The following information is used for educational purposes only.
OPINIÓN | MANUSCRITO
Ángeles, punguistas y otras delicias
Hugo Beccacece
20 de Agosto de 2018
Así como los delitos de la vida real duelen e indignan, los delitos contados en libros y diarios, los del cine y la TV, cautivan sin importar los límites morales: baste citar el éxito de El ángel, la película de Luis Ortega sobre el asesino serial Carlos Robledo Puch. Quienes hayan leído en la adolescencia las novelas de misterio y acción que tienen como protagonistas a Arsène Lupin o a Rocambole, el extravagante personaje, mitad delincuente, mitad héroe, creado por Ponson du Terrail en el siglo XIX, conocen el placer de ponerse, al fin, del lado del "malo" (que ayuda al desvalido) o del "ingenioso" que, sin violencia, comete "picardías" con joyas y cajas de seguridad ajenas. Más recientemente, otro delincuente literario de guante blanco, El Santo, conquistó millones de espectadores televisivos hipnotizados por el Simon Templar encarnado por Roger Moore.
Esas evocaciones surgieron el jueves pasado mientras leía, título irresistible, Delincuentes viajeros. Estafadores, punguistas y policías en el Atlántico sudamericano (Siglo XXI), del historiador social argentino Diego Galeano.
El período estudiado va desde 1870 hasta la década de 1930. En ese lapso, Buenos Aires y Río de Janeiro se convirtieron en grandes ciudades. El aluvión inmigratorio las había colmado de desconocidos. La Bolsa era el escenario de especulaciones donde se movían advenedizos y aventureros que urdían operaciones colosales aprovechando o agravando, por ejemplo, la crisis de 1890 en la capital argentina. Se multiplicaron los falsificadores de dinero, los cuenteros del tío y los tratantes de blancas, pero veinte años después, para la celebración del Centenario, las calles y avenidas porteñas exhibían un lujo que asombraba a los europeos.
Sin embargo, el periodista español Miguel Toledano (cuyo seudónimo era Manuel Gil de Oto) señaló que la Argentina era el país de la quimera y la mentira, donde "todos fingían un bienestar inexistente para inspirar confianza y conseguir plata en relación con su solvencia aparente".
Los numerosos estafadores, punguistas y ladrones de guante blanco eran perseguidos por la policía y, cuando eran identificados, terminaban en la cárcel. Salían al poco tiempo. Llegaban a tener múltiples entradas sirviéndose de documentos falsos, hasta que no les quedaba otra opción que el viaje al extranjero. Los argentinos iban a Brasil y los brasileños, a la Argentina. Pero las policías de los dos países empezaron a pasarse las fichas de los criminales.
La nueva tecnología ayudaba a los detectives, pero también a los ladrones, que fueron aplicando los adelantos científicos a sus propias actividades. Cuando a un estafador se le ocurría un nuevo engaño, este no tardaba demasiado en diseminarse gracias a los delincuentes viajeros.
Los hoteles de lujo de todo el mundo se convirtieron en el espacio ideal de los criminales de guante blanco, que debían tener muy buena presencia, cierta cultura, ser elegantes y saber varias lenguas para infiltrarse entre los huéspedes ricos y aristocráticos.
En el epílogo de Delincuentes viajeros, Galeano pone como epígrafe una cita del sociólogo y economista noruego Thorstein Veblen, tomada de su libro Theory of the Leisure Class (de 1899). Es una comparación inquietante.
"El tipo ideal de hombre de negocio es como el ideal de delincuente: por su aprovechamiento inescrupuloso de bienes y personas para sus propios fines, por la insensibilidad con los sentimientos y deseos de los otros y con los efectos futuros de sus acciones".
Es curioso cómo ese crudo párrafo escrito por un extranjero hace casi ciento veinte años parece describir la catadura moral de los poderosos personajes que circulan por Comodoro Py desde hace veinte días (¿o que existen desde 1880, para poner un límite?).
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar
In this blog, teachers, students and all those who have some kind of interest in the English language will find useful, interesting, curious and funny things to be used in their classes or for their personal enjoyment.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
DÍA DEL NIÑO-2018
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
¡FELIZ DÍA DEL NIÑO!
OPINIÓN
Ilustrado
Pablo Bernasconi
19 de Agosto de 2018
Bebés bailando en el espejo
Published on Dec 19, 2013
A todos los niños y niñas que llevamos en algún lugar de
nuestro corazón, quiero hacerles una invitación especial
hoy que celebramos el DÍA DEL NIÑO:
Por ello, los invito a:
*buscar esa inocencia (para redescubrir su fuerza)
*reforzar esa esperanza (para seguir en el camino)
*renovar esa energía (para no dejarnos abatir)
* despertar esas ansias (para creer que siempre podemos
hacer algo)
*recuperar esa curiosidad (para seguir buscando, creando
oportunidades)
*volver a los juegos (para distraernos de algunas tristezas o
malos momentos)
*creer en imposibles (para que confiemos en nuestras
capacidades)
*pedir por nuestros deseos (para que sepamos pedir una
mano y así cumplirlos)
*soñar a lo grande (para que ampliemos nuestra
imaginación)
*imaginar el futuro (para darle una mirada más optimista)
*disfrutar de la vida (para que la vivamos con todas nuestras
ganas, aún cuando nos tiran o caemos). C.M.
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar/Google Images/Palabras de Clara Moras.
¡FELIZ DÍA DEL NIÑO!
OPINIÓN
Ilustrado
Pablo Bernasconi
19 de Agosto de 2018
Bebés bailando en el espejo
Published on Dec 19, 2013
A todos los niños y niñas que llevamos en algún lugar de
nuestro corazón, quiero hacerles una invitación especial
hoy que celebramos el DÍA DEL NIÑO:
Por ello, los invito a:
*buscar esa inocencia (para redescubrir su fuerza)
*reforzar esa esperanza (para seguir en el camino)
*renovar esa energía (para no dejarnos abatir)
* despertar esas ansias (para creer que siempre podemos
hacer algo)
*recuperar esa curiosidad (para seguir buscando, creando
oportunidades)
*volver a los juegos (para distraernos de algunas tristezas o
malos momentos)
*creer en imposibles (para que confiemos en nuestras
capacidades)
*pedir por nuestros deseos (para que sepamos pedir una
mano y así cumplirlos)
*soñar a lo grande (para que ampliemos nuestra
imaginación)
*imaginar el futuro (para darle una mirada más optimista)
*disfrutar de la vida (para que la vivamos con todas nuestras
ganas, aún cuando nos tiran o caemos). C.M.
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar/Google Images/Palabras de Clara Moras.
Saturday, August 18, 2018
OPINIÓN-La voz valiente de los profetas, por Marcos Aguinis
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
OPINIÓN
La voz valiente de los profetas
Marcos Aguinis
18 de Agosto de 2018
"Locos de Dios" es una expresión hebrea, Mishugue Elohim, que refiere a los profetas del antiguo Israel. Y ese es precisamente el título que eligió Santiago Kovadloff para su nuevo libro, un texto breve y rico en reflexiones, bellamente escrito y bien documentado, que permite comprender la figura de estos hombres legendarios, devotos de la ley y, como se lee en sus páginas, "voceros de un ideal inédito en su tiempo: el de conciliar el ejercicio del poder político con la justicia social".
Los profetas han sido personajes curiosos, poderosos, elocuentes. Aparecieron unos siete siglos antes de Cristo en Israel, en coincidencia con el volcánico fenómeno intelectual de la Antigua Grecia. Tardaron en conectarse, pero cuando eso ocurrió cimentaron las bases de la civilización occidental.
A Santiago Kovadloff le llevó cinco años escribir este libro, con períodos de diversa inspiración. Lejos de retratar al profeta como en su versión más popular y conocida, como un simple adivinador del futuro, este libro esclarece con pruebas abundantes que la prédica de estos hombres apuntaba en otra dirección, hacia una ética poderosa que al principio fue rechazada, pero que se afirmó con el correr de los siglos. El profeta no solo condena, sino que llama a la autocrítica, implora sensatez y arriesga su vida para que el pueblo llano y los ensoberbecidos dueños del poder caminen por la senda de la moral. Todos los profetas emergen de súbito, iluminan y conmocionan. No hay fuerza en la Tierra que los detenga, porque su palabra deriva del inconmensurable Dios que ama, pero al mismo tiempo exige.
