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TED是Technology, Entertainment, Design(科技、娱乐、设计)的缩写，这个会议的宗旨是"用思想的力量来改变世界"。TED演讲的特点是毫无繁杂冗长的专业讲座，观点响亮，开门见山，种类繁多，看法新颖。
当世界其他地方的人们在智能手机上更新状态和玩游戏的时候，非洲的一群人正在开发新技术，使用短信服务来解决日常问题。新闻工作者托比·夏普沙克这样说道。在这个令人大开眼界的演说中，夏普沙克带领观众们探索了非洲最前沿的移动技术发明，他同时呼吁大家重新考虑我们对创新的臆想。https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=z0128sdjo15 中英文对照翻译
Let me start by asking you a question, just with a show of hands: Who has an iPhone? Who has an Android phone? Who has a Blackberry? Who will admit in public to having a Blackberry?
在开始演说前，请让我问你们一个问题，请举手回答：谁有苹果手机？谁有安卓系统手机？谁有黑莓手机？谁会在公众面前承认自己有黑莓呢？
And let me guess, how many of you, when you arrived here, like me, went and bought a pay-as-you-go SIM card? Yeah? I'll bet you didn't even know you're using African technology. 让我猜猜，你们中有多少人在到达这里的时候，像我一样，去购买了预付费的手机卡？我敢打赌你甚至不知道你正在使用的这项技术来自非洲。Pay-as-you-go was a technology, or an idea, pioneered in Africa by a company called Vodacom a good 15 years ago, and now, like franchising, pay-as-you-go is one of the most dominant forces of economic activity in the world.预付费手机卡这种技术，或者说这个创意是非洲的一个名为沃达康的公司在15年前率先使用的，现在，就像特许经营一样，预付费是全球范围内最主导的经济活动。
So I'm going to talk about innovation in Africa, which I think is the purest form, innovation out of necessity. But first, I'm going to ask you some other questions. You don't have to put your hands up. These are rhetorical.所以我想要谈一谈在非洲的创新活动，我认为这样的创新活动是以一种最纯粹的方式在进行着，那就是因为要满足需求而创新。但首先，我要问你一些问题。你不需要举手。这些都只是修辞。Why did Nikola Tesla have to invent the alternating current that powers the lights in this building or the city that we're in?为什么尼古拉·特斯拉要发明能替代当前电力的能源在我们居住的这栋楼或这个城市？
Why did Henry Ford have to invent the production line to produce these Fords that came in anything as long as they were black?为什么亨利·福特要发明生产流水线来制造这些东西，顾客可以选择任何颜色，只要是黑色的？
And why did Eric Merrifield have to invent the dolos? Blank stares. That is what a dolos looks like, and in the background, you can see Robben Island. This is a small dolos, and Eric Merrifield is the most famous inventor you've never heard of. 为什么艾瑞克·梅里菲尔德要发明扭工字块体？面无表情。这就是扭工字块体的样子，你可以看到背景中的是罗本岛。这是小的扭工字块体和艾瑞克·梅里菲尔德是你没听说过的、最著名的发明家。In 1963, a storm ripped up the harbor in a small South African town called East London, and while he was watching his kids playing with toys made from oxen bones called dolosse, he had the idea for this. It's a bit like a huge jumping jack, and they have used this in every harbor in the world as a breakwater. The global shipping economy would not be possible without African technology like this.1963年，一场暴风雨席卷港口在南非的一个名叫东伦敦的小镇，当他看到孩子们玩着用牛骨头制作的叫扭工字块的玩具，他有了灵感。它有点像一个巨大的开合跳，世界上的每个港口都用这个来搭建防波堤。没有这样的非洲技术，全球航运经济就不可能实现。
So whenever you talk about Africa, you have to put up this picture of the world from space, and people go, "Look, it's the Dark Continent." Actually, it isn't. What it is is a map of innovation. And it's really easy to see where innovation's going on. All the places with lots of electricity, it isn't. (Laughter) (Applause) And the reason it isn't is because everybody's watching television or playing Angry Birds. 所以每当你谈到非洲，展示这张从太空拍摄的地球图片，人们会说，"你看，那是黑暗的大陆"实际上，它不是。这是一张创新地图。你很容易就能看到创新的地方在哪里，它并不是那些电力充足的亮光之处。因为住在亮光之处的每个人都在看电视，或玩愤怒的小鸟。
