比尔及梅琳达·盖茨：八个来自读者的好问题

2月13日，我们发表了最新的年信。在这封信中，我们回答了10个关于我们工作的难题。与此同时，梅琳达和我也向读者发出了问题征集。回复量是惊人的（截至目前，已经收到超过1700条评论）。以下就是我们对其中一些最犀利和最普遍问题的回答。

1. 你对那些想让世界变得更好的年轻人有什么建议？

比尔：选择一个对你来说很重要的契机，然后参与其中。无论你能付出的是金钱、时间或支持的声音，你的贡献都会帮到成千上万个了不起的非营利组织。我是ONE的忠实粉丝，但是像慈善导航(Charity Navigator)和导航之星（GuideStar）这样的网站，都可以帮助你找到信誉良好的组织来解决你最关心的问题。如果你想做志愿者，我们的基金会也能列出一个优质的资源清单来帮助你把握机会。

梅琳达：记住，没有人生来就是变革者。你成为变革者是因为看到了问题，然后敢于成为解决方案的一部分。

如果你想知道这个过程是怎样的，去看看马乔里·斯通曼·道格拉斯高中的年轻人就知道了。在受到突如其来且难以承受的枪袭暴力之后，这些学生坚持认为，他们的悲剧将是最后一次。学生艾玛·冈萨雷斯上周说：“我们将成为只有在课本上才能读到的那些孩子。我们将改变法律。”

这就是变革发生的方式。要满怀勇气、希望，并做出承诺，以及拥有这样的认知：只有站出来并提出要求，才会获得进步。

2. 你在听到令人心碎的故事时会感受到怎样的情绪？你这些年来是否越来越不情绪化、越来越冷静？

梅琳达：同一些父母坐在一起，听他们讲述已经离世的孩子的故事，或者去一家医院，看到那里的病人因即将死于艾滋病而遭到遗弃，这些经历都不轻松。从事这项工作近二十年，我可以告诉你，这感觉永远没能变得哪怕轻松一点点。但是，我并没有在这种情况下转过身去或者变得冷酷，而是有意识地选择尽可能地敞开胸怀。因为当有人决定告诉你他们的故事时，他们实际上是向你倾诉他们的心声——我相信我的工作就是去倾听，并且最终把我听到的反馈给基金会。比尔和我听到的故事可能令人心碎，但它们让我们保持专注，不断提醒我们为什么要从事这项工作。

3. 你认为人工智能将在未来如何影响我们的生活和目标？

比尔：科技提高了生产力，带给了我们更多的休闲时间。拥有像拖拉机、洗碗机和个人电脑之类的东西，让周末休息、度假、提前退休等等成为可能，人工智能将延续这种趋势。

在我看来，试图了解人工智能将如何影响我们的人生目标，这种好奇心非常合情合理。如果有一天，人工智能让我们只用付出一半的劳动就可以制造出两倍的产品，那么余下来的时间我们该做些什么？一方面，历史表明许多无所事事的年轻人可能会破坏社会的稳定；另一方面，如果我们很好地引导人们的能量，就能使他们利用自己的才能成为老师、与老年人一起工作以及解决其他问题。

梅琳达：算法已经在为医生提供治疗病人的信息，为法官提供判决罪犯的信息，以及替银行决定谁有资格获得贷款。人工智能具备做出这些决定的潜能，所以他们更聪明，对每个人也更公平 —— 但前提是我们能避免在代码中写入种族主义和性别歧视，避免以一种从现在开始花上十年二十年都无法修复的方式让系统变得有偏见。

这就是为什么我致力于帮助更多女性和有色人种进入科技领域的原因之一。我相信我们有很大可能性利用好这项技术，并确保它为我们所有人创造一个更美好的未来 —— 如果我们让不同性别、种族和背景的人来共同创造这项技术的话。

4. 你认为哪种形式的可再生能源将在抗击气候变化中得到最广泛的采用？

比尔：现在做出判断还为时过早。我在年信中提到，私营投资者的投资集中在五个领域。其中之一是电网储备，可以解决太阳能和风能无法时时刻刻（一年365天、每天24小时）都投入使用的问题。另一种则是液体燃料，它包括利用太阳能来产生碳氢化合物这样一种类似光合作用的过程。地热是我们关注的第三个重点。除了这三项，还有诸多可能性，我们也正投资于其中的一些项目。关键在于，世界需要积极地寻找更多的好点子，因为没有人真正知道哪些点子会带来我们所需要的能源大突破。

5. 我很好奇你们对于“世界各地女性被如何对待”这一问题的切身经历是什么。在过去18年里，这个问题有没有得到改善？

梅琳达：从大局来看，答案是肯定的。世界范围内，获得现代避孕药具的女性人数创下了历史新高。仅仅用了一代人的时间，死于分娩的女性人数就减少了将近一半。获得教育、工作和金融服务的机会正在逐年变得更加平等。你不仅可以从数据中看到这个事实，而且可以从一位母亲的讲述中体会到，她说她相信自己的女儿一定会能过得比自己好。

