WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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Okay, I guess my initial reaction would be global warming
but if I was being totally honest, I’d probably have to say

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religious terrorism. I mean, what are
the Islamic terrorists capable of?

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Right? I mean what are the Christian
Reich(ph) capable of? My biggest fear?

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I guess, total economic, social
and moral collapse, you know.

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Like it’s every man for himself.
Scientology or Mormonism

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or the two combined taking over the world.

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We want to know what your biggest fear is
when you think of what the future holds?

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Uh… That people see cable news as reality, that
they don’t see it as uh… how it’s not news,

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that’s it’s the opinion of corporate owner.
We are doing irreversible harm to our planet

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and that we are not acting on it.
Crime, the environment, the economy,

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disease, running out of water.
I’d have to say… I’d have to say

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the question of more and more money and the gap between the
rich and the poor, it’s causing lot of social problems.

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My biggest fear? I can say I have any

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or anything specific. Uh… Drops of
mystery moisture falling from the sky,

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do you ever get that? You are walking on the street and
you feel this drop of mystery moisture on your face

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and you… you look up, the sky is blue,
there’s nobody washing windows,

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it… it’s not rain, it’s mystery
moisture on your face.

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I don’t put much thought into it and even if
there was some kind of unspecified calamity

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that brought about the end of civilization,
it’s not we’d be losing much.

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Do you know what I’m talking about? Nobody knows that the hell I’m
talking, maybe that’s why it’s my biggest fear, I don’t know.

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Oh… Genetically modified
foods, peer pressure,

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car accidents, (inaudible). You
don’t feel any responsibility

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for future generations or those that will
inherit the planet after you are gone?

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To be honest, I don’t hold that hope for
the future. I’m just trying to get through

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my next 40 odd years without doing
any harm or any harm coming to me.

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So, what are you? A conscientious defeatist? No, just
because I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the future

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doesn’t mean that I am not a responsible
person. I obey the law, I don’t litter,

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I drive an efficient car because I don’t want
to create more than my share of air pollution

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but whether the Earth goes up in smoke because
of other people actions doesn’t concern me.

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So you are a responsible citizen
who doesn’t see any hope

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for the future of the planet?
That would be correct. That it.

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[sil.]

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Excuse me, sir.

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Hi! I’m sorry. I just never met
anybody whose view of the world

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is so pessimistic and practical.
You have absolutely no concern

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for future generations. What do you mean?
Well, it sounds like from what you said

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that your only concern is that the planet last long
enough for your time here? If the planet is (inaudible)

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in 50 years of a thousand years, the result is
basically the same. So, why do you obey the law?

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Why the low emissions car?
I’m a moral person.

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You are a moral person who doesn’t care either
way if the world ends the day after you die?

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I don’t see how it concerns me at
that point, it concerns me now.

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Look, maybe I’m being honest about it, maybe
I don’t feel the need to pretend that

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I care just for appearances sake.
What about morality?

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I give a fixed percentage of my earnings every year to
charity. I don’t like to see people suffer more or less

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than you think you do. What does that mean?
Do you think that if I profess to care

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for people who are suffering, I’m being disingenuous?
How do I know what you think? You are a journalist,

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maybe you are acting. What? Look, I’m not looking
for an argument here. I take it you are an atheist.

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No. You got that wrong too.

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I would really like to talk to you more but I have
a deadline. My views aren’t that novel, you know.

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Oh… I think they are actually, at least I
have never met anybody like you before.

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Listen, I’m going to a
poetry reading later,

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its by someone I think that you should meet. I’m not too
big on poetry and besides I don’t want to become material

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for some news story of yours or article
or whatever it is. Here’s the address.

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At the very least, you will learn something about
how the rest of us are deceiving ourselves.

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And you might even learn to see some hope

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for the future of humanity. Oh… Perhaps.
What’s your name?

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My name is not important.

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I’ll call you the man of today.
You are the woman of tomorrow.

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So, I’ll see you later?

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Okay.

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That’s my man of today.

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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[music]

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[non-English narration]

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[non-English narration]

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[music]

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[sil.]

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Excuse me, I’m looking for this
address, it’s a book store?

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Yeah, I know this place, it’s just… right across the
street over there. Oh… I’m actually going there myself.

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Oh… good. Thank you. I’m a little late,

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I’m glad I ran into you. Hmm…

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It’s a poetry reading, isn’t it?
Yeah, yeah.

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You often go to… poetry reading?

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Sometimes. Yeah.

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What? No, nothing. I just didn’t
think anybody actually went

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to poetry readings, seemed little odd.

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Well, you are going. Yeah.
Yeah, I’m going obviously

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but I was talked into it by someone.
I’m just meeting her there,

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I’d never go otherwise.
Huh… To tell you the truth,

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I can’t think of anything
more irrelevant than poetry.

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Look, I… I’m going to go grab a
cup of coffee to just stay awake.

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Okay. I will see you there.
Okay. Thank you.

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[sil.]

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impish hijinks which highlight stick
sigils. Isn’t it glib? Isn’t it chic?

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I fit childish insights within
rigid limits, writing shtick

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which might instill priggish misgivings
in critics blind with hindsight.

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[sil.]

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It is the V you double,
not the U, as if to use

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two valleys in a valise is to savvy
the vacuum of a vowel at a powwow

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in between sawteeth. It is to ask
the painter of a watercolour hue:

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”Why owe you twice what
a sheep is or a tree…”

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[non-English narration]

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[sil.]

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Finally, I would like to uh…
perform for you my translation

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of this poem voyelle. I have translated
it into English but have done so

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by merely rearranging all the letters
that appear in the original French poem.

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Uh… You’ve heard all of these letters
uh… just not in its original order.

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Jejune vassals quote ten
codas in reliquaries: A

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the ceaseless verses at occult
monasteries, requiems of dust,

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bound to nebulous
particles: Embers of gold,

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E-graven urns in sanctuaries,
brass bells, unsold,

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decreed priceless for our
canticles, I, a senseless verse

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a spell, garbled in pentacles; choruses,

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deemed perverse in desolate
nurseries, U, a universe,

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expressed as a murmur of tides,
all its perplexing maxims,

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exquisite suicides, dim
minds, transcended by vivid,

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hexadic prisms O a vesper, stressing

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serenades or solitudes, a clever muse,
to generate endless interludes.

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O, my elegiac ode, ends in paroxysms…

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[sil.]

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Thanks for coming out, I
really appreciate the support.

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So, I see you got stood up?

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Yup. Look, I’m… I’m sorry for what I said out on
the street, didn’t mean to be rude or anything.

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Don’t worry about it uh… in fact, I’m little
surprised that you stuck around for the whole thing.

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You know what, I kind of like the last ones, the one
when you took the French sonnet by (inaudible),

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you turned it around to a perfect anagram of it?
That was clever. Oh… I thought you hated poetry?

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I do, I do but I do like puzzles and word games. Uh…
So maybe poetry is not so irrelevant then after all?

