Why is Europe so technologically backward compared to the USA?

为什么欧洲在技术上比美国落后？

在2024年下半年一次关于人工智能的会议上，法国总统马克龙沮丧地说：“我们欧洲人有点落后了。中国和美国对人工智能的投资要多得多。”

欧洲岂止是“有点落后了”，欧洲是远远落后了。

美国芯片巨头英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋不久前指出，在人工智能投资方面，欧盟远远落后于美国和中国，欧盟必须加快人工智能的发展，因为数据当前已成为各国争夺的资源。

欧洲为什么落后于美国和中国呢

第一个原因是显而易见的：碎片化的市场。

第二个原因是过分严格的监管。

第三个原因：欧洲缺乏全球知名的科技巨擘。

以下是Quora读者的评论:

John Barber

In the early 90’s as digital mobile (cell) phone networks were replacing analogue networks, the Americans opted for an open slather “solution”. Telcos would buy spectrum at Auction and implement whatever digital technology they saw fit.

The result being that the more populous licence areas were snapped up by big telcos and smaller ones would get less populated areas, smaller towns, rural areas etc.

Your mobile number also used the same area code as landlines, so callers couldn’t easily tell if they were dialling a landline number or a mobile.

The result was you could drive only a few “miles” from home or work, and be roaming onto a different cellular provider, incurring roaming costs. Adjacent licence areas may be using CDMA whereas your phone used TDMA technology, so you had no service.

上世纪90年代初，数字移动（蜂窝）电话网络逐渐取代模拟网络之时，美国人选择了一种放任自流的 “解决方案”。电信运营商通过竞拍购买频谱，然后自行决定采用何种数字技术。

结果是，人口密集地区的牌照被大型电信公司抢购一空，而小型运营商只能拿到人口相对稀少地区、小镇及乡村等地的牌照。

而且，手机号码与固定电话使用相同的区号，因此拨打电话的人很难分辨自己拨打的是固定电话还是手机。

这就导致，你离家或工作地点仅行驶几 “英里”，手机就可能漫游到另一家移动运营商网络，从而产生漫游费用。相邻的牌照区域可能使用码分多址（CDMA）技术，而你的手机采用时分多址（TDMA）技术，这样一来你就没有信号服务。

Also, you wrre paying to RECEIVE calls since callers had no indication they were dialling a mobile number, the airtime surcharge was to the recipient of the call. Cold callers and time wasters were costing you money.

Meanwhile, in Europe, where they had learned from incompatible analogue networks, they formed a Special Group for Mobiles, or “Group Speciale Mobile”.

These backward Europeans developed a system with a standardised frequency band/s and communications protocol (TDMA). They used the SIM card concept to aid consumer choice with handsets, ease of changing phones or using a roaming SIM.

They also incorporated pagin type services (SMS) and established a protocol for video calls which still exsts today and is universal across handset brands, unlike Apple’s incompatible “Face Time”.

此外，由于拨打电话的人无法知晓自己拨打的是手机号码，所以接听电话也要付费，通话附加费由接听者承担。骚扰电话和无端浪费时间的电话都在让你掏钱。

与此同时，在欧洲，鉴于此前从互不兼容的模拟网络中汲取的经验教训，他们成立了一个移动通信特别小组，即 “移动特别小组”（Group Speciale Mobile）。

这些看似 “落后” 的欧洲人开发出了一套系统，采用标准化频段及通信协议（TDMA）。他们引入了用户识别模块（SIM）卡概念，方便消费者选择手机，更换手机或使用漫游SIM卡也更为便捷。

他们还整合了寻呼式服务（短信服务SMS），并制定了视频通话协议。这一协议沿用至今，且在各手机品牌间通用，不像苹果不兼容的 “Face Time”。

The latest Samsung Smartphone can make and receive video calls with a 20 year old Nokia.

Oh, and GSM countries used unique “area code” prefixes for mobiles (eg 07 in UK, 08 in France IIRC, 04 in Australia, 02 in New Zealand, etc) so callers knew they were dialling a mobile and that there would be a surcharge.

