TEDGlobal 2010
Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from
Steven Johnson: 偉大創新的誕生
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人們往往相信是個人的智慧造就歷史上的偉大發現。但 Steven Johnson 在此說明歷史中不同的故事。他迷人的導遊帶領我們從倫敦咖啡館中醞釀的「液態網路」開始，穿過達爾文天擇論之中漫長的思維，直至現代的高速網路科技。
Steven Johnson - Writer
Steven Berlin Johnson examines the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. Full bio
Steven Berlin Johnson examines the intersection of science, technology and personal experience. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
Just a few minutes ago, I took this picture
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在幾分鐘之前，我照了這張相片
00:18
about 10 blocks from here.
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距離這裡有十個街區。
00:20
This is the Grand Cafe here in Oxford.
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這是牛津的「偉人咖啡館」。
00:23
I took this picture because this turns out to be
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我為它照相的原因是那裡原本
00:26
the first coffeehouse to open
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是全英格蘭第一家咖啡館，
00:28
in England in 1650.
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開幕於 1650 年。
00:30
That's its great claim to fame,
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這造就了它的廣大名氣。
00:32
and I wanted to show it to you,
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而我要說它的故事，
00:34
not because I want to give you the kind of Starbucks tour
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不是因為要帶你們進行一場老英格蘭的
00:36
of historic England,
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星巴克之旅，
00:38
but rather because
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而是因為
00:40
the English coffeehouse was crucial
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英國的咖啡館是
00:42
to the development and spread
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知識發展的重要關鍵，
00:45
of one of the great intellectual flowerings of the last 500 years,
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過去五百年間，偉大知識在此茁壯，
00:48
what we now call the Enlightenment.
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今日我們稱此為「啟蒙時代」。
00:51
And the coffeehouse played such a big role
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而咖啡館就在啟蒙運動萌芽期間
00:53
in the birth of the Enlightenment,
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扮演一個非常重要的角色，
00:55
in part, because of what people were drinking there.
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有部份是因為人們都會聚集在這裡用餐飲。
00:57
Because, before the spread
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因為在咖啡與茶
01:00
of coffee and tea through British culture,
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普遍英國文化之前，
01:03
what people drank -- both elite and mass folks drank --
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人們 —— 不論精英還是平民 ——
01:06
day-in and day-out, from dawn until dusk
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從早晨到黃昏，從日出到日落，
01:08
was alcohol.
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都是喝酒的。
01:10
Alcohol was the daytime beverage of choice.
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酒精是屬於白天的飲品。
01:12
You would drink a little beer with breakfast and have a little wine at lunch,
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你會以一點啤酒配早餐，紅酒配午餐，
01:15
a little gin -- particularly around 1650 --
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而少量琴酒 —— 特別在 1650 年代，
01:18
and top it off with a little beer and wine at the end of the day.
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將此混合一點啤酒及紅酒是一天結束時的飲品。
01:20
That was the healthy choice -- right --
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在那個時候算是個健康的選擇，沒錯，
01:22
because the water wasn't safe to drink.
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因為當時的水質太差而不適飲用。
01:24
And so, effectively until the rise of the coffeehouse,
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而實際上，咖啡館興起的時候，
01:27
you had an entire population
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幾乎所有人
01:29
that was effectively drunk all day.
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都願意整天在那裡灌咖啡。
01:32
And you can imagine what that would be like, right, in your own life --
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而你能想像那是什麼樣子，對，在你的生活中 ——
01:34
and I know this is true of some of you --
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我知道你們有些人真的就是這樣 ——
01:36
if you were drinking all day,
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如果你整天在咖啡館暢飲，
01:39
and then you switched from a depressant to a stimulant in your life,
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你的日子會一直在沉靜和興奮之間轉換，
01:42
you would have better ideas.
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你就會有好靈感。
01:44
You would be sharper and more alert.
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你的思考會更為清晰警覺。
01:46
And so it's not an accident that a great flowering of innovation happened
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所以完全不意外地，思想的大綻放是基於
01:49
as England switched to tea and coffee.
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茶和咖啡飲品開始盛行於英格蘭。
01:52
But the other thing that makes the coffeehouse important
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而讓咖啡館佔有重要地位的要素還有
01:55
is the architecture of the space.
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建築的空間。
01:57
It was a space where people would get together
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咖啡館是個讓不同背景的人們
01:59
from different backgrounds,
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聚集在一起的空間，
02:01
different fields of expertise, and share.
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大家會分享不同領域的知識。
02:03
It was a space, as Matt Ridley talked about, where ideas could have sex.
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這是一個空間，就像 Matt Ridley 說的那樣，思想交配的地方。
02:06
This was their conjugal bed, in a sense --
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某方面來說，咖啡館就是思想的洞房。
02:08
ideas would get together there.
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各方的思想會在此交合。
02:10
And an astonishing number of innovations from this period
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而這時期的創新達到一個驚人的數量，
02:13
have a coffeehouse somewhere in their story.