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S Maybe not.

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Well, let me tell you about my next project. I’m actually planning
to write a poem and then through a process of encipherment,

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I’m going to translate it into a genetic
sequence and then with help of a laboratory,

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I’m actually going to implant that
genetic sequence into a bacterium uh…

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replacing part of its genetic code so the organism
becomes the living embodiment of my poetry.

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Moreover, that bacterium is going to make a protein in
response, a protein that would itself be yet another poem,

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one that could conceivably last forever.

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You are going to write a poem to a bacterium? Yes, and
the bacterium is going to write a poem back to me.

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Wow, that must cost a lot of money. Yeah.

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And I assume my tax dollars will be paying for this germ
poem. Uh… You don’t just have a problem with poetry

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but with the public funding of the Arts too? I have a problem
with some bureaucrat deciding where my taxed dollar go?

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I should be able to direct my taxed dollars
where I see fit and quite frankly,

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I would rather my tax would help the poor not fund
poetry being turned into, excuse me, slug secretion.

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Huh… Uh… who should I make this out to?

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Make it out to the man of today.

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[sil.]

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How was it? Oh… you got his book. I gather
that was supposed to be good for me?

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And you got a dedication
for the man of today,

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many thanks, my libertarian friend. I
have never met a libertarian before.

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You see that’s just another label.

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You want to call me something,
call me a pragmatist.

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A pragmatist with a very severe outlook on
the rest of society. Yeah, parts of it sure

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but I am still a member of this society
just because I want freedom over

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my actions and resources doesn’t
mean I want to live in a cave.

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I mean, disagree with how society wants to end those problems
but that doesn’t mean I want to ignore those problems,

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I just see different solutions.
And I guess, you also think

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you shouldn’t have to pay taxes? Oh no… only
fools pay taxes without resentment, no.

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Without the money that comes from taxes, how does the
society function? Where does money come from for roads

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and schools and public transit, how does
society take care of its ill and its poor.

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Uh-hum… people pay for what they use. I don’t
use public transit so why should I pay for it?

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I don’t have children, so why should I

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subsidize the building of schools? I exercise regularly, I watch my diet,
I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. Why should I pay for the hospital visits

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of people who can’t take care of themselves?
Because you are a member of society

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and as a member of society you are
sharing its burdens and its wealth.

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Why share my share? I’ve earned my share with my labor
and what have I gained other than a tiny bit of money,

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I have to walk over the poor when I go to work, I
have to breathe the polluted air from the traffic.

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What about the shared experience? What about
Art and culture and Science and technology?

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What about the marvelous innovations that
are all around us? I can live without them.

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Why would you want to? Listen, when I walk down the street, I don’t see art and
marvelous innovation, I see rackets and juvenile delinquents litter on the street,

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the news is about war,
terrorism, famine, corruption.

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The resources of the planet
are being squandered,

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wasted by greedy consumer class.

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Our garbage is spilling over, it’s enough to
make me want to shut myself in my apartment

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and pretend like the outside world doesn’t exist
which I do more often that I would like to admit.

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The world is not this frightening
place that you make it out to be.

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Yes, it has its challenges but there’s
room for optimism, even wonder and awe.

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Oh-oh… wonder and awe? You are cracking me up. You
want to talk about hope for the next generation?

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Okay, well, the society should be handing out some set
of values, some set of ideas to the new generation,

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what are we handing down but blatant consumerism
and fetish… fetishization(ph) of celebrities.

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Give me a few days of your time. I want to turn you
around and show you that the world has a lot to offer

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even for a pragmatist such as yourself. When do we start? I’m going to meet
some friends for a drink. You should come. No, I don’t feel so for it now.

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Look, I sympathize with your instinct to
rebel against the current state of things

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but some of your views come across as somewhat crazy.
What? Yeah, you need to get out and see the other side.

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We will start with the ride
on the public transit system.

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I don’t use public transit. Oh… It’s okay. The public transit
system is for everyone even libertarians can use it.

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[sil.]

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Can I ask you something? Yeah sure.

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Do you think that people are basically
good? I don’t think that’s relevant.

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I mean, I don’t think the
word “good” means anything

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or evil for that matter. But when someone
does something that’s selfless or noble,

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something that helps other people and not
themselves, how would you describe that?

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I think we act the way we do because how we
evolve, if we do something to help others

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it’s because there is a good
evolutionary reason for helping others.

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I read somewhere about the
idea of reciprocal altruism,

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we learned to share because we
had to in order to survive.

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We see that’s just survival, good has
nothing to do with it. It’s an empty word.

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Is a leopard good or bad?
No, obviously not.

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”Good” and “evil” are just
word we’ve come up with

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but they don’t explain why
we act the way we do.

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The problem as I see it is that
survival in the modern world

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doesn’t reward good (inaudible)
necessarily or punish bad.

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For example, somebody can make a lot
of money doing really bad things

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to harm society and there’s little in the way
of retribution in an evolutionary sense.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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Go to Egypt to do this research, you
know about (inaudible), I find… Heya.

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Hi. Hi.

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This is the guy that I was telling you about. Great, great. I’m the
guy. Hi, nice meeting you. Francis. Nice. I’ll be right back. Hi.

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[music]

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I saw you on TV. Yeah, that’s possible.

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You are an Anarchist, is that it?
Kind of, kind of. Kind of okay.

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Why do you…? Well, there’s
some part on… some parts of…

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anarchy theory is interesting, the fact
that I don’t like the state to control…

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So, that’s good. …where my money goes and I would like… And
what do you do about that? I don’t know what I do about it,

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that’s a good question actually.
You should talk to this guy?

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Yes, you… you are quite good on action, aren’t
you? Yes, yes. Well, I feel like a kind of drive,

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we have to do something to make sure that there is a future
and even in a prison if we are living a decent life.

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So do you go to rally, do you…
you throw rocks at the house?

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They aren’t throwing things to us so we
are just, you know, giving them back.

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And it’s like teenager stuff?

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Well, it’s what they want you to believe that these
people are? The young people, they are kids,

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they don’t know where they (inaudible) they are Anarchist, they
are irrational, they are… it’s only about passion or emotions,

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there is something about passion and
emotions when you are… when you get involved

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because why get involved if we don’t feel
anything, you know, if you feel nothing.

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Well, you will not have reason to do things and
of course, there is backlash and setbacks and…

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and it’s not a game because it’s not… it’s not for
fun, it’s for real but there’s something in struggle

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that is something about a game. Have you
ever cried for political reason when…

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
Yeah, but I cried… cried of
tiredness, crying of disillusion,

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
I think that… I don’t see how
even thousand (inaudible)

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
you can do is going to change anything?
Oh… it changed things.

