booktv, television for serious readers. >> if you go back and look at the coolidge, he was a conservative hero and his taxi was a gold standard tax rate, 25% was what he got the top rate right down to it and he thought like crazy and a starter with wilson in the '70s so that was an epic battle. ..

>> of temperament, he was a shy person. but it also had a political purpose. he knew that if he didn't talk a lot, people would stop talking. and, of course, a president or a political leader is constantly bombarded with requests, and his silence was his way of not giving in to special interests, and he articulated that quite explicitly. >> amity shlaes will take your calls, e-mails and tweets "in depth," live for three hours sunday at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv. >> this month the fcc voted 3-2 to proceed on a proposal that could allow content providers like netflix to pay for faster internet service. later today, the progressive policy institute will look at the proposal and what it could

mean to consumers. join us for live coverage at noon eastern here on c-span2. >> facebook chief operating officer sheryl sandberg recently updated her best-selling book "lean in," adding career advice for college graduates. the first edition was inspired by a commencement address she gave in 2011 at barnard college. this sheer she -- she addressed the graduating class at city colleges in chicago, one of the largest college systems in the country. this is 15 minutes. [applause] >> chancellor hyman, board of trustees, president and faculty of the college, delighted family members, devoted friends, antsy

siblings, welcome to all of you. but be most importantly, congratulations to the magnificent class of 2014. [cheers and applause] it is a privilege to be with you here today honoring 2,000 students from seven grade schools across chicago. colleges named after giants who dared to imagine a better city, a better country, a better world like dr. king and harold washington. [cheers and applause] and people who served their country like milton olive and carmel harvey. [applause] graduating for all of you from all seven schools is a remarkable achievement. i know all of you are so proud today. but i will tell you as a mother myself, your families are more proud. [cheers and applause]

so when ceremony is over but you're still in that gown, let them hug you for a little bit longer. they will look back on today and say that was one of the happiest days of my life. [applause] you will look back on today and say did i really think that was an okay way to wear my hair? [laughter] today many of you become the very first person in your family to earn a higher degree. [cheers and applause] i want to take a special moment to celebrate that achievement. to your families and to me, you are heroes. students who worked while they took care of children, students who worked while they had jobs, students who worked while they supported their families. you learned to write prose,

you've built robots, you've healed the sick, and you have even baked fluffier pastries. you invested not just a lot of money, but your time and your sweat, but it was worth it. because with the skills you got here, you're not just going to have a better first job, you're going to go on to have more and better jobs. not only higher incomes, but higher expectations for a better life. i know this because education lifted my family too. my great grandparents immigrated here from eastern europe. they came here, and my grandfather grew up in an apartment, one bedroom, with his eight brothers and sisters. they shared a bathroom down the hall with eight other families of the same size. my great grandparents did that for the promise of a better life, and that promise was fulfilled when the siblings

became the first members of their family to graduate from college. my grandfather graduated from the city college of new york. it put my father and then me on a different path. many of you are setting your families on that path today, and i know everyone here joins me in applauding you for that amazing achievement. [applause] con "freedom watch"lations -- congratulations. as i thought about what i wanted to do here today, i thought about the many graduation speeches i've heard. the best ones had two qualities. they were relevant, and they were brief. i will be both. [laughter] while i encourage all of you to post a facebook as much as possible, i would appreciate if you would refrain from sheryl sandberg is boring posts, at least until i'm done. [laughter] i want to use my brief time here

to urge you to stay ambitious, to keep reaching and keep dreaming. some of you are leaving here and heading for more school, some of you are heading into the work force. but no matter what you're going to do, it's worth taking a minute today to reflect on your time at city colleges. because in addition to everything you learned, i hope you learned this: dreams can come true. [cheers and applause] with hard work, with sacrifices, with perseverance, you turn your dreams into reality, and the proof of that is that every single one of you is sitting here this your gown today to. today. [applause] so i want to use my brief time with you to urge you to stay ambitious. keep reaching, keep dreaming. don't lean back, lean in. you made this dream come true, so you can be more ambitious.

you can dream bigger for yourself and the world around you. as you extend your reach, what once seemed unattainable is now within your grasp p. i want you to see that nothing is impossible, that your dreams are the possible dreams. so the question is, how do you get there? every path is unique, but i'll talk about three things that i think make a big difference in helping all of us fulfill our potential. the first and most important is believe in yourself. believing you can do something is the very first step to doing it. i know firsthand that self-confidence comes more easily to some than others. when i was in high school, i was a senior, and my brother was a sophomore. we both had dates one saturday. that was in the days before texting when you actually made tate cans. dates. and they canceled on us at the last minute, very clear they

both thought of something else to do. i spent the rest of the weekend wondering what was wrong with me. my brother said that girl missed a great thing and is went out to play basketball with his friends. four years later my brother and i took a class together in college. again, i was a senior, he was a sophomore. we took the same -- i was a senior, he was a sophomore. we took the same class. i went to all the lectures, i read all the books. he went to two lectures, read one book and then marched himself up to my room for me to tutor him before the exam. we sat for that exam. he was sure he had aced it, i was sure i had failed even though i knew way more than he did. i joke with my brother to this day that i wish i could spend a few minutes as him. it must feel so good. but in reality, even he has moments where he doubts himself. we all do. arianna huffington talks about

the obnoxious roommate in our held, that voice that tells us we can't do something, that our question is dumb, that our ideas are not good, that we're having a truly awful hair day. that obnoxious roommate, that self-doubt, that holds us back. over my many years in school and in the work force, i've seen so many people hold themselves back. i've seen them sit on the side of the room rather than at the table. i've seen them sit in the back rather than at the front. i've seen them lower their hands rather than keep them up, and i've seen them lower their voices when they should speak up. i've seen over and over again how much self-belief drives outcomeses, and that's why i force myself to sit at the table even when i'm not sure i belong there, and that still happens to me. and when i'm not sure anyone wants my opinion, i speak up anyway. believing in yourself is what

got you to this special day, so keep it up. don't let anyone put limits on you. don't put limits on yourself. know that you can and will go on to complete more school if you want to. know that you can and will get any job you want even if you have to take other jobs on the way to getting there. know that you can provide for your family and yourself. know that you can make the world a better place. second, plan and chase your dreams. i am urging you as your valedictorian was to be fearless, to dream big. but sometimes big dreams can be overwhelming. it feels like you can't get from point a to point b. well, the good news is you don't have to. you just have to get from point a to point b and then b to c and so on and so forth. breaking really big dreams into small steps is the best way to

get there. i grew up in i'm, and when i was 16, i went skiing for the first time. i had only ever seen snow once, i didn't own a winter coat. i was pretty unathletic and pretty uncoordinated. hi mother and i went up the mountain, took the wrong turn and wound up on a really hard slope is snow pouring down, people whizzing by us. i panicked. tears streaming down my face, i looked at my mom and said, i can't get down this mountain. and she said, don't look at the bottom. the bottom is a long way off. take ten turns, ten steps and then stop. and then take ten more steps and then stop. larger tasks can be overwhelming, but if you break it down into ten steps, that fear goes away. and as you can tell by my presence here today in chicago, i made it off that mountain. [applause]

so keep an eye on your goals, but look at the small steps to get there. your career and your life is going to have starts and stops, digs and stags, twists and turns. that's especially true this our economy which is a really tough one. take full advantage of every opportunity you get to develop your skills. each of us finds our own way in our own time. you may not love every job you have, but you can learn from every job you have. third thing, know that this world needs you to change it. last year i wrote "lean in," and i talked about the inequality between men and women. it turns out, and this is a shocker, that men still run the world. i believe the world would be a better place if it were more equal. if every child got the education that he and she deserved.

