我们如何打造拯救生命的野火警报应用 Watch Duty | 约翰·米尔斯

想象你正站在后院，突然看到一架巨大的空中加油机从你头顶飞过。

Imagine you're standing in your backyard and you see a massive air tanker fly directly over your head.

它的货舱门打开，将数千磅的阻燃剂倾泻在仅几英亩之外的地方。

Its bomb bay doors swing open to drop thousands of pounds of fire retardant just a few acres away.

但你自己并没有发现野火，也看不到地平线上有任何火焰的迹象。

Now, you haven't spotted a wildfire yourself, and you don't see any signs of flames on the horizon.

但这次应急响应规模太大，而且离你太近，让人不安。

But that emergency response was too big and too close for comfort.

你的本能是拿起手机，查看新闻，或者等待那尖锐的警报声从口袋里响起。

Your instinct is to grab your phone, check the news, or wait for that high pitched alert to scream from your pocket.

但这一次，什么都没有发生。

But instead, nothing.

只有令人毛骨悚然的寂静。

Just total eerie silence.

没有短信，没有警报，也没有任何应对计划。

No text, no siren, and no plan.

这是一种令人恐惧的觉悟，我们许多人不得不以不同方式面对。

It's a terrifying realization many of us have had to face in different ways.

我们所依赖的、本应保障我们安全的系统，并不总是像我们那样密切关注着情况。

The systems we trust to keep us safe aren't always listening as closely as we are.

这是TED科技播客，由TED出品。

This is TED Tech, a podcast from TED.

我是您的主持人谢蕾尔·多西。

I'm your host, Sherelle Dorsey.

今天我们邀请的嘉宾是约翰·米尔斯，他有一天就亲身经历了这种情况。

Our speaker today, John Mills, found himself in this exact situation one day.

他身处野火的威胁之中，手中只有花园水管和一台笔记本电脑，却没有任何官方通知，只有日益增长的恐惧。

In the crosshairs of a wildfire with nothing but a garden hose and a laptop with no notice from the authorities and a growing sense of fear.

那天之后，约翰意识到官方的信息传递速度太慢了。

After that day, John decided that official information just wasn't fast enough.

于是他决定亲自行动，创立了Watch Duty——一款由志愿者工程师、无线电操作员和退休应急人员驱动的救命型野火预警应用。

So he took matters in his own hands and founded Watch Duty, a lifesaving wildfire alert app powered by volunteer engineers, radio operators, and retired first responders.

这是一个关于传统方式与社区主导技术的强大力量之间摩擦的故事。

This is a story about the friction between the way things have always been done and the raw power of community led tech.

如果你曾觉得世界变化的速度超过了那些本应保护我们的机构，约翰的演讲将解释这群志愿者如何决定不再寻求许可，而是开始建设他们应得的未来。

If you've ever felt like the world was changing faster than the institutions meant to protect it, John's talk explains how this group of volunteers decided to stop asking for permission and started building the future they deserved.

在深入之前，先让我们花点时间听听赞助商的声音。

Before we dive in, a quick break to hear from our sponsors.

你好。

Hi.

我是弗朗西斯·弗莱。

I'm Frances Fry.

我是安·莫里斯。

And I'm Anne Morris.

我们是全新TED播客《可修复》的主持人。

And we are the hosts of a new TED podcast called fixable.

我们曾帮助世界上一些最具竞争力公司的领导者解决各种问题。

We've helped leaders at some of the world's most competitive companies solve all kinds of problems.

在我们的节目中，我们将揭开幕布，为您提供通常只保留给高层管理人员的那种坦诚、未经修饰的建议。

On our show, we'll pull back the curtain and give you the type of honest, unfiltered advice we usually reserve for top executives.

也许你有个界限感缺失的同事，或者你想知道如何激励和鼓舞你的团队。

Maybe you have a coworker with boundary issues, or you wanna know how to inspire and motivate your team.

无论问题大小，我们都不在乎。

No problem is too big or too small.

给我们打个电话，我们会帮你解决那些让你卡住的问题。

Give us a call, and we'll help you solve the problems you're stuck on.

在你收听播客的任何平台搜索《Fixable》即可找到我们。

Find fixable wherever you listen to podcasts.

现在，约翰·米尔斯登上TED讲台。

And now, John Mills takes the TED stage.

就在搬到加利福尼亚北部离网生活一个月后，我听到了一阵声响。

Just one month after moving off the grid in Northern California, I was alerted by the sound.

