John Bohannon: Dance vs. powerpoint, a modest proposal

Prevodilac: Biljana Drndarevic Lektor: Ivana Korom

(Music)

(Muzika)

Good afternoon.

Dobar dan.

As you're all aware, we face difficult economic times.

Kao što znate, pred nama su teška vremena, u ekonomskom smislu.

I come to you with a modest proposal

Imam za vas jedan skroman predlog

for easing the financial burden.

kako biste olakšali sebi taj finansijski teret.

This idea came to me while talking to

Došao sam na tu ideju prilikom razgovora

a physicist friend of mine at MIT.

s jednim prijateljem, fizičarom sa Tehnološkog instituta Masačusets.

He was struggling to explain something to me:

Pokušavao je, ne baš uspešno, da mi objasni

a beautiful experiment that uses lasers to cool down matter.

jedan divan eksperiment u kome se služi laserima kako bi ohladio materiju.

Now he confused me from the very start,

Od samog početka sam bio zbunjen,

because light doesn't cool things down.

jer svetlost ne hladi.

It makes it hotter. It's happening right now.

Ona zagreva. To se dešava i u ovom trenuntku.

The reason that you can see me standing here is because

Vi me vidite kako stojim ovde

this room is filled with more than 100 quintillion photons,

jer se oko nas nalazi preko 100 kvintiliona fotona,

and they're moving randomly through the space, near the speed of light.

koji se nasumice kreću kroz prostor, brzinom približnom brzini svetlosti.

All of them are different colors,

Različitih su boja,

they're rippling with different frequencies,

kreću se poput talasa sa različitim frekvencijama

and they're bouncing off every surface, including me,

i odbijaju se o svaku površinu, uključujući i mene.

and some of those are flying directly into your eyes,

Neki od njih vam idu pravo u oči

and that's why your brain is forming an image of me standing here.

i zato vaš mozak stvara sliku mene kako stojim ovde.

Now a laser is different.

Međutim, laser se ponaša drugačije.

It also uses photons, but they're all synchronized,

Takođe se služi fotonima, ali oni su sinhronizovani

and if you focus them into a beam,

i ako ih usmerite u obliku zraka,

what you have is an incredibly useful tool.

dobijete jednu izuzetno korisnu alatku.

The control of a laser is so precise

Laser je toliko precizan

that you can perform surgery inside of an eye,

da njime možete izvršiti operaciju unutar oka,

you can use it to store massive amounts of data,

možete ga koristiti za čuvanje ogromnih količina podataka,

and you can use it for this beautiful experiment

a možete ga koristiti i za ovaj divni eksperiment

that my friend was struggling to explain.

koji je moj prijatelj pokušavao da mi objasni.

First you trap atoms in a special bottle.

Najpre zarobite atome u jednoj posebnoj boci,

It uses electromagnetic fields to isolate the atoms

koja koristi elekromagnetna polja da izoluje atome

from the noise of the environment.

od smetnji iz okruženja.

And the atoms themselves are quite violent,

Atomi su sami po sebi prilično divlji,

but if you fire lasers that are precisely tuned to the right frequency,

ali ako u atom uperite laser koji je precizno naštimovan na odgovarajuću fekvenciju,

an atom will briefly absorb those photons

on će na trenutak apsorbovati fotone iz lasera

and tend to slow down.

i usporiće se.

Little by little it gets colder

Malo po malo, atom će se hladiti,

until eventually it approaches absolute zero.

dok se konačno ne približi apsolutnoj nuli.

Now if you use the right kind of atoms and you get them cold enough,

Ako koristite pravu vrstu atoma i uspete da ih dovoljno ohladite,

something truly bizarre happens.

nešto krajnje neobično će se dogoditi.

It's no longer a solid, a liquid or a gas.

Oni neće više biti u čvrstom stanju, niti tečnom ili gasovitom.

It enters a new state of matter called a superfluid.

Dostići će novo stanje materije, zvano superfluid.

The atoms lose their individual identity,

Atomi će izgubiti svoj lični identitet

and the rules from the quantum world take over,

i zavladaće pravila kvantnog sveta.

and that's what gives superfluids such spooky properties.

