????本周,，我生平第一次參加了TED大會(huì)。雖然我是個(gè)逢會(huì)必到的老手,，但TED還是把我震住了,。今年已經(jīng)是第30屆TED大會(huì)，也是它首次把主會(huì)場(chǎng)放在溫哥華,。周一下午,，與會(huì)者魚貫入場(chǎng)時(shí)，港口陽(yáng)光明媚,，是個(gè)好兆頭,。

????要三言兩語(yǔ)就給TED大會(huì)下個(gè)定義很不容易,。我坐的這趟飛機(jī)從舊金山來(lái)，同一航班上有很多各種科技會(huì)議上的?？?。我旁邊坐的是一位服務(wù)于硅谷幾家最大科技公司的知名專利律師，我們身后坐著一位知名IT公司的技術(shù)總監(jiān),，機(jī)上還有幾位很成功的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家,。

????但這次大會(huì)本身并不算是一次商業(yè)會(huì)議。它不僅不是商業(yè)會(huì)議,，還可以說(shuō)是一個(gè)由許多商人參加的非商業(yè)會(huì)議,。順便插一句，TED大會(huì)是由一家非盈利機(jī)構(gòu)主辦的,，但它肯定從這次活動(dòng)上賺了一大筆錢,，這一點(diǎn)大家從至少7500美元一張的入場(chǎng)券和扎堆而至的贊助商就能看出來(lái)。比如光是我注意到的幾個(gè)贊助商就有Adobe,、達(dá)美航空（Delta Airlines）,、Jawbone、歐特克（Autodesk）,、塔吉特（Target）等,。會(huì)場(chǎng)的走廊有點(diǎn)像頂級(jí)棒球聯(lián)賽的外場(chǎng)廣告墻一樣，每一寸都鋪滿了廣告,。

????然而他們的錢花得真值,，TED的每一樣?xùn)|西都是極好的，大會(huì)還為這次活動(dòng)專門蓋了一個(gè)新的劇院,。知名藝術(shù)家珍妮特?艾可曼在會(huì)場(chǎng)外的公共空間制作了一個(gè)非常驚艷的繩雕,，還蒞臨現(xiàn)場(chǎng)向觀眾講解了她的作品，成為開(kāi)幕式當(dāng)晚的亮點(diǎn)之一,。另外一個(gè)令人印象深刻的時(shí)刻是著名DJ,、音樂(lè)人馬克?羅森的演講。馬克?羅森在這場(chǎng)非常妙趣橫生的演講中熱情探討了“采樣”（sampling）這個(gè)詞的來(lái)歷,，它其實(shí)是來(lái)自嘻哈歌手從過(guò)去的作品里拼湊出新歌的做法,。我很難想象馬克?羅森如果出席我參加過(guò)的其他行業(yè)會(huì)議并且登臺(tái)演講會(huì)是什么情形?！居^眾里同樣藏龍臥虎,，就在我等待開(kāi)幕環(huán)節(jié)的時(shí)候，我跟伊莎貝爾?阿蓮德（小說(shuō)《靈魂莊園》的作者——譯注）打了個(gè)招呼,，告訴她我從大學(xué)起就非常喜歡她的書,。】

????開(kāi)幕式的其它環(huán)節(jié)則相對(duì)沒(méi)有那么精彩。MIT媒體實(shí)驗(yàn)室的創(chuàng)始人,、未來(lái)學(xué)家尼古拉斯?尼葛洛龐蒂為大會(huì)揭幕,。TED大會(huì)主辦者克里斯?安德森介紹說(shuō)，尼葛洛龐蒂在1984年做了TED大會(huì)的第一次演講,，但TED的創(chuàng)始人理查德?索爾?沃爾曼對(duì)此表示否認(rèn),，令現(xiàn)場(chǎng)出現(xiàn)了尷尬的一刻。尼葛洛龐蒂走過(guò)了TED大會(huì)的30年,，曾在TED大會(huì)上發(fā)表過(guò)14場(chǎng)演講,，他頭頂?shù)摹暗刂泻,！泵娣e也一年比一年擴(kuò)大,。有意思的是，他把一些猛料留在了最后,，盡管當(dāng)時(shí)他18分鐘的演講差不多已經(jīng)超時(shí)了,。他認(rèn)為“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)”目前的發(fā)展“極為可悲”，因?yàn)楹芏嘀悄芏急惶砑拥搅耸謾C(jī)上,，而不是它們所要控制的設(shè)備,。另外尼葛洛龐蒂認(rèn)為，科技界最大的挑戰(zhàn)并不是讓“下一個(gè)”十億人用上互聯(lián)網(wǎng),，而是讓“最后十億人”用上互聯(lián)網(wǎng),。雖然他對(duì)未來(lái)的預(yù)測(cè)超時(shí)了，但安德森讓他繼續(xù)完成了演講,。尼葛洛龐蒂相信,，在30年內(nèi)，人類將能夠通過(guò)人體直接攝取信息,，而不是經(jīng)過(guò)耳聽(tīng)目看,，大腦可以通過(guò)人體的血液循環(huán)把信息發(fā)送到需要的地方。