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
For sure, it has changed things. In history, look at
woman rights or worker rights or immigrant rights…

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Or gay rights. Yeah, gay rights.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
Something… I feel like big companies or
government like are so powerful compared to what

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
we can do in everyday life that I
feel a bit like a prism, you know.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
Yes, it’s why you feel a
bit like an Anarchist.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
He’s not quite an everyman, he is more
like an everyman from the fringes

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
but he’s really engaging. It’s pointless now.
God’s the greatest danger to mankind anyways.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
We’ve got people living like it’s 2000 years ago and
now they’ve got nuclear weapons, so, go figure.

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
You are not talking about faith, religious
faith, spirituality or even God.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
You are talking about radical using the name of God
to justify their authoritarian… You are right.

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
…Views. Well listen, if you were one of the
million of people who are dying of hunger

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
everywhere, instead of being here in that nice,
cozy, jazz club, drinking nice imported beers

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
and stuff like that and thinking you are so on top of
the world, well maybe, you would need God a little bit.

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
I find it very condescending,

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
I find it really irrational. Well… well…
I’m sorry, I need to take some… Hey, wait.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:23.000
[music]

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
I thought you were trying to make me more of an
optimist, not introduce me to a bunch of contrarians.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
Intellectual debate is a corner stone of civil society.
Well, ideas alone will not faster the greatness

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
you think mankind is capable
of, let me tell you this.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
Not everything has to be so dire.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Look, all I want to do is

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
introduce you to some people who will challenge
your cynical view of the world. How, (inaudible)?

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
I will try to make it worth it.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
Do you need a ride somewhere? No, thanks.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
I will walk, I need to clear my head. Some of the
ideas you heard tonight might be worth hanging on to.

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
What are we doing again?

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
I’m going to introduce you to the future,
and remember, the future is now.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
[sil.]

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
And that’s how I became a guinea pig

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
in the cause of optimism. I agreed to go along
with this woman of tomorrows experiment.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
She picked me up at my apartment and asked me, “Are
you ready?” I said, “I was as ready as you can be

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
when you don’t know where you are going.”

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
Where I was going, who I was going to meet,

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
I knew none of that at this point. All I knew was
she was starting my interpretation (inaudible)

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
with a large helping of culture and the first
cultural dish was going to be architectural marvels.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:08.000
[music]

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
I suppose she wanted to show me the greatness
that humanity was capable of and so,

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
we started with a tour of the monuments we have
build to ourselves and to our various Gods.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
This seemed like a predictable way to go.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
Astonish me with large monuments
through mankind’s oversized ego

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
but for a moment there I did get
caught up in the display of marvels.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:48.000
[music]

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
Give this to the architect,
I will see you later.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:33.000
[music]

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
I don’t know if I would have
signed on for this tour

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
if I had known it was going to be
self-guided. In fact, to be totally honest,

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
I only really agreed to do this to spend
some time with the woman of tomorrow,

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
but it was too late now. Apparently, I was going
to have a conversation about modern architecture,

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
a feature of the landscape I
hold in particular contempt.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:28.000
[music]

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
Hello, this is for you. It’s
from the woman of tomorrow.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
Oh… It’s interesting, thank you very much.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
[music]

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
So, I understand you have some issues uh…

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
with modern architecture, right? Call me old
fashioned, but I like the old buildings that show

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
beauty and grace and craftsmanship.
Sometimes I think

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
we’ve forgotten how to build beautiful
structures, you know. Having said that,

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
I must congratulate you on your work here. You see
this is a modern building but with grace and style.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
May I ask what inspired your design?
When I start designing

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
umm… I want to design the building
very practical as a museum

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
but the same time, the building
has to give wonderful experience

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
to the visitors. So that was very
important thing, also that the site

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
uh… is a little bit away from
the center of the city of Metz.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
I want to design something
very particular for this place

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
and uh… particularly for
the history of the Metz

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
so that… that… I design the…
tube, we call the gallery tube,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
it’s a very long… 90 meter long by 50
meter, end of the tube I put big window,

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
I call it a picture window framing

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
the important monument of the city that’s why the
three tube is stacking on top of each other,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
shifted toward the different monument.
There is something else that…

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
that troubles me with modern architecture.
It seems to me

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
like the main purpose of
a lot of these buildings

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
is to serve as a kind of monument to the
genius and the ego of the architect himself.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
I’m not saying I have no ego

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
but uh… it’s really true that many of the
building, it’s becoming like a sculpture

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
as the expression of the…
architect by themselves

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
but the architecture I’m interested
in is not that kind of architecture.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Uh… I’m very interested in…
again the leading local context

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
and history and so on. I cannot design anything
without understanding the local conditions

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
and understanding the
problem of the project.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
So, if it’s not to build

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
monuments to his own ego, what do you consider
the architect social responsibility to be?

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
When I started my own practice,
I was very disappointed,

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
uh… uh… the profession of the architects

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
because we are mainly working
for the privileged people,

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
we are also working for rich people, big
corporations, developers and government

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
designing the building in order to display

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
their power and money by
monumental architecture.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
We can uh… use our knowledge and
experiences for other things

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
like there are many people who build their houses
by natural disaster, then we need to build

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
a temporary shelter for them but we don’t
see architect there because we are too busy

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
working for the previous but I think we
can use our knowledge and experience

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
improving the shelter after the disaster.
How did you get started

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
building structures for disaster victims?
Uh… 1994, I saw very

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
very miserable photo on the magazine,

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
uh… it’s about the situation
in London after the Civil War

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
and the people was freezing with
blanket and I was quite surprised,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
I thought that most of Africa is very warm
but they are freezing in this blanket

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
because of the shelter they are given
by United Nation was not good enough a…

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
against the rain, especially
during rainy season

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
and then I thought, without improving the
shelters, any medical care doesn’t have them.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
He explained that originally the refugees were given
only plastic sheets to use for a shelter. So,

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
they cut down trees in
order to build frames

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
but there were over 2 million
refuges and the tress they cut

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
led to serious environmental
problems due to deforestation.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
That’s why, they are very interesting that
developing my idea of using paper chip uh…

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
in order to stop cutting trees.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
Is it rare for an architect to be
doing this kind of relief work?

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
No, many architects and even student
started being interested in

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
that kind of the project
but I may say it is rare

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
especially uh… architect who are
building monument including myself,

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
is very rare to work in
that kind of the field.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
What do you get out of this work? You know, actually
I am not expecting to get out something from it.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
For me, designing the house for
rich people or designing the…

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
the temporary shelter for the victim
of the natural disaster is same

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
and also the beauty, that is also very
important. Uh… For me, the design,

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
it’s importance of the project, it has nothing
to do with the budget of the building

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
even though, I’m not paid
building a temporary shelter

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
for the victims when they moved
in and they become very happy

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
and that’s the best moment
for me as architect.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
I have taken up too much of your time already,
thank you very much. Thank you very much.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
I had met my first
optimist and on my way out

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
I was given a gift for my next encounter.
It seemed that everyone knew more about

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
where I was going than I did.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:58.000
[music]

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
Hello, how was your visit with Shigeru Ban?
He said, “You are very pleasant

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
and fairly well-versed on the topic of architecture.”
Well, he’s doing some interesting things indeed.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
So, it’s not just an expression of the architect’s
ego? Well, I don’t know him that well

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
but I can see how architecture when done
right, it can reflect the greater good.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
So where are you taking me? Which of mankind’s
accomplishment are you going to introduce me to now?