Zbog toga superfluidi imaju tako sablasna svojstva.

For example, if you shine light through a superfluid,

Na primer, ako propustite svetlost kroz superfluid,

it is able to slow photons down

ona može usporiti fotone

to 60 kilometers per hour.

do brzine od 60 kilometara na čas.

Another spooky property is that it flows

Još jedno neobično svojstvo superfluida je to što teče

with absolutely no viscosity or friction,

bez imalo viskoziteta ili trenja,

so if you were to take the lid off that bottle,

tako da ako otvorite bocu,

it won't stay inside.

sluperfluid neće ostati unutra.

A thin film will creep up the inside wall,

Tanak sloj superfluida će uspuzati uz unutrašnji zid boce,

flow over the top and right out the outside.

preliti se preko grlića i izaći napolje.

Now of course, the moment that it does hit the outside environment,

Naravno, čim dospe u spoljašnju sredinu

and its temperature rises by even a fraction of a degree,

i njegova temperatura poraste makar i za delić stepena,

it immediately turns back into normal matter.

istog trenutka će se vratiti u svoje prirodno stanje.

Superfluids are one of the most fragile things we've ever discovered.

Superfluidi su među najosetljivijim stvarima koje je čovek otrkio.

And this is the great pleasure of science:

Upravo u tome leži veliko zadovoljstvo koje nauka pruža:

the defeat of our intuition through experimentation.

u porazu naše intuicije kroz vršenje eksperimenata.

But the experiment is not the end of the story,

Ali ovaj eksperiment nije kraj priče,

because you still have to transmit that knowledge to other people.

jer sada stečeno znanje morate preneti drugima.

I have a Ph.D in molecular biology.

Ja sam doktor molekularne biologije,

I still barely understand what most scientists are talking about.

i i dalje mi nije baš jasno o čemu većina naučnika govori.

So as my friend was trying to explain that experiment,

Tako, dok je moj prijatelj pokušavao da mi objasni eksperiment,

it seemed like the more he said,

činilo mi se da što je više pričao,

the less I understood.

sve sam ga manje razumeo.

Because if you're trying to give someone the big picture

Jer, ako hoćete da u opštim crtama objasnite

of a complex idea, to really capture its essence,

složenu ideju, tako da zaista pogodite suštinu,

the fewer words you use, the better.

što manje reči koristite, to bolje.

In fact, the ideal may be to use no words at all.

Zapravo, možda bi bilo idealno da se uopšte ne služite rečima.

I remember thinking, my friend could have explained

Sećam se kako sam pomislio da je moj prijatelj

that entire experiment with a dance.

mogao objasniti čitav eksperiment putem plesa.

Of course, there never seem to be any dancers around when you need them.

Naravno, plesači vam nikada nisu pri ruci kada su vam potrebni.

Now, the idea is not as crazy as it sounds.

Međutim, ideja nije tako suluda kao što se čini.

I started a contest four years ago called Dance Your Ph.D.

Pre četiri godine otvorio sam takmičenje pod nazivom "Odigraj svoj doktorski rad".

Instead of explaining their research with words,

Umesto da predstave svoj istraživački rad rečima,

scientists have to explain it with dance.

naučnici moraju da ga objasne kroz ples.

Now surprisingly, it seems to work.

Začuđujuće, ali izgleda da funkcioniše.

Dance really can make science easier to understand.

Ples zaista može učiniti nauku razumljivijom.

But don't take my word for it.

Ali nemojte mi isključivo verovati na reč.

Go on the Internet and search for "Dance Your Ph.D."

Idite na internet i potražite "Dance Your Ph.D.".

There are hundreds of dancing scientists waiting for you.

Čeka vas na stotine razigranih naučnika.

The most surprising thing that I've learned while running this contest

Ono što me je najviše iznenadilo

is that some scientists are now working directly with dancers on their research.

je to da sada neki naučnici sarađuju direktno sa plesačima za potrebe svog istraživačkog rada.

