Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

U.S. Service Member Killed In Afghanistan; Stanford University Team Develops Revolutionary New Battery; Red Cross to Attempt Yemen Aid Run; Does The Internet Ruin Our Interior Selves?; HBO Now Released. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired April 08, 2015 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:33] ANDREW STEVENS, CNN HOST: I'm Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

As the violence in Yemen rages, the Red Cross will try to send in aid to help the people caught in the middle.

A stunning jewel heist sees dozens of deposit boxes broken into in London.

And we'll show you the revolutionary new battery that could help your future smartphone recharge itself in just one minute.

We begin in Afghanistan where a U.S. service member was killed when an Afghan national army soldier opened fire on American troops. The U.S.

soldiers were leading a meeting at a provincial governor's compound in Jalalabad when they were fired on.

Well, Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from Beirut. Nick, you've been following the story. What have you learned?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Andrew, piecing the information together from various different sources here that the U.S.

defense official is confirming the casualty announced just no by Resolute Support, that's the sort of successor NATO mission to ISAF, is in fact an

American soldier.

Now, we understand from a local police chief, Afghan, that as this U.S. mission of predominately U.S. mission was leaving the governor's compound

in Jalabad they were opened fired upon by an Afghan soldier.

Now of course, as you'll see in the report coming out here, these delegations when they go around have tight security details. They know

that these potential rogue Afghan security forces attacking them is a major issue. So that security force clearly opened fire back, that's why the

Afghan attacker was killed, and perhaps one other soldier we're hearing injured as well.

There seem to be some sort of injuries on the side of the Resolute Support mission here. Now that is now clear what nationality they are. They're

predominately American in that area. There are some Polish troops around there, too.

But this will serve as a stark reminder the first publicized nationality casualties we've heard since December, a stark reminder of the risk that

troop still take in Afghanistan even though their mission has been significantly limited and paired down now, as we saw, in a trip very close

to the area where that incident happened just over a week ago now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: This is how it ends here. No helicopter evacuation from an embassy roof. Instead, Blackhawks bouncing officers around a handful of multiple

(inaudible) from the front lines. And a race to ready the Afghans to go it alone before the U.S. leaves late next year.

This supply center for police is meant to supply uniforms and even ammunition to the whole east, but it's far from main roads with bad cell

phone coverage. Doors don't have handles. Afghans here tell us the water and electricity have problems, ask who will maintain it? Finished four

months ago, it so far hasn't supplied anyone. The cost: $21 million.

About Afghans living here now, so about 400,000 U.S. dollars, taxpayer money, per Afghan at the moment. It's going to be difficult, isn't it, to

get this done under the clock you're working under.

COLONEL J.B. VOWELL, U.S. ARMY: It's a challenge, make no doubt. It is going to be a challenge to get all those hubs and spokes and logistics and

sustainment to maintenance, supplies, resupply, requisition.

I'm optimistic, though. Much of this didn't even exist in November.

WALSH: America's longest war is ending, and it has left Afghanistan indelibly changed. Some of their police now die in old Humvees. It is

rare now for Americans to drive around here, flying over valleys where they once faced the Taliban who are now vying with ISIS for young, angry

recruits.

This war is barely recognizable. The main threat here now rogue Afghans opening fire on foreigners. We were surrounded at all times by a security

detail.

Well, this is about as close to front line as these American troops will get here in Afghanistan, and they are on guard against insider attacks here

in an Afghan police base. Their job now, to train. Combat over.

The Afghan military is marching to stand still. Recent figures suggest one in 10 of these new graduates will desert in the coming year. Barack Obama

has slowed America's departure, but only a fraction. Drones and special forces will fight on unseen, but to the levers of power in what was once

called the graveyard of empires: America will let go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:05:42] WALSH: Now we're getting some information from our Kabul producer Nasser Bokozaeb (ph) about this incident. It seemed to have

happened about three-and-a-half hours ago. And according to a spokesperson for Afghan police there, the assailant was, in fact, an Afghan army soldier

who used a PK -- that's a heavy machine gun -- mounted on top of a ranger vehicle to open fire on these American soldiers.

Now the incident happened as the U.S. delegation, both diplomats and military, were meeting in the Shahi (ph) palace in Jalalabad City, that's

the governor's compound.

