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JasonPontin_2013U-_科技能够解决我们的大问题吗_
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| So, we used to solve big problems. |
我们曾经解决过一些大问题 |
| On July 21st, 1969, |
1969年7月21日 |
| Buzz Aldrin climbed out of Apollo 11's lunar module and descended onto the Sea of Tranquility . |
巴兹?奥尔德林从阿波罗11号的登月舱里爬了出来 踏上了宁静海 (人类首次登上月球的区域） |
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Buzz:n.嗡嗡声; v.发出嗡嗡声; Aldrin:n.[农药]艾氏剂;阿耳德林(一种杀虫剂); Apollo:n.阿波罗(太阳神);美男子; lunar:adj.月亮的,月球的;阴历的;银的;微亮的; module:n.模块;组件;单元; descended:adj.出身于...的;从一个祖先传下来的; Tranquility:n.宁静;平静;
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| Armstrong and Aldrin were alone, but their presence on the moon's gray surface was the culmination of a convulsive , collective effort. |
当时只有阿姆斯特朗和奥尔特林二人 但他们在月球上的出现 是一系列呕心沥血努力的成果 |
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Armstrong:n.阿姆斯特朗(美国宇航员,登月第一人); presence:n.存在;出席;参加;风度;仪态; culmination:n.顶点;高潮; convulsive:adj.抽搐的;惊厥的;震动的;起痉挛的; collective:adj.集体的;共同的;集合的;集体主义的;n.集团;集合体;集合名词;
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| The Apollo program was the greatest peacetime mobilization in the history of the United States. |
阿波罗计划是美国历史上 在和平时期的 最大的一次动员 |
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peacetime:n.平时;和平时期;adj.平时的;和平时期的; mobilization:n.动员;调动; United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式)
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| To get to the moon, NASA spent around 180 billion dollars in today's money, or four percent of the federal budget . |
为了登上月球,美国航空航天局 花掉了相当于今天1800亿美元的资金 是当时4%的联邦预算 |
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federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地; budget:n.预算,预算费;v.安排,预定;把…编入预算;adj.廉价的;
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| Apollo employed around 400,000 people and demanded the collaboration of 20,000 companies, universities and government agencies . |
阿波罗雇佣了40万雇员 集合了2万家公司 大学和政府部门 |
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employed:v.雇用:应用:运用:使用(employ的过去分词和过去式) collaboration:n.合作;勾结;通敌; agencies:n.代理;代理处(agency的复数);
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| People died, including the crew of Apollo 1. |
有人牺牲了,包括阿波罗1号的船员 |
| But before the Apollo program ended, 24 men flew to the moon. |
在阿波罗计划结束之前 24个人飞向过月球 |
| Twelve walked on its surface, of whom Aldrin, following the death of Armstrong last year, is now the most senior . |
12个人曾踏上月球表面 奥尔德林在阿姆斯特朗去年去世以后 成为了他们中年龄最大的一位 |
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senior:adj.大;级别(或地位)高的;成人的;高级水平的;n.上级;上司;较…年长的人;
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| So why did they go? |
那他们为什么要去月球？ |
| They didn't bring much back: 841 pounds of old rocks, and something all 24 later emphasized -- a new sense of the smallness and the fragility of our common home. |
他们并没有带很多东西回来 841磅的古老岩石 和24位宇航员之后共同强调的 对我们共同家园地球的渺小 和脆弱的认知 |
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emphasized:v.强调,着重(emphasize的过去式); smallness:n.小;贫乏;小气; fragility:n.脆弱;[力]易碎性;虚弱;
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| Why did they go? The cynical answer is they went because President Kennedy wanted to show the Soviets that his nation had the better rockets. |
他们为什么要去？一个愤世嫉俗的答案是 因为肯尼迪总统要证明他们拥有 比苏联更好的火箭 |
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cynical:adj.愤世嫉俗的;冷嘲的; Soviets:n.苏联人(soviet的复数);苏联政府;
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| But Kennedy's own words at Rice University in 1962 provide a better clue . |
但是肯尼迪1962年在莱斯大学的演说 提供了更好的线索 |
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clue:n.提示;迹象;(纵横填字谜、游戏或问题的)提示词语;v.提示;为…提供线索;
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| (Video) John F. Kennedy: But why, some say, the moon? |
（影片）肯尼迪:为什么？ 有人问为什么是月球？ |
| Why choose this as our goal? |
为什么会选择它作为目标？ |
| And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? |
他们同样会问 为什么要登上最高的山峰？ |
| Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic ? |
为什么,35年前要飞跃过大西洋？ |
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Atlantic:adj.大西洋的;巨人阿特拉斯的;n.大西洋;
