It seems incredible in the past. In the future, it'll seem incredible what we are doing today. And so I've been trying to develop a hierarchical set of considerations about why societies fail to solve their problems -- why they fail to perceive the problems or, if they perceive them, why they fail to tackle them. Or, if they tackle them, why do they fail to succeed in solving them?
回顾历史，我们发现那帮人不可理喻。但在后人看来， 我们似乎同样也不可理喻。鉴于此， 我尝试着分析出了了几个理由 来解释为什么这些社会没能处理好他们面临的问题。 为什么他们没有意识到问题的存在？或者意识到了， 却没能解决问题？或者，如果他们没能解决问题 （译者注：这句话可能是演讲人口误，符合逻辑的表达可能是 “如果他们起初能很好的处理这一问题”） 为什么他们没能将这种势头保持下去？