[applause] if leaders of different genders and races and backgrounds and perspectives made the decisions at the tables where those decisions are made. sadly, my generation failed. we are far from my dream of 50/50 equality where women run half our companies and our countries and men run half our homes. [applause] we have an african-american president, but racism is far from gone. so we turn to you, we turn to you. you are the promise for a better and more equal world. [applause] there is no finer example of this than your chancellor.

she graduated from city colleges. she sat in the chairs you sit in today, and four years ago she, along with your board, took on a reinvention of these colleges to give every student access to improved education. in just a short time with a very data-driven approach, they've nearly doubled the graduation rate. and this year we are celebrating what we believe will be the second, the highest graduation rate for the second year in a row. [cheers and applause] she is proof that one person can make a difference. your life's course will not be determined by the things that are easy, the things you know you can do. those are the easy ones. it'll be determined by the things that are hard; the jobs you want you realize you're not qualified for, and you work like máo get there, the moments you feel alone and ask for help and create a bond with the person

you ask because helping you doesn't just help you, it helps them. the times when you see something's wrong, but you wonder why no one else is speaking out. you're afraid to do so, but you speak out anyway, and you convention everyone else. those are the -- convince everyone else. those are the moments that have real impact. so don't let yourself off the hook. you never know what you're capable of until you try. to quote chancellor;ç hyman, something she wrote for the lean in web site, if you embrace challenges no matter how big and keep moving forward, one day you will look up and be surprised at how far you have come. this is how your generation can become the lean in general ration. the generation that knows no boundaries, fears no fears and changes the world. you stand here today, proud and brave, one goal down, so many more to go. start by figuring out where you want to go and aiming high, then

take the first step in that direction. believe in yourself. your families believe in you, your classmates believe if in you, i believe in you, and we are all rooting for you. [cheers and applause] at facebook we have red posters that inspire us to dream our dreams. one says fortune favors the bold. one says done is better than perfect. my favorite says what would you do if you weren't afraid? so today as you celebrate years of hard work, ask yourself, what would you do if you weren't afraid. ask yourself, take a minute. what would you do if you weren't afraid? look to the future and then go to it. congratulations, class of 2014. [cheers and applause]

>> as part of c-span's 2014 commencement coverage, we're joined by university of illinois english professor carrie nelson who has participated in that school's commencement selection process. he's also served as president of the american association of university professors, and his latest book is "no university is an island: saving academic freedom." professor nelson, thank you for joining us. how does the university of illinois go about screening the person they decide to choose for the commencement address? >> guest: well, what we do is my role is at as the faculty senator, and we focus on the commencement speakers who are going to receive an honorary degree which is frequently the case, of course, across the country that a commencement speaker receives an honorary degree.

so the faculty senate has about 200 faculty members in it who are elected. perhaps 150 show up at a given meeting. and when commencement speakers are proposed, we each get a copy of their -- [inaudible] along with a letter explaining why whoever has proposed them considers them worthy of a commencement speech and an awarded degree. and then in a senate meeting we discuss those possible people. and on a number of occasions, we've advised that the university not go forward with a particular person. in fact, just this year we recommended against two people. and so they weren't used. and, obviously, i'm not going to give their names, but we might, you know, when their applications are given out to 150 faculty members, that gives you a pretty good test of

whether they're likely to be a problem with other people on campus. that's a wide enough constituency that if there are going to be problems, the problems will be raised at that point. >> host: now, you're, the university senate, do they take into request, the wishes of the graduating seniors? >> guest: no, we don't, we don't -- i mean, i can't -- all i can say really is that this year there were no graduating senior responses. i think part of the problem with doing that is that if we're going to turn someone down, we really would want to avoid publicity. you don't want to embarrass someone. the whole purpose of this is to have a vetting process that avoids really insulting or embarrassing a potential speaker. of course, that's what's happened on many campuses this year is that by the time a speaker gets announced or hasn't been through a detailed vetting process, then the protests arrive. and, of course, a number of

speakers have withdrawn, others have been concerned there would be public demonstrations. so our purpose of that is to avoid it. and i'm not sure you could sort of keep the lid on the names if you exposed them to the student body broadly. >> host: well, on that issue, we wanted to show our viewers a recent cartoon in "the boston globe." it says some of the professors on the dais saying we believe we've found someone who will offend no one, and someone's screaming from the audience, hold on, isn't that the walmart face? [laughter] typically, is this the sort of process that happens at most universities, that the faculty senate has strong influence on who's selected? >> guest: unfortunately, many campuses go with just a small committee, and i think you have to get a broader feel. i mean, a commencement speech is a very odd occasion because people, controversial people speak on college campuses all the time. they don't always draw a large audience.

they may speak before their particular constituency on campus, and i think it's important that students and faculty be challenged by talks on campus and that they have an occasion, many occasions to listen to very controversial points of view. but commencements are odd. first of all, parents are there, the public is there, there are very large audiences, so people tend to want someone around whom a greater degree of consensus can be built. >> host: well, you mentioned the honorary degree. what about the payment for speakers? do most be commencement speakers get paid? and in the case of where a speaker is withdrawn for whatever reason, would that payment still be due, particularly one who might be controversial? >> guest: i doubt if a payment would still be due in most cases. i think the truth is that sometimes when an honorary degree is offered, then there may -- the speaker may not get a fee ooh, or the fee that a speaker gets may be much lower

if there's an honorary degree. money comes and goes, but if you get an honorary degree attached to your name, that stays with you until the end of your days. and there are certainly speakers that are brought in really because there's a hope that they have a particular interest in some program that's going to be initiated or is ongoing at the university, and really the university's honoring them because of that shared interest and perhaps hoping if it's a wealthy speaker that they'll actually be donating to the university in the future. i've seen many cases where commencement speakers and honorary degrees are, in fact, targeted to people of means in the hope that they will really work with the university in building some particular program that the university is concerned with. typically, they're not going to be offered any fee at all, right? i mean, they're wealthy.

they don't need the university's money. the university needs their money or wants their money. >> host: carrie nelson is former president of the american association of university presidents -- professors, rather, and he serves as an english professor at the university of illinois, and our viewers can find out more at your web site. cary-nelson.org. >> guest: i also think, by the way, that once you've announced the commencement speaker, withdrawing that invitation or you've announced an honorary degree with a commencement speaker, withdrawing it is, basically, an act of cowardice. i don't think that should happen. that has happened this year, and i think it's really deplorable. when a university doesn't have the courage to stay with its convictions, that's one of the worst things that can happen. it's also possible, in my view, to survive a demonstration at a commencement talk. i mean, there's nothing wrong, in my view, with an organized

demonstration, banners, chants, whatever taking place for 30 seconds or a minute, and then the people who have engaged in the demonstration sit down and listen to the talk. so a lot of people feel that any demonstration is unacceptable. i actually think you can live with a demonstration so long as the people who are demonstrating accept the notion that they have to let the speech go on. what is totally in conflict with academic freedom is if demonstrators try to prevent a speech from taking place. and i think some of the commence bement speakers who have withdrawn -- commencement speakers who have withdrawn this season have been afraid they might face that kind of demonstration, where the aim is to violate academic freedom and prevent the speaker from continuing. that's happened in noncommencement situations a fair number of times in the last few years. that really reflects a failure to educate people on campus about the need to let people have their say when they're

invited. >> host: professor nelson, we appreciate you joining us here on c-span. >> this month c-span is showing commencement addresses from graduation ceremonies from around the country. next, microsoft board chairman john thompson at his alma mater, florida a&m, in tallahassee. this is 15 minutes. [applause] >> well, hello, fellow raptors! [cheers and applause] it's really great to be back. thank you for the opportunity. man, this is a special day. special day for all of you and a

special day for me. [applause] thank the great faculty and staff for all they've done to improve and make this med school -- [inaudible] [cheers and applause] i couldn't come back without saying thank you to -- [inaudible] [cheers and applause] what she did for this school and for me so special. i also have to say thank you to

the -- [inaudible] for last night's party. [laughter] i appreciate the gifts, but i couldn't wear the tie this morning. it ain't my style. [laughter] most importantly, to the family ask friends of -- and friends of this class of 2014, you've worked so hard to get them here, and they are on the launching pad. a really, really important lawning pad. and to class of 2014, you are truly a special group. and i want to thank you for your willingness to put up with me this afternoon or this morning. but you've come a very, very long way, but your journey has only just begun. and i would argue if you maintain the same positive, can-do spirit and attitude that you've had to get to this place,

you'll be celebrating much, much bigger things in the years to come. because the world truly has changed, and you must believe that you, too, can change the world. so let's think about a world, a world that i visited some 47 years ago when i came to florida a a&m. back then the whole models that we would all aspire to have were simple but important people in our community. it was, in fact, a definition of success that was defined around the community in which we lived. and our role models were important teachers, preachers and doctors and lawyers in that community. as a matter of fact -- [inaudible] as a government employee. and if you were risk oriented, truly risk oriented, you became

a local business person. that person ran the local dry cleaner or the local grocery store or something that truly did serve the local community. however, the definition of opportunity and the role models that we all have today have changed quite substantially, and you sit on the cusp of being able to change it yet again. so let's think about some of those role models in the industries that you're in. while we still have very powerful teachers and preachers and doctors and lawyers, we also have role models in financial services like the chairman and ceo of amex or richard parsons, the former chairman of citigroup. we have leaders in health care like bernard -- [inaudible] and lloyd dean at.