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| Why does Rice play Texas? |
为什么莱斯要同德克萨斯比赛（指大学橄榄球赛)? |
| We choose to go to the moon. |
讲者:我们选择月球 |
| We choose to go to the moon. |
我们选择登上月球 |
| (Applause) |
（鼓掌） |
| We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. |
我们选择在这个十年登上月球 以及一些其他的事情 不是因为它们容易,而是因为它们困难。 |
| Jason Pontin: To contemporaries , |
在当时 |
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contemporaries:n.同龄,同辈人(contemporary复数形式);
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| Apollo wasn't only a victory of West over East in the Cold War. |
阿波罗计划不仅仅是西方对东方的 冷战胜利 |
| At the time, the strongest emotion was of wonder at the transcendent powers of technology . |
在当时,最强烈的情绪 是惊讶于 科技的无穷力量 |
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emotion:n.强烈的感情;激情;情感; transcendent:adj.卓越的;超常的;出类拔萃的;n.卓越的人;超绝物; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
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| They went because it was a big thing to do. |
他们去了是因为这是一件大事 |
| Landing on the moon occurred in the context of a long series of technological triumphs . |
登陆月球只是一连串 科技大胜利中的一件事 |
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occurred:v.发生;出现;存在于;出现在;(occur的过去分词和过去式) context:n.环境;上下文;来龙去脉; series:n.系列,连续;[电]串联;级数;丛书; technological:adj.技术[工程](上)的;因工艺技术高度发展而引起的; triumphs:n.巨大成功; v.打败; (triumph的第三人称单数和复数)
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| The first half of the 20th century produced the assembly line and the airplane , penicillin and a vaccine for tuberculosis . |
前半个20世纪制造出了 生产线,飞机, 盘尼西林和结核病疫苗 |
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assembly line:na.装配线; airplane:n.飞机; penicillin:n.盘尼西林(青霉素); vaccine:n.疫苗;牛痘苗;adj.疫苗的;牛痘的; tuberculosis:n.肺结核;结核病;
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| In the middle years of the century, polio was eradicated and smallpox eliminated . |
在这一世纪的中期 在这一世纪的中期 |
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polio:n.小儿麻痹症(等于poliomyelitis);脊髓灰质炎; eradicated:adj.画着根的;v.摆脱;擦掉;连根拔起(eradicate的过去分词); smallpox:n.[内科]天花; eliminated:v.排除;清除;消除;(比赛中)淘汰;消灭;(eliminate的过去式和过去分词)
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| Technology itself seemed to possess what Alvin Toffler in 1970 called "accelerative thrust ." |
科技本身似乎拥有 阿尔文?托夫勒在1970年说的 “加速推力” |
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possess:vt.控制;持有;迷住;具备; thrust:v.刺;塞;冲;挤;n.刺;插;重点;猛推;
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| For most of human history, we could go no faster than a horse or a boat with a sail, but in 1969, the crew of Apollo 10 flew at 25,000 miles an hour. |
在绝大部分的人类历史中 我们都无法比马 或帆船更快 但在1969年,阿波罗的10名船员们的 飞行速度是每小时25000英里 |
| Since 1970, no human beings have been back to the moon. |
1970年以后 再也没有人类回到过月球 |
| No one has traveled faster than the crew of Apollo 10, and blithe optimism about technology's powers has evaporated as big problems we had imagined technology would solve, such as going to Mars , creating clean energy, curing cancer , or feeding the world have come to seem intractably hard. |
没有人再比阿波罗10号的船员 更快 对于科技力量的乐观 已消失殆尽 而那些我们曾寄望于科技解决的大问题 例如前往火星 创造干净的能源,治愈癌症 甚至养活全世界都变得 非常棘手困难 |
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blithe:adj.愉快的;快乐无忧的; optimism:n.乐观;乐观主义; evaporated:adj.浓缩的;脱水的;蒸发干燥的;v.蒸发;消失(evaporate的过去式);失去水分; Mars:n.火星 cancer:n.癌症;恶性肿瘤;
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| I remember watching the liftoff of Apollo 17. |
我仍记得收看阿波罗17号升空的场面 |
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liftoff:n.发射;起飞时刻;搬走;
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| I was five years old, and my mother told me not to stare at the fiery exhaust of a Saturn V rocket. |
我当时5岁 妈妈告诉我不要盯着 土星五号燃烧着的推进器 |
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stare:v.凝视;盯着看;注视;n.凝视; fiery:adj.热烈的,炽烈的;暴躁的;燃烧般的; exhaust:v.耗尽; n.(车辆、发动机或机器排出的)废气; Saturn:n.[天]土星;农业之神(罗马神话中的一个形象);
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| I vaguely knew this was to be the last of the moon missions , but I was absolutely certain there would be |
我模糊地知道这是最后一次 月球计划 但是我确信在我的有生之年 |
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vaguely:adv.含糊地;暧昧地;茫然地; missions:n.任务; v.给…交代任务; (mission的复数) absolutely:adv.绝对地;完全地;
