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Imagine. Imagine an epic showdown between two deeply opposed forces. And this is set right in

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the middle of this fictional metropolis called the City of What-If.

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Yeah, it's such a great setting.

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Right? So on one side of the ring, you have this powerful entrenched bureaucrat.

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And his ultimate goal in life, like his main ambition, is to pave over a beautiful

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living meandering river with just 10 lanes of solid concrete.

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All in the name of, well, what he calls finishing it.

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Exactly. Finishing it. And then on the other side, you have a rogue city official.

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And his only job, literally his actual taxpayer funded job description,

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is to just ask questions.

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Which is an amazing job to have, honestly.

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I know. I want that job.

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But sprinkling to this high stakes municipal showdown, a society of time-traveling octopuses,

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a half-eaten mustard pretzel that's perfectly preserved for 55 years,

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and this massive, terrifying machine that claims to never ever be wrong.

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Yeah, it honestly sounds like the kind of fever dream you'd have after eating,

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I don't know, way too much cheese before bed.

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Totally.

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But the crazy thing is, it is genuinely one of the most profound layered meditations on human

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nature and communication and urban design that I've encountered in a really long time.

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And that is the exact paradox of today's deep dive.

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We are exploring a source text that was released just today, October 26th, 2026.

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Fresh off the presses.

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Yep, it's called readme.pdf, a fable by Richard Saul Wurman,

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and it was told to translated and embellished by Dan Klyn.

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Yeah. And our mission today for you listening is to dig past the talking cephalopods.

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As fun as they are.

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Right. And pass the time travel to extract the profound insights buried within this narrative.

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We're going to look at how humanity communicates,

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how we organize the endless flood of information around us,

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and really how we fight what the fable calls the tyranny of more.

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That word, more, capitalized and just looming over everything,

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is really the invisible antagonist of this entire story, isn't it?

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Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's a fable,

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but it holds up a very uncomfortable mirror to our modern obsession with scale,

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you know, with permanence, and with his desperate need to simplify the world,

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just so we don't have to think about it anymore.

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Yeah, that really hits home.

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So to give you all a quick roadmap of where we're heading today in this deep dive,

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the story follows a character simply known as the ’Commish.

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Short for commissioner.

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Right. He's the commissioner of curiosity and imagination in this City of What-If.

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And through a series of, well, highly unfortunate events involving the city's head planner,

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he gets exiled to a remote island.

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Where things get weird.

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Very weird. He's adopted by a culture of cephalopods,

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who give him a tool to travel backward in time.

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Which allows him to witness the entire evolution of human communication.

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Exactly. And then after 55 years, he's rescued.

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But instead of rushing home,

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he takes a very long deliberate detour around the globe to study physical architecture.

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And then finally he returns for this massive showdown against that machine we mentioned,

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the one that promises infallible answers.

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It really is a wonderfully constructed arc.

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It is. We start with a single dangerous question,

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and then we move into this deep observation of human history,

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ground those lessons in physical reality,

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and culminate in a defense of, well, human imperfection.

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Yeah. And we're going to follow that exact journey today.

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We'll start by looking at the ideological clash that leads to his exile,

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then unpack this fascinating operating manual for understanding

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the world that he discovers on the island.

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From there, we follow him through time as he watches the invention of speech

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and fire and writing.

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Then we travel the globe with him to look at why empires fall.

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And finally, we'll witness the big showdown.

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Sounds like a plan.

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So, okay, let's unpack this.

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This story drops us right into a freezing cold room in City Hall.

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It's Christmas Eve 1976.

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Burr.

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Yeah. And the city's head planner,

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this guy named the Evil Doctor Indelible,

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is presenting these gorgeous, highly polished architectural drawings to the city fathers.

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Right. And he wants to pour concrete over the last unpaved reach of the city's river.

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He calls it finishing the river.

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And we really need to pause on Doctor Indelible's mindset here,

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because he represents a very specific type of modern thinker.

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Oh, totally.

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The text explicitly points out that he holds two really prestigious jobs.

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He's a tenured professor of urban planning at Could-Be University,

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and he's the head planner for the city.

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That's a lot of power.

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It is. But despite all that education and power,

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he only has one opinion.

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He looks at a living, breathing river,

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an ecosystem that shifts and floods and changes,

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and he only sees wasted right of way.

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He's just obsessed with completion.

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He wants a world that doesn't talk back to him.

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Exactly.

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So, the ’Commish is sitting in this meeting,

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and the text notes he's unusually silent.

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I mean, he usually asks a million questions,

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but here, he just listens.

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Waiting for the right moment.

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Right.

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And finally, right before the vote,

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he raises a single finger.

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He asks one question about that word, finishing.

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And it's such a good question.

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He says, you finish a meal, you also finish a wounded animal.

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Before we vote, I'd like the record to show

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which finishing is on the agenda this morning.

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It is just a brilliantly disruptive piece of rhetoric.

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I mean, he doesn't attack the blueprints themselves.

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No, he goes right for the vocabulary.

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Yes.

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He attacks the foundational premise of the words being used.

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It forces the entire room to pause

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and realize that progress and destruction

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often wear the exact same clothes.

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Yeah.

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So, the vote gets tabled until January,

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but, you know, you don't embarrass a guy

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like Doctor Indelible in front of the city fathers

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and just walk away clean.

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No, definitely not.

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That one question basically seals his fate.

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So, fast forward to that evening.

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The ’Commish is blowing off steam at his favorite spot,

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which is a little pretzel cart

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in a dark alley behind City Hall.

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Just hanging out.

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Yeah, hanging out with his best friend, the pretzel vendor.

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They're chatting.

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The ’Commish’s mid-bite of a mustard-covered pretzel,

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and this unmarked van rolls up with its headlights off.

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And I love the specific detail the author uses here.

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You too.

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The quote is,

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a van with nothing to say has generally thought hard

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about what saying anything would cost.

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It's incredibly chilling.

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It speaks to the premeditated nature

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of silencing opposition.

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So, Doctor Indelible's goons pile out of the van

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and they just grab the ’Commish.

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And half the pretzel and a mustard-steined napkin

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fall to the wet pavement.

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Right.

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But the pretzel vendor is standing right there,

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so he's a witness.

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Yeah, they can't just leave him.

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So, the goons grab him, and they shove him,

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his cart, and his brass bells

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into a nearby janitor's closet in the alley.

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And the biggest goon doesn't just lock it.

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He takes a wrench and violently snaps the handle

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entirely off the door.

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So, the vendor is just sealed in the dark.

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It's brutal.

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Meanwhile, they nail the ’Commish to a wooden packing crate,

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load him onto a plane,

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and literally parachute him out

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over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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As one does.

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Right.

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He lands on Kapingamarangi,

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which is this tiny, incredibly remote coral atoll

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in Micronesia.

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It is like the ultimate exile for a man

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whose whole life is the city.

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But the ’Commish is the commissioner of curiosity, right?

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So, he doesn't sit on the beach and cry.

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No, not his style.

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He kicks his way out of the crate,

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walks down to the tide pools,

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and immediately starts trying to talk

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to the local wildlife.

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Specifically, he observes the octopuses

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hunting in the shallows.

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And this brings us to one of the most fascinating

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conceptual leaps in the fable.

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The ’Commish discovers that these cephalopods

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are not just smart animals.

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They have an entire hidden civilization.

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Oh, the scale of it is amazing.

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They've built this massive, sprawling,

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underwater metropolis called Octopolis.

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And it's built out of the empty shells of their dinners,

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accumulating over 10,000 years.

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But the architecture isn't even the most impressive part.

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It's how they communicate.

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Right, they have this process they call the mingle.

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The mingle is conceptually mind-blowing.

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When two octopuses meet in the street,

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they don't, you know, exchange pleasantries.

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Know how's the weather?

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Right, instead, they physically braid

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their arms together.

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And then, they start communicating

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by rapidly changing the chromatophores in their skin,

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just flashing colors and patterns.

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So, one octopus will run a weather pattern,

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say, like a wave of chrome.

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And the other octopus reads it, absorbs it,

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and repeats it back, but slightly corrected.

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Then they flash stripes, then copper, then deep red.

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They're trading these visual skins,

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running each other's emotional and intellectual storms

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faster and faster until their patterns perfectly agree.

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They literally become one animal wearing two skins.

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The visual poetry of that is stunning,

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but I really want to dig into the philosophical weight of it.

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Let's do it.

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The text emphasizes that the octopuses will not be hurried.

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They absolutely refuse to move on to the next thought

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until they are completely, fundamentally sure

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that they've reached a state of total mutual comprehension.

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Wow.

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And once they achieve this meld, this shared consciousness,

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one of them can use their society's

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single piece of technology.

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Right, the time travel tool.

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Exactly, a small, ancient shell called the ora gai oti

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to jump backward in time.

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But while one leaps through time,

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the other stays behind, turning gray and dim,

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and they guard the physical body safe under a pile

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of discarded shells until the traveler returns.

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I think we really need to stop and think

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about the contrast here, because the source

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uses this mingle to highlight

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just how terrible human communication actually is.

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Oh, we are so bad at it compared to them.

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Right.

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I mean, the mingle sounds like a massive,

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instantaneous empathy download.

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They are physically sharing a state of being.

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Yeah.

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Contrast that with what you and I are doing right now,

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or what our listeners are doing.

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Human speech is so incredibly clunky.

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It's basically a miracle we understand each other at all.

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Seriously.

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I have a complex thought in my brain.

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I have to encode it into vibrations in my throat,

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push it out into the air, hope it reaches your ear,

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hope your brain decodes it, and hope you attach

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the exact same definitions to those words that I do.

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There are a dozen points of failure in every single sentence.

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It's prone to endless misunderstanding.

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So, I mean, the octopuses take what?

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Three minutes to do this?

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Yeah, maybe three minutes in a tide pool.

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And it takes humans, what, 30 or 40 years of marriage

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to build that kind of shared emotional weather?

