导读：

感谢大家订阅皮埃罗·斯加鲁菲（Piero Scaruffi）的钛媒体·72问知识专栏《硅谷的秘密》。我是今天的提问者赵何娟。皮埃罗先生的整个专栏都会由他的英文原声呈现，相信能让大家有所收获。

19世纪末，利兰.斯坦福夫妇来到了硅谷，那时的硅谷还只遍布着果园和农田。谁也没有想到，在之后的一百年，这块常年充满阳光，气候宜人的小地方，变成了整个世界最具创新力创造力的“地球中心”。这片弹丸之地，诞生了50多位诺贝尔奖获得者，更诞生了无数百万富翁，是世界级亿万富翁最密集的地方。

你不得不称叹这种神奇，人类历史的奇迹，就在于那些超越人类现实的理想主义，和那些改变个人命运的现实主义在这里得到了最完美地结合，改变世界的理想，富可敌国的财富，为什么如此和谐地发生在了硅谷？

从1900年开始，由硅谷带动的美国整个西海岸都荡漾着各种“造富”神话，也遍布了 人类重大技术进展的颠覆神话，从无线电，晶体管，集成电路，到互联网、云计算、生物基因⋯⋯似乎，一代一代深刻影响现代人类命运的技术都在这里诞生；从特曼、休利特和帕卡德，到乔布斯、扎克伯格，这些过去一百年世界科技商业历史里产生过重大影响的人，成了全世界人民的偶像。

中国这片一直以有着数千年历史为荣的大地，处处都在缔造着要“建设第二个硅谷”的雄心，不仅中国，在日本我听到了日本朋友说，我们要做日本的硅谷，在英国我听到朋友说，我们要做英国的硅谷，甚至欧洲的硅谷，在南非，还听到朋友说我们要做非洲的硅谷⋯⋯

然而，当我问皮埃罗，哪里最有可能诞生第二个硅谷。皮埃罗说，连美国都回答不了这个问题，西雅图、纽约、波士顿⋯⋯都没有答案。

他（皮埃罗）是这么说的：

So the first thing that I’ll tell people is how many Silicon Valleys we find today in the united states. One. So even the United States has not been able to replicate Silicon Valley there are places there are similar, like Boston, but no not the same thing. Obviously it is typical of the San Francisco Bay Area, there is something about the San Francisco bay area that was unique. It's so difficult to replicate, even in the United States.

我经常会问其他人，我们今天在美国可以找到几个硅谷？即使是美国也无法复制硅谷，在美国会有相似的地方，比如说波士顿，但它和硅谷终究不同。旧金山，大湾区是独一无二的，所以美国也无法复制硅谷的存在。

When people in China are in Europe asked me how can we create our Silicon Valley, the answer is very obvious -- it's impossible. Even the united states cannot do it. There must be something very unique about Silicon Valley and then other places can can learn. When I wrote the book I started thinking what is so special and in actually it's really difficult to answer, because if you go back to nineteen fifty, even nineteen sixty, even nineteen seventy, even nineteen eighty, Silicon Valley there’s nothing special about the Bay Area in technology.

每当有中国人，欧洲人问我如何创造硅谷，我都会回答这是不可能的。即使美国也无法在国内复制硅谷，这就说明硅谷一定有其独特之处，对吧？其他地方能够学习硅谷的经验，但不能复制硅谷。所以我在写书的时候就思考，硅谷的独特之处到底是什么？事实上，这个问题也很难回答。如果你回顾上世纪的50、60、70，甚至是80年代，旧金山的技术领域在大湾区中并不是那么特别。

I usually start from nineteen fifty because I found this beautiful picture of what is now Silicon Valley. I found the picture that shows nothing, ok, empty fields that's nineteen fifty. Now nineteen fifty in in New York there was a street skyscrapers lots of money very powerful people. In Boston there was most at one point Boston had ninety percent of the software engineers in the world and the big electronic companies were on the is coast mostly around New York and New Jersey or in Europe, you know. Some very big electronic companies were based in Germany, Holland, even eagerly of course, Britain and money London. Ok. And then I have this picture in nineteen fifty Silicon Valley, nothing, you know. You see kilometers and kilometers of nothing. So it even bigger mystery because you know all the money was on the east coast or in Europe and the big electronic companies in East Coast, or Europe. You look at Nobel Prize winners in science, East Coast and Europe. California had 2 winners until nineteen fifty to fifty four.