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正因為人們的生活有一家咖啡館。
02:16
I've been spending a lot of time thinking about coffeehouses
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最近五年，我不斷思索關於咖啡館
02:19
for the last five years,
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的種種事聞，
02:21
because I've been kind of on this quest
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因為我一直在探討
02:23
to investigate this question
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這樣一個問題：
02:25
of where good ideas come from.
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偉大思想是怎麼誕生的。
02:27
What are the environments
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什麼樣的環境
02:29
that lead to unusual levels of innovation,
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能引發革新及創造力
02:32
unusual levels of creativity?
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至非凡的境界？
02:35
What's the kind of environmental --
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這樣的環境會有什麼要素 ——
02:37
what is the space of creativity?
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簡言之，什麼是有創造力的空間？
02:39
And what I've done is
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而我的作法是
02:41
I've looked at both environments like the coffeehouse;
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觀察像咖啡館那樣的環境；
02:43
I've looked at media environments, like the world wide web,
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有引發爆炸性革新的媒體環境，
02:45
that have been extraordinarily innovative;
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像全球資訊網。
02:47
I've gone back to the history of the first cities;
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我回到城市最初發展史；
02:50
I've even gone to biological environments,
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我還去了生物的環境，
02:52
like coral reefs and rainforests,
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如珊瑚礁及熱帶雨林，
02:54
that involve unusual levels of biological innovation;
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它們在生物學的創新表現也相當不凡。
02:57
and what I've been looking for is shared patterns,
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我一直尋找的是他們共同的模式，
03:00
kind of signature behavior that shows up
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這些環境重複顯現的，
03:02
again and again in all of these environments.
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標誌性的特徵。
03:05
Are there recurring patterns that we can learn from,
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是否有一種我們可以借鑒的模式
03:08
that we can take and kind of apply to our own lives,
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讓我們採用來改善人類全體的生活，
03:10
or our own organizations,
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或是組織，
03:12
or our own environments to make them more creative and innovative?
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或是讓我們的環境更加創意及新穎？
03:14
And I think I've found a few.
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我覺得我已經發現了幾個。
03:16
But what you have to do to make sense of this
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但你必須釐清這種創新模式，
03:19
and to really understand these principles
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而且，如果要真正瞭解這些原則，
03:21
is you have to do away
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你得避免循著傳統模式走，
03:23
with a lot of the way in which our conventional metaphors and language
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包括我們習慣的隱喻以及語言，
03:26
steers us towards
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傳統模式一直限制著
03:28
certain concepts of idea-creation.
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我們現今對於「創意」的概念。
03:30
We have this very rich vocabulary
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我們有非常多的詞彙
03:32
to describe moments of inspiration.
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來形容瞬間的靈感。
03:34
We have the kind of the flash of insight,
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例如「靈光一閃」、
03:37
the stroke of insight,
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「當頭棒喝」，
03:39
we have epiphanies, we have "eureka!" moments,
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有「頓悟」，也有 "Eureka!" （大發現），
03:42
we have the lightbulb moments, right?
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我們還會以發亮的燈泡形容靈感，對吧？
03:44
All of these concepts,
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這些概念，
03:46
as kind of rhetorically florid as they are,
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戴著華麗修辭形式，
03:49
share this basic assumption,
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都表達出一個基本設想，
03:51
which is that an idea is a single thing,
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一個思想，是獨立的事物，
03:54
it's something that happens often
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這種事總是會在
03:56
in a wonderful illuminating moment.
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神奇的啟蒙時刻來臨。
03:59
But in fact, what I would argue and what you really need to kind of begin with
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但實際上，我會主張，而且是你應該先知道的 ——
04:02
is this idea that an idea is a network
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一個思想就是一個網路，
04:05
on the most elemental level.
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在最基本的概念上是如此。
04:07
I mean, this is what is happening inside your brain.
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我的意思是，靈感是你大腦內發生的事。
04:09
An idea -- a new idea -- is a new network of neurons
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一個新思想就是神經元建立的新網路，
04:12
firing in sync with each other inside your brain.
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你大腦內的神經元會互相同步反應。
04:15
It's a new configuration that has never formed before.
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這是一個前所未有的新結構。
04:18
And the question is: how do you get your brain into environments
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而關鍵的問題是：如何讓你的大腦進入
04:21
where these new networks are going to be more likely to form?
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更容易形成新網路的環境？
04:24
And it turns out that, in fact, the kind of network patterns of the outside world
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而事實證明，這種對外網路的模式
04:27
mimic a lot of the network patterns
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模仿很多
04:29
of the internal world of the human brain.
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人類心智的網路模式。
04:32
So the metaphor I'd like the use
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所以我想以此來比喻
04:34
I can take
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它是來自
04:36
from a story of a great idea that's quite recent --
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一個偉大想法的故事，相當現代 ——
04:39
a lot more recent than the 1650s.
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比 1650 年代來講現代很多。
04:43
A wonderful guy named Timothy Prestero,
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有個超棒的夥伴叫 Timothy Prestero，
04:45
who has a company called ... an organization called Design That Matters.