El profetismo ha dado lugar a muchos estudios teológicos. Los debates han cambiado de tono y color según las épocas y las intenciones. En la Biblia, se suceden los libros que reproducen sus frases. Algunos parecen reiterativos y breves, pero en la realidad no habrán sido así, porque se transmitieron de boca en boca. Los escribas comprimieron los párrafos centrales, pero han tenido el mérito de hacerlos inmortales. Ocurrió algo semejante a los textos que recitó Homero y luego se fijaron en el papiro. A esas analogías Kovadloff dedica párrafos iluminadores. Compara la profecía nacida en Israel con la poesía también nacida en Israel y en otras regiones. El poeta casi siempre encanta a sus auditorios. Pero no sucede lo mismo con el profeta, porque este genera desconfianza, irrita, desasosiega y atemoriza, inquieta y desagrada. El profeta es un alma atormentada que embiste contra la sociedad entera, su objetivo no se reduce a encantar.
No obstante, a estas dos enormes manifestaciones que aparecieron en el amanecer del lenguaje las une el hecho de que tienen una sola fuente: para el poeta, la musa, y Dios, para el profeta.
En la segunda parte de Locos de Dios se despliega un análisis sobre los vínculos entre el profetismo y algunas personalidades de enorme repercusión como Jesús, Pablo, Maquiavelo, Camus y Nelson Mandela. Kovadloff traza un arco que va desde la teología hasta la política. Y suma un análisis sobre el desconcertante papel profético del bufón. Así, señala que el profeta, igual que el bufón con el rey, mantiene con Dios una relación de privilegio, íntima y directa. Puede oírlo como nadie y hablarle como ninguno. En consecuencia, puede expresarse en su nombre con un énfasis y una espontaneidad que sorprenden y desorientan. El profeta y el bufón, en efecto, no parecen de entrada ser voceros genuinos de Dios y del rey. Por eso sus audiencias son reacias a creer que son verdaderos mensajeros. Si uno es el loco de la corte y el otro es el loco de Dios, no cabe duda de que el bufón y el profeta introducen en sus respectivas comunidades palabras que enhebran el delirio y la verdad con inusual filo analítico. Como el profeta, el bufón desenmascara al simulador. Lo consigue, porque el bufón está protegido por el rey, del mismo modo que el profeta cuenta con el escudo de Dios. Por eso, no los arredra manifestarse con libertad, franqueza y energía. El bufón tiene apariencia inofensiva y hasta grotesca. Pero mantiene una recíproca lealtad con el monarca, así como el profeta con Dios. En sus aspectos externos, al profeta y al bufón nada los distingue como seres singulares. Pero su aparente simpleza o debilidad permiten que su acción y sus expresiones calen hondo en las desprevenidas audiencias.
En nuestro tiempo de creciente peligro universal vuelven a ser necesarios los profetas, esos seres singulares y potentes que trascienden, hacen temblar y llevan hacia la buena senda. También en nuestra época, y pese a la existencia de líderes irresponsables e inescrupulosos, pueden encontrarse algunas pocas voces limpias, como la de Nelson Mandela. Voces que no temen contrariar, porque ven con claridad el camino moral y terminan por conseguir amplio consenso. Como nos recuerda Kovadloff en Locos de Dios, los profetas, con sus ejemplos del pasado, enseñan al presente el camino que debe labrarse para nuestro futuro.
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar
OPINIÓN
La voz valiente de los profetas
Marcos Aguinis
18 de Agosto de 2018
"Locos de Dios" es una expresión hebrea, Mishugue Elohim, que refiere a los profetas del antiguo Israel. Y ese es precisamente el título que eligió Santiago Kovadloff para su nuevo libro, un texto breve y rico en reflexiones, bellamente escrito y bien documentado, que permite comprender la figura de estos hombres legendarios, devotos de la ley y, como se lee en sus páginas, "voceros de un ideal inédito en su tiempo: el de conciliar el ejercicio del poder político con la justicia social".
Los profetas han sido personajes curiosos, poderosos, elocuentes. Aparecieron unos siete siglos antes de Cristo en Israel, en coincidencia con el volcánico fenómeno intelectual de la Antigua Grecia. Tardaron en conectarse, pero cuando eso ocurrió cimentaron las bases de la civilización occidental.
A Santiago Kovadloff le llevó cinco años escribir este libro, con períodos de diversa inspiración. Lejos de retratar al profeta como en su versión más popular y conocida, como un simple adivinador del futuro, este libro esclarece con pruebas abundantes que la prédica de estos hombres apuntaba en otra dirección, hacia una ética poderosa que al principio fue rechazada, pero que se afirmó con el correr de los siglos. El profeta no solo condena, sino que llama a la autocrítica, implora sensatez y arriesga su vida para que el pueblo llano y los ensoberbecidos dueños del poder caminen por la senda de la moral. Todos los profetas emergen de súbito, iluminan y conmocionan. No hay fuerza en la Tierra que los detenga, porque su palabra deriva del inconmensurable Dios que ama, pero al mismo tiempo exige.
El profetismo ha dado lugar a muchos estudios teológicos. Los debates han cambiado de tono y color según las épocas y las intenciones. En la Biblia, se suceden los libros que reproducen sus frases. Algunos parecen reiterativos y breves, pero en la realidad no habrán sido así, porque se transmitieron de boca en boca. Los escribas comprimieron los párrafos centrales, pero han tenido el mérito de hacerlos inmortales. Ocurrió algo semejante a los textos que recitó Homero y luego se fijaron en el papiro. A esas analogías Kovadloff dedica párrafos iluminadores. Compara la profecía nacida en Israel con la poesía también nacida en Israel y en otras regiones. El poeta casi siempre encanta a sus auditorios. Pero no sucede lo mismo con el profeta, porque este genera desconfianza, irrita, desasosiega y atemoriza, inquieta y desagrada. El profeta es un alma atormentada que embiste contra la sociedad entera, su objetivo no se reduce a encantar.
No obstante, a estas dos enormes manifestaciones que aparecieron en el amanecer del lenguaje las une el hecho de que tienen una sola fuente: para el poeta, la musa, y Dios, para el profeta.
En la segunda parte de Locos de Dios se despliega un análisis sobre los vínculos entre el profetismo y algunas personalidades de enorme repercusión como Jesús, Pablo, Maquiavelo, Camus y Nelson Mandela. Kovadloff traza un arco que va desde la teología hasta la política. Y suma un análisis sobre el desconcertante papel profético del bufón. Así, señala que el profeta, igual que el bufón con el rey, mantiene con Dios una relación de privilegio, íntima y directa. Puede oírlo como nadie y hablarle como ninguno. En consecuencia, puede expresarse en su nombre con un énfasis y una espontaneidad que sorprenden y desorientan. El profeta y el bufón, en efecto, no parecen de entrada ser voceros genuinos de Dios y del rey. Por eso sus audiencias son reacias a creer que son verdaderos mensajeros. Si uno es el loco de la corte y el otro es el loco de Dios, no cabe duda de que el bufón y el profeta introducen en sus respectivas comunidades palabras que enhebran el delirio y la verdad con inusual filo analítico. Como el profeta, el bufón desenmascara al simulador. Lo consigue, porque el bufón está protegido por el rey, del mismo modo que el profeta cuenta con el escudo de Dios. Por eso, no los arredra manifestarse con libertad, franqueza y energía. El bufón tiene apariencia inofensiva y hasta grotesca. Pero mantiene una recíproca lealtad con el monarca, así como el profeta con Dios. En sus aspectos externos, al profeta y al bufón nada los distingue como seres singulares. Pero su aparente simpleza o debilidad permiten que su acción y sus expresiones calen hondo en las desprevenidas audiencias.
En nuestro tiempo de creciente peligro universal vuelven a ser necesarios los profetas, esos seres singulares y potentes que trascienden, hacen temblar y llevan hacia la buena senda. También en nuestra época, y pese a la existencia de líderes irresponsables e inescrupulosos, pueden encontrarse algunas pocas voces limpias, como la de Nelson Mandela. Voces que no temen contrariar, porque ven con claridad el camino moral y terminan por conseguir amplio consenso. Como nos recuerda Kovadloff en Locos de Dios, los profetas, con sus ejemplos del pasado, enseñan al presente el camino que debe labrarse para nuestro futuro.