我通常从50年代开始。那个时候的纽约高楼林立，成功人士随处可见；50年代的波士顿，全世界90%的软件工程师都在波士顿，大的电子设备公司都在纽约、新泽西的周边。在欧洲，大的电子公司都是在德国、荷兰、意大利、英国，伦敦。我这张图是50年代的硅谷，你看什么都没有。当时的资金都在欧洲，较大的电子公司都在欧洲和美国东海岸。就算你看当时的诺贝尔奖获得者，基本都在欧洲和美国东海岸。当时加州只有两个诺奖获得者，所以这不能说明50年代的硅谷会有什么事情发生，你也无法知道硅谷将成为世界的中心。

There's nothing there that tells you oh this is where things are going to happen this is going to be the center of the world now nobody predicted that because if you look at if you live in nineteen fifty in New York or in London or in Beijing and you look at the bay area there's not a very little technology, this very little money, nothing special, you know. It's a very tiny share of the world's technology at the time and if you look at where things were invented, transistor, new jersey near New York, the computer was originally invented in the Cambridge in England, and then by and then commercialized by IBM in New York. It's really hard to explain what was so special about the bay area. So I studied the society. My theory is that you cannot just study technology and ignore the rest of society. Technology is one of the things in society, if you look at only technology, if you only study the history of technology, you will never explain what was special about the bay area, because there was very little, compared with other places in the world. So I started studying the society.

无人能预知。如果你生活在1950年的纽约、伦敦或者是北京，再看看湾区，那里几乎没有技术，也没有资金，毫无特别之处，也没有当时的先进技术。如果你看看其他地方的发明，半导体出现在新泽西、纽约；电脑在英国剑桥诞生，由纽约的IBM商业化。所以我很难去解释大湾区的独到之处。我想应该是社会的问题。我的观点是，你不能只研究技术，不研究社会。技术只是社会的一部分。如果你只研究技术，你很难发现大湾区的特别之处，因为当时有很多占技术优势的地方。所以我开始研究硅谷独特的社会形态。

导读：

正如皮埃罗所说，美国也无法复制硅谷。他从50年代的美国开始讲起，那时候硅谷一片荒凉，大部分技术公司都在波士顿，全世界90％的软件工程师都在波士顿，大的电子公司则都在纽约－新泽西，可见美国东部在上世纪50年代可以说是技术公司的沃土，那为什么后来却只有硅谷做成了硅谷呢？

皮埃罗接下来的研究发现了一些很有趣的问题：

I realized what Silicon Valley does is really weird. For example, Silicon Valley does not really invent, very little was invented in Silicon Valley. When you think of the the major technologies that we have today, like computer, smartphone, the internet ,world wide web, social media, search engines, artificial intelligence, robots and so on and so on, and so many people think oh these came from silicon valley. It's not true. Almost all of them were invented somewhere else. Almost all of these things were invented somewhere else. So the mystery was really fascinating. I live there right, I live there for so long but even I was wondering why this is so strange, so unlikely. And that convinced me that you really have to look at the society, what does the society do in the bay area? Before I tell you the answer the more factors that tell you how important society is, when you think what a Silicon Valley really created, is not a technology, is the way you use the technology, like the start up. Start up you have a garage, right?

旧金山的社会因素有一个奇怪的地方。比如说，硅谷并不做发明，有很多技术都不是在硅谷诞生的。你可以想一下我们今天日常使用技术，电脑、因特网、社交媒体、搜索引擎、人工智能、机器人以及很多很多的技术。很多人以为这些技术是在硅谷诞生的，其实不然，这些技术都是再其他地方诞生的。所以，硅谷的秘密真的很吸引人。你会想问为什么。我在硅谷住了这么多年，我也很好奇，为什么会这么奇怪？所以你必须去观察硅谷的社会，大湾区的社会到底是什么样的？关注大湾区社会的不同之处，而不是技术的不同。在我把答案告诉你之前，其他因素会让你明白社会对大湾区有多么重要。硅谷具有创造性的地方不是技术，而是他们改变了你使用技术的方式。再说硅谷的创业公司，车库。在车库创业就是一个不同之处，与IBM、AT&T，以及其他欧洲大公司都不同。硅谷偏爱车库。

Silicon Valley history of garages that's what is different, right? That's what is different with the IBM and AT&T and the big European companies. Silicon Valley likes the garage. And even this period of going to work in Silicon Valley is a different experience. You go in blue jeans or shorts and T-shirt and you call your boss Jim or John, everything is so casual. So that's what is really different, that's what really Silicon Valley invented. It's a new way to go to work， to think about work to think about the career you know so it must be in the society there must be something in their society that is very different, and so that's why I started to study the society. Go back to nineteen fifty ，instead of focusing on the area that today is Silicon Valley， focus a little bit north ，San Francisco.