So where it's happening is in Africa. Now, this is real innovation, not the way people have expropriated the word to talk about launching new products. This is real innovation, and I define it as problem-solving. People are solving real problems in Africa. Why? Because we have to. Because we have real problems. And when we solve real problems for people, we solve them for the rest of the world at the same time.创新的地方在非洲。这才是真正的创新，不是人们征用“创新”这个词来谈论推出的新产品。这是真正的创新，我将它定义为解决问题的创新。在非洲，人们在解决真正的问题。为什么呢？因为我们必须这样做。因为我们有真正的麻烦。当我们为人民解决实际问题的时候，我们为世界其他地区的人们，在同一时间解决了同样的问题。
So in California, everybody's really excited about a little square of plastic that you plug into a phone and you can swipe your credit card, and people say, "We've liberated the credit card from the point of sale terminal." Fantastic. Why do you even need a credit card? In Africa, we've been doing that for years, and we've been doing it on phones like this. 在加利福尼亚州，每个人都很兴奋于一个可以插进电话的塑料小方块。你可以使用这个工具刷你的信用卡，人们说，"我们已经从销售终端解放了信用卡"。很好。但为什么你还需要一张信用卡？在非洲，我们做这个很多年了，并且我们在像这样的手机上使用它。This is a picture I took at a place called Kitengela, about an hour south of Nairobi, and the thing that's so remarkable about the payment system that's been pioneered in Africa called M-Pesa is that it works on phones like this. It works on every single phone possible, because it uses SMS. 这是我在基坦吉拉照的一张照片，基坦吉拉位于内罗毕南部约一小时路途处，对支付系统做出举世瞩目贡献的是非洲率先使用的移动银行移动银行可以在这样的手机上都可以使用。它适用于几乎每个电话，因为它适用短信服务。You can pay bills with it, you can buy your groceries, you can pay your kids' school fees, and I'm told you can even bribe customs officials. (Laughter) Something like 25 million dollars a day is transacted through M-Pesa. Forty percent of Kenya's GDP moves through M-Pesa using phones like this.你可以用它支付账单，你可以用它购买食品，你可以用它支付孩子的学费，有人告诉我，你甚至可以用它贿赂海关官员。（笑声）每天约有2500万美金通过移动银行交易处理。占肯尼亚国内生产总值的40%，在这样的手机上，通过移动银行流动。
And you think this is just a feature phone. Actually it's the smartphone of Africa. It's also a radio, and it's also a torch, and more than anything else, it has really superb battery life. Why? Because that's what we need. We have really severe energy problems in Africa. By the way, you can update Facebook and send Gmail from a phone like this.你以为这只是一只功能手机。实际上它是非洲的智慧型手机。它也是一台收音机，它也是一个火把，最重要的是，它有超长的电池寿命。为什么呢？因为那是我们真正需要的。在非洲我们有很严重的能源问题。顺便说一下，用这样的手机，你可以更新脸书，从谷歌邮箱发送邮件。
So we have found a way to use the available technology to send money via M-Pesa, which is a bit like a check system for the mobile age. I come from Johannesburg, which is a mining town. It's built on gold. This is a picture I Instagrammed earlier. 我们找到了一种方式运用现有技术，通过移动银行汇钱，这就有类似于移动时代的检测系统。我来自约翰内斯堡，这是一个采矿小镇。它建立于黄金开采上。这张照片是我较早前发布的照片分享。And the difference today is that the gold of today is mobile. If you think about the railroad system in North America and how that worked, first came the infrastructure, then came the industry around it, the brothels -- it's a bit like the Internet today, right? 现如今，区别在于，移动设备是黄金。如果你思考一下北美的铁路系统以及它是如何运作的，首先想到的是基础设施，然后是周边的工业，红灯区--它有点像今天的互联网，对吗？— and everything else that worked with it: bars, saloons, etc. The gold of today is mobile, and mobile is the enabler that makes all of this possible.--同与它共事的一切：酒吧、会客厅等。今天的移动设备技术就是金子，移动技术使这一切成为可能。