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
Great works of modern art I suppose.
Actually, yes. I had planned a museum visit

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
to teach my libertarian friend the value
of art. I wish you wouldn’t call me that.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
I’m sorry, man of today.
I need something to eat.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
Why don’t you have a snack on the train? You might
be surprised at the quality of train food in Europe

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
and I will try to arrange something more
substantial for you at your next stop.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:03.000
[music]

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
The sandwich was just passable but the coffee
wasn’t bad. I was a willing victim up to this point

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
in the journey and wasn’t
going to complain too much.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
I got off the train to meet with my next
appointment, an artist of some kind.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
I wasn’t sure what to expect.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
Are you the man of today?

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
Yes I am. I am Marlene Dumas. Nice to
meet you. And I’m gonna be your guide.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
So, if you come with me. Yes.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
[sil.]

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
You are skeptical about
modern art, aren’t you?

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Yes. What do you think is
the role of modern art

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
in our society? I’m afraid I
don’t have anything original

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
to say about that. I think
there are certain things

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
that we can’t learn about
ourselves from books or Science

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
or religion and for that we turn to art.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
Oh… like what things? I
don’t know, deeper truth?

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
Deeper truths, you think
modern art can’t do that?

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
As if the old art could do it but now they can’t do it anymore? No, no offense. I even think that modern art
is a divisive force. I told her what I thought about the divisive nature of art, how it separated people

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
into People two groups, those who
got it and those who didn’t.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
She responded by saying that art
actually brought people together that

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
it broke down boundaries
between cultures and countries

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
and eliminated the patriotic
and nationalistic

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
even fascistic elements in society.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
Yes, it liberates you from the
dictatorship of your own culture.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
It was something to consider.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:23.000
[sil.]

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
Oh… (inaudible), oh my goodness.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
I don’t know, that’s from the woman of tomorrow.
I don’t know why she gave that to you.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
Oh, that’s very touching but first we have to… I just have to give you a drink to
get over this. The toad is a wonderful present because, you know, everyone always

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
just talks about the fact that I use the human
figure and they always have this long list saying,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
yeah it’s about sex, death,
race, identity, you know.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
But actually, I always have a bit of a… something that break the system or it’s
never totally so logical at all and the toad comes in funny visions into my work.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
Don’t think anyone ever even wrote about that and also the thing
of the toad because you always want to know what things mean,

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000
you know, art, modern art, you don’t know what it means, you know. Of course.
Because there is this thing of transformation. Uh… Transformation through love.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
She talked about what the frog symbolized. The idea of
transformation that came from the fairytale, but also

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
the idea that in turning an ugly frog
into a handsome prince through a kiss,

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
beauty is created after love is expressed. You
have to feel the love before you see the beauty,

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
something she related directly to her work.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
Paintings needs lovers

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
like frogs needs kisses to reveal its secret.
So I’ve always liked that aspect of that you…

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
about beauty and ugliness,

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
you know, the whole aesthetics
of what is a beautiful painting

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
or beautiful thing. Uh-huh… The fact
that without love, no beauty and

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
you have to first kiss the frog to

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
uh… see beauty. So, at first, you have to
love the painting before you can see it.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
How do you decide on an image?

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
Ho, that depends umm… I
have tried to explain that.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
Sometimes they come from a long time
already where you struggle with something

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
and only much later the image falls
into place that you are gonna use

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
but to use a more concrete
example because that’s easier,

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
this is one of my favorite
paintings called “The Painter”

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
and the source material was
a snapshot of my daughter

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
when she was about four years old and she
actually did in the real paint herself.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
She was painting on a piece of paper
and water colors in the garden

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
and when I turned around because I
was talking to someone too long,

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
she stood there and she painted her
naked body and she painted her hands.

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
So that was the source, but
here’s an example where

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
you have a source and
that stays a long time…

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
umm… yeah, waiting for you
to be ready actually for it,

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
because sometimes you are not ready
yourself. So, there’s an idea somewhere,

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
and a need to express something in
a… and when the two come together,

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
it’s when you do the painting.
And you need some grace

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
to make any good art but maybe in life
also to make you need some grace.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
I still believe in that so that’s why art
is not a question of technique in the end

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
because you can use all the same
tricks and sometimes it’s nothing

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
and now and then and if you are lucky, so maybe in my
whole career maybe I’ve got three or four things where

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
you have that grace where

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
all the things fall together.
Is it important for you

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
that the viewer understand your intention,
when he looks at your painting?

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
Is it important that he understand clearly where
you are going? It’s not so much that I’ve got

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
one single intention and
if this ideal viewer

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
would know that intention, they
would know what this thing is

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
because the work also goes its own
way sometimes. So therefore I find,

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
you can disagree with me, I can tell you
no, I did this and this because of this

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
and this and then you could maybe say, well you might think so
but I don’t think that’s what you’ve got. So, I like the dialog

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
that the work is more open

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
to different interpretations, it’s
not that I think there’s only one,

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
you know, meaning and one intention.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
For me, painting is a very physical act.
I have to do it with my body,

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
you know, I stamp out the paint
with… I work late at night

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
because then I’ve got myself into a
sort of state. Ideally, I would like to

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
keep something as simple as possible

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
where… where you are almost
like in a state of tension,

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
you know, like when someone says, okay,
you choose now, what mark will it be?

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
I know there’s something
obviously important

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
going on here but as much as I would love
to relate and understand your world,

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
I still struggle to embrace it.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
Perhaps, the fault is mine but
when I see a work of modern art,

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
I usually can’t connect to it. And even
if it touches me in some mysterious ways,

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
I cannot put that feeling into words, I
can’t intellectualize the connection.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
Now that seen you work and talked to you
about it, I feel I can connect to it

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
but I can’t ask every
artist and every gallery

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
to give me a private
guided tour of their art.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
Hey, but listen, you’ve seen the frog,
now maybe it’s up to you to kiss it.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
Ha-ha, yeah. We stayed up all night

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
drinking and talking and arguing about art.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
I had to admit, it was a stimulating
and rewarding experience.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
What a night. Well…

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
It was great to meet you.
Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
Bye-bye, chow.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:08.000
[music]

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
I had to hand it to this woman of tomorrow,
her friends are a persuasive bunch

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
and I was anxious to see who she
was going to set after me next.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
But the trains were on
strike, the transit workers

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
had walked off the job to protest some
remark made by the Minister of Labor.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
The minister had questioned the transit workers
work ethic and suggested that they were overpaid.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
I talked to a couple of socialist
who stood up for the workers.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
They were intent on lecturing
me about socialism’s values.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
I wasn’t sure if the parade
was in honor of the strikers

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
or if it marked some other event.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
Hello. Hi, there. How are you feeling?