As they left that meeting, that's when the weapon opened fire. As you saw in that report, U.S. officials traveled mostly around by helicopter now,

but it was also a security detachment of the Americans there to provide some sort of backup. They were the ones who returned fire and that's the

reason why the Afghan soldier and apparently two other -- two other Afghan personnel were injured in that shootout as well, unclear if they were

involved in the attack in any way.

And according to this Afghan official, speaking to our producer in Kabul, the foreign soldiers were in fact all Americans, according to them. But we

still don't have a full breakdown of that from Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Andrew.

STEVENS: Thanks for the information, Nick. Nick Paton Walsh joining us live from Beirut.

Now the U.S. is stepping up its support of the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The effort was launched nearly three weeks ago,

but has failed to push back rebel forces decisively. And on Tuesday, one of those airstrikes targeting a military base hit a nearby school, killing

six children.

Well, U.S. defense officials say that they'll now increase intelligence sharing with Saudi forces to help review the potential of civilian

casualties. Well, the U.S. also plans to speed up the delivery of weapons to Saudi forces.

Now senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border. He joins us now. Nic, the people you've been

speaking to, does it look more and more likely that this is going to be a very drawn out war now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely.

I mean, you only have to look at the advantage that al Qaeda is trying to take on the ground inside Yemen at the moment, taken control of trying to

take control of towns, even looting themselves from the armed forces of Yemen. So this is a concern.

Then there's the tribal elements that are looking out for their own interests who are under armed and under equipped essentially to deal with,

you know, to effectively sort of deal a death blow in their areas to Houthis or al Qaeda or whomever it is. They will look out for their own

interests.

So the airstrikes can only achieve so much. And the statement by the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was here saying that the

United States will accelerate weapons supplies to the Saudis, really indicates that this air campaign is going to continue. At the moment,

Saudi officials say that it is sort of at its maximum at the moment, but that it is in -- it is a phased approach and they are confident and happy

with where it is at the moment.

Also, Antony Blinken saying that there will be an increased intelligence sharing with Saudi officials. What we understand that means is there will

be a larger team in the Saudi coalition joint command, a larger U.S.-Saudi team. It'll go from eight -- from eight people to 20 people, or rather 12

to 20 people. And that they will improve the intelligence sharing.

What that means is, however, the United States will not be giving a target list for Saudis, but when the Saudis provide their planned target list,

then the U.S. can have a look at it and say, you know, there are civilian targets close to that military target, that sort of help and assistance.

Clearly something that the Saudis can benefit from yesterday, the strike as you say killing six children who were in a school that was next door to a

military base that was targeted, Andrew.

STEVENS: Nick, it sounds like the U.S. is being drawn in ever more to this. Very quickly, what is the likelihood of seeing U.S. fighter jets

over the skies of Yemen or even U.S. boots on the ground?

ROBERTSON: Boots on the ground incredibly unlikely at this stage, although the air base that was used by the special forces was taken back under

control, if you will, by the sort of -- those groups on the ground that are allied or supporting the Saudi effort at the moment.

And planes -- fighter jets in the sky, that's incredibly unlikely at the moment. It's just air refueling capability that the U.S. is providing for

the Saudis at the moment, Andrew.

[08:10:20] STEVENS: Thanks, Nic. Nic Robertson near the Yemeni border in Saudi Arabia.

Now, the Iraqi government may have liberated Tikrit from ISIS fighters, but evacuated residents are still too terrified to return home. Among the

dangers, the city is laced with bombs and landmines planted by retreating militants.

Our Arwa Damon spoke with some of the displaced residents now living in makeshift camps in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 16-year-old Hibba (ph) and her 17-year-old sister Noor (ph) were somehow spared the violence that's

torn Iraq apart since the U.S.-led invasion.

"We're not used to this," Noor (ph) says.

They are from Tikrit. Hibba (ph) constantly tries to call her girlfriends, but their phones are all off. Their father can't stop his eyes from

welling up.

But they do not dare return, even if and when the government declares it safe.

"I swear, I just don't trust the situation," Rashid (ph) tells us. He's not alone.

This partially constructed building is just one of many in Baghdad's predominately Sunni neighborhood of Al-Domiya (ph), turned into makeshift

refugee housing for Sunni families that fled ISIS, most from towns not far from Tikrit.