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Is that why the octopuses pity him?

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Because we're so slow?

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Partially, yes.

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But mostly it's because of scale.

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The octopuses realize that humans live vastly longer

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than they do.

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Oh, right.

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A typical octopus lives maybe a year, perhaps two.

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So, the ’Commish is doomed to outlive all his new friends.

258
00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:54,480
Oh, that's so sad.

259
00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,240
He will watch generations of them die while he barely ages.

260
00:10:58,800 --> 00:11:02,400
They see the crushing emotional cost of his impending grief.

261
00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:07,200
So, as an act of profound interspecies empathy,

262
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:08,560
they give him a gift.

263
00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:11,520
They let him use the time travel shell.

264
00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:12,240
Exactly.

265
00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:16,240
But the shell comes with some incredibly strict parameters.

266
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:17,680
Incredibly strict parameters.

267
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:22,080
First, it physically fits the beak of an octopus perfectly.

268
00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:25,680
But the ’Commish has to wedge it awkwardly between his human teeth

269
00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:27,120
and speak the activation words.

270
00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:29,040
Sounds uncomfortable.

271
00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:29,280
Very.

272
00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,240
Second, it only travels backward.

273
00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:34,080
You cannot go to the future.

274
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:38,560
And third, and most importantly, you can only visit.

275
00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:40,880
You cannot change a single thing.

276
00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:43,920
This is such a crucial narrative constraint.

277
00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:45,440
The rules of the shell forced the ’Commish

278
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,840
to become the ultimate passive observer.

279
00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:49,200
Right.

280
00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:53,040
He's stripped of the human impulse to metal or to fix or optimize.

281
00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,960
The source text makes a point to say that whatever you try to do back there

282
00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,440
turns out to have been part of the story all along.

283
00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:01,360
It's like the observer effect flipped on its head.

284
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,240
He can only watch, listen, and try to understand

285
00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:06,480
the sheer messy reality of human history.

286
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:08,560
But before he starts jumping through time,

287
00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:11,520
he has to learn how to actually understand what he's looking at,

288
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,320
which brings us to this package he receives in exile.

289
00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:15,680
Oh, the quilts.

290
00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:17,280
Yes, the quilts.

291
00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:19,840
One day a bundle washes up from Octopolis.

292
00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:22,880
It's tied intricately with eight-sided square knots

293
00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:25,120
and inside are five embroidered quilts.

294
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,480
The octopuses have created a sort of operating manual

295
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,480
for making complex things clear,

296
00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:33,280
and it's designed specifically for his human brain.

297
00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:34,720
So let's go through these,

298
00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:37,360
because these five quilts are essentially a masterclass

299
00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:38,800
in information architecture.

300
00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:39,920
They really are.

301
00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:41,280
The first quilt simply says,

302
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:43,600
everything takes place someplace.

303
00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:47,200
It establishes the absolute primacy of location.

304
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,000
Before you can ask what happened or why it happened

305
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:53,040
or who did it, you must establish where.

306
00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:55,360
Because geography dictates possibility.

307
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:57,280
Exactly. What's the second one?

308
00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:58,560
The second quilt says,

309
00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:01,040
you only understand relative to something

310
00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:02,400
you already understand.

311
00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:05,440
That makes a lot of sense.

312
00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:08,000
That's the bedrock of all pedagogy and learning.

313
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,360
You cannot explain the concept of fire to an octopus,

314
00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:13,200
because an octopus has never been dry.

315
00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:14,480
Right.

316
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:15,920
You have to find a shared baseline

317
00:13:15,920 --> 00:13:18,000
and anchor of mutual experience

318
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,240
before you can introduce a new variable.

319
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:21,600
I love that.

320
00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:24,720
If you're trying to explain a complex software system

321
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:26,320
to someone, you don't start with the code.

322
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,400
You say, well, it's like a filing cabinet,

323
00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:30,080
but digital, you anchor it.

324
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:30,640
Precisely.

325
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:33,440
Now, the third quilt introduces an acronym

326
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:35,280
that I think every listener should write down.

327
00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,360
It says, the creative organization of information

328
00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:40,800
creates new information.

329
00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:43,520
And it whispers the word LATCH.

330
00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:44,800
L-A-T-C-H.

331
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:45,760
LATCH.

332
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:47,360
Okay, let me guess the letters.

333
00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:48,480
Location.

334
00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:49,280
Yep.

335
00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:53,040
Location, alphabet, time, category, and hierarchy.

336
00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:55,920
LATCH is brilliant because it posits that there are

337
00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,320
only five ways to arrange anything in the universe.

338
00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:00,160
Wait, only five?

339
00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:01,040
Really, just five.

340
00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:03,680
Think about how you organize your smartphone apps,

341
00:14:03,680 --> 00:14:04,720
for example.

342
00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:06,240
You might arrange them by category,

343
00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:08,080
putting all the finance apps in one folder

344
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:09,360
in games in another.

345
00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:09,680
Sure.

346
00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:12,240
Or you might arrange them by hierarchy,

347
00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,480
putting the four most used apps on your bottom dock.

348
00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,920
You might arrange them alphabetically if you're a monster.

349
00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:19,840
I actually do that.

350
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:20,240
Oh, no.

351
00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,280
Well, the point is, how you sort the data

352
00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:27,440
inherently changes what the data tells you.

353
00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:29,280
Yeah, that makes sense.

354
00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,760
If I sort a list of employees alphabetically,

355
00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:33,120
I just get a directory.

356
00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:35,360
But if I sort them by hierarchy,

357
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,760
suddenly I get a power structure.

358
00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:38,640
Exactly.

359
00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:41,280
The organization itself is a form of information.

360
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:42,960
Okay, what about the fourth quilt?

361
00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:46,160
The fourth quilt addresses something we all struggle with.

362
00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:49,120
It says, the key to making things understandable

363
00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:51,760
is to know what it's like to not understand.

364
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:52,640
Oh, that's hard to do.

365
00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:55,680
Psychologists call this the curse of knowledge.

366
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,000
Once we learn a fact or master a skill,

367
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,080
our brains actually struggle to simulate

368
00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:01,520
the state of not knowing it.

369
00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:03,840
This is why brilliant mathematicians

370
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,400
often make terrible middle school math teachers.

371
00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:08,080
Yes, they skip steps

372
00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:09,920
because those steps are invisible to them now.

373
00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,560
The quilt demands empathy for ignorance.

374
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:14,960
And the fifth quilt is a mandate.

375
00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:17,200
Public information should be made public.

376
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:18,720
It sounds redundant, but it's vital.

377
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,280
Yeah, it means information that affects the public

378
00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,200
must be reachable, available,

379
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,520
and free of unnecessary obfuscation.

380
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:28,240
But the ’Commish immediately realizes

381
00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:30,080
that these rules are incredibly dangerous

382
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:31,680
if they fall into the wrong hands.

383
00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:33,760
Specifically, Doctor Indelible's hands.

384
00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:34,480
Right.

385
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:36,480
And the text introduces a really sharp,

386
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,600
vital contrast here between clarification

387
00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:41,040
and simplification.

388
00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,560
Doctor Indelible's entire career is based on simplification.

389
00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:47,600
The ’Commish’s life is based on clarification.

390
00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:48,480
It's a key distinction.

391
00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,200
But I want to push back on this a bit, though.

392
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,280
We live in an era of absolute information gluttony.

393
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:58,400
We are drowning in emails, alerts, newsfeeds, data.

394
00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:00,240
Isn't simplification a good thing?

395
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:01,360
It seems like it would be.

396
00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:03,200
Right, if a politician or a CEO

397
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:04,880
can take a massive, complicated issue

398
00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,200
and boil it down to a three-word slogan,

399
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:08,240
isn't that helpful?

400
00:16:08,240 --> 00:16:10,320
Why is the ’Commish so aggressively against

401
00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:11,600
making things simple?

402
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,960
Because simplification is often a deeply subtle form

403
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:16,240
of violence against the truth.

404
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:17,440
Violence?

405
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:17,760
Yeah.

406
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:18,400
Wow.

407
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:18,560
Yeah.

408
00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,280
Simplification, with the capital S,

409
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:22,720
the way Doctor Indelible does it,

410
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:25,280
is about removing complexity

411
00:16:25,280 --> 00:16:26,880
so that people can just swallow an answer

412
00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,120
without chewing and then forget about it.

413
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:30,080
Oh, I see.

414
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:31,760
It intentionally strips away nuance,

415
00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:32,960
friction, and context.

416
00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:35,040
If you remove the complex

417
00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:37,200
contradicting variables from a situation,

418
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,040
the thing becomes less of itself.

419
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,480
So it's basically lying by omission.

420
00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:42,960
Exactly.

421
00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:44,880
It's the fundamental difference between

422
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:46,960
building a comprehensive map of reality,

423
00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:47,920
which is clarification,

424
00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,120
and pushing propaganda, which is simplification.

425
00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:53,040
That makes a lot of sense.

426
00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,000
Clarification keeps all the messy complexity intact,

427
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,640
but it provides a framework to navigate it.

428
00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:01,040
It doesn't lie to you about how hard the problem is.

429
00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:02,160
It just gives you better tools

430
00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:03,600
to understand the difficulty.

431
00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:05,680
To make this abstract idea more concrete,

432
00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,000
the ’Commish uses the metaphor of quilting.

433
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:09,760
He looks at a basket of schmada,

434
00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:11,360
which is Yiddish for scraps.

435
00:17:11,360 --> 00:17:12,800
Just random bits of fabric.

436
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:14,080
Yeah, random scraps of fabric

437
00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:15,760
are essentially garbage on their own.

438
00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:16,720
They are noise.

439
00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:19,040
But when you apply thread,

440
00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,160
which in this metaphor represents intent and structure,

441
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:23,440
the scraps become a pattern.

442
00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:26,800
A quilt puts things side by side.