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| Mars colonies in my lifetime. |
火星殖民地将出现 |
| So "Something happened to our capacity to solve big problems with technology" |
所以,“科技力量解决大问题 的能力出现了问题”这一观点 |
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capacity:n.能力;容量;资格,地位;生产力;
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| has become a commonplace . |
变得司空见惯 |
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commonplace:n.老生常谈;司空见惯的事;普通的东西;adj.平凡的;陈腐的;
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| You hear it all the time. |
你常常能听到 |
| We've heard it over the last two days here at TED. |
我们在TED的过去两天里就听到过 |
| It feels as if technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with trivial toys, with things like iPhones and apps and social media , or algorithms that speed automated trading. |
感觉科技取悦我们丰富自己 通过的是一些无足轻重的玩具 像是iPhone,Apps和社交网络 或是加速自动交易的算法 |
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technologists:n.技术人员(technologist的复数);[劳经]技术专家; diverted:v.呼叫转移,释放;(divert的过去分词和过去式) enriched:v.使丰富;使饱含(某物);使富有;(enrich的过去分词和过去式) trivial:adj.不重要的,琐碎的;琐细的; media:n.媒体;媒质(medium的复数);血管中层;浊塞音;中脉; automated:adj.自动化的;v.(使)自动化;(automate的过去式和过去分词)
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| There's nothing wrong with most of these things. |
这些事情并没有什么错 |
| They've expanded and enriched our lives. |
他们延伸並丰富了我们的生活 |
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expanded:adj.扩充的;展开的;vt.扩大(expand的过去式);
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| But they don't solve humanity's big problems. |
但是他们不能解决人类的大问题 |
| What happened? |
发生了什么？ |
| So there is a parochial explanation in Silicon Valley , which admits that it has been funding less ambitious companies than it did in the years when it financed |
发生了什么？ 他们承认,有野心的公司募得的资金更少了 相比于早些年的 |
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parochial:adj.教区的;狭小的;地方范围的; Silicon Valley:n.硅谷(美国加利福尼亚州一处计算机和电子公司聚集地,有时用以指任何计算机公司聚集地); funding:n.基金;资金;提供资金;v.为…提供资金;拨款给;(fund的现在分词) ambitious:adj.野心勃勃的;有雄心的;热望的;炫耀的;
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| Intel , Microsoft, Apple and Genentech. |
英特尔,微软,苹果和基因泰克 |
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Intel:n.美国英特尔公司(财富500强公司之一,以生产CPU芯片著称);
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| Silicon Valley says the markets are to blame, in particular the incentives that venture capitalists offer to entrepreneurs . |
硅谷说,市场是罪魁祸首 特别是风险投资家提供给 企业家的奖励 |
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in particular:尤其,特别; incentives:n.激励;奖励;诱因(incentive的复数形式);奖励措施; venture:v.敢于;冒险;投机;n.企业;风险;冒险; capitalists:n.资本家(capitalist的复数); entrepreneurs:n.企业家;(entrepreneur的复数)
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| Silicon Valley says that venture investing shifted away from funding transformational ideas and towards funding incremental problems or even fake problems. |
硅谷说风投资金的投资方向 由彻底变革型类的想法 转移到了能够逐步解决的问题 甚至是虚假的问题上 |
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investing:v.投资;投入(时间、精力等);(invest的现在分词) shifted:转移;移动(shift的过去式和过去分词); transformational:adj.转换的;改变的;转换生成的; incremental:adj.增加的,增值的; fake:n.假货;骗子;假动作;v.捏造;假装…的样子;adj.伪造的;
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| But I don't think that explanation is good enough. |
不过我不认为这样的解释就够了 |
| It mostly explains what's wrong with Silicon Valley. |
它只是解释了硅谷的问题 |
| Even when venture capitalists were at their most risk-happy, they preferred small investments , tiny investments that offered an exit within 10 years. |
哪怕当风投家们在他们最能承受风险的时候 他们也是更愿意做小型的投资 有可能在十年内退出的微小投资 |
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preferred:v.较喜欢;喜欢…多于…;(prefer的过去式和过去分词) investments:n.[经]投资,投资的财产;投资学;(investment的复数)
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| V.C.s have always struggled to invest profitably in technologies such as energy whose capital requirements are huge and whose development is long and lengthy , and V.C.s have never, never funded the development of technologies meant to solve big problems that possess no immediate commercial value. |
风投资本在科技上的投资 总是难以获得回报 例如是需要大量投资 和长期发展过程的能源行业 风投资本也从来没有 投资过能够解决 没有即时商业价值的大问题 |
