导语：

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。从前面课程中，我们学习到了硅谷的失败文化和风险控制等，我们也发现，为什么硅谷对失败的容忍度那么高，但是同时硅谷的主流又不是那些发明者，而只是创新者，皮埃罗之前说苹果的两个创始人里，真正的发明者是联合创始人沃兹，但是人们记住更多的却只有乔布斯。发明和创新，似乎有着泾渭分明的界限，这是为什么呢，我们希望就这个问题再与皮埃罗深度探讨一下。

正文：

what is special about Silicon Valley, why people think of personal computers as Silicon Valley, why people today think of artificial intelligence as Silicon Valley. 

究竟硅谷有何特别之处，为什么当人们想起电脑的时候就会想起硅谷，想起人工智能的时候也会想起硅谷。

I realized that inventing a new technology is important, usually it's more than one person does it, but anyway it's important, but the impact on society is even more important, because you can invent something that will not be used, you are still a great inventor, but it will not be used that's a limitation, but Silicon Valley has always been very good at understanding how a technology can change the society and they are very good at doing this. So somebody invents the computer, it's a very big machine, but then somebody in Silicon Valley has the idea let's put that machine on a desk, and somebody has the idea let's make it really easy to be used by anybody; and somebody invents the internet and then somebody in Silicon Valley thinks this thing can be used to communicate among ordinary people, from friend to friend, father to son; and then somebody invents the mobile phone, and somebody from Finland invents the smart phone for business people, but then somebody in Silicon Valley thinks let's make it really easy to use and then we can use it daily for everything and we make it also an internet device”.

发明新技术固然很重要（通常都是好几个人共同发明），但其对社会的影响更为重要。因为即使你发明的是某种没有实际应用的技术，你依然可以是伟大的发明家，但是这项技术是没有实际用途的，这就是其限制所在。而硅谷很清楚的知道科技拥有改变社会的能力，并且很擅长这样做。比如说有人发明了巨型计算机，那么硅谷就会有人就会想把计算机变成家家户户都能使用的桌面计算机，又或者将其变得更容易操作。又例如有人发明了因特网，那么硅谷就会想把它变成人们沟通联系的通道，朋友之间的，父子之间的联系等等。又例如有人发明了手机，比如说芬兰的人为了商业人士发明了智能手机，那么硅谷就会有人跳出来想要把它变得更加方便使用，并可用在日常生活当中，最好还能结合因特网的功能。

So Silicon has always been very good at understanding what can I do with a new technology, and today it is not so difficult to understand because we have big companies, but if you go back in time, it is interesting that these technologies were invented in other places and other companies in other places where they were bigger and had more money and they could have done what they wanted with this technology, but they didn't think of it. Now it was Silicon Valley that understood how to use that technology to have an impact on society. So that's really interesting. 

硅谷的人特别清楚他们能如何利用某项科技。这在现今社会来说并不是很难，因为我们有很多大公司。但是如果回到从前，你会发现新科技往往是由硅谷以外的公司所发明的，而有趣的是，这些公司有财有势明明可以随意利用这些科技，但是它们却根本没有想到这点。而硅谷却能清楚地知道该如何利用某项技术，并对社会产生影响。这真是有趣极了。

First of all, let me tell you what the effect is and then I will analyze why Silicon Valley is so good to do it this thing. Okay you call it innovation, I don't care how you call it, but that's the thing we are focusing on: not the invention itself but the fact that a technology can have an impact on society. So let's first see what is the effect, because I don't want to forget and also it's really what makes Silicon Valley so powerful today.

让我先来谈谈硅谷对社会产生的影响，然后再来分析他们为什么如此擅长这一点。你把这称为创新者，我不管这叫什么，但这就是我们的关注重点：利用科技对社会产生影响。让我们先谈谈其对社会的影响，这也是硅谷现今拥有如此高的地位的原因。

So what is the biggest company in the world today? Very few people can answer the question. The biggest company by revenue is Walmart, and number two is a Chinese company Sinopec, and number three is probably an oil company. Oil companies are now five of the top ten. If you look at the list of the biggest companies in the world by revenue, there is no Silicon Valley. Those companies have something in common: they're boring and nobody cares about them. You never go and ask so what is the future trend of Sinopec or Walmart. Nobody cares. So Silicon Valley actually does not specialize in the number one company by revenue.