443
00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:29,840
It stitches the seam of a deliberate decision.

444
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,320
But importantly, a quilt is never truly finished.

445
00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:33,920
It always asks to be repaired

446
00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:35,920
or expanded or handed down.

447
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:37,440
It's an ongoing conversation.

448
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:39,440
So armed with this framework,

449
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:43,040
the ’Commish is finally ready to use the time travel shell.

450
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:43,680
Yes.

451
00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:47,200
But he doesn't jump back to the dawn of humanity right away.

452
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:49,040
His first trip is deeply personal.

453
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:50,720
Where does he go?

454
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:54,400
He goes back exactly three days before his kidnapping.

455
00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:55,600
Oh, wow.

456
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,120
Back to the winter solstice of 1976,

457
00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:00,880
the shortest darkest day of the year,

458
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:02,880
he visits the alley where his friend,

459
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:04,880
the pretzel vendor, is packing up the cart.

460
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,560
The vendor is stunned to see him,

461
00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:09,680
especially since the ’Commish is wearing strange clothes

462
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:11,360
and looks a bit weathered.

463
00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:14,720
Because he's been living on a beach with octopuses.

464
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:15,280
Right.

465
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,120
And the ’Commish is there to deliver a warning,

466
00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:18,240
but also a promise.

467
00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:20,480
He tells the vendor exactly

468
00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:22,000
what is going to happen on Christmas Eve.

469
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,880
The unmarked van, the goons,

470
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,520
the kidnapping, the breaking of the closet handle.

471
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:28,000
Everything.

472
00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:31,920
And naturally, the vendor's immediate human reaction

473
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:33,200
is to try and avoid it.

474
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:34,400
He says, great.

475
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:36,000
We just won't open the cart that night.

476
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:37,120
We'll go somewhere else.

477
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:38,960
But the ’Commish stops him.

478
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:42,000
He explains the brutal physics of the show.

479
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,560
It doesn't deal in almosts or what-ifs.

480
00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:45,920
He cannot change the event.

481
00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:48,320
The kidnapping is locked in time.

482
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:49,440
Yeah.

483
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,560
What he can change is how his friend experiences the waiting.

484
00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:55,600
So he tells his friend to let the kidnapping happen.

485
00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:57,840
Which is such a hard thing to ask.

486
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,960
It is, but he doesn't simplify the truth.

487
00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:02,720
He admits the closet will be dark,

488
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:04,960
it will be damp, and it will be terrifying.

489
00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:08,240
But he promises that because the shell's magic touches

490
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:09,680
everything involved in the timeline,

491
00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:13,920
the 55 years in that closet will feel like no time at all.

492
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,240
He tells the vendor to hold on to the uneaten half

493
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:17,440
of the mustard pretzel,

494
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,240
promising he will come back eventually to finish it.

495
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,640
And he leads them with this incredibly poignant line.

496
00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:25,840
The dark doesn't get to keep what it wins.

497
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:26,800
That is just-

498
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:28,480
Ultimate demonstration of clarification.

499
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:29,600
Hmm.

500
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:31,760
He doesn't sugarcoat the trauma of the exile,

501
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,520
but he organizes the information in a way

502
00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:37,040
that gives his friend the psychological tools to survive it.

503
00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,000
It provides a beacon of hope in the dark.

504
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:40,560
Exactly.

505
00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:43,040
So having grounded himself,

506
00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:44,640
the ’Commish takes a deep breath,

507
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:45,680
bites down on the shell,

508
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,600
and begins a rapid fire journey

509
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:50,560
through the deep history of human communication.

510
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:52,080
This is where the story accelerates

511
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:55,040
into a fascinating anthropological survey.

512
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,560
I mean, he wants to watch humanity

513
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:58,160
try to bridge the agonizing gap

514
00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,000
between thinking a thought

515
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,840
and successfully sharing it with someone else.

516
00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,680
As we follow him through these historical vignettes,

517
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,560
pay attention to the central tension in all of them.

518
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:09,360
What's the tension?

519
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:11,440
It is the eternal struggle

520
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:12,960
between the body and the tool,

521
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,720
between the dynamic transient nature of conversation

522
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,200
and the cold permanence of technology.

523
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:19,760
Got it.

524
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:21,200
So his first major stop

525
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,280
is the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania,

526
00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,760
roughly 2.7 million years ago.

527
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:26,400
Way back.

528
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:27,200
Yeah, way back.

529
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:29,280
He watches early hominins

530
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,120
sitting around a dusty sandbar.

531
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:32,480
A small female hominin

532
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:34,560
is striking a piece of basalt with another rock,

533
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:36,960
carefully knocking off sharp flakes

534
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:37,920
to make a cutting tool.

535
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:39,680
But the comm realizes

536
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,520
she's not just making a tool for herself.

537
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:44,480
No, she is passing the flakes

538
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,160
to a larger clumsy hominin

539
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:47,840
who keeps messing it up.

540
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:49,360
She reaches over,

541
00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:50,160
angles his wrist,

542
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,080
and waits patiently while he tries again.

543
00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:54,000
The comm names this

544
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,560
the patience before patience had a name act.

545
00:20:57,200 --> 00:20:59,840
Because the actual basalt rock is incidental.

546
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:01,600
What she is really manufacturing

547
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,360
in that moment is understanding.

548
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:05,200
She is transmitting knowledge

549
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:06,640
from one brain to another.

550
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:08,240
And what does it require?

551
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:10,720
It requires her physical presence,

552
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:12,000
her immense patience,

553
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,160
and most importantly, shared focus.

554
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:15,840
That shared focus

555
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:17,600
is what leads to the next leap.

556
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:19,520
Before our ancestors even had words,

557
00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:20,480
they had gestures.

558
00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:22,480
The comm calls the hand

559
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:24,720
the very first technology of conversation.

560
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:27,040
The Before Words Act.

561
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:28,560
Pointing at a predator,

562
00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:30,000
pantomiming, throwing a spear,

563
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,200
it requires what developmental psychologists

564
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:34,960
call shared intentionality.

565
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:36,240
Right, both the pointer

566
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:38,000
and the observer have to agree

567
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:38,800
to pay attention

568
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,040
to a third invisible point of meaning.

569
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:43,600
But gestures have a fatal flaw.

570
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,520
They vanish the second the hand drops.

571
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:47,840
Which creates an evolutionary pressure

572
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:48,800
for something better.

573
00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:50,320
This leads the comet

574
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:52,480
to witness a biological miracle

575
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:54,000
and a biological tragedy

576
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,960
around 150,000 BCE in East Africa.

577
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:58,720
The human larynx descended.

578
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:00,960
The hyoid bone changed shape.

579
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:02,880
Suddenly humans could produce

580
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:03,680
what linguists call

581
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:04,800
quantal vowels.

582
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:05,920
Let's pause and explain

583
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:06,640
quantal vowels

584
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:08,320
because this is actually really crucial.

585
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:09,200
Yeah, please do.

586
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:10,960
A quantal vowel is a sound

587
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,520
like e, a, or u

588
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,040
that has an incredibly stable

589
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:16,000
acoustic output,

590
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,120
even if the speaker's tongue

591
00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:18,400
isn't in the exact

592
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:19,920
millimeter perfect position.

593
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:21,200
So there's room for error.

594
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:21,680
Exactly.

595
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:24,400
This acoustic stability

596
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:25,600
means that human ears

597
00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:27,760
can easily and reliably distinguish

598
00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:29,680
these sounds across a windy valley,

599
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:31,440
regardless of who is speaking.

600
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,520
It allowed for the creation

601
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:35,600
of a massive shared vocabulary

602
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,600
of discrete, unmistakable sounds.

603
00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:38,960
But the biological trade-off

604
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,360
of this ability was absolutely brutal

605
00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:42,560
because the larynx dropped

606
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:43,440
lower into the throat

607
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:45,440
to act as a resonating chamber.

608
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:46,720
The human airway

609
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,200
and the human food pipe now cross.

610
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:50,800
Wait, so that means?

611
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:51,360
Yes.

612
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:52,560
It means that humans,

613
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,720
unlike almost any other mammal,

614
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:55,840
can easily choke to death

615
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:56,720
on their own food.

616
00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:58,160
That is wild.

617
00:22:58,160 --> 00:22:59,440
The homage calls this

618
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,040
the worth-dying-for act.

619
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:02,960
Think about the evolutionary

620
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,240
mathematics of that.

621
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:06,000
The human body literally decided

622
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:07,680
that the ability to say exactly

623
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:08,480
what you mean

624
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,760
to express specific, complex ideas

625
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,160
was worth the daily mortal risk

626
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:15,280
of choking to death

627
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:16,400
on a piece of meat.

628
00:23:16,400 --> 00:23:17,680
That shows how desperate

629
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:18,720
our ancestors were

630
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,800
for specificity and communication.

631
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,280
But speech, as miraculous as it is,

632
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:24,400
shares the same flaw

633
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:25,520
as gesture, right?

634
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:26,960
The words vanish into the air

635
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,080
the second they are spoken.

636
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,000
You have to be within earshot.

637
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:30,320
Right.

638
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:31,520
They aren't permanent.

639
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:33,680
So humanity kept innovating.

640
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:34,880
The homage jumps forward

641
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,440
to Geshe Benat Yaqub in Israel

642
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:39,680
around 400,000 BCE

643
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:41,600
to witness the invention

644
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:42,960
of controlled fire.

645
00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:44,640
And he tries to explain

646
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:45,840
the significance of fire

647
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:47,120
to his octopus hosts

648
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,360
and they just don't get it.

649
00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:51,280
I mean they live underwater.

650
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:52,480
They've never been cold.

651
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:53,280
Exactly.

652
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:54,240
And the ’Commish realizes

653
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:55,760
he's explaining it wrong.

654
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:56,880
The true leap of fire

655
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,480
isn't the heat or the cooking.

