The TED conference today pulled off the ultimate celebrity-speaker coup – a surprise TED talk by His Holiness The Pope.
Pope Francis addressed the annual TED conference in Vancouver in an unannounced 18-minute talk urging tech leaders to take more responsibility for the inequality created by their work. He also called for greater empathy in a world where “we all need each other”. Read more: Social media has made us all lonely, according to the Pope
In the talk, filmed in advance at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, his Vatican City home, Pope Francis called for greater tolerance in a world where “none of us is an island”.
“Many of us, nowadays, seem to believe that a happy future is something impossible to achieve,” he told the 1,800 delegates in Vancouver’s convention centre. “While such concerns must be taken very seriously, they are not invincible. They can be overcome when we don't lock our door to the outside world.”
He made a strong argument against the polarisation of current political debate. “We can only build the future by standing together, including everyone. Everything is connected, and we need to restore our connections to a healthy state. Even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancour that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a fight that I carry within me, a flare deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it goes up in flames, leaving only ashes behind.”
The Pope also argued that today’s tech leaders need to consider the social and economic impact of their work. “How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come with more equality and social inclusion,” he said. “How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.
“How wonderful would it be if solidarity, this beautiful and, at times, inconvenient word, were not simply reduced to social work, and became, instead, the default attitude in political, economic and scientific choices, as well as in the relationships among individuals, peoples and countries.”
He then offered a warning. "Allow me to say it loud and clear: the more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people; the more you are responsible to become humble. If you don’t, your power will ruin you.”
While the talk called for tolerance in a divided world, it ended with a belief in the power of hope. The Pope urged empathy in views towards migrants. “I, myself, was born in a family of migrants; my father, my grandparents, like many other Italians, left for Argentina and met the fate of those who are left with nothing. I could have very well ended up among today's ‘discarded’ people,” he said. “And that's why I always ask myself, deep in my heart: ‘Why them and not me?’”
Feeling hopeful, he added “hope is the virtue of a heart that doesn't lock itself into darkness, that doesn't dwell on the past, does not simply get by in the present, but is able to see a tomorrow. Hope is the door that opens onto the future. Hope is a humble, hidden seed of life that, with time, will develop into a large tree. It is like some invisible yeast that allows the whole dough to grow, that brings flavour to all aspects of life.
“A single individual is enough for hope to exist. And that individual can be you...Hope began with one ‘you’. When there is an ‘us’, there begins a revolution.’”
The talk was filmed at the Vatican Television Centre and is on the TED website. The TED conference continues until Friday.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
