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For nearly a decade, my collaborators and I at the Self-Assembly Lab
近十年来，我和自组装实验室的同事们
have been working on material systems that transform themselves, assemble themselves and adapt to their environment.
一直在研究能够实现自我转换、自我组装，并适应环境的材料系统。
From our early work on 4D printing, where we printed objects, dipped them underwater,
其中包括了我们早期的4D打印研究，我们打印出物品，将其浸入水中，
and they transform, to our active auxetics that respond to temperature and sunlight,
而后，它们便会转变形态；到后来我们做出会对温度和日光起反应的活性拉胀材料；
to our more recent work on active textiles that respond to body temperature and change porosity,
接着是最近研究的活性纺织材料，它们能根据人体体温改变孔隙率；
to our rapid liquid printing work where we print inflatable structures that morph based on air pressure and go from one shape to another,
我们的快速液体打印技术能让我们打印出可充气结构，这些结构会随气压变形，在不同形态间转换；
or our self-assembly work where we dip objects underwater,
还有我们的自组装研究，把物体浸入水中，
they respond to wave energy and assemble themselves into precise objects like furniture.
它们就会对波浪能产生反应，自组装成家具之类的精密物体。
Or, at larger scales, using wind energy, we have meter-diameter weather balloons that assemble in the airspace above a construction site.
或者是规模更大的，我们研制出了直径一米用于探测大气参数的探空气球，它们可以借助风能在建筑工地上空进行组装。
For dangerous environments or harsh, extreme places where it's hard to get people or equipment, they can assemble in the airspace,
在人员与仪器难以抵达的危险环境或严酷的极端地带，它们能在空域自行组装，
and as the helium dies, they then come back to the ground, and you're left with a big space frame structure.
填充的氦气耗尽之后就会回到地面，留下一个巨型球节架结构。
All of this research is about taking simple materials, activating them with forces in their environment
所有这些研究都是利用简单的材料，用环境中的力将它们激活，
gravity, wind, waves, temperature, sunlight -- and getting them to perform, getting them to transform, assemble, etc.
重力、风能、波浪能、温度、阳光--让它们执行工作、进行形态转化、自我组装等等。
How do we build smart things without complex electromechanical devices?
不借助复杂的电动机械设备，我们该如何建造智能物体呢？
But more recently we were approached by a group in the Maldives,
不过最近，马尔代夫有个机构联系了我们，
and they were interested in taking some of this research and ways of thinking and applying it to some of the challenges that they've faced in terms of climate change.
他们有兴趣将这些研究以及思维方式应用到他们面临的一些气候变化的挑战中。
And the first thing you do when you're approached by someone in the Maldives is say you want to go on a site visit.
当有来自马尔代夫的人与你联络时，你要做的第一件事就是告诉他，你想去实地考察。
It is amazing. So we went there and I actually walked away with a really different perspective on the future of climate change.
简直美妙极了。于是我们去了马尔代夫，而其实在离开时，我带走的是一种对气候变化未来完全不同的看法。
Because you would imagine, you know, the Maldives are sinking. They're screwed. What are they going to do?
因为你会感觉到马尔代夫正在沉没。他们要完蛋了。他们该怎么办？
But I walked away thinking, they might be the model, the future model of the built environment,
但当我离开时，我想的是，我们或许可以把马尔代夫当作未来人造环境的典范，
where they can adapt and be resilient rather than our fixed, man-made infrastructure.
让他们能够适应气候变化，而不受固有人造设施的局限。
But there's typically three main approaches to sea level rise and climate change.
不过针对海平面上升和气候变化，一般来说有三种主要的应对方案。
One of them is that we can do nothing and we can run away. And that's a pretty bad idea.
一是无动于衷、逃之夭夭。这个想法挺糟糕的。
As more than 40 percent of the world's population is living in coastal areas,
由于世界上有超过40%的人口住在沿海地区，
as sea levels rise and as storms get worse and worse, we're going to be more and more underwater.
随着海平面上升、暴雨加剧，越来越多的地方会没入水中。
So it's imperative that we solve this pretty demanding problem.
