It's a real pleasure to be here.

謝謝

I last did a TED Talk

能來到這裡真是我的一大榮幸

I think about seven years ago or so.

上一次我在TED做演講

I talked about spaghetti sauce.

我想大概是七年前

And so many people, I guess, watch those videos.

我講了意大利麵條的醬．

People have been coming up to me ever since

有很多人，看這了個視頻．

to ask me questions about spaghetti sauce,

從那之後就經常有人來找我

which is a wonderful thing in the short term --

問我關於意大利麵條的醬的事

(Laughter)

在短期內這是件很高興的事

but it's proven to be less than ideal

(笑聲)

over seven years.

但持續了七年，

And so I though I would come

就不是那麼理想了．

and try and put spaghetti sauce behind me.

所以我想我要再來一次

(Laughter)

試著把麵條這事翻過去．

The theme of this morning's session is Things We Make.

(笑聲)

And so I thought I would tell a story

今天早上這部分的主題是我們創造的東西．

about someone

所以我想我來講個故事

who made one of the most precious objects

是關於一個人

of his era.

創造了他那個時代

And the man's name is Carl Norden.

最珍貴的東西．

Carl Norden was born in 1880.

這人的名字叫Carl Norden.

And he was Swiss.

Carl Norden出生於1880年

And of course, the Swiss can be divided

他是瑞士人．

into two general categories:

當然，瑞士人可以被

those who make small, exquisite,

分為兩大類：

expensive objects

那些創造細小的，精緻的

and those who handle the money

昂貴的東西的人

of those who buy small, exquisite,

和那些管理這些做細小精緻

expensive objects.

昂貴東西的人的

And Carl Norden is very firmly in the former camp.

錢財的人．

He's an engineer.

Carl Norden是堅定地屬於第一個陣營．

He goes to the Federal Polytech in Zurich.

他是個工程師．

In fact, one of his classmates is a young man named Lenin

他就讀於苏黎士联邦理工学院．

who would go on

事實上，他有一個同學名字 Lenin

to break small, expensive, exquisite objects.

這個同學經常把那些

And he's a Swiss engineer, Carl.

細小精緻昂貴的東西搞壞．

And I mean that in its fullest sense of the word.

Carl，是一個瑞士的工程師．

He wears three-piece suits;

他是最當得起這稱號的．

and he has a very, very small, important mustache;

他穿三件套的西裝；

and he is domineering

他有一個特別特別小但很重要的小鬍子；

and narcissistic

他盛氣凌人

and driven

他自戀

and has an extraordinary ego;

他有動力

and he works 16-hour days;

還特別自負；

and he has very strong feelings about alternating current;

而且他每天工作16個小時；

and he feels like a suntan is a sign of moral weakness;

他對交流電路很在行；

and he drinks lots of coffee;

他覺得被太陽晒黑是一種道德上軟弱的表現；

and he does his best work

他喝特別多的咖啡；

sitting in his mother's kitchen in Zurich for hours

他最好的工作都是在

in complete silence

他母親在蘇黎士的廚房裡完成的，

with nothing but a slide rule.

他能安安靜靜地工作幾個小時

In any case,

而手頭只有一把滑尺．

Carl Norden emigrates to the United States

不管怎樣，

just before the First World War

Carl Norden在第一次世界大戰前

and sets up shop on Lafayette Street

移民到了美國

in downtown Manhattan.

在曼哈頓市中心的

And he becomes obsessed with the question

拉法葉街上開了一間作坊．

of how to drop bombs from an airplane.

然後他迷戀上了如何從

Now if you think about it,

飛機上扔炸彈下來這個問題．

in the age before GPS and radar,

如果你來想這個問題,

that was obviously a really difficult problem.

在GPS和雷達發明之前,

It's a complicated physics problem.

這顯然是一個很困難的問題.

You've got a plane that's thousands of feet up in the air,

這個一個複雜的物理問題.

going at hundreds of miles an hour,

你有一架飛在幾千英尺高空的飛機,

and you're trying to drop an object, a bomb,

以每小時幾百英里的速度飛行

towards some stationary target

你試圖想扔下一個東西,一個炮彈,

in the face of all kinds of winds and cloud cover

想讓它擊中一個靜止不動的物體

and all kinds of other impediments.

在有各種風向和雲朵

And all sorts of people,

以及各種其它障礙存在的時候.

moving up to the First World War and between the wars,

而且有許多各種各樣的人,

tried to solve this problem,

在第一次世界大戰以及在兩次戰爭中間,

and nearly everybody came up short.

想解決這個問題,

The bombsights that were available

但都沒能如愿.

were incredibly crude.

當時可用的投彈瞄準器

But Carl Norden is really the one who cracks the code.

是相當的粗略的.

And he comes up with this incredibly complicated device.

但Carl Norden幾乎就成了那個攻克難題的人.

It weighs about 50 lbs.

他創造了這個特別複雜的設備.

It's called the Norden Mark 15 bombsight.

設備大約有50磅重.

And it has all kinds of levers and ball-bearings

名字叫作Norden 牌15 型投彈瞄準器.

and gadgets and gauges.

這上面有各種各樣的杠桿,球軸承

And he makes this complicated thing.

小工具以及計量器.

And what he allows people to do

他創造了這個複雜的東西.

is he makes the bombardier take this particular object,

這工具能實現的就是

visually sight the target,

投彈手可以拿著這個工具,

because they're in the Plexiglas cone of the bomber,

看准目標,

and then they plug in the altitude of the plane,

把它放在炸彈的有機玻璃椎的范圍內,

the speed of the plane, the speed of the wind

然後他們輸入飛機的高度

and the coordinates

速度,以及風速

of the target.

