There is a common connotative warmth associated with the term innovation. In a culture that glorifies success and celebrates triumph over adversity, innovation is applauded, while the flipside of Icarian plummets is less lauded.
与“创新”一词相关的一种共同的內涵温暖。 在一个美化成功和庆祝战胜逆境的文化中，创新受到赞扬，而Icarian暴跌的反面则不那么受到赞扬。
It may seem paradoxical, a fallacy, a downright lie, and yet, it is true: the spectacular fails of Humanity hold within them the seeds for ever greater wins. It’s all a process. Innovation is the love child of tenacity and vision. It is born of failure. It thrives on a diet of Plan A’s, B’s, all the way to Z’s.
这可能看起来自相矛盾，一个谬论，一个彻头彻尾的谎言，然而，这是真的：人类的壮观失败在他们身上蕴留着更大胜利的种子。 这都是一个过程。 创新是坚韧和远见的爱之子。 它源于失败。 它以A计划、B计划一直到Z计划的饮食而茁壮成长。
Betamax, Crystal Pepsi, Samsung Galaxy 7; the road to innovation is paved with flops, fiascoes and in the case of the Galaxy 7, explosions!
Betamax、Crystal Pepsi、三星Galaxy 7；创新之路铺平了失败、惨败，就Galaxy 7而言，爆炸！
Mankind is endowed with a superpower that sets it head and shoulders above all the floral and faunal co-habitants of this planet; the power of imagination. We, as a species, are able to access knowledge frameworks built up over millennia to understand the world around us. Longevity of experience through communication of know-how and skills from one generation to the next allows humans to evolve over time to higher states of skillfulness, intellect and consciousness. We study history to learn from the past.
人类被赋予了一种超能力，它超越了这个星球上所有花卉和动物的共同居民；想象力的力量。 作为一个物种，我们能够访问几千年来建立起来的知识框架，以了解我们周围的世界。 通过代代相传的专业知识和技能的长期经验，使人类随着时间的推移发展到更高的技能、智力和意识状态。 我们学习历史是为了学习过去。
We don’t know if our forebearers began to spin tales in the darkness to pass the velvet menace of night, what soft sounds became the first story. We don’t know if they sprang from the first finger painting on a cave wall, or handprint that resembled a pre-historic turkey. In Professor Brian Boyd’s “On the Origin of Stories” (2010), his seminal salute to Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, he explores art as a specifically human adaptation; “Our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity”.
我们不知道我们的祖先是否开始在黑暗中编织故事，以度过夜晚的天鹅绒般的威胁，柔和的声音成了第一个故事。 我们不知道它们是来自洞穴墙上的第一指画，还是像史前火鸡的手印。 在布莱恩·博伊德教授的《故事的起源》（2010年）中，他对达尔文的《物种起源》的开创性致敬，他探讨了艺术作为一种特定的人类适应；“我们对讲故事的喜爱提高了社会认知，鼓励了合作，并培养了创造力”。
Through myth and legend transmitted through the oral traditions of song and storytelling, by recording symbols on walls, skins, paper and now, on nebulous clouds in cyberspace, the human being, with his ability to see a thing and imagine it bigger, faster, cooler, is adept at changing the world to suit his needs. Over time, he has learned to sing, paint, draw, sculpt, manifest from the very ether a representation of reality, either actual or envisioned in the mind. “We are such stuff as dreams are made of.” The Bard. “The Tempest”.
通过歌曲和故事的口述传统传递的神话和传说，在墙壁、面板、纸张上记录符号，以及现在在网络空间的星云上，人類有能力看到一件事，想象它更大、更快、更酷，他擅長改變世界以滿足他的需求。 随着时间的推移，他学会了唱歌、画画、画画、雕塑，从以太中展示现实的代表，无论是现实的还是头脑中设想的。 “我们就像梦想一样。” 吟遊诗人。 “暴风雨”。
Imagination allows us to envision a future different from that experienced in the present moment or remembered past. The house you live in, for example, is a far cry from the cave-dwelling or sapling lean-tos our ancestors occupied. Perhaps there were no more caves available when the first human prototyped a house. Maybe Ug, sick of the hollering of his herd of little-Ug’s, decided to improve his situation. Mastering his initial apprehension, he leaned two fallen trees against a third to keep the saber-toothed tigers at bay.
想象力使我们能够想象一个与当下或记忆中的过去不同的未来。 例如，你住的房子与我们祖先居住的洞穴住宅或樹苗住宅相去甚遠。 当第一个人类制作房屋原型时，也许已经没有更多的洞穴了。 也许Ug厌倦了他那群小Ug的呼喊，决定改善他的处境。 他控制了最初的恐惧，将两棵倒下的树靠在第三棵树上，以阻止剑齿虎。
Perhaps they installed one of those swinging contraptions on widowed Mrs. Ug’s cave entrance, to protect her from the vagaries of the night, now that Ug had met his untimely end. Sometimes, innovation is a well-intentioned path to catastrophe, and others to a slight amelioration to the onslaught of life. The lessons learned by those who live to tell the tale lead to new and improved designs. Iteration is the key to success. The Galaxy 8 is a wonderful device; very non-explosive.