For example, at the University of Minnesota,

Na primer, na Univerzitetu u Minesoti

there's a biomedical engineer named David Odde,

radi inženjer biomedicine Dejvid Od,

and he works with dancers to study how cells move.

koji sarađuje sa plesačima kako bi izučavao kako se ćelije kreću.

They do it by changing their shape.

One to čine menjajući svoj oblik.

When a chemical signal washes up on one side,

Kada je hemijski signal dotakne s jedne strane,

it triggers the cell to expand its shape on that side,

ćelija se proširi u tom pravcu

because the cell is constantly touching and tugging at the environment.

jer je u stalnom kontaktu sa sredinom u kojoj se nalazi.

So that allows cells to ooze along in the right directions.

To, dakle, omogućava ćeliji da klizi u odgovarajućem pravcu.

But what seems so slow and graceful from the outside

Ali ono što se spolja čini tako sporim i gracioznim,

is really more like chaos inside,

iznutra je više nalik na haos.

because cells control their shape with a skeleton of rigid protein fibers,

Ćelije kontrolišu svoj oblik uz pomoć skeleta sačinjenog od čvrstih proteinskih vlakana

and those fibers are constantly falling apart.

koja se neprekidno kidaju.

But just as quickly as they explode,

Ali čim se ova vlakna pokidaju,

more proteins attach to the ends and grow them longer,

novi proteini se nakače i produžavaju ih.

so it's constantly changing

Ćelija se, dakle, neprekidno menja,

just to remain exactly the same.

a da pritom ostaje sasvim ista.

Now, David builds mathematical models of this and then he tests those in the lab,

Dejvid pravi matematičke modele ovih vlakana i testira ih u svojoj laboratoriji,

but before he does that, he works with dancers

ali pre toga, radi sa plesačima

to figure out what kinds of models to build in the first place.

kako bi se odlučio kakav model uopšte da sačini.

It's basically efficient brainstorming,

To je u stvari jedan način grupnog pretresanja ideja, veoma efikasan.

and when I visited David to learn about his research,

Kada sam otišao u posetu Dejvidu da mi ispriča o svom istraživačkom radu,

he used dancers to explain it to me

umesto uobičajene metode, PowerPointa,

rather than the usual method: PowerPoint.

poslužio se plesačima.

And this brings me to my modest proposal.

I sada dolazimo do mog skromnog predloga.

I think that bad PowerPoint presentations

Smatram da loše prezentacije u PowerPointu

are a serious threat to the global economy.

predstavljaju ozbiljnu pretnju svetskoj privredi.

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Smeh) (Aplauz)

Now it does depend on how you measure it, of course,

Naravno, zavisi od toga kako računate,

but one estimate has put the drain at 250 million dollars per day.

ali po jednoj proceni, 250 miliona dolara dnevno se baca na ove prezentacije.

Now that assumes half-hour presentations

To je ako računamo polučasovne prezentacije

for an average audience of four people

namenjene publici od četiri osobe u proseku,

with salaries of 35,000 dollars,

koje zarađuju 35.000 dolara,

and it conservatively assumes that

i ako pretpostavimo da je otprilike četvrtina tih prezentacija

about a quarter of the presentations are a complete waste of time,

potpuno gubljenje vremena.

and given that there are some apparently

Budući da svakog dana

30 million PowerPoint presentations created every day,

nikne oko 30 miliona novih PowerPoint prezentacija,

that would indeed add up to an annual waste

gubitak na godišnjem nivou bi zapravo bio

of 100 billion dollars.

blizu 100 milijardi dolara.

Of course, that's just the time we're losing

Naravno, to se odnosi samo na vreme izgubljeno

sitting through presentations.

dok sedimo i slušamo prezentacije.

There are other costs, because PowerPoint is a tool,

Tu su i drugi troškovi, jer PowerPoint je alatka,

and like any tool, it can and will be abused.

i kao i svaka druga, često je zloupotrebljena.

To borrow a concept from my country's CIA,

Ona vam pomaže

it helps you to soften up your audience.

da zadobijete publiku.

It distracts them with pretty pictures, irrelevant data.