因此解决这个苛刻的问题是当务之急。
The second is that we can build barriers. We can build walls.
二是修建屏障。我们可以建防波堤。
The problem here is that we take a static solution trying to fight against a superdynamic, high-energy problem,
但问题在于试图用静态的解决方法去解决超不稳定的、高能的问题，
and nature is almost always going to win. So that's likely not going to work either.
几乎可以肯定大自然会胜出。所以这个方案也没用。
The third approach is using dredging.
第三个方案是吹沙填海。
So dredging is where you suck up a bunch of sand from the deep ocean and you pump it back onto the beaches.
吹沙填海就是从深海里吸起一堆沙子，然后用泵倾倒回海滩上。
If you go to any beach around the Northeast or Western Coast, you'll see that they use dredging year after year after year just to survive.
如果你去美国东北沿岸或西海岸的任何沙滩，你都能看到他们年复一年地吹沙填海，只为了求生。
It's really not a good solution.
这并不是一个很好的解决方案。
In the Maldives, they do the same thing, and they can build an island in a month, a brand new island they build from dredging.
在马尔代夫，他们也这么做，一个月内就能建成一座岛，一座用吹沙填海修建的崭新岛屿。
But it's really, really bad for the marine ecosystem, and then they become addicted to dredging. They need to do that year after year.
但这对海洋生态系统非常、非常不好。可他们已经吹沙填海成瘾了。他们年复一年都要这么做。
But in the time that it took them to build that one island, three sandbars built themselves,
但在他们建起那一座岛的时间里，有三座沙洲已经自然形成了，
and these are massive amounts of sand so big you can park your boat on it, and this is what's called a site visit. It's really hard work.
沙洲里沙子的量多到足以让你的船搁浅在上面，这就是所谓的“实地考察”。工作非常辛苦。
In Boston winters. This is massive amounts of sand that naturally accumulates just based on the forces of the waves and the ocean topography.
波士顿那时候正好是冬天。这些巨量的砂砾仅仅依靠波浪的力量和海洋的形态就能自然堆积而成。
So we started to study that. Why do sandbars form?
于是我们开始对其进行研究。为什么会形成沙洲？
If we could tap into that, we could understand it and we could utilize it.
如果对这个问题进行发掘，我们就能理解原理并加以应用。
It's based on the amount of energy in the ocean and the topography in the landscape that promotes sand accumulation.
它是基于海洋中的能量，以及促进砂砾堆积的地形。
So what we're proposing is to work with the forces of nature to build rather than destroy,
所以我们提出的方案是，运用大自然的力量来加以建设，而非破坏，
and in my lab at MIT, we set up a wave tank, a big tank that's pumping waves, and we placed geometries underwater.
在我在麻省理工大学的实验室里，我们安置了一个波浪水箱，也就是一个能泵送波浪的大水箱，然后我们把几何物体放进水里。
We tried all sorts of different geometries. The waves interact with the geometry,
我们试了各种不同的几何形状。波浪和这些几何形状相互作用，
and then create turbulence and start to accumulate the sand so the sand starts to form these sandbars on their own.
形成湍流，并开始堆积砂砾，于是，这些砂砾就开始自行形成沙洲。
Here's an aerial view. On the left-hand side, you'll see the beach that's growing.
这是一个俯瞰的画面。在左侧能看到正在向前推进的沙滩。
In the middle you'll see the sandbar that formed. So these are geometries that collaborate with the force of the wave to build.
在中间能看到形成的沙洲。这些几何形状可以和波浪的力量合作进行建设。
We then started to fabricate one. This was in February in Boston.
接着我们开始制造这样的形状。这时是波士顿的二月。
We have large rolls of canvas. It's a biodegradable material, it's super cheap, easy to work with.
我们使用了几大卷帆布，这是一种可生物降解的材料，非常便宜，很容易加工。
We then sew it into these large bladders, and then we flew over there.
我们用这种帆布缝制出了巨大的口袋，然后我们飞去了马尔代夫。
And I know what you're thinking. This is not the Fyre Festival.