我走出去查看，发现一架直升机正在盘旋。

I went outside to investigate to find this helicopter circling.

就在那时，我意识到邻居的牧场正遭遇野火蔓延。

That's when I realized my neighbor's ranch had a wildfire running through it.

飞行员开始向我挥手，大概是让我撤离，但我却愚蠢地拿起花园水管，开始给我的房子浇水。

The pilot started waving at me, probably to evacuate, but I stupidly grabbed my garden hose and started watering down my house instead.

不久之后，一架巨大的空中灭火飞机直接从我头顶飞过。

Shortly after that, a huge air tanker flew directly over my head.

我看着投弹舱门打开，阻燃剂倾泻而下。

I watched the bomb bay doors open as the retardant went flying.

随后，空域清空，只剩下一片寂静。

And then the airspace cleared, and there was nothing left but silence.

新闻上没有任何报道。

There was nothing on the news.

我的手机上也没有任何警报。

There was no alert on my phone.

就在那时，我猛然醒悟——就像有两万五千磅的阻燃剂正从天而降砸在我身上。

And that's when it hit me, like 25,000 pounds of retardant raining down on me.

我当时独自一人在这里，完全靠自己，只有两个选择。

I was out here alone, on my own, with only two choices.

正如你可能猜到的，我今天并不是来跟你们讲我如何放弃的故事。

As you probably guessed, I wasn't invited here today to tell you the story about how I quit.

于是，像我当年那个童子军一样，我开始为下一场不可避免的野火做准备。

So like the Boy Scout that I was, I began preparing for the next inevitable wildfire.

我开始加固我的房屋，清理土地，并安装喷淋系统。

I started hardening my home, clearing my land and building sprinkler systems.

但仅仅几个月后，一场干燥的雷暴席卷了北加州，点燃了整个世界。

But just a few months later, a dry lightning storm passed over Northern California and lit the world on fire.

我被迫撤离，信息极少，但这次我深入挖掘了互联网，找到了一些业余无线电爱好者，他们正在收听应急人员的无线电通讯，并将信息发布在Facebook和Twitter上。

I was forced to evacuate with little information, only this time, I went down the Internet rabbit hole, and I found ham radio operators who were listening to first responder radio communications and putting that information out on Facebook and Twitter.

这完全与风向一致。

It is a 100% in alignment with the wind.

它在接下来的二十分钟内有可能蔓延超过两百英亩。

It has the potential for 200 plus acres in the next twenty minutes.

这就是消防员沟通的方式，也是你能获得的最接近实时信息的来源。

This is how firefighters communicate, and it's the closest you can get to any real time source of information.

这些无线电操作员中许多是前一线应急人员，他们在野火期间每天有时会监听无线电长达十八小时，并且因为他们比官方更早地传播信息，成为了社区的英雄。

So these radio operators, many of whom are exoractive first responders, listen to radio sometimes eighteen hours a day during wildfires, and have become the heroes of their community because they're disseminating information before the officials.

他们并没有请求许可来做这件事，但他们知道自己的生命和社区正面临风险。

Now, they didn't ask for permission to do this, but they knew that their lives and their communities were at risk.

尽管他们为世界提供了卓越的服务，但社交媒体并不是适合这种用途的平台。

While they offer an amazing service to the world, social media isn't the right platform for this.

不仅难以找到他们，而且他们独立工作，也不会向你的手机发送警报。

Not only are they hard to find, they work independently, and it doesn't send alerts to your phone.

社交媒体本质上是为猫咪和梗图而生的。

Social media is really made for cats and memes.

幸运的是，我的房子在这场火灾中幸免于难，当我回家后，我加入了这些无线电操作员的行列，接受了野外火灾培训，跟随他们出勤，并深入投入到野火应对中。

Fortunately, my house was spared from that fire, and when I returned home, I joined those radio operators, began wildland fire training, going on ride alongs and immersed myself in wildfire.

但我一直问自己：信息到底在哪里？

But I kept asking myself, where is the information?

就在那时，我恍然大悟，再也无法视而不见。

And that's when it hit me, and I couldn't unsee it.

我意识到，政府无法解决这个问题，但那些无线电操作员可以。

I realized that the government wasn't going to be able to solve this problem, but those radio operators were.

如果我能把他们全部整合起来，我们就能自己建立一个应急警报系统。

If I could just ban them all together, we could build our own emergency alerting system.

