Eric Berlow and Sean Gourley: Mapping ideas worth spreading

Translator: Alisa Xholi Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

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

Eric Berlow: Une jam nje ekolog dhe Sean eshte nje fizikant,

and we both study complex networks.

se bashku ne studiojme rrjete te nderlikuara.

And we met a couple years ago when we discovered

Jemi njohur disa vjet me pare kur zbuluam

that we had both given a short TED Talk

se na eshte dhene nga nje fjalim TED i shkurter

about the ecology of war,

mbi ekologjine e luftes,

and we realized that we were connected

dhe zbuluam se na bashkonin

by the ideas we shared before we ever met.

idete qe ndanim para se te njiheshim.

And then we thought, you know, there are thousands

Me pas menduam, se mund te kete me mijera

of other talks out there, especially TEDx Talks,

fjalime te tjera atje, mbi te gjitha fjalime te TEDx,

that are popping up all over the world.

qe po shfaqen ne te gjithe boten.

How are they connected,

and what does that global conversation look like?

Si jane te lidhura ato ,

dhe si ngjason biseda globale?

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

Sean do ju tregoje pak se si e beme ate.

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

Sean Gourley: Pikerisht. Ne morem 24.000 fjalime TEDx

from around the world, 147 different countries,

nga e gjithe bota, 147 shtete te ndryshme,

and we took these talks and we wanted to find

ajo cka donim te gjenim ne keto fjalime ishte

the mathematical structures that underly

strukturat matematikore qe fshehin

the ideas behind them.

idete pas tyre.

And we wanted to do that so we could see how

Dhe donin ta benim kete ne menyre qe te shihnim

they connected with each other.

se si lidheshin ato mes tyre.

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

Dhe sigurisht, nese do te besh dicka te tille,

you need a lot of data.

te duhen shume te dhena.

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

Dhe te dhenat qe ti ke eshte nje dicka e madhe qe quhet YouTube,

and we can go down and basically pull

ku mund te nxjerrim

all the open information from YouTube,

te gjithe informacionin e hapur nga YouTube,

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

te gjitha komentet, shikimet, kush po e sheh ate,

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

ku po e shohin dhe cfare po thone ne komente.

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

Por mund edhe te nxjerrim, duke perdorur perkthimet nga te folurit ne tekste,

we can pull the entire transcript,

mund te perdorim te gjithe kopjen e shkruar,

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

dhe kjo funksionon dhe per njerezit me dialekt pak qesharak si ky i imi.

So we can take their transcript

Pra ne mund te marim kopjen e shkruar

and actually do some pretty cool things.

dhe realisht te bejme disa gjera shume interesante.

We can take natural language processing algorithms

Mund te marim algoritme natyrore te perpunimit te gjuhes

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

per te lexuar me nje kompjuter, rrjesht pas rrjeshti,

extracting key concepts from this.

duke nxjerre koncepte kyce nga kjo.

And we take those key concepts and they sort of form

I marim keto koncepte kyce qe perbejne

this mathematical structure of an idea.

strukturen matematikore te nje ideje.

And we call that the meme-ome.

Dhe kete e quajme meme-ome.

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

Meme-ome, shume thjesht

is the mathematics that underlies an idea,

eshte matematika ne bazen e nje ideje,

and we can do some pretty interesting analysis with it,

dhe mund te bejme nje analize shume interesante me te,

which I want to share with you now.

te cilen dua ta ndaj me ju.

So each idea has its own meme-ome,

Pra cdo ide ka meme-ome e vet,

and each idea is unique with that,

dhe cdo ide eshte unike,

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

por sigurisht, idete, huazojne nga njera tjetra,

they kind of steal sometimes,

madje dhe vjedhin nga njera-tjetra ndonjehere,

and they certainly build on each other,

dhe sigurisht ndertohen mbi njera tjetren

and we can go through mathematically

keshtu mund te vazhdojme matematikisht

and take the meme-ome from one talk

dhe te marim meme-ome nga nje fjalim

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

dhe ta krahasojme ate me meme-ome me cdo fjalim tjeter,

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

dhe nese ka ngjashmeri mes dy nga ato,

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

mund te krijojme nje lidhje si grafik,

just like Eric and I are connected.

ashtu sic jam i lidhur une me Eric.