[inaudible] or the ceo of xerox. or david drummond, the general counsel of google who is also on the board of kkr, the largest private equity firm in the world. and we have leaders in life science like ken frazier and -- [inaudible] the former coo of genentech. and perhaps the most prominent role model of all is our president, barack obama. [cheers and applause] while i'd like to think that the list is certainly hutch more vibrant -- much more vibrant and much more visible than 40 years ago, quite frankly, it's more visible than just 20 short years ago. so the question you should all ask is yourself is what's the common thread for each of these individual leaders? what did it take for them to achieve the wonderful success that they have?

well, first ask foremost, every career is a scrowrnny. journey. it's a journey focused on a particular set of skills and a particular company or is sector of our economy. today's focus for you should be more about the craft that you've developed, the skills that you develop and how you focus those skills. becoming proficient in what you do gets you excited to get up every morning to go to work and enjoy the work that you're engaged in. case in point, the average tenure for a person in tech, particularly in engineering, is just five years. because they want to practice their craft again and again and again in as many places as possible. another is building the deep skills that will make you truly the differentiated person on your team. specializing in something that truly is important to the organization that you're attar of. now, it's one thing to say i'm

going to be a salesman, as i was. it's something else to say i'm going to be a salesman in technology where my specialization is about the capabilities and knowledge that i have of the products that i sell. generalists may have good careers, but generalists generally lack exciting careers. a strong commitment to do what's important is also necessary. case in point, many people from my era had no interest in relocating. their view of their career was the company or organization in the community in which they served or lived. i would argue you should choose a place to live where you cannot only work, but grow. in the '70s it was really exciting the if you were african-american to be able to migrate to atlanta. atlanta was the mecca, and it

was the place for all of us -- the place where all of us wanted to be. as a matter of fact, the antithesis of that was boston. not a single one of us wanted to be in boston. but were it not for my willingness to move from atlanta to boston, my career clearly would not be what it became. you also need strong support, very strong support from both inside and outside the organization that you're a part of. career advisers need to have context, they need to help you understand the business that you're in and your success within that business that you're a part of. therefore, having someone from within the organization can help you put context around your career, and having a broader network of advisers from outside helps you gain a broader perspective about the world and

what your possibility might be. so in my mind there are a number of important elements for a successful career, and they start with, first and foremost, find something that you truly, truly have a passion about. something that gets you excited every day to want to get up and go to work. next, find mentors who have great experiences, and they're willing to share those experiences with you. then go out and launch yourself on a platform that can showcase your talents and experiences. and next, be realistic about your own performance and the contributions that you make to the broader team that you'll be a part of. always be open minded and ready to learn something new and exciting. and always, always find

excitement in new risks and new opportunities. so let's explore each of those very, very briefly. so finding something that's your real passion. well, for me, that was sales. i happen to have lived for many, many years with a simple but important philosophy which is nothing happens in an organization until somebody sells it. think about it. there's no need to build the product, this is no need to have an engineer, there's no need for anything unless you can move the product that has been developed. well, i would not have had that rue had it not been -- view had it not been for the director of placement here at florida a&m who saw me as a student working in the stereo store here in tallahassee, phenomenal, as a salesperson -- florida, as a salesperson. and he convinced me that i should go, regardless of my

800-pound afro -- [laughter] you should go and apply for a job out here. well, the rest is history. i had a wonderful career at ibm, and i abandoned the thought of ever becoming a lawyer which was one of the ideas that i had as you reflect back on the -- [inaudible] so my real passion was about sales. and i hope you can find your real passioncgm>ci as well. next, mentors, find mentors that really care about you throughout your career.

many linkedin connections you have. as a matter of fact, the best mentor you will have will be someone who will be more proud of your experiences and success than you might be. in my case, i was first african-american salesman for ibm in tampa, florida. my first mentor was dick fleming. and to this day, i carry a pen set on my desk that dick lemon gave me when i moved from temple, florida, to atlanta, georgia, in my first real promotion at ibm. next, find a platform where you can showcase your talents and accomplishments. well, i'm sure you're asking yourself what in the world does he mean by that. every one of us needs an environment where we can thrive, an environment where we can learn and where we can, quite frankly, make mistakes. this isn't about being a pee cac or -- pee cac or strutting --

peacock or strutting or showing off. no, it's about pushing the edge of the envelope and having someone help you calibrate how much further you can push, it's about having someone tell you when you've figured it out and when you haven't, and it's about having a role model who will help you understand when you have been successful and when you are contributing to the overall team's is success. said differently, it's important that you have the right platform. and if your platform isn't right, it's unlikely that you will have a brilliant career. next, be realistic about your own performance. it's never easy to anytime that you've made mistakes -- admit that you've made mistakes, but it happens to every one of us. i've certainly made a few. but remember this, achievers have a strong track record of success and, therefore, when they make a mistake, they get another shot.

the key to a successful career is, in fact, about risk which ultimately leads to rewards. but all rewards should not be measured in financial terms, although that's not a bad way to measure success. next, always be open minded. a successful career is about a long journey. be prepared to take risks and, oh, by the way, be prepared to change roles every 18-24 months. because when you do, you are, in fact, moving forward and growing and demonstrating that you, too, are making a contribution to the broader team. i had many, many career steps in my time at ibm. and ask along the way i got a call one day from the cfo of a company that said, john, we would like for you to become the number two financial analyst for our company in americas.

and all i had as a background was two years -- no, actually, one year at mit and four years here at florida a&m. but they had enough confidence in me that they were willing to allow me to take that risk. a few years later they came back and said how about taking a risk on a software -- [inaudible] and i'd never written a line of code that worked. [laughter] and then lo and behold, 27 years, 9 months and 13 days later, i decided that i would take big risks, and that is leave the comfortable comforts of ibm to go run a little company called she man tech. that risk was incredible, and that risk certainly paid off well for my family and the investors in our company. last week every career journey -- lastly, every career journey undoubtedly will have

many twists and turns. with every up, there will be some downs. but you should not become discouraged. you must keep your eyes focused on the true path forward. not the prize, but the path forward. learn from both your own successes and your own mistakes, and be sure to share all of your experiences with those around you. so to the class of 2014, your journey has only just begun. but there is many, many, many exciting opportunities that lie ahead. i would give you a few simple pieces of advice. first and foremost, be bold, think big, dream even bigger. next, be grounded, grounded in the reality of how important it really is to contribute to the team success and your own personal growth. next, stay focused.

it's the focus that will drive you forward and and give you the ability to win and win big. and finally, execute precisely and greatly with passion every day. there's always someone watching, and show them just how good you truly are. to the class of 2014, we're all very, very proud of you. so go out and show the world just how potent a rattler can strike. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> in january, general motors ceo mary barra became the first woman to lead a major auto company. since then, she's testified at congressional hearings about a

faulty ignition switch in gm cars that have been linked to 13 deaths and a large auto recall. her recent commencement address at the university of michigan was opposed by some students. this is just under 15 minutes. [applause] >> thank you, president coleman, members of the board of regents, distinguished faculty and administration, parents, families, friends and most importantly, the members of the class of 2014. [cheers and applause] thank you for having me here this morning. i am truly honored to be a part of your commencement exercises. president coleman, on the eve of your retirement, i would like to thank you for your tremendous

contributions that you have made to university, to ann arbor and to the state of michigan. [applause] in 12 years you have more than doubled the university's foundation, overseen the launch of 49 new degree programs and literally helped change the skyline of this city. i know i speak for many when i say congratulations and thank you for everything that you have done. [applause] now, as i thought about what i wanted to say today, i was reminded of a philosophy professor who asked his students what would they do if they had just one hour to live? one young woman said she would spend her last hour in the professor's class. l flattered, of course,d asked her why. and she said because every hour in your class feels like an

eternity. [laughter] i promise, i wo'] speak that long. actually with, it sometimes seems like an eternity since i was a student myself. i very well recall the joy of graduation and recall the promise and excitement i felt about leaving school and starting my career in earn. the world has changed significantly since then. fast forward to today, and you as members of the class of 2014, you are also members of the millennial generation. demographers like to talk about you as if you are one monolithic mass of humanity. well, i have two teenagers, one just a year away from starting college himself. so despite the fact that your generation is 80 million strong, making you the largest age grouping in american history, i'm well aware that none of you are alike. for example, not all of you are

attached to your cell phones 24/7. about one in five of you actually manage to sleep without it. [laughter] and this may come as a shock, but you are not millionaires, not yet. but you are the richest generation in history with a collective spending power and influence of almost a trillion dollars. not all of you have short attention spans. let me repeat that. [laughter] not all of you have short attention spans. in fact, some of you have not sent a text or a tweet in the entire three minutes i've been speaking. [laughter] not all of you speak acronyms. hbu, idk, ftw. for the parents in the audience, that's how about you, i don't know, and for the win. in fact, some of you still use