也许他们在丧偶的Ug夫人的洞穴入口处安装了一个摆动装置，以保护她免受夜晚的波动荡，现在Ug已经过早地结束了。 有时，创新是通往灾难的善意道路，而另一些则是对生命之猛攻的轻微改善。 那些活着讲述故事的人所学到的教训导致了新的和改进的设计。 迭代是成功的关键。 Galaxy 8是一款很棒的设备；非常无爆炸性。
We no longer have access to these proto-myths, these first attempts at learning from our mistakes. In one sense, the first stories can be seen as reflections on life past, and cultural evolution as a result of imagining a better ending. Carl Jung says that they are still buried deep in our collective unconscious, subliminally informing our world-view.
我们不再能够接触到这些原始神话，这些从错误中学习的第一次尝试。 从某种意义上说，第一个故事可以被看作是对过去生活的反思，以及想象更好结局的结果，也是文化演变的结果。 卡尔·荣格说，它们仍然深埋在我们的集体无意识中，潜意识地告知我们的世界观。
Back at the proto-house fiasco, cerca 5,000 BCE, Ulf spends a long time pondering the splintered saplings.
回到公元前5000年的原始房屋惨败，Ulf花了很长时间思考那些支消的苗。
“What if Ug had like, built his tree cave over there, in the middle of that lake? Scary-Eaty-beasts can’t swim.”
“如果Ug在那个湖的中间建造了他的树洞呢？ 可怕的野兽不会游泳。”
The other cave dwellers snort, they call him crazy. Crazy Ulf. And yet, one of the earliest settlements in Ireland was found in 2004, in the middle of a lake in Longford. The remains of the crannóg settlement were dated to 5,220 BCE.
其他洞穴居民哼了一哼，他们称他为疯子。 瘋狂的Ulf。 然而，爱尔兰最早的定居点之一是2004年在朗福德的一个湖中央发现的。 克rannóg定居点的遗迹可以追溯到公元前5220年。
A crannóg is a wattle and daub hut atop a manmade island. Not only did Crazy Ulf build a house, he built an island on the lakebed, perhaps wading out while the cave-neighbors howled, holding their ribs from the hooting, or perhaps he hollowed out a large tree trunk and floated out there, causing one cave-neighbor to get the hiccups from laughing so much. Such is the nature of innovation. Many do not share the vision, at first.
Crannóg是位于人造岛屿顶部的小屋。 疯狂的乌尔夫不仅建了一栋房子，他还在湖床上建了一个岛，也许在洞穴邻居嚎叫时涉水，拿着肋骨，或者也许他挖出一个大树干，漂浮在那里，导致一个洞穴邻居笑得那么开心。 这就是创新的本质。 起初，许多人并不认同这个愿景。
The settlement in Longford contained a stone platform 12 metres in diameter, “overlaid with brushwood and the remains of three fireplaces; it is thought to date from the late megalithic period, which makes it older than the Loughcrew cairns or the pyramids of Egypt”. Once homo sapiens started prototyping structures, there was no limit to the shape, size and silliness of some dwellings. Diversity is the stamp of our breed.
朗福德的定居点包含一个直径12米的石质平台，“上面覆盖着灌木木和三个壁炉的遗迹；它被认为可以追溯到巨石晚期，这使得它比Loughcrew石碑或埃及的金字塔更古老”。 一旦智人开始原型结构，一些住宅的形状、大小和愚蠢都没有限制。 多样性是我们品种的印记。
Crazy Ulf’s descendants, and the ideas they added to their eccentric ancestor’s watery vision embody the spirit of trial and error. Some added walkways, connecting the crannógs to the mainland, others built neighboring crannógs, perhaps proto-guestrooms, or proto-man-caves, proto-art studios.
疯狂的乌尔夫的后代，以及他们为古怪的祖先的水性愿景添加的想法体现了试错的精神。 有些人增加了人行道，将crannógs与大陆连接起来，其他人则建造了邻近的crannógs，也许是原始客房，或原始人洞穴，原始艺术工作室。
Home improvements in Longford, which were carried out 1,000 years after the original stone platform was laid, suggest “if not a previously unknown 1,000-year continual civilisation, then certainly some progression from hunter gatherers to farming settlers” (Ibid).
朗福德的房屋装修是在原始石质平台铺设1000年后进行的，这表明“如果不是以前未知的1000年持续文明，那么肯定会从狩猎采集者到农业定居者的一些进展”（同上）。
Crazy Ulf was not alone in his innovative dwelling design brief. Trial and error in Mexico saw the Aztecs (1,100 CE) using chinampas, artificial islands made of staked plots in the lakebed filled with wattle and mud. Chinampas were used to grow food and accessed by canoe. Crazy Ulf’s Mesoamerican counterpart also endured the good-natured derision of his peers, and yet, in recent years chinampas have resurged as a solution to the crippling food supply issues of Mexico City, supplying healthy, organic food to the city’s residents.