So that's theory, that's great.

Pra kjo eshte teori. Kjo eshte e mrekullueshme.

Let's see how it works in actual practice.

Le te shohim si funksionon ne praktike.

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

Ajo cka kemi ketu eshte gjurma globale

of all the TEDx Talks over the last four years

nga te gjitha fjalimet e TEDx per kater vitet e fundit

exploding out around the world

qe shperthejne ne bote

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

nga New York deri ne Zelanden e Re ketu ne qoshe.

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

Ajo cka beme ketu ishte analiza e 25 perqind te ketyre,

and we started to see where the connections occurred,

dhe filluam te shikonim se ku shfaqeshin lidhjet,

where they connected with each other.

atje ku bashkoheshin me njera tjetren.

Cameron Russell talking about image and beauty

Cameron Russell duke folur mbi imazhin dhe bukurine

connected over into Europe.

lidhet me te gjithe Europen.

We've got a bigger conversation about Israel and Palestine

Kemi nje diskutim me te madh mbi Israelin dhe Palestinen

radiating outwards from the Middle East.

e cila perhapet drejt Lindjes se Mesme.

And we've got something a little broader

Dhe kemi dicka me te gjere

like big data with a truly global footprint

si te dhena te medha me gjurme te verteta globale

reminiscent of a conversation

e cila ngjason me nje bisede

that is happening everywhere.

qe po ndodh kudo.

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

Nga kjo, u gjendem disi kundrejt limiteve

of what we can actually do with a geographic projection,

nga cka mund te bejme realisht me projektimin gjeografik,

but luckily, computer technology allows us to go out

por fatmiresisht, teknologjia kompjuterike na lejon te dalim

into multidimensional space.

ne nje hapesire shume dimensionale.

So we can take in our network projection

Keshtu mund te marim projektin tone te rrjetit

and apply a physics engine to this,

dhe te aplikojme nje motor fizike ne kete,

and the similar talks kind of smash together,

keshtu fjalimet e ngjashme pak a shume perplasen me njera tjetren,

and the different ones fly apart,

kurse ato te ndryshmet vecohen,

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

dhe ajo cka na mbetet eshte dicka shume e bukur.

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

EB: Dua te nenvizoj ketu se cdo nyje eshte nje fjalim,

they're linked if they share similar ideas,

ato lidhen nese ndajne te njejtat ide,

and that comes from a machine reading

dhe kjo del nga nje mekanizem lexues

of entire talk transcripts,

i kopjes se shkruar ne teresi,

and then all these topics that pop out,

dhe me pas te gjitha subjektet qe ndahen,

they're not from tags and keywords.

nuk jane nga etiketimet ose fjalet kyce.

They come from the network structure

Ato vine nga struktura e rrjetit

of interconnected ideas. Keep going.

te ideve te nderlidhura. Vazhdo.

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

SG. Absolutisht. U nxitova pak aty,

but he's going to slow me down.

por ai do me ngadalsoje pak.

We've got education connected to storytelling

Kemi edukimin qe lidhet me tregimet

triangulated next to social media.

ne trekendesh me median sociale.

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

Keni sigurisht, trurin e njeriut prane kujdesit shendetesor,

which you might expect,

ku mund ta prisni,

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

por gjithashtu keni dhe lojrat elektronike e cila eshte afer,

as those two spaces interface with each other.

ndersa keto dy hapesira interferojne me njera tjetren.

But I want to take you into one cluster

Por dua tju terheq ne nje grumbull

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

qe eshte ne vecanti shume i rendesishem per mua, dhe ky eshte mjedisi.

And I want to kind of zoom in on that

Dhe dua ta zmadhoj pak ketu

and see if we can get a little more resolution.

dhe te shohim nese mund te marim nje rezolucion pak me te larte.

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

Pra duke u futur ketu, ajo cka fillojme te shohim,

apply the physics engine again,

duke aplikuar perseri motorin e fizikes,

we see what's one conversation

shohim se nje bisede

is actually composed of many smaller ones.

aktualisht eshte e perbere nga disa me te vogla.

