A precise, three-word address for every place on earth | Chris Sheldrick

翻译人员: Hong Li 校对人员: Helen Chang

According to the UN,

根据联合国提供的数据，

billions of people still live without an address.

数十亿人依旧没有地址。

The economist Hernando de Soto said,

经济学家埃尔南多·德·索托曾经说过，

"Without an address,

“没有地址，

you live outside the law.

你就居于法外之地。

You might as well not exist."

你甚至有可能不存在。”

I'm here to tell you how my team and I are trying to change that.

我想跟大家分享， 我的团队和我如何试图改变这种现状。

If you go to an online map and look at a favela in Brazil

如果你在在线地图上看巴西的贫民窟，

or a township in South Africa,

或者南非的某个小镇，

you'll see a few streets but a lot of empty space.

你只能看到寥寥几条街道， 却有大片的空地。

But if you flip to satellite view,

但如果你切换到卫星视图，

there are thousands of people, homes and businesses

你就会发现在那片巨大的， 地图上未标注的空地上，

in this vast, unmapped and unaddressed spaces.

有成千上万的居民、房屋和店铺。

In Ghana's capital, Accra,

在加纳首都阿克拉，

there are numbers and letters scrawled onto the sides of walls,

人们会在墙壁上 刻下潦草的数字和字母，

where they piloted address systems but not finished them.

这就是他们简易的， 尚未完成的地址系统。

But these places, these unaddressed places,

但这些没有地址的地方，

hold huge economic potential.

却有着巨大的经济潜力。

Here's why the issue of addressing stuck with me.

为什么我如此在意地址这件事呢。

I worked in the music business for 10 years,

我在音乐行业工作了10年，

and what you may not know about the music world

音乐界有一件事可能大家不了解，

is that every day, people struggle with the problems of addressing.

就是每天我们都会遇到地址的问题。

So from the musicians who have to find the gigs

音乐家要找到演奏地点，

to the production companies who bring the equipment,

演出公司要提供乐器，

everyone somehow always gets lost.

大家永远处于迷路的状态。

We even had to add someone to our schedules

我们甚至要在日程中加上联络人，

who was the person you called when you thought you'd arrived

我们认为自己已经到了， 就给他打电话，

but then realized you hadn't.

结果发现并没有到。

And we had some pretty bad days,

我们遇到过非常糟糕的情况，

like in Italy, where a truck driver unloaded all the equipment

比如在意大利， 卡车司机把所有的乐器

an hour north of Rome, not an hour south of Rome,

卸到了罗马以北一小时车程的地方， 而实际应该是以南一小时，

and a slightly worse day

还有更糟糕的情况，

where a keyboard player called me and said,

键盘手给我打电话，

"Chris, don't panic, but we may have just sound-checked

“克里斯，不要抓狂， 我们刚刚貌似在别人的婚礼上

at the wrong people's wedding."

完成了试音工作。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So not long after the fated Rome event,

在罗马的悲剧发生后不久，

I chatted this through with a friend of mine

我跟一位朋友聊起这件事，

who is a mathematician,

他是一名数学家，

and we thought it was a problem we could do something about.

我们觉得可以做点什么 来解决这个问题。

We thought, well, we could make a new system,

我们想，也许可以做一个新的系统，

but it shouldn't look like the old system.

要跟旧系统有所区别。

We agreed that addresses were bad.

我们都承认地址不好用。

We knew we wanted something very precise,

我们明白自己想让它变得更加明确，

but GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude,

但是GPS坐标，经纬度这些，

were just too complicated.

又太过复杂。

So we divided the world into three-meter squares.

因此我们将整个世界 划成了3米见方的格子。

The world divides into around 57 trillion three-meter squares,

全世界总共被分成了57万亿个方格，

and we found that there are enough combinations

我们发现，只要用3个词

of three dictionary words

就能组成足够多的组合，

that we could name every three-meter square in the world uniquely

来给全世界所有3米见方的小格子

with just three words.

取一个独一无二的名字。

We used 40,000 words,

我们挑了4万个词，

so that's 40,000 cubed,

4万的3次方，

64 trillion combinations of three words,

就是64万亿个由3个词组成的词组，

which is more than enough for the 57-trillion-odd three-meter squares,

对于57万亿个3米见方的 小格子而言，足够用了，

with a few spare.

