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№ 2007.005 — Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Commencement address
Charles Vest
President emeritus, MIT
MIT President Emeritus Charles Vest addresses graduates on the themes of opportunity and service, recounting how unexpected opportunities shaped his career, including being rejected for a faculty post and later being asked to serve as MIT's president. He surveys the accelerating pace of technological change and the frontiers of information technology and life science, urging graduates to confront the ethical questions these powers raise. He closes by affirming optimism, arguing that knowledge and skill can make the world well and that embracing service brings fulfillment.
Key moments
- 01 Two letters from MIT illustrating the unpredictability of opportunity
- 02 Anecdotes of meeting powerful figures and being grounded by an MIT graduate
- 03 The accelerating pace of technology adoption and information growth
- 04 Frontiers and ethical challenges of life sciences and biotechnology
- 05 Dr. Tom Dooley story as a metaphor for making the world well
Visual speech map
Charles Vest at MIT, 2007
A commencement address about opportunity, service, technological acceleration, ethical responsibility, optimism, and making the world well.
- 01 Two MIT letters
- 02 Unexpected path
- 03 Opportunity
- 04 Technology pace
- 05 Life sciences
- 06 Ethical questions
- 07 Service
- 08 Optimism
Path
Opportunity often arrives unevenly
Vest uses his own MIT history, including rejection and later leadership, to show that careers are shaped by openings no one can fully script.
Two messages from MIT mark the unpredictability of a life.
Setbacks and honors belong to the same long arc.
Opportunity rewards people prepared to respond.
Acceleration
Technology expands power and speed
The address surveys rapid adoption, information growth, and scientific frontiers where graduates will work with tools of extraordinary reach.
Change is moving faster than inherited institutions expect.
Information technology and life science open new capacities.
Technical decisions can propagate across societies.
Ethics
New capability raises harder questions
Vest insists that technical brilliance must be joined to ethical attention, especially where biotechnology and life science affect human futures.
Power requires standards beyond feasibility.
Graduates must ask what should be done, not only what can be done.
The more powerful the tool, the larger the duty attached to it.
Fulfillment
Service gives optimism its substance
The closing movement links knowledge, skill, and service, arguing that useful work can make the world better and give a life deep fulfillment.
Fulfillment grows when talent is aimed at others' needs.
Hope is grounded in knowledge, skill, and responsibility.
The world can be made better through committed technical service.
Transcript
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