your cell phones to actually make phone calls, omg. [laughter] finally, not all of you, not all of you believe you will be famous, but thanks to instagram, twitter ask youtube, some of you already are. [laughter] of course, not everything has changed since i was a student. the skills you have learned here at michigan -- critical thinking, problem solving, communications, analysis and teamwork -- they are just as essential today as they were 30 years ago. but as i'm sure you know these very well, these skills are just the start of what you need for success in today's challenging and fast-paced world. they are the price of admission to today's fast-paced, ever-changing and ever-global economy. to stand out, to really make a difference, you will also need the kind of skills and qualities that most of us learn from experience over time. allow me to offer you a half a

dozen lessons i have learned since my graduation. lessons that have been important to me and, hopefully, will be valuable to you. first, no matter what you choose to do in life, pursue it with passion and hard work. in my experience in school and career at work and at play, there are lots of talented people out there, but talent alone isn't enough. you need something more. one thing that distinguishes those who really make a difference in life, those who really contribute is passion and hard work. remember, hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard. so don't be content to work around the edges of your profession. don't wait to be invited to important meetings or ask to work on crucial assignments. instead, do what it takes to insure that you're in the middle of your business. speak up, volunteer, show your

enthusiasm, knock on doors. as an employee, your enthusiasm will make your job more interesting and get you noticed. as a manager, your passion will inspire others to join your team and work as hard as you to accomplish great things. two, conduct yourself with integrity at all times. in every aspect of your life, be honest, be fair, keep your promises, do what's right for your family, for your friends, for your customers, for your clients, for your coworkers, for yourself. remember, how you get things done is just as important as getting them done. and remember that your integrity is priceless when unquestioned but worthless or worse when it isn't. your integrity is one of the most valuable possessions you have. protect it, cultivate it, wear it with pride. this is a lesson the university

of michigan has taught for nearly 200 years, and we all do well to remember it every day. three, build relationships. everything we know about the class of 2014 tells us you are one of the most talented and accomplished classes in this school's history. i have no doubt that many of you will go on to do great things, but remember, no one does great things alone. success is always a team effort, and as a tomorrow's team leaders, you must earn the respect and trust of the people you lead. that means being open, seeking solutions, often listening more than talking. because people don't care what you know until they know that you care. to quote bo -- [inaudible] if you do not like people, you will not take the time to get to know them. if you don't know them, you will have no idea what scares them,

what motivates them and what inspires them. remember, too, you can't build a relationship only when you need it. like so many important things in life, strong relationships are built gradually and steadily over time, and there's no better time to start than now. four, address challenges head on. i'm reminded of the plant manager who asked his lead engineer to explain her hiring process. she said, well, i fill a bathtub with water and offer the applicant a teaspoon, a cup and a bucket. then we ask him or her to empty the tub. i get out, the manager said. a go-getter will use the bucket. no, the engineer said, a go-getter will pull the drain plug. [laughter] if the you have an issue in your life at work or at home, pug the drain plug -- pull the drape plug. address it head on and with everything you have.

address it right away. in my experience, it's much better to get the right people in the room, make a plan and address that challenge. and remember, hope is not a strategy. problems don't go away when you ignore them. they tend to get bigger. as tomorrow's leaders, you have a great opportunity to use your knowledge and passion to build a fulfilling life for yourself, but do more than that. use your talents to help build better lives for others as well. i imagine we have a few of you that are spider-man fans in the crowd. remember, with great power comes great responsibility. never underestimate the fact that you can have a huge influence on others in actions large or small. i noted earlier how the millennial generation is the largest and rich and most technological generation in american history.

what i didn't say is you're also the most inclusive and the most optimistic. use these traits along with the unprecedented access to information and global communications that we have today to challenge convention. more than any other generation in history, you have the power to expose and correct injustice, to rethink outdated assumptions, to truly make a difference. and remember, while there's certainly a lot wrong in this world today, there's also a lot that's right. not everything needs changing. some things need protecting. and that could be just as important, challenging and rewarding as changing the world. i hope that each of you will find something you feel strongly about supporting, that you will make it an important part of your life, and that way you can truly make the world a better place. finally, the last thing i want to mention on this special day is to remember your family, your

friends and your faith. keep your friends and family close. i just can't tell you how important they are. they make your life journey truly rewarding. during the good times, you'll have someone to celebrate with, like today. and during the tough times, you'll have someone to turn to for advice, comfort and love. remember that this day is almost as important for your parents and loved ones ass for you -- as it is for you, and i can say as a mom it might even be more important. be sure to thank them and tell them how much you appreciate their support and sacrifice. and remember your faith, whatever it may be. faith doesn't make things easy, but it can make things possible. so a lot has changed in the 29 years since i sat in your chair, and a lot has stayed the same. it may feel like you have your life mapped out, but i can assure you things will happen

that you cannot even imagine as you sit here today. be hope to opportunities as they occur. each new experience will broaden your skills and your perspective. embrace them, enjoy them, and sometimes you'll have to overcome them. but they are the experiences that make you unique and the milestones that will define your life. again, my sincere thanks for the opportunity to speak to you today, and most of all, congratulations to each and every one of this year's graduates. this is your life, and i'm so excited for each and every one of you. thank you and go blue. [applause] >> c-span will have commencement speeches later this weekend. sander night, secretary of state

john kerry speaking to graduates at yale university. u.n. ambassador samantha powers at the university of vermont in burlington. homeland security secretary jeh johnson speaks at his alma mater, morehouse, and federal reserve chair janet yellen is the speak be at new york university's -- speaker at new york university's commencement later this week on c-span. >> this month the fcc voted 3-2 to proceed on a proposal that could allow content providers like netflix to pay for faster internet service. later today, the progressive policy institute will look at the proposal and what it could mean to consumers. join us for live coverage at noon eastern here on c-span2. >> next, technology experts discuss how innovation and new technologies affect our culture, our behavior and policy making. the council on foreign relations hosted the panel discussion.

it's about an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> okay. welcome to today's council on foreign relations meeting. my name is lee brenner, i am the cofounder and publisher of hypervoccal.com which is a next generation news and media company. i also co-host a sirius xm show called politics powered by twitter looking how politics and policy have been altered, changed and are affected by social media and what is playing in the prism of social media. so great to have you all today. we're going to talk about the future, all right? so we've got a lot to cover. [laughter] but really focused on policy, technology, how those things interabout. and we've got two great people with us, joel garreau who's a lincoln professor of law, culture and values at arizona state university, a futcher --

[inaudible] fellow at the new america foundation. he spent almost 40 years at "the washington post" -- >> 40. >> almost 40, right. >> 40, yeah. >> and covering society and culture and how things were changing in this country and things are changing. we also have michael rogers, founder of practical futurists. he is one -- one of his former titles, futurist in residence at "the new york times." that was a great title. but i'm going to ask each of them to just give a quick one-minute overview of what they are paying attention to, and then we can kind of jump into a conversation for a bit, and then we'll open it up to questions halfway through. so let's start with joel. give me a sense of what you've been working on in terms of technology and policy. >> yeah. my area of interest is that we're at a inflection point in history. for the first time this hundreds of thousands of years, our technologies are not aimed

outward at modifying our environment in the fashion of fire, clothes, cities, agriculture, space travel. increasingly, these technologies are aimed inward at modifying our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities and our kids. and if you can do a all that, you're in the stunning position of being the first species to take control of your own evolution. not inçó some distant science fiction future, but rightñi now, on our watch. ..ñixdñrçóñiñiñr

he point 9 out the move into cities for us happened very, very quickly, as a species over a thousand years. when we moved into cities it was a fundamental shift into society for several reasons. we needed business models and new laws to live as opposed to family groups we had. number two, it took us away from the source of our food. it was one step of abstraction away from the physical world. urbanization was an enormous shift. i think virtualization, which is creation of a virtual world that runs parallel to the physical world we live all of the time is the next big step after urbanization. right now we're at very

beginning of virtualization but what it means ultimately we will all be connected all of the time to the virtual world, 24 hours a day, either consciously through a new generation of devices or unconsciously through all objects around us. just as urbanization, really transformed society, the our laws the way we live, i think that virtualization will do the same. >> michael, i think that is a great place to start. i was talking on radio recently about the internet of things, that concept of everything being connected that we use. your refrigerators, everything else that can tell you how to live your life. i guess a general question, is it a good thing for society in the sense that are people, are we going to get to a point or are we coming very quickly to a point where there will be major conflict in society where people say, we have to stop this, not conservative politically but look, this is moving too fast?