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有家公司，或是說組織，叫做 "Design that Matters" （切實的設計）。
04:48
They decided to tackle this really pressing problem
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他們決定解決一個迫切的問題，
04:53
of, you know, the terrible problems we have with infant mortality rates
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像是開發中國家面對的糟糕問題：
04:55
in the developing world.
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嬰兒死亡率。
04:57
One of the things that's very frustrating about this is that we know,
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其中一件令人沮喪的事，我們知道
05:00
by getting modern neonatal incubators
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透過現代的嬰兒保育器
05:03
into any context,
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在任何情況下，
05:05
if we can keep premature babies warm, basically -- it's very simple --
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基本上只要為早產兒做好保暖措施 —— 這很簡單 ——
05:08
we can halve infant mortality rates in those environments.
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我們就能在相同環境下，減少一半的嬰兒死亡率。
05:11
So, the technology is there.
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所以，就是這個技術，
05:13
These are standard in all the industrialized worlds.
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這個技術是已開發國家的標準設施。
05:16
The problem is, if you buy a $40,000 incubator,
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問題是，如果你買個四萬美元的保育器，
05:19
and you send it off
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把它送到非洲
05:21
to a mid-sized village in Africa,
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的一個中等規模的村落，
05:23
it will work great for a year or two years,
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它會良好運作一至兩年
05:25
and then something will go wrong and it will break,
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然後會故障、失修，
05:28
and it will remain broken forever,
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再也不堪使用。
05:30
because you don't have a whole system of spare parts,
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因為缺乏整個系統的備件，
05:33
and you don't have the on-the-ground expertise
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也沒有在地的專家
05:35
to fix this $40,000 piece of equipment.
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來維修這四萬美元的設備。
05:37
And so you end up having this problem where you spend all this money
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所以最後會有這個問題：援助基金用來
05:39
getting aid and all these advanced electronics to these countries,
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資助這些先進電子產品到開發中國家，
05:42
and then it ends up being useless.
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到頭來完全派不上用場。
05:44
So what Prestero and his team decided to do
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所以 Prestero 以及他的團隊決定這麼做，
05:46
is to look around and see: what are the abundant resources
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他們觀察周圍環境：在這些開發中國家
05:49
in these developing world contexts?
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有什麼豐富的資源？
05:51
And what they noticed was they don't have a lot of DVRs,
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他們發現這些地方沒有什麼錄影機，
05:54
they don't have a lot of microwaves,
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也沒有微波爐，
05:56
but they seem to do a pretty good job of keeping their cars on the road.
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但那裡的汽車，似乎運作得還不錯。
05:59
There's a Toyota Forerunner
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豐田 "Forerunner" SUV 車
06:01
on the street in all these places.
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在這些地方很普遍。
06:03
They seem to have the expertise to keep cars working.
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當地的人們看來是有一定水準的汽車保養知識。
06:06
So they started to think,
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所以他們開始構想，
06:08
"Could we build a neonatal incubator
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「我們能做出一種完全
06:10
that's built entirely out of automobile parts?"
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由汽車零件所組成的保育器嗎？」
06:13
And this is what they ended up coming with.
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而這是他們最後的成品。
06:15
It's called a "neonurture device."
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這叫「新型保育設備」。
06:17
From the outside, it looks like a normal little thing
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外表看來像是你會在
06:19
you'd find in a modern, Western hospital.
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歐美的現代醫院看到的設備。
06:21
In the inside, it's all car parts.
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而裡面全都是汽車零件。
06:23
It's got a fan, it's got headlights for warmth,
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它有風扇、保暖用的頂燈，
06:25
it's got door chimes for alarm --
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還有開門警示鈴。
06:27
it runs off a car battery.
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它的動力是汽車蓄電池。
06:29
And so all you need is the spare parts from your Toyota
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因此你只需要豐田的備件
06:31
and the ability to fix a headlight,
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就能夠修理它的頂燈
06:33
and you can repair this thing.
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以及保養整個機器。
06:35
Now, that's a great idea, but what I'd like to say is that, in fact,
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對，這是個很棒的點子。但我要說，事實上，
06:38
this is a great metaphor for the way that ideas happen.
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這個點子本身也是一個很好的比方。
06:40
We like to think our breakthrough ideas, you know,
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我們喜歡有突破性的想法，你知道，
06:42
are like that $40,000, brand new incubator,
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就像四萬美元的全新款保育器，
06:44
state-of-the-art technology,
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全國最先進的技術，
06:46
but more often than not, they're cobbled together
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但更多的想法則是從周圍的事物
06:48
from whatever parts that happen to be around nearby.
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擷取一小部份後，拼湊起來的。
06:50
We take ideas from other people,
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我們汲取他人的思想，
06:52
from people we've learned from, from people we run into in the coffee shop,
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從我們的老師，或是在咖啡店交談的朋友們，
06:55
and we stitch them together into new forms and we create something new.
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而我們將這些小零件融合出一個新形式，創造新的事物。
06:58
That's really where innovation happens.
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這就是創新的由來。
07:01
And that means that we have to change some of our models
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這代表我們必須改變對「創新」的既定概念
07:03
of what innovation and deep thinking really looks like, right.