656
00:23:58,480 --> 00:23:59,920
It's the geometry.

657
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:01,120
The geometry.

658
00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:01,440
Yes.

659
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,000
Before fire, humans huddled

660
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:05,760
together for warm third safety

661
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,440
often back to back

662
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:08,480
where they slept in trees.

663
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:11,280
Fire organized

664
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,200
hominin bodies into a circle.

665
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:15,120
They all face the flame

666
00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:16,160
in the center.

667
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:16,720
Oh, I see.

668
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:18,000
The light allowed them

669
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,040
to see each other's faces

670
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:20,080
after dark

671
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,200
and the flame gave them

672
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:21,840
a focal point.

673
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:23,680
This meant they could sit together

674
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:24,720
and communicate without having

675
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:25,680
to stare aggressively

676
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:26,880
into each other's eyes

677
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:28,400
which is a threat response

678
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:29,200
in primates.

679
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:30,080
He calls it

680
00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:30,960
the architecture

681
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:32,560
of sitting still together act.

682
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:34,400
Fire was the first room

683
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:35,680
without walls.

684
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:36,480
It was the invention

685
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:37,600
of the symposium,

686
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,040
the campfire story,

687
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:40,000
the dedicated space

688
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:40,800
for conversation.

689
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:42,880
But fire also provided

690
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:43,920
the very first tools

691
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:44,640
for permanence

692
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:46,320
which leads the ’Commish

693
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,320
to the Chauvet Cave in France

694
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,080
around 32,000 BCE.

695
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:51,760
He watches humans

696
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,360
venture deep into the pitch-black

697
00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:54,320
limestone cave

698
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:55,920
and he notices

699
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:57,040
that the very torches

700
00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:58,960
they use to see in the dark

701
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:00,160
provide the materials

702
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:01,360
they need to paint.

703
00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:02,640
Yeah, they use the rendered animal

704
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:03,840
fat and the crushed charcoal

705
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:04,800
from their torches

706
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:06,560
to paint massive dynamic

707
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:07,680
murals of rhinos

708
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:08,720
and lions on the walls.

709
00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:10,720
The torches a sharpie act.

710
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,360
It's a massive cognitive shift.

711
00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:14,160
For the first time

712
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:15,520
in planetary history,

713
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:16,400
a living creature

714
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,080
could leave a deliberate message

715
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:18,640
like,

716
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:19,680
I was here,

717
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:20,640
I saw this,

718
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:21,440
I thought this

719
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,440
and then physically leave the room

720
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:24,320
knowing that the message

721
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:25,600
would survive long

722
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:26,400
after they were gone.

723
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:28,240
The message was finally divorced

724
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:29,040
from the messenger.

725
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,520
Which is a beautiful leap

726
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:33,120
but it paves the way

727
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:34,160
for something much more

728
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:36,560
bureaucratic.

729
00:25:37,360 --> 00:25:38,560
We jump to Uruk

730
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:39,520
in ancient Sumer

731
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,120
around 3400 BCE.

732
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,520
The ’Commish watches a scribe

733
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:44,640
press a wedge-shaped

734
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:45,440
reed stylus

735
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:46,720
into a tablet of wet clay.

736
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:48,160
It's the invention

737
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:49,120
of cuneiform writing.

738
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:50,480
But the scribe

739
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:51,680
isn't writing a love poem

740
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:52,720
or a prayer to the gods.

741
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,040
He's writing an inventory.

742
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:56,560
He's tracking 14 jars

743
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:57,600
of sesame oil

744
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:58,560
in a shipment of beer.

745
00:25:59,360 --> 00:26:00,960
The accountants built the road act.

746
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:02,640
Writing wasn't invented

747
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:03,520
by poets trying

748
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:04,720
to capture the human soul.

749
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:05,600
It was invented

750
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:06,640
by administrators

751
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,480
trying to track taxes,

752
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:09,600
property and debt

753
00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:10,480
for institutions

754
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:11,200
that needed to

755
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:12,880
outlive individual human memory.

756
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:14,480
But once that clay

757
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:15,760
dries in the sun,

758
00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:17,440
the marks are utterly permanent

759
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:18,720
and the ’Commish

760
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:19,520
starts to realize

761
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:20,960
the danger of permanence.

762
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:22,960
He really wrestles with this

763
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:23,680
as he jumps to

764
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,160
Wittenberg, Germany in 1517.

765
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,360
He watches Martin Luther

766
00:26:27,360 --> 00:26:28,960
nail the 95 theses

767
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,560
to the door of the castle church.

768
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:31,440
Now, historically,

769
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:32,560
we view this as a triumph

770
00:26:32,560 --> 00:26:33,840
of free speech and reform.

771
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:35,280
But the ’Commish

772
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:36,880
hates nailing things down.

773
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:37,440
Why?

774
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:38,960
He realizes that writing,

775
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:39,760
especially when married

776
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:41,040
to the printing press,

777
00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:41,840
allows the author

778
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:43,440
to abdicate responsibility.

779
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:45,680
You nail the paper up,

780
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:46,560
the press copies it

781
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:48,320
a thousand times across Europe,

782
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:49,200
and you don't have to be

783
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:49,760
in the room

784
00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:50,720
to adjust your argument

785
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:51,520
when you see the pain

786
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:53,120
or confusion on the other person's face.

787
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:54,480
He calls it

788
00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,480
the Hammer or the Mouth Act.

789
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:57,600
Writing, he realizes,

790
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:58,320
is a monologue

791
00:26:58,320 --> 00:26:59,680
pretending to be a dialogue

792
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:00,720
and allows the powerful

793
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:01,920
to broadcast their thoughts

794
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:02,960
and then stay silent.

795
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:04,960
Think about a modern equivalent.

796
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:06,400
If you're listening to this,

797
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,000
think about someone on social media

798
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:10,000
who posts a highly controversial

799
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:11,440
inflammatory post,

800
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:12,640
disables the replies

801
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:13,600
and just logs off.

802
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:14,960
Oh, people do that all the time.

803
00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:15,840
They drop a bomb

804
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:16,880
into the public discourse,

805
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:17,680
but they refuse

806
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:18,560
the vulnerability

807
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:19,840
of a conversation.

808
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,040
It's the ultimate severing

809
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:21,680
of the message

810
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:22,400
from the messenger.

811
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:24,080
We see this desire

812
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:25,200
for broadcast

813
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:26,400
over conversation

814
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:27,040
accelerate

815
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:28,240
as empires grow.

816
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:29,120
The ’Commish visits

817
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,000
the Beacon Towers

818
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:31,120
on the Great Wall of China

819
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:32,320
in the Ganzu Corridor

820
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,080
around 200 BCE.

821
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:35,840
Right. If invaders are spotted,

822
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,120
a soldier lights a fire

823
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:38,560
infused with wolf dung

824
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:39,680
to create a dense

825
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,120
black smoke signal.

826
00:27:41,120 --> 00:27:42,480
And then the next tower sees it

827
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:43,600
and lights theirs.

828
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,280
The One Bit Message Act

829
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,120
has zero vocabulary.

830
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:48,000
It can only say

831
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:48,960
yes, danger,

832
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:50,480
or no, safe.

833
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:52,480
But it trades nuance

834
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,160
for unprecedented speed,

835
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:55,920
traveling at the speed of sight

836
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:57,520
across a vast empire.

837
00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:58,720
What speed is in everything

838
00:27:58,720 --> 00:27:59,040
is that

839
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:00,880
in Mainz, Germany

840
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:02,640
in 1455,

841
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:03,680
Johannes Gutenberg

842
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:04,400
is perfecting

843
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:05,120
the printing press.

844
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:06,880
But the coma notices

845
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:07,680
that Gutenberg

846
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:08,320
isn't obsessed

847
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:09,280
with the metal letters

848
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:10,320
themselves.

849
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:11,360
What is he obsessed with?

850
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:13,760
He is obsessively cutting

851
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,320
290 different metal punches

852
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:17,040
just to perfect

853
00:28:17,120 --> 00:28:18,160
the negative space

854
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:19,280
between the letters.

855
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,080
The meaning is in the gaps act.

856
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:23,840
Why does the space matter so much?

857
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:24,880
Because

858
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,280
human cognition processes

859
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:28,160
optical rhythms.

860
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,000
If the spaces between letters

861
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:31,760
and words are erratic,

862
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:33,040
the brain stumbles

863
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:34,000
and has to work harder

864
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:35,280
to decode the symbols.

865
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:36,240
Oh, that makes sense.

866
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:37,920
By perfecting the negative space,

867
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:39,680
Gutenberg made reading

868
00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:40,640
invisible.

869
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:41,760
The brain can absorb

870
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:42,960
the meaning without noticing

871
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:43,600
the mechanics.

872
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:46,080
The text beautifully parallels

873
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:47,600
this to modern artificial

874
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:48,400
intelligence.

875
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:49,920
It mentions Jeffrey Hinton

876
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:50,960
decades later,

877
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:52,000
teaching neural networks

878
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,760
to measure the mathematical

879
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:54,960
vector distance

880
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:55,840
between concepts

881
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:56,800
in a latent space.

882
00:28:57,680 --> 00:28:58,640
Both the 15th century

883
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:00,000
printer and the 21st century

884
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:00,880
computer scientist

885
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:02,000
understood that meaning

886
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:03,280
doesn't live in the objects

887
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:03,920
themselves.

888
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,000
It lives in the precise

889
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:07,200
relationships and gaps

890
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:07,920
between them.

891
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,120
I really love that connection.

892
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:11,040
But here's where the history

893
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,560
of tools takes a massive

894
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:13,840
beautiful pivot.

895
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:14,960
We go to Philadelphia

896
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:16,000
in 1858.

897
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:17,840
Hymen Lipman.

898
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:18,960
Yes, Hymen Lipman takes

899
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:19,680
a piece of rubber

900
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:20,800
and attaches it to the end

901
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:21,920
of his cedar pencil.