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
Good, I guess. The trains are on strike so… Yeah, I
heard about that, power to the people, I guess. Listen…

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
Since I was stranded, the woman of
tomorrow decided to go to Plan B.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
She arranged for a site tripe that
wasn’t on my original itinerary.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
[music]

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
She didn’t have time to
make formal arrangements

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
but she said I’d be able to tell if
my next guide was accepting visitors.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:43.000
[music]

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
Hello, please come in.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
[sil.]

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
So, how can I help you? Saw
the sign in the window?

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
Well, I saw philosopher in
residence so I thought…

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
So are there any particular questions that you
are interested in finding out answers for?

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
Nothing too big. If I
could come out of this

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
with a better understanding of
the essential nature of man

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
and uh… a sense of how to be in the world,
I will be happy. That sounds pretty large.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
So what are your views on the
essential nature of man?

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
You know, if you’d asked me that question a couple of days
ago, I would have talked about ignorance and selfishness

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
but I’ve been seeing
things and meeting people

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
that are leading me to think that I was
wrong, at least not completely right.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
What does the philosopher think?
In terms of the good-bad axis,

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
I’m very skeptical of any uh… philosophies
which suggest that man is either good or bad.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
It is clear that we have a foot in
both camps. I suppose another aspect

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
which is what… what is it good to want?
What should life be about?

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
I mean, philosophers are often wanna see
(inaudible) what is the meaning of life?

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
Umm… Again I think, the meaning of life is not something
that comes anymore from the sky, from a supernatural being,

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
from a God, umm… we have to make up our
own meanings. We have a biological agenda

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
but this leaves quite a lot of free
time still nowadays because with,

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
you know, procreation, looking up to (inaudible) it
takes a long time, I’m often looking after my children

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
but there’s still a lot of spare time and so the
question is, what do we do with that spare time?

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
How do we best fulfill ourselves?
Again, I think there’s no one answer,

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
I think that every human being has
talents, umm… has capacities uh…

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
and the… the purpose of
every individual life

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
is to bring these capacities
to their maximal fruition.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
Umm… Most of us don’t manage that,
most of us feel in situations umm…

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
where we think, I have a talent, I have
something special to bring, I don’t want to die

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
but how am I going to make
the world realize that?

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
Uh… And this is the dream of education, the dream of
modern politics is to… to make sure that every human being

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
can realize what is special
in them and about them

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
but it’s tremendously difficult and I would
say that only a very small percentage

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
of human beings manages to get what is
precious inside out into the world.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
Most of us die with what is precious still very much
locked in us, perhaps, unable to understand it.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
It’s dramatic. Uh… It’s
tragic, it is tragic.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
Umm… there is an element of tragedy.
I think the modern world

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
is very much based on optimism. You know, everything is going
to be great and this comes a lot out of the United States,

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
you know, United States believes in earthly
happiness, umm… in that sense, it’s against

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
the vast tradition of human history
which is seeing life as suffering,

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
you know, be this Eastern Buddhist
thought or in Western Catholic thought,

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
their life is kind of suffering. Umm… the
sort of dream of the modern world was,

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
actually that’s not true, you know, we can
make it up and make it more cheerful.

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
Umm… I’m an optimist, I’m a modern in that sense,
I believe that we can try and make it right

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
but it isn’t very helpful to
push that optimism too far

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
because if you do, you end up
leaving people feeling persecuted,

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
they are like, okay, I know in theory everything is supposed to be great but why
is my life not great? And many people feel that in the privacy of their hearts,

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
they feel why has my life not turned
out like the adverts said it would?

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
Why is my life not like in the movies?
And uh… so, a note of pessimism,

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
a note of caution, a note of generosity and
consolation about life seems very important.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
So I’m interested because you said a little while ago
that “Your views of human nature have started to change

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
and I’m just wondering what that journey
is that you are on?” How is it changing?

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
You see that… that’s an interesting point
because I’ve been talking about art

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
and architecture, two
subjects that have never had

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
any kind of transformative influence on me at
all. That’s interesting umm… but also honest.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
I think a huge claim is made in our society

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
for the importance of art and architecture. Uh… You
know, on the whole, people… many people are secular now

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
and the idea is, where is the
residue of higher values

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
of something beautiful and not
materialistic, it’s art, art and culture,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
this is supposed to be where it’s at. Most people go to
a museum, they look at modern buildings and they think,

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
is this what it was all supposed to be about? So, I
think it’s a very useful starting point to confess

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
your bewilderment and puzzlement. Most people don’t even get
this far. So, the suspicion that maybe it’s all bullshit

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
is a really good starting point.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
Umm… My own personal view is that the
purpose of art is to help us to live,

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
art should present to us images of goodness

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
and images of evil that direct
our lives and that inspire us

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
and provide guidance. This I should
say is a religious idea of art.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
I’m not religious but I still
think that religion had it right

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
when it came to art. You know. many people say things like,
“I don’t like religion, I can’t understand religion but,

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
you know, those religious artist, they kind of had a point like,
hey, it’s amazing, when you go into a church, the art was better,

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
it seemed to have a point to it and the
reason is simple.” They thought that art,

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
you look at a work of art and it should change your life and
it should change it for the better either by frightening you

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
or by inspiring you and that is a really
good direction and for so much of modern…

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
so much of modern art is nihilistic in a sense
that all it’s trying to do is to surprise you,

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
it’s, you know, you put a pile of bricks on
a table, you put a pile of shit in a vat

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
and you are supposed to think,
wow, that’s so weird and different

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
and that is not a very interesting response.
So surprise, you know, which has come to us

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
from the famous urinal of De Champs, that’s kind of run
out of steam like I’m bored of being surprised by art

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
and maybe you are too and maybe the art of the
future is going to remember that old fashioned

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
uh… religious injunction to move us

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
and direct us towards what’s good in a way from
what’s bad. If a traveler showed up at your door

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
and asked you for your thoughts on how to
be in this world, what would you tell him?

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
How to be? Umm… I mean, I
understand by your question

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
umm… how to stay sane. I think one…
one thing to do is to accept that

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
sanity is not going to be possible all the time.
Umm… That life is inherently kind of disturbing

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
and we need room for that, we
need room to be a little crazy

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
uh… and give ourselves some slack uh… on that.
Umm… I think we need room to feel pessimistic

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
uh… and to have a place for our sadness.
Umm… I think we need friendship which…

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
by which I understand a circle of
people who are able to come with us

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
when we leave the official story behind.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
You know, the official stories about how it’s going to be great, you are
going to get married and have 2.2 kids and have a job you love etc,

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
that’s not true and so, you need a friend, you need a group
of people with whom you can kind of share the bullshit

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
and be sad with them in a kind of consoling

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
and uh… reconciliatory way.
So a group of friends,

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
little bit of room for insanity, little
bit of pessimism and also a lot of hope

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
because uh… you need hope to keep
you going umm… lack of despair

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
is… is also important, kind of
courage, kind of moral courage.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
You are very inspiring. Thank you.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
Very glad I came through your door.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
Bye-bye.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
Bye-bye. Have a nice day.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
[sil.]