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以及深思創新的本質，沒錯。
07:06
I mean, this is one vision of it.
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現在我們有一個例子。
07:08
Another is Newton and the apple, when Newton was at Cambridge.
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另一個是牛頓，以及在劍橋那棵蘋果樹。
07:11
This is a statue from Oxford.
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這是位於牛津的牛頓像。
07:13
You know, you're sitting there thinking a deep thought,
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你知道，你坐在那裡進行沉思，
07:15
and the apple falls from the tree, and you have the theory of gravity.
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然後一顆蘋果從樹上掉下來，你就發現地心引力了。
07:18
In fact, the spaces that have historically led to innovation
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事實上，這歷史性的創新發源地
07:21
tend to look like this, right.
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會看起來像這樣，沒錯。
07:23
This is Hogarth's famous painting of a kind of political dinner at a tavern,
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這是威廉·賀加斯的名畫，主題是酒館內的政治應酬，
07:26
but this is what the coffee shops looked like back then.
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但這表現了當時咖啡館的樣貌。
07:29
This is the kind of chaotic environment
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這是一種混雜的環境，
07:31
where ideas were likely to come together,
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讓各方想法聚集一堂，
07:33
where people were likely to have
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在此聚集的人們會有
07:35
new, interesting, unpredictable collisions -- people from different backgrounds.
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新穎、有趣、不可預測的交流 —— 來自不同背景。
07:38
So, if we're trying to build organizations that are more innovative,
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所以，如果我們試著建立具有創意的組織，
07:40
we have to build spaces that -- strangely enough -- look a little bit more like this.
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我們需要多一點像這酒館一樣的空間，很怪沒錯。
07:43
This is what your office should look like,
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你們的辦公室也該是這樣，
07:45
is part of my message here.
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這是我想表達的意思之一。
07:47
And one of the problems with this is that
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而對於此，其中一個問題是
07:49
people are actually -- when you research this field --
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人們實際上 —— 當你研究這個領域就會發現 ——
07:52
people are notoriously unreliable,
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人是非常不可靠的，
07:54
when they actually kind of self-report
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當他們自己表述
07:56
on where they have their own good ideas,
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在哪裡產生好點子，
07:58
or their history of their best ideas.
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或是他們偉大思想的故事時，尤其是如此。
08:00
And a few years ago, a wonderful researcher named Kevin Dunbar
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而在幾年前，一個很優秀的研究者 Kevin Dunbar，
08:03
decided to go around
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決定出去走走，
08:05
and basically do the Big Brother approach
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他決定用老大哥（小說《1984》中的獨裁人物）的方法
08:07
to figuring out where good ideas come from.
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來找出最好的思想是如何誕生的。
08:09
He went to a bunch of science labs around the world
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他走訪世界各地的科學實驗室，
08:12
and videotaped everyone
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並且錄影實驗室成員
08:14
as they were doing every little bit of their job.
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的工作細節。
08:16
So when they were sitting in front of the microscope,
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所以，當實驗室成員使用顯微鏡時，
08:18
when they were talking to their colleague at the water cooler, and all these things.
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或是和同事談論水冷卻器時，以至於全部的工作，
08:20
And he recorded all of these conversations
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他都錄下了對話，
08:22
and tried to figure out where the most important ideas,
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並試著找出最重要的想法
08:24
where they happened.
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發生的那一刻。
08:26
And when we think about the classic image of the scientist in the lab,
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當我們想像實驗室科學家的傳統形象時，
08:29
we have this image -- you know, they're pouring over the microscope,
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我們就會想到，科學家守著顯微鏡，
08:32
and they see something in the tissue sample.
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並觀察組織樣本內的細節。
08:34
And "oh, eureka," they've got the idea.
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然後，「喔，我發現了！」靈光一現。
08:37
What happened actually when Dunbar kind of looked at the tape
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實際上，Dunbar 在錄影帶中發現的
08:40
is that, in fact, almost all of the important breakthrough ideas
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是這樣，幾乎所有重大突破的靈感
08:43
did not happen alone in the lab, in front of the microscope.
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並不是在實驗室中、顯微鏡前誕生的。
08:46
They happened at the conference table
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靈感都是誕生在
08:48
at the weekly lab meeting,
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實驗室每週的會議中，
08:50
when everybody got together and shared their kind of latest data and findings,
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當大家聚在一起，並分享他們最新的資料以及發現時，
08:53
oftentimes when people shared the mistakes they were having,
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時常也會有人報告他們的錯誤、
08:55
the error, the noise in the signal they were discovering.
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故障，他們發現的狀況。
08:58
And something about that environment --
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還有一些和環境有關的事，
09:01
and I've started calling it the "liquid network,"
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而我稱它為「液態網路」，
09:03
where you have lots of different ideas that are together,
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聚集各方思想的網路，
09:06
different backgrounds, different interests,
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各色的背景，各色的志趣，
09:08
jostling with each other, bouncing off each other --
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互相衝撞，互相對映 ——
09:10
that environment is, in fact,
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這種環境，事實上
09:12
the environment that leads to innovation.