So what are some of the things that you can do with it? Well, this is by a guy called Bright Simons from Ghana, and what you do is you take medication, something that some people might spend their entire month's salary on, and you scratch off the code, and you send that to an SMS number, and it tells you if that is legitimate or if it's expired. 你可还能做什么事情呢？嗯，这是由来自加纳的布莱特·西蒙斯所发明的东西，在你吃药之前，对某些人来说，这些药可能花费了他们整个月的工资，你刮掉代码，将代码用短信发送到一个号码，它会回复告诉你这药品是否合法或者，是否过期。Really simple, really effective, really life-saving. In Kenya, there's a service called iCow, which just sends you really important information about how to look after your dairy. The dairy business in Kenya is a $463 million business, and the difference between a subsistence farmer and an abundance farmer is only a couple of liters of milk a day. 真的很简单，真的很有效，真正能拯救生命。在肯尼亚，有一项服务名叫“iCow”，它给你发送关于如何饲养照顾奶牛的重要信息。在肯尼亚，乳品业是一个产值四亿六千三百万的行业，区别一个勉强糊口的农民和富裕农民的只是一天多出产的几升牛奶。And if you can do that, you can rise out of poverty. Really simple, using a basic phone. If you don't have electricity, no problem! We'll just make it out of old bicycle parts using a windmill, as William Kamkwamba did. There's another great African that you've heard that's busy disrupting the automobile industry in the world. 如果你能做到，你就可以摆脱贫困。真的很简单，使用最基本的电话。即使你没有电也没问题！我们就使用旧自行车的零件制作它使用风车，就像威廉·凯门卡巴一样。你听说过的另一位伟大的非洲公民忙于扰乱世界汽车行业。He's also finding a way to reinvent solar power and the electricity industry in North America, and if he's lucky, he'll get us to Mars, hopefully in my lifetime. He comes from Pretoria, the capital of [South Africa], about 50 kilometers from where I live. So back to Joburg, which is sometimes called Egoli, which means City of Gold. 他也找到一种彻底改造北美太阳能和北电力工业的方法，如果他幸运的话，他会帮我们到达火星，希望那能在我有生之年完成。他来自比勒陀利亚，[南非]的首都距离我的住处约50公里。回到约翰内斯堡的话题，约翰内斯堡有时被称为Egoli，意为黄金城。And not only is mobile the gold of today, I don't believe that the gold is under the ground. I believe we are the gold. Like you've heard the other economists say, we are at the point where China was when its boom years began, and that's where we're going.今天所指的黄金可不只限于移动技术，我不相信地面之下蕴藏黄金。我相信，我们就是黄金。其他经济学家们说过，我们正处在中国经济腾飞伊始的那一刻，而这正是我们前进的方向。
So, you hear the West talk about innovation at the edge. Well, of course it's happening at the edge, because in the middle, everybody's updating Facebook, or worse still, they're trying to understand Facebook's privacy settings. (Laughter) This is not that catchy catchphrase. This is innovation over the edge.你听到西方总在谈边缘创新。嗯，当然它发生在边缘，因为在中间的大伙都在更新脸书，或更糟糕的是，他们想了解脸书的隐私设置。（笑声）这不是那朗朗上口的口号。这是超越极限的创新。
So, people like to call Africa a mobile-first continent, but actually it's mobile-only, so while everybody else is doing all of those things, we're solving the world's problems. So there's only one thing left to say.因此，人们喜欢称非洲为“移动先行大陆”但实际上它是“只有移动”，所以当别人在做所有这些事情的时候，我们在解决世界的问题。最后要说的是。
["You're welcome"] ["欢迎你"]
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