She's saying they miss their home, they miss their land, their farm. A lot of the families who are here that we've been speaking to are from areas

that have already been liberated, but they're still too afraid to return. They're afraid of returning without government permission. They want to

see an official coming out on television assuring them that it's safe. And they're also afraid of what ISIS may have left behind.

It's not just ISIS they fear, these Sunni families are hesitant to go home. The Shia force fighting alongside Iraqi government troops terrifies them as

well. It's not a risk they're willing to take.

For eight months Alma (ph) and her family were forced to live under ISIS rule.

"It was the day after the fall of Mosul," Alma says. "Anyone who spoke against them was killed."

"It was forbidden to leave," she continues. "There was no power, no water, no gas."

They were caught in the crossfire of bullets and bombs.

"These kids, they would all hide under the staircase," Alma says of her nieces and nephews. "One time, we only ate eggs for a week."

"There were bullets that came into the house and I screamed for my father," four-year-old Riham (ph), the cheekiest of the bunch, declares.

Finally, a few months ago ISIS allowed everyone to leave.

This is their street now.

"We spent our lives there. We grew up there. And to go back and find nothing," Alma says, "it's just too much."

Unable to return and unsure who to blame.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: You're watching News Stream. Coming up in the next part of the show, Americans are in shock after a white policeman is charged with murder

for shooting a fleeing man. And it was all caught on camera.

And a stunning heist straight out of the movies. A team of burglars is on the run after a multi-million dollar raid at the center of London's diamond

trade.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:44] STEVENS: Welcome back.

Another officer involved death is sparking outrage in the United States. A South Carolina policeman has been charged with murder after he shot and

killed a black man. The charge came after video surfaced showing the officer firing eight shots as the victim was running away.

Let's get more now from CNN's Martin Savidge. He joins us from North Charleston in South Carolina where the shooting took place -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Andrew.

Yeah, we're standing outside of the home of the family of Water Scott. He is the victim in this case, a 50-year-old former member of the U.S. Coast

Guard. And the family has been speaking out. They're of course horrified to see the death of their son, their brother, captured on video and now

broadcast to a nation, but they're also grateful that the truth has come out. They're grateful for the video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: This disturbing video has South Carolina officer Michael Slager behind bars this morning, charged with murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have two here, one on the way.

SAVIDGE: The three-minute video capturing the shooting death of Walter Scott over the weekend.

KEITH SUMMEY, MAYOR OF NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.: When you're wrong, you're wrong.

SAVIDGE: Taped by a bystander it reveals the 33-year-old officer shooting Scott in the back while he ran away.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, police said officer Slager stopped Scott for a broken taillight in North Charleston. Through an

attorney Officer Slager described a scuffle, claiming the 50-year-old fought for his Taser and he felt threatened. In this video you see what

could be a Taser fall and Scott takes off running away as Slager fires eight times.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. Subject is down. He's grabbed my Taser.

SAVIDGE: Although he's lying face down, the officer handcuffs Scott. Next, Slager jogs back to where he fired his gun and picks up something, perhaps

the Taser, but from this video it's not entirely clear. Back by Scott' body he drops the small black object. Then moments later he picks it back up.

The Coast Guard veteran and father of four dies on the scene. Scott's family attorney contends without the video there would be no murder charge.

L. CHRIS STEWART, SCOTT FAMILY ATTORNEY: The officer said that Mr. Scott attacked him and pulled his Taser and tried to use it on him, but somebody

was watching.

SAVIDGE: When asked if race played a role, North Charleston's police chief says he isn't ruling it out.

EDDIE DRIGGERS, NORTH CHARLESTON POLICE CHIEF: I think that all of these police officers on this force, men and women, are like my children. So you

tell me how a father would react to seeing his child do something?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Just about everyone agrees that had that video not surfaced that this would be an entirely different story, quite literally, because it

would have been basically a one-sided account, since Walter Scott did not survive.

As to who took that video, that person remains anonymous at the moment and apparently is still in hiding, fearing for their own safety, Andrew.

STEVENS: And has been described by at least one senior figure as a hero in this story.

Martin, thanks very much for that. Martin Savidge joining us with the latest there.