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
159 families are homeless tonight
after watching their homes burn down

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
before their very eyes.
I am optimistic umm…

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
I am optimistic that young people today know what’s going
on and that they are going to do something about it,

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
their main concern is till socializing

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
but they are also socially conscious as
well. I hope the kids today do a better job

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
running things than we did, that
there’s still enough to save

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
but probably doesn’t sound very optimistic.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:55.000
[sil.]

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:23.000
[music]

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
Excuse me. Is that Jean-Paul Sartre?

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
Yes. He is in the library, follow me.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
[music]

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
But Sartre’s dead?

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
Who’s to say?

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
Please, take a seat.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:20.000
How did the woman of tomorrow arrange this?

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:43.000
No.

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
[music]

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
My visitor from the past

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
reminding me of my responsibility to the future. I
felt like a citizen for the first time in a long time

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
and it rejuvenated me somehow. I
really felt some of the anger

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
I’ve been holding in release but could
such advice be heard by these people?

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
Do they see how they are implicated
in the troubles of the world?

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
Do they even care? We can
deliver on those desires,

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
satisfaction guaranteed.
You desire what you need

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
and you need do what you desire.
We can deliver on the desires.

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
Satisfaction guaranteed.

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
What have they got you doing?

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
Art and Culture will only get you so far.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
It won’t put food on the table.

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
You are doubting the allure of
consumerism, aren’t you? Me?

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
Questioning the tenets of capitalism?

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
No. I don’t think so. You know that when you
fulfill your desires you make the world go round.

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
You mean when I buy things?
When you desire something,

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
don’t you think it’s important to work
hard to have it? Are you really doubting

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
the benefit of a free market economy? What about the
important things that don’t need a new fragrance

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
or battery charger? Like?

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
I don’t know. Human interaction,

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
contemplation, nature,
arts and culture, ideas.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
Don’t fall under that spell my friend.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
You need to watch which way you go here.
You don’t want to make any new enemies.

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
New enemy? And besides,
it’s not like a thing

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
you need to buy things all the time.
Oh, what are you saying then?

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
Sounds like you need a lesson in economics. No, no, no, no,
no, thank you. No thanks. I had enough lessons for now.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
I can help in your lectures that you do.
When you embrace consumerism.

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
You would embrace a global system
that allows the have to have more

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
and the have not’s to become have. Free markets
allow wealthy nations to import inexpensive goods

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
from low wage countries like China thereby
increasing the buying power of their citizens

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
and allowing countries like China and India

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
to bring millions of people out of poverty by
creating jobs. The growth of their economy creates

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
more consumers to participate in the
marketplace. It’s a win-win situation.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
Okay, maybe I don’t totally disagree with
the…the fundamentals of what you’re saying

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
but it’s the scale that scares me.
If everyone consumes

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
like we do in the West, the planet
can sustain it. Don’t be so naive.

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
There are plenty of resources to go around and he’s
going to tell the middle class in India and China

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
to put the brakes on progress just
from there reaping the benefits.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
And what about the widening gap between the rich
and poor? The planet is being divided between

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
those who have everything and those who are just not
getting enough The free market will help solve that

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
and besides you can’t stop progress.

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
That’s no answer. You can’t stop progress.
That’s no answer.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
Satisfaction guaranteed.

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
[sil.]

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:33.000
[music]

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
The transit workers were back on the job

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
and the government official when assaulted
them had been forced to resign.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
Someone had to take the fall I suppose. The
Woman of Tomorrow sent me a new itinerary

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
which I decided to ignore. It called
for me to be on the train going north

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
but I decided instead to go nowhere and
avoid the next leg of my indoctrination.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
I was beginning to feel like my original impulse
to retreat from society was the correct one.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
People are too stupid and
too selfish to ever change.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
We’re just going to keep on eating and growing fatter,
burning up every last drop of oil on the planet

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
until the icecaps melt and our
cities are all 20 feet underwater.

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
I’m optimistic that people are becoming more
empowered. Look the social and political links

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
that we’re building through our communication
systems. Young people can now build powerful,

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
influential groups. The old model of
control from the top down is going.

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
A new model is coming,
maybe real democracy.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
Yeah I…I’m confident that our
problems will be solved.

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
I… I also have a lot of
faith in our young people.

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
Oh it’s me,

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
oh I am here is how consumerism
is ruining our planet,

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
and consumerism is ruining our lives.
How can I (inaudible)

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
make an honest living

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
when all of my province are
crying against humanity.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
You’re here Mr. Businessman,

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
don’t be such a cry baby. There’s a
lot you can do to keep the pious

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
and the consumer at bay. How?
How? Can you help me?

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
You can explain to them that
the manufacturing sector

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
pulls millions out of poverty.

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
Or better still you can hide behind a wash

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
of green advertisement.

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
Use images of leaves,

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
flowers no matter what the product is.

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
And quit complaining. Hey,
hey, hey, hey hang on there.

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
What do you say to the consumer
class that has lost its way?

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
Lost its way? What are you talking about?
People have lost themselves

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
in a haze of consumerism. Consumerism
isn’t a (inaudible). And we’re still,

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
the haze is thickening into a dense
fog as the media turn a blind eye

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
not to offend their corporate client. You can’t
blame the businessman for runaway consumption

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
for the bad habits of some consumers.
Some consumers! How about most consumers?

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
I’m just a puppeteer. Who wrote this show? And…
and why are you putting it on front of children?

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
It’s based on the theories of
the economist Milton Friedman.

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
Milton… Milton Friedman! Economists are
writing the script for puppet shows now?

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
I was hoping for an older crowd.
Well, what are you an anarchist?

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
Boo… boo…

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:28.000
[music]

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:43.000
[sil.]

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
Excuse me, do you mind
if I ask you a question?

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
What do you do for a living? Oh I’m retired.
I used… I used to work for the phone company

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
but technology has been changing
so much, I couldn’t keep up.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
I… I couldn’t keep up with the retraining
that was necessary. I… I’m just too old.

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
I’m sorry to hear that.
I had my day in the sun

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
but got blown aside by the gale. You
see I… I think we have to challenge

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
the idea that the old is continuously replaced
by the new. What’s wrong with something

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
being repaired time of time instead of
throwing it away? What about the people.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
Don’t you feel pushed aside?

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
A bit, but my kids have been educated in… in
the new technologies through the workforce now

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
that’s how it should be.

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
[sil.]

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
You know, the world isn’t the scary
place that we might imagine.

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
It does work on a variety of levels.

01:08:55.000 --> 01:09:03.000
[sil.]

