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Four years ago here at TED, Ray Kurzweil and I started a new university called Singularity University.
四年前在TED，雷·庫茲威爾和我創立了一所新的大學，叫做“Singularity University”。
And we teach our students all of these technologies, and particularly how they can be used to solve humanity's grand challenges.
我們教給學生各種科技，特別是如何利用這些科技來解決人類面臨的巨大挑戰。
And every year we ask them to start a company or a product or a service that can affect positively the lives of a billion people within a decade.
每一年我們都要求學生創立一件公司或制作一種產品或者提供一項服務，能在十年內對十億人的生活產生積極而實際的影響。
Think about that, the fact that, literally, a group of students can touch the lives of a billion people today.
想象一下一群學生，今天可以影響到十億人的生活。
30 years ago that would have sounded ludicrous. Today we can point at dozens of companies that have done just that.
30年前這聽起來非常可笑。今天我們可以列舉出幾十家有這樣成就的公司。
When I think about creating abundance, it's not about creating a life of luxury for everybody on this planet; it's about creating a life of possibility.
當我想到創造富足社會，并不是要為地球上的每一個人創造奢華的生活；而是創造充滿可能性的生活。
It is about taking that which was scarce and making it abundant.
是把原先稀缺的資源變得充沛。
You see, scarcity is contextual, and technology is a resource-liberating force. Let me give you an example.
稀缺性是相對的，而科技是一股解放資源的力量。我來舉一個例子。
So this is a story of Napoleon III in the mid-1800s. He's the dude on the left. He invited over to dinner the king of Siam.
這是一個拿破侖三世的故事，在1800到1810年中期。他是左邊這位邀請了泰王共進晚餐。
All of Napoleon's troops were fed with silver utensils, Napoleon himself with gold utensils. But the King of Siam, he was fed with aluminum utensils.
所有拿破侖的士兵使用銀器用餐，拿破侖自己則使用金器。但是泰國國王使用鋁制的餐具。
You see, aluminum was the most valuable metal on the planet, worth more than gold and platinum.
鋁曾經是世界上最貴重的金屬，比黃金和白金還要昂貴。
It's the reason that the tip of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum.
這就是為什么華盛頓紀念碑的頂端是鋁制的。
You see, even though aluminum is 8.3 percent of the Earth by mass, it doesn't come as a pure metal.
即使鋁占了地球總重量的8.3%。但它不是以純金屬的形態存在。
It's all bound by oxygen and silicates. But then the technology of electrolysis came along and literally made aluminum so cheap that we use it with throw-away mentality.
它都是和氧或者硅酸結合。但是隨后出現了電解技術，使得鋁的價格如此低廉，以致我們就把鋁制品當一次性用品般看待。
