Now these connections， they"re important in and of themselves， but I have to admit， I don"t want you to connect for connection sake alone. I want you to connect because I believe it will inspire you to do something， to take action， to make a difference in the world. Humanity in the abstract， will never inspire you， the way meeting another human being will. Poverty is not going to motivate you to do something， but meeting people， that will motivate you to do something.
When my husband and I started our foundation， I really didn"t know much about global health. We got ourselves immersed in the data. We met a lot of academics. We were reading all these morbidity and mortality ratios， but 2001，I wanted to take my fi rst foundation trip to really see the people behind the statistics. I went to India and Thailand， and so when I was in the foot of the Himalayas. I was in a village；I toured the village most of the day， spent a lot of time with the villagers and the people.
And the end of the day， a woman invited me into her home and I have an admit I didn"t quite know what to expect. And as we walked into her small home， she pulled two lawn chairs off of the nail from her kitchen wall. And they were those aluminum kind of folding lawn chairs. You know what， that itchy fabric seat you might"ve sat on a few for a few hours in Krzyzewsikiville. She whipped them out and put them on a back porch， and what she wanted to do was gaze up at the Himalayas. And it reminded me of that my family used to use those same lawn chairs in Dallas. We"d sit out in the back patio at night gazing at the stars. And this woman wanted to talk to me about what my family life was like， what inspired me. She wanted to tell me the dreams and the hopes she had for her children and her family. As I left her village and I was traveling home， I realized that the biggest difference between her and me. Was not what we dreamt aboutBut how hard it was going to be for her to make her dreams come true
Now some people assume that Bill and I are too rich， to make a connection with somebody who"s poor， even if we have the right intent. But I want to tell you that words like rich and poor， they don"t defi ne who we are， they don"t defi ne who we are as human beings. The universe is like computer code in that way. It"s binary. There"s life， and then there"s everything else. There are zeros and ones. I"m a one， you"re a one. My friend in the Himalayas， she is a one.
Martin Luther King Jr.，he was not a computer programmer， so he called this concept a brotherhood. His hope was that college students would bring a brotherhood into being. Dr King thought at that time that the world has shrunk as much as it was going to shrink， and it"s his words we dwarfed distance and placed time in chains. So the fact that people still don"t treat each other like brothers and sisters， to him， was an ethical failure.