902
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,120
He invents the pencil eraser.

903
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:25,760
Think about this.

904
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,160
Every single tool before this,

905
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:29,440
stone axes,

906
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:31,040
bone styluses,

907
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:31,920
printing presses,

908
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:32,640
branding irons,

909
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:34,960
was designed to make a mark.

910
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:36,400
And the eraser is the very

911
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:37,840
first tool specifically

912
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,680
designed to take a mark away.

913
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:42,080
The permission to write

914
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:43,040
and be wrong act.

915
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:45,840
Dr. Indelival with his love

916
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:47,360
of permanence and finishing

917
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,120
would absolutely despise

918
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:49,840
the eraser.

919
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:50,560
Oh, he'd hate it.

920
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:52,480
But the ’Commish

921
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:54,320
views it as a miracle.

922
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:56,240
The eraser allows writing

923
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:57,680
to act just a little bit

924
00:29:57,680 --> 00:29:58,560
more like speaking.

925
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:00,720
It admits that a sentence,

926
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,880
like a thought, might be flawed.

927
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,640
It might need to be taken apart,

928
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:06,480
reconsidered and rebuilt.

929
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:08,160
It is the conceptual ancestor

930
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:09,200
of the backspace key

931
00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:09,920
on your laptop

932
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:11,200
or the undo button

933
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:11,920
in your software.

934
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:14,000
It allows for grace.

935
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:15,520
The final vignette in this

936
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:16,480
historical tango

937
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:17,680
really cements this idea

938
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:19,280
of grace and collaboration.

939
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:21,920
Cummish visits Oxford,

940
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:23,680
England in 1884.

941
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:25,360
James Murray is attempting

942
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:26,560
to build the new English

943
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:27,520
dictionary, which will

944
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:28,320
eventually become

945
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:29,680
the legendary Oxford

946
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:31,040
English dictionary.

947
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:32,160
But Murray isn't sitting

948
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:33,040
in a tower

949
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,160
dictating what words

950
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:35,200
should mean.

951
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:36,400
He realizes the task

952
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:37,680
is too big for one mind.

953
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,440
So he builds thousands

954
00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:40,480
of wooden pigeonholes

955
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:41,040
in a shed.

956
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:42,320
He calls the scriptorium.

957
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:44,560
Any crowd sources the dictionary.

958
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:45,360
He asks the public

959
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:46,960
to send in small slips of paper,

960
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:47,760
showing how words

961
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:48,800
are actually being used

962
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:49,760
in everyday sentences.

963
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:51,200
The Asking Act.

964
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:53,760
He uses the T in LATCH

965
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:55,680
to organize language by time,

966
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:56,560
showing how a word

967
00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:57,680
evolves over centuries.

968
00:30:58,320 --> 00:30:59,360
But more importantly,

969
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:00,320
he builds authority

970
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:01,840
not through top-down

971
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:02,640
prescriptivism,

972
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,800
but through bottom-up listening.

973
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,080
He asks a question

974
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:07,120
and he lets the messy

975
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:08,080
collective reality

976
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:08,720
of the public

977
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:09,600
provide the evidence.

978
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:11,280
It's a breathtaking

979
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:12,160
sequence of events.

980
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,000
From a hand gesture

981
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:15,040
and a dry gorge

982
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:16,080
to crowdsourcing

983
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:17,360
the definitive dictionary

984
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:18,640
of the English language.

985
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:19,920
And the underlying tension

986
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:21,520
is always exactly the same.

987
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:22,640
As humans,

988
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:23,920
we desperately want

989
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:24,880
the dynamic,

990
00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:26,320
self-correcting intimacy

991
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:27,920
of a face-to-face conversation.

992
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:29,440
But we also crave

993
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:30,480
the permanence,

994
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:31,440
scale and reach

995
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:32,240
of a tool.

996
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:32,880
And as we move

997
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:33,760
into the next phase

998
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:35,360
of the ’Commish’s journey,

999
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:36,720
we see how this exact

1000
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:38,400
tension plays out

1001
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:39,680
not just in how we talk,

1002
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:41,680
but in the physical architecture

1003
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:42,720
we build

1004
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:44,240
and the geography we inhabit.

1005
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:45,840
Because while the ’Commish

1006
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:47,200
has been jumping through millennia,

1007
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:49,360
55 years have passed

1008
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:50,640
in his own timeline.

1009
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,080
Back in the City of What-If,

1010
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:53,680
it's now the late 2020s.

1011
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,000
Down in that dark alley,

1012
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,040
the rusted hinges

1013
00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:58,320
on the janitor's closet

1014
00:31:58,320 --> 00:31:59,520
finally give way

1015
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:00,560
and snap.

1016
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:02,080
The door swings open.

1017
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:03,360
The pretzel vendor steps out.

1018
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:05,760
And due to the lingering magic

1019
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:07,760
of the time-travel shell,

1020
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:09,600
he hasn't aged a single day.

1021
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:11,600
He still has the half-eaten

1022
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,440
mustard pretzel in his hand,

1023
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,200
though it has petrified into stone.

1024
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:17,040
He wanders onto the campus

1025
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,880
of Could-Be University.

1026
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:20,160
A group of graduate students

1027
00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:20,960
take the pretzel,

1028
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,120
run a radiocarbon dating test on it,

1029
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:24,960
and realize with shock

1030
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,360
that this fresh-looking vendor

1031
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:28,960
is telling the absolute truth

1032
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:30,640
about a 55-year-old crime.

1033
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,160
They quickly organize an expedition

1034
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:33,200
to Kopengamurangi

1035
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:34,080
to rescue the ’Commish.

1036
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:36,080
They need him to come back

1037
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:37,680
and fight Doctor Indelible.

1038
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:39,520
Who has spent the last half-century

1039
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:40,880
ruining the city

1040
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:42,560
with his concrete-pouring,

1041
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:43,600
simplifying agenda.

1042
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:45,600
They arrive on the island,

1043
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:46,400
find the ’Commish,

1044
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:47,280
and tell him it's time

1045
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:48,080
to use the shell

1046
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:49,120
to teleport back home.

1047
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:50,880
But the ’Commish refuses.

1048
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:52,400
He tells them the shell

1049
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,000
only visits the past.

1050
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,200
They can't skip the present.

1051
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:57,200
If they want to go home,

1052
00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:58,240
they have to take the long way.

1053
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,320
He insists on taking

1054
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:01,600
commercial planes,

1055
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:02,960
trains, and boats.

1056
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:04,640
He wants to visit specific

1057
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:06,320
physical locations around the world

1058
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,080
to demonstrate his first rule.

1059
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:11,040
Everything takes place someplace.

1060
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:12,960
This global detour

1061
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:14,480
is his way of training the students

1062
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:16,000
for the upcoming battle

1063
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:17,120
against Doctor Indelible.

1064
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,680
Their first stop is Narai, Japan.

1065
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,240
It's an ancient post-town situated

1066
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:23,440
on the Nakasendo,

1067
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:24,960
a mountainous trade route.

1068
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:26,000
And the ’Commish forces them

1069
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,040
to travel all that way

1070
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,000
just so he can soak

1071
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000
in a specific 40-degree

1072
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,160
Celsius cypresswood bath

1073
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:32,880
that he remembered

1074
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:34,400
from his travels decades ago.

1075
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:36,080
The students are impatient.

1076
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:37,600
But as they sit there,

1077
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:39,840
the ’Commish explains the lesson of Narai.

1078
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:41,760
The town is historically known

1079
00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:44,080
as Narai of a thousand houses.

1080
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:45,040
The comic points out

1081
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:46,400
the profound discipline

1082
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:47,920
embedded in that name.

1083
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:49,040
400 years ago,

1084
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:50,960
the town found the exact size

1085
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:52,480
that its geography

1086
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:54,080
and its water supply could support.

1087
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:56,560
And then miraculously,

1088
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:59,120
it had the nerve to stay that size.

1089
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:00,320
It never tried to become

1090
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:02,080
1001 houses.

1091
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:03,520
It knew the precise

1092
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:04,640
architectural meaning

1093
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,000
of the word enough.

1094
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:08,640
To show them the opposite of enough,

1095
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:11,280
he takes them from Japan to Cambodia

1096
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:13,280
to the ruins of Angkor Wat.

1097
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:14,960
But interestingly,

1098
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:17,040
he bypasses the famous

1099
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:19,200
beautiful stone temples entirely.

1100
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:20,160
He takes the students

1101
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:21,120
to stand on the edge

1102
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:22,320
of the West Barai,

1103
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:23,600
which is a massive,

1104
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:24,720
ancient, man-made

1105
00:34:24,720 --> 00:34:25,600
water reservoir.

1106
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:26,960
The city of Angkor

1107
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:28,800
was mind-bogglingly huge

1108
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:29,760
for its time,

1109
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,160
maybe housing up to 700,000 people.

1110
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:34,000
They completely engineered

1111
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:35,440
the surrounding landscape,

1112
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:36,880
controlling the water to ensure

1113
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:38,960
three separate rice harvests

1114
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:39,680
every single year.

1115
00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:41,680
But the ’Commish tells the students

1116
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:43,040
that this massive,

1117
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:44,400
miraculous plumbing system

1118
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:45,920
is exactly why the empire fell.

1119
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:47,760
He says they didn't fall

1120
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,440
because they did too little,

1121
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:50,560
but because they did too much.

1122
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:52,080
That's a powerful statement.

1123
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:54,480
I really want to examine this,

1124
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:54,800
though,

1125
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:55,840
because on the surface,

1126
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,160
it sounds incredibly anti-progress.

1127
00:34:58,960 --> 00:35:00,400
Isn't engineering a reliable

1128
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:01,920
food supply a good thing?

1129
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,160
Why is building a massive reservoir

1130
00:35:04,240 --> 00:35:05,360
framed as a failure?

1131
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:07,600
It's not anti-progress.

