Full transcript
0:01What does knowledge mean ? I mean , what
0:02are we implying when we say " I know " ?
0:04What is knowledge , really ? It seems
0:06like a simple question , but when you
0:07think about it , you hit a wall . Because
0:10if we say that what we call knowledge
0:11is truly the most fundamental building
0:13block of the universe , we wouldn't be
0:14wrong , and it is indeed the most
0:16powerful thing we possess in every
0:17sense . To better understand what I'm
0:19talking about , we need to take a
0:21journey back about 5,000 years .
0:23Humanity's greatest , most important
0:25invention . The invention of writing . I
0:27ask you to think for a moment . About
0:29humanity’s motivation to start
0:30writing and the doors it opened . The
0:32invention of writing was a rupture that
0:34completely changed all of human history
0:36in an instant . It is even such that it
0:38feels as if there was nothing before it
0:40. The billions of people who lived
0:42before its invention , the countless
0:44disasters and successes , everything
0:46that happened seems as if it never
0:48occurred . We try to understand what
0:50happened by looking at rocks , ruins ,
0:52and things buried in the ground , but we
0:54don’t really know . So , how should we
0:56put it regarding the invention of
0:57writing ? It was something that made
0:59humans visible in the universe . In The
1:01Shawshank Redemption , Brooks Hatlen had
1:02written " Brooks was here " before taking
1:04his own life . Even though he had
1:06decided to cease to exist , he couldn't
1:08bring himself to let his name be erased
1:09. Humanity began to write , draw , and
1:11paint with a motivation just like this .
1:14Of course , we can say the basic
1:15motivation was necessity . Technically
1:17speaking , it is also said to be for
1:19recording what one possesses . But it
1:21seems its purpose was also to soothe
1:23existential pains to some extent . With
1:25the invention of writing , in a sense ,
1:27humanity would write " we were here "
1:28onto the fabric of the universe . We
1:30would see similar writings on King
1:33Teti's pyramid around 2300 BC . This is
1:35still one of the best-preserved
1:37complete texts today . And in this text ,
1:40which consists of prayers immortalizing
1:42Teti and spells trying to revive him ,
1:44it says : " Oh King Teti , you have not
1:46died . You have only moved on to eternal
1:49life . You are ascending to the sky . You
1:51are joining the gods . They are
1:53accepting you . They are giving you
1:55power , and you shall live forever . "
1:56Even though Teti didn't come back to
1:58life , in a sense , his dream of
1:59immortality seems to have been realized
2:01. We are still talking about him today .
2:03Anyway , the importance of this
2:04invention is so profound that I may
2:06have gotten carried away and strayed
2:07from the subject . However , I am
2:08returning to the main topic immediately
2:10. We were talking about the invention
2:11of writing . Words are actually time
2:13capsules that hold what we call
2:14knowledge inside them . First , we
2:17started with whatever we had on hand .
2:19We had nails , and tablets made of clay ,
2:21soil , and stone . With great effort , we
2:24carved whatever we got our hands on
2:26into these tablets by striking with
2:27nails . We know it started first with
2:29the Sumerians in Mesopotamia , but I am
2:31sure there is a much older history . We
2:33are speaking based on the information
2:34we have , but the logic was similar in
2:36all of them . They transferred the
2:38things , objects , and people they saw in
2:41nature onto tablets as visually similar
2:43as possible , a human . When you looked ,
2:45you understood . In a sense , the first
2:47writings were like drawing pictures .
2:49But then , the true intelligence of the
2:51Sumerians that changed history would be
2:53their decision to do this in a very
2:55different way . Why do we insist on
2:57trying to express things visually ? I
2:59mean , we can't visualize everything ,
3:01after all . How were you going to
3:03visualize love , revenge , grief , or joy ?
3:05For that , another system was needed .
3:08For instance , could they transmit sound
3:10? Yes . Transcribing the sounds that
3:12came out of their mouths while saying
3:14the names they used for that thing . It
3:16was strange , but this was a
3:17revolutionary approach . Symbols were
3:20created for sounds . Random symbols
3:22corresponding to each sound . The symbol
3:24, the letter , the word didn't need to
3:26resemble anything . It was enough that
3:29we all agreed on what it stood for when
3:31we looked at it . This is the main
3:33explanation for why there are countless
3:35different languages from the countless
3:36language families we call language . All
3:39nations and societies living together
3:41reached different agreements among
3:42themselves as to which sound
3:44corresponds to which symbol . And this
3:46was the explanation for why there are
3:48around 7,000 languages , both large and
3:50small , today . But the real breakthrough
3:53here was this . For the first time ,
3:56human thought was separating from the
3:58human body , beginning to live much
3:59longer — perhaps forever — than the
4:01time its mortal human body would spend
4:03in this universe . And this is a
4:06transformation that changes everything .
