The playful wonderland behind great inventions | Steven Johnson

翻译人员: Junyi Sha 校对人员: Yishan Yue

(Music)

（音乐）

Roughly 43,000 years ago,

大概在43000年以前，

a young cave bear died in the rolling hills

一只年轻的洞熊 死于起伏的山峦之中，

on the northwest border of modern day Slovenia.

位于现在的斯洛文尼亚的西北边界。

A thousand years later, a mammoth died in southern Germany.

又过了一千年， 一头猛犸象死于德国南部。

A few centuries after that, a griffon vulture also died

几个世纪过后，一只兀鹫

也在附近死去。

in the same vicinity.

我们对于这些动物的 死亡原因几乎一无所知，

And we know almost nothing about how these animals met their deaths,

but these different creatures dispersed across both time and space

但是跨越时空的不同物种

did share one remarkable fate.

分享了同一个惊人命运。

After their deaths, a bone from each of their skeletons

在它们死后，他们身上各有一块骨头

被人类手工制作成了

was crafted by human hands

into a flute.

长笛。

Think about that for a second.

想一下这件事。

Imagine you're a caveman, 40,000 years ago.

想像自己是一个 40000年前的洞穴人。

你掌握了火的使用。

You've mastered fire.

You've built simple tools for hunting.

你制造了狩猎的简易工具。

You've learned how to craft garments from animal skins

你学会了如何用动物皮毛制作衣服

to keep yourself warm in the winter.

在冬天为自己保暖。

What would you choose to invent next?

下一步你会选择发明什么？

It seems preposterous that you would invent the flute,

选择发明笛子会看起来很荒谬，

a tool that created useless vibrations in air molecules.

一种能够产生无用的 空气分子震动的工具。

But that is exactly what our ancestors did.

但事实上，这就是我们的祖先做的。

但是，在发明创造史当中，

Now this turns out to be surprisingly common

in the history of innovation.

这却出乎意料的常见。

Sometimes people invent things

有时人们发明工具，

because they want to stay alive or feed their children

是因为他们想要存活下来， 或者喂养他们的孩子们，

或者是攻占隔壁村庄。

or conquer the village next door.

But just as often,

但是很多情况下，

new ideas come into the world

新想法之所以会产生，

simply because they're fun.

仅仅是因为它们很有趣。

And here's the really strange thing:

更加奇怪的是：

many of those playful but seemingly frivolous inventions

很多用于玩乐的， 看似琐碎的发明，

ended up sparking momentous transformations

最后却在科学，政治和社会界

in science, in politics and society.

引起了重大变革。

举一个当今时代 最重要的发明的例子：

Take what may be the most important invention of modern times:

programmable computers.

编程计算机。

Now, the standard story is that computers descend from military technology,

标准的故事版本是这样的： 计算机起源于军用科技，

since many of the early computers were designed specifically

因为很多早期电脑都是专用于

to crack wartime codes or calculate rocket trajectories.

攻克战时密码 或计算火箭运载轨道。

But in fact, the origins of the modern computer

但是事实上，现代电脑的起源

are much more playful,

和你想象中相比

even musical,

更具娱乐性，

甚至更具音乐性。

than you might imagine.

The idea behind the flute,

长笛背后的想法，

of just pushing air through tubes to make a sound,

那种推动空气通过管道发声的想法，

was eventually modified to create the first organ

最终被修改并制成了两千多年前的

more than 2,000 years ago.

第一套管风琴。

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of triggering sounds

有人想出了一个制造声音的绝妙主意，

by pressing small levers with our fingers,

即通过我们的手指按动小杆发声，

inventing the first musical keyboard.

从此发明了我们的第一样按键乐器。

Now, keyboards evolved from organs to clavichords to harpsichords

现在，按键乐器已经从风琴 发展到敲弦古钢琴，再到拨弦古钢琴，

to the piano,

再到钢琴。

until the middle of the 19th century,

直到19世纪中期，

when a bunch of inventors finally hit on the idea

一群发明家终于想到

of using a keyboard to trigger not sounds but letters.

用按键去触发字母而非声音。

事实上，第一台打字机

In fact, the very first typewriter

was originally called "the writing harpsichord."

原名就是“写字敲弦琴”。

Flutes and music led to even more powerful breakthroughs.

长笛和音乐还带来了 更强大的突破。

About a thousand years ago,

大约一千年以前，

在伊斯兰复兴运动的高潮期间，

at the height of the Islamic Renaissance,

three brothers in Baghdad designed a device

在巴格达的三兄弟设计了一个

that was an automated organ.

自动发声的风琴。

他们把它称为“自己奏乐的乐器”。

They called it "the instrument that plays itself."

Now, the instrument was basically a giant music box.

在当时，那个乐器 基本上就是一个巨型音箱。

那个乐器可根据旋转筒柱上的 突起所组成的乐谱

The organ could be trained to play various songs by using instructions

encoded by placing pins on a rotating cylinder.

来播放不同的曲目。

And if you wanted the machine to play a different song,

如果你想让机器换一首曲子，

你只需要换上一个 有着不同突起的筒柱就行了。

you just swapped a new cylinder in with a different code on it.

This instrument was the first of its kind.

这个乐器是同类型中的第一个，

It was programmable.

它是可编码的。

现在，从概念上来说， 这是一个巨大的飞跃。

Now, conceptually, this was a massive leap forward.

整个硬件和软件的想法，

The whole idea of hardware and software

becomes thinkable for the first time with this invention.