Now, Kenya has frozen almost 90 accounts of suspected financial backers of al Shabaab. The militants massacred 147 people at a university in Garissa

last week. The government has a list of suspects from various parts of the country, but most are in Nairobi in Mombasa.

The Interior Ministry says the number of suspected accounts could rise.

You're watching News Stream. Coming up, a massive vault is breached, dozens of boxes are raided and the manhunt is on. We'll have the latest on

a daring jewel heist in the center of London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:26] STEVENS: Looking across Victoria Harbor to downtown Hong Kong, a very pretty picture it is, too.

Welcome back. You're watching News Stream live from Hong Kong. Police in London have launched a manhunt for a team of burglars that pulled off a

daring jewel heist. It was discovered on Tuesday, but because of a four- day holiday it could have happened as far back as Thursday.

Now the scope of the theft could be huge. It's still being tallied.

Well, CNN's Phil Black joins us now. He is near the scene of the heist in Hatton Garden, which is in central London. Phil, what happened?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question really Andrew, and I think as you touched on there what's crucial is that

four-day window over the holiday period, a very interesting account we just go from one person who keeps a safety deposit box here, said he was here on

the scene when the store's security guard was being interviewed by police and when he told police that he came here on the Friday, because the alarm

here was triggered, had a brief look around, not an extensive look around, left, then the next thing everyone came in on Tuesday and discovered that,

in the words of the police, some heavy cutting material had been used to break into the vault.

And from there it is believed that this individual, or more likely perhaps a gang of people somehow went through 60 to 70 of the safety deposit boxes

that are kept in that particular building.

What the police are now doing, they say, is working out who owns, or who is renting out those boxes and trying to determine what was inside them, but

those people, those customers here say they still haven't been told by police whether their boxes were in fact tampered with or interfered with in

any way

So, there's some comfort here among the many people in this jewelry district, that use this facility behind me, because the numbers are much

smaller than what's feared, just 60 to 70 out of a possible hundreds over that four-day period.

But potential victims still don't know precisely whose safety boxes were hit. And so there's a great degree of anger and frustration as people wait

to hear just who lost their goods, their valuables and just how much was taken, Andrew.

[08:25:30] STEVENS: I mean, it looks a little bit like a vehicle from Michael Cain movie, doesn't it? All we need is a convoy of four Minis

driving past it.

But, Phil, obviously seriously, the numbers I've been reading as to potentially what could have been taken, I mean it's upwards of $200

million, $300 million dollars worth. Is that a number that's likely?

BLACK: Well, I tend to think that's a little bit speculative at this stage, because the police themselves say they don't know precisely what was

in those boxes. And that's the nature of the safety deposit box, of course. People don't declare what they keep inside. It is anonymous. It

can be -- and I've spoken to people here who say they're worried about the tens of thousands of pounds worth of valuables that they keep in the boxes

here at this center, others are talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds, others much, much smaller numbers.

So, it does remain to be seen -- I think that those initial figures were speculated about in the British media when people were talking about 200,

300 boxes in the center being interfered with. There is also a great deal of speculation about just how it was done, of course, how they got in

there. There's no obvious sign of forced entry from the front door.

There are media reports in the British newspapers this morning talking about teams grappling down, or abseiling down the lift shaft in the center

of the building. The police aren't commenting on any of this at the moment. But there is a lot of speculation, a lot of ideas and a lot of

speculation and rumor from among the people who own the jewelry stores and the jewel traders and so forth within this community and within central

London, too, because something like this hasn't happened for awhile. You don't get smash and grab jobs in this part of town any more, because the

security is generally pretty strict.

This, as they say, is very much an old school job on an old school target, Andrew.

STEVENS: Absolutely.

Yeah, you can only imagine the security in the center of the diamond trade in a city like London.

Phil, thanks very much for that. Phil Black joining us from Hatton Garden in Central London.

And still to come here on News Stream, if you're one of those who can't detach from your smartphone, there's a new technology that should make you

pretty happy. We're going to be talking to the inventors of a superfast charging battery. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:04] ANDREW STEVENS: I'm Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

The U.S. says that it's stepping up its support of a Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Washington plans to speed up its delivery

of weapons and increase its intelligence support.