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struggled:v.奋斗;努力;争取;艰难地行进;抗争;(struggle的过去式和过去分词) profitably:adv.有利地;有益地; technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数); lengthy:adj.漫长的,冗长的;啰唆的; funded:adj.提供资金的;v.提供资金;积存;提供资金偿付的本息;(fund的过去式); commercial:adj.贸易的;商业的;赢利的;以获利为目的的;n.(电台或电视播放的)广告;
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| No, the reasons we can't solve big problems are more complicated and more profound . |
不,我们不能解决大问题的原因 更加的复杂和深层次 |
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complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式) profound:adj.深厚的;意义深远的;渊博的;
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| Sometimes we choose not to solve big problems. |
有时候我们选择不去解决一些大问题 |
| We could go to Mars if we want. |
如果我们愿意,我们可以去火星 |
| NASA even has the outline of a plan. |
NASA甚至有了一个计划大纲 |
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outline:n.概述;轮廓线;梗概;略图;v.概述;略述;显示…的轮廓:勾勒…的外形;
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| But going to Mars would follow a political decision with popular appeal , and that will never happen. |
但去火星需要一个由民众诉求产生的政治决策 但那永远也不会发生 |
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appeal:n.上诉;吸引力;申诉;魅力;v.上诉;呼吁;申诉;恳求;
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| We won't go to Mars, because everyone thinks there are more important things to do here on Earth. |
我们不去火星,因为每个人都认为 在地球上我们有 更重要的事情要做 |
| Sometimes, we can't solve big problems because our political systems fail. |
有时候,我们无法解决一些大问题 是因为政治系统的失败 |
| Today, less than two percent of the world's energy consumption derives from advanced , renewable sources such as solar, wind and biofuels , less than two percent, and the reason is purely economic . |
如今,少于2%的 能源消耗 来自于先进的,可再生的能源 例如太阳能,风能和生物能源 少于百分之二 这纯粹是经济问题 |
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consumption:n.消费;消耗;肺痨; derives:源于;得自(derive的第三人称单数); advanced:adj.先进的; v.前进; (advance的过去式和过去分词形式) renewable:adj.可再生的;可更新的;可继续的;n.再生性能源; sources:n.来源;出处;起源;根源;原因;v.(从…)获得(source的第三人称单数和复数) biofuels:n.[能源]生物燃料;生质燃料;生质能源(biofuel的复数形式); purely:adv.完全;仅仅; economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的;
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| Coal and natural gas are cheaper than solar and wind, and petroleum is cheaper than biofuels. |
煤炭和天然气比太阳能 和风能更便宜 石油比生物燃料便宜 |
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natural gas:n.天然气; petroleum:n.石油;
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| We want alternative energy sources that can compete on price. None exist. |
我们需要的在价格上 拥有竞争力的替代能源,并不存在 |
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alternative:adj.供选择的;选择性的;交替的;n.二中择一;供替代的选择; compete:v.竞争;对抗;参加比赛(或竞赛);
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| Now, technologists, business leaders and economists all basically agree on what national policies and international treaties would spur the development of alternative energy: mostly, a significant increase in energy research and development , and some kind of price on carbon . |
现在,科技人员,商业领袖 和经济学家基本都同意 国家政策和国际条约 将可以刺激替代能源的发展 通过显著增加新能源的 研究和发展 和对碳排放的征税 |
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basically:adv.主要地,基本上; policies:n.政策;方针;原则;为人之道;保险单(policy的复数) treaties:n.条约;协定问题(treaty的复数); spur:v.刺激;激励;促进;鞭策;n.刺激;激励;鞭策;靴刺; significant:adj.重大的;有效的;有意义的;值得注意的;意味深长的;n.象征;有意义的事物; research and development:n.研究和开发; carbon:n.[化学]碳;碳棒;复写纸;adj.碳的;碳处理的;
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| But there's no hope in the present political climate that we will see U.S. energy policy or international treaties that reflect that consensus . |
但在现今的政治气候下 没望可以看到美国的能源政策 和国际条约能够反映这一共识 |
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policy:n.政策,方针;保险单; reflect:v.反映;映出(影像);反射;表明,表达; consensus:n.一致;舆论;合意;
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| Sometimes, big problems that had seemed technological turn out not to be so. |
有些时候,那些看起来是科技上的大问题 其实却不是 |
| Famines were long understood to be caused by failures in food supply. |
饥荒长期以来被认为是 食物短缺造成的 |
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Famines:n.饥荒;饥饿,奇缺;