Crazy Ulf在创新的住宅设计简报中并不孤单。 在墨西哥的试验和错误中，阿兹特克人（公元1100年）使用chinampas，即由湖床上充满藤蔓和泥浆的桩地块制成的人工岛屿。 Chinampas被用来种植食物，并通过独木舟进入。 疯狂的乌尔夫的中美洲同行也忍受了同龄人的善意的袓食，然而，近年来，作为解决墨西哥城令人不安的粮食供应问题的办法，中国人重新出现，为该市居民提供健康的有机食品。
The earliest traces of our cousin primates, Homo erectus, in East Asia have been found in China, dating back to 1.7 million years ago. Homo sapien artifacts from 25,000 BCE on the North China Plain, show evidence of fishing and hunting, as well as baubles of bone and shell. China’s protohumans did not build lakebed dwellings, that we know of, but that is by no means to say that they did not have their own Crazy Ulf’s to explode and exasperate and excite them.
我们表亲灵长类人直立人最早的痕迹在中国被发现，可以追溯到170万年前。 公元前25,000年华北平原上的智人文物，展示了捕鱼和打猎的证据，以及骨头和贝壳的小玩意。 我们知道，中国的原始人类并没有建造湖床住宅，但这绝不是说他们没有自己的疯狂乌尔夫来爆炸、激怒和兴奋他们。
Starting about 5000 BCE, mankind spread out along the Yellow River valley. Farming and fishing, raising pigs and dogs for food, growing millet and rice, early man lived the modern off-grid ideal lifestyle. Except for the dogs. Asian Ulf was perfecting his first attempt at gunpowder. Asian Ug was his guru (R.I.P).
大约从公元前5000年开始，人类沿着黄河流域蔓延开来。 耕种和捕鱼，养猪和养狗作为食物，种植小米和大米，早期人类过着现代离网的理想生活方式。 除了狗。 亚洲Ulf正在完善他的第一次火药尝试。 Asian Ug是他的导师（R.I.P）。
Ceramic pots, fishhooks, knives, arrows and needles were found in The Yangshao settlement artifacts, (2,500-5,000 BCE). These farmers lived in dwellings which were partly below the surface, like skater bowls with roofs. Their pottery included designs which may have been symbols that later evolved into written language.
在阳韶定居文物中发现了陶瓷锅、鱼钩、刀、箭和针，（公元前2500-5000年）。 这些农民住在部分低于地表的住宅里，就像带屋顶的溜冰碗一样。 他们的陶器包括设计，这些设计可能是后来演变成书面语言的象征。
In 600 BCE, proto-farmers still scattered seed onto the fields randomly outside of Middle Earth. In China, farmers started to plant individual seeds in rows, “thus reducing seed loss and making crops grow faster and stronger. This technology was not used in the western world until 2200 years later”.
在公元前600年，原始农民仍然将种子随意撒在中土世界外的田地上。 在中国，农民开始成排种植单独的种子，“从而减少种子损失，使农作物生长得更快、更强壮。 直到2200年后，西方世界才使用这项技术。”
Remember always where we are beginning. Velvet night. Darkness. Before the trial. Before the error. Before the stories.
永远记住我们从哪里开始。 天鹅绒之夜。 黑暗。 审判之前。 在出错之前。 在故事之前。
Each of these innovations could have exploded, diving like a dart from the sky, waxen feathers falling in its lead.
这些创新中的每一个都可能爆炸了，像飞镖一样从天而降，蜡状的羽毛从它的引道上掉下来。
From flea-plucking primates to smartphone-wielding primates, there have been cycles of innovation. Once the spark of consciousness ignited, stones became tools, shiny black flint abandoned with glee as iron was discovered, smelted, used to kill, used to mechanize, used to colonize; electricity, urbanization, globalization, 5G, social media.
从拔跳蚤的灵长类动物到挥舞智能手机的灵长类动物，都有创新周期。 一旦意识的火花被点燃，石头就变成了工具，随着铁的发现、冶炼、用于杀戮、用于机械化、用于殖民时，闪亮的黑色燧石在欢乐中被抛弃；电力、城市化、全球化、5G、社交媒体。
At times, innovation caused change, like the frog in a slow boiling pot of water. At others, it exploded like Wiley Coyote, leaving the rest of us to reflect, to grow collectively from yet another valiant fail.
有时，创新会导致变化，就像青蛙在缓慢沸腾的水锅里。 在其他方面，它像Wiley Coyote一樣爆炸，讓我們其他人反思，從又一次勇敢的失敗中集體成長。
Evolution advanced the adaptable over those unable to embrace change. Natural selection favoured the innovative thinkers endowed with luck or caution. Survival of the fittest refers to the mentally agile.
进化提高了适应能力，而不是那些无法接受变化的人。 自然选择有利于那些幸运或谨慎的创新思想家。 适者生存是指精神敏捷的人。
We played with fire, invented the wheel, planted wheat and became domesticated by its yield and on we bumble throughout history.
我们玩火，发明了轮子，种植了小麦，并被它的产量驯化了，在历史上，我们一直在上面乱瞠。
Stories viscerally allow us to try, to fail, to reflect.
故事在内在地允许我们尝试、失败、反思。
Innovation compels us to release our inner Ulf, and try again. To fail better.
创新迫使我们释放我们内心的Ulf，并再次尝试。 失败得更好。