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就是引發創新的最佳環境。
09:14
The other problem that people have
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另外一個問題是，人們傾向於
09:16
is they like to condense their stories of innovation down
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將他們的創新故事濃縮到
09:18
to kind of shorter time frames.
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較短的時間範圍。
09:20
So they want to tell the story of the "eureka!" moment.
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所以他們要說明自己的發現時，
09:23
They want to say, "There I was, I was standing there
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他們會想說「我只是在站在那裡，
09:25
and I had it all suddenly clear in my head."
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然後我就瞭解了。」
09:27
But in fact, if you go back and look at the historical record,
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但實際上，如果你回朔過往的紀錄，
09:30
it turns out that a lot of important ideas
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會發現，許多重要的思想
09:33
have very long incubation periods --
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都是潛藏很久之後才誕生的。
09:36
I call this the "slow hunch."
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我稱之為「慢預感」。
09:38
We've heard a lot recently
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我們已經知道最近有很多
09:40
about hunch and instinct
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關於預感和直覺
09:42
and blink-like sudden moments of clarity,
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在眨眼間突然清晰的例子。
09:45
but in fact, a lot of great ideas
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但實際上，大多偉大思想
09:47
linger on, sometimes for decades,
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都輾轉在人們的心智中，
09:49
in the back of people's minds.
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有時會長達數十年。
09:51
They have a feeling that there's an interesting problem,
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當有趣的問題產生時，人們會有感覺，
09:53
but they don't quite have the tools yet to discover them.
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但他們沒有多少探索這個有趣問題的方法。
09:56
They spend all this time working on certain problems,
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他們花所有的時間解決現有的問題，
09:59
but there's another thing lingering there
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但還有一個揮之不去的東西
10:01
that they're interested in, but they can't quite solve.
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他們對此非常感興趣，但不知道如何解決。
10:03
Darwin is a great example of this.
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達爾文是一個好範例。
10:05
Darwin himself, in his autobiography,
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達爾文在自傳中
10:07
tells the story of coming up with the idea
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述說他發現天擇論
10:09
for natural selection
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的故事，
10:11
as a classic "eureka!" moment.
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說得就像標準的「靈光一現」一般。
10:13
He's in his study,
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他開始研究於
10:15
it's October of 1838,
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1838 年十月，
10:17
and he's reading Malthus, actually, on population.
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那時他在閱讀馬爾薩斯的人口學原理。
10:19
And all of a sudden,
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突然地，
10:21
the basic algorithm of natural selection kind of pops into his head
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天擇論的簡單公式閃現在他的腦海裡，
10:24
and he says, "Ah, at last, I had a theory with which to work."
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然後他說，「啊，終究我發現一個實用的理論了」。
10:27
That's in his autobiography.
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這是他在自傳中的描述。
10:29
About a decade or two ago,
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大約十年至二十年前，
10:31
a wonderful scholar named Howard Gruber went back
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一個優秀學者，Howard Gruber
10:33
and looked at Darwin's notebooks from this period.
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回溯達爾文在那時期寫下的筆記。
10:36
And Darwin kept these copious notebooks
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達爾文生前保留這些豐富的筆記，
10:38
where he wrote down every little idea he had, every little hunch.
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上面寫有他腦海裡出現的每一個細微想法以及靈感。
10:41
And what Gruber found was
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Gruber 發現的是
10:43
that Darwin had the full theory of natural selection
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達爾文已經將天擇論
10:46
for months and months and months
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醞釀很長很長很長的一段時日，
10:48
before he had his alleged epiphany,
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遠在他描述的時刻：
10:50
reading Malthus in October of 1838.
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1838 年十月閱讀馬爾薩斯之前。
10:53
There are passages where you can read it,
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你可以從這些管道閱讀它，
10:55
and you think you're reading from a Darwin textbook,
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而你認為這確實是從達爾文的筆記本上來的，
10:58
from the period before he has this epiphany.
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早在他自稱「受啟發」一段時日。
11:01
And so what you realize is that Darwin, in a sense,
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而你會認識到達爾文在某種觀點上看，
11:03
had the idea, he had the concept,
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很有想法，很有概念，
11:05
but was unable of fully thinking it yet.
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但不太會求甚解。
11:08
And that is actually how great ideas often happen;
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而偉大思想時常是這樣發生：
11:11
they fade into view over long periods of time.
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它們早就存在，只是蘊藏很長一段時日而已。
11:13
Now the challenge for all of us is:
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現在我們的挑戰是：
11:15
how do you create environments
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如何創造這樣的環境
11:17
that allow these ideas to have this kind of long half-life, right?
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讓我們的思想有個「半衰期」，對吧？
11:19
It's hard to go to your boss and say,
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你應該很難對上司這樣說：
11:21
"I have an excellent idea for our organization.
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「我有個很棒的點子改善我們的組織，
11:23
It will be useful in 2020.
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在 2020 年就會實用。
11:26
Could you just give me some time to do that?"