or are things moving so quickly and people are going to adapt and it is coming and people will learn to live with these technologies? >> i think it's a combination of things. i think people are adapting to technology more quickly than they used to. i my example i like to use, my banking clients said it took an entire generation to get people to use atm, automatic teller machines. we got the taking money out part quickly but putting money took about a generation, 20 years. i like to flash forward to the biggest dating site, match.com. i interviewed the creator of match.com what would he have done differently he said i would have invested much more earlier. he had no idea online dating went something pretty weird and risky to mainstream in eight years. finally facebook.

facebook launched in 2006 was dot edu. the fastest growing segment on facebook was women over 55. we're seeing acceleration of the adoption rate. >> right. i would say that last part is part of the reason that facebook is no longer cool. not for the women part, let me finish, cool for the -- no, no. [laughter]. >> cool for -- >> cool for kids, teenagers because their mothers are on the platform right now. so they're not adopting it. so they are using mobile technologies. i didn't mean that. >> nothing worse than being friended by your mom. >> right. that is actually become a cultural point. so, looking at that technology of things, things people use, joel are we looking at the new technologies, there is now a generation just coming into adulthood that has never known

life without the internet. right, so they are coming out and anyone born now internet means completely different thing than it means to these 18-year-olds. how does the technology change for kids today, versus the way society -- will there be rifts between adults of all different ages and children? can that be remedied? >> well, my interest is in culture and values, who we are, how we got that way, where we're headed what makes us tick, that is my thing. i'm not as big a nerd i might sound being up here but i mean i just walk up to the technology to see what life reflects human nature. i don't care about the gear per se. but one of the things that looks pretty clear to me is that technology moves faster than culture. there is a culture lag and i guess everybody in this room knows what i mean when i say moore's law, right? curve of accelerating change? that is also true now increasingly for biology and

robotics and nano. and if, the curve accelerating change is going up like this, if i respond more or less flat, like we're waiting for house judiciary to solve our problems, we're obviously toast, right? because the gaps keep getting wider and wider. i have an optimistic view hoping our responses will come up on a second curve but in the meantime i think the reason you're seeing more and more social weirdness, tea party take notice, is that when, i'm really interested in that as a response. what is going on is that ground is moving beneath our feet and that, if anything, it is increasing. and i think when the ground moves beneath your feet, any sane prime mate looks for something solid to hang on to. i think what you're seeing people who are increasingly buying simple narratives that

sound right. i mean, you know, all of the commentators, cable commentators and stuff like that all of whom are offering simple narratives which by the way are probably wrong but they are something solid to hang on to and that's what we're worries me. i think we have to accelerate our narratives. >> lee, let me follow up, you used the phrase, the next generation that is always a real hot button in any audience i'm dealing with, even if dealing with venture capitalists and we're talking about invery muchs with 10-year time frames and most technical stuff you can think of. after words, there is always a question, what about these kids? the fact is the millenial generation, the largest generation in american history, that is the one really growing up with technology. it is interesting, some researchers want to divide millenials this in two halves, 10 to 20-year-olds and 20 to 30-year-olds and call the 20 to 30-year-olds senior millenials.

i love to tell a 26-year-old you're a senior. the reason the whole virtual relationship to the real world and 10 to 20-year-olds and their younger siblings is so different. where is this going? i have to say this is one enormous science experiment because we genuinely don't know what the effects are growing up so attached to the virtual world, virtual relationships. but the virtual relationship i think is crucial. i think this generation will grow up being able to create and maintain meaningful virtual relationships. personal lives and business lives in a way the boomers just can't understand and that will really change this notion of virtualization. >> and general topic, almost, joel, you were referring to this, as technology advances very quickly and society may not necessarily be caught up to the speed at which it is, moving, you know, general question could be, are people, is internet and

technology making people smarter or dumber. i was talking about that earlier, kind of an angle of that, will the next generation, young people growing up with this technology, because they are living with it from day one, will they be at todayed so their learning curve will be better and they will be able to be smarter and help to use it constantly, compared to people, can say, oh, young people will actually solve problems here. maybe they have at least more tools than people that hadn't grown up with this technology? it is harder for them to adapt even though they will be around for the next few decades? >> i would be happy with employed. you know, i don't know if they're adapting. i don't really care. i just want them out of my basement. the, i have two daughters. they're both, and one of them is here and both very happily employed, thank you very much. god bless you, dear. [laughter]. but no, seriously, one of the

things i'm very worried about, i think we all are, what happens if this time it is different? you know, what happens -- people who, there is this whole argument the ludites were crazy because their jobs were taken away but they ended up moving to the cities and getting better jobs and blah, blah, which is all true but meanwhile they had lost their jobs and there was an awful lot of revolution and war and dead people in the course of what we now smooth out as this curve. and you know, i can easily imagine it. i mean, all politics is local. so i, was a reporter and editor at "washington post." in 2009 i ended up taking last buyout of senior staff before layoffs started because there is no business model. now i'm at an university. if that happens to me again and that industry gets shot out from under me i will start taking this stuff personally, you know.

i'm just very cognizant of the fact we had 25% unemployment, national socialism began looking good to a lot of people. of course so did the new deal. this could be some pretty heavy upheaval and i imagine it will start with the young. >> what role does government play in that then? because of potential, technology advances which are replacing so many jobs and so much money is being put into through venture capitalists through technologies and companies that don't necessarily hire the same way a general motors and some of these other companies in the past did with similar market capitalization? how does, what does the government have to do to make sure or to help people have jobs in the future? >> you know, that's a very broad question and that ranges from

income redistribution, if necessary, because we may end up 30 years out with a class of people who have a lot of time on share hands and relatively well-educated and we don't know quite what to do with them. income redistribution is one way to keep the revolution out of the streets. second be realistic what jobs will continue in the future and which won't. we talked earlier i finished with a group that represents plumbers, electricians, heating and air-conditioning contractors, their problem is finding young workers because the united states really focuses on everyone goes to a four-year college, get as degree and sits in an office. those jobs are easily automated and outsourced it is fiction almost. i work with legal firms. young lawyers are having a difficult time partly because of outsourcing and partly because of automation. so the hvac contractors want to bring a message to parents, school districts and legislators, that says, these

are good jobs. being a plumber can't be automated and it can't be outsourced. it is perfectly dignified thing to do. one guy said to me, you know, my son's friend all went to college, four-year degree. came home with $40,000s of debt, live at home. kissed went to work for me at the same time, buying his first house, thinking of getting married and having a kid. we have to be realistic what jobs really are going to be there. >> i think we're coming out of a phase, first, last 15 years or so at least of tech know utopianism. this would be great and we'll solve, pain, suffering, stupidity, ignorance and death. and a still bunch people believe that, a lot of them in silicon valley and a lot in the u.s. government. one of the things you have to keep track of, just about all of this change we're talking about was financed by the u.s. government.

steve jobs, that whole myth about the garage, i mean he was a packager and a designer. and a great one, don't get me wrong but every single technology in your smartphone was created by the u.s. government from siri to gps to the touch-screen all of this. this is, these are the guys, darpa, defense advance research projects agency where i was epbedded for a year, i'm really struck not yesterday's news about information technology but tomorrow's news about biology which is where, darpa just launched into directorate, bto, biological technologies office. it is very rare for them to create a new directorate. the reason they finally did because they had so many biology programs going across their other directorate they finally had to create one place for it to get all of these things into one place to try to get their arms around it. i commend it to your attention. go to the darpa website and go

to bto and look what they're doing there. it is pretty -- they haven't gotten the memo. they're still very optimistic. one of the things they're doing is program called, living foundries, 1000 molecules. what this is about is that at arizona state university in bio design which is a big biotechnology lab, for example, on the roof we've got creatures that eat co2 and poop gasoline. seriously, thereby solving middle east and climate change hopefully in the near future. the way you do that is, you know, there are 27 chemical steps to go from carbon dioxide to crude equivalent. all occur in nature but not in one creature. what you do, take 27 steps. genetically stitch them together in one bacteria and bam, you have crude equivalent. well what darpa is working on right now in the living foundries business is creating a

thousand novel molecules that you have never seen before, novel materials, essentially in the same way. and the list of what they're working on is another one called prophecy. that is another one of their current things which is about biological invulnerability. there is another one called, bio crow necessarity, which among other things is meant to reverse aging. i mean, yeah. check out the darpa website. check out bto. now the interesting thing to me is also about the reaction to all this is also largely government-funded so far. like, for example, one of my big things is ethics. i'm an ethics professor. when it comes to ethics of this technology, some. people most ahead of us is like the navy for example. i give them tons of credit. over here in annapolis and over here on the west coast. they have lethal autonomous

robots. they have got robots that do not need a human to pull the trigger. they're called smart minds. these smart mind register, an enemy ship or not. they decide whether to blow it up. and because navy has this problem, right? you can't put electricity very easily through water. so they have a hard time communicating with their robots. so they are in the forefront of creating ethical robots. are they going to succeed? i have no idea. am i glad somebody is working on it? you bet. >> what role, some of these things being created, i assume darpa website doesn't have anything they're working on most likely. >> you would amazed actually. >> but in the sense of things they're creating obviously there is plenty of practical uses and something people haven't thought of but medicine and science all these things that can help humanity. there is other side of things they may be creating molecules they don't necessarily know exactly what it will turn into