现今社会最大的公司是什么？没有多少人能答对。我指的是能产生最大利润的公司。答案是沃尔玛。排第二的是一家中国公司，叫做中国石化。排第三的很可能是一家石油公司。 前十名可能有五家都是石油公司。如果你看一下按利润排名的全球最大公司排行榜，你会发现硅谷根本不在此列当中。那些大公司有一个共同点，它们都很无聊，没有人在乎它们，根本不会有人关心中国石化或者沃尔玛的未来。所以说硅谷并不怎么擅长成为最大的公司。

Now there's a company in New York I think that every year does a study about the Global Brands. Global Brands are the brands that have an impact all over the world. I don't remember number one, but it's Apple or Google. And then Facebook is top five. There you get the point. If you look at the Global Brands then Silicon Valley is a big presence, but if you look at the list by revenue there's no Silicon Valley. So Silicon Valley specializes in Global Brands.

纽约有一家公司每年都会进行一项关于全球品牌公司的调查，全球品牌公司指的是对全球有着重要影响力的公司。我不记得具体排名了，但是谷歌和苹果应该是第一第二，然后脸书是前五名。因此如果你看的是全球品牌公司排行榜，你会发现硅谷占了大部分。而利润公司排行榜中却不见硅谷踪影。因此硅谷擅长的是全球品牌排名这一块。

Now what does it mean in practice? Virtual reality was invented a long time ago anyway. Artificial Intelligence was invented in 1956. Why were we all talking about Virtual Reality two years ago and realized it was a big thing last year. The whole year there were announcements about Virtual Reality. Because Facebook bought Oculus. Why everybody's talking about artificial intelligence, because Google has Alfago. That's what a global brand does.

那么硅谷对社会的影响是什么？虚拟现实是在很久以前被发明的，人工智能是在1956年被发明的。但是为什么直到2年前人们才意识到虚拟现实是一项重要的技术，而直到上年它才被人们传得沸沸扬扬？因为上年脸书并购了Oculus。为什么最近几年大家都在说人工智能，这是因为谷歌的阿尔法狗。这就是全球品牌公司的作用。

The global brand decides what the whole world talks about, the global brand decides what you are asking me today, the global brand decides what I lecture when I go to Shanghai and so on. The global brand decides what is popular, what is hot, so a huge advantage. Walmart does not decide what we do tomorrow morning, Apple decides, Google decides, Facebook decides. So that's the effect, the effect is to create a global brand, not the biggest company in the world. Those companies decide the future, that's the effect.

全球品牌公司决定了大家的关注点，决定了你今天采访我的话题，决定了我在上海广州的演讲主题，它们决定了什么是潮流什么是热点。这是个不得了的优势。要知道沃尔玛并不会决定你我茶余饭后的话题，决定的是苹果，是谷歌，是脸书。这就是硅谷对社会的影响，也就是创造了全球品牌公司。它们不会是全球最大的公司，但会是决定未来趋势的公司。

Now back to the source. So Silicon Valley does not specialize in inventing but specialize in what I call innovation. You can call it something else you know: the impact it has on society. Silicon Valley is a place where the technology comes and people look at it and they are creative with that technology. A technology usually gets invented for the government, military, big business, big banks usually. That's why you invent something. You think of some big, you know, applications. When it comes to Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley looks at it, the society looks at it, and tries to think what can I do with it, and a lot of people mean what fun things can I do with it, because very often it's just for fun, you know, to do something that doesn't exist, so you show it to your friends and your friends say oh that's really cool .

让我们回到话题重点。硅谷擅长的不是发明某项技术，而是进行改革，也就是将技术应用于改革社会。科技通常是为政府、军事、商业、银行而发明的，这些地方往往是科技诞生的地方。而硅谷的作用是，思考如何将科技应用于社会中。硅谷很多人最初想的是如何让科技变得更加有趣，很多时候一切都不过是从趣味出发：你做出了一些社会上还没有的玩意，然后拿给朋友看，朋友就会觉得很有趣。

Sometimes it's for personal use: oh wow I can use this for myself to do whatever you know. Facebook was for keeping track of your friends and Google was just because there was no good search engine and so on. So Silicon Valley is very good at hijacking technology. I use the word hijack like you hijack an airplane. The airplane is going from here to there and you hijack it to go somewhere else. Technology is going from the inventor towards government towards military towards big corporations. But Silicon Valley hijacks the technology, it says “wow this technology looks interesting to do something else”. 

很多时候他们为的不过是个人用途，例如脸书最初为的是跟上朋友圈的动态变化，而谷歌最初成立也是因为市面上没有好用的搜索引擎，就是这样而已。所以硅谷特别擅长“绑架”技术，我这里用了“绑架”这个词，就好像原本一架飞往特定地方的飞机，你绑架了它并利用其飞往自己想要的目的地。技术也是一样，它们最初被发明是为了政府、军事、大公司的，但是硅谷绑架了这些技术，因为他们觉得这些技术用在其它方面应该很有趣。

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