In Afghanistan, a U.S. soldier has just been killed in an attack in Jalalabad. Word of this fatality came after police told CNN that an Afghan

soldier had shot at U.S. service members in that same city. The soldiers used a PK machine gun from the top of an Afghan army ranger vehicle to open

fire on the American soldiers. The Americans were leaving a meeting at the provincial governor's compound when they were fired on.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is sitting down with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow right now. The meeting comes a day

before Greece has to pay the IMF a $500 million installment on its massive loan. Well, some speculate that Mr. Tsipras is angling to strengthen ties

between Greece and Russia to help shore up financial backing.

Royal Dutch Shell announcing today it's buying its British rival BG Group for $70 billion. It's the biggest oil company merger in 20 years. Now if

completed, the purchase will add 25 percent to Shell's oil and gas reserves and 20 percent to its production.

Premium cable channel HBO has cut the cord and launched its own standalone streaming service. Customers can now buy a special subscription to the new

HBO Now service, which lets users stream content through their smart devices. Well, HBO is owned by Time Warner, which of course is CNN's

parent company.

Now senior media correspondent Brian Stelter has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: HBO outside the cable bundle for the very first time. It's an historic moment for the future of

television, for the future of the media business, because HBO is home to some of the most premium programming out there. Shows like Game of Thrones

and Girls and Veep and Silicon Valley and True Detective.

And now for the first time, people can sign up for HBO the same way they sign up for Netflix, by going online rather than having to subscribe to

cable.

It's a thrilling moment for some, but terrifying moment for others because of what it means for the future of television. And so I sat down with

HBO's CEO Richard Plepler about an hour after it all launched to see how he was feeling and to see how he thinks it's going to shape the future.

RICHARD PLEPLER, CEO, HBO: This is a growth opportunity for everybody. And as you know, there are 10, 11 million broadband only homes in the

United States that previously couldn't get HBO and that was just too big an audience or us not to go after and that's part of what informed us, but I

think you're going to broad dimensions of how people are going to subscribe to HBO Go.

STELTER: But how is it possible for everyone to benefit if you are essentially unbundling HBO from cable for the first time? Is that not

going to hurt the cable -- the traditional cable business.

PLEPLER: No, because remember of those 10 million doubling by the end of the decade, 20 million cord nevers, or cord cutters, those people are never

going to have a cable subscription or a satellite video subscription...

STELTER: We haven't given up on them, but I think the research is that they're unlikely to have one. So what we're doing is we're providing an

opportunity for our partners to go after those largely Millenials. We think HBO Now is something of a Millenial missile. And they can go after

those millenials, bundle it with broadband and grow their businesses.

And what we're interested in doing is making that programming past, present and future, available to our consumers whenever, however, wherever they

want to get it on whatever devices they want to watch it on. And so that's the strategy of HBO's digital planning. We just want to produce kind of

maximum flexibility in our business so that however people want to watch on whatever screen they want to watch, we give them the option to do that.

That's the strategy.

STELTER: Right now, HBO's main partner for this is Apple, but Plepler says more partners will be working with him in the future. He says he wants

broadband companies like Comcast and Time Warner Cable to work with him in order to provide this product. He says they can all grow together rather

than hurting each other.

The jury remains out for now, though, because this is a big change in the way HBO and potentially in the future other television networks reach you

at home.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: Brian Stelter reporting there.

You're watching News Stream. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:06:17] STEVENS: You're watching News Stream live from Hong Kong.

Imagine a bendable smartphone that can fully recharge itself in just one minute.. Well, a team at Stanford University says it's developed a new type

of battery that could actually make that a reality. And it's built from relatively common materials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This battery is firstly made of aluminum and graphite. So, both materials are very abundant. You can get alumnimum from the

kitchen and graphite from the like pencils. It is not very flammable compared to the lithium ion battery, so it's a safe battery.

You can also be very flexible so you can imagine you have a flexible cellphone and you have flexible and bendable battery on the back. You can

roll it up and just -- it's very cool.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Very cool, indeed. It's also very revolutionary if it gets to that stage.

But there are still some challenges. The downside to the new aluminum battery is that it doesn't yet have the capacity to power devices like

smartphones.

The team says that it'll maybe take a few more years of development for these batteries will be ready for use. And they can't come soon enough.