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar
EL MUNDO | ONU-R.I.P.: Kofi Annan, exsecretario general de la ONU y Premio Nobel de la Paz
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
EL MUNDO | ONU
Murió Kofi Annan, exsecretario general de la ONU y Premio Nobel de la Paz
Annan tenía 80 años y además de Secretario General de la ONU fue Premio Nobel de la Paz Fuente: Reuters - Crédito: Denis Balibouse
18 de Agosto de 2018
GINEBRA.- Kofi Annan, uno de los más célebres diplomáticos del mundo y exsecretario general de Naciones Unidas ( ONU ), murió hoy en Berna, Suiza, a los 80 años. Su fundación anunció la muerte a través de su cuenta en Twitter: "Murió en paz este sábado 18 de agosto tras una breve enfermedad. Su mujer Nane y sus hijos Ama, Kojo y Nina estuvieron a su lado sus últimos días".
El diplomático ghanés y Premio Nobel de la Paz fue un símbolo de lucha de los derechos humanos y un ferviente defensor del desarrollo en África. "Un internacionalista profundamente comprometido que luchó durante toda su vida por un mundo más justo y pacífico", destaca el comunicado que se difundió tras su muerte.
(Ver imagen en Twitter/Artículo fuente)
It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness...
El secretario general de la ONU, Antonio Guterres, expresó su tristeza por la muerte de su predecesor al frente de Naciones Unidas: "Kofi Annan era una fuerza que guiaba hacia el bien", afirmó Guterres en un comunicado poco después de que fuera anunciado en Ginebra el fallecimiento de Annan.
Nacido el 8 de abril de 1938, Annan fue el primer secretario general de la ONU originario de África subsahariana. El ghanés dirigió el organismo internacional entre 1997 y 2006 y enfrentó el difícil período de la guerra en Irak, pero su balance quedó ensombrecido por acusaciones de corrupción en el caso de " petróleo por alimentos".
Junto con la organización, Annan recibió en 2001 el Premio Nobel de la Paz por sus "esfuerzos en favor de un mundo mejor organizado y más pacífico". Al aceptar el premio, dijo: "He intentado situar al ser humano en el centro de todo lo que emprendemos: de la prevención de los conflictos al desarrollo, pasando por los derechos humanos".
En febrero de 2012, fue elegido por la ONU y por la Liga Árabe para llevar a cabo una mediación en la guerra en Siria, pero tiró la toalla cinco meses después. Acusó entonces a las grandes potencias de mantener persistentes divergencias que transformaron su mediación en una "misión imposible".
Annan creó una fundación dedicada al desarrollo duradero y a la paz, y formó parte del grupo de los Elders (término inglés que significa los "mayores" o "ancianos" pero también los "sabios"), creado por Nelson Mandela para promover la paz y los derechos humanos.
(Ver imagen en Twitter/Artículo fuente)
We are shocked and deeply saddened at the passing of our dear friend, colleague and Chair, Kofi Annan. Statement: https://theelders.org/article/elders-mourn-loss-kofi-annan …
Agencias AP y AFP
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar
EL MUNDO | ONU
Murió Kofi Annan, exsecretario general de la ONU y Premio Nobel de la Paz
Annan tenía 80 años y además de Secretario General de la ONU fue Premio Nobel de la Paz Fuente: Reuters - Crédito: Denis Balibouse
18 de Agosto de 2018
GINEBRA.- Kofi Annan, uno de los más célebres diplomáticos del mundo y exsecretario general de Naciones Unidas ( ONU ), murió hoy en Berna, Suiza, a los 80 años. Su fundación anunció la muerte a través de su cuenta en Twitter: "Murió en paz este sábado 18 de agosto tras una breve enfermedad. Su mujer Nane y sus hijos Ama, Kojo y Nina estuvieron a su lado sus últimos días".
El diplomático ghanés y Premio Nobel de la Paz fue un símbolo de lucha de los derechos humanos y un ferviente defensor del desarrollo en África. "Un internacionalista profundamente comprometido que luchó durante toda su vida por un mundo más justo y pacífico", destaca el comunicado que se difundió tras su muerte.
(Ver imagen en Twitter/Artículo fuente)
It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness...
El secretario general de la ONU, Antonio Guterres, expresó su tristeza por la muerte de su predecesor al frente de Naciones Unidas: "Kofi Annan era una fuerza que guiaba hacia el bien", afirmó Guterres en un comunicado poco después de que fuera anunciado en Ginebra el fallecimiento de Annan.
Nacido el 8 de abril de 1938, Annan fue el primer secretario general de la ONU originario de África subsahariana. El ghanés dirigió el organismo internacional entre 1997 y 2006 y enfrentó el difícil período de la guerra en Irak, pero su balance quedó ensombrecido por acusaciones de corrupción en el caso de " petróleo por alimentos".
Junto con la organización, Annan recibió en 2001 el Premio Nobel de la Paz por sus "esfuerzos en favor de un mundo mejor organizado y más pacífico". Al aceptar el premio, dijo: "He intentado situar al ser humano en el centro de todo lo que emprendemos: de la prevención de los conflictos al desarrollo, pasando por los derechos humanos".
En febrero de 2012, fue elegido por la ONU y por la Liga Árabe para llevar a cabo una mediación en la guerra en Siria, pero tiró la toalla cinco meses después. Acusó entonces a las grandes potencias de mantener persistentes divergencias que transformaron su mediación en una "misión imposible".
Annan creó una fundación dedicada al desarrollo duradero y a la paz, y formó parte del grupo de los Elders (término inglés que significa los "mayores" o "ancianos" pero también los "sabios"), creado por Nelson Mandela para promover la paz y los derechos humanos.
(Ver imagen en Twitter/Artículo fuente)
We are shocked and deeply saddened at the passing of our dear friend, colleague and Chair, Kofi Annan. Statement: https://theelders.org/article/elders-mourn-loss-kofi-annan …
Agencias AP y AFP
Fuente:www.lanacion.com.ar
La columna de Lanata-Su Majestad, la coima, por Jorge Lanata
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
La columna de Lanata
Su Majestad, la coima
Los negocios con el Estado comenzaron cuando éste era el Virreinato del Río de la Plata
Claudio Uberti, con José López y Julio De Vido, en 2006 (Enrique Cabrera/Télam)
Jorge Lanata
El “mecanismo” tiene tres partes: gobierno, empresas y Justicia.No funciona sin alguna de ellas. El gobierno avala, las empresas cobran y la Justicia disimula.En el mecanismo el Estado construye la barrera y decide donde ubicarla. Cada barrera lleva consigo un peaje: no pueden concebirse la una sin el otro. Frente al cobro, la justicia es ciega. ¿Es así en todos los casos? No, claro. Las excepciones existen. Es así en los casos que importan. Mayoría o no, esos casos forman una cultura. Esa cultura reina en la Argentina desde antes del nacimiento de la Nación.
Los negocios con el Estado comenzaron cuando éste era el Virreinato: la barrera se puso en el puerto, cerrado al comercio, a excepción de los barcos españoles. Excepción es sinónimo de barrera, nuestra historia describe un largo camino paralelo entre la excepción y la ley. Tan viejo como aquel chiste de “la gilada y el laburo”. Con el puerto cerrado por la ley, los barcos extranjeros llegaban igual, amparados por la excepción. Debían pagar un “donativo gracioso” al erario local, a cambio del cual se les emitía un “permiso especial”. En teoría, los barcos extranjeros solo podían solicitarlo si estaban en peligro de inminente hundimiento, ante una “arribada forzosa”.
Y así fue: el peligro de hundimiento se volvió tan común que vivíamos entonces en un Triángulo de las Bermudas. Un cargamento sorprendido en las lanchas del navío Wootle, en 1727 -para dar solo un ejemplo- arrojó en el inventario: cuchillos,cucharas, limpiadientes, anteojos de larga visa, peinetas de asta y marfil, tijeras, navajas, tornillos, bastones de metal y de vidrio, cajitas de polvillo, medias de hombre y de mujer, medias de seda,vasos, saleros, sombreros finos, encajes, zapatos, chinelas pañuelos de seda, hojalata para faroles, relojes de plata, hachas y todo tipo de baratijas. En la primera mitad del siglo XVII Buenos Aires fue un centro de contrabandistas que formaron un poder dentro del poder del Estado ,con vínculos y representantes establecidos en Brasil, Portugal, Angola, Holanda y otros puertos de esclavos.
Frente al contrabando ningún gobernador era fuerte: cuando Hernandarias no quiso transigir con aquel ambiente fue perseguido, acusado de crímenes que no cometió y condenado por jueces afines a los contrabandistas. No se trataba de corromper a los que ya estaban sino de contar con “tropa propia”: adquirían en subasta pública los cargos de concejales que eran puestos a remate, ganando así con facilidad la mayoría en el Cabildo. La venta de cargos públicos –incluyendo gobernadores, cargos militares, municipales, etc.- se hacía por remate o como “donativo gracioso” al Rey. Esta costumbre comenzó bajo el reinado de Felipe II.