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可以給我一些時間用在這個點子上嗎？」
11:28
Now a couple of companies -- like Google --
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現在有些公司，像 Google，
11:30
they have innovation time off, 20 percent time,
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他們有一個創舉：20% 的休息時間，
11:32
where, in a sense, those are hunch-cultivating mechanisms in an organization.
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某種方面來說是組織內的靈感栽培機制。
11:35
But that's a key thing.
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但還有一個關鍵。
11:38
And the other thing is to allow those hunches
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如何讓自身的靈感
11:40
to connect with other people's hunches; that's what often happens.
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和其他人的靈感連結；結果會更加不同。
11:43
You have half of an idea, somebody else has the other half,
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如果你有半個想法，也許另一個人有另一半的想法。
11:45
and if you're in the right environment,
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而如果身處的環境對了，
11:47
they turn into something larger than the sum of their parts.
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它們會融合成比兩半還要多的東西。
11:49
So, in a sense,
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所以，某方面來說，
11:51
we often talk about the value
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我們時常談及
11:53
of protecting intellectual property,
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保護著作權的價值，
11:55
you know, building barricades,
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像是制定權限、
11:57
having secretive R&D labs, patenting everything that we have,
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設立秘密的研究開發部門、申請專利，
12:00
so that those ideas will remain valuable,
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使這些思想保持價值，
12:03
and people will be incentivized to come up with more ideas,
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而人們就會有發揮靈感的誘因，
12:05
and the culture will be more innovative.
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文化的創新能力會更強。
12:08
But I think there's a case to be made
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但我認為這裡有個必須
12:10
that we should spend at least as much time, if not more,
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付出時間解決的事，
12:13
valuing the premise of connecting ideas
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在重視創意的基礎上連結思想，
12:15
and not just protecting them.
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而不僅是保護它們。
12:17
And I'll leave you with this story,
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而我要告訴你這個故事，
12:19
which I think captures a lot of these values,
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我認為它非常重要，
12:22
and it's just wonderful kind of tale of innovation
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是個很好的創新事蹟，
12:24
and how it happens in unlikely ways.
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以及創新如何在不同的情況下發生的描述。
12:27
It's October of 1957,
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那時是 1957 年十月，
12:30
and Sputnik has just launched,
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史普尼克一號剛升空，
12:32
and we're in Laurel Maryland,
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而這故事的地點在馬里蘭州月桂鎮，
12:34
at the applied physics lab
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約翰·霍普金斯大學的
12:36
associated with Johns Hopkins University.
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應用物理實驗室。
12:38
And it's Monday morning,
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而那時是週一早上，
12:40
and the news has just broken about this satellite
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一早的新聞就是這個人造衛星
12:42
that's now orbiting the planet.
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正在環繞地球運行的消息。
12:45
And of course, this is nerd heaven, right?
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當然，這裡是宅男天堂，對吧？
12:47
There are all these physics geeks who are there thinking,
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這裡全都是些物理御宅族，朝思物理暮想物理，
12:49
"Oh my gosh! This is incredible. I can't believe this has happened."
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「噢天哪！太驚人了，我不敢相信這種事已經實現了！」
12:52
And two of them,
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然後這團隊其中的兩人，
12:54
two 20-something researchers at the APL
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實驗室兩位二十多歲的研究員
12:56
are there at the cafeteria table
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在餐廳吃飯時
12:58
having an informal conversation with a bunch of their colleagues.
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和同事們一起邊用早餐邊閒聊。
13:01
And these two guys are named Guier and Weiffenbach.
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而大家都叫這兩位小伙子 Guier 和 Weiffenbach。
13:04
And they start talking, and one of them says,
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他們開始聊天，其中一人說，
13:06
"Hey, has anybody tried to listen for this thing?
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「嘿，有誰試過要聽那玩意的聲音嗎？
13:08
There's this, you know, man-made satellite up there in outer space
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你們都知道的，人造衛星在外太空中
13:11
that's obviously broadcasting some kind of signal.
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會放出明顯的無線電訊號。
13:13
We could probably hear it, if we tune in."
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我們能透過調整頻率聽見它的聲音。」
13:16
And so they ask around to a couple of their colleagues,
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因此，他們問身邊的同事中的其中兩位，
13:18
and everybody's like, "No, I hadn't thought of doing that.
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和大家想得一樣，「不，我沒試過。
13:20
That's an interesting idea."
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這是個有趣的點子。」
13:22
And it turns out Weiffenbach is kind of an expert
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而有意思的是，Weiffenbach 是個
13:25
in microwave reception,
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微波通訊的專家。
13:27
and he's got a little antennae set up
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而他有一個小天線組
13:29
with an amplifier in his office.
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以及擴音器，放在他的研究室裡。
13:31
And so Guier and Weiffenbach go back to Weiffenbach's office,
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然後 Guier 和 Weiffenbach 就回到那個研究室，
13:33
and they start kind of noodling around -- hacking, as we might call it now.
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然後他們開始不斷調試 —— 在當今我們大概會稱之「駭」。
13:36
And after a couple of hours, they actually start picking up the signal,
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過了兩個小時，他們終於收到訊號，
13:39
because the Soviets made Sputnik
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因為蘇聯製的史普尼克一號
13:41
very easy to track.