????開(kāi)幕式的其他演講就算不那么精彩,，起碼也很感人,。曾登上國(guó)際空間站的加拿大航天英雄克里斯?哈德菲爾德做了一個(gè)主題為《恐懼vs危險(xiǎn)》的演講，繪聲繪色地描述了他在太空的經(jīng)歷,。他還是一位出色的吉他手,，演講結(jié)束時(shí)還現(xiàn)場(chǎng)彈奏了英國(guó)音樂(lè)人大衛(wèi)?鮑伊的作品《太空怪譚》（Space Oddity）中的《湯姆上校》,。教育活動(dòng)家齊亞丁?尤薩夫扎伊講到,，他的女兒馬拉拉在巴基斯坦遭到塔利班襲擊前，人們都說(shuō)馬拉拉是他的女兒,，而現(xiàn)在人人都說(shuō)他是馬拉拉的父親,，全場(chǎng)響起熱烈的掌聲。不過(guò)他的表現(xiàn)最終被馬拉拉本人錄自英格蘭的一段視頻蓋過(guò)了，馬拉拉選擇留在家里繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí),，沒(méi)有來(lái)參加這次大會(huì),。

????TED大會(huì)開(kāi)幕式之夜以一個(gè)盛大的派對(duì)告終，但我感覺(jué)更多人是在就科技話題進(jìn)行閑聊,。離開(kāi)會(huì)場(chǎng)回酒店時(shí),，我為走在我后面的兩位正在深聊的女士撐開(kāi)了門。直到走在前面的那位女士向我說(shuō)謝謝,，而我準(zhǔn)備往相反的方向走時(shí),，我才發(fā)現(xiàn)她們倆竟然是美劇《實(shí)習(xí)醫(yī)生格蕾》（Grey's Anatomy）的演員薩拉?拉米雷茲和制片人珊達(dá)?萊梅斯。

????天啊,，這還只是TED大會(huì)的第一個(gè)晚上,。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：樸成奎

????

????I'm attending my first TED this week, a spectacle to behold even for a hardened conference-goer like me. In its 30th year, TED has convened its main conference in Vancouver for the first time. The sun was shining on the harbor as attendees filed into the convention center Monday afternoon. It was an auspicious start.

????It's hard to pin TED down. My plane from San Francisco was full of many of the people who work the tech-conference circuit and whom I'm likely to see on plenty of other planes. I sat next to a famous patent lawyer who represents some of the Valley's biggest companies. The chief technology officer of an esteemed IT company sat behind us. A couple of successful VCs were onboard as well.

????Yet the conference itself isn't primarily a business conference. Not only is it not a business conference, it's something of a non-business conference attended by a ton of businesspeople. As an aside, TED is owned by a non-profit entity that makes an absolute killing on the event, judging from the $7,500-and-up attendance fee and the oodles of corporate sponsors, including Adobe, Delta Airlines, Jawbone, Autodesk and Target, to name just a few I noticed. The hallways of the conference are a little like the outfield walls of major-league ballparks: Every inch is for sale.

????And what their money buys! Everything about TED is gorgeous. The conference built a new theater just for the event. The artist Janet Echelman created an amazing rope sculpture in the public space outside the convention center, and she described her creation to the audience at the outset. It was one of the highlights of the opening evening. Another amazing moment was a TED talk by the DJ and music producer Mark Ronson. In a highly entertaining speech, he passionately surveyed the history of "sampling," the largely hip-hop practice of borrowing from the past with an artist's own twist. It would be hard to imagine Ronson taking the stage at any other industry conference I've attended. (The audience is eclectic as well: As I waited to go into the opening session I said hello to Isabel Allende and told her I'd been enjoying her books since I was in college.)

????The first session's other choices were less inspiring. The MIT Media Labs founder Nicholas Negroponte opened the conference. TED impresario Chris Anderson said Negroponte gave the first TED talk in 1984, however TED founder Richard Saul Wurman later contradicted that assertion, making for an awkward moment. Negroponte took an informative walk down TED's memory lane, reflecting on his 14 talks and the increasing size of his bald spot over the years. Curiously, he saved some of his best material for last, when his 18 allotted minutes had almost expired. He thinks the "Internet of things" so far has been "incredibly pathetic" because the intelligence is being added to cell phones rather than the devices they are meant to control. Negroponte thinks connecting the "last" billion people to the Internet is the tech world's biggest challenge, not the "next" billion. He ran out of time for a planned prediction, and Anderson wisely asked him to make it anyway. It was a doozy: Negroponte believes that in 30 years we will be able to ingest information—rather than read or see it—and that the brain will be able to then send information through the body's bloodstream to where it is needed.

????Other opening talks were emotional if unfulfilling. Canadian hero Chris Hadfield, an astronaut who lived on the International Space Station, gave an overproduced romp through the theme of "fear versus danger" by way of describing his adventures in space. An accomplished guitarist, he ended his talk by playing the "Major Tom" ode from David Bowie's song Space Oddity. Education activist Ziauddin Yousafzai won applause for noting that until his daughter Malala was attacked by the Taliban in Pakistan she was his daughter but now he is known as her father. He was outshone, however, by a short video recorded in England by Malala herself, who wisely stayed home to pursue her studies.

????The opening TED evening ended with a giant party that included, for me, anyway, more tech-crowd schmoozing. As a left the building to head to my hotel I held the door open for two women engaged in a deep conversation who were walking a few steps behind me. Only after the first of the two thanked me and I was on my way in the opposite direction did I notice that the two were Sara Ramirez and Shonda Rhimes, an actor on and the creator of, respectively, the TV series Grey's Anatomy.

????Ho-hum. It's just the first evening at TED.