(单词翻译:单击)
And it doesn’t always change, even after a truly brilliant discovery.
即使在一个真正伟大的发现之后，世界也并非总是在变化。
The 10,000-year story of human civilization is mostly the story of things not getting better: diseases not being cured, freedoms not being extended, truths not being transmitted, technology not delivering on its promises.
人类文明长达一万年的历史大多是关于情况没有好转的故事: 疾病没有得到治愈，自由没有得到推广，真理没有得到传播，技术也没有兑现其承诺。
Progress is our escape from the status quo of suffering, our ejection seat from history—it is the less common story of how our inventions and institutions reduce disease, poverty, pain, and violence while expanding freedom, happiness, and empowerment.
社会进步是我们从痛苦现状中逃离，社会进步是我们的历史弹射座椅--关于我们的发明和制度如何在扩大自由、幸福和赋权的同时减少疾病、贫困、痛苦和暴力的故事并不常见。
It’s a story that has almost ground to a halt in the United States.
在美国，这样的故事几乎陷入停滞。
In theory, the values of progress form the core of American national identity.
理论上，社会进步的价值观构成了美国民族认同的核心。
The American dream is meant to represent that exception to the rule of history: Here, we say, things really do get better.
美国梦想要跳出历史规律: 在这里，我们说，情况真的会好转。
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, they did.
在19世纪和20世纪的大部分时间里，情况的确如此。
Almost every generation of Americans was more productive, wealthier, and longer-lived than the one before it.
几乎每一代美国人都比上一代更多产、更富有、更长寿。
In the past few decades, however, progress has faltered—and faith in it has curdled.
然而，在过去的几十年里，进步放缓，进步信心也凝固了。
Technological progress has stagnated, especially in the nonvirtual world.
技术进步停滞不前，尤其是在非虚拟世界。
So have real incomes. Life expectancy has been falling in recent years.
实际收入也是如此。近年来，预期寿命一直在下降。
What went wrong?
哪里出了问题?
There are many answers, but one is that we have become too enthralled by the eureka myth and, more to the point, too inattentive to all the things that must follow a eureka moment.
答案有很多，但答案之一是我们太过沉迷于“发现”的神话，更确切地说，对“发现”之后的所有事情太过疏忽。
The U.S. has more Nobel Prizes for science than the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, Canada, and Austria combined.
美国获得的诺贝尔科学奖比英国、德国、法国、日本、加拿大和奥地利的总和还要多。
But if there were a Nobel Prize for the deployment and widespread adoption of technology—even technology that we invented, even technology that’s not so new anymore—our legacy wouldn’t be so sterling.
但是，如果有一个诺贝尔奖来表彰技术(即使是我们发明的技术，即使是已经不那么新的技术)的有效运用和广泛采用，那么，我们的战绩就不会那么显赫了。
Americans invented the first nuclear reactor, the solar cell, and the microchip, but today, we’re well behind a variety of European and Asian countries in deploying and improving these technologies.
美国人发明了首个核反应堆、太阳能电池和微芯片，但今天，我们在运用和改进这些技术方面远远落后于许多欧洲和亚洲国家。
We were home to some of the world’s first subway systems, but our average cost per mile for tunnel projects today is the highest in the world.
我们拥有一些世界上最早的地铁系统，但今天我们每英里隧道工程的平均成本却是世界上最高的。
The U.S. did more than any other nation to advance the production of the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, but also leads the developed world in vaccine refusal.
美国在推进新冠mRNA疫苗生产方面比其他国家做得更多，但在拒绝接种疫苗方面也领先于其他发达国家。
