A garden in my apartment | Britta Riley

翻译人员: Chunxiang Qian 校对人员: beibei su

我和你们许多人一样

I, like many of you,

是地球20亿城市居民的

am one of the two billion people on Earth who live in cities.

其中一个

And there are days -- I don't know about the rest of you --

有些时候－不知道你们是否也有这种感觉

but there are days when I palpably feel

我会觉得

how much I rely on other people

我的生活里几乎每一样东西

for pretty much everything in my life.

都得依赖他人

And some days, that can even be a little scary.

有时候，真有点吓人

But what I'm here to talk to you about today

今天要介绍的

就是这种相互依存关系

is how that same interdependence

is actually an extremely powerful social infrastructure

实际上是一种极为给力的社会基础

借助于它

that we can actually harness

to help heal some of our deepest civic issues,

我们能够进行开源合作开放

if we apply open-source collaboration.

从而解决一些很深刻的城市问题

几年前

A couple of years ago,

I read an article by New York Times writer Michael Pollan,

我从《纽约时报》读到迈克尔･坡伦的文章

他讲到亲手种植自身消费的食物

in which he argued that growing even some of our own food

是我们能为环境做的

is one of the best things that we can do for the environment.

最好的事情之一

我读到这篇文章的时候

Now at the time that I was reading this,

正是大冬天

it was the middle of the winter

and I definitely did not have room for a lot of dirt

我那纽约小小的公寓里

自然没有摆放大片土壤的空间

in my New York City apartment.

So I was basically just willing to settle

我基本上就打算不理这茬儿了

for just reading the next Wired magazine

打算接着读读下一期的《连线》

and finding out how the experts were going to figure out

看看专家们对这些未来的问题

how to solve all these problems for us in the future.

都有什么解决方案

但这恰是迈克尔･坡伦

But that was actually exactly the point

that Michael Pollan was making in this article --

在那篇文章里要指出来的－

it's precisely when we hand over

如果我们把这些问题的责任

the responsibility for all these things to specialists

都转交给专家来解决的话

就正好导致了诸如我们所见到的现在食品系统里

that we cause the kind of messes that we see with the food system.

这样的混乱局面

So, I happen to know a little bit from my own work

我当时刚好因为工作的缘故

about how NASA has been using hydroponics

对美国宇航局在太空尝试用水培法

to explore growing food in space.

种植物的事有所了解

优质的液体土壤

And that you can actually get optimal nutritional yield

流经植物的根系可以

by running a kind of high-quality liquid soil over plants' root systems.

保证最优的营养吸收

对蔬菜植物来说

Now to a vegetable plant,

my apartment has got to be about as foreign as outer space.

我的公寓就跟外太空一样

不是它们的宜居地

但是我能提供一些自然光

But I can offer some natural light

and year-round climate control.

和全年稳定的气温

2年后

Fast-forward two years later:

我们有了窗户农场

we now have window farms,

which are vertical, hydroponic platforms

这是垂直的水培平台

可以在室内种食物

for food-growing indoors.

And the way it works is that there's a pump at the bottom,

系统通过底部的水泵运转

which periodically sends this liquid nutrient solution up to the top,

水泵定期将营养液运输到顶部

然后一点一滴流经植物根系

which then trickles down through plants' root systems

that are suspended in clay pellets --

根长在黏土颗粒中－

这样系统不需要泥土

so there's no dirt involved.

Now light and temperature vary with each window's microclimate,

光照和气温令

每个窗户的微气候都不同

所以有一个窗户农场

so a window farm requires a farmer,

就得有一个窗户农场主

来决定

and she must decide

what kind of crops she is going to put in her window farm,

在窗户农场里种什么粮食

以及怎么有机栽培

and whether she is going to feed her food organically.

那时候，窗户农场只是一个

Back at the time,

a window farm was no more than a technically complex idea

技术上有点儿复杂的想法

that was going to require a lot of testing.

需要很多测试

And I really wanted it to be an open project,

我很想把它做成一个开放计划

因为水培法现在

because hydroponics

is one of the fastest growing areas of patenting

是美国专利申请里

最快速增长的领域之一

in the United States right now,

and could possibly become another area like Monsanto,

也许这会成为

下一个孟山都

where we have a lot of corporate intellectual property

他们持有大量的公司所有知识产权

in the way of people's food.

反而阻碍了粮食的发展

So I decided that, instead of creating a product,

于是我决定，与其做一个产品

不如将其

what I was going to do

was open this up to a whole bunch of codevelopers.

向所有共同开发者开放

The first few systems that we created, they kind of worked.

我们开发的头几个系统 都还可以

We were actually able to grow about a salad a week

能在一个纽约公寓的窗户上

in a typical New York City apartment window.

一周种出一份沙拉来

我们能种出小蕃茄和

And we were able to grow cherry tomatoes

黄瓜 各种各样的蔬菜

and cucumbers, all kinds of stuff.

但之前这几个系统

But the first few systems

were these leaky, loud power-guzzlers

都漏水而且是噪声大耗能多

玛莎·斯图尔特（家政女皇）看到肯定要抓狂了

that Martha Stewart would definitely never have approved.