30 years from now. what the body will react to it. michael, what role do you think the media has in shaping cultural and societal opinions about these types of things? i mean how does, how important is, is there a media anymore that actually has that role in terms of shaping opinion? or is it so democratized there isn't necessarily those cultural icons in media? >> i think we're going through a period now where media is being reinvented and that the kind of scientific journalism, which is really what's necessary to understand the technology you need to understand some of the science hyped it. there is a long great tradition of science journalism in the united states but there are fewer and fewer places that can support that kind of journalism. we have a big hole, we're not sure how we're going going to fill it. i say the last century was golden age of journalism. but not that we did such great

things but we had so many gold. when you are a monopoly or hold printing press or broadcasting tower, you made so much money, you really did, we invented this church-state relationship in the media. in other words they made so much money the business people actually didn't care what we reporters did that much. you know, we would upset the local car dealer maybe but you know, he wouldn't advertise for six months but he would come back. so we invented this church-state relationship that did some amazing journalism because they basically let us do whatever we wanted. there was great science journalism. probably back, going back to the '70s, one of the first times that the specter of genetic engineering came up. that was a an invention of dna. basically underpinnings of many of these technologies today. there was conference of scientists to talk about the threats and possibilities of it. very thoughtfully reported by dozens of newspapers. craziness appeared but craziness

sort of got dam 7ed down. i don't think there is equivalent of that today. and we need to solve that problem. >> there has been a lot, there's been tons of discussion about the role, the size of government, regulation and a lot of these things and obviously people, you mentioned tea party but there is lot of people say, government needs to be smaller, but with a smaller government they don't necessarily create all the advances people don't know are part of their phones and other things. the other side of that, what role does the government have in regulating the steve jobs creation that actually repackages or advances something that the government has created. we can obviously talk a little bit about data and everything else that is going on. what role generally do you think government has in regulating? are there people in government that are focused on that because often times government is not as advanced, darpa is probably the most advanced. those people regulating aren't as advanced. >> from my sense i attend a lot of conferences on this subject

and i think it is doomed. this comes, if you think that culture moves slower than innovation, well then comes regulation in washington and all that. i mean, you go to the conferences with all these people they act as if it is possible -- one thing i'm interested in how do you govern technologies that don't exist yet. that is one of my core interests. that is why i'm in the law school. they're talking about spending five or 10-year to regulate technologies that are already five or 10 years old. i see nothing good coming out of that. i just have a lot of trouble. i mean what i'm, i'm a congenital optimist, so i'm hoping what replace this is industrial age kind of mechanics tic reg writing that i view as hopeless, i'm wondering what happens if you end up with, how do you accelerate the curve of human response? my hunch is that the way you

would do that is in a bottom-up, clock-like way, rather than -- i think idea of top down, hierachical stuff, is just not fast enough. nothing wrong in the abstract. it is just not fast enough. so i mean, what i'm very interested in when you see, for example, diy biology, do it yourself biology coming up which is happening and people stitching stuff together for fun. i'm going to be very interested to see if, what kind of ethics and morals evolve fast around that in a bottom-up way. i have a lot more optimism about the people who are doing it coming up with ways to make sure we don't destroy the human race than i do in the fda frankly. >> is that a question then, lee, is there going to be self-regulation that will take a bigger role than government

where maybe we have crowd sourcing on everything from fund-raising and ideas but is that maybe there will absence of much more lower government walls, and much more crowd sourcing of regulation? >> depend what you mean by regulation? >> self-regulation often makes me nervous because it east not the little guy who is doing the self-regulating. it is the big corporations. let's take for example the regulation of the internet within the united states. the internet was launched by darpa but essentially invented by university professors. it was darpa money and guys at stanford and ucla invented this thing in the late '60s, where their biggest goal was to see email went from palo alto to los angeles. that was a triumph. i went to school in silicon valley and i know some of these guys. once over beers one of them said, if we had known what the internet would have turned into we would have never built it the way we did.

it is utterly insecure. it is hopelessly insecure. it is wild west. we'll see in terms of government internationally over next decade the rule of law over the internet. one of the countries resisting that the most is the united states. we've been very laissez-faire about the internet and whole virtual world which was a good thing for a while but now we have such powerful constituencies, internet advertising companies, google, facebook, gigantic lobbying interests that are still doing their best to keep the internet from being regulated. it is interesting, a lot of the best thinking i believe about privacy, data retention, things like that is going on in europe because they are not hindered by enormous lobbying efforts in the united states towards self-regulation. >> i think some of the most interesting conversations in the united states that is going on about biology is occurring in the sports pages.

the all technologies are always adapted first wherever you see the greatest competition. so not too surprising when you talk about human enhancement, enhancing human cognition, human memory capabilities, aging, the whole deal, i mean, coming up with version 2.0 humans, all of which is in the works, where this conversation is being, the most thoughtful is in the sports pages where you're asking whether barry bonds should go around with an asterisk on his forehead for the rest of his life because he is not the same kind human as willie mays, his godfather and all the people whose records they broke. this is, we're having a nuance, it is not all it is not all knee-jerk. you're having nuanced conversations where people say on the one hand, well all, all people want to see is speckel and if you can hit more home

runs, mauz sell to have. -- mazeltov. the whole narrative behind sports is about human competition and excelling and becoming more of yourself, and blah, blah. what happens if you become a machine that has a great pharmaceutical crew? that is, that is what, turns out to be? we're having that conversation right now in a bottom up way. i think that is a lot smarter and more interesting than most of the regulatory efforts i've seen here in washington. >> they are aimed at regulation which at least is sort of private regulation. how do you regulate what an athlete is allowed to do to their body . >> that's what i mean by regulation? if you're talking about fda, that's hopeless. if you're deciding what is okay and what is not okay in the terms of narrative, and what i will buy a ticket for and what i

won't, i don't expect for example, to see human cloning anytime soon. not because it is not technologically possible, of course it is but because there's been such a revulsion to it. even more so than to gmos. if you count that kind of bottom-up narrative as regulation that's where i end up being a little bit more optimistic. >> the other interesting point we don't really think about these technologies until we see examples of what they can do. as you say sports is where it first happens. we think about these in the abstract and we become overwhelmed but when the specifics come along i'm a little optimistic about the human character. >> we'll actually open it up and invite audience members to join in this discussion. please wait for the microphone and speak directly into it. stand, state your name and affiliation and keep your questions and comments concise to allow as many attendees as possible to speak. so i will start calling on

people. >> julia moore, from the pew charitable trust. if i could just say that the web was also supported by the national science foundation and not just darpa, small commercial. but the real question is, i have really no faith in either bottom-up or top-down regulation. but i think there's a middle ground like the human embryonic fertilization authority in great britain and i wondered if either of you were familiar with that model and whether you think that that might in fact be a way for the future? >> never heard of it. >> it is an institute, sort of semiinstitute? >> [inaudible] not to hog the microphone but the first test tube baby, louise

brown, was of course born in britain and, the british had something called, the warnot commission and have developed an authority over human embryonic fertilization and other genetic issues that is made up of a public board that is very carefully selected and largely reflects the general exthicks, if you will of the british population and has kept up very well with the science and changed with the science and really think is a model we should take a look at here more in the united states. >> i'm with the naval postgraduate school. i'm impressed with what you're saying because. i grew up with parents always

way ahead of the technology. the dilemma i find human beings have great difficulty. change is really hard. younger kids will live in a world until things change. wonderful article in "scientific american," the brain, first thing you learn to learn is easiest thing for you to keep going back to. so you've got this question of adaptation that is here. what, another thing that think is terribly important which gets back to your journalism thing is training people to be able to tell stories. we don't do that. that is not considered a very important skill in our educational system. if you can't tell stories, how can people figure out what these alternatives are. i too worry about all the mechanic cannization of our lives. the question of jobs, we'll have

to rethink what work is or what people will get paid to do. the other day i saw some people picking up stuff on the street wearing red vests and i went up and said thank you for doing that we need people doing that you have to find a way to give people respect for doing a lot of work that we wouldn't want to do. and machines are not going to change that but i think it is desperately needed. >> gentleman in the back. >> jeff spencer, center for public integrity. joel, lee, michael, could you, address the question, this question, are we headed for the dystopia portrayed by dave he had garcia in the circle, inevitably? how can we avoid it if we want to? >> oh, thank you for that. this is my hobby horse, thank you. i don't make predictions. i don't have a crystal ball. i don't know anybody who does. i'm still waiting for my

jetpack. what i do is scenarios. which are systemic, rational, logical stories, narrative about what the future might be like given the facts that we've actually got on the ground right now. when you talk about human enhancement, you basically end up with heaven, hell and prevail as three scenarios. the heaven scenario, the curve goes straight up, conquer, pain, suffering, stupidity, death, and we merge with machines and this is utopia. this is the, might happen, perfectly credible. it is mapping moore's law into the future. the hell scenario is the mirror opposite. you have the same rapid change but it gets into the hands of mad men or fools and we wipe out the human race in the next two days. again, a perfectly credible -- believe me, that is the business a perfectly credible scenario. the one that most people most easily identify with. i have guess we had a lousy 20th century.