当然，我们所看到的快速进步，同时也会使性别平等的其它障碍更加凸显出来。当我出国旅行，见到那些仍然没有权利拥有土地或自主计划生育能力的女性时，我感到非常难过。而在美国，看到30年前我所经历过的偏见和歧视仍在上演，仍然把这么多女性锁在领导岗位和职业道路之外，这令我感到愤怒。但归根结底，我对未来仍然持乐观态度。2018年，女性的声音比以往任何时候都要响亮。我们的声音被听到了。我毫不怀疑，有了恰当的支持，妇女运动将继续推动进步，走向一个对每个人都更加公平、更加繁荣的世界。

6. 我们离了解和治愈阿尔茨海默症还有多远？

比尔：我很乐观，我们将在未来10到20年内看到重大突破。我们对大脑如何衰老的认知在大幅提升，这为新领域的诸多前景光明的研究提供了动力。迄今为止，大多数药物试验都集中在两种特定的治疗途径上（淀粉样蛋白和tau蛋白）。我希望这些方法能够获得成功，但我也很兴奋地看到科学家们正在开始探索不那么主流的办法。更加多样化的药物试验将提高我们找出突破性治疗方式的几率。

7. 这个问题是给梅琳达的：你能否告诉我们更多关于Pivotal Ventures的信息？它在“女性问题”方面的工作与基金会的工作有何不同？

梅琳达：通过多年从事这项工作，我一再地看到，当女性拥有工具从而能够做出对自己和家庭都正确的事，她们就会改变社会。

在基金会，我们的大部分工作都集中于改善全球健康和帮助人们摆脱贫困。给妇女赋权对推动这些成果而言至关重要，这就是为什么我们投资于家庭计划服务、孕产妇健康护理、妇女运动等等的原因。

2015年，我创建了一个投资和孵化公司，叫做Pivotal Ventures。我们正在研究的问题包括扩大带薪探亲假和病假的覆盖面，帮助更多妇女加入技术行业并在其中茁壮成长，以及缩小在提供和接受风险资本方面的巨大性别差距。Pivotal的模式建立在合作关系的基础上。我们正在广泛地开展与个人和组织的合作，对社会进步和生活改善抱有共同的愿景。

8. 说一个你希望人类在你有生之年将会取得的成就？

比尔：健康公平。我希望每个人，不管你住在哪里，收入多少，都有同样的机会成长和成才。当你看到世界已经取得的巨大进步时，我们就有更充分的理由认为这个目标可以实现。自1990年以来，5岁以下儿童死亡数量减少了一半，全世界86%的儿童接种了基本的疫苗。如果我们继续取得进步，我希望有一天我们会生活在这样一个世界里：论到长大成人的可能性，一个在撒哈拉以南非洲出生的孩子与一个在欧洲或美国出生的孩子没有差别。

8 great questions from readers

When we published our latest Annual Letter on Feb, 13th—in which we answer 10 tough questions we get about our work—Melinda and I asked readers to send us their own questions. The response was fantastic (more than 1,700 comments so far). Here are our answers to a few of the sharpest and most common questions.

1. What would your advice be to young people who want to make a difference in the world for the better?

Bill: Choose a cause that’s important to you and get involved. Whether you can donate your money, your time, or your voice, there are thousands of incredible nonprofits that could use your help. I’m a big fan of ONE, but websites like Charity Navigator and GuideStar can help you find other reputable organizations working on the issues that you care about the most. If you’re interested in volunteering, our foundation put together a good list of resources to help connect you to opportunities.

Melinda: Remember that no one is born a change-maker. It’s something you become when you see a problem, then dare to become part of the solution.

If you want to know what that looks like, just look to the young men and women of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In the wake of unfathomable and unacceptable gun violence, these students are insisting that their tragedy will be the last. “We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks,” student Emma Gonzalez said last week. “We are going to change the law.”

This is how change happens. With bravery, hope, commitment—and the knowledge that progress only comes when we stand up and demand it.

2. How do you feel emotionally when you come across heartbreaking stories? Have you become less emotional and more detached over the years?

Melinda: It’s not easy to sit with parents who tell you about the children they’ve lost, or to visit a hospital where patients have been abandoned because they’re dying of AIDS. And after nearly two decades in this work, I can tell you that it never gets any easier. But instead of turning away or steeling myself up in these situations, I make a conscious choice to stay as open as I can. Because when someone decides to tell you their story, what they’re really doing is pouring their heart out to you—and I believe it’s my job to listen, and ultimately to pour what I hear back into the foundation. The stories Bill and I hear can be heartbreaking, but they keep us focused. They’re a constant reminder of why we’re in this work.

