Read the full transcript below. (Transcript by Realtime Transcriptions.)
Shine: So just to clarify, before we begin: Stewart Brand, The Long Now Foundation; Kennedy Shine, Short Now Foundation.
[LAUGHTER]
So I’m going to be talking to you about how the virtual world can really help us in the real world and how having the ability to choose what you create creates something even bigger.
We all know the evolution of mankind. We went from ape to the missing link to our modern-day human. Here’s the evolution of resolution. Everyone remembers Pong. They went on to an all-time favorite of Pac-Man, followed by Mario, which is one of the biggest grossing games. Then we continued to evolve up until we reached Sims, which was very high-definition and really brought the real world into a virtual world. But why did we de-evolve into this? It’s much more pixelated, much more blocky, chunky; so why would we de-evolve into something like that?
Why does Minecraft matter? It’s because you can use your imagination and creativity to really build anything you want, and it’s not just used for young gamers. This is block by block, which is basically create a team of you and habitat and Mojang, and they are building a playground in Kenya by using Minecraft as a virtual blueprint.
This is qCraft, which was a modification you could add to Minecraft, made by Google, that adds quantum physics into the game so people can better understand it. People have built their career around Minecraft.
This is “DJ’s Got Us Falling In Love.” It was posted in 2010, and has 101 million views. This is the parody, “Revenge of DJ’s Got Us Falling In Love,” by Captain Sparkles. It was posted a year later, 2011, and has 119 million views, 18 million views more.
Minecraft’s also used for educational purposes. All around the world, people are using Minecraft in the classroom as a learning tool. People will be rebuilding the Alamo, so kids can enter it and really see what it’s about. And then that’s also having them research, so they understand oh, so it was this type of block that they used.
You can really build anything in Minecraft, anything, including the Ritz-Carlton. This is what me and my brother built not too long ago. The virtual world of Minecraft is now in your hands. The question is, what will you do with it? Happy mining.