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| But 30 years of research have taught us that famines are political crises that catastrophically affect food distribution . |
但通过30年的研究发现 饥荒是由于政治危机 灾难性地影响了食物分配造成的 |
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crises:n.危机,紧要关头;危险期(crisis的复数形式); catastrophically:灾难性地; distribution:n.分布;分配;分发;分销;
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| Technology can improve things like crop yields or systems for storing and transporting food, but there will be famines so long as there are bad governments. |
科技可以增加作物产量 或帮助食物的储存和运输 但是有糟糕的政府就会有饥荒 |
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improve:v.改进;改善; yields:n.生产量,投资效益(yield的复数形式); v.[经]生产; transporting:v.运输,运送,输送;传播;(transport的现在分词) so long as:adv.只要;
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| Finally , big problems sometimes elude solution because we don't really understand the problem. |
最后,一些大问题会被逃避解决 因为人们不了解这些问题 |
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Finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; elude:vt.逃避,躲避; solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
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| President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971, but we soon discovered there are many kinds of cancer, most of them fiendishly resistant to therapy , and it is only in the last 10 years that effective , viable therapies have come to seem real. |
尼克松总统在1971年对癌症宣战 但我们很快发现 但我们很快发现 大多数如恶魔般难以治疗 直到过去十年 有效可行的治疗方法 才开始出现 |
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Nixon:n.尼克松(美国第37任总统); fiendishly:adv.极坏地;不平凡;不简单;恶魔似地; resistant:adj.抵抗的,反抗的;顽固的;n.抵抗者; therapy:n.治疗,疗法; effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象; viable:adj.可行的;能养活的;能生育的; therapies:n.治疗方法(therapy复数形式);
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| Hard problems are hard. |
困难的问题就是很难解决 |
| It's not true that we can't solve big problems through technology. |
这不代表科技无法解决大问题 |
| We can, we must, but these four elements must all be present: |
我们可以,但以下四个要素 要同时满足 |
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elements:n.要素;基本部分;少量;一群;(element的复数)
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| Political leaders and the public must care to solve a problem; institutions must support its solution; |
政治领袖和群众 必须关心解决这个问题 必须有机构支持其解决方案 |
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institutions:n.机构;慈善机构;风俗习惯,制度;(institution的复数)
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| It must really be a technological problem; and we must understand it. |
其必须是技术上的问题 我们必须了解它 |
| The Apollo mission, which has become a kind of metaphor for technology's capacity to solve big problems, met these criteria . |
阿波罗计划 已经成为科技能够 解决大问题的象征 便符合这些要素 |
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metaphor:n.暗喻,隐喻;比喻说法; criteria:n.标准,条件(criterion的复数);
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| But it is an irreproducible model for the future. |
但这是一个不可复制的案例 |
| It is not 1961. |
现在已经不是1961年 |
| There is no galvanizing contest like the Cold War, no politician like John Kennedy who can heroize the difficult and the dangerous, and no popular science fictional mythology such as exploring the solar system . |
已经没有冷战中的军备竞赛 已经没有肯尼迪这样的政治家 会给困难和危险披上英雄主义色彩 没有流行的科幻神话 例如探索太阳系 |
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galvanizing:n.镀锌;v.给…通电;给…镀锌;刺激(galvanize的ing形式); politician:n.政治家;(蔑)政客;(美)政治贩; fictional:adj.虚构的;小说的; mythology:n.神话;神话学;神话集; exploring:v.探索:考察:探查;(explore的现在分词) solar system:[天]太阳系;
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| Most of all, going to the moon turned out to be easy. |
最重要的是,去月球 已经变得容易 |
| It was just three days away. |
路上只需要三天而已 |
| And arguably it wasn't even solving much of a problem. |
而且有争议地说,这其实 也没解决什么问题 |
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arguably:v.可论证地;
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| We are left alone with our day, and the solutions of the future will be harder won. |
我们继续着我们的生活 而未来的问题将更难解决 |
| God knows, we don't lack for the challenges. |
谁知道呢,我们并不缺少挑战 |
| Thank you very much. |
谢谢 |
| (Applause) |
谢谢 |