Tech Honcho Wants Innovation for the Bottom Billion

科技巨头欲为底层十亿人而创新

At the World Conference of Science Journalists in October, Nathan Myhrvold, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, charged innovation outfits with changing the lives of the world's most disadvantaged.

在10月召开的科学记者世界大会上，高智公司的联合创始人内森·麦沃尔德（Nathan Myhrvold）向创新团队提出，要改变处于世界底层的人的生活。

撰文/播音：史蒂夫·米尔斯基（Steve Mirsky）和罗宾·劳埃德（Robin Lloyd）

翻译：姜帆

审校：许楠

“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.”

“我认为对我们而言，利用这种发明和创新的神奇力量来帮助那些真正需要的改变生活的人是非常重要的。”

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

内森·麦沃尔德是技术开发公司高智公司的联合创始人。他是微软公司的前首席工程师。10月28日，他在洛杉矶的世界科学记者大会上发表了讲话。

“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.

“。你可以从医疗或贫困程度来辨别这十亿底层人民，他们是一类人，无论就哪些方面而言，都处于世界最低水平，他们需要生活的改变。但是却不能用iPhone X来改变。而是需要有其它类型的技术，有针对性地为社会难题提供有效的解决方案。

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

“如今，当我对国际研发者说这些话的时候，他们经常说，喔，是的，我们尝试了一种高科技的东西，但是失败了。在听到这种说法时，我总是会笑出来，因为高科技的东西常常失败…”

“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.

“比如，曾发布过的33个搜索引擎中，才有一个成功的。他们没有说过，喔，搜索引擎，是啊，我们尝试过了，但它失败了。技术世界都是关于失败的。在人们有谷歌之前，有32个搜索引擎失败了。然而，很多时候我们看看开发界，那里的人会说，喔，我们试过这个不行，我们试过那个不行。那么，好吧，你还有30多次要尝试。”

“Part of the point here is that inventing anything is hard. Even if you’re creating a search engine in the middle of Silicon 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.”

“其中部分原因在于发明任何东西都是困难的。即便是在硅谷中心创建一个搜索引擎，也很困难。这就是另外那32家公司失败的原因。当然，如果你正试图解决一个完全无法解决的贫困问题，或是在一个没有医疗的地区试图解决医疗保健问题，你应该预料到这不会那么简单。而可能更难。但是那并不意味这你不应该尝试。”

—Steve Mirsky and Robin Lloyd