- il y a 3 semaines
Interplanetary future to enhance life on Earth
Catégorie
🤖
TechnologieTranscription
00:00Générique
00:31So I'm sure some of you may be wondering what else is in the program aside from artificial intelligence, right?
00:39Now as we move on to analyze a sustainable and cost-efficient future in this planet,
00:46we also have game changers working on outer space technology that can enhance our life on Earth.
00:53So for the next panel, we'll even have an astronaut joining us remotely.
00:58Don't know about you, but I'm already intrigued.
01:01Please welcome Dava J. Newman, director of MIT Media Lab,
01:08in conversation with Jeremy Wilkes from Euronews.
01:13Welcome.
01:39Hello everybody. Welcome to this room. Thanks for being patient.
01:43It probably is the most secure place that we've ever been, actually, after that sweep that we had through.
01:48Hi, John. How are you doing? We can see you there.
01:53Good afternoon, Jeremy. It's a pleasure to be here.
01:56You have just come back from space, and I'm just desperate to see some of the photos or videos that
02:04you took when you were there.
02:05It's an incredible experience. Let's just get straight into it.
02:08Can you share with us some of the experiences that you had and some of the videos from that experience
02:15that you had?
02:17I'd love to. First, I'll apologize for my voice. I've been talking a lot since I've been back.
02:22I've been back about two weeks, and the experience just continues to grow.
02:27So, I can tell you the overview effect is alive and well, but it doesn't happen on a schedule.
02:32It comes to you slowly, and every day I wake up, I have a new experience to remember.
02:37So, ten days on orbit before the ISS, doing lots of great science, doing some outreach for students.
02:44It was a marvelous, marvelous experience, and I look forward to sharing it for years to come.
02:50Is there kind of a sort of a moment, I suppose, when you think to yourself,
02:56I'm in space, I can't believe it, or does it kind of come upon you slowly?
03:02Well, it's a funny story. Every morning I woke up, I slept in the Dragon vehicle.
03:08This is the mission. That's where they want you to be.
03:11In my sleeping bag, I opened my eyes, and it took me several moments really to grasp where I was
03:18the first few mornings.
03:19You know, you have to look around and study your environment and determine that you're really, really there.
03:24on orbit, circling the Earth. And then you grasp that, that this is really happening.
03:33That took several mornings before I woke up normally and thought about coffee or something.
03:38But it was really, really marvelous, and you get the grasp of what you're doing,
03:44and then later comes the importance of that. So we used our time well, talked to lots of students, and
03:50had a great time.
03:52David, let's bring you in. So what John did was basically one of these private space operations, which is now
04:01going to the ISS, Axiom Space.
04:03How does that kind of fit into where we are in space now, the kind of mission that he was
04:08just involved with?
04:09Because paint a picture of the landscape really at the moment in terms of space, which is changing so quickly.
04:13So space is really for everyone now. We're democratizing space. When I was at NASA, we put in the public
04:20-private partnership.
04:21So John launched on SpaceX. Here he is in these images, wearing what we call the skin suit, an exercise
04:28countermeasure suit.
04:29That was our experiment from MIT with our astronaut participant. And it's really to open it up and say that
04:37now we have private folks.
04:39The frequency is going up, and we do think of a future in low-Earth orbit where millions of people
04:44will be living and working in space close by.
04:47That's only 400 kilometers up.
04:49Genuinely, you think people in this room might have that opportunity?
04:53How many people in this room want to go to space?
04:56I mean, I'd go for the weekend, right? Everybody would go for the weekend, just to get that view.
05:01But, I mean, I've met a lot of astronauts, and they're wonderful, extraordinary, brilliant people.
05:08Is it right, really, though, in terms of the use of the resources that we have, in terms of the
05:15use of the orbital paths that we have available,
05:18to open up the door to kind of this mass tourism? Do you think it's kind of morally right?