如果你在硅谷工作，体验也是完全不同的。你会穿着牛仔裤、T恤工作，直呼老板的名字，一切都非常随意。这就是硅谷的发明的工作方式，一种新的工作方式，让你重新思考工作的定义，让你重新思考科技的概念。所以这就是社会因素，硅谷的社会与众不同。这就是为什么我开始研究社会，大湾区的社会非常不同。你再回看50年代的大湾区，特别注意北边一点的旧金山。

San Francisco was famous was already famous. Famous for crazy people. It was famous because crazy poets and crazy artist and I call them crazy but it's not nice, it's different. Now they were different. They were not the greatest poets they were not the greatest artist but they were different. San Francisco was a place they welcomed different ideas and some of them came with technology. For example, if one of the very first film schools in the world was in a San Francisco, this was a place where if you were doing something different. You are welcome and on the East Coast in Europe to do something different it's a little harder, you know, people don't really accept you. You are supposed to go to work, dressed well with the suit and tie, respectful of your boss and so there's a lot of rules how you have to behave in your life. In San Francisco, it was almost the opposite. No rules, okay, it was the place for the so called beat poets and then for the hippies. The gay movement was born in sufferance at a time when gays were discriminated everywhere. Of course today everybody knows Burning Man, so that's what was really special about san Francisco. Now that it was an area that accepted different people, an area that accepted different ideas, so that was already famous. If you live in the nineteen fifties, or sixties, or even seventies in New York and somebody asked you about San Francisco, you will know it is special.

早在50年代，旧金山已经十分有名，因疯狂的人而闻名。疯狂的诗人，疯狂的艺术家，我说他们疯狂，但其实这种叫法不好，他们只是与众不同而已，他们是独特的诗人，独特的艺术家，他们都和普通人不一样。但是旧金山就是这么一个欢迎不同的人的地方。这些人为旧金山带来了技术。旧金山欢迎那些特立独行的人。而在其他地方或者欧洲，如果你做的事情有所不同，生活就会很艰难，因为其他人不会接受你。你要去上班，穿着整齐，打好领带，尊重老板。你在其他地方生活中，需要墨守成规，而旧金山的情况却截然不同。所以，旧金山聚集了很多诗人、嬉皮士。在同性恋饱受歧视的年代，旧金山出现了为同性恋争取权利的活动。大家都知道火人节（Burning Man Festival）。旧金山的独特之处是包容性，它能够包容不同的人、不同的想法。如果你是生活在50年代的人，你问下当时在纽约居住的人，他们都知道旧金山，你就会知道他有如何特别。

But not because of the technology, it is special because it’s a strange society and then technology came out. People especially in china asked me if government has a role in silicon valley and in general we answer “no no no”. We don't like the government, we do our thing it's not completely true during WWII and during the cold war the united states invested in California in the military technology, that's how technology really came to the bay area. It was military technology originally so indirectly the government had a role, because all these military technology trained a lot of engineers a lot of the young people who were growing up in the bay area were exposed to electronics. So it had a role, and of course later the internet was invented by the government. So they were very important programs, there were government programs in silicon valley, NASA in the project, to send a man to the moon. Now we forget about in the sixties there was probably the biggest project in the US. The day were the first users of silicon of integrated circuits and one company was making the greatest circuits was Fairchild, which was now the first major semi conduct semiconductor company in a Silicon Valley. NASA still has a center at Mountain View. So he became the main customer of this small start up in silicon valley so indirectly the government had a role, because of the military technology, because of the space technology and some other research that was funded by the government. But the government did not plan silicon valley, the government had no idea that something crazy was happening there until much later, you know.

旧金山很特别。它不以技术闻名，而是以一个奇怪的社会闻名。之后才到技术。很多中国人会问，政府在硅谷发展中所扮演什么样的角色。如果回答说不，没有政府的参与，这是不对的。美国政府在二战期间，在加州投资军用技术，这就是大湾区最初的技术。最初的就是军用技术。所以，可以说政府在初期是有发挥作用的。因为政府投建军用技术，所以他们训练了很多工程师。许多在大湾区长大的年轻人能够接触到很多与电子相关的东西。当然啦，后来的互联网也是美国政府所发明的。这都是很重要的政府项目，给了硅谷一个契机。比如说NASA和登月计划。大家可能不记得把人类送上月球的计划，但在60年代，登月计划是全美最大的技术项目。我们是最先使用硅的人，我们开始使用集成电路。飞兆半导体公司最早研发出半导体，NASA的研究中心仍然设立在加州。NASA就成为了加州这些初创企业的客户。所以，政府是有间接发挥影响力的，美国政府的军用技术、航天科技和其他一些政府研究都在大湾区。但是政府并没有计划设立一个硅谷，他们也是后来才意识到硅谷发生的事情很疯狂。

导读：

今天皮埃罗的讲课内容给了我很多启发，尤其是在政府如何参与硅谷建设的部分。大家都觉得硅谷是不是根本没有政府参与。硅谷早期不仅有政府参与，而且在二战期间，美国政府的军用技术投入发挥了巨大作用。下一讲，皮埃罗还要和我们专门讲到“硅谷”为什么叫“硅谷”，又为什么是由一名记者“发明”的，这个名称还有很多不为人知的故事。

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