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非常容易追蹤。
13:43
It was right at 20 MHz, so you could pick it up really easily,
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它的訊號大約是在 20 兆赫，真的很容易接收到，
13:46
because they were afraid that people would think it was a hoax, basically.
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因為基本上，蘇聯擔心大家會覺得衛星升空是場騙局。
13:48
So they made it really easy to find it.
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所以他們就讓這衛星容易追蹤。
13:50
So these two guys are sitting there listening to this signal,
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所以這兩位小伙坐在那裡聽衛星訊號，
13:53
and people start kind of coming into the office and saying,
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而人們開始來到研究室，說：
13:55
"Wow, that's pretty cool. Can I hear? Wow, that's great."
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「哇，這好酷。我能聽聽嗎？哇，太讚了。」
13:58
And before long, they think, "Well jeez, this is kind of historic.
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不久之後，他們想「哇塞，這可是歷史性的一刻。
14:01
We may be the first people in the United States to be listening to this.
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我們也許是全美國最先聽到這訊號的人。
14:03
We should record it."
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應該要把它錄下來。」
14:05
And so they bring in this big, clunky analog tape recorder
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於是他們帶來一個大、笨重的類比磁帶錄音機，
14:07
and they start recording these little bleep, bleeps.
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並開始錄下這些嗶嗶聲。
14:10
And they start writing the kind of date stamp, time stamps
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然後他們開始在錄有訊號聲的磁帶上
14:13
for each little bleep that they record.
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標上日期及時間標籤。
14:16
And they they start thinking, "Well gosh, you know, we're noticing
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然後他們開始思考，「噢老天，我們注意到
14:18
small little frequency variations here.
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這裡有點微小的頻率變化。
14:21
We could probably calculate the speed
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我們也許可以計算出
14:24
that the satellite is traveling,
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這顆衛星的運行速度，
14:26
if we do a little basic math here
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如果我們在這列出簡單的公式
14:28
using the Doppler effect."
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套用都卜勒效應。
14:30
And then they played around with it a little bit more,
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然後他們就開始著手，
14:32
and they talked to a couple of their colleagues
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並和有著其他專業的
14:34
who had other kind of specialties.
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一對同事交談。
14:36
And they said, "Jeez, you know,
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他們說「哎呀，你知道，
14:38
we think we could actually take a look at the slope of the Doppler effect
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我們認為可以實際觀察都卜勒效應的斜率
14:40
to figure out the points at which
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去算出這個衛星
14:42
the satellite is closest to our antennae
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最接近我們天線的時刻，
14:44
and the points at which it's farthest away.
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以及最遠離我們的時刻。
14:46
That's pretty cool."
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這一定會很讚。」
14:48
And eventually, they get permission --
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最終，他們獲得許可 ——
14:50
this is all a little side project that hadn't been officially part of their job description.
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這是一個小型支計畫，不是他們真正的工作。
14:53
They get permission to use the new, you know, UNIVAC computer
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他們能配備一台全新的 UNIVAC 電腦，
14:56
that takes up an entire room that they'd just gotten at the APL.
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和這團隊剛在實驗室分配到的房間差不多大。
14:59
They run some more of the numbers, and at the end of about three or four weeks,
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他們運行一些算式，在三到四周後運行完畢。
15:02
turns out they have mapped the exact trajectory
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結果，他們已繪製出這個人造衛星
15:05
of this satellite around the Earth,
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環繞地球的精確軌跡。
15:07
just from listening to this one little signal,
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聽著這小信號，
15:09
going off on this little side hunch that they'd been inspired to do
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他們靈光一現，想到應該在這個早晨做什麼
15:12
over lunch one morning.
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以至於忘了午餐。
15:15
A couple weeks later their boss, Frank McClure,
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幾個星期後他們的上司，Frank McClure，
15:18
pulls them into the room and says,
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把他們叫進來說，
15:20
"Hey, you guys, I have to ask you something
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「嘿，小伙子，我得問你們
15:22
about that project you were working on.
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現在在做的計畫。
15:24
You've figured out an unknown location
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你們從地面上已知的位置
15:26
of a satellite orbiting the planet
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算出人造衛星繞地軌道上的
15:29
from a known location on the ground.
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未知位置。
15:31
Could you go the other way?
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你們可以從相反方向操作嗎？
15:33
Could you figure out an unknown location on the ground,
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如果已經知道人造衛星的位置，
15:35
if you knew the location of the satellite?"
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能否計算出地面上的未知地點？」
15:38
And they thought about it and they said,
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然後他們想了一下，然後說，
15:40
"Well, I guess maybe you could. Let's run the numbers here."
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「嗯，我想這行得通。讓我們開始運算吧。」
15:43
So they went back, and they thought about it.
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所以他們回頭思考這個問題。
15:45
And they came back and said, "Actually, it'll be easier."
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之後，他們回來答覆道，「實際上，這樣做更簡單。」
15:47
And he said, "Oh, that's great.