Como una maestra del secundario, me permito avanzar 300 años de un plumazo: según Michael Mulhall en 1895 el ingreso por habitante de Argentina igualaba al de Bélgica, Alemania y Holanda, y superaba a Austria, España, Italia, Suiza, Suecia y Noruega, quedando por debajo del de Australia, Estados Unidos y Canada. Desde 1880 hasta 1930 la tasa de crecimiento de la Argentina tiene pocos antecedentes en la historia de la economía. Agrega León Pomer en “Argentina historia de negocios lícitos e ilícitos” que “cuando en 1910 la Argentina celebró el Centenario era el primer exportador mundial de trigo y el primer exportador mundial de carne”.
Zeballos citado por Pomer afirmó que en 1906 “la Nación entera trabaja para dos docenas de familias y sus clientelas que gozan de los favores oficiales sin reservas”. Seis años después Jules Huret anota que ”el poder está concentrado en doscientas familias, pero el país tiene siete millones de habitantes. Las abejas que viven en tal panal son excluyentes. Jamás en la historia ni aún bajo los Césares férreos de Roma, duraron tanto las dominaciones personales o las de los círculos cual se perpetuan entre nosotros. ¿La finalidad? Garantizarse el mayor número de ventajas públicas”.
Sobre la Argentina del Centeranario publica La Stampa de Turín : “La propina es una institución, tiene un nombre solemne, de resonancia griega: coima. Todos coimean, desde quienes desempeñan cargos superiores hasta el ultimo inspector”.
Los únicos tres edificios que interrumpen la traza de la avenida 9 de julio pueden dar una idea de los mojones del poder: el Palacio Alzaga Unzué (hoy hotel Four Seasons), la embajada de Francia (antes Palacio Ortiz Basualdo), el Obelisco y el mítico Ministerio de Obras Públicas, hoy de Salud. El edificio es el único con dirección en la Avenida 9 de Julio,1925, y posee dos estatuas art-decó ubicadas en el lado este: un mito asegura que fueron diseñadas por José Hortal y que simbolizan el pago de coimas. Una lleva entre sus manos un pequeño cofre y la otra extiende el revés de su mano hacia atrás, dispuesta a recoger el dinero.
En enero de 1929, durante la segunda presidencia de Yrigoyen, escribió Roberto Arlt en el diario El Mundo: “La coima es la polilla que roe el mecanismo de nuestra administración, la rémora que detiene la marcha de la nave del Estado (…) la coima es la que moviliza los escritos en un juzgado, la coima es la que arranca un certificado de buena conducta para un específico fascineroso, la coima es la que ablanda y humaniza al inspector, al oficial de justicia,al médico. La coima, invisible, penetrante, ardua e infalible, penetra por todas partes y compra al grande,al cogotudo y al severo como al pequeño, al modesto y al humilde que se conforma y transige con tal que le den para un café con leche”. El texto de Arlt se titula “Su Majestad, la coima”. Somos súbditos de la coima desde nuestro nacimiento como Nación, y antes aún. Hoy la justicia tiene ante sí la posibilidad de empezar a cambiarlo para siempre.
Fuente:www.clarin.com
La columna de Lanata
Su Majestad, la coima
Los negocios con el Estado comenzaron cuando éste era el Virreinato del Río de la Plata
Claudio Uberti, con José López y Julio De Vido, en 2006 (Enrique Cabrera/Télam)
Jorge Lanata
El “mecanismo” tiene tres partes: gobierno, empresas y Justicia.No funciona sin alguna de ellas. El gobierno avala, las empresas cobran y la Justicia disimula.En el mecanismo el Estado construye la barrera y decide donde ubicarla. Cada barrera lleva consigo un peaje: no pueden concebirse la una sin el otro. Frente al cobro, la justicia es ciega. ¿Es así en todos los casos? No, claro. Las excepciones existen. Es así en los casos que importan. Mayoría o no, esos casos forman una cultura. Esa cultura reina en la Argentina desde antes del nacimiento de la Nación.
Los negocios con el Estado comenzaron cuando éste era el Virreinato: la barrera se puso en el puerto, cerrado al comercio, a excepción de los barcos españoles. Excepción es sinónimo de barrera, nuestra historia describe un largo camino paralelo entre la excepción y la ley. Tan viejo como aquel chiste de “la gilada y el laburo”. Con el puerto cerrado por la ley, los barcos extranjeros llegaban igual, amparados por la excepción. Debían pagar un “donativo gracioso” al erario local, a cambio del cual se les emitía un “permiso especial”. En teoría, los barcos extranjeros solo podían solicitarlo si estaban en peligro de inminente hundimiento, ante una “arribada forzosa”.
Y así fue: el peligro de hundimiento se volvió tan común que vivíamos entonces en un Triángulo de las Bermudas. Un cargamento sorprendido en las lanchas del navío Wootle, en 1727 -para dar solo un ejemplo- arrojó en el inventario: cuchillos,cucharas, limpiadientes, anteojos de larga visa, peinetas de asta y marfil, tijeras, navajas, tornillos, bastones de metal y de vidrio, cajitas de polvillo, medias de hombre y de mujer, medias de seda,vasos, saleros, sombreros finos, encajes, zapatos, chinelas pañuelos de seda, hojalata para faroles, relojes de plata, hachas y todo tipo de baratijas. En la primera mitad del siglo XVII Buenos Aires fue un centro de contrabandistas que formaron un poder dentro del poder del Estado ,con vínculos y representantes establecidos en Brasil, Portugal, Angola, Holanda y otros puertos de esclavos.
Frente al contrabando ningún gobernador era fuerte: cuando Hernandarias no quiso transigir con aquel ambiente fue perseguido, acusado de crímenes que no cometió y condenado por jueces afines a los contrabandistas. No se trataba de corromper a los que ya estaban sino de contar con “tropa propia”: adquirían en subasta pública los cargos de concejales que eran puestos a remate, ganando así con facilidad la mayoría en el Cabildo. La venta de cargos públicos –incluyendo gobernadores, cargos militares, municipales, etc.- se hacía por remate o como “donativo gracioso” al Rey. Esta costumbre comenzó bajo el reinado de Felipe II.
Como una maestra del secundario, me permito avanzar 300 años de un plumazo: según Michael Mulhall en 1895 el ingreso por habitante de Argentina igualaba al de Bélgica, Alemania y Holanda, y superaba a Austria, España, Italia, Suiza, Suecia y Noruega, quedando por debajo del de Australia, Estados Unidos y Canada. Desde 1880 hasta 1930 la tasa de crecimiento de la Argentina tiene pocos antecedentes en la historia de la economía. Agrega León Pomer en “Argentina historia de negocios lícitos e ilícitos” que “cuando en 1910 la Argentina celebró el Centenario era el primer exportador mundial de trigo y el primer exportador mundial de carne”.
Zeballos citado por Pomer afirmó que en 1906 “la Nación entera trabaja para dos docenas de familias y sus clientelas que gozan de los favores oficiales sin reservas”. Seis años después Jules Huret anota que ”el poder está concentrado en doscientas familias, pero el país tiene siete millones de habitantes. Las abejas que viven en tal panal son excluyentes. Jamás en la historia ni aún bajo los Césares férreos de Roma, duraron tanto las dominaciones personales o las de los círculos cual se perpetuan entre nosotros. ¿La finalidad? Garantizarse el mayor número de ventajas públicas”.
Sobre la Argentina del Centeranario publica La Stampa de Turín : “La propina es una institución, tiene un nombre solemne, de resonancia griega: coima. Todos coimean, desde quienes desempeñan cargos superiores hasta el ultimo inspector”.
Los únicos tres edificios que interrumpen la traza de la avenida 9 de julio pueden dar una idea de los mojones del poder: el Palacio Alzaga Unzué (hoy hotel Four Seasons), la embajada de Francia (antes Palacio Ortiz Basualdo), el Obelisco y el mítico Ministerio de Obras Públicas, hoy de Salud. El edificio es el único con dirección en la Avenida 9 de Julio,1925, y posee dos estatuas art-decó ubicadas en el lado este: un mito asegura que fueron diseñadas por José Hortal y que simbolizan el pago de coimas. Una lleva entre sus manos un pequeño cofre y la otra extiende el revés de su mano hacia atrás, dispuesta a recoger el dinero.