05:23Do you think it's a good thing that's going to happen, or is it just going to happen anyway?
05:28David, go ahead. Give us your view on that one.
05:30It's starting to happen. It's starting to happen now.
05:32And most importantly, as John and I are both committed to the next generation,
05:37and so making sure that if your children at home, if they are within 20 years old,
05:44we've been living and working on International Space Station for the last two decades.
05:48So they really are the space generation. All of their lives, their entire lives,
05:53there's been astronauts living and working in space.
05:57John, how do you see it developing?
05:59Because at the moment, we are relatively limited in terms of accommodation up in space.
06:03There are not so many places you can go.
06:04How would you see the development of this kind of occupation of space,
06:09people living and working there even for a short amount of time?
06:13Well, certainly, Jeremy, I can tell you that all of our crew took it as far, far more than just
06:19a touristic event.
06:20It was nothing like that.
06:21We had a combination crew, multinational, two commercial astronauts from Saudi Arabia.
06:28Astronaut Peggy Whitson, retired, one of America's most famous astronauts.
06:33We trained for two years at the Johnson Space Center.
06:37I became aware and functional and certified in all of the major ISS systems
06:42because I wanted to understand the future of space from the hardware that it takes to take us to space
06:47and to exist.
06:48So it was a very serious affair, non-trivial.
06:52We did a lot of great science.
06:54David has alluded to the skin suit project, which is a direct example of development that private astronauts can do.
07:02And we focus really hard on STEAM, STEM education initiatives to make awareness alive and well in the hearts and
07:11minds of educators today.
07:12So it was a very valuable exercise, one that I know will be rewarded in the future.
07:17David, we've had a lot of talk from institutions about engaging on STEM and trying to get children inspired by
07:25space.
07:26Is that working?
07:27Do you think that effort that's happened in the last few years?
07:30It is working.
07:32It's the inspiration to think about maybe what you didn't think was possible, that now it's possible.
07:38And so that kids can see more private folks, ordinary citizens.
07:42John had the dream when he was a young man.
07:44Maybe space was for him.
07:45We want to make sure that all of our students, all of our kids, they're not all going to be
07:51astronauts, but they can see what's beyond.
07:53That's the inspiration.
07:54And also we have a very special view from space looking down on Earth, which we'll talk about coming up.
08:01But that perspective you get looking back home on Earth is really transformative.
08:07Let's hope that we all start to have those opportunities.
08:10But already just looking at the pictures is inspiring and wonderful and videos as well.
08:14I love those time lapses.
08:16You know, those are just great when you see the planet spinning below you.
08:19Should we show John having some fun in space?
08:22Yeah, go on.
08:23There's a couple of videos of him right here.
08:26Let's see.
08:29Don't do this at home.
08:31John, were you feeling sick when you were spinning around like this?
08:36Well, you do undertake some adaptation, but it becomes fun.
08:40And that's part of what being an astronaut is.
08:42You get to enjoy microgravity.
08:44And it's quite difficult, really, to learn some of the skills in navigating.
08:48That was one of the hardest parts.
08:50Well done, because I've talked to a lot of astronauts who've been to the ISS, and they say being able
08:57to do that, that cool trick, rolling along and not bumping into the sides is really hard.
09:02This is a tricky one.
09:04Yeah.
09:04Let's move on to the Moon and Mars.
09:08We know that that's going to happen.
09:09Excellent.
09:10And David, everybody who's watching you is probably thinking about that thing on your arm.
09:16How does that fit into the story related to the Moon and Mars?
09:19So we are going to become interplanetary.
09:22Lots of people in low Earth orbit on International Space Station and the private space stations that are coming.
09:28But we really want to push forward.
09:30So we go back to deep space.
09:31We go back to the Moon with the Artemis programs.
09:34And then on the horizon is humanity going to Mars to search for the evidence of life, probably past life.
09:42So we do see a future where we'll be in this decade back to the Moon.