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McClure 說，「喔，很棒。
15:49
Because see, I have these new nuclear submarines
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因為，你們看，我正在構建一種
15:52
that I'm building.
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新型核潛艇。
15:54
And it's really hard to figure out how to get your missile
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而如果潛艇在太平洋中間的未知位置，
15:57
so that it will land right on top of Moscow,
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很難讓導彈
15:59
if you don't know where the submarine is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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正確地指向莫斯科。
16:02
So we're thinking, we could throw up a bunch of satellites
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因此我們在想，可以發射一批衛星
16:05
and use it to track our submarines
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來追蹤我們的潛艇，
16:08
and figure out their location in the middle of the ocean.
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就能算出它們在大洋中的位置。
16:10
Could you work on that problem?"
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你們可以在這方面著手嗎？」
16:12
And that's how GPS was born.
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這就是全球定位系統 (GPS) 的由來。
16:15
30 years later,
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三十年後，
16:17
Ronald Reagan actually opened it up and made it an open platform
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羅納德·雷根總統開放這個技術，
16:20
that anybody could kind of build upon
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任何人都可以作 GPS 的建設
16:22
and anybody could come along and build new technology
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以及沿用，在這開放平台上
16:25
that would create and innovate
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建立用以創意與革新
16:27
on top of this open platform,
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的新技術，
16:29
left it open for anyone to do
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最後再讓新技術開放
16:31
pretty much anything they wanted with it.
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給所有人自由運用。
16:33
And now, I guarantee you
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時間拉到現今，我保證
16:35
certainly half of this room, if not more,
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這裡有一半的人
16:37
has a device sitting in their pocket right now
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口袋裡都有個設施
16:39
that is talking to one of these satellites in outer space.
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正在連接著太空中的人造衛星。
16:42
And I bet you one of you, if not more,
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然後我跟你們賭
16:45
has used said device and said satellite system
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你們一定有人用過定位系統
16:48
to locate a nearby coffeehouse somewhere in the last --
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來尋找鄰近的一家咖啡館 ——
16:51
(Laughter)
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（大笑）
16:53
in the last day or last week, right?
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在昨天或是上週這樣做過，對吧？
16:56
(Applause)
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（掌聲）
16:59
And that, I think,
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所以呢，我認為，
17:01
is a great case study, a great lesson
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這是一個很好的研究案例，很好的課程，
17:04
in the power, the marvelous, kind of unplanned
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很有力量，很神奇，有一種不可預知
17:06
emergent, unpredictable power
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的元素，玄妙的力量，
17:09
of open innovative systems.
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就在開放創新系統之中。
17:11
When you build them right, they will be led to completely new directions
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當你正確地建設它，這系統將會引出一個就連
17:13
that the creators never even dreamed of.
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它的創造者都未有所思的新方向。
17:15
I mean, here you have these guys
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我的意思是，那些小傢伙
17:17
who basically thought they were just following this hunch,
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單純地循著靈感思考，
17:19
this little passion that had developed,
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達成自身小小的熱情。
17:21
then they thought they were fighting the Cold War,
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他們本來是美俄冷戰的武器，
17:23
and then it turns out they're just helping somebody
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最後卻變成了幫某個人
17:25
find a soy latte.
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尋覓豆漿拿鐵的小東西。
17:27
(Laughter)
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（大笑）
17:29
That is how innovation happens.
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這就是創新的誕生。
17:31
Chance favors the connected mind.
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機會降臨於互相連結的思想。
17:33
Thank you very much.
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感謝各位的聆聽。
17:35
(Applause)
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（掌聲）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Steven Johnson - WriterSteven Berlin Johnson examines the intersection of science, technology and personal experience.
Why you should listen
Steven Johnson is a leading light of today's interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to innovation. His writings have influenced everything from cutting-edge ideas in urban planning to the battle against 21st-century terrorism. Johnson was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the top ten brains of the digital future, and The Wall Street Journal calls him "one of the most persuasive advocates for the role of collaboration in innovation."
Johnson's work on the history of innovation inspired the Emmy-nominated six-part series on PBS, "How We Got To Now with Steven Johnson," which aired in the fall of 2014. The book version of How We Got To Now was a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His new book, Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, revolves around the creative power of play and delight: ideas and innovations that set into motion many momentous changes in science, technology, politics and society.
Johnson is also the author of the bestselling Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, one of his many books celebrating progress and innovation. Others include The Invention of Air and The Ghost Map. Everything Bad Is Good For You, one of the most discussed books of 2005, argued that the increasing complexity of modern media is training us to think in more complex ways. Emergence and Future Perfect explore the power of bottom-up intelligence in both nature and contemporary society.
An innovator himself, Johnson has co-created three influential sites: the pioneering online magazine FEED, the Webby-Award-winning community site, Plastic.com, and the hyperlocal media site outside.in, which was acquired by AOL in 2011.
Johnson is a regular contributor to WIRED magazine, as well as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other periodicals. He has appeared on many high-profile television programs, including "The Charlie Rose Show," "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
Steven Johnson | Speaker | TED.com