En enero de 1929, durante la segunda presidencia de Yrigoyen, escribió Roberto Arlt en el diario El Mundo: “La coima es la polilla que roe el mecanismo de nuestra administración, la rémora que detiene la marcha de la nave del Estado (…) la coima es la que moviliza los escritos en un juzgado, la coima es la que arranca un certificado de buena conducta para un específico fascineroso, la coima es la que ablanda y humaniza al inspector, al oficial de justicia,al médico. La coima, invisible, penetrante, ardua e infalible, penetra por todas partes y compra al grande,al cogotudo y al severo como al pequeño, al modesto y al humilde que se conforma y transige con tal que le den para un café con leche”. El texto de Arlt se titula “Su Majestad, la coima”. Somos súbditos de la coima desde nuestro nacimiento como Nación, y antes aún. Hoy la justicia tiene ante sí la posibilidad de empezar a cambiarlo para siempre.
Fuente:www.clarin.com
TED TALKS-Kai-Fu Lee: How AI can save our humanity
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
TED2018 | April 2018
Kai-Fu Lee: How AI can save our humanity
AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human."
Transcript:
I'm going to talk about how AI and mankind can coexist, but first, we have to rethink about our human values. So let me first make a confession about my errors in my values.
It was 11 o'clock, December 16, 1991. I was about to become a father for the first time. My wife, Shen-Ling, lay in the hospital bed going through a very difficult 12-hour labor. I sat by her bedside but looked anxiously at my watch, and I knew something that she didn't. I knew that if in one hour, our child didn't come, I was going to leave her there and go back to work and make a presentation about AI to my boss, Apple's CEO. Fortunately, my daughter was born at 11:30 --
sparing me from doing the unthinkable, and to this day, I am so sorry for letting my work ethic take precedence over love for my family.
My AI talk, however, went off brilliantly.
Apple loved my work and decided to announce it at TED1992, 26 years ago on this very stage. I thought I had made one of the biggest, most important discoveries in AI, and so did the "Wall Street Journal" on the following day.
But as far as discoveries went, it turned out, I didn't discover India, or America. Perhaps I discovered a little island off of Portugal. But the AI era of discovery continued, and more scientists poured their souls into it. About 10 years ago, the grand AI discovery was made by three North American scientists, and it's known as deep learning.
Deep learning is a technology that can take a huge amount of data within one single domain and learn to predict or decide at superhuman accuracy. For example, if we show the deep learning network a massive number of food photos, it can recognize food such as hot dog or no hot dog.
Or if we show it many pictures and videos and sensor data from driving on the highway, it can actually drive a car as well as a human being on the highway. And what if we showed this deep learning network all the speeches made by President Trump? Then this artificially intelligent President Trump, actually the network --
can --
You like double oxymorons, huh?
So this network, if given the request to make a speech about AI, he, or it, might say --
(Recording) Donald Trump: It's a great thing to build a better world with artificial intelligence.
Kai-Fu Lee: And maybe in another language?
DT: (Speaking Chinese)
KFL: You didn't know he knew Chinese, did you?
So deep learning has become the core in the era of AI discovery, and that's led by the US. But we're now in the era of implementation, where what really matters is execution, product quality, speed and data. And that's where China comes in. Chinese entrepreneurs, who I fund as a venture capitalist, are incredible workers, amazing work ethic. My example in the delivery room is nothing compared to how hard people work in China. As an example, one startup tried to claim work-life balance: "Come work for us because we are 996." And what does that mean? It means the work hours of 9am to 9pm, six days a week. That's contrasted with other startups that do 997.
And the Chinese product quality has consistently gone up in the past decade, and that's because of a fiercely competitive environment. In Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs compete in a very gentlemanly fashion, sort of like in old wars in which each side took turns to fire at each other.
But in the Chinese environment, it's truly a gladiatorial fight to the death. In such a brutal environment, entrepreneurs learn to grow very rapidly, they learn to make their products better at lightning speed, and they learn to hone their business models until they're impregnable. As a result, great Chinese products like WeChat and Weibo are arguably better than the equivalent American products from Facebook and Twitter.
And the Chinese market embraces this change and accelerated change and paradigm shifts. As an example, if any of you go to China, you will see it's almost cashless and credit card-less, because that thing that we all talk about, mobile payment, has become the reality in China. In the last year, 18.8 trillion US dollars were transacted on mobile internet, and that's because of very robust technologies built behind it. It's even bigger than the China GDP. And this technology, you can say, how can it be bigger than the GDP? Because it includes all transactions: wholesale, channels, retail, online, offline, going into a shopping mall or going into a farmers market like this. The technology is used by 700 million people to pay each other, not just merchants, so it's peer to peer, and it's almost transaction-fee-free. And it's instantaneous, and it's used everywhere. And finally, the China market is enormous. This market is large, which helps give entrepreneurs more users, more revenue, more investment, but most importantly, it gives the entrepreneurs a chance to collect a huge amount of data which becomes rocket fuel for the AI engine. So as a result, the Chinese AI companies have leaped ahead so that today, the most valuable companies in computer vision, speech recognition, speech synthesis, machine translation and drones are all Chinese companies.
So with the US leading the era of discovery and China leading the era of implementation, we are now in an amazing age where the dual engine of the two superpowers are working together to drive the fastest revolution in technology that we have ever seen as humans. And this will bring tremendous wealth, unprecedented wealth: 16 trillion dollars, according to PwC, in terms of added GDP to the worldwide GDP by 2030. It will also bring immense challenges in terms of potential job replacements. Whereas in the Industrial Age it created more jobs because craftsman jobs were being decomposed into jobs in the assembly line, so more jobs were created. But AI completely replaces the individual jobs in the assembly line with robots. And it's not just in factories, but truckers, drivers and even jobs like telesales, customer service and hematologists as well as radiologists over the next 15 years are going to be gradually replaced by artificial intelligence. And only the creative jobs --
I have to make myself safe, right? Really, the creative jobs are the ones that are protected, because AI can optimize but not create.
But what's more serious than the loss of jobs is the loss of meaning, because the work ethic in the Industrial Age has brainwashed us into thinking that work is the reason we exist, that work defined the meaning of our lives. And I was a prime and willing victim to that type of workaholic thinking. I worked incredibly hard. That's why I almost left my wife in the delivery room, that's why I worked 996 alongside my entrepreneurs. And that obsession that I had with work ended abruptly a few years ago when I was diagnosed with fourth stage lymphoma. The PET scan here shows over 20 malignant tumors jumping out like fireballs, melting away my ambition. But more importantly, it helped me reexamine my life. Knowing that I may only have a few months to live caused me to see how foolish it was for me to base my entire self-worth on how hard I worked and the accomplishments from hard work. My priorities were completely out of order. I neglected my family. My father had passed away, and I never had a chance to tell him I loved him. My mother had dementia and no longer recognized me, and my children had grown up.
During my chemotherapy, I read a book by Bronnie Ware who talked about dying wishes and regrets of the people in the deathbed. She found that facing death, nobody regretted that they didn't work hard enough in this life. They only regretted that they didn't spend enough time with their loved ones and that they didn't spread their love.
So I am fortunately today in remission.
So I can be back at TED again to share with you that I have changed my ways. I now only work 965 -- occasionally 996, but usually 965. I moved closer to my mother, my wife usually travels with me, and when my kids have vacation, if they don't come home, I go to them. So it's a new form of life that helped me recognize how important it is that love is for me, and facing death helped me change my life, but it also helped me see a new way of how AI should impact mankind and work and coexist with mankind, that really, AI is taking away a lot of routine jobs, but routine jobs are not what we're about.
Why we exist is love. When we hold our newborn baby, love at first sight, or when we help someone in need, humans are uniquely able to give and receive love, and that's what differentiates us from AI.
Despite what science fiction may portray, I can responsibly tell you that AI has no love. When AlphaGo defeated the world champion Ke Jie, while Ke Jie was crying and loving the game of go, AlphaGo felt no happiness from winning and certainly no desire to hug a loved one.
So how do we differentiate ourselves as humans in the age of AI? We talked about the axis of creativity, and certainly that is one possibility, and now we introduce a new axis that we can call compassion, love, or empathy. Those are things that AI cannot do. So as AI takes away the routine jobs, I like to think we can, we should and we must create jobs of compassion. You might ask how many of those there are, but I would ask you: Do you not think that we are going to need a lot of social workers to help us make this transition? Do you not think we need a lot of compassionate caregivers to give more medical care to more people? Do you not think we're going to need 10 times more teachers to help our children find their way to survive and thrive in this brave new world? And with all the newfound wealth, should we not also make labors of love into careers and let elderly accompaniment or homeschooling become careers also?
