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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·库兹威尔和我创立了一所新的大学，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.
我们教给学生各种科技，特别是如何利用这些科技来解决人类面临的巨大挑战。
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.
每一年我们都要求学生创立一件公司或制作一种产品或者提供一项服务，能在十年内对十亿人的生活产生积极而实际的影响。
Think about that, the fact that, literally, a group of students can touch the lives of a billion people today.
想象一下一群学生，今天可以影响到十亿人的生活。
30 years ago that would have sounded ludicrous. Today we can point at dozens of companies that have done just that.
30年前这听起来非常可笑。今天我们可以列举出几十家有这样成就的公司。
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.
当我想到创造富足社会，并不是要为地球上的每一个人创造奢华的生活；而是创造充满可能性的生活。
It is about taking that which was scarce and making it abundant.
是把原先稀缺的资源变得充沛。
You see, scarcity is contextual, and technology is a resource-liberating force. Let me give you an example.
稀缺性是相对的，而科技是一股解放资源的力量。我来举一个例子。
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.
这是一个拿破仑三世的故事，在1800到1810年中期。他是左边这位邀请了泰王共进晚餐。
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.
所有拿破仑的士兵使用银器用餐，拿破仑自己则使用金器。但是泰国国王使用铝制的餐具。
You see, aluminum was the most valuable metal on the planet, worth more than gold and platinum.
铝曾经是世界上最贵重的金属，比黄金和白金还要昂贵。
It's the reason that the tip of the Washington Monument is made of aluminum.
这就是为什么华盛顿纪念碑的顶端是铝制的。
You see, even though aluminum is 8.3 percent of the Earth by mass, it doesn't come as a pure metal.
即使铝占了地球总重量的8.3%。但它不是以纯金属的形态存在。
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结合。但是随后出现了电解技术，使得铝的价格如此低廉，以致我们就把铝制品当一次性用品般看待。
