4.10.2011
At this year’s T-HT conference “Growing through Knowledge”, fourth in a row, in the Hypo Center almost 600 guests listened with great interest to the lectures presented by top world’s speakers: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Ph.D., and Amber Case. All present parties had the opportunity to hear unusual and interesting theories on Black Swans and cyborgs.
"Most of the great events in the history was caused by Black Swans. Half of The Black Swan is about there being negative or positive Black Swans. Take, for instance, creating of the internet or a personal computer. Antifragile systems benefit from black swans. Evolution benefits from random events –otherwise we wouldn't be here." This is how Taleb, Ph.D., explained, among other interesting topics, the role of Black Swans in the history of mankind, unpredictable events, not necessarily negative, that have shaped our history and are still shaping our presence and affect all aspects of our lives.
The lecture presented by Nassim Taleb, Ph.D., author of The Black Swan, philosopher, risk manager, and former trader, was followed with great interest by almost 600 guests. Taleb, Ph.D., intrigued all the present by explaining the difference between fragility, robustness, and the term he had created – antifragility. His new book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms deals with this subject.
The second part of the conference was dedicated to a totally different, but equally intriguing view of the world today. Amber Case, a cyborg anthropologist known for her statement that "we are all cyborgs", explained in detail the manner in which people and technologies interoperate and develop together.
„I would like to tell you all that you are all actually cyborgs, but not the cyborgs that you think. You're not RoboCop, and you're not Terminator, but you're cyborgs every time you look at a computer screen or use one of your cell phone devices. So what's a good definition for cyborg? Well, traditional definition is an organism "to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments".
The machines are helping us to be more human, helping us to connect with each other. The most successful technology gets out of the way and helps us live our lives. And really, it ends up being more human than technology, because we're co-creating each other all the time," explained Case.
And while Taleb, Ph.D., relies, with regard to the evolution, on Black Swans, Amber Case sees technologies as an impetus for development: "Technology is evolving us as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on "external brains" (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives."
Led by the idea that knowledge is important for the growth and development of each individual, but also of the society as a whole, the T-HT conference is a gift of knowledge to the Croatian business, academic, and student community. The conference puts emphasis on new technologies and contents, but also on the importance of having a vision, ideas, innovations, and guidelines for the future and on the importance of sharing knowledge and therefore, from year to year, it hosts eminent philosophers, experts, and scientists.
"The guests we bring to our conference draw our attention to the fact that we have to think and do more; that we must create the future we want and not only let it happen to us… because there is no doubt that we as humankind have lost our way. As individuals, but also as companies, organizations, and states, we are responsible to actively create a better future. Fast technological development and global events with the strength of an earthquake unstoppably change our way of life. Adjustment of individuals and societies to these changes is becoming increasingly more challenging and therefore we often do not have time to stop and profoundly think about whether we do our best. In HT we made a decision to actively participate in the creation of a better future a long time ago – we made it deliberately, because of the responsibility we have, because of honest empathy, but also because of our moral obligation towards the society in which we operate. But we all need to ask ourselves – do we do enough? Therefore once again I am inviting all of you not to be indifferent, not be inactive, and to stop intensifying injustice. Let us stop crossing the street with a blindfold on," said Ivica Mudrinić, President of the Management Board and CEO of HT.
With the conference as a gift, HT enabled its guests to download Mr. Taleb’s Black Swan in electronic form on Planet9, a platform for the reading of contents on computers, devices supporting Android operating system and IOS (iPhone and iPad), and e-readers – devices that provide the best experience of reading of electronic publications.
This year’s conference traditionally gathered guests from the Croatian economic, intellectual, and political life, as well as friends, partners, colleagues, and employees of T-Hrvatski Telekom.