This graph is surely not perfect, but it points at four ways that we can work with AI. AI will come and take away the routine jobs and in due time, we will be thankful. AI will become great tools for the creatives so that scientists, artists, musicians and writers can be even more creative. AI will work with humans as analytical tools that humans can wrap their warmth around for the high-compassion jobs. And we can always differentiate ourselves with the uniquely capable jobs that are both compassionate and creative, using and leveraging our irreplaceable brains and hearts. So there you have it: a blueprint of coexistence for humans and AI.
AI is serendipity. It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human. So let us choose to embrace AI and to love one another.Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
TED2018 | April 2018
Kai-Fu Lee: How AI can save our humanity
AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human."
Transcript:
I'm going to talk about how AI and mankind can coexist, but first, we have to rethink about our human values. So let me first make a confession about my errors in my values.
It was 11 o'clock, December 16, 1991. I was about to become a father for the first time. My wife, Shen-Ling, lay in the hospital bed going through a very difficult 12-hour labor. I sat by her bedside but looked anxiously at my watch, and I knew something that she didn't. I knew that if in one hour, our child didn't come, I was going to leave her there and go back to work and make a presentation about AI to my boss, Apple's CEO. Fortunately, my daughter was born at 11:30 --
sparing me from doing the unthinkable, and to this day, I am so sorry for letting my work ethic take precedence over love for my family.
My AI talk, however, went off brilliantly.
Apple loved my work and decided to announce it at TED1992, 26 years ago on this very stage. I thought I had made one of the biggest, most important discoveries in AI, and so did the "Wall Street Journal" on the following day.
But as far as discoveries went, it turned out, I didn't discover India, or America. Perhaps I discovered a little island off of Portugal. But the AI era of discovery continued, and more scientists poured their souls into it. About 10 years ago, the grand AI discovery was made by three North American scientists, and it's known as deep learning.
Deep learning is a technology that can take a huge amount of data within one single domain and learn to predict or decide at superhuman accuracy. For example, if we show the deep learning network a massive number of food photos, it can recognize food such as hot dog or no hot dog.
Or if we show it many pictures and videos and sensor data from driving on the highway, it can actually drive a car as well as a human being on the highway. And what if we showed this deep learning network all the speeches made by President Trump? Then this artificially intelligent President Trump, actually the network --
can --
You like double oxymorons, huh?
So this network, if given the request to make a speech about AI, he, or it, might say --
(Recording) Donald Trump: It's a great thing to build a better world with artificial intelligence.
Kai-Fu Lee: And maybe in another language?
DT: (Speaking Chinese)
KFL: You didn't know he knew Chinese, did you?
So deep learning has become the core in the era of AI discovery, and that's led by the US. But we're now in the era of implementation, where what really matters is execution, product quality, speed and data. And that's where China comes in. Chinese entrepreneurs, who I fund as a venture capitalist, are incredible workers, amazing work ethic. My example in the delivery room is nothing compared to how hard people work in China. As an example, one startup tried to claim work-life balance: "Come work for us because we are 996." And what does that mean? It means the work hours of 9am to 9pm, six days a week. That's contrasted with other startups that do 997.
And the Chinese product quality has consistently gone up in the past decade, and that's because of a fiercely competitive environment. In Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs compete in a very gentlemanly fashion, sort of like in old wars in which each side took turns to fire at each other.
But in the Chinese environment, it's truly a gladiatorial fight to the death. In such a brutal environment, entrepreneurs learn to grow very rapidly, they learn to make their products better at lightning speed, and they learn to hone their business models until they're impregnable. As a result, great Chinese products like WeChat and Weibo are arguably better than the equivalent American products from Facebook and Twitter.
And the Chinese market embraces this change and accelerated change and paradigm shifts. As an example, if any of you go to China, you will see it's almost cashless and credit card-less, because that thing that we all talk about, mobile payment, has become the reality in China. In the last year, 18.8 trillion US dollars were transacted on mobile internet, and that's because of very robust technologies built behind it. It's even bigger than the China GDP. And this technology, you can say, how can it be bigger than the GDP? Because it includes all transactions: wholesale, channels, retail, online, offline, going into a shopping mall or going into a farmers market like this. The technology is used by 700 million people to pay each other, not just merchants, so it's peer to peer, and it's almost transaction-fee-free. And it's instantaneous, and it's used everywhere. And finally, the China market is enormous. This market is large, which helps give entrepreneurs more users, more revenue, more investment, but most importantly, it gives the entrepreneurs a chance to collect a huge amount of data which becomes rocket fuel for the AI engine. So as a result, the Chinese AI companies have leaped ahead so that today, the most valuable companies in computer vision, speech recognition, speech synthesis, machine translation and drones are all Chinese companies.
So with the US leading the era of discovery and China leading the era of implementation, we are now in an amazing age where the dual engine of the two superpowers are working together to drive the fastest revolution in technology that we have ever seen as humans. And this will bring tremendous wealth, unprecedented wealth: 16 trillion dollars, according to PwC, in terms of added GDP to the worldwide GDP by 2030. It will also bring immense challenges in terms of potential job replacements. Whereas in the Industrial Age it created more jobs because craftsman jobs were being decomposed into jobs in the assembly line, so more jobs were created. But AI completely replaces the individual jobs in the assembly line with robots. And it's not just in factories, but truckers, drivers and even jobs like telesales, customer service and hematologists as well as radiologists over the next 15 years are going to be gradually replaced by artificial intelligence. And only the creative jobs --
I have to make myself safe, right? Really, the creative jobs are the ones that are protected, because AI can optimize but not create.
But what's more serious than the loss of jobs is the loss of meaning, because the work ethic in the Industrial Age has brainwashed us into thinking that work is the reason we exist, that work defined the meaning of our lives. And I was a prime and willing victim to that type of workaholic thinking. I worked incredibly hard. That's why I almost left my wife in the delivery room, that's why I worked 996 alongside my entrepreneurs. And that obsession that I had with work ended abruptly a few years ago when I was diagnosed with fourth stage lymphoma. The PET scan here shows over 20 malignant tumors jumping out like fireballs, melting away my ambition. But more importantly, it helped me reexamine my life. Knowing that I may only have a few months to live caused me to see how foolish it was for me to base my entire self-worth on how hard I worked and the accomplishments from hard work. My priorities were completely out of order. I neglected my family. My father had passed away, and I never had a chance to tell him I loved him. My mother had dementia and no longer recognized me, and my children had grown up.
During my chemotherapy, I read a book by Bronnie Ware who talked about dying wishes and regrets of the people in the deathbed. She found that facing death, nobody regretted that they didn't work hard enough in this life. They only regretted that they didn't spend enough time with their loved ones and that they didn't spread their love.
So I am fortunately today in remission.
So I can be back at TED again to share with you that I have changed my ways. I now only work 965 -- occasionally 996, but usually 965. I moved closer to my mother, my wife usually travels with me, and when my kids have vacation, if they don't come home, I go to them. So it's a new form of life that helped me recognize how important it is that love is for me, and facing death helped me change my life, but it also helped me see a new way of how AI should impact mankind and work and coexist with mankind, that really, AI is taking away a lot of routine jobs, but routine jobs are not what we're about.
Why we exist is love. When we hold our newborn baby, love at first sight, or when we help someone in need, humans are uniquely able to give and receive love, and that's what differentiates us from AI.
Despite what science fiction may portray, I can responsibly tell you that AI has no love. When AlphaGo defeated the world champion Ke Jie, while Ke Jie was crying and loving the game of go, AlphaGo felt no happiness from winning and certainly no desire to hug a loved one.
So how do we differentiate ourselves as humans in the age of AI? We talked about the axis of creativity, and certainly that is one possibility, and now we introduce a new axis that we can call compassion, love, or empathy. Those are things that AI cannot do. So as AI takes away the routine jobs, I like to think we can, we should and we must create jobs of compassion. You might ask how many of those there are, but I would ask you: Do you not think that we are going to need a lot of social workers to help us make this transition? Do you not think we need a lot of compassionate caregivers to give more medical care to more people? Do you not think we're going to need 10 times more teachers to help our children find their way to survive and thrive in this brave new world? And with all the newfound wealth, should we not also make labors of love into careers and let elderly accompaniment or homeschooling become careers also?