09:47It's fantastic.
09:48You're all like super athletes, super humans.
09:51You can jump six to seven times higher.
09:53And we're doing technology development for what we call the bio suit or a skin suit.
10:00Rather than wearing the huge gas pressurized conventional suit, we actually put the compression right on the arm.
10:08Talk us through what that thing is.
10:10So lots of layers, I'm guessing.
10:13But it's also squeezing.
10:14It's squeezing me.
10:15So I'll show you a video of it and then we can talk about this latest prototype.
10:19If you could roll the video.
10:21Thank you.
10:22This is last time we were at the Moon.
10:24How it used to be.
10:26Not very mobile.
10:27We wasted all of our energy against that suit.
10:31So we said, what about if we put the pressure directly on the skin?
10:35In order to do that, we need a lot of technological advances.
10:39We had to invent some new fibers that are multifunctional because they're compressing.
10:44A space suit has to apply 30% of an atmosphere.
10:48It has to apply 30 kilopascals or 30% of an atmosphere to your arm to get rid of that
10:53big bulky suit.
10:56It's a laser scan.
10:57So there is very much a custom design suit as the one that John wore for his exercise on space
11:04station.
11:05They're all custom designed to fit the person.
11:07And these are sensing fibers.
11:10So the suit is also smart and it measures the astronauts' motions.
11:15And right here it's showing how much pressure.
11:18It's a tunable compression garment.
11:20Did it apply the amount of pressure up to that 30% or one third of an atmosphere to keep
11:27someone alive?
11:28So we invented the fibers.
11:30We integrated the sensing.
11:31We make it tunable for compressibility.
11:34And you have to be able to put it on and off yourself.
11:37So I have a prototype on.
11:40I can actually take off.
11:42It's been compressing me for a while backstage.
11:45But I can show you some more of the materials.
11:47But it's very flexible.
11:49Order of magnitude less in terms of mass.
11:52And we want our astronauts to be very, very mobile.
11:55We don't want to constrain them.
11:57Here's some of the materials.
11:58John, what was it like when you were wearing it on the ISS?
12:00You wore the whole suit, did you?
12:03Yeah, this was the skid suit.
12:05This was designed by David's lab to mitigate physiological effects of transitioning between microgravity and Earth gravity.
12:13There's a lot of adaptation that astronauts undergo in their first few days in microgravity and on return.
12:19This will help astronauts be more productive, could reduce the dependency on exercise in some degrees.
12:26It was quite comfortable.
12:28I could have worn it all day.
12:29But we had some specific protocols that we wanted to test and try out.
12:34In the end, I'll say, David, it robbed me of one thing.
12:37You're supposed to grow in space.
12:40And I'm a short guy.
12:41I was looking forward to that.
12:43But the skid suit kept my height exactly the same.
12:47So it's working, but to my own devices.
12:50David, are the limitations of the human body basically the main limitations we have when it comes to exploring the
12:57Moon and Mars?
12:58It's us, right?
12:59It's us that it's a problem.
13:00Absolutely, because Earth and Mars are sister planets, both 4.5 billion years old.
13:07And we have a lovely atmosphere, life support system that keeps us healthy, well and alive.
13:12Sometimes we take for granted.
13:13On Mars, we have 1% of a carbon dioxide atmosphere.
13:17So Mars has lost its atmosphere.
13:19It's lost its electromagnetism, what we call the dynamo.
13:23And the Sun, solar wind, is literally ablating the Martian atmosphere.
13:28So today, Mars has a 1% carbon dioxide atmosphere.
13:32So we have to come up with a pressure garment, a pressure suit, pressurized vehicles, pressurized rovers, and a pressure
13:39suit to go out and explore Mars.
13:42You have to be in a pressure suit.
13:44If I could zoom you to Mars now, would you wear one of those suits then and confidently go outside
13:49and think I'm going to be fine?
13:50Well, this is a research and development prototype.