和目標物體的

And the bombsight will tell him when to drop the bomb.

坐標.

And as Norden famously says,

然後投彈瞄準器就會告訴投彈手什麼時候放炸彈.

"Before that bombsight came along,

Norden的一句名言是這樣說的,

bombs would routinely miss their target

"在這個投彈瞄準儀發明前,

by a mile or more."

炸彈會常規性地偏離

But he said, with the Mark 15 Norden bombsight,

目標一英里或者更多."

he could drop a bomb into a pickle barrel

他說, 如果用他的這種投彈瞄準儀,

at 20,000 ft.

他可以把炸彈從兩萬英尺高的高空

Now I cannot tell you

仍到一個咸菜桶裡.

how incredibly excited

我無法向你們形容

the U.S. military was

當美國部隊得知

by the news of the Norden bombsight.

Norden的投彈瞄準儀時

It was like manna from heaven.

他們是多麼的激動.

Here was an army

感覺像是從天堂來的甘露.

that had just had experience in the First World War,

一邊是一支剛剛

where millions of men

經歷過一戰的部隊,

fought each other in the trenches,

有幾百萬的士兵

getting nowhere, making no progress,

在戰壕中打仗,

and here someone had come up with a device

沒有出路,沒有進展

that allowed them to fly up in the skies

而另一邊是一個人發明了一個設備,

high above enemy territory

可以讓他們從敵方的領土

and destroy whatever they wanted

上空飛過,

with pinpoint accuracy.

以極準確的精確度

And the U.S. military

摧毀所有他們想摧毀的.

spends 1.5 billion dollars --

美國的軍隊

billion dollars in 1940 dollars --

花了十五億美元

developing the Norden bombsight.

十五億1940年的美元

And to put that in perspective,

來推廣Norden的投彈瞄準儀.

the total cost of the Manhattan project

這是一個什麼概念呢?

was three billion dollars.

曼哈頓項目的總體開銷是

Half as much money was spent on this Norden bombsight

三十億美元.

as was spent on the most famous military-industrial project

相當於曼哈頓項目一半的錢花在了Norden的儀器上,

of the modern era.

而曼哈頓項目是近代歷史上

And there were people, strategists, within the U.S. military

最有名的軍工合作項目.

who genuinely thought that this single device

而軍隊裡的策略家們

was going to spell the difference

他們真心認為這樣一個儀器

between defeat and victory

將會在與納粹

when it came to the battle against the Nazis

和日本人的戰鬥中

and against the Japanese.

決定出

And for Norden as well,

勝負.

this device had incredible moral importance,

而Norden也認為

because Norden was a committed Christian.

這個設備很有道德意義,

In fact, he would always get upset

因為他是個虔誠的基督徒

when people referred to the bombsight as his invention,

事實上, 當他聽到人們

because in his eyes,

稱他為投彈瞄準儀的發明人的時候,

only God could invent things.

他總是很沮喪,

He was simply the instrument of God's will.

因為在他眼裡,只有上帝能發明東西.

And what was God's will?

他只是照著上帝的想法在做事而已.

Well God's will was that the amount of suffering in any kind of war

什麼是上帝的意愿呢?

be reduced to as small an amount as possible.

上帝的意愿是,在任何一場戰爭中

And what did the Norden bombsight do?

人家承受的痛苦應該越小越好.

Well it allowed you to do that.

Norden的設備是做什麼的呢?

It allowed you to bomb only those things

它的作用就是

that you absolutely needed and wanted to bomb.

讓你只炸那些你必須要炸

So in the years leading up to the Second World War,

和想炸的東西.

the U.S. military buys 90,000

所以在二戰來臨前的那些年,

of these Norden bombsights

美國軍隊買了九萬個

at a cost of $14,000 each --

這樣的投彈瞄準儀

again, in 1940 dollars, that's a lot of money.

每一個價值一萬四千美元

And they trained 50,000 bombardiers on how to use them --

在1940年,這是很大一筆錢呀.

long extensive, months-long training sessions --

他們訓練了五萬個投彈手來使用這個儀器

because these things are essentially analog computers;

幾個月長的高強度的訓練--

they're not easy to use.

因為這東西實際上類似於計算機;

And they make every one of those bombardiers take an oath,

不很容易用.

to swear that if they're ever captured,

而且他們讓每一個使用這儀器的投彈手發誓,

they will not divulge a single detail

讓他們發誓如果他們被敵人抓了,

of this particular device to the enemy,

他們不能洩露一點關於

because it's imperative the enemy not get their hands

這個設備的細節,

on this absolutely essential piece of technology.

因為不讓敵方知道哪怕一丁點關於這個特別

And whenever the Norden bombsight is taken onto a plane,

重要的儀器的信息是相當必要的.

it's escorted there by a series of armed guards.

每次當把Norden的投彈瞄準儀放到一個飛機上去時,

And it's carried in a box with a canvas shroud over it.

都有一隊荷槍實彈的保衛護送.

And the box is handcuffed to one of the guards.

它被放在一個盒子裡，盒子上蓋的是帆布的壽衣．

It's never allowed to be photographed.

而且這個盒子是和一個士兵﨧在一起的．

And there's a little incendiary device inside of it,

從來不允許拍照．

so that, if the plane ever crashes, it will be destroyed

還有一個燃燒彈的裝置在里面

and there's no way the enemy can ever get their hands on it.

所以如果飛機被撞了，這設備也會被毀，

The Norden bombsight

這樣敵軍就無論如何也無法得到它．

is the Holy Grail.

Norden的投彈瞄準儀

So what happens during the Second World War?

被當作了聖杯