Was Darwin maybe right? | Leonardo Frontani | TEDxTrento

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Survive! For thousands of years fear has performed the task of keeping us alive in the uncertainty. The quantity of uncertainty we are willing to live with is called courage: a skill or a competence that we can practice? Always with us, in this challenge, our Neo-sapiens tribe.

It's beautiful to be here,

although according to most scientists
we shouldn't be here.

Actually, in the Ice Age,

we should have gone extinct,

but judging by the number
of people I see here,

that didn't happen.

I'm here to tell you
what I think is a good story.

The story of a magnificent species

which was very afraid.

So I'm going to talk to you
about their fear

- which, actually, is our fear too -

and I'm going to talk to you
about the mind.

The mind, which in trying
endlessly to help us survive,

doesn't hesitate to trick us.

Lastly, I'm going to talk about courage.

Courage is something we invented

to protect us from ourselves.

I am afraid;

as Homo sapiens, I am very afraid.

Someone has asked me,

"What is with this fixation on fear?
Why do you care so much about it?"

I am a trainer, a mentor,

I've worked for several years
with groups and with individuals.

I found out how much fear can hold us back
from all of our aspirations.

Fear tastes like metal on your tongue.

Tastes a bit like blood,
I don't know if you can tell.

It really can be bothering.

The worst of all is the fear of fear.

It works like this with prejudice,
preconceptions, and preoccupations.

"pre", meaning "before they happen",

it brings out those voices we hear,

- that I'm hearing right now -
"Give up, walk away, you'd better not!

Are you sure you have
all the information?

You sure don't like it! It's not for you!
Come on, everyone's looking at you!"

This is a very simple,
and yet very complex, mechanism.

This is how it works, more or less:

our mind receives data,
impulses from the external world.

Immediately, we get a warning

and our blood is flooded with
substances that make us react.

There are three kinds of reactions.

The first one is run.

The second one is fight,
and the third one is stop.

I have to say,
our mind does that to protect us,

she has great interest in
taking us to the end of the race.

But she is also rather selfish,
because she thinks about herself.

She thinks about
protecting herself, saving energy,

has this instinct of self-preservation,
and to pursue it, she lies to us.

She sends us pictures which are not real,
they are not the truth.

For example, I'm walking
through the woods;

I see a sinusoidal-shaped branch
on the ground,

and I immediately get
the image of a snake!

I protect myself,
but that is not true, it is a lie.

Our mind can turn into
a stopping device in this way

and somewhat, she becomes
a terrible master.

I ask myself and you,
did you ever happen to want

to make the right choice,
do the right thing?

"I'll do the right thing.
I'll think it through.

Think more than once, think
for ten seconds before acting!"

But what is ultimately the right thing?

Every time we choose,
we leave something behind.

How many of us, because of fear,

carry some regret or remorse?

To understand how all of this works

I dared go back in time

and see how evolution

has somehow affected this story.

Remember, we invented the courage,

and we invented it
to protect ourselves from fear.

Let's talk about our ancestor,
the Homo sapiens, 100,000 years ago.

We used to live in a rather
comfortable natural environment:

quite a bit of resources available,

some redundant predators,
but we had a decent life anyway.

Then, suddenly,
some abrupt climatic changes

- abrupt is a figure of speech,
we are talking ages -

transformed our natural environment
completely: the savannah.

In the savannah, we weren't
much at ease anymore:

there were many predators; homo sapiens
didn't want to be fed to lions and hyenas.

So for some inexplicable reason,

70,000 years ago, he decided to
head north, and he left.

An incredible journey,
a journey towards the unknown,

towards uncertainty:
a journey of 70,000 years, consider!

Headed north, to new discoveries,
facing the unknown.

The unknown becomes an opportunity.

They had a lot of fear,

and some tools made out of flint.

Nothing more.

Over 70.000, however,
you get to learn a lot of things.

Homo sapiens always wanted
to explore and innovate,

until eventually, he found
the European continent

and there, he found a crib
where he could stop in a way,

but always keep
exploring and innovating.