every time you say it will all go to hell, yep, you got that straight. but the third scenario is not the one i'm predicting and one i'm rooting for, that is prevail. prevail is not some middle ground between the heaven and hell. heaven and hell are tecno deterministic. meaning they both time what matters how many transistors you get to talk to each other on the basis of moore's law. prevail is way over in its own territory because it's got a fundamentally difficult proposition which is maybe what happens, maybe what matters is how many ornery, imaginative, surprising, humans you can hook up. there's reasons for guarded optimism that the human connection is what matters. if you look out in the future of the human race from 12 run ad, you see marauding hoards and plagues, over for this species.

1450, moveable type printing press. all of sudden you have a way of storing collecting, distributing ideas. the results are amazing. you get the renaissance and enlightenment and world we have today. a lot of examples. throughout our literature and stories we get a lot of prevail stories. so the question i'm asking myself is, can we figure out a way to accelerate the second curve of human response in a max, if the identical way to the way darpa accelerates the first curve of technological challenges? and i watched something called the prevail project which is intended to do, see if we can do exactly that. in that scenario you ask yourself, have you, how would you know if the prevail scenario was happening? and i would guess what you would see is lot of increased pace of out of know where, bottom-up,

flock-like, unexpected things. have we seen that much lately? of course, what about ebay. that is not just the world's biggest free market. that is lot of people doing complicated things without leaders. what about facebook? what about twitter? i have no idea what twitter is good for but if it flips out every tyrant in the middle east i'm interested. >> that is the bow tie. >> hi, i'm jake nelson from yale university. my question is about the relationship between technology and truth and i think coming from the millennial generation i guess if i can take that label on, thinking of highbrow example and maybe a lower brow example and going to wikipedia, assuming something you read is true, or thinking on the other hand thinking of more recent developments like v off x and 538, these sites that attempt to either use data or use very sort of simple ways to depict very complex situations. and affecting the way in which

people understand what is going on. sort of this idea of very, sort of boiled down, simple, models, masquerading as truth. if that is related to the technology or if it is important to think about as we continue to look at the role of technology. >> i think we're seeing a fundamental shift in communications skills and it is just starting now. but, one of the more controversial things i say particularly in audiences like this. i do believe we're coming to the end of widespread, long form, reading and writing over next couple decades. those skills will be in very rapid decline. and the fact is it is because you don't need to read and write that much to get a lot of information about the world. i tell the story of my mother, second grade teacher. long ago, who as little boy didn't know how to read, didn't get reading things. she would find out he was interested in antique cars and

bring in books on antique cars and start going through them and lo and behold he is a reader. he doesn't need to look at books. he can see video and audio and slide shows b we see that, long form, reading, i mean anything over 200 word, reading and writing declining very, very fast because it is simply not going to be necessary. and i think what we don't understand what that does to thinking processes. to what extent thinking process is formed by learning to read but in my distaupe i can't moments -- dystopia moments we'll look about 2025, 2030, we'll look back with humor with kids with reading disabilities. we will understand that read something not a natural skill to begin with. in 2025, we'll look for with reading abilities. like star athletes, we'll say, we'll teach you to read and write really well. so, i think that's why we're

starting to exceed this world of boiled down, jargon journalism or graphic journalism. and i don't think it's a good thing. >> can i build on that for a minute. >> yeah, please. >> that's a scary scenario. one of the things i'm, as a professional story teller, i note that storytellers have been getting the best piece of meat around the campfire for extremely long time and that, you know the, i don't expect that to change in the future because that is such, we're pattern-seeking story telling animals. that's who we are, rather than look up into the night sky and deal with the fact maybe all those bright dots are random distribution. no, we come up with the most amazing stories about bears and princesses and lions and stories and so forth. we can't stand the possibility that is random and we create

stories instead. if that were to change, if all of a sudden we were no longer the story-telling species, that would be a profound shift in what it means to be human and it is one that i have a hard time writing that scenario over the next 20 or 30 or 40 years. i mean my problem is that it is getting best piece of the meat around the campfire, rewarding the storytellers is the challenge and that's where you, i could imagine seeing a really dark, really dark next 10 or 20 years before the next, between the collapse of the old business model which has occurred already and the rise of the new one but to say that there is not going to be story telling as part of the human species, an important and rich and complex ways, wow, i don't want to think about that scenario. i have a hard time with that.

>> although maybe story telling will always exist but the platform will change. >> exactly. >> they may tell, an entire novel will come out in 140 character bursts and nike will decide -- you. >> believer that? >> oh, yeah. nike says listen, we have 12 million people following them and pay that person and put an ad for nike every once in a while. not saying that is entirely new or concept or model but maybe that scenario. yes. >> thank you, gentlemen, for your conversation. my name is wendell and i'm with humanity in action. your comments on unemployment in this country i found incredibly pregnant, given there is surplus of labor in this country and very robust and active state which ensnares overwhelmingly black bodies and brown bodies too. so i love to hear your insight

on incarceration, millenials and surplus labor in this country. thank you. well, you know, i mitzi earlier on said a good point. we need two things about finding jobs for people. we need sort of service work more dignity and we need to pay more for it, to give people truly living wages. not unlike the early days of factories, when factory workers went in and they didn't make much money at all. it was not until unionization and suddenly they were middle class and the middle class drove our economic engines. now it is pretty clear that surface workers are going to be driving, those are going to be the jobs. they will be driving the economy but not if they make $7 an hour.

so, incarceration i think is what you try to preven and we really need to relook again at the nature of work in show sight, i think. >> if i could just add to that. again if you're looking at the technology that's aimed inward modifying what we are as humans like cognition and memory, you can pretty easily imagine scenarios in which the not-too-distant future we end up with at least three different kind of humans. the enhanced, the naturals and the rest. the enhanced are the ones who embrace these technologies and who and for them and for their children and who every six months, something brand new -- i've got some of this stuff in my pack. things like that shuts off -- to sleep, fda approved. you end up with more enhanced humans that jump at this. their kid are ones that end up

being smarter and better able to get into the best colleges and so forth. tough decide how you feel about that. then there are naturals. they are the ones who do have access to the technology bus they choose not to indulge, like today's fundamentalist who eschew modern pleasures. then you have the rest, which and these are the people who do not have access to these technologies for reasons of geeing graph if i or -- geography or class or whatever. that could get real ugly real fast. it has been a long time since we've seen more than one kind of human walking around at the same time. 25 or 40,000 years depending how you read the fossil evidence. you know, if we all of a sudden, i wondered, you look at some of our wars right now. you look at afghanistan and you look at our warfighters versus the people from the, who

essentially haven'ting changed a hello of a -- hell of a lot since the 14th century. you say, wow, is this what it looks like? is this the beginning? scary scenarios. >> hi, evan kaplan from control risks. you talked about regulation with respect to emerging technologies. i wonder about safetied and security that goes beyond regulation. you the ability of mad men to wipe out the human race in two days. whether it's a madman or somebody who makes a mistake, how do we create safety vales or law enforcement or security service that prevent accident or deliberate act from happening? >> i'm real pessimistic about police forces doing this. i'm, i am much more optimistic about, my cockeyed optimism is

based on what bottom-up, flock-like, surprising solutions look like. so, for example, if you had, 30 years ago if we had said that in the year 2014 every day, every second of every day our most important computers that regulate everything from our, everything in the world would be attacked by the most incredibly malicious and imaginative and sophisticated pieces of software, you know, bugs and worms and everything, you know, we would, in the '70s you would have said okay, it is over for the species, we're toast, right? so but now in fact what's happened is, that without really a hell of a lot in the way of government regulation, we have developed bottom-up responses and there are entire industries that design -- i'm not saying, i'm not saying it is perfect. i'm saying they exist.