于是我招募了许多无线电操作员，找到了来自硅谷的志愿者工程师，我们获得了捐赠的服务器，开始了为期八十天的冲刺，开发出了一款名为Watch Duty的非营利性应急警报应用。

So I recruited many of those radio operators, found volunteer engineers from Silicon Valley, we acquired donated servers and embarked on an eighty day sprint to build the nonprofit emergency alerting app that we called Watch Duty.

就在发布几天后，一场由大风驱动的火灾席卷了莱克县的一个移动房屋公园，将沿途一切化为灰烬。

Just a few days later, after launch, a wind driven fire blew through a mobile home park in Lake County, incinerating everything in its path.

我们的警报比政府早了四十一分钟，让数千名居民在每分每秒都至关重要的时刻获得了宝贵的疏散时间。

Our alerts beat the government by forty one minutes, giving thousands of residents critical moments to evacuate when every second counts.

不幸的是，官方并不高兴。

Unfortunately, the officials were not pleased.

因为这本是他们的职责。

As it was their job to do this.

有些人威胁我们。

Some of them threatened us.

有些人告诉我们这是非法的。

Some of them told us it was illegal.

剧透一下，这并不违法。

Spoiler alert, it isn't.

现状并不希望改变。

The status quo has no interest in changing.

但居民们非常兴奋。

But the residents, well, they were ecstatic.

我们收到了来自整个地区的一封封感谢信，讲述我们如何救下了他们的家园、牲畜、牧场和社区。

We were receiving love letters from across the region about how we'd saved their homes, their livestock, their ranches and their community.

那时我们意识到，只要继续下去，我们即将改变世界。

That's when we realized we were about to change the world if we just kept going.

于是，在顺风相助下，我们招募了数百名无线电操作员，从慈善家和当地居民那里筹集了数百万资金，并逐年在美洲西部迅速扩张。

So with the wind at our backs, we recruited hundreds of radio operators, raised millions from philanthropists and locals and expanded exponentially year after year across the American West.

尽管政府表示反对，甚至连他们也开始使用它。

And despite the government's protests, even they started to use it.

关注CDM。

Watch CDM.

CDM。

CDM.

关注CDM。

Watch CDM.

关注CDM。

Watch CDM.

消防员、油罐机飞行员和推土机操作员都开始使用它，州长和市长也告诉民众下载它。

Firefighters, tanker pilots and dozer operators all started utilizing it, and governors and mayors told the constituents to download it.

我们已经突破了。

We had broken through.

而且

And

然后，洛杉矶着火了。

then, LA lit on fire.

所有的警报系统都崩溃了，全世界都将目光转向了我们，包括应急管理人员本身。

All the alert systems crashed, and the world turned to us, including the emergency managers themselves.

仅仅几天内，有两百五十万人，占洛杉矶县四分之一的人口，下载了Watch Duty，以在他们历史上最严重的野火中寻找安全。

In just a few days, two and a half million people, one quarter of all of LA County, downloaded Watch Duty to find safety during their worst wildfire in history.

但这只是开始，因为我们正将服务扩展到所有自然灾害，因为人们在没有任何预警的情况下白白丧生。

But this is just the beginning, because we are expanding to all natural disasters, because people are dying needlessly without any warning.

我们正在构建我们所需且理应拥有的警报系统。

We are building the alerting system that we need and, frankly, deserve.

我们证明了，一小群深思熟虑、坚定执着的公民足以改变世界。

We are proof that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

弗雷德·罗杰斯会告诉你寻找帮助者，但我要告诉你，一旦你找到了他们，就要做好战斗的准备，因为不经过斗争，现状就不会改变。

Mister Rogers would tell you to look for the helpers, but I'm going tell you that once you find them, prepare for battle, because the status quo will not change without a fight.

不要请求许可。

Do not ask for permission.

继续前进，直到被抓获。

Proceed until apprehended.

谢谢。

Thank you.

那

That

这是约翰·米尔斯在TEDxx2025上的演讲。

was John Mills at TEDxx twenty twenty five.

当硅谷‘快速行动、打破常规’的能量与本地社区服务的坚韧精神相遇时，就会产生一种特殊的魔力。

There's a specific kind of magic that happens when Silicon Valley's move fast and break things energy meets the grit of local community service.

约翰的故事标志着我们在应对最坏情况方式上的根本性转变。

John's story marks a fundamental shift in how we handle the worst case scenario.

几十年来，我们一直采用自上而下的安全模式，等待政府官员核实、批准，最终发送警报。

For decades, we've operated under a top down model of safety, where we wait for a government official to verify, approve, and finally hit send on an alert.