1132
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:09,760
It's an exploration of anti-fragility.

1133
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:11,600
The ’Commish explains a concept

1134
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,040
drawn from the political scientist

1135
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:13,920
James C. Scott,

1136
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:16,160
often referred to as the grain trap.

1137
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:18,000
The grain trap.

1138
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:18,400
Yeah.

1139
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,000
When an empire builds a system

1140
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,120
of immense scale

1141
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:22,720
and hyper-optimization,

1142
00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:24,080
it becomes utterly rigid.

1143
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:25,760
In Angkor,

1144
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:26,720
every single canal

1145
00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:27,520
relied on the flow

1146
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:29,200
of every other canal.

1147
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:31,200
This society became entirely dependent

1148
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:32,720
on this artificially sustained

1149
00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:33,680
maximum yield.

1150
00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:36,000
So when the weather changed,

1151
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,600
when the monsoons became erratic

1152
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:38,880
over a few decades,

1153
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,400
the system was too massive

1154
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:42,640
and too interconnected to adapt?

1155
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:43,200
Exactly.

1156
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,840
The ingenuity that built the city

1157
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:47,040
wouldn't allow it to shrink

1158
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:47,920
when times got hard.

1159
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,280
They prioritized more over resilience.

1160
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:51,600
Right.

1161
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,280
They engineered away their margin of error.

1162
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:54,080
Right.

1163
00:35:54,720 --> 00:35:55,920
When you hyper-optimize

1164
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:57,520
for maximum efficiency,

1165
00:35:57,520 --> 00:35:59,200
you eliminate the slack in the system

1166
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:00,800
that allows you to survive a crisis.

1167
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:02,720
Think about how this applies

1168
00:36:02,720 --> 00:36:03,520
to our modern world.

1169
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,520
Oh, like global just-in-time supply chains.

1170
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:07,840
Yes.

1171
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:10,560
They are incredibly efficient and profitable,

1172
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:12,000
but if one container ship

1173
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:13,440
gets stuck in a canal

1174
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:14,800
or a pandemic hits,

1175
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:17,040
the whole system cascades into failure

1176
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,080
because there's no buffer.

1177
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:20,160
Angkor Wat is a warning

1178
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:21,600
about building brittle systems.

1179
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:23,680
That is a chilling parallel.

1180
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:25,520
So from Cambodia,

1181
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:26,640
their flight is diverted

1182
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:28,480
and they end up in Rome, Italy.

1183
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,160
They are standing in a bakery line

1184
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:31,680
waiting to buy a ring-shaped pastry

1185
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:33,200
called a chambiella

1186
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:34,480
and they happen to bump into

1187
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,000
Pope Leo XIV.

1188
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,120
As you do in Rome.

1189
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:37,360
Right.

1190
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:39,120
They start talking

1191
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:39,840
and they end up writing

1192
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,040
what they jokingly call

1193
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:42,480
the chambiella accord

1194
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:43,440
on a bakery napkin.

1195
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:45,760
The accord is a philosophical debate

1196
00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:47,040
about two ancient cities,

1197
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:49,280
Babel and Jerusalem.

1198
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:50,800
The Tower of Babel represents

1199
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,000
the ultimate top-down hubristic project.

1200
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,840
It was a monolith driven entirely

1201
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:57,840
by the desire for more,

1202
00:36:57,840 --> 00:36:59,360
aiming to pierce the heavens

1203
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,520
and it ended in a collapse of communication.

1204
00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:03,680
Jerusalem in the commas view

1205
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:04,960
represents the opposite.

1206
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:06,960
It was a city rebuilt over centuries,

1207
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:08,160
section by section,

1208
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:09,360
family by family,

1209
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:10,240
from the bottom up.

1210
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:11,840
It is a city driven

1211
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:13,040
by the concept of yet.

1212
00:37:13,680 --> 00:37:15,040
It is always becoming

1213
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:15,920
never quite finished.

1214
00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:17,840
The actual text they write

1215
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:19,120
on the napkin is a quote

1216
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:20,560
from Pope Paul VI.

1217
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,360
Having more must not be confused

1218
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:24,480
with being more.

1219
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:26,480
It's the ultimate

1220
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:27,600
succinct rejection

1221
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:28,640
of Doctor Indelible's

1222
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:29,680
entire worldview.

1223
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:31,120
Their next slide

1224
00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:32,080
is also diverted,

1225
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,160
landing them in Santander, Spain.

1226
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:35,520
The grad students are thrilled

1227
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:36,320
because they want to take

1228
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:37,360
a quick road trip

1229
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:38,080
to Bilbao

1230
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:39,120
to see Frank Gehry's

1231
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:40,080
Guggenheim Museum.

1232
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:41,360
They want to see

1233
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:42,480
the shiny undulating

1234
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:43,760
titanium masterpiece

1235
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:44,800
of modern architecture.

1236
00:37:45,680 --> 00:37:46,400
But the ’Commish

1237
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:47,760
flatly refuses.

1238
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:48,320
Instead,

1239
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:49,920
he drags them into a dark

1240
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:51,280
damp cave complex

1241
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:52,400
called El Castillo.

1242
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:54,480
He takes them deep underground,

1243
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:55,360
shines a flashlight

1244
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:55,760
on the wall

1245
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:57,120
and shows them a single

1246
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:58,800
saucer-sized red dot

1247
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:00,320
painted on the rock

1248
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,880
roughly 40,000 years ago.

1249
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:04,560
The students are, well,

1250
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:06,000
underwhelmed.

1251
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:07,440
But the ’Commish quotes

1252
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:08,560
the painter Paul Clay,

1253
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:10,000
who famously said

1254
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:11,440
that a line is just a dot

1255
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:12,400
that went for a walk.

1256
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:14,160
He wants them to understand

1257
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:15,760
the origin of desire.

1258
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:17,920
That single crude red dot

1259
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:18,480
in the cave

1260
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:19,600
was the very beginning

1261
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:20,720
of a cognitive walk

1262
00:38:20,720 --> 00:38:22,000
that eventually leads

1263
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,040
to the Guggenheim,

1264
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:24,560
to the Sistine Chapel,

1265
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:25,840
to every piece of art

1266
00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:27,200
in architecture humanity

1267
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:28,160
has ever created.

1268
00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:29,760
He bypassed the modern

1269
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:30,880
marvel because he wanted them

1270
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:32,160
to stand next to the raw,

1271
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:34,480
original, vulnerable

1272
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:35,760
human impulse

1273
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:36,560
to simply say

1274
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:37,840
I was here.

1275
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:39,440
I matter.

1276
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:40,240
Their final stop

1277
00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:41,360
before the ultimate showdown

1278
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:42,000
is London.

1279
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:42,720
The ’Commish takes the

1280
00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:43,360
students down

1281
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:44,560
into the London underground,

1282
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:46,240
but he doesn't want to

1283
00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:47,360
look at the trains.

1284
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:48,400
He wants them to look

1285
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:49,120
at the famous

1286
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:49,840
tube map

1287
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:51,040
designed by Harry Beck

1288
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:52,000
in 1931.

1289
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:53,680
He asks the students

1290
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:54,480
to look closely

1291
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:55,040
and tell him

1292
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:56,720
what's wrong with the map.

1293
00:38:56,720 --> 00:38:57,440
Then he points out

1294
00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:58,640
that geographically,

1295
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:00,080
the map is a complete

1296
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:01,440
brazen lie.

1297
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:02,640
If you lay the tube map

1298
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:04,640
over a real map of London,

1299
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:05,440
nothing lines up.

1300
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:07,280
The stations in the center

1301
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:08,800
are stretched far apart

1302
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:10,000
while the distant suburbs

1303
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:11,440
are aggressively pulled in.

1304
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:13,360
The meandering River Thames

1305
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:14,640
is reduced to a stark

1306
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:15,760
geometric zigzag.

1307
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:17,040
Beck threw away

1308
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:18,320
geographical truth.

1309
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:19,120
But why?

1310
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:19,840
If it's a lie,

1311
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:20,560
why is it considered

1312
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:21,120
a masterpiece?

1313
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:22,720
Well, because functionally,

1314
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:23,440
for the purpose of

1315
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:24,880
navigating the subway system,

1316
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,720
it is absolutely perfect.

1317
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:28,000
The ’Commish

1318
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:29,200
introduces the concept of

1319
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:30,560
being usefully wrong.

1320
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:32,800
If your job

1321
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:33,840
is to help a human being

1322
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:35,120
navigate a terrifyingly

1323
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:36,560
complex underground network,

1324
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:38,960
a beautiful, simplified,

1325
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:40,160
topological lie

1326
00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:41,760
is infinitely better

1327
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:42,560
than a chaotic,

1328
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:44,240
overwhelming geographical truth.

1329
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:45,840
Passengers don't need to

1330
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:47,040
know the exact distance

1331
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:47,920
between stations.

1332
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:48,720
They just need to know

1333
00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:49,440
how many stops

1334
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:50,320
until they transfer.

1335
00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:52,000
Think about the GPS

1336
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:52,880
on your phone.

1337
00:39:52,880 --> 00:39:53,600
When you switch it

1338
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:54,560
to transit mode,

1339
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:55,920
it highlights the train lines

1340
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,200
and often grays out

1341
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:58,400
or remove the irrelevant

1342
00:39:58,400 --> 00:39:59,040
side streets.

1343
00:39:59,760 --> 00:40:00,560
It lies to you

1344
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:01,440
by omission

1345
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:02,560
to help you focus.

1346
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:03,520
The ’Commish warns

1347
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:04,080
the students

1348
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:05,280
to burn this concept

1349
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:06,400
of being usefully wrong

1350
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:07,120
into their brains

1351
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:08,560
because they are heading home

1352
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:09,360
to face a machine

1353
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:10,320
that prides itself

1354
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,920
on never ever being wrong.

1355
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:13,120
Which brings us to

1356
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:13,760
the climax.