4:08The transformation of abstract thought
4:10into symbols . Knowledge was now free .
4:12Shall we stretch our minds a bit , lean
4:14into some fiction , and think of
4:15knowledge as an entity with its own
4:17will ? It’s a fun thought experiment ,
4:19but it will help us understand the
4:21subsequent process . Yes . Knowledge was
4:23now free , and like a virus looking for
4:26ways to spread — the first thing an
4:28entity that has waited billions of
4:30years to be free would do . Its new
4:32mission is to spread throughout the
4:34entire universe , both temporally and
4:35spatially . After tablets and cave walls
4:38, a tool that was easier to write on ,
4:40transport , and spread was needed . Many
4:43things were used to carry thought .
4:45Animal hides , fabrics , and then , after
4:47going through many various forms , the
4:49most perfect tool for writing and
4:51carrying was found . Paper was both easy
4:54to write on and not a burden . Knowledge
4:56seemed to have finally found what it
4:58wanted . At least for a while . Because
5:00there is an interesting thing that
5:01happens to humanity . The moment you
5:03solve a problem , you actually open the
5:05door to a much bigger one . Paper
5:07lightened the weight of thought . Then
5:08came the printing press , and perhaps
5:10for the first time in history ,
5:11knowledge ceased to be something that
5:13was only copied one by one . It turned
5:14into something that could be
5:15mass-produced . Think about it , for
5:17thousands of years the only way to
5:19create a second copy of a book was to
5:21rewrite it from beginning to end . Now ,
5:23the same information could reach
5:25hundreds , thousands , and then millions
5:27of people at the same time . Knowledge
5:30was no longer just surviving . It was
5:32multiplying , and as it multiplied , it
5:33was transforming the world . Because
5:35from now on , every new idea didn't die
5:37with the person who discovered it . A
5:39discovery made by one scientist became
5:41the starting point for another . For the
5:44first time in human history , each
5:46generation does not have to rediscover
5:48the world . They could continue from
5:50where those who lived before them left
5:51off . Knowledge had truly begun to
5:53accumulate for the first time , and
5:55perhaps this is exactly what we call
5:57civilization . This is why science
5:59accelerated . This is why trade grew .
6:01This is why states became more complex .
6:03Because the memory of humanity had
6:05turned into something much larger than
6:07the memories of individual people . But
6:10at this very point , Knowledge hit a
6:12wall once again . It reached its limits .
6:14We could now store it , we could
6:16replicate it . We could send it to the
6:17other side of the world . But still ,
6:19only humans can read it . Only humans
6:22could interpret , and only humans could
6:24do something with that information .
6:26Perhaps the next great revolution
6:28wasn't about information traveling
6:30further . It was about the machine
6:32learning to work with information for
6:33the first time , and for that , we need
6:35to go to an unexpected place . The 18th .
6:37Century , to the city of Lyon in France .
6:40At that time , Lyon was one of the
6:42world's most important silk production
6:44centers . Fabrics with extremely complex
6:46patterns were being woven here . But
6:48there was a problem . The more complex a
6:50pattern was , the harder it became to
6:52weave . Sometimes two master weavers
6:54would work for days . Yet they could
6:56only produce a few centimeters of
6:58fabric . Then an inventor named Joseph
7:02Marie Jacquard appeared , and what he
7:04did at first glance seemed like just
7:07improving looms , but in fact , it grew
7:09into much more . Jacquard did not place
7:12the pattern to be woven inside the
7:14machine . He separated it from the
7:16machine . Instead , he used cards with
7:18holes on them . Each card carried
7:20information about the pattern to be
7:22woven . If there was a hole , the thread
7:24would lift up . If there was no hole , it
7:26would stay down . As the cards passed
7:27through the machine in order , the
7:29pattern was woven into the fabric row
7:31by row . And right here , one of the most
7:33important turning points in human
7:34history took place . Because for the
7:36first time , a machine was told what to
7:38do not by the machine itself , but by
7:40information . Same loom , same gears ,
7:43same mechanism , but the moment you
7:45changed the cards , a completely
7:46different fabric emerged . I know this
7:48seems very ordinary to us today .
7:50Because we do this every day . We
7:51install a new app on our phone . We
7:53install a new program on our computer .
7:55The hardware is the same . The only
7:57thing that changes is the information .
7:58Well , the foundation of all these
8:00applications and programs was laid 200
8:02years ago with those punched cards .