3. How do you feel the future of AI will influence our lives and purpose?

Bill: Technology gives us more leisure time by raising productivity. Having things like tractors, dishwashers, and personal computers made it possible to take off weekends, go on vacations, retire earlier, and so on. Artificial intelligence will continue this trend.

I think you’re right to wonder how it will affect our purpose in life. If someday AI lets us make twice as many goods with half as much effort, what will we do with the rest of our time? On one hand, history suggests that having a lot of idle young men can destabilize a society. On the other hand, if we channel people’s energy well, we can harness their talents to become teachers, work with the elderly, and solve other problems.

Melinda: Algorithms are already informing the way doctors treat patients, judges sentence criminals, and banks determine who’s eligible for a loan. AI has the potential to shape those decisions so they’re smarter and fairer for everyone—but only if we can avoid writing racism and sexism into the code, and biasing these systems in a way that will be almost impossible to fix a decade or two from now.

That’s one reason why I’m committed to helping more women and people of color get into tech. I believe we stand a much better chance of getting this technology right—and ensuring it creates a better future for all of us—if we have people of all genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds creating it.

4. Which form of renewable energy do you believe will be most widely adopted in the fight against climate change?

Bill: It’s too early to say. The group of private investors I mentioned in the letter is focusing on five areas. One is grid-scale storage, which could solve the problem that solar and wind energy are not available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Another is liquid fuels, which involves using the energy of the sun to create hydrocarbons in a process similar to photosynthesis. Geothermal is a third focus area for us. There are many more possibilities, some of which we’re investing in. The key is that the world needs to be aggressively pursuing lots of ideas, because no one really knows yet which ones will lead to the big energy breakthroughs we need.

5. I am curious about both of your experiences on how women are treated around the world. Over your 18 years, has it improved at all?

Melinda: Looking at the big picture, the answer is a resounding yes. Worldwide, the number of women who have access to modern contraceptives has never been higher. The number of women dying in childbirth has fallen by nearly half in just a single generation. Access to education, jobs, and financial services is becoming more equal every year—a fact you can not only see in the data, but hear in a mother’s voice when she tells you she believes her daughter will live a better life than she did.

Of course, the rapid progress we’ve seen makes the remaining barriers to gender equality even starker. I’m heartbroken when I travel overseas and meet women who still do not have the right to own land or the ability to plan and space their pregnancies. Here in the U.S., I’m outraged to see the same kinds of bias and discrimination I experienced 30 years ago still locking so many women out of leadership positions and career paths. But at the end of the day, I’m optimistic about what the future holds. In 2018, women are speaking out louder than ever. Our voices are being heard. And with the right support, I have no doubt that women’s movements will continue to drive progress toward a world that’s more equitable and more prosperous for everyone.

6. How close are we getting to understanding and curing Alzheimer’s?

Bill: I’m optimistic that we’ll see a significant breakthrough within the next 10 to 20 years. Our understanding of how the brain ages is advancing a great deal, and that’s fueling a lot of promising research in new areas. Most of the drug trials so far have focused on two specific pathways to treatment (amyloid and tau). I hope those approaches succeed, but I’m excited that scientists are also beginning to explore less mainstream targets. A more diverse drug pipeline will increase our odds of discovering a breakthrough.

7. Question for Melinda, can you tell us more about “Pivotal Ventures” & how its work towards “women issues” differs from what the Foundation does?

Melinda: Through years of doing this work, I’ve seen time and again that when women have the tools to do what’s right for themselves and their families, they transform societies.

At the foundation, most of our work is focused on improving global health and helping people lift themselves out of poverty. Empowered women are essential to driving those outcomes, which is why we invest in family planning services, maternal health care, women’s movements, and more.

In 2015, I created an investment and incubation company called Pivotal Ventures. Some of the issues we’re looking at include expanding access to paid family and medical leave, helping more women join and thrive in the tech industry, and closing the enormous gender gap in who’s giving and receiving venture capital. Pivotal’s model is based on partnership. We’re working with a wide range of individuals and organizations with a shared vision for social progress and commitment to improving lives.

8. What is the one thing you hope humanity will achieve in your lifetime?

Bill: Health equity. I want every person—no matter where you live or what your income level is—to have the same opportunity to grow up and thrive. There are plenty of reasons to think this is achievable, especially when you look at the dramatic improvements the world has made already. The number of children who die before their 5th birthday has been cut in half since 1990, and 86 percent of kids around the world receive basic vaccinations. If we keep making progress, I’m hopeful we will one day live in a world where a child born in sub-Saharan Africa has the same odds of surviving to adulthood as a child born in Europe or the United States.