13:53We have to have a whole suit and put it through some more training.
13:57But we could do that in a few years of looking at this alternative mechanical counter pressure, second skin, versus
14:03the huge 160 kilo gas pressurized suit.
14:07Because this will enable our astronauts to explore and do their work.
14:12That's what I was going to say. What can you do better, I suppose?
14:14I can move. I can bend down.
14:16One, not like the Apollo suit you saw, my Apollo bloopers, where we sent one scientist to the Moon, Jack
14:22Schmidt, but we didn't let him do any science because the suit was so immovable.
14:26He kind of had a pogo stick. So he really couldn't do much science. So we'll get it right this
14:31time with the technology and the advancements.
14:33We're going to be getting to the Moon pretty quickly, actually, if what we hear from NASA is true. Are
14:40they going to be wearing suits like that?
14:42We're going to, we're going to, we're seeing if we can send up some of these, this technology is technology
14:47demonstration.
14:47That's the great opportunity with the private astronauts and so many more people flying. Each mission, we'd love to send
14:54a prototype, have them demonstrate it.
14:56Is it comfortable? Is the technology working? Each different prototype, we invent some new materials. This one has some pretty
15:03interesting materials.
15:05You can see the black inside this. This is actually the world's supply of carbon-doped polyethylene.
15:13So you might think of polyethylene being like windows and carbon nanotubes, but it's the first time we've put it
15:20into threads so that we could incorporate it into a very flexible arm sleeve.
15:24It helps with thermal control and radiation protection.
15:28So you get total radiation protection from that?
15:30About 25%, but it's better than zero. Because when we go into deep space, to the Moon and to Mars,
15:36the number one issue for astronaut health is going to be exposure to the radiation environment.
15:41What do you think is the best way to overcome that on that long journey?
15:44If you're in the habitat or in your rover, you can have your water to drink on the outside of
15:50a shell. Water is a great radiation protection.
15:53But when you have the astronauts in a suit and they're exploring and they're outside of the shelter, we have
15:59to think about a way to keep them healthy.
16:02As John mentioned, the exercise suit, the skin suit that he wore is to think about recompressing the spinal column
16:09so he doesn't have back pain.
16:10And your muscles and your musculoskeletal system, your muscles atrophy about 30%.
16:16Your bones, you tend to lose bone when you're in space in a weightless environment.
16:20So those are all the things we're trying to keep the astronauts safe.
16:24Is there muscles or bones?
16:25And then to a Mars mission, thinking about the limitation of the radiation environment.
16:30It's a pretty scary place to go.
16:32John, did you feel in your body this kind of strange moment when you returned to Earth of the compression
16:40and thinking, oh no, I'm back here with gravity again.
16:43Did you have any aches and pains from that, actually, yourself?
16:48Well, actually, I had no aches and pains whatsoever. I readapted quite easily.
16:52And I believe it was because of work with the skin suit that helped in that.
16:57There are other issues in readaptation with the vesticular system that are a little different.
17:05But overall body physiology, I felt pretty good.
17:09Let's move on to our planet, which is a pretty decent spaceship, although it's warming up.
17:18MIT Media Lab has a big emphasis on these kind of humanities greatest challenges.
17:23I suppose climate change is the greatest challenge, is it?
17:26Can you just talk to us a bit about those and what are you trying to do?
17:29Great. Thank you so much.
17:31We can show the slides.
17:32So we have five main research areas for the next decade.
17:36We asked, what are humanity's greatest challenges?
17:40And we said at the Media Lab, our mission is to invent transformative technologies
17:43and give experience to people to help reimagine, redesign your lives.
17:48We want to invent a future that's very just and it helps everyone.
17:52It is by everyone. We work with everyone.
17:55So these are the five areas that we came up with that maybe we could apply our transformative technology and
18:02work to.
18:02They're in partnership with a lot of industry folks.