1357
00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:15,600
We arrive at

1358
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:16,320
the showdown

1359
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:17,120
and the aftermath.

1360
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:18,960
The group finally returns

1361
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:20,160
to the City of What-If.

1362
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:21,680
It is Hanukkah 2028.

1363
00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:22,880
They walk into

1364
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:24,400
the city's convention center.

1365
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:25,360
Doctor Indelible

1366
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:25,920
is hosting

1367
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:27,120
a massive conference.

1368
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:28,560
The ’Commish used to host

1369
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:30,000
a conference called MUD,

1370
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:31,760
Mankind's Understanding Deployed

1371
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:33,280
which was a messy,

1372
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:34,800
joyful celebration of

1373
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:35,920
what we don't know yet.

1374
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:37,680
Doctor Indelible

1375
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:38,560
has maliciously

1376
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:40,240
reverse it into DUM

1377
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:41,920
Don't Undo Me.

1378
00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:42,880
Dumb is a celebration

1379
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:43,920
of rigid certainty.

1380
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,000
It's a tribute to things

1381
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,120
that are definitively

1382
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:48,240
aggressively settled.

1383
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:49,680
And the centerpiece

1384
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:50,640
of the conference

1385
00:40:50,640 --> 00:40:51,680
is Doctor Indelible's

1386
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:52,480
new masterpiece,

1387
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:54,400
The Last Word Machine.

1388
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:56,560
Indelible took an

1389
00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:58,000
old sophisticated tracking

1390
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:58,880
computer,

1391
00:40:58,880 --> 00:40:59,760
starved it

1392
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:00,480
of its ability

1393
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:01,760
to ask questions

1394
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:02,800
and gorge fed it

1395
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:04,160
nothing but pure

1396
00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:05,360
unadulterated facts.

1397
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:07,440
It has processed

1398
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:07,920
everything.

1399
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:09,280
The machine can now

1400
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:10,160
answer any question

1401
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:11,360
instantly,

1402
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:12,480
perfectly,

1403
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:14,160
and it prints the answer

1404
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:15,120
out on a card

1405
00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:16,160
in permanent

1406
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:16,880
indelible ink.

1407
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:18,560
And the terrifying part,

1408
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:19,920
the crowd

1409
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:21,360
absolutely loves it.

1410
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:22,240
The citizens are

1411
00:41:22,240 --> 00:41:23,760
exhausted by the nuance,

1412
00:41:23,760 --> 00:41:24,560
the arguing,

1413
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:25,760
and the sheer uncertainty

1414
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:26,960
of the modern world.

1415
00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:28,160
They practically worship

1416
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:28,720
this machine

1417
00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:29,600
for relieving them

1418
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:30,640
of the heavy burden

1419
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:31,440
of having to think

1420
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:32,560
for themselves.

1421
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:33,120
The ’Commish

1422
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:34,080
is sitting in the front row.

1423
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:35,920
He stands up.

1424
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:38,400
Now you might expect

1425
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:38,880
him to try

1426
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:39,600
and break the machine

1427
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:40,480
with a paradox

1428
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:41,680
or a trick question

1429
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:42,560
like Captain Kirk

1430
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:43,760
breaking a computer.

1431
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:44,480
But he doesn't.

1432
00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:45,520
Instead,

1433
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:46,880
he turns to the audience

1434
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:48,080
and compares the machine

1435
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:48,640
to the ancient

1436
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,080
Greek myth of Procrestes.

1437
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:51,200
For those who don't

1438
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:51,760
know the myth,

1439
00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:52,960
Procrestes was a

1440
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:54,160
rogue innkeeper

1441
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:55,040
who offered travelers

1442
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:55,760
a bed for the night.

1443
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:57,520
He promised,

1444
00:41:57,520 --> 00:41:58,880
with absolute certainty,

1445
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:00,720
that his iron bed

1446
00:42:00,720 --> 00:42:01,840
perfectly fit

1447
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:02,800
every single person

1448
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:03,760
who lay in it.

1449
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:04,960
But the gruesome secret

1450
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:06,080
was how it fit them.

1451
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:07,360
If a traveler

1452
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:08,000
was too short

1453
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:08,960
for the bed,

1454
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:10,000
Procrestes chained

1455
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:10,560
them down

1456
00:42:10,560 --> 00:42:11,280
and stretched them

1457
00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:11,840
on a rack,

1458
00:42:11,840 --> 00:42:12,960
dislocating their joints

1459
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:13,600
until they fit.

1460
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:15,520
If a traveler was too tall,

1461
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:16,880
he took an axe

1462
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:17,440
and chopped off

1463
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:18,160
their legs

1464
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:19,200
until they fit the frame.

1465
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:21,440
It is a devastatingly

1466
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:22,320
precise analogy

1467
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:23,760
for artificial certainty.

1468
00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:25,440
The ’Commish tells the crowd

1469
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,440
that this last word machine

1470
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:28,640
does not fit its answers

1471
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:29,600
to the messy,

1472
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:30,720
sprawling reality

1473
00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:32,320
of the human experience.

1474
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:32,800
Instead,

1475
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:33,600
it chops up,

1476
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:34,240
distorts,

1477
00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:35,920
and flattens the world

1478
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:36,960
until it neatly fits

1479
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:37,600
the machine's

1480
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:38,080
rigid,

1481
00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:39,520
pre-programmed architecture.

1482
00:42:40,240 --> 00:42:42,480
It removes the human element entirely.

1483
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:43,120
Think about how

1484
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:44,320
modern social media

1485
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:45,440
algorithms work.

1486
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:46,160
They don't reflect

1487
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:47,520
your complex personality.

1488
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:48,240
They stretch

1489
00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:49,360
and chop your behavior

1490
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:50,720
until you fit neatly

1491
00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:51,680
into a marketable

1492
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:52,640
demographic bucket.

1493
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:54,240
And we see the cruelty

1494
00:42:54,240 --> 00:42:55,360
of this machine immediately.

1495
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:56,880
A woman in the audience

1496
00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:58,000
steps up to the microphone.

1497
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:00,400
She is deep in mourning.

1498
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:01,360
She has recently lost

1499
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:01,840
her husband

1500
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:02,560
and she is crying.

1501
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:04,160
She asks the machine

1502
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,080
a deeply emotional question.

1503
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:08,160
How do I find my way home?

1504
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:10,000
The machine processes

1505
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:11,360
the question literally.

1506
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:11,920
It hums

1507
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:14,000
and it spits out a card

1508
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:14,960
in indelible ink.

1509
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:17,440
It gives her exact coordinates,

1510
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:19,440
latitude and longitude,

1511
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,600
precise down to the millimeter,

1512
00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:23,440
it gives her a flawless

1513
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:24,720
irrefutable fact,

1514
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:26,400
but it offers her

1515
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:27,680
absolutely zero help.

1516
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:30,640
Exactitude without empathy

1517
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:31,360
is useless.

1518
00:43:32,240 --> 00:43:33,520
The ’Commish steps in.

1519
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:35,120
He gently takes the microphone

1520
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:36,000
and gives her messy,

1521
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:38,240
fundamentally human directions.

1522
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:39,600
He says,

1523
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:40,560
go down to the river.

1524
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:42,480
Keep the water on your right.

1525
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:44,400
Walk slowly

1526
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:45,120
until the bridges

1527
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:46,240
start to feel familiar.

1528
00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:48,720
He openly admits to her

1529
00:43:48,720 --> 00:43:49,360
that it is

1530
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:50,800
probably the long way around.

1531
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:52,880
It's a useful lie,

1532
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:55,280
much like the London tube map.

1533
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:57,040
It doesn't give her

1534
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:58,160
mathematical precision.

1535
00:43:58,160 --> 00:43:59,840
It gives her a physical anchor

1536
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:00,400
to trust

1537
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:01,760
while she processes her grief.

1538
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:03,520
Then the ’Commish

1539
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:04,480
turns away from the woman

1540
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:05,440
and walks directly

1541
00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:06,960
up to the machine's glowing screen.

1542
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:08,880
He reaches into his pocket

1543
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:10,400
and pulls out that worn

1544
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:11,440
pink pencil eraser

1545
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,040
he picked up in Philadelphia

1546
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:14,160
in 1858.

1547
00:44:14,720 --> 00:44:15,760
With deliberate force,

1548
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:17,040
he rubs the eraser

1549
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:17,840
against the screen,

1550
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:19,280
smudging and obliterating

1551
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:20,640
the machine's permanent

1552
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:21,680
indelible ink.

1553
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:23,600
And in the space he just cleared

1554
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:24,560
over the gray smudge,

1555
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:25,840
he writes two words

1556
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:26,800
in soft pencil.

1557
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:28,880
Not yet.

1558
00:44:29,520 --> 00:44:30,480
The spell is broken.

1559
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:32,080
The machine is defeated

1560
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:32,960
not by logic,

1561
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:34,240
but by the insistence

1562
00:44:34,240 --> 00:44:36,000
on ongoing possibility.

1563
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:37,760
The crowd suddenly wakes up

1564
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:38,880
from their stupor.

1565
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:40,400
They turn to the ’Commish

1566
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:41,440
and in their desperation

1567
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:42,080
for leadership,

1568
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:43,440
they immediately try to make

1569
00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:44,880
him their new oracle.

1570
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:45,680
They want to tear down

1571
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:46,080
the machine

1572
00:44:46,080 --> 00:44:46,800
and just lean on him

1573
00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:47,840
for all their answers.

1574
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:49,200
But he refuses.

1575
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:49,840
He knows that

1576
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:51,440
if he lets them rely on him

1577
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:52,480
for absolute answers,

1578
00:44:53,040 --> 00:44:53,680
he just becomes

1579
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:54,640
a flesh-and-blood version

1580
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:55,440
of the very machine

1581
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:56,240
he just erased.