Of course airtime surcharges have been absorbed into monthly fees and many plans are pretty much “all you can eat”.

The backward Europeans developed a far more elegant, integrated and capable mobile phone system than the US “market driven” cockup.

如今最新款的三星智能手机，能与一部有20年历史的诺基亚手机进行视频通话。

哦，还有，全球移动通信系统（GSM）国家为手机号码设置了独特的 “区号” 前缀（例如，我记得英国是07，法国是08，澳大利亚是04，新西兰是02等等），这样拨打电话的人就知道自己拨打的是手机，也就明白会产生附加费。

当然，如今通话附加费已被纳入月费之中，而且许多套餐基本都是 “不限流量” 式的。

这些 “落后” 的欧洲人，打造出了一个远比美国 “市场驱动” 模式下混乱局面更为精妙、集成度更高且功能更强大的移动电话系统。

America has developed some great technology, there’s no question about that, and some of their engineering and manufacturing is second to none, but they are not the be all and end all.

美国确实研发出了一些伟大的技术，这一点毋庸置疑，其部分工程技术和制造业也是首屈一指，但美国并非万能，也并非事事领先。

Christian Wartner

How would you measure this nowadays anyway. All the old metrics like infrastructure, number of gadgets, number of cars etc, do not support that and are partially outdated anyway. Then they also are so different from area to area.

I believe it could be argued that patents or stock market numbers allow that statement but they mean nothing in practice or usage.

Technology is not really owned by countries. Most research is public. It is rare for companies and even rarer for government institutions to be ahead of the international research communities in universities etc. Even if companies would own the top technology (on paper via patents they can) they sell it world wide for everyone to implement or use as a service.

Do countries have the money to use the most advanced tech? They try but nobody replaces high tech infrastructure yearly. And often the most reliable is not the most advanced.

如今究竟该如何衡量这一点呢？以往那些衡量标准，诸如基础设施、电子设备数量、汽车保有量之类，不仅无法支撑相关论断，而且在一定程度上已然过时。况且，这些指标在不同地区差异极大。

有人或许会说，专利数量或股市数据能支持相关说法，但实际上，这些数据在实际应用中并无太大意义。

技术并非真正归属于某个国家。多数研究成果是公开的。企业能领先于大学等国际研究机构已属罕见，而政府机构做到这点更是凤毛麟角。即便企业拥有顶尖技术（从专利层面而言可以如此），它们也会将其销往全球，供各方实施应用或转化为服务。

各国是否有资金采用最先进的技术呢？它们确实在努力，但没人会每年都更新高科技基础设施。而且，往往最可靠的并非是最先进的。

Then you have consumers. They update their stuff but what gets accepted is based on trends/money and not level of advancement. The cheapest tech with visible advancement to the last iteration will be used everywhere. But what does that say about a country?

I can not tell the difference of technological level in Top Tier Cities on any continent. The level of digitalization used everyday is probably worse in the German countryside than some areas in Africa. Then again US infrastructure would look surprisingly out of date (telephone poles, random power outages, non underground powerlines, decades old bridges, public transport) compared to German infrastructure everywhere.

There is not a single technology widespread in the US that can not be bought in any country or even would be unavailable specifically in Europe.

接着谈谈消费者。他们会更新手中的产品，但最终被大众接受的产品，更多是基于潮流趋势和价格因素，而非技术先进程度。只要新技术相较于上一代产品有明显提升且价格低廉，便会随处可见。但这又能说明一个国家的什么情况呢？

我实在难以分辨各大洲顶级城市之间的技术水平差异。德国乡村地区日常的数字化程度，或许还比不上非洲的某些地区。再者，与德国各地的基础设施相比，美国的基础设施看上去出奇地陈旧（电线杆林立、时常停电、电线未入地、桥梁老旧，公共交通也落后）。

在美国广泛应用的技术，没有哪一项是在其他国家买不到的，更不存在在欧洲无法获取的情况。

Alex Evans

The querent is an idiot.

We have a interconnected world, particularly the developed nations. There is no significant difference in how technologically advanced they are. Differences in the banking systems between the US and western Europe are just that differences. The US has the technology to do it the way that Europe does it. Same thing goes to basically anything that one chooses to compare.