8:04Jacquard , of course , just wanted to
8:06weave fabric faster , but unknowingly ,
8:08he had demonstrated something much
8:10bigger . The essence of information
8:12could be independent of what carries it
8:14. A pattern could turn into holes , and
8:16a machine could understand what to do
8:18just by looking at those holes . For the
8:20first time , information was not being
8:22written only for humans . For the first
8:24time , a machine could read it too . And
8:26this idea is the common ancestor of all
8:28the digital technology we use today .
8:30And the same idea could theoretically
8:33be applied to any machine . As long as
8:35we can tell that machine what to do
8:38with symbols it understands . That is
8:40why Jacquard's punched cards started
8:42weaving not just silk fabrics , but the
8:44computer age itself . However , there was
8:47still a huge problem that needed to be
8:49solved regarding information . Now
8:51machines could read it , but information
8:53was still walking . To go from one city
8:56to another , it still needed the back of
8:58a human , a horse , or a ship . We are
9:01talking about the speed of information .
9:02The speed of information could not be
9:04faster than the speed of the material
9:06carrying it . Until humanity placed it
9:08into something completely different .
9:10Electricity , and at that moment ,
9:11information would perhaps experience
9:13one of the greatest leaps in its
9:15history . The 19th . Century , as
9:17experiments on electricity gained speed
9:19, scientists began to notice something
9:22interesting . Electricity could travel
9:24along a wire almost instantly . For the
9:27first time in history , this meant the
9:28possibility of information moving
9:30independently of the physical object
9:32carrying it . If we could control
9:34electricity , perhaps we could also
9:35control information . Inventors from all
9:38around the world emerged , chasing this
9:40very idea . They experimented with
9:41different systems . Some used a separate
9:43wire for every letter . Others tried to
9:46display letters by using electric
9:48currents to create bubbles in liquid .
9:51They even developed mechanical
9:53contraptions where small metal balls
9:55would drop to signal that a message was
9:57coming . Looking back today , they all
9:59seem a bit strange , but they were all
10:00searching for the answer to the same
10:01question . How could something as simple
10:03as electricity carry something as
10:05complex as human language ? Then Samuel
10:07Morse stepped onto the scene , and his
10:09invention wasn't actually the telegraph
10:11itself . There were many people working
10:13on the telegraph . Morse's true genius
10:15was in how he re-abstracted information
10:17. He said , let's not try to send the
10:19letters themselves . Let's send a
10:20representation of the letters . Thus ,
10:22each letter was translated into a new
10:24language consisting of only two
10:25different signals . Short pulses , long
10:27pulses , dots and dashes . For example ,
10:30the letter E , the most frequently used
10:31letter in English , was just a single
10:33short pulse . Less frequently used
10:35letters were represented by longer
10:37sequences . This way , for the first time
10:39, human language was translated into a
10:40language that electricity could
10:41understand . Information had changed its
10:44body once again , and this time it was
10:46preparing to travel the world at near
10:48the speed of light . Before long , cities
10:50were connected to one another . Then
10:52countries , and eventually continents .
10:54With cables laid under the oceans , the
10:57two ends of the world could speak
10:59almost instantly for the first time .
11:02Communication that once took weeks or
11:04even months was now happening in
11:06minutes . And thanks to this , trade
11:08changed , journalism changed , wars
11:10changed , the world shrank , and without
11:12even realizing it , humanity had laid
11:14the foundations of the modern
11:15information age . But what impresses me
11:18most about this story is none of these .
11:20When you look back at this journey that
11:22began with writing , you see an
11:23interesting pattern . Information was
11:25constantly finding a new body . First it
11:27became stone , then clay , then paper ,
11:28turned into punch cards , and then
11:30became electricity . It was as if it had
11:32only one purpose . To go further , to
11:34spread faster , to reach more minds . But
11:36perhaps the most interesting part is
11:37that while humanity was doing all this ,
11:39we didn't fully know what it was we
11:41were actually carrying . Because we had
11:43invented writing , we had invented the
11:44printing press , we had invented the
11:46telegraph , but I still don't know the
11:47answer to a question that seems so
11:49simple . What was information , really ?
11:51What was it that made a thought
11:53information ? Did information have a
11:54weight ? Could it be measured ? Was it
11:56subject to the laws of physics ? Or was
11:58it just an abstract concept produced by
12:00the human mind ? All of this will take
12:03us not only to the history of computers
12:05, but to the heart of modern physics ,
12:06mathematics , and artificial
12:08intelligence . Because in the next
12:10episode , we will see that without
12:12understanding information , you cannot
12:14understand computers , the internet , DNA
12:16, or artificial intelligence . If you
12:18want to continue this journey , don't
12:20forget to subscribe . So far , we have
12:22only described how information
12:23transforms and how it travels . In the
12:25next episode , we will try to understand
12:28what information really is .