>> they will go crazy. the movies that have total immersion entertainment, not just a flat screen with sound. that's the movies of today but total internal, total emotional content. and perhaps in the far future,

talking the next century, if we have a disk with your memories, thoughts on it, perhaps we can send it into our space. in fact, we can send it on a laser beam at the speed of light. this may be the way to explore the galaxy, to send data into outer space at the speed of light on a laser being to explore the universe. so now let me close on a note and then take some questions from the audience, and then i'll sign your book. and just remember, after i signed your book you can go to ebay and make money and auction them off. [laughter] let me end on one last note. when i was a child, i had a role model. and i idolized albert einstein. my favorite einstein story is this. when einstein was an old man he was tired of giving the same

talk over and over again. so one day someone came up to him and the chauffeur said professor, i'm a part-time actor. i've heard your speech so many times i've memorized it. so why don't we switch places. i will put on a mustache. i will put on the week. i will be the great einstein, and you can take a rest and be my chauffeur. einstein loved the joke so they switched places. this went along famously into one day a mathematician in the back asked a very difficult question. einstein thought, ma the game is up. the chauffeur said, that question is so elementary that even my chauffeur here can answer it for you. [laughter] thank you very much. you've been a great audience. i'll take questions from the audience. and then i'll be happy to sign your book, okay? thank you very much. you've been a great audience.

[applause] thank you. so we have some time for q&a. you can make the questions as hard as you want. and afterwards please wind up in an orderly fashion. i'll try to sign as many books as i can, and we will have pictures taken as well, okay? so people are going to line up, and we have microphones in the audience. so here is your chance to talk back, okay? no, on top. -- come on up. spin doctor, i was wondering how far-reaching you think the effects of the schumer going to be on japan and the hawaiian islands and the rest of the pacific? >> the question is fukushima. how long are we going to experience the agony of three

simultaneous meltdowns in northern japan. we have the answer. 40 years. according to utility, tokyo electric, it will take about 40 years to begin the process of dismantling the reactor. and the accident is not over at all. a small earthquake that will send the accident starting all over again. you will realize that the reactor is so radioactive, workers cannot even get in for more than just a few minutes at a time. they sent and robots. robots are not smart enough to work in high radiation fields, total failure. at the pentagon, the u.s. pentagon has made it a priority to create robots that can turn a screw, robots that can use a hammer, robots that can use a sal. we don't have those robots yet. the next thing they're going to do is insert cameras into the

water to see where the melting is. it's so bad we don't even have a picture, we don't even have a picture of the melted core. we know it's 100% melted, and the water, the radioactive water builds up. swimming pools, when you visit fukushima you see all these swimming pools of radioactive water. the agony is an indian. so just remember that it will take 40 years to clean up that nuclear accident. japan, after world war ii, made a bargain. a legendary figure sold his soul to the devil for unlimited power. japan said we will go nuclear because we know or cold but there is a price. it is a price you have to pay, and that is you sell your soul to the devil. but anyway, let's move on to other questions you may have. let's go to the next question.

>> i just wanted to thank you for coming by kansas city. and i wanted to ask, you've been such an inspiration on the fact you start at such a young age, wanting to be a scientist, and of all the people you've met in a different perspective fields, do you find that being the standard about everyone starting very, very young, or do you see someone who maybe came in like at an older age the one to switch over into a field of sites? >> the question is is it advantageous to start inside when you're very young. you can be interested in size at any age but it does help to be young. i've interviewed about 500 site is in my time for bbc television, for science joe. i have my own radio shows which was at 130 radio stations across the u.s. every we can. i always ask them the question, when did it start? when did you get interested in

sites? they always say the same thing. when i was 10. when i was 10 it was a telescope, a microscope, a chemistry kit, a visit to the planetarium, an astronomy book, something set them off. because before then everything is mommy and daddy, mommy and daddy. after 10, kids begin to ask what is beyond mommy and daddy. then they get this existential shock, this epiphany, realizing how huge and glorious and splinters the universe is. and then kids just eat it up. they want to know everything about physics and chemistry but they want to know why the sun shines, everything. and then they get 15 and it's all over. [laughter] what is the greatest destroyer of scientists?