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
There you are. I don’t know where I am but there are
puppeteers designed to turn children into Republicans.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
You were doing so well. Remember you said
you’d give me a couple of days of your time,

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
where did you go. I was
accosted by a sales person

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
and she brought about some dark thoughts. I think
I just saw the hopelessness of your cause.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
Our cause, what cause is that?
Selling me on the idea

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
that mankind is redeemable.
I agree with Sartre’s point

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
that I’m implicated in both the success
and the failure of our society

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
but I just see failures. Sartre, the
philosopher? I’ve got to hand it to you,

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
you are quite connected with them. I
feel like I’m in the (inaudible) novel

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
and I need to get the hell out of here.
And I need a new dose of optimism too.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
Good, then let’s get you heading in the right
direction. I’d like to finish this if I can.

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
I would like to get through this

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
and I’m having a hard time.
Well, let’s get moving on that.

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
Thank you… thank you for this.

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
He’s back but I have to keep him focused.
I’m going to take some extra precautions

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
to make sure he stays on the straight now.

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:38.000
[music]

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
Man up to date? Yeah. I’m your eyes.
Let’s go.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
Thank you.

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
[sil.]

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
So where are you headed?

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
Uh… I don’t know. I just have an address.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
It looks like it’s a campus of some kind.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
Drive. I’ll give you address.
What are you doing there?

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
Want to know? What you’re up to? Yeah. No,
I don’t. A friend asked me for a favor.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
I happened to be driving by.

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
[sil.]

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
This seems like an odd
place to find optimism.

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
There is something insane about this place. It’s the perfect
illustration of capitalism’s failure to find a purpose.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
This is what it does for entertainment. I
know someone you should talk to about that

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
she could straighten you out,
or you’re here to lecture me

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
about socialism’s virtues?
Socialism isn’t a dirty word.

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
I don’t know what The Woman of Tomorrow told
you but I’m not some kind of Uber capitalist.

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
Maybe I heard wrong. But what did you
hear about me? I’d like to know.

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
Can you give me that address again? I would like
to know. I should really concentrate on driving.

01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
[sil.]

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
This would turn out to be perhaps the most amazing
stop on my journey. I was about to encounter

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
two scientists who would change forever
my definition of what was possible.

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
It is pure information. You could
put it into a printed book.

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
You could send it over the Internet.
You could store it on a magnetic disk

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
for a thousand years, and then, uh… in a
thousand years time with the technology

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
that they will have then, it will be possible to
reconstruct, uh… whatever living organism was…

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
was here now. So this is something
which was utterly undreamed of

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
before the molecular
information revolution.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:44.999
What has happened is that
genetics has become a branch

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:49.999
of information technology.
Uh… It is pure information,

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
its umm…digital information. It’s
precisely the kind of information

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
that can be translated digit
for digit, byte for byte

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
into any other kind of information
and then translate it back again.

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
This is a major revolution. I suppose
it’s probably the major revolution

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
in the whole history of our
understanding of ourselves.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
To speak to this point for… for the last 15
years we have been digitized in biology.

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
So, when we decoded genome including
sequencing the human genome

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
that’s going from what we consider the analog world
of biology into the digital world of the computer.

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
Now for the first time, we can
go in the other direction.

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
So when… with synthetic genomics or
synthetic biology we are starting purely

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
with that digital world. So we take
the sequence out of the computer

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
and we chemically from four raw chemicals

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
now that come in bottles, we
can reconstruct a chromosome

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
in the laboratory based
uh… on either design,

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
copying what was in the digital world
or coming up with new digital versions.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
Hello,

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
what you’re talking about
is really creating life.

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
What are you going to say to all the
people who will accuse you of playing God?

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
Uh… I don’t think I have a problem with
that but I think it’s something we want to…

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
to take seriously. Uh… what
I do have a problem with is

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
the possible umm…

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
unforeseen practical consequences of some of
the sorts of things not just you are doing

01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
but many other people are doing, I
suspect that the phrase playing God

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.999
is actually a kind of, it’s a bit
like The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:54.999
Because accusing a scientist of playing God is
obviously stupid. But what is not obviously stupid

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
is accusing a scientist of
endangering the future of the planet

01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
by doing something that could
be irreversible. Thank you.

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
I have argued that we are
100% now dependent on science

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
for survival of our species impart
science of today has to overcome

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
the scientific breakthroughs
of previous years.

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
Umm… Because we’ve advanced internal combustion
engines, because we are so good at burning carbon

01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
that we take out of the
ground, we did it blindly

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
without any consequences of… that it might
totally affect the future of the planet.

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
So we may be fixed in our destiny

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
regardless of whether we have new
approaches. I don’t like that scenario.

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
If we can do two things, number one replace
using the carbon we’re taking out of the ground

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
by using renewable sources

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
and the best renewable source we have is energy from
the sun and it turns out chemically and biologically

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
in the lab we can make anything uh… in
the lab that comes out of the ground

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
in terms of carbon. We can make octane, we
can make diesel fuel, we can make jet fuel,

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
we can make butanol. Uh… These are
ideas that are slow to catch on.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
It very much in the notion that you’re
talking about people are much more concerned

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
uh… that there might be new
consequences of engineering biology

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
then this potential disasters route we’re
on totally changing our atmosphere

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
maybe making it impossible ultimately
for our species to survive.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
I think that’s a far more
dangerous experiment.

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:48.000
[sil.]

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
So how was it your whatever it was?

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
You know, it was an eye opener. You forget
about the men and women who devote their lives

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
to the search for knowledge. They’re
really trying to find solutions

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
to our planet’s problems. So the project
is working for you? That’s good.

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
I have the feeling there are others.
Do people generally come around?

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
You know, I can’t really say but I… I
think not everyone is so open to change.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
You’re not going to disappear into your device now, are you?
No, no sorry. There’s just someone else you need to see.

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
You can tell The Woman of Tomorrow that I’m
appreciating this segment of my itinerary.

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
Okay, follow me.

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:43.000
[music]

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
Excuse me? Are you expecting someone?
You must be The Man of Today?

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
Yes, that would be me.
Here, this is for you.

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
Well, thank you.

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
Oh, it’s very sweet. Thank you.
Just the delivery boy.

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
So I hear you’ve been traveling around.
How’s it been?

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
I get asked that a lot. I’d
like to say, it’s going well

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
because it is going well, but I
guess it’s part of my personality.

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
I can’t help flipping back.
I’ve… I’ve heard and seen

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
some fantastic things really.

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
They don’t change things completely for us.
I still look around

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
and see what we as a society have done
despite the wonderful opportunities

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
we’ve been offered. I mean look around.

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
How does it come to this?
I see a beautiful city.

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
I mean noisy and dirty
but a beautiful city.

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
You’re right. I interrupted your reading?

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
No. It’s a bit cold though. Yeah. We could
go to my apartment, I can make you some tea.

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
Good. All right.

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
Yeah, and so then, I just kept
finding out about one after another…

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
So she made us tea and we talked about her work
as a novelist and essayist. How she saw beauty,

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
even poetry in some of the more
far flung ideas in science.