This graph is surely not perfect, but it points at four ways that we can work with AI. AI will come and take away the routine jobs and in due time, we will be thankful. AI will become great tools for the creatives so that scientists, artists, musicians and writers can be even more creative. AI will work with humans as analytical tools that humans can wrap their warmth around for the high-compassion jobs. And we can always differentiate ourselves with the uniquely capable jobs that are both compassionate and creative, using and leveraging our irreplaceable brains and hearts. So there you have it: a blueprint of coexistence for humans and AI.
AI is serendipity. It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human. So let us choose to embrace AI and to love one another.Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
TED TALKS-Tina Seelig: The little risks you can take to increase your luck
The following information is used for educational purposes only.
TED Salon Brightline | June 2018
Tina Seelig: The little risks you can take to increase your luck
Luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic -- it's much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Catching more of it is easy but not obvious. In this insightful talk, Stanford engineering school professor Tina Seelig shares three unexpected ways to increase your luck -- and your ability to see and seize opportunities.
Transcript:
I've spent nearly two decades observing what makes people luckier than others and trying to help people increase their luck. You see, I teach entrepreneurship, and we all know that most new ventures fail, and innovators and entrepreneurs need all the luck they can get.
So what is luck? Luck is defined as success or failure apparently caused by chance. Apparently. That's the operative word. It looks like it's chance because we rarely see all the levers that come into play to make people lucky. But I've realized, by watching so long, that luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic. It's much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Sometimes it's calm, and sometimes it blows in gusts, and sometimes it comes from directions that you didn't even imagine.
So how do you catch the winds of luck? It's easy, but it's not obvious. So I'm going to share three things with you that you can do to build a sail to capture the winds of luck. The first thing you want to do is to change your relationship with yourself. Be willing to take small risks that get you out of your comfort zone. Now, when we're children, we do this all the time. We have to do this if we're going to learn how to walk or talk or ride a bike or even quantum mechanics. Right? We need to go from someone one week who doesn't ride a bike to, next week, someone who does. And this requires us to get out of our comfort zone and take some risks. The problem is, as we get older, we rarely do this. We sort of lock down the sense of who we are and don't stretch anymore.
Now, with my students, I spend a lot of time giving them encouragement to get out of their comfort zone and take some risks. How do I do this? Well, I start out by having them fill out a risk-o-meter. Now, it's basically a fun thing we developed in our class where they map out what risks they're willing to take. And it becomes clear very quickly to them that risk-taking is not binary. There are intellectual risks and physical risks and financial risks and emotional risks and social risks and ethical risks and political risks. And once they do this, they compare their risk profiles with others, and they quickly realize that they're all really different.
I then encourage them to stretch, to take some risks that get them out of their comfort zone. For example, I might ask them to do an intellectual risk and try to tackle a problem they haven't tried before; or a social risk, talking to someone sitting next to them on the train; or an emotional risk, maybe telling someone they really care about how they feel.
I do this myself all the time. About a dozen years ago, I was on an airplane, early, early morning flight on my way to Ecuador. And normally, I would just put on my headphones and go to sleep, wake up, do some work, but I decided to take a little risk, and I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me. I introduced myself, and I learned that he was a publisher. Interesting. We ended up having a fascinating conversation. I learned all about the future of the publishing industry. So about three quarters of the way through the flight, I decided to take another risk, and I opened up my laptop and I shared with him a book proposal I put together for something I was doing in my class. And he was very polite, he read it, and he said, "You know what, Tina, this isn't right for us, but thank you so much for sharing." It's OK. That risk didn't work out. I shut my laptop. At the end of the flight, we exchanged contact information.
A couple of months later, I reached out to him, and I said, "Mark, would you like to come to my class? I'm doing a project on reinventing the book, the future of publishing." And he said, "Great. I'd love to come." So he came to my class. We had a great experience.
A few months later, I wrote to him again. This time, I sent him a bunch of video clips from another project my students had done. He was so intrigued by one of the projects the students had done, he thought there might be a book in it, and he wanted to meet those students.
I have to tell you, I was a little bit hurt.
I mean, he wanted to do a book with my students and not with me, but OK, it's all right. So I invited him to come down, and he and his colleagues came to Stanford and met with the students, and afterwards, we had lunch together. And one of his editors said to me, "Hey, have you ever considered writing a book?"
I said, "Funny you should ask." And I pulled out the exact same proposal that I had showed his boss a year earlier. Within two weeks, I had a contract, and within two years, the book had sold over a million copies around the world.
Now, you might say, "Oh, you're so lucky." But of course I was lucky, but that luck resulted from a series of small risks I took, starting with saying hello. And anyone can do this, no matter where you are in your life, no matter where you are in the world -- even if you think you're the most unlucky person, you can do this by taking little risks that get you out of your comfort zone. You start building a sail to capture luck.
The second thing you want to do is to change your relationship with other people. You need to understand that everyone who helps you on your journey is playing a huge role in getting you to your goals. And if you don't show appreciation, not only are you not closing the loop, but you're missing an opportunity. When someone does something for you, they're taking that time that they could be spending on themselves or someone else, and you need to acknowledge what they're doing.
Now, I run three fellowship programs at Stanford, and they are very competitive to get into, and when I send out the letters to those students who don't get in, I always know there are going to be people who are disappointed. Some of the people who are disappointed send me notes, complaining. Some of them send notes saying what could I do to make myself more successful next time around? And every once in a while, someone sends me a note thanking me for the opportunity.
This happened about seven years ago. A young man named Brian sent me a beautiful note saying, "I know I've been rejected from this program twice, but I want to thank you for the opportunity. I learned so much through the process of applying."
I was so taken by the graciousness of his message that I invited him to come and meet me. And we spent some time chatting and cooked up an idea for an independent study project together. He was on the football team at Stanford, and he decided to do a project on looking at leadership in that context. We got to know each other incredibly well through that quarter, and he took the project that he started working on in the independent study and turned it, ultimately, into a company called Play for Tomorrow, where he teaches kids from disadvantaged backgrounds how to, essentially, craft the lives they dream to live.
Now, the important thing about this story is that we both ended up catching the winds of luck as a result of his thank-you note. But it was the winds that we didn't expect in the first place.
Over the course of the last couple of years, I've come up with some tactics for my own life to help me really foster appreciation. My favorite is that at the end of every single day, I look at my calendar and I review all the people I met with, and I send thank-you notes to every single person. It only takes a few minutes, but at the end of every day, I feel incredibly grateful and appreciative, and I promise you it has increased my luck.
So first, you need to take some risks and get out of your comfort zone. Second, you need to show appreciation. And third, you want to change your relationship with ideas. Most people look at new ideas that come there way and they judge them. "That's a great idea" or "That's a terrible idea." But it's actually much more nuanced. Ideas are neither good or bad. And in fact, the seeds of terrible ideas are often something truly remarkable.
One of my favorite exercises in my classes on creativity is to help students foster an attitude of looking at terrible ideas through the lens of possibilities. So I give them a challenge: to create an idea for a brand new restaurant. They have to come up with the best ideas for a new restaurant and the worst ideas for a new restaurant. So the best ideas are things like a restaurant on a mountaintop with a beautiful sunset, or a restaurant on a boat with a gorgeous view. And the terrible ideas are things like a restaurant in a garbage dump, or a restaurant with terrible service that's really dirty, or a restaurant that serves cockroach sushi.
So they hand all the ideas to me, I read the great ideas out loud, and then I rip them up and throw them away. I then take the horrible ideas and redistribute them. Each team now has an idea that another team thought was horrible, and their challenge is to turn it into something brilliant.
Here's what happens. Within about 10 seconds, someone says, "This is a fabulous idea." And they have about three minutes before they pitch the idea to the class. So the restaurant in the garbage dump? What does that turn into? Well, they collect all the extra food from Michelin star restaurants that was going to get thrown out, and they have another restaurant at a much lower price, with all the leftovers. Pretty cool? Or the restaurant that's dirty with terrible service? Well, that turns into a restaurant that's a training ground for future restauranteurs to figure out how to avoid all the pitfalls. And the restaurant with cockroach sushi? It turns into a sushi bar with all sorts of really interesting and exotic ingredients.
If you look around at the companies, the ventures that are really innovative around you, the ones that we now take for granted that have changed our life, well, you know what? They all started out as crazy ideas. They started ideas that when they pitched to other people, most people said, "That's crazy, it will never work."