The structure starts to emerge

Struktura fillon te shfaqet

where we see a kind of fractal behavior

ku shohim nje sjellje disi fraktale

of the words and the language that we use

e fjaleve dhe gjuhes qe perdorim

to describe the things that are important to us

per te pershkruar gjera qe jane interesante per ne

all around this world.

ne kete bote.

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

Kemi ekonomine e ushqimit dhe ushqimin lokal ne skaj,

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

kemi gazrat e serrave, mbetjet diellore dhe berthamore.

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

Ajo cka merrni eshte nje linje bisedash me te vogla,

each connected to each other through the ideas

te lidhura me njera tjetren ndermjet ideve

and the language they share,

dhe gjuhes qe ato ndajne,

creating a broader concept of the environment.

duke krijuar nje koncept me te gjere mbi mjedisin.

And of course, from here, we can go

Dhe sigurisht nga ketu, mund te shkojme

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

dhe te zmadhojme e shohim, se cfare shohin te rinjte?

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

Ata shohin teknologjine energjitike dhe fusionin berthamor.

This is their kind of resonance

Kjo eshte rezonanca e tyre

for the conversation around the environment.

per bisedat mbi mjedisin.

If we split along gender lines,

Nese do ndajme linjat gjinore,

we can see females resonating heavily

mund te shohim se gjinia femerore anon me shume

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

ne ekonomine ushqimore, por gjithashtu ne shprese dhe optimizem.

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

Dhe keshtu kemi disa gjera shume interesante qe mund te bejme ketu,

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

dhe do tja kaloj Eric per pjesen tjeter.

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

EB: Po, dua te them thjesht per te theksuar

you cannot get this kind of perspective

nuk mund ta maresh kete perspektive

from a simple tag search on YouTube.

nga nje etiketim i thjeshte ne YouTube.

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

Tani le te zmadhojme te gjitha bisedat globale

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

nga mjedisi, dhe te shohim gjithe fjalimet bashke.

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

Shpesh ne hasim kete sasi permbajtjeje,

we do a couple of things to simplify it.

dhe kryejme disa gjera per ti thjeshtuar.

We might just say, well,

Edhe mund te themi, ne rregull,

what are the most popular talks out there?

cilat jane fjalimet me te njohura aty?

And a few rise to the surface.

Dhe disa dalin ne siperfaqe.

There's a talk about gratitude.

Ekziston nje fjalim mbi mirenjohjen.

There's another one about personal health and nutrition.

Eshte dhe nje tjeter mbi shendetin personal dhe ushqimin.

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

Dhe sigurisht duhet te kete dhe nje mbi pornografine apo jo?

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

Dhe atehere mund te themi, mirenjohja ishte vitin e kaluar.

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

Por cfare eshte ne qarkullim tani? Cili eshte fjalimi me i njohur tani?

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

Dhe mund te shohim se subjekti me ne qarkullim

is about digital privacy.

eshte ai mbi privatesine dixhitale.

So this is great. It simplifies things.

Pra kjo eshte e mrekullueshme. Kjo i thjeshton gjerat.

But there's so much creative content

Por ka kaq shume subjekte me krijuese

that's just buried at the bottom.

te cilat jane te varrosura ne fund.

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

Dhe une e urrej kete. Si mund te nxjerrim ne siperfaqe gjera

that's maybe really creative and interesting?

te cilat mund te jene krijuese dhe interesante?

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

Mund ti kthehemi struktures se rrjetit te ideve

to do that.

per ta bere.

Remember, it's that network structure

Mbani mend, eshte ajo strukture rrjeti

that is creating these emergent topics,

e cila krijon subjektet ne zhvillim,

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

dhe le te themi qe mund te marrim dy nga ato,

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

si qytete dhe gjenetika dhe te themi, a ekzistojne fjalime

that creatively bridge these two really different disciplines.

qe krijimtarisht lidh keto dy disiplina vertet te ndryshme.

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

Dhe kjo eshte --Ne thelb, ky lloj remiksi kreativ

is one of the hallmarks of innovation.

eshte nje nga shenjat dalluese te risis.

