科学美国人60秒 技术大亨希望为底层十亿人提供创新产品

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“I think it’s really important for us to use this magical power of invention and innovation to change the lives of people who really needed their lives changed.”

“我认为，利用发明和创新的神奇力量来改变那些真正需要改变生活的人们的生活，这真的很重要。

Nathan Myhrvold, co-founder of the technology development company Intellectual Ventures. He was formerly¹ Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft. He spoke² at the World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco October 28th.

Nathan Myhrvold是一家技术研发公司高智发明公司的联合创始人。他之前曾是微软的首席技术官。10月18日在旧金山举办的世界科学记者大会上，他发表了以下讲话。

“People at the bottom billion in the world from, well, from any perspective. You can look at the bottom billion from health care or from poverty, it’s pretty much the same folks. And those are people who need their lives transformed. But the iPhone X isn’t how to do that. You need to have other kinds of technology that will focus, and try to make a magical solution to what’s otherwise an intractable social problem.

“从任何角度来看，世界上最底层的亿万人民都是如此。你可以从医疗保健或贫困中看到最底层的10亿人，基本上是同样的人。这些人需要改变他们的生活。但苹果公司不是这样做的。你需要有聚焦的其他的社会力量，并用与众不同的办法解决棘手的社会问题。

“Now, when I say this to people in the world of global development they often say, oh yeah, we tried a high-tech³ thing and it failed. And I always laugh when I hear this because high-tech things always fail….

现在，当我对全球发展中的人们说这些话时，他们经常会说，是啊，我们尝试高科技了，但是失败了。当我听到这样回答的时候，我总会放声大笑，因为高科技总是失败啊……

“For example, there were 33 search engines launched before one of them was successful. The world didn’t say, oh, search engines, yeah, we tried that, it failed. The technology world is all about failure. Thirty-two search engines failed before we got Google. Yet, a lot of times when we look at the developing world and people say, oh, we tried this it didn’t work, we tried that it didn’t work. Well, okay, you got 30-something more to go.

例如，在其中一个搜索引擎成功之前，已经发布了33个搜索引擎。但是人们没有说，搜索引擎，我们尝试过了，但是最后失败了。技术的世界都是关乎失败的。在谷歌成功之前，有32个搜索引擎失败了。很多次我们在看这个发展中的世界时，人们会说，我们尝试这个了，但是没有成功，我们尝试那个了，也没有成功。没关系，你可以再尝试30次。

“Part of the point here is that inventing anything is hard. Even if you’re creating a search engine in the middle of Silicon⁴ Valley, it’s hard. That’s why those other 32 companies failed. Of course, if you’re trying to solve a completely intractable problem of poverty or health care in an area where there is none, you should expect that’s not going to be any easier. It probably is harder. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”

“这里我要强调的重点是发明很困难。即使你在硅谷中研发搜索引擎，很非常困难。这就是为什么其他32家公司失败了。当然，如果你想要解决一个非常棘手的贫困问题，或者在一个没有医疗保障的地区，你应该期望这会很难。甚至可能难度会增加。但这并不意味着你不应该尝试。”

1 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

4 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。