还能剩下一些。

So that's exactly what we did.

这就是我们所做的事情。

We divided the world into three-meter squares,

我们将世界划成3米见方的小格子，

gave each one a unique, three-word identifier --

给每一个格子一个独一无二的、 由3个单词组成的识别码，

what we call a three-word address.

我们称之为“三字地址”。

So for example, right here,

举个例子，我现在站的地方，

I'm standing at mustards.coupons.pinup,

就叫“芥末、优惠券、招贴画”，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

but over here ...

但如果走到这，

I'm standing at pinched. singularly.tutorial.

就是“清瘦的、奇怪地、辅导课”。

But we haven't just done this in English.

我们不光用英文单词。

We thought it was essential that people should be able to use this system

我们觉得让大家用自己的语言

来使用这个系统非常重要。

in their own language.

So far, we've built it into 14 languages,

到目前为止，我们已经完成了14种语言，

including French, Swahili and Arabic,

包括法语、斯瓦西里语和阿拉伯语，

and we're working on more now, like Xhosa, Zulu and Hindi.

我们正在做更多的语言， 像豪萨语、祖鲁语和印地语。

But this idea can do a lot more

但这件事的意义

than just get my musicians to their gigs on time.

远比让我的音乐家们 准时抵达演奏地点要大得多。

If the 75 percent of countries that struggle with reliable addressing

如果那些因为没有准确的地址 而深受其苦的国家中，

started using three-word addresses,

有75%开始使用“三字地址”，

there's a stack of far more important applications.

就会有许多更加重要的应用。

In Durban, South Africa,

在南非的德班，

an NGO called Gateway Health

有一个叫“健康途径”的非政府组织，

have distributed 11,000 three-word address signs

向当地社区发放了11000个

to their community,

三字地址牌，

so the pregnant mothers, when they go into labor,

当怀孕的妈妈临盆之际，

can call the emergency services

就可以打急救电话，

and tell them exactly where to pick them up from,

告诉他们准确的地址，

because otherwise, the ambulances have often taken hours to find them.

否则的话，救护车可能 得花好几个小时才能找到她。

In Mongolia, the National Post Service have adopted the system

蒙古的国家邮政局 也开始采用这套系统，

and are now doing deliveries to many people's houses

第一次为许多家庭

for the first time.

送去了邮件。

The UN are using it to geotag photos in disaster zones

联合国使用这套系统 来为受灾区域加注地理标签，

so they can deliver aid to exactly the right place.

以便精确送达救援物资。

Even Domino's Pizza are using it in the Caribbean,

甚至是达美乐披萨， 也在加勒比地区使用这套系统，

because they haven't been able to find customers' homes,

因为他们也经常 找不到顾客的家庭地址，

but they really want to get their pizza to them while its still hot.

而他们又真的需要保证 披萨送到的时候还是热的。

Shortly, you'll be able to get into a car,

很快，你就可以在上车之后，

speak the three words,

说出3个单词，

and the car will navigate you to that exact spot.

汽车就会把你送到准确的位置。

In Africa, the continent has leapfrogged phone lines

在非洲，他们跳过了固定电话，

to go to mobile phones,

直接进入移动电话时代，

bypassed traditional banks to go straight to mobile payments.

跳过了传统的银行服务， 直接进入移动支付时代。

We're really proud that the post services of three African countries --

我们很自豪， 将3个非洲国家的邮政服务，

Nigeria, Djibouti and Côte d'Ivoire,

尼日利亚，吉布提和科特迪瓦，

have gone straight to adopting three-word addresses,

直接带入了三字地址时代，

which means that people in those countries

这些国家的人们

have a really simple way to explain where they live, today.

如今可以非常简单地 描述出自己住在哪里。

For me, poor addressing was an annoying frustration,

对我而言，地址不好用 只是一件烦心事，

but for billions of people,

但对于数十亿其他人而言，

it's a huge business inefficiency,

是非常低效的商业，

severely hampers their infrastructure growth,

严重阻碍他们的基础设施建设，

and can cost lives.

甚至会影响生死。

We're on a mission to change that,

我们的使命就是改变它，

three words at a time.

从3个单词开始。

Thank you.

谢谢大家。

(Applause)

（掌声）