So, yes, sometimes people were born into terrible circumstances, and sometimes, luck is a lightning bolt that hits us with something wonderful or something terrible. But the winds of luck are always there, and if you're willing to take some risks, if you're willing to really go out and show appreciation and willing to really look at ideas, even if they're crazy, through the lens of possibilities, you can build a bigger and bigger sail to catch the winds of luck.Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
TED Salon Brightline | June 2018
Tina Seelig: The little risks you can take to increase your luck
Luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic -- it's much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Catching more of it is easy but not obvious. In this insightful talk, Stanford engineering school professor Tina Seelig shares three unexpected ways to increase your luck -- and your ability to see and seize opportunities.
Transcript:
I've spent nearly two decades observing what makes people luckier than others and trying to help people increase their luck. You see, I teach entrepreneurship, and we all know that most new ventures fail, and innovators and entrepreneurs need all the luck they can get.
So what is luck? Luck is defined as success or failure apparently caused by chance. Apparently. That's the operative word. It looks like it's chance because we rarely see all the levers that come into play to make people lucky. But I've realized, by watching so long, that luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic. It's much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Sometimes it's calm, and sometimes it blows in gusts, and sometimes it comes from directions that you didn't even imagine.
So how do you catch the winds of luck? It's easy, but it's not obvious. So I'm going to share three things with you that you can do to build a sail to capture the winds of luck. The first thing you want to do is to change your relationship with yourself. Be willing to take small risks that get you out of your comfort zone. Now, when we're children, we do this all the time. We have to do this if we're going to learn how to walk or talk or ride a bike or even quantum mechanics. Right? We need to go from someone one week who doesn't ride a bike to, next week, someone who does. And this requires us to get out of our comfort zone and take some risks. The problem is, as we get older, we rarely do this. We sort of lock down the sense of who we are and don't stretch anymore.
Now, with my students, I spend a lot of time giving them encouragement to get out of their comfort zone and take some risks. How do I do this? Well, I start out by having them fill out a risk-o-meter. Now, it's basically a fun thing we developed in our class where they map out what risks they're willing to take. And it becomes clear very quickly to them that risk-taking is not binary. There are intellectual risks and physical risks and financial risks and emotional risks and social risks and ethical risks and political risks. And once they do this, they compare their risk profiles with others, and they quickly realize that they're all really different.
I then encourage them to stretch, to take some risks that get them out of their comfort zone. For example, I might ask them to do an intellectual risk and try to tackle a problem they haven't tried before; or a social risk, talking to someone sitting next to them on the train; or an emotional risk, maybe telling someone they really care about how they feel.
I do this myself all the time. About a dozen years ago, I was on an airplane, early, early morning flight on my way to Ecuador. And normally, I would just put on my headphones and go to sleep, wake up, do some work, but I decided to take a little risk, and I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me. I introduced myself, and I learned that he was a publisher. Interesting. We ended up having a fascinating conversation. I learned all about the future of the publishing industry. So about three quarters of the way through the flight, I decided to take another risk, and I opened up my laptop and I shared with him a book proposal I put together for something I was doing in my class. And he was very polite, he read it, and he said, "You know what, Tina, this isn't right for us, but thank you so much for sharing." It's OK. That risk didn't work out. I shut my laptop. At the end of the flight, we exchanged contact information.
A couple of months later, I reached out to him, and I said, "Mark, would you like to come to my class? I'm doing a project on reinventing the book, the future of publishing." And he said, "Great. I'd love to come." So he came to my class. We had a great experience.
A few months later, I wrote to him again. This time, I sent him a bunch of video clips from another project my students had done. He was so intrigued by one of the projects the students had done, he thought there might be a book in it, and he wanted to meet those students.
I have to tell you, I was a little bit hurt.
I mean, he wanted to do a book with my students and not with me, but OK, it's all right. So I invited him to come down, and he and his colleagues came to Stanford and met with the students, and afterwards, we had lunch together. And one of his editors said to me, "Hey, have you ever considered writing a book?"
I said, "Funny you should ask." And I pulled out the exact same proposal that I had showed his boss a year earlier. Within two weeks, I had a contract, and within two years, the book had sold over a million copies around the world.
Now, you might say, "Oh, you're so lucky." But of course I was lucky, but that luck resulted from a series of small risks I took, starting with saying hello. And anyone can do this, no matter where you are in your life, no matter where you are in the world -- even if you think you're the most unlucky person, you can do this by taking little risks that get you out of your comfort zone. You start building a sail to capture luck.
The second thing you want to do is to change your relationship with other people. You need to understand that everyone who helps you on your journey is playing a huge role in getting you to your goals. And if you don't show appreciation, not only are you not closing the loop, but you're missing an opportunity. When someone does something for you, they're taking that time that they could be spending on themselves or someone else, and you need to acknowledge what they're doing.
Now, I run three fellowship programs at Stanford, and they are very competitive to get into, and when I send out the letters to those students who don't get in, I always know there are going to be people who are disappointed. Some of the people who are disappointed send me notes, complaining. Some of them send notes saying what could I do to make myself more successful next time around? And every once in a while, someone sends me a note thanking me for the opportunity.
This happened about seven years ago. A young man named Brian sent me a beautiful note saying, "I know I've been rejected from this program twice, but I want to thank you for the opportunity. I learned so much through the process of applying."
I was so taken by the graciousness of his message that I invited him to come and meet me. And we spent some time chatting and cooked up an idea for an independent study project together. He was on the football team at Stanford, and he decided to do a project on looking at leadership in that context. We got to know each other incredibly well through that quarter, and he took the project that he started working on in the independent study and turned it, ultimately, into a company called Play for Tomorrow, where he teaches kids from disadvantaged backgrounds how to, essentially, craft the lives they dream to live.
Now, the important thing about this story is that we both ended up catching the winds of luck as a result of his thank-you note. But it was the winds that we didn't expect in the first place.
Over the course of the last couple of years, I've come up with some tactics for my own life to help me really foster appreciation. My favorite is that at the end of every single day, I look at my calendar and I review all the people I met with, and I send thank-you notes to every single person. It only takes a few minutes, but at the end of every day, I feel incredibly grateful and appreciative, and I promise you it has increased my luck.
So first, you need to take some risks and get out of your comfort zone. Second, you need to show appreciation. And third, you want to change your relationship with ideas. Most people look at new ideas that come there way and they judge them. "That's a great idea" or "That's a terrible idea." But it's actually much more nuanced. Ideas are neither good or bad. And in fact, the seeds of terrible ideas are often something truly remarkable.
One of my favorite exercises in my classes on creativity is to help students foster an attitude of looking at terrible ideas through the lens of possibilities. So I give them a challenge: to create an idea for a brand new restaurant. They have to come up with the best ideas for a new restaurant and the worst ideas for a new restaurant. So the best ideas are things like a restaurant on a mountaintop with a beautiful sunset, or a restaurant on a boat with a gorgeous view. And the terrible ideas are things like a restaurant in a garbage dump, or a restaurant with terrible service that's really dirty, or a restaurant that serves cockroach sushi.
So they hand all the ideas to me, I read the great ideas out loud, and then I rip them up and throw them away. I then take the horrible ideas and redistribute them. Each team now has an idea that another team thought was horrible, and their challenge is to turn it into something brilliant.
Here's what happens. Within about 10 seconds, someone says, "This is a fabulous idea." And they have about three minutes before they pitch the idea to the class. So the restaurant in the garbage dump? What does that turn into? Well, they collect all the extra food from Michelin star restaurants that was going to get thrown out, and they have another restaurant at a much lower price, with all the leftovers. Pretty cool? Or the restaurant that's dirty with terrible service? Well, that turns into a restaurant that's a training ground for future restauranteurs to figure out how to avoid all the pitfalls. And the restaurant with cockroach sushi? It turns into a sushi bar with all sorts of really interesting and exotic ingredients.
If you look around at the companies, the ventures that are really innovative around you, the ones that we now take for granted that have changed our life, well, you know what? They all started out as crazy ideas. They started ideas that when they pitched to other people, most people said, "That's crazy, it will never work."
So, yes, sometimes people were born into terrible circumstances, and sometimes, luck is a lightning bolt that hits us with something wonderful or something terrible. But the winds of luck are always there, and if you're willing to take some risks, if you're willing to really go out and show appreciation and willing to really look at ideas, even if they're crazy, through the lens of possibilities, you can build a bigger and bigger sail to catch the winds of luck.Thank you.
Source:www.ted.com
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