The Meaning of Life Is a Number

Walter De Brouwer
CEO, One Laptop per Child, Europe
Play (22min) Download: MP4 | MP3

How much is your health? Exactly how much money makes you happy? Not so long ago everything was veiled in palpable shades of gray. Then everything became code, and behind the code were numbers. The meaning of life itself has become quantifiable. But numbers themselves are elusive: absolutes seem to need their relative counterparts, and constants are only the surface of variables. What we need is a digital neocortex.