18:05I'm so pleased to be here with you all today.
18:07Future worlds, what's that?
18:09Well, that's climate and sustainability.
18:11But from space, you look down on Earth called the overview effect.
18:16So we work first at the oceans.
18:17What about oceans?
18:19We've invented the ocean internet of things.
18:21So sensing and monitoring the oceans because 95% of our oceans are not measured and monitored.
18:27So we need that capability in terms of ocean monitoring, land, and then of course air.
18:34So from space, you look down on spaceship Earth and you see the vital signs.
18:38We see the temperature rise.
18:40We see the ocean currents.
18:42We see the ocean rise.
18:43So we're measuring and monitoring 24-7 from space, Earth's vital signs.
18:49The second area is life with AI.
18:51We have to talk about AI and generative AI in all the sessions today probably.
18:57But our take on it is the human experience.
19:01If AI is helping with education, if it's helping empower work of the future, if it's helping lift the human
19:08experience, then we do it.
19:10So responsible AI, trustworthy AI is a theme of the Media Lab.
19:14See, decentralized society, what's that?
19:17Well, that's the future of Web3 and blockchain.
19:22About privatization, you know, having your own data, owning your own data, having it very secure.
19:27And at the decentralized, at the human scale, letting the people decide what to do with their secure private data.
19:34We get another chance at this, so Web3 is coming.
19:37Then there was two other areas, cultivating creativity and then health and wellness, which we call connected mind and body.
19:44These two are really coming out of the pandemic.
19:49What did we lose?
19:50We think we lost creativity.
19:51We lost human connection.
19:53I don't know about you, but I'm not very creative on Zoom.
19:56John's trying to be as with us and immersed and creative as he can today with us.
20:01But we really think there needs to be a global revolution, a global movement in creativity.
20:05And now we are also in health and wellness.
20:10We're really focused on digital tools and technologies for mental health, mental wellness, and also for education and for the
20:17whole spectrum of life.
20:19Aging well, but from kids all the way up to the aging.
20:22So those are a quick overview of some of the five, again, where we think transformative technologies for the next
20:29decade for this optimistic future that we see.
20:32How do you think AI helps us in space exploration, for example?
20:38I mean, if we're talking about the moon, talking about Mars, how is AI going to be applied in those
20:42places?
20:43So we use, so thinking about for climate sustainability, we call it, let's design and what actions we need to
20:50change human behavior.
20:51What actions do we need for that future that we want to live in?
20:54So to your question then, here's the data from space under this climate and sustainability actions.
21:00Our satellites, our Earth observing satellites, we have constellations, both NASA, the European Space Agency, constellations looking down on Earth.
21:10So we use AI, we use machine learning, we have petabytes of data a day.
21:15So we use our machine learning to really curate that data and look down on the Earth and say, here's
21:22the vital signs.
21:23In real time is where the AI curation and our machine learning tools come in.
21:28Those tools we need to look at drought, to look at precipitation, to look at ocean.
21:34So it helps with agriculture, it helps with oceans, it helps with people living in urban environments.
21:40So that's one of the great examples of how we use AI and machine learning today is to really help
21:46curate this data with large supercomputer simulations to give people, you know, eyes on Earth.
21:53Especially for disasters, flood or fires to help people get out of harm's way.
22:00We'd like to put that right on your cell phone, right in your hand, a climate pocket, so that you
22:05could have that data in real time, especially when it comes to natural disasters.
22:10Imagine the astronauts on Mars, are they going to have similar kinds of tools then, literally in their hands, do
22:16you think?
22:17They're going to be scanning, gathering way more information than they did when they last went to the moon.
22:22Exactly. We can toss it back to John and ask him a little bit more about looking down on Earth,
22:28maybe how transformative,
22:29and again, with all the data that we're collecting on Space Station, to look down and do Earth monitoring.
22:35John, your thoughts on that?
22:37Well, certainly what the human brain does best is pattern recognition.
