Kirk Citron: And now, the real news

譯者: Jason Lee 審譯者: 張新永 Davidchang

We are drowning in news.

我們淹沒在新聞中

Reuters alone puts out

單是路透社一家

three and a half million news stories a year.

一年就發佈350萬則新聞

That's just one source.

注意這只是一家通信社啊

My question is: How many of those stories

我的問題是： 這些新聞會有幾則

are actually going to matter in the long run?

用長期的角度來看哪些真正是重要的

That's the idea behind The Long News.

這正是「長遠新聞」想要傳達的理念

It's a project by The Long Now Foundation,

為「長遠當代基金會」執行的計劃

which was founded by TEDsters including

由數名TEDsters所

Kevin Kelly and Stewart Brand.

包括凱文凱立和史都華布蘭德

And what we're looking for is news stories that might still matter

我們想要找出那些在50、100 或10,000年後

50 or 100 or 10,000 years from now.

仍然會有深遠影響的新聞故事

And when you look at the news through that filter,

經過前述的標準篩選後

a lot falls by the wayside.

許多現在的新聞就會會被丟在一邊

To take the top stories from the A.P. this last year,

拿去年美聯社的頭條新聞來說

is this going to matter in a decade?

這個在十年後會有人在乎嗎？

Or this?

這個呢？

Or this?

還是這個？

Really?

真的重要嗎？

Is this going to matter in 50 or 100 years?

這在50或100年後還影響深遠嗎？

Okay, that was kind of cool.

好吧，剛剛那則還滿酷的

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

But the top story of this past year was the economy,

去年的頭條是全球經濟問題

and I'm just betting that, sooner or later,

但我敢打賭過遲早♪

this particular recession is going to be old news.

這波經濟衰退新聞就會變成陳年往事

So, what kind of stories might

所以，到底什麼樣的新聞

make a difference for the future?

可能對未來造成影響？

Well, let's take science.

我們看醫學新聞好了®

Someday, little robots will go

有朝一日，迷你機器人能夠

through our bloodstreams fixing things.

穿梭我們血液管道中進行身體器官修復

That someday is already here if you're a mouse.

對於老鼠，這個有朝一日早就到了

Some recent stories:

最近新聞報導

nanobees zap tumors with real bee venom;

奈米蜜蜂用真蜂毒液殺死腫瘤©©™

they're sending genes into the brain;

科學家把基因送到腦部

a robot they built that can crawl through the human body.

人們已經造了一個可以在人體爬行的機器人

What about resources? How are we going to feed nine billion people?

資源方面呢？我們要如何養活90億人，

We're having trouble feeding six billion today.

我們現在連填飽60億人的肚子都有困難。

As we heard yesterday, there's over a billion people hungry.

就如我們在昨天演講中所聽到，有超過10億人正處於饑餓中。

Britain will starve without genetically modified crops.

我們也聽到，如果沒有轉基因作物，英國人早就餓死了。

Bill Gates, fortunately, has bet a billion on [agricultural] research.

還好比爾蓋茲投入了十億美元在農業研究上

What about global politics?

那麼國際政治方面呢？

The world's going to be very different when and if China sets the agenda,

這個世界會重視的議題將會很不一樣，如果讓中國來設置議程的話，

and they may.

而中國真的有能力做到的

They've overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest car market,

因為中國已經超過美國成為世界上最大的汽車市場，

they've overtaken Germany as the largest exporter,

中國也已超過德國成為最大的出口國，

and they've started doing DNA tests on kids

他們甚至已經開始在兒童身上做DNA測試，

to choose their careers.

來給他們選擇職業。

We're finding all kinds of ways to push back the limits of what we know.

我們尋找各種途徑，突破知識的極限

Some recent discoveries:

以下是一些新發現

There's an ant colony from Argentina that has now

阿根廷有一個蟻群現已

spread to every continent but Antarctica;

傳播到每一個大陸 除了南極洲例外

there's a self-directed robot scientist that's made a discovery --

另外科學家機器人已經可以自我引導的作出科學上的新發現，所以很快的

soon, science may no longer need us,

所以很快的，科學研究可能不再需要人類了，

and life may no longer need us either;

說不定連生命都不需要人類了

a microbe wakes up after 120,000 years.

一種微生物在120,000年在沉睡12萬年之後復活

It seems that with or without us,

似乎有沒有人類，

life will go on.

生命都會延續下去

But my pick for the top Long News story of this past year

我由去年的“長遠新聞”選出的第一名

was this one: water found on the moon.

是這一個 月亮上找到了水的蹤跡

Makes it a lot easier to put a colony up there.

如此一來人類要移居月球就容易多了

And if NASA doesn't do it, China might,

如果NASA不願在月亮上建立殖民地，也許中國會作。

or somebody in this room might write a big check.

也或許在座的某些人就會提供資金將其實現。

My point is this:

我今天演講的重點就是

In the long run, some news stories

長遠來看，某些新聞故事

are more important than others.

就硬是比其他新聞重要的♫

(Applause)

(掌聲)