《盖茨笔记》
Vaclav Smil’s books are amazing.
瓦茨拉夫·斯米尔的书非常棒
They give you a very deep understanding
其书会让你对文明是如何发展的
of how civilization is developed.
有非常深入的了解
Here in this book, “Numbers Don’t Lie”
在这本名为《数字不会撒谎》的书中
he’s boiled it down into 71 Things You Need to Know About the World.
他将内容归结为：关于这个世界你要知道的71件事
This is the most information he’s ever put in a book,
相比以前的书 他此本书中写的信息最多
and yet probably the most digestible.
也可能是最容易理解的
A great one is about batteries.
书里有个很好的例子是关于电池的
He explains to keep the electricity system reliable is going to be very hard
他说若我们只靠太阳能和风能这类依赖天气的能源
if we only have weather dependent sources like solar and wind.
保持电力系统的可靠性将会十分困难
He gives examples like Tokyo
他以东京为例
and what needs go on with batteries
说明电池的需求
and how little change in batteries there’s actually been.
以及几十年来电池的实际变化是多么的小
But it’s nothing like microchips,
但微芯片完全不同
which sometimes confuses us to think
微芯片有时会让我们感到困惑
that exponential improvement can just show up everywhere.
误以为指数级的改进可以随处可见
One of those facts that you just have to go; “That’s wild, I wouldn’t have expected that.”
会让你感到 “很疯狂 我没想到会这样”的事实之一
is the reduction in alcohol consumption.
就是酒精消费下降
That was stunning to me, and you know,
这让我很震惊
when I was reading this thing, I said to people,
我读到这儿的时候 问大家
“Hey, how much wine people were drinking in 1850,
“嘿 1850年人们喝了多少酒？”
versus 2020?” Just to guess.
2020年呢？” 来猜一猜
So drinking is pretty constant from 1850 to 1950.
从1850年到1950年 酒类消费量没有太大变化
but French wine consumption
而现在法国葡萄酒的消费量
is now a third of what it was in 1950.
是1950年的三分之一
That’s amazing to me.
这让我十分惊讶
I mean, wow!
我的意思是 哇！
What happened there?
是发生了什么事吗？
Was life just so bleak?
生活这么凄凉么？
Here’s another one.The whole thing about humans that came down from the trees
还有一个例子 关于人类从树上下来
to chase grass-eating animals.
追逐食草动物的事情
Our endurance comes from two-legged running
我们的耐力来自双脚跑步
and the ability to sweat,
和出汗能力
and that that allows us to run down these rich sources of protein,
这让我们能够捕到这些富含蛋白质的猎物
that allow our brain to develop,
促进我们大脑的发育
to enhance the social behaviors
以增强社会行为方面的能力
that make us even more effective at being hunter-gatherers.
让我们成为更高效的狩猎采集者
It’s just super novel, and kind of unusual.
这本书观点非常新奇 有点独特
You will love a lot of these numbers.
你会爱上这些数字
I unabashedly recommend this book.
我强烈推荐这本书
It’ll give you a framework to think about things.
它会给你一个思考问题的框架
《盖茨笔记》