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
How some of those ideas can be beautiful
like a summit, all worked out in detail.

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
She thought this was a better way to
think about the scientific imagination

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
as dealing with constraints in much the
same way a poet must deal with constraints.

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
Can you give me an example of
an idea that’s like a poem?

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
I don’t know like one night I thought it was
beautiful sky sort of working on building like

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
an elevator up into space which we probably don’t need,
and you know, we have other ways to get to the moon

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
but how they just thought like going to all the
trouble of figuring out what material would be made

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
and what the load bearing would be and
all… I just thought it was beautiful,

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
you know, and that constraint reminded me of the constraints
of poetry about, you know, the sound of the words

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
and the… and the cadence all those things.
Hmm. You know, it’s bizarre.

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
I started this journey by
talking to a poet was planning

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
to turn a poem into a genetic sequence
and inject it into a bacterium

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
and now I’m ending it talking to a writer
who think of scientific ideas as poems.

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
I guess, I’ve closed some kind of a circle.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.999
I wish I had a moment with that poet.

01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:59.999
I think I was a bit hard on him.
Have you heard of this uh…

01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.999
many worlds interpretation of
quantum mechanics? Little bit.

01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
It’s this idea like in… as if in another world, you
know, you had the chance to not be hard on him.

01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
So they’re basically looking at electrons and they can’t figure
out why they seem to choose to be in two places at once,

01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
how that could be true and they sort of one idea of how that might
be true is that every time something could be this or that,

01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
it’s both of those things. The
world kind of branches out

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
and all those worlds are sort of
like running parallel and you know,

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
getting more and more numerous. You know, whether it’s true or
not it’s nice to sort of think through all the implications of

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
what if every possible juncture went both
ways. So may be in one of those worlds

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
there’s the solution to men’s problems.
Exactly. And even if it’s just like

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
one out of the billions of worlds, it’s
like a nice little jewel in the crown

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
to have… have one world like that. You
know, I admire your curiosity very much,

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
your love for new and crazy ideas.
Yeah, I find it inspiring.

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
I think it’s important to take
somewhat ludicrous ideas seriously.

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
Like I came across this… this beautiful
idea for responding to global warming

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
where they would sort of just launch
like thousands of little mirrors

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
the way kind of reflect just enough flight away
so that it would be like a little less hot.

01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
And… and on the one hand practically
maybe it’s a terrible idea.

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
Maybe they’d rain down on top of us and shards of glass. But…
but you know, you sort of think of this sort of glittering.

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
It’s almost like the toxic
sunset of LA is so beautiful.

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
In another way, it’s like this kind
of glittering… glittering idea.

01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
Hmm. You know what? Just talking about
new ideas and theories with you

01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
has calmed me down.

01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.999
You’re not really the person I thought I was
going to meet today. I must be sleeping.

01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:59.999
[music]

01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
She gave me a signed copy of her book
and the directions to my final stop.

01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.999
In a way, I was going back where I
began but in another crucial way,

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.999
the man I was when I started
this journey no longer existed.

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.999
So how’s my Man of Today?

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
I’m impressed by your organizational
skills if nothing else.

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.999
Do you think I’ve helped you to see the world in a
different light? Not everyone is fortunate enough to be

01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:34.999
walked through the future. The future of possibilities
by some of the world’s leading thinkers.

01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:39.999
So consider yourself lucky. You’ve been
given a gift, now you can spread the word.

01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:44.999
I don’t know if I want the responsibility. All
you have to do so is show some enthusiasm

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
for the world that we live in. And I know you’ll always
be a realist, so I can count on you to remain grounded

01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:54.999
in the challenges that we face. The Woman of Tomorrow
is talking about my responsibility to the world.

01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.999
I zoned out for a minute. I imagined

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
the Woman of Tomorrow and I having a
family together, lots of children

01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
enlightened by the knowledge passed
on to them by us, their parents.

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
Children who would go into the world
spreading a clear message for the future,

01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
passing that knowledge onto the next generation
but that seemed like a lot of effort

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
and it made me tired just thinking about it. …And
now it’s on our shoulders to share in the ideas

01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
that you’ve been introduced to. I can’t help
but come back to man’s inherent weakness,

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:34.999
our inability to suppress
greed and avarice.

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:39.999
You’re missing the forest for the trees.
You’re just seeing the dead wood.

01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:44.999
If you only recognize the selfish and the criminals, you’re not looking
very hard. There’s always going to be people who only think of themselves

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:49.999
but you have to look past those people to
the people that are working for change.

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:54.999
We’re never going to have a perfect world but
closing yourself off and admitting defeat

01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:59.999
is worse than being ignorant. Is it?
Look, I know here in the West it seems

01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:04.999
like we’re more interested in home furnishings
than in solutions for the homeless

01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:09.999
and we’re obsessed with celebrities. We find it hard to
go out and vote. And our society pays more attention

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:14.999
to easy headlines and scaremongering.
And I too struggle with optimism.

01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:19.999
I have to fight sometimes to keep
steering my emotions to the positive

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:24.999
but I have to remind myself of all
those people working for good

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:29.999
and I see hope in the future. I
have to look at humanity that way.

01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:34.999
Every pessimistic point of view can be countered
with a more optimistic view of the future.

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:39.999
I’m going to try to see the world, a
little bit more from your perspective.

01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:44.999
We have an opportunity to see
the world through the darkness

01:26:45.000 --> 01:26:49.999
into something more open and lives.

01:26:50.000 --> 01:26:54.999
Still a struggle but… but yes, I… I
see the world a little differently.

01:26:55.000 --> 01:26:59.999
A little bit more balanced.

01:27:00.000 --> 01:27:04.999
Thanks to you. Oh! Then I can say
my project has been a success.

01:27:05.000 --> 01:27:09.999
I’m just one person. And you
have a big responsibility.

01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:14.999
Just to be optimistic? That’s a start.

01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:19.999
I started to imagine
possible futures for myself.

01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:24.999
I saw myself chained to a tree
staring down the lumberjacks,

01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:29.999
being loaded into the back of a police van
at a protest rally, giving a rousing speech

01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:34.999
to a large crowd using public transit.

01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:39.999
I’m going to start using public transit.
Beg your pardon.

01:27:40.000 --> 01:27:44.999
I’m going to use public transit.
That’s a start.

01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.999
You have a responsibility to more than just yourself,
wouldn’t you agree? Yeah, I can agree with that.

01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:54.999
It seems pretty obvious with all these children around.
I think that’s all that can be expected of anyone

01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:59.999
that we take our responsibility to
ourselves and to others seriously.

01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:04.999
I can’t change the world. Yes, you can.
You’re doing it right now,

01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:09.999
just by putting some thought
into your behavior.

01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:14.999
[music]

01:28:15.000 --> 01:28:19.999
What’s your name?

01:28:20.000 --> 01:28:24.999
I’m Paul. What’s yours? It’s Liane.

01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:33.000
[music]