1582
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:58,000
So before he leaves,

1583
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,080
he passes one final

1584
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:00,960
binding law

1585
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:02,000
for the City of What-If.

1586
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:03,920
The Statute

1587
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:05,680
of Statue Limitations.

1588
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:07,280
I adore this piece of wordplay.

1589
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:09,520
A statute is a law.

1590
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:11,200
A statue is a man frozen

1591
00:45:11,200 --> 00:45:12,000
in bronze in a park.

1592
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:13,840
And a statute of limitations

1593
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:15,040
means that eventually

1594
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:16,080
the law has to stop

1595
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:16,880
holding the past

1596
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:17,520
against you.

1597
00:45:18,240 --> 00:45:19,280
He legally outlaws

1598
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:20,560
the creation of any likeness

1599
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:22,480
of himself in bronze or marble.

1600
00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:23,760
He absolutely refuses

1601
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:24,880
to be fixed in place,

1602
00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:26,160
turned into a rigid idol.

1603
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:28,080
He tells the crowd,

1604
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:29,280
you want to keep me,

1605
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:30,000
keep a pencil.

1606
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:31,280
He leaves behind

1607
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:32,640
a single cardboard box

1608
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:33,920
filled with his notes,

1609
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:36,000
labeled simply MISC,

1610
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:37,120
for miscellaneous,

1611
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:38,880
the category of things

1612
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:39,840
that don't quite fit.

1613
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:41,680
And then he walks east

1614
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:42,960
over the Blue Bridge,

1615
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:44,320
out of the city entirely

1616
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:46,160
and into the land of Will-Be,

1617
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:47,360
the road that hasn't happened yet.

1618
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,920
But the fable doesn't end there.

1619
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:51,360
There is an epilogue,

1620
00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:53,200
an after-after coda

1621
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:54,640
that drives the philosophy home.

1622
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,440
We see a defeated Doctor Indelible,

1623
00:45:57,440 --> 00:45:58,720
stripped of his power,

1624
00:45:58,720 --> 00:45:59,600
reduced to teaching

1625
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,360
kindergartners in a local library.

1626
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:03,600
He is standing in front of a chart

1627
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:05,200
explaining the Dewey Decimal System.

1628
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:07,040
He points a strict finger

1629
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:08,240
at the kids and says,

1630
00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:10,240
there is one right way

1631
00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:11,440
to arrange books.

1632
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:12,400
A little kindergartner

1633
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:13,360
raises her hand

1634
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:14,640
and asks where she should put

1635
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:15,360
a story book

1636
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:16,400
about a magical frog

1637
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:17,200
who becomes a king.

1638
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:19,040
Indelible doesn't hesitate.

1639
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:20,640
He says it goes in the science section

1640
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:21,600
under amphibians

1641
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:22,560
because fundamentally

1642
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:23,760
it's a book about a frog,

1643
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:24,320
end of story.

1644
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:26,800
But the ’Commish is secretly there,

1645
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:28,160
standing in the stacks,

1646
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:29,680
listening in with the head archivist,

1647
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:30,720
a woman named Danielle.

1648
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:32,160
They push back

1649
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:34,240
against indelible's rigid taxonomy.

1650
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:35,760
Danielle points out

1651
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:37,280
that Melville Dewey himself

1652
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:39,200
constantly revised his system.

1653
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:40,000
Dewey didn't believe

1654
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:41,440
he had found the final answer.

1655
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:42,960
He knew it was a living document.

1656
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:45,200
The ’Commish realizes in this moment

1657
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:46,640
that every single time

1658
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,240
you arrange information,

1659
00:46:48,240 --> 00:46:50,320
no matter how clever your LATCH system is,

1660
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,280
you inherently reveal one thing

1661
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:54,320
by burying another.

1662
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:56,640
Putting the fairytale under frog

1663
00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:57,680
completely hides it

1664
00:46:57,680 --> 00:46:58,240
from the child

1665
00:46:58,240 --> 00:46:59,520
who is desperately looking

1666
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:00,640
for a story about a king.

1667
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,120
There is no one right way.

1668
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:05,280
There are only choices

1669
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:06,960
and every choice has a shadow.

1670
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:08,240
And this brings us

1671
00:47:08,240 --> 00:47:09,120
to the core philosophy

1672
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:09,760
that underpins

1673
00:47:09,760 --> 00:47:11,840
this entire wild fable.

1674
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:12,720
The ’Commish quotes

1675
00:47:12,720 --> 00:47:14,720
the quantum physicist Niels Bohr

1676
00:47:14,720 --> 00:47:16,000
who famously said that

1677
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:17,840
the opposite of a simple truth

1678
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:18,960
is a falsehood,

1679
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,440
but the opposite of a profound truth

1680
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:22,720
is also profound.

1681
00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:23,360
If we think about

1682
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:24,800
the last word machine

1683
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:26,720
or Doctor Indelible's Concrete River

1684
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:28,960
or even our modern reliance

1685
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:32,000
on cold hyper-efficient AI algorithms today,

1686
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:34,880
they all suffer from the same fatal flaw.

1687
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:36,720
An algorithm can give you

1688
00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:38,560
a mathematically precise answer,

1689
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:40,560
but it aggressively strips away

1690
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:41,680
the human context,

1691
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,440
the nuance, the contradictions,

1692
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:44,320
the also.

1693
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:46,480
It demands the last word.

1694
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:48,800
So looking at this whole journey,

1695
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:51,040
from the octopuses to the eraser,

1696
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:52,880
what does this all mean for us?

1697
00:47:53,520 --> 00:47:54,400
It means that being

1698
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:55,600
usefully wrong,

1699
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:57,040
admitting our ignorance,

1700
00:47:57,040 --> 00:47:58,640
and remaining constantly open

1701
00:47:58,640 --> 00:47:59,360
to revision

1702
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:00,480
is the very definition

1703
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:01,200
of being alive.

1704
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:02,880
When the ’Commish refuses

1705
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:04,080
to be cast in bronze,

1706
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:05,600
it is his ultimate

1707
00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:06,960
physical commitment

1708
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:07,760
to the word yet.

1709
00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:09,520
An answer that is written

1710
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:10,800
in indelible ink.

1711
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:11,600
An answer that

1712
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:12,960
absolutely cannot be erased

1713
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:14,800
is an answer that cannot learn,

1714
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:16,800
and a thing that cannot learn

1715
00:48:16,800 --> 00:48:17,200
is dead.

1716
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:18,160
Wow.

1717
00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:19,600
Think about that

1718
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:21,040
in the context of your own life.

1719
00:48:21,600 --> 00:48:22,640
How often do you seek

1720
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,000
the last word on a topic?

1721
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:25,440
How often do you get

1722
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:26,720
frustrated by nuance

1723
00:48:26,720 --> 00:48:27,840
and just want the final

1724
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:28,720
definitive answer

1725
00:48:28,720 --> 00:48:30,240
on a complicated work project

1726
00:48:30,240 --> 00:48:31,920
or a heated political debate

1727
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:33,840
or even a messy relationship?

1728
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:35,760
Are you walking around

1729
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:37,600
demanding indelible ink.

1730
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:38,960
in a world that fundamentally

1731
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:40,640
requires a pencil eraser?

1732
00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:41,920
We all fall into the trap

1733
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:43,040
of more.

1734
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:43,920
It's human nature.

1735
00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:45,280
We want more data,

1736
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:46,240
more certainty,

1737
00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:47,760
more permanence.

1738
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:48,960
Thinking it will keep us safe

1739
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:50,240
from the unknown,

1740
00:48:50,240 --> 00:48:51,360
but the fable asks us

1741
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:52,960
to embrace the vulnerability

1742
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:53,760
of yet.

1743
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:55,280
I want to leave you

1744
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:56,480
with a final thought

1745
00:48:56,480 --> 00:48:58,160
to mull over on your commute

1746
00:48:58,160 --> 00:48:59,760
or as you go about your day.

1747
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:01,920
Think about the physical spaces

1748
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:02,960
you occupy today.

1749
00:49:03,600 --> 00:49:04,880
Think about the digital maps

1750
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:05,760
you trust on your phone

1751
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:06,800
to guide you,

1752
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:08,160
or the categories you use

1753
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:09,200
to sort your emails

1754
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:09,760
in your life.

1755
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:12,000
What useful lies

1756
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:13,840
are you trusting every single day

1757
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:14,640
just to navigate

1758
00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:16,160
the overwhelming complexity

1759
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:16,880
of reality?

1760
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:20,000
And what deeper, messier truths

1761
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:21,600
might those clean maps

1762
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:22,480
be hiding from you?

1763
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:23,920
The next time you feel

1764
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:25,440
that anxiety rising,

1765
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:26,800
that desperate urge

1766
00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:28,240
to force a final,

1767
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:29,200
permanent answer

1768
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:30,320
onto a shifting problem,

1769
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:31,680
ask yourself

1770
00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:32,480
if you wouldn't be much

1771
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:33,680
better served by a simple

1772
00:49:34,240 --> 00:49:34,880
penciled in,

1773
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:36,480
not yet.

1774
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:37,840
Remember the diagnostic

1775
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:39,280
X-ray machine is comforting

1776
00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:41,120
because it only gives you a binary,

1777
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:42,240
broken or not broken,

1778
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,240
but the messy, muddy,

1779
00:49:44,240 --> 00:49:45,680
flowing waters of reality

1780
00:49:45,680 --> 00:49:47,200
require a different kind of tool.

1781
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:49,200
A tool that you can erase,

1782
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:50,720
a tool that allows you

1783
00:49:50,720 --> 00:49:51,760
to try again.

1784
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:52,320
Exactly.

1785
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:53,760
The dark doesn't get

1786
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:54,560
to keep what it wins.

1787
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:56,480
Keep a pencil handy.

1788
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:57,520
Until next time,

1789
00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:58,320
thanks for joining us

1790
00:49:58,320 --> 00:49:59,120
on this deep dive.