I take a slightly different point of view. I believe we are finally creating the scientific and technological tools， to turn the world into a neighborhood. And that gives you an amazing ethical opportunity， you can light up network of 7 billion people with long-lasting and highly motivating human connections.
You have spent the last few years at one of the most amazing universities on the planet. You"ve gained the knowledge and the skills to go out and do in the world， whatever it is that you choose to do. So what will you doI hope you"ll use the tools of technology to do what you already had in your heart to do， to connect， to make of this world a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And I can"t wait to see what you do. Congratulations！
译文参考
将世界变成地球村——梅琳达·盖茨在杜克大学的演讲
布罗德海德校长，董事会以及杜克大学的各位师生，能够回到母校真是太美妙了，能获得学位，能站在这里为毕业生致辞，让我感到分外欣喜。
首先我要对2013届毕业生们说的是——恭喜你们
请记得感谢你们的母亲，今天是母亲节。
我还想说的是，我仍然对路易斯维尔的比赛耿耿于怀。
当1986年K教练带着球队打入决赛时，我还在校就读。但是当时我们输给了路易斯维尔，所以我和你们都有相同的痛苦回忆。
然而，你们在校期间，能看到杜克赢得第四次全国冠军是非常幸运的。
我从来没有看到过夺冠，但是我到过教堂山观看过迈克尔·乔丹母校——北卡大学的比赛，并且赢得了比赛。
但是乔丹现在已年近5旬，这让我意识到我也毕业很多年了。
不管多少年过去了，我仍然能够感到与杜克之间的微妙的联系，特别是这里的地标，杜克公园，我经常在那里学习，也经常到那里缓解考试带来的压力。昨天午后下过雨后我又去了那里，为此次讲演做准备。不过除了地标之外，给我留下最深记忆的是这里的人，和与那些和我一起生活学习四年的伙伴们的联络。如果要用一个词来形容，与杜克大学所有有关系的人和事情的共同标签，我认为这个词便是“联系”。联系，正是今天毕业日我要跟你们讨论的主题。
1982年的8月我离开了老家，德克萨斯的达拉斯，来到了达勒姆。我的双亲为我此次的人生重要之旅送上特别的礼物——一台打字机，奥林巴斯B12型便携打字机，它最大的优点就是只有12磅中，轻的可以放到箱子里。就读于杜克大学期间，计算机已经真正取代了打字机的地位，成为写论文的首选工具了。当时我们这些计算机系的学生最讨厌的就是你们这些文科生了。因为你们总是占着我们的电脑来写论文。这就害得我们不得不长时间待在某些阴森的地下室里，特别是在生物楼的地下室里。我们在那栋楼的地下室里比赛写代码，看谁的代码写的最快，最高效。现在你们好像给它们起了个名字叫做编程马拉松。在比赛中输掉的人，就被罚到礼堂里摸生物系学生培育的变种青蛙。个人电脑，以及后来我到微软工作后，才出现的互联网，才真正地开启了一场通讯革命。
我有三个孩子，我观察了他们如今使用电脑和电话的方式，跟我读书时有很大的差异了。最大的差异在于通讯方式，用一句流行语来描述你们生活中的这一方面，那就是你们联系得很紧密。
一些专家们已经开始称你们为C一代，甚至最近的一篇报道把这个概念无限放大了，说你们的生活是以联络、通讯为中心，以群体为导向，总是点鼠标的一代。文章还说道，仅仅根据这些理由，你们就将颠覆现有的世界。当然，你们这种特殊属性，也遭到了质疑的声音，认为你们这一代正在逐渐脱离与现实的联系。相关的论述大致如下，你们与朋友在一起的时间变少了，只是不断地积累网友；你们不在享受食物，而只是喜欢拍照后，分享到脸书上。
不过我建议你不要听这种论调，不要听他们说什么，科技正在毁灭你们对真实世界的体验。有些人只是认为你不断地更新状态，就认为你变得很浅薄，不要听他们乱说。这种认为科技让你们变得陌生的论调是错误的，但是认为科技可以自动让人相互联系的论调也是错误的。
科技只是个工具，只是一个强有力的工具，但是仍然只是工具。人与人之间深入的联系是非常独特的。它不是工具，也不是实现目的的手段。而是目的本身，它是有意义的生活目标。它能激发人类最美丽的行为——爱、慷慨、人性。
在着名的演讲《在大变革中保持清醒》中，马丁·路德·金说道：“通过科学和技术的天赋，我们让世界变成地球村。但是我们仍然缺少让世界充满手足之情的担当。”根据后见之明，我认为金博士在那时就想让世界变成地球村为时过早，在那个时间，美国把世界大部分地方的人都归为第三世界人。这使人们觉得似乎世界其他地区的人，是与我们完全不同的生物一样，但是随着这场通讯革命的展开，世界真可以变成地球村，从而让金博士所说的伦理担当，能够在你们这一代实现。
让世界充满手足之情又是什么意思呢？这可能听起来对于你们个人，甚者全体毕业生都太苛刻了，但我敢肯定的是，晚些时候，一定有人会问这个问题。也就是，毕业后你将要做什么？估计很少有人会说我要担负起这项义务，让世界充满手足之情。但是，你可以改变你对别人的歧视，你可以选择首先看到他们的人性，你可以从你们相同处着眼，而不是纠缠你们的差异。这不仅仅是关心他们这么简单，这方面，我想你们已经做到了。更重要的是帮助所有人，包括这些所处世界完全不同的人，真正看到实实在在的人类。认识到他们同你们一样具有需求和渴望。如果你们能够真正相信，地球上70亿的人们在精神上都是平等的。那么你们就会采取行动让世界变得更加平等。