Now gadgets have advanced rapidly over the last decade. As anyone whose smartphone has run out of power can tell you, battery technology does seem

to be lagging behind.

Just look at this picture of the inside of Apple's newest MacBook. Now the tiny circuit board you see is there -- you see there is effectively the

brains of the whole computer, the rest of the case, well, it's packed full of batteries.

Now here on News Stream, we try to bring you the latest technology that's shaping our world. From smartphones to social media, the explosion of the

mobile internet has changed the way we live. If you have the slightest doubt about that just try talking to someone born after the 1990s. They'll

have no memory of what a non-digital life was like or even how a fax machine works.

So, just what does it mean to be living in this new hyperconnected world? Well, joining us now to talk about that is Michael Harris. He's the author

of the end of absence, a book on how the internet could be ruining the quality of our lives.

A very good evening to you, Michael. Thanks for joining us.

I want to start with the premise that you talk about a lot saying that the age we live in lacks that sort of -- that quiet, that solace, that moment

of peace, if you like. Why do you think that is so important to us?

MICHAEL HARRIS, AUTHOR: Well, I mean, solitude, reverie, daydreaming, these are all qualities that people born after, say, 1985 simply don't

have. And those are the qualities where we develop a reach interior life. And sometimes these are hard things to quantify, but we know, for example,

that really great ideas, really gamechanging ideas, don't come from conference tables, they come from people who had experience with the world,

who do connect with each other, but then also experience reverie and solitude and daydreaming.

So that there is -- there has to be that interplay between the two in order to bring something new to the table.

STEVENS: Now this is quantifiable, is it? Or is it more theory still?

HARRIS: Well, I mean, it's both. I mean, there are MRI scans coming up more and more where we're finding that the internet does in a fundamental

way change your brain through something called neuroplasticity. And that means that the environment that you bathe your brain in is going to

condition it to a certain kind of thinking, in this case, rapid multitasking kind of thinking.

The problem is that it turns out multitasking itself is a kind of fantasy. The brain can't multitask, it just multishifts. And so what we end up

doing is a lot of not very effective work.

[08:50:11] STEVENS: Yeah, it's darting from one to the other rather than keeping is all juggling at the same time.

So how easy is it, or how difficult is it, I guess, to actually get this digital detox, if you like, to get away from the screen and actually sort

of live a life, or just have that moment of solitude?

HARRIS: It's extremely difficult.

I took a month off in August -- last August. I called it my analogue August. And it was no cellphone and no internet for 30 days. And this is

an incredibly difficult thing to do, because we -- especially the social media aspect of being online, those things key into our pleasure reactions

in our brain. So you get a little jolt of dopamine every time you get that text message, every time somebody retweets something you put online.

So pulling yourself away from that stream of Tabasco sauce, is really difficult.

It took me about three weeks before my brain started to kind of shift back to my childhood sensibilities.

STEVENS: I mean, speaking of childhood, the generation that's grown up knowing nothing but being connected, they would say -- and many people

would agree with them -- it is a good thing to have that amount of information at your fingertips. We don't have to argue about facts any

more, we just argue about opinions.

So have that connectivity to your friends, they don't have to be standing next to you, to have that, to feel a part of a bigger community than to

feel engaged in the world around you.

And what do you say to the people who say, well, there's nothing wrong with this?

HARRIS: Well, you know there's a difference between noise and signal, for one thing. You can have a lot of information. It doesn't mean that you've

done anything interesting with it.

There's also a really big difference, I would say, between recall, which is what computers are very good at, recalling information, and memory, which

is a distinctly human experience. With your memory, it may very well be full of mistakes and holes, but it's through our memory that we craft a

meaningful story for ourselves, even one that might have mistakes in it.

We all know that our memories are, you know, shady, but if we don't spend that time making mistakes and crafting the story of our life, then we're

going to end up I think spending most of our time trying to farm data for large companies and chase after the retweet and less time developing that

rich interior life.

STEVENS: Fascinating conversation, Michael. I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. But thanks so much for joining us here on News

Stream. Michael Harris, author of the end of absence.

And that's it for News Stream tonight. Thanks for joining us. I'm Andrew Stevens. World Sport is next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

END