因为这个发明， 第一次变成了可能。

And that incredibly powerful concept

那个难以置信的强大概念，

didn't come to us as an instrument of war or of conquest,

并没有作为一种 战争或征服武器出现，

or necessity at all.

也不是作为必需品出现。

它来自观看机器 播放音乐时异样的乐趣。

It came from the strange delight of watching a machine play music.

In fact, the idea of programmable machines

事实上，可编码机器的理念

was exclusively kept alive by music for about 700 years.

在700年间，都是完全 存在于音乐世界中的。

在18世纪，各种乐器

In the 1700s, music-making machines

became the playthings of the Parisian elite.

成为了巴黎精英们的玩物。

Showmen used the same coded cylinders

杂耍艺人使用相同的编码筒柱，

to control the physical movements of what were called automata,

去控制一种名叫 自动机的东西的运动，

an early kind of robot.

那就是机器人的早期雏形。

One of the most famous of those robots

这些机器中最著名的，

was, you guessed it, an automated flute player

你猜是什么，是一个自动发声长笛，

designed by a brilliant French inventor

由杰出的法国发明家

named Jacques de Vaucanson.

Jacques de Vaucanson 所设计。

And as de Vaucanson was designing his robot musician,

当de Vaucanson 设计他的机器人音乐家时，

he had another idea.

他萌生了另一个想法。

If you could program a machine to make pleasing sounds,

如果你可以通过编码 使一个机器产生悠扬的音乐，

why not program it to weave delightful patterns of color out of cloth?

为什么不能通过编码使它 在布料上编织出色彩斑斓的图案呢？

Instead of using the pins of the cylinder to represent musical notes,

用筒柱突起，代表各色的线，

而非乐符。

they would represent threads with different colors.

If you wanted a new pattern for your fabric,

如果你需要编织一种新的图案，

you just programmed a new cylinder.

你只需要编码一个新的筒柱。

这就是第一台可编码式的织布机。

This was the first programmable loom.

Now, the cylinders were too expensive and time-consuming to make,

不过这种筒柱价格高昂， 制造过程很耗时，

but a half century later,

但半个世纪之后，

another French inventor named Jacquard

另一个名叫Jacquard的 法国发明家

hit upon the brilliant idea of using paper-punched cards

想到了一个极妙的点子， 那就是用穿孔的纸张，

instead of metal cylinders.

代替金属筒柱。

Paper turned out to be much cheaper and more flexible

结果表明， 纸张作为一种编程装置，

as a way of programming the device.

更便宜，更灵活。

That punch card system inspired Victorian inventor Charles Babbage

那种穿孔卡片系统启发了 维多利亚时期的发明家查尔斯·巴贝奇

建造出他的分析引擎（差分机），

to create his analytical engine,

the first true programmable computer

历史上第一台真正的

ever designed.

可编程计算机。

And punch cards were used by computer programmers

直到20世纪70年代末， 这些穿孔卡片

as late as the 1970s.

仍被计算机程序员所使用。

所以，问自己这个问题：

So ask yourself this question:

what really made the modern computer possible?

究竟是什么动力 使现代计算机成为可能？

Yes, the military involvement is an important part of the story,

是的，军事介入的确 是故事的一个重要组成部分，

but inventing a computer also required other building blocks:

但发明一台电脑 还需要其他必备要素：

音乐箱，

music boxes,

toy robot flute players,

玩具长笛演奏器，

harpsichord keyboards,

按键式古琴，

colorful patterns woven into fabric,

彩色图案编织，

and that's just a small part of the story.

这只是故事的一小部分。

There's a long list of world-changing ideas and technologies

有一大批的改变世界的想法和技术

that came out of play:

都来自于娱乐：

公共博物馆，橡胶，

public museums, rubber,

概率论，保险业务，

probability theory, the insurance business

and many more.

还有很多。

Necessity isn't always the mother of invention.

所以必要需求并非总是发明之母。

娱乐的思想状态 在根本上是探索性的，

The playful state of mind is fundamentally exploratory,

seeking out new possibilities in the world around us.

我们在周围的世界里， 追寻那些新的可能性。

And that seeking is why so many experiences

而那种追寻就是为什么 在那么多经历中，

that started with simple delight and amusement

开始时简单的快乐和娱乐，

eventually led us to profound breakthroughs.

最终却导致我们成就深度突破。

我认为，这会告诉我们 如何在学校教育孩子，

Now, I think this has implications for how we teach kids in school

and how we encourage innovation in our workspaces,

如何在我们的办公场所鼓励创新，

but thinking about play and delight this way

但是，当我们这样 认识娱乐和愉悦的时候，

also helps us detect what's coming next.

也会帮助我们预测 接下来会发生的事。

想象一下：如果你 正坐在1750年的时空里，

Think about it: if you were sitting there in 1750

trying to figure out the big changes coming to society

尝试去猜想未来社会的巨大变革，

猜想19世纪，20世纪，

in the 19th, the 20th centuries,

那些自动机器，计算机，

automated machines, computers,

人工智能，

artificial intelligence,

一个用于娱乐巴黎上等社会的

a programmable flute

entertaining the Parisian elite

可编码的长笛，

就会成为一个在当时 十分强有力的线索。

would have been as powerful a clue as anything else at the time.

It seemed like an amusement at best,

它看上去只适用于娱乐，

not useful in any serious way,

没有什么正经的用处，

但它确实成为了改变世界的

but it turned out to be the beginning of a tech revolution

技术革命的开端。

that would change the world.

You'll find the future

你会在人类

wherever people are having the most fun.

最具娱乐性的地方预见未来的。