the greatest destroyer of scientists is junior high school. you see, we're all born scientist. we are born wondering where do they come from, why does the sunshine? why did the stars twinkle? we are born that way. until we get junior high school. and then it is crushed out of us. all of a sudden we have to memorize useless facts and figures that don't amount to anything. all of the sudden we are called nerds by our front. all of a sudden it's hard to get a day. all a day. all of a sudden the hormones are kicking in. so it's difficult, and then in high school you have this pyramid, this pyramid were you the beautiful people on top, the jocks and cheerleaders -- i have nothing against them but there is a pyramid in high school in more lies by hollywood movies. hollywood never tells you that as soon as you graduate from high school that pyramid turns

upside down. [laughter] [applause] they never tell you that. and look at bill gates. look at steve jobs. look at mr. zuckerberg. these are billionaires, leaders in innovation, technology. they were at the bottom of the pyramid when they were in high school. okay, next. >> thank you for your speeches, very nice. i was wondering have you mentioned that you could take a chip with someone's memory, enter it back into the rat so they can remember it again. it ma may be that someone's memy may be inserted into another person's brain. so there's controversy over doing something like this because memories are personal and meant to be just a single person. how to think the public will respond and how do you personally think of this new technology? >> the question is what are the ethical implications of being able to insert not just true memories but false memories,

courses you never taught, dates you never had, vacation she'd never experienced can all be up later -- uploaded, we think, in the future. the our big ethical considerations because what happens if a criminal gets this and uploads the memory of a crime that you never committed? or legal justice system depends upon eyewitness accounts. we have witnesses who say that they will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. but what happens if you can tamper with people's memories? then the eyewitness accounts cannot be trusted anymore. therefore, i think this has to be regulated. if we get to the point where we can insert more memories into the mine, then they have to be labeled that this memory is false. this vacation you never had. but it's fun anyway so i'll pay money and experience of vacation. we will have to regulate it to make sure that false memories

are clearly labeled false memories so you don't confuse what is real and what is false. for people who worry about security, some people think that in the future may be a cia agent will record your memory from a distance. that's not going to happen. because in order to tap into the mind you have to put a probe either directly on top of the brain, which is painless, or put a helmet right on top of the brain. further away, the radio signals is so bad that it's less than background, gibberish, noise. noise interviews with a radio signal. so the lesson is you have to be right up to the person's brain in order to record things. so the problem is not privacy because someone will record your memory, the problem is that you may willingly make a memory that's recorded but then somebody else sells it together to make sure your memories are kept private.

that is a whole nother area which will play out in the years. but remember, right now we can only record one memory at a time. but in the future we can foresee a time where memories may have to be regulated, just like software. next. [inaudible] >> you are talking about how -- [inaudible] >> okay, first of all the question is about aspergers and what does a show about how the brain is wired up. first of all, aspergers com, the thing come is a mild form of autism. a certain fraction of people with autism begin to develop

these enormous mathematical, artistic abilities. not all autistic children but could fraction of them begin -- to excel in certain directions but if they have an iq of maybe 80, they may be quote mentally. they have to be confined to institutions. so how is that possible? the new thinking is that it is damage to the left temporal lobe that creates these. the damage could occur from a reasons, bipolar, upload to that, our damage from autism. so we now believe that autism is not the only way to have these mathematical powers. people with aspergers have these mathematical powers without having to have a low iq. these people are functional. isaac newton was functional in society. effect sir isaac newton was a

member of parliament during his lifetime. and so we are now beginning to understand that autism is not linked. may be possible to induce this kind of behavior and we think that aspergers is a form of this we can actually control it. you can actually function in society with aspergers and still have these mathematical powers but, in fact, one study done just last year at silicon valley showed that many silicon valley engineers have a higher rate of aspergers than the average population. what you probably knew that already watching the big bang theory, right? clueless. these people sometimes clueless when it comes to women. but this is something that we are still investigating. we have a long ways to go before we will fully understand autism and aspergers. but now we have brain scans we can actually see that this brain is slightly different from the average.

>> i was curious as to what your thoughts were on the subject of quantum consciousness at which led to theoretical physics. >> okay, there is in my book, i have a chapter on quantum consciousness which is perhaps the most bizarre form of consciousness in all of science. according to the quantum theory, in order for something to exist, somebody has to look at it. somebody has to make an observation. before you observe something, in principle it could exist in all possible states. when you look at it, event assumes one state. therefore, the observer, in some sense, determines existence. but observation requires consciousness. conscious people make the observation. so the greatest paradox in all

of science is the cat problem. if i have a cat in a box and i don't open the box, the cat could either be dead or alive. the how do we physicists describe a cat that we cannot observe? well, we add the dead cat to the life care. we add the two ways together. so the cat is neither dead nor alive. until you open the box. einstein thought, this is stupid. i mean, how can you be neither dead nor alive at the same time? well, what can i say? einstein was wrong. electrons can be spun up or spun done. electrons can be here or there at the same time. this is the greatest paradox in all of science. how do you resolve the fact that you can have dead -- dead cat in