但正如我们刚才所听到的，在气候变化加速和信息即时传播的时代，这种模式已难以跟上步伐。

But as we just heard, in the era of rapid climate change and instant communication, that model is struggling to keep up.

在这些局限性的背景下，公民主导的技术正在产生实际影响。

In the wake of those limitations, citizen led tech is having real impact.

到2025年底，Watch Duty扩展至覆盖全美，变得如此重要，以至于曾经威胁过它的应急指挥中心现在也将其应用程序作为主要的情报来源。

By late twenty twenty five, Watch Duty expanded to provide nationwide coverage across The US, becoming so essential that even the emergency operations centers that once threatened them are now using the app as a primary intelligence feed.

但约翰的Watch Duty并不是这个新工具箱中唯一的工具。

But John's Watch Duty isn't the only tool in this new toolkit.

如果这场演讲启发你重新思考自己的灾难应对准备，那么还有其他由社区驱动的平台正在掀起波澜。

If this talk inspired you to rethink your own disaster readiness, there are other community driven platforms making waves.

PulsePoint

PulsePoint

是

is

一个非营利组织，通过通知经过CPR培训的民众当附近有人发生心脏骤停时，将普通民众变成英雄，往往比急救人员更快到达现场。

a nonprofit that crowdsources citizen superheroes by alerting CPR trained individuals when someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency, often beating paramedics to the scene.

Zello是一款高科技对讲机应用，在飓风哈维期间因协调卡津海军的船只救援而闻名，当时911线路已不堪重负。

Zello is a high-tech walkie talkie app that became famous during Hurricane Harvey for coordinating the Cajun Navy boat rescues when nine eleven lines were overwhelmed.

Genesis Protect 有助于弥合官方数据与社区级疏散区域之间的差距，让你清楚知道危险具体止于哪个街角。

And that Genesis Protect helps bridge the gap between official data and the neighborhood level evacuation zones, ensuring you know exactly which street corner the danger stops at.

约翰给我们留下了一个发人深省的挑战：继续行动，直到被制止。

John left us with a provocative challenge, proceed until apprehended.

这提醒我们，当现状失效时，我们不必等待许可才能成为自己所期待的那股帮助力量。

It's a reminder that when the status quo fails, we don't have to wait for permission to be the help we're looking for.

好的。

Alright.

本期节目就到这里。

That's our show.

感谢收听。

Thanks for listening.

TED Tech 是 TED 推出的播客。

TED Tech is a podcast from TED.

本集由特里娜·马尼诺制作。

This episode was produced by Trina Manino.

我们的编辑是阿莱杭德罗·萨拉查，节目内容由朱莉娅·迪克森核对。

Our editor is Alejandre Salazar, and the show is fact checked by Julia Dickerson.

特别感谢康桑萨·加利亚尔多、达尼埃拉·巴莱雷索、玛丽亚·拉迪亚斯、坦齐卡·苏格马·尼沃恩和罗克珊·海克拉什。

Special thanks to Consanza Gallardo, Daniella Balareso, Maria Ladias, Tanzika Sungma Nivon, and Roxanne Highlash.

如果你喜欢这个节目，请务必订阅并给我们留下评论，以便其他人也能找到我们。

If you're enjoying the show, make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so other people can find too.

我是谢丽尔·多尔西。

I'm Sheryl Dorsey.

让我们继续探索未来。

Let's keep digging into the future.

下周再和我一起继续吧。

Join me next week for more.

你好。

Hi.

我是弗朗西斯·弗莱。

I'm Frances Fry.

我是安妮·莫里斯。

And I'm Anne Morris.

我们是全新TED播客《可解决》的主持人。

And we are the hosts of a new TED podcast called fixable.

我们曾帮助世界上一些最具竞争力公司的领导者解决各种问题。

We've helped leaders at some of the world's most competitive companies solve all kinds of problems.

在我们的节目中，我们将揭开帷幕，向您提供通常只保留给高层管理人员的那种坦诚、无过滤的建议。

On our show, we'll pull back the curtain and give you the type of honest, unfiltered advice we usually reserve for top executives.

也许你有一个界限不清的同事，或者你想知道如何激励和鼓舞你的团队。

Maybe you have a coworker with boundary issues, or you wanna know how to inspire and motivate your team.

无论问题大小，我们都不在乎。

No problem is too big or too small.

给我们打电话，我们会帮你解决你卡住的问题。

Give us a call, and we'll help you solve the problems you're stuck on.

在你收听播客的任何平台都可以找到《可解决》。

Find Fixable wherever you listen to podcasts.