22:42But it takes lots of data, you know, for that to happen.
22:44And we're good at it, but computers and AI, you know, in future developments, will have access to so much
22:52data.
22:53And their ability to chunk data and to make comparisons and predictive modeling, I think that's one of the great
23:00futures and advantages that AI is going to raise.
23:02So, as we go to Mars, we're going to require lots of data, lots of information, and looking at what
23:08lines up, what correlates, in order to help us achieve our goals.
23:13If I've understood what we as humans are good at, though, compared to computers, is we can make decisions with
23:19actually rather few sources of data.
23:21And I suppose that's why we need to send people to Mars, is it? I mean, or should we make
23:26an argument for sending an AI before a human?
23:29Absolutely. We've been on Mars for 50 years with our AI, with our machines, living and working.
23:36But when we send humans, we will surpass, in one human mission to Mars, we will surpass the entire 50
23:41years of measuring and monitoring Mars with our current technology.
23:46But we are deep into AI in the Media Lab, thinking again, what's the human experience? How do we elevate
23:52education? How do we make sure that the AI is trustworthy, responsible, and how is it working for people?
24:00So, I did a generative AI for you from 2050, if you want to see it.
24:05Oh, yes. Let's watch that. This is you from 2050.
24:08It's me from 2050. So...
24:10Let's watch that.
24:11Take a look at this. If we queue up the video with the audio, it would be great to take
24:16us out.
24:24Hello, everybody. I'm Future Deva, beaming back to you from 2050. I'm very happy to finally see you.
24:30The early 21st century was a fascinating era in Earth's technological history.
24:34Historical evidence suggests that the Media Lab was at the epicenter of the broader solarpunk shift of the century, where
24:42many exciting trends coalesced into this hopeful 2050 I live in.
24:48One of the most significant shifts started with inspiring real action to create a more sustainable and equitable world.
24:54The Media Lab played a crucial role in catalyzing this change by fostering interdisciplinary research and collaboration across fields.
25:02Here are the five themes we really started to revolutionize back in 2023.
25:07Life with AI. The Media Lab explored coexistence with intelligent systems, placing humans at the center.
25:13The lab developed ethical guidelines ensuring fair, transparent, and accountable AI design.
25:19This fostered a harmonious relationship between humans and AI, an essential tool for complex problem-solving and enhancing our lives.
25:26Decentralized society, the Media Lab, promoted a decentralized society, distributing power and decision-making among the people.
25:34This involved exploring alternative systems of governance, finance, and communication, creating more democratic and resilient structures, reducing inequalities, and fostering
25:44trust, collaboration, and community.
25:46Future worlds, the Media Lab's research on climate helped build a sustainable and inclusive planet, pioneering new materials and urban
25:53planning strategies to mitigate climate change.
25:56Nature and technology were integrated, creating a harmonious coexistence between humans and the environment in the oceans, land, and space.
26:05Cultivating creativity, the Media Lab nurtured creativity and innovation globally, leading to groundbreaking discoveries.
26:12People from diverse backgrounds collaborated to create solutions for global issues through experimentation, risk-taking, and pushing boundaries.
26:21Connected Mind and Body, the Media Lab's research on the mind-body connection, revolutionized well-being, developing personalized therapies and
26:29mindfulness practices that enhanced mental health and cognitive abilities.
26:33Technology and science were integrated to significantly improve people's lives, and cyborg mobility was realized.
26:41So, we should get started. There's lots to do.
26:48How does it feel looking back at you?
26:52I look pretty good for 87, huh?
26:54You look great. You look great in 2050. You look fantastic.
26:57Thank you very, very much, David Newman and John Shoffner, for that fascinating discussion.
27:04Looking forward to seeing you on the Moon and Mars soon.
27:07Thank you. Appreciate it.
27:08Thank you, David. Thank you, Jeremy.
27:11Thanks.
Commentaires