Well here's one by Jessica Green

Ketu kemi nje nga Jessica Green

about the microbial ecology of buildings.

mbi ekologjine mikrobiale te ndertesave.

It's literally defining a new field.

Kjo percakton vertet nje fushe te re.

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

Dhe mund ti kthehemi ketyre subjekteve duke thene

what talks are central to those conversations?

cilat fjalime kryesojne ne keto biseda?

In the cities cluster, one of the most central

Ne grumbullin e qyteteve, nje nga me kryesoret

was one by Mitch Joachim about ecological cities,

eshte njera nga Mitch Joachim mbi ekologjine e qyteteve,

and in the genetics cluster,

dhe ne grumbullin e gjenetikes,

we have a talk about synthetic biology by Craig Venter.

kemi nje fjalim mbi biologjine sintetike nga Craig Venter.

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

Keto jane fjalime te cilat permbajne shume fjalime ne disiplinen e tyre.

We could go the other direction and say, well,

Mund te shkojme ne nje tjeter drejtim e te themi

what are talks that are broadly synthesizing

cilat jane fjalimet qe gjeresisht sintetizojne

a lot of different kinds of fields.

shume fusha te ndryshme.

We used a measure of ecological diversity to get this.

Ne perdorem nje mates mbi diversitetin ekologjik per ta marr kete.

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

Si fjalimi i Steven Pinker mbi historine e dhunes,

very synthetic.

shume sintetike.

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

Sigurisht keto jane fjalime shume te vecanta

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

qe pak a shume jane jashte stratosferes ne vendin e tyre te vecante,

and we call that the Colleen Flanagan index.

dhe ne e quajme ate indeksi Colleen Flanagan.

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

Ne rast se nuk e njihni Collen, ajo eshte nje artiste,

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

dhe une e pyeta ate, "Si eshte te jesh aty jashte

in the stratosphere of our idea space?"

ne stratosferen e hapesires se ideve?"

And apparently it smells like bacon.

Dhe me sa duket kishte nje ere si proshute e tymosur.

I wouldn't know.

Nuk kisha si ta dija.

So we're using these network motifs

Pra ne perdorim keto modele rrjeti

to find talks that are unique,

per te gjetur fjalime te vecanta,

ones that are creatively synthesizing a lot of different fields,

ato te cilat jane te sintetizuara krijimtarisht nga shume fusha te ndryshme,

ones that are central to their topic,

ato te cilat kryesojne subjektin e tyre,

and ones that are really creatively bridging disparate fields.

dhe ato te cilat lidhin krijimtarisht fusha te pangjashme.

Okay? We never would have found those with our obsession

Ne nuk mund ti gjenim ato kurre me manine

with what's trending now.

se cfare eshte ne qarkullim tani.

And all of this comes from the architecture of complexity,

Dhe e gjitha kjo vjen nga arkitektura e kompleksitetit,

or the patterns of how things are connected.

ose te modeleve te se si gjerat jane te lidhura.

SG: So that's exactly right.

SG: Kjo eshte ekzaktesisht e vertete.

We've got ourselves in a world

Jemi ne nje bote

that's massively complex,

e cila eshte masivisht komplekse,

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

dhe ne kemi perdorur algoritme per ta filtrurar ate

so we can navigate through it.

ne menyre qe ne te mund te lundrojme ne te.

And those algorithms, whilst being kind of useful,

Dhe keto algoritme ndersa jane shume te dobishme dhe te mira

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

jane gjithashtu dhe shume te kufizuara, dhe ne mund te bejme me shume se aq,

because we can realize that their complexity is not random.

sepse mund te kuptojme qe kompleksiteti i tyre nuk eshte i rastesishem.

It has mathematical structure,

Ka nje strukture matematikore,

and we can use that mathematical structure

dhe mund ta perdorim ate strukture matematikore

to go and explore things like the world of ideas

per te zbuluar gjera si boten e ideve

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

per te pare se cfare po thuhet, dhe cfare nuk po thuhet,

and to be a little bit more human

dhe per te qene pak me njerezor

and, hopefully, a little smarter.

dhe me shprese, pak me te zgjuar.

Thank you.

Faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)