Odvraća joj pažnju lepim slikama i nebitnim podacima.

It allows you to create the illusion of competence,

Omogućava vam da stvorite lažnu sliku osobe koja poznaje svoj posao,

the illusion of simplicity,

iluziju jednostavnosti,

and most destructively, the illusion of understanding.

i što je najgore, iluziju da razumete to o čemu pričate.

So now my country is 15 trillion dollars in debt.

I zato Amerika sada ima dug od 15 biliona dolara.

Our leaders are working tirelessly to try and find ways to save money.

Čelnici naših država neumorno pokušavaju da uštede novac.

One idea is to drastically reduce public support for the arts.

Jedan od predloga je da se drastično smanji državna novčana podrška umetnosti.

For example, our National Endowment for the Arts,

Na primer, kada bismo skresali budžet od 150 miliona dolara

with its $150 million budget,

američkog Nacionalnog fonda za umetnost,

slashing that program would immediately reduce the national debt

javni dug bi automatski bio smanjen

by about one one-thousandth of a percent.

za stoti deo procenta.

One certainly can't argue with those numbers.

To je zaista ubedljiva brojka.

However, once we eliminate public funding for the arts,

Međutim, ukidanje javnih sredstava za umetnost

there will be some drawbacks.

imalo bi i negativnih posledica.

The artists on the street will swell the ranks of the unemployed.

Nezaposleni umetnici bi preplavili biro rada.

Many will turn to drug abuse and prostitution,

Mnogi od njih bi se odali drogi i prostituciji,

and that will inevitably lower property values in urban neighborhoods.

što bi smanjilo vrednost nekretnina u urbanim sredinama.

All of this could wipe out the savings we're hoping to make in the first place.

Tako nikada ne bismo ostvarili uštedu koja i jeste cilj svega toga.

I shall now, therefore, humbly propose my own thoughts,

Ja ću, stoga, sada izneti svoj skroman predlog,

which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

s kojim ćete se svi, nadam se, složiti.

Once we eliminate public funding for the artists,

Nakon što ukinemo javna sredstva umetnicima,

let's put them back to work

hajde da ih ponovo zaposlimo

by using them instead of PowerPoint.

tako što ćemo se poslužiti njima umesto PowerPointom.

As a test case, I propose we start with American dancers.

Za početak, predlažem da najpre probamo sa američkim plesačima.

After all, they are the most perishable of their kind,

Na kraju krajeva, zahvaljujući našem zdravstvenom sistemu

prone to injury and very slow to heal

oni i jesu najugroženja vrsta.

due to our health care system.

Skloni su povredama i dugo se oporavljaju.

Rather than dancing our Ph.Ds,

Osim što ćemo otplesati naš doktorski rad,

we should use dance to explain all of our complex problems.

trebalo bi da se služimo plesom da razjasnimo sve složene probleme.

Imagine our politicians using dance

Zamislite naše političare kako plesom

to explain why we must invade a foreign country

objašnjavaju zašto je neophodno izvršiti napad na neku drugu državu

or bail out an investment bank.

ili pružiti novčanu pomoć investicionoj banci.

It's sure to help.

Sigurno bi pomoglo.

Of course someday, in the deep future,

Naravno, jednog dana, u dalekoj budućnosti,

a technology of persuasion

izumećemo neko novo sredstvo ubeđivanja,

even more powerful than PowerPoint may be invented,

moćnije čak i od PowerPointa,

rendering dancers unnecessary as tools of rhetoric.

čime će plesači kao retoričko sredstvo postati nepotrebni.

However, I trust that by that day,

Ipak, verujem da ćemo do tada

we shall have passed this present financial calamity.

prevazići trenuntnu finansijsku katastrofu.

Perhaps by then we will be able to afford the luxury

Možda ćemo do tada biti u prilici da sebi dozvolimo luksuz

of just sitting in an audience

da sedimo u publici

with no other purpose

sa jedinim ciljem

than to witness the human form in motion.

da posmatramo ljudsko telo u pokretu.

(Music)

(Muzika)

(Applause)

(Aplauz)