（笑声）

(Laughter)

So to bring on more codevelopers,

为了召集更多的合作开发者

我们建了一个社交网站

what we did was we created a social media site

可以把设计公布在上面

on which we published the designs,

说明工作原理

we explained how they worked,

甚至连同

and we even went so far

as to point out everything that was wrong with these systems.

系统里的一切弊端都指了出来

And then we invited people all over the world

我们邀请了世界各地的人们

来建造，并和我们一起试验

to build them and experiment with us.

So actually now on this website,

现在这个网站上

we have 18,000 people.

有一万八千人

And we have window farms all over the world.

世界各地

都有窗户农场

What we're doing is what NASA or a large corporation

现在我们做的是

美国宇航局或者大公司里面

would call R&D, or research and development.

叫研发（R&D)的工作

而我们叫它R&D-I-Y，研发DIY

But what we call it is R&D-I-Y,

or "research and develop it yourself."

研究和自己开发

(Laughter)

比如

So, for example, Jackson came along

杰克逊来提了个建议

and suggested that we use air pumps instead of water pumps.

用气泵而不是水泵

It took building a whole bunch of systems to get it right,

我们试了几个系统后终于搞定了

这样一来

but once we did, we were able to cut our carbon footprint nearly in half.

我们把碳足迹降低了接近一半

芝加哥的托尼在持续着种植试验

Tony in Chicago has been taking on growing experiments,

其他很多窗户农场主也是

like lots of other window farmers,

and he's been able to get his strawberries to fruit

他成功地在低光照度的条件下

for nine months of the year in low-light conditions

在一年中的九个月里都能培育出草莓果实

by simply changing out the organic nutrients.

他仅仅是调整了有机养料

And window farmers in Finland have been customizing their window farms

芬兰的窗户农场主

为了让他们的窗户农场

for the dark days of the Finnish winters

能度过芬兰的冬天而定制了

带生长光照的LED灯的窗户农场

by outfitting them with LED grow lights

that they're now making open source and part of the project.

他们对这个开源计划贡献了自己的力量

So window farms have been evolving

窗户农场像软件行业一样

经历了一个急速更新的

through a rapid versioning process similar to software.

过程

And with every open source project,

每一个开源项目带来的

the real benefit is the interplay

实际利益是一个互动的机会

between the specific concerns of people customizing their systems

让人们在为某些特定情况来定制系统的时候

可以同时为

for their own particular concerns,

他们自己特定的环境来考虑

and the universal concerns.

也能顾及到一些更普遍的问题

So my core team and I

因此我和我的核心团队

are able to concentrate on the improvements

致力于真正让每个人受益的

改良

that really benefit everyone.

And we're able to look out for the needs of newcomers.

我们也考虑到新加入者的需要

So for do-it-yourselfers,

对于自己动手的人

we provide free, very well-tested instructions

我们提供免费和详细的指导

so that anyone, anywhere around the world,

这样世界上的任何人

can build one of these systems for free.

都能不花钱地建起这样的系统

And there's a patent pending on these systems as well

这些设计系统的专利也是

that's held by the community.

由我们社区大家庭持有的

And to fund the project,

为了维持此项目

we partner to create products

我们也做成品

that we then sell to schools and to individuals

出售给学校和个人

who don't have time to build their own systems.

如果他们没有时间亲自建造的话（可以来买我们的成品）

Now within our community, a certain culture has appeared.

如今我们的团队里

已经产生了一种文化

In our culture, it is better to be a tester

在我们的文化里，大家都认为比起提供想法的人

我们更应该做

who supports someone else's idea

than it is to be just the idea guy.

测试想法的人

What we get out of this project is support for our own work,

我们项目的成就感来源于

在寻求对我们工作的支持同时

as well as an experience of actually contributing

也是对环保运动的

to the environmental movement

实际贡献

in a way other than just screwing in new light bulbs.

而不仅仅是换几个新式灯泡

我想爱琳说出了

But I think that Eleen expresses best

我们的想法

what we really get out of this,

which is the actual joy of collaboration.

我们享受这样的合作

So she expresses here what it's like

她说就像是

to see someone halfway across the world

有个人隔着半个世界

having taken your idea, built upon it

借助你的想法建造了这个系统

并感谢你的贡献

and then acknowledging you for contributing.

If we really want to see the kind of wide consumer behavior change

如果我们想真正看到大范围内消费行为的改变

that we're all talking about as environmentalists and food people,

正如长期以来

环境保护主义者和食物人强调的（致力于开发食物产品战略的人）

maybe we just need to ditch the term "consumer"

也许我们不应该再叫自己“消费者”

and get behind the people who are doing stuff.

而是变成劳动者

Open source projects tend to have a momentum of their own.

开源计划希望引领人们跟随我们的想法

And what we're seeing is that R&D-I-Y

我们的R&D-I-Y

has moved beyond just window farms and LEDs

已经从窗户农场和LED灯

into solar panels and aquaponic systems.

涉及到太阳能板和养耕共生系统

And we're building upon innovations of generations who went before us.

我们在前人的基础上

发明创造

And we're looking ahead at generations

并为了后人

who really need us to retool our lives now.

重新设计我们现在的生活

So we ask that you join us

我邀请诸位加入我们

in rediscovering the value of citizens united,

来重新认识联合公民

的价值

and to declare that we are all still pioneers.

并宣布

我们都仍然是拓荒者

(Applause)

（掌声）