don't get me wrong. i'm not suggesting any of this is panacea. i'm just saying i'm a student of good enough solutions and in this, using this by analogy you've got good enough -- does everybody's credit cards get stolen? sure. do we indict half the chinese military? sure. is this a perfect solution? no. but it is not the catastrophe that you would have imagined had i given you this scenario in the '70s. so, this species has a history of muddling through. i mean that is part of what prevail is all about, heroic muddling through, like huckleberry finn, exodus in the bible, those are prevail stories. that is the question i got, can we have scenarios where we have heroic muddling through? maybe that is what control risk does for a living. [laughing] >> let me, quick thoughts on regulation. first is in life sciences.

i think we have seen some pretty good self-regulation. just recently, over, for example, what to do with the final smallpox virus. the modified bird flu question. within the scientific community there is the roots of some self-regulation that we've seen over the years and is not a bad thing and it works. when it gets into the capitalist system, self-regulation begins to break down. look at general motors. a bunch of engineers knew too heavy a key chain would cause the driver to die, right? but that never got reported because it was going to cost 18 cents more per switch to fix it. so there is regulation but it can be overcome easily by economics. the second piece when it comes to the internet specifically, i think this is a case where we will see much more global activity. right now it is very desperate. we have countries controlling parts of their internet.

we have the united states being quite laissez-faire. ultimately think we're going to move towards some element of a more international set of guidelines. one thing i think we're going to see is internet passports. some ability to have a real identity on the internet. it is astonishing such an important thing doesn't have legal identities at this point. so, every country is sort of working on, all western democracies are working on how you make a legal identity, probably with some biometric, when you enter into the virtual world we pretty sure know who you are. it is spoofable between -- >> cuba will love that. >> that is why the americans are being so careful bit. because national i.d. is a third rail but these won't be i.d.s that you have to use all the time of the just the way a drivers license. but if you like to get on a airplane, it is really handy to have a drivers license. real identities on internet will

be a big step forward. >> most effective regulators we got are the leaguers. on the last year we learned nsa does for a living, that made more difference than the entire regulatory apparatus of washington, d.c. i would argue. >> and so regulators who, i won't names, 99% of scientists are wrong on certain things. >> yeah. >> and they admit it. that's part of the deal. >> yep. my name is sara, and i work for hewlett-packard. my question is about the i.t. industry and what can you say about the ability of the industry in terms of meeting peoples needs today and being ahead of the pack and where it's going and how does this fall into your vision of the future under the different scenarios? how helpful this industry, what else do you think? >> well i think the i.t.

industry is absolutely crucial in the sense that, to, to talk about the scenarios, we are, you know, running into a lot of challenges between now and 2050, given population increase, that's inevitable. the move towards sustainability which we'll really going to need to have, and move away from the constant growth notion. i.t., the combination of a global network, smart objects, very intelligent software of say, ibm watson class that is able to look at a lot of data to come up with move novel solutions to solve problems i think is extremely helpful. in terms of the world i know analysts in the telecom industry who seriously say, by 2020, 2021, absolutely everyone on the planet could have a phone if they want, which is amazing

concept. concept of very low cost chinese hardware and indian business model lets you sell mobile service to people who earn $2 a day and make a profit. so, pakistan just the other day, one of the last countries to approve 3g networks. a lot of those people by early 20s will have smartphones to be connected to the internet. it is really going to happen. hard to imagine how transformative that will be. i think i.t., along with smart approaches to biology, but biology takes a little longer. i.t. can make positive changes very, very quickly. >> can i expand on that for a minute. in your question is embedded is the notion that information technology is a thing, a separate thing. that is somehow distinct from nano robotics, genetics, ordinary life. i wonder about that. everything that we seem to be heading towards is smaller, more

ubiquitous, you know, more, and if we're not carrying it on ourselves personally, knowingly we're being watched by somebody else who has a reason to do that for us. and when it becomes that ubiquitous, when the chair becomes smart, when the water glass becomes smart, is it useful to think of that as information technology or is this a new state of being and how does hewlett-packard make any money off of this? >> then the question who controls all of the information, whether it is just individuals, the government, the companies themselves. i think we probably have time for one more question. before we take i want to remind all participants this meeting has been on the record. so everything you said will be held against you in a court of law. yes, in the white jacket. >> i'm with the johns hopkins applied physics lab. i was wondering if you talk a

little bit about the education of policymakers on the state of science and scientists on state of policy and how you would advocate we make sure there is not a gap between the two communities? >> good final question. >> i'm less interested in regulation than i am in ethics frankly. we're at this stage, right at this amazing point in history where we can do just abouting with material science, with energy and with even biology. when you can do just about anything, then the core question is, what you should do. the, and that's the core question of ethics. and i, i am, in my optimistic moments, it is because i'm seeing more people asking, give the opportunity to do anything, what should we do? that is why i'm glad to see, government entities like military, like navy, like our

foreign policy establishment asking more should questions. and, if you can arrive at what we should do, some consensus, or even some novel thoughts about that, that strikes me being much more important than running the regs. >> i think it need to, i think it's a really interesting thing that can start in scientific education. one example is, for the last few years i've gone to cold spring harbor laboratories for those of you who follow genetics. that is wellspring of a lot of interesting work. just to talk to some graduate students about how society and science and the media sort of work together. and that is direct connection i think to policy making there. it is a little like as ed said, science technology affect us more and more quickly, that should be part of the curriculum. we're seeing that shift in medicine, medical school educations are more of a holistic approach.

journalism education. that would include entrepreneurialism. so you figure out how to make a living. educations are shifting and i think scientific education should as well. i think it has to come from that side. policymakers, that is hard. you need someone to go to them. they don't necessarily come to you. >> are you seeing enough of that conversation happening? i mean should be doing it but is enough of it happening to make the most necessary changes at least from the policymaker side? >> actually, like, for example, again, generalizing for universe of bio design at arizona state university is 350,000 square feet of creatures that do not exist in nature. you know what i mean. they're out there. and increasingly you're seeing who are embedded in by design in the ethics game. i mean an example is, for example, some woman, some woman

scientist was involved in learning everything there was to know about some disease and she -- which there was no cure and evidence said would there be something interesting to do there might involve a organism which we could create a cure? i don't mean to dump on scientists. it was so classic, never occurred to her. scientists never get up in the morning thinking how they could change the human race. they wake up thinking how they will wire the damn monkey. they read journals and the idea of opening up their world to a much larger consideration of the impact of what they're doing is i think crucial and i think i see it happening. >> slowly. slowly. but -- >> has to be fast enough. >> the i.t. world right now, one of the big, big questions is net

neutrality. the fcc, tom wheeler is dealing with this i'm pretty convinced the fcc is hearing all sides of the question. we have advocacy groups on every side. some of them are a lot richer than the others. but all sides of the argument are being brought to the fcc i'm comfortable with that. can the regulators do the right thing? there probably isn't a right thing. can they do something that causes the least damage? i think that's probably the case. >> at least in the short term. >> exactly. >> all right. well i think we are at our end. i want to thank our panelists michael and joel for joining us. [applause] thank you all for attending. >> thanks.

>> live coverage this afternoon across the c-span networks. here on c-span2 at noon eastern, a look at the fcc's new net neutrality rules that would allow content providers like netflix to pay for fast lane service. hosted by the progressive policy institute. again it's live at 12 on c-span2. donald trump will be speaking at the national press club at 1:00 eastern. on c-span3, officials from the obama and george w. bush administration discuss recent elections in iraq and recent influence of iran and syria. that is live at 1:30 eastern over on c-span3.

>> when you write, you don't write with, you can't write in a kind of calculating way. in other words you can't intend to write a best-seller. in fact you shouldn't think about that issue at all when you sit down to right. what you should sit down, what you should do when you sit down to write, to bright what you find interesting and to follow your own curiosity. so when i was writing "tipping point," for instance, i can honestly say i never for a moment tried to imagine how well that book would sell. i thought i was, i just wanted to write something cool. i was interested in this. i wanted to write something, you know, my friend would read, you know, that my mother would like. >> read more of our conversation with malcolm gladwell from featured interviews with book notes and. sundays at 8:00. public affairs books, available for father's day book at your favorite book seller.

coming up next we'll bring you some of c-span's coverage of commencement addresses from around the country with remarks by virginia governor terry mcaulifee at virginia tech and wisconsin governor scott walker at concordia university. but first, supreme court justice antonin scalia who behave this year's commencement at graduates at william and mary law school in virginia. he spoke for 25 minutes. [applause] . ., douglas, members of the faculty, graduate, ladies and gentlemen. i have a philosophy of commencements. it is that they are not for the benefit of the graduates, who would probably rather have their diplomas mailed to them at the beach. [laughter]