available to people we don't know.

bile vrlo ograničene, i na omogućavanje da one postanu dostupne ljudima koje ne poznajemo.

Whether it's our clothes, whether it's our cars,

Bez obzira radi li se o našoj odjeći, bez obzira radi li se o našim automobilima,

whether it's our bikes, whether it's our books or music,

bez obzira radi li se o našim biciklima, bez obzira radi li se o našim knjigama ili glazbi,

we are able to take our possessions now

u mogućnosti smo uzeti stvari koje posjedujemo

and make them available to people we've never met.

i učiniti ih dostupnima ljudima koje nikada nismo sreli.

And we concluded a very important insight,

I došli smo do vrlo važne spoznaje,

which was that as people's relationships

a to je da kako se odnos ljudi

to the things in their lives change,

prema stvarima u njihovim životima mijenja,

so do their relations with other people.

tako se mijenjaju i njihovi odnosi s drugim ljudima.

And yet recommendation system

Te ipak i sustav preporuka nakon što taj sustav

after recommendation system continues to miss the boat.

kontinuirano propušta prilike.

It continues to try to predict what I need

Nastavlja se pokušavati predvidjeti što ja trebam

based on some past characterization of who I am,

na temelju neke prošle karakterizacije onoga što ja jesam,

of what I've already done.

onoga što sam već učinio.

Security technology after security technology

Sigurnosna tehnologija nakon sigurnosne tehnologije

continues to design data protection

nastavlja dizajnirati zaštitu podataka

in terms of threats and attacks,

u terminima prijetnji i napada,

keeping me locked into really rigid kinds of relations.

držeći me zaključanog u vrlo rigidnim vrstama odnosa.

Categories like "friends" and "family"

Kategorije kao ''prijatelji'' i ''obitelj''

and "contacts" and "colleagues"

i ''kontakti'' i ''kolege''

don't tell me anything about my actual relations.

ne govore mi ništa o mojim stvarnim odnosima.

A more effective way to think about my relations

Učinkovitiji način za razmišljanje o mojim odnosima

might be in terms of closeness and distance,

mogao bi biti u terminima blizine i daljine,

where at any given point in time, with any single person,

gdje u bilo kojem danom trenutku u vremenu, sa svakom pojedinom osobom,

I am both close and distant from that individual,

ja sam jednako blizu i daleko od individue,

all as a function of what I need to do right now.

a sve kao funkcija toga što trebam činiti upravo sada.

People aren't close or distant.

Ljudi nisu bliski ili daleki.

People are always a combination of the two,

Ljudi su uvijek kombinacija to dvoje,

and that combination is constantly changing.

a ta kombinacija se neprestano mijenja.

What if technologies could intervene

Što ako bi tehnologije mogle intervenirati

to disrupt the balance of certain kinds of relationships?

na način da poremete ravnotežu određenih vrsta odnosa?

What if technologies could intervene

Što ako bi mi tehnologije mogle pomoći

to help me find the person that I need right now?

da nađem osobu koju sada trebam?

Strangeness is that calibration

Stranost je ta kalibracija

of closeness and distance

bliskosti i udaljenosti

that enables me to find the people that I need right now,

koja mi omogućuje da nađem osobe koje trebam upravo sada,

that enables me to find the sources of intimacy,

koja mi omogućuje da nađem izvore intimnosti,

of discovery, and of inspiration that I need right now.

otkrića, i inspiracije koju upravo sada trebam.

Strangeness is not about meeting strangers.

Stranost nije susretanje stranaca.

It simply makes the point that we need

Jednostavno daje poantu da trebamo

to disrupt our zones of familiarity.

narušiti naše zone prisnosti.

So jogging those zones of familiarity is one way to think about strangeness,

Dakle, stimuliranje ovih zona prisnosti jest jedan način na koji možemo razmišljati o stranosti,

and it's a problem faced not just by individuals today,

a to nije problem s kojim se danas susreću samo individue,

but also by organizations,

nego također i organizacije,

organizations that are trying to embrace massively new opportunities.

organizacije koje pokušavaju masovno prihvatiti nove mogućnosti.

Whether you're a political party

Bez obzira radi li se o političkoj stranci

insisting to your detriment on a very rigid notion

inzistirajući na vlastitu štetu na vrlo rigidnim idejama

of who belongs and who does not,

o tome tko pripada a tko ne.

whether you're the government

Bez obzira radi li se o vladi

protecting social institutions like marriage

koja štiti socijalne institucije kao što je brak

and restricting access of those institutions to the few,

i ograničavajući pristup tim institucijama samo nekima,

whether you're a teenager in her bedroom

bez obzira radi li se o tinejdžerici u svojoj sobi

who's trying to jostle her relations with her parents,

koja pokušava gurati svoje odnose s roditeljima,

strangeness is a way to think about how we pave the way

stranost je način za razmišljanje o tome na koji način utrti put

to new kinds of relations.

novim vrstama odnosa.

We have to change the norms.

Moramo promijeniti norme.

We have to change the norms in order to enable

Moramo promijeniti norme da bi mogli omogućiti

new kinds of technologies

nove vrste tehnologija

as a basis for new kinds of businesses.

kao osnovu za nove vrste tvrtki.

What interesting questions lie ahead for us

Koje zanimljivo pitanje stoji pred nama

in this world of no strangers?

u ovome svijetu u kojem nema stranaca?

How might we think differently about our relations with people?

Kako bismo mogli razmišljati drugačije o našim odnosima s ljudima?

How might we think differently about our relations

Kako bismo mogli razmišljati drugačije o svojim odnosima

with distributed groups of people?

s distribuiranim grupama ljudi?

How might we think differently about our relations with technologies,

Kako bismo mogli razmišljati drugačije o našim odnosima s tehnologijama,

things that effectively become social participants

stvarima koje su učinkovito postale socijalni sudionici

in their own right?

sami po sebi.

The range of digital relations is extraordinary.

Raspon digitalnih odnosa je izvanredan.

In the context of this broad range of digital relations,

U kontekstu ovog širokog raspona digitalnih odnosa,

safely seeking strangeness might very well be

sigurno tražena stranost mogla bi biti

a new basis for that innovation.

nova osnova za tu inovaciju.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)