我知道各位在想什么。这不是骗人的Fyre音乐节。
This is real life. It's real. And we flew there with these canvas bladders in our suitcases,
这是现实生活，是真事。我们行李箱里塞着这些帆布口袋飞了过去，
we got sunburned because it was Boston winter, and then we filled them with sand and we placed them underwater.
因为波士顿是冬天，所以我们都被晒脱了皮，然后我们把这些口袋填满了沙，放进水下。
These are exactly the same geometries that you saw in the tank, they're just human scale.
它们和水箱里的几何物体形状一模一样，只不过这些是人类大小的。
Large objects filled with sand, we'd place them underwater, they're just really simple geometries.
我们把这些装满了沙子的巨型物体放进了水里，它们其实就是一些简单的几何形状。
In the front of them, you'll see it's clear water. The waves are crashing over. It's quite clear.
在这些物体正面，可以看到是清澈的水。海浪翻涌而至，非常清澈。
And then on the backside, there's turbulence. The water and the sand is mixing up.
而在背面则出现了湍流，水和沙混合在一起。
It's causing sediment transport, and then the sand is accumulating.
它导致了搬运作用，砂砾于是堆积起来。
You'll see some friendly stingrays here that visited us. On the left is day one, the right is day three.
你还能看到几条友好的黄貂鱼前来拜访。左边是第一天，右边是第三天。
You'll see the sand ripples in the light areas where the sand is accumulating just after two days.
在浅色地方能看到，仅仅经过两天，砂砾就开始了堆积，并在沙中形成了涟漪。
So this was last February, and it's very much ongoing work. This is just in the beginning of this research.
这是去年二月底，这项工作的大部分还是进行时。这项研究也才刚刚开始。
Over the next year and longer, we're going to be studying this through satellite imagery and bathymetry data
明年以及更久之后，我们会通过卫星图像以及测深学数据，
to understand what the short-term and long-term impacts are of natural sand accumulation in the environment.
了解环境中的自然砂砾堆积会造成哪些短期及长期影响。
And the bigger vision, though, is that we want to build submersible geometries, almost like submarines that we can sink and float.
而我们更长远的设想是建造可下潜的几何物体，就像是能够控制浮潜的潜水艇一样。
Like adaptable artificial reefs, you could deploy them if there's a storm coming from one direction or another
比如说可调配的人工礁石，如果某个方向有风暴来临时，就可以让这些人工礁石就位；
or if the seasons are changing, you can use these adaptable reef structures to use the force of the waves to accumulate sand.
或者在季节交替时，你可以使用这些可变的礁石结构，来利用波浪能堆积砂砾。
And we think this could be used in many coastal regions and many island nations around the world.
我们觉得这项技术能够应用到全球各地的很多沿海地区以及全球的岛屿国家。
But when we think about building smarter environments, think of smarter buildings or smarter cars or smarter clothing,
但当我们想到智能环境，想到智能建筑、智能汽车或者智能服装时，
that typically means adding more power, more batteries, more devices, more cost, more complexity and ultimately more failure.
这些通常意味着会消耗更多能源、更多电池、设备、成本，且更加复杂，最终，也更多是失败。
So we're always trying to think about how do we build smarter things with less? How do we build smarter things that are simple?
所以我们一直不断努力设想怎样用更少的资源创造更智能的东西？怎样建造得更简单？
And so what we're proposing at the lab and with this project specifically
因此，我们的实验室，特别是这个项目所提倡的，
is to use simple materials like sand that collaborates with forces in the environment like waves to accumulate and adapt.
是利用像沙子这样简单的材料，借助环境中类似波浪的力量，来堆积和适应。
And we'd like to work with you, collaborate with us, to develop this, to scale it and apply this way of thinking.
我们想与大家一起携手，共同协作，来发展这个技术，扩大它的规模，并运用这种思考方法。
We think it's a different model for climate change, one that's about adaptation and resilience rather than resistance and fear.
我们认为这是一个应对气候变化的新模型，提高我们的适应力与韧性，而不再抵抗与恐惧。
So help us turn natural destruction into natural construction. Thank you.
请帮助我们把大自然的破坏力转化成自然的建设力。谢谢。