Then, 40.000 years ago,
probably while hunting,

he jumps into his more charming
and sophisticated cousin:

Homo neanderthalensis

Homo neanderthalensis is strong, fast,

he's perfectly adapted
to cold temperatures,

is an incredibly efficient predator.

They share many experiences for a while,

and probably, some DNA too.

So what happened?

They start behaving
in completely different ways.

These are hard times for everyone,

but Homo sapiens decides
to be a nomad: he never stops,

he doesn't settle for what he has,
wants to see beyond the mountains,

he looks for the Great Water,
he explores.

Homo neanderthalensis lives
in a small area,

exploits it to the fullest,

and when the resources
are finished, he leaves it.

Sapiens dares join other groups,

different from the familiar group,

so he takes a little risk.

He does that to exchange knowledge,
and he creates the first proto-tribes.

Neanderthalensis is the opposite:

familiar group,
a few people, a few individuals,

and of course,
his genetic code is impoverished

and female mortality increases.

Sapiens is always innovating: it seems
endlessly interested in improvement.

His tools change, they become

always more sophisticated,
along with his hunting techniques.

Neanderthalensis does the exact
same things for thousands of years.

Finally, Sapiens invents language:

a sophisticated code useful
to exchange knowledge.

Neanderthalensis doesn't have
much to share,

so: Sapiens lives on,
Neanderthalensis goes extinct.

Darwin,

our beloved Darwin, was right:

the species most capable
to adapt to change lives on,

and of course, he does that
to the expenses of the strongest one.

That's how it went, biologically
and not only, behaviour-wise too;

our ancestors had the courage to adopt

new and effective social behaviors

in a context of perpetual
change, like the Ice Age.

In every Homo sapiens,
in every one of them,

there is a natural impulse
to dare and face fear.

We are a species with
incredible capacity for wishing

and this expose us to the uncertain.

After me, on this stage,
you will hear incredible stories:

people who got lost
in storms in the ocean,

people who are even thinking
of going to Mars,

people who challenged
serious and debilitative illnesses,

and they did so without looking
for the absolute certainty,

for the absolute certainty prevents us
from satisfying our aspirations.

So I am here to tell you

that in my professional experience,

I found out that fear
has a biological root,

and will forever be with us,
it can't be eliminated.

We can't not be afraid.

Courage, however, is different:
courage is a competence.

Courage can be learned,
can be practiced,

courage is the quantity of uncertainty
with which we are willing to live.

If we catch this opportunity,

we will be able to grow
and make change our new chance.

This way, I dare say, that my mind will go

from being a terrible master
to being a great servant.

So, in these uncertain times,

when this world seems to go
so fast we can't keep up with it,

everything changes,
and we are a little overwhelmed.

In these times, I think

it's useful to have
a new man and a new woman:

Neo sapiens, if you will,

no more Homo sapiens.

We don't need other walls,

barbed wire,

laws regulating all that surrounds us,

we don't need to join other tribes

fighting different tribes
under ancient seals.

Sapiens survives
any symbol and any ideology.

We don't need
many skills and technologies,

but we need empathy and understanding.

We need humanity.

It's a lot of stuff, but don't worry,

we don't have to do this alone.

Look around you:
who are these people next to you?

Who is in this room?
Move your head, look at them!

Who are these people?
Why are they here today?

Why did you choose
to dedicate today to TED?

Who did you choose to come to TED with?

This is our tribe.

This is the tribe we need
to learn to join again,

but really, like our ancestors did.

It is crucial to learn,

re-learn to communicate deeply,
and to share our needs.

It is important to be generous
and share our knowledge,

lay our competences to serve
the great tribe's needs.

And above all, it is important

to have the courage to change everything.

If we can understand this,

if we can, we will have an opportunity.

And so I tell you

that the great opportunity to grow
and progress, for the human race,

goes through the need
to accept the uncertain.

And in this way, we will succeed,

like 70,000 years ago, like always.

So I ask you:

how much uncertainty
are you willing to live with?

What's the challenge you want
to accept today, in this room?

Darwin was right:
if I don't change, I go extinct.

This is the key to our survival.

Thank you for listening.

(Applause)