提问者是个蠢货。

我们生活在一个相互关联的世界，尤其是发达国家之间。它们在技术先进程度上并没有显著差异。美国和西欧银行系统的差异，仅仅只是差异而已。美国有能力采用欧洲的运作方式。基本上，对于任何你想要比较的事物都是如此。

Joan Vredik Broadley

I’m sorry you made a keyboard error in ty your question. Of course you meant, why is the USA so technologically backward compared to the REST of the world? Even street markets in Africa have vendors with cell phone money transfer capability! In the USA, if you win big in Vegas you are forced to carry cash back over the border to your home; casinos say they can’t do internet bank transfers. The world has chip “swipe” payments in stores and restaurants. In the USA they still want to take your credit card “to the back” to process the transaction. And don’t get me started on the use of fax machines still common in The States!

抱歉，你在输入问题时可能打错字了。你应该是想问，与世界其他地区相比，美国为何在技术方面如此落后？

就连非洲的街头市场都有能用手机转账的小贩！在美国，如果你在拉斯维加斯赢了大钱，就不得不带着现金回国；赌场称他们无法进行网上银行转账。

世界其他地方的商店和餐馆都采用芯片“刷卡”支付了，而在美国，他们还是会把你的信用卡拿到后台去处理交易。

更别提美国还在普遍使用传真机这件事了！

Ronald Mills

Shit, apparently you got sucked into some kind of weird, bizarre, exact opposite of this reality, Star Trek mirror universe. Here in this reality it’s the exact opposite. I say this as an American who was stationed in Europe in the early 2000s. We still don’t have shit they’ve had for decades. The only place you’ll find a check or checkbook there is in a museum and it’s been that way for decades. Contactless payment? Yeah, that was the standard there while here people were just getting adjusted to this new fangled debit card thingy you didn’t have to swipe.

Don’t even get me started on healthcare systems and tax policies. Although to be fair those tax policies were modeled very closely after what America was doing from the late thirties through the early seventies. Except, you know, they were smart enough to keep doing it and we were dumb enough to get taken in by the first B-list actor huckster (Reagan) we elected and thanks to that we’re now the proud owners of a straight-up oligarchy.

见鬼，显然你好像陷入了某种怪异离奇、与现实完全相反的《星际迷航》镜像宇宙了。在现实世界里，情况恰恰相反。我以一位21世纪初曾驻扎在欧洲的美国人说这话的。

他们欧洲几十年前就有的东西，我们美国到现在都还没有。在欧洲，你唯一能看到支票或支票簿的地方就是博物馆，而且几十年来一直如此。非接触式支付？没错，那在欧洲是标配，而在我们美国这儿，人们才刚刚适应这种不用刷卡的新奇借记卡。

更别提医疗体系和税收政策了。不过公平地说，欧洲的税收政策在很大程度上借鉴了美国20世纪30年代末到70年代初的做法。只是，你懂的，他们足够明智，一直延续着这种政策，而我们却蠢到被我们选出来的第一个二流演员出身的骗子（里根）给忽悠了。就因为这个，我们现在成了彻头彻尾寡头政治的拥趸。

You see during the aforementioned 30’s through 70’s those tax policies were so successful and built an economy and middle class so envied Europe said “hey let’s do that” while a gaggle of goobers here voted in a guy that said “hey give all your money to rich people” and thus the Nigerian prince scam was born but was then called trickle-down. Yes that is exactly what Republicans’ economic policies are: “send rich people all your money and we’ll send you back much more”!!! The money is sent, the “more” never comes, and they stop answering your emails. Now Europe has a thriving middle class and we have…well…richer rich people and a rapidly disappearing middle class.

你看，在上述的30年代到70年代，那些税收政策非常成功，打造出的经济和中产阶级令欧洲人艳羡不已，他们说“嘿，咱们也这么干”。而我们这儿一群笨蛋却投票选出了一个说“嘿，把你们所有的钱都给富人”的家伙，于是“尼日利亚王子骗局”（指不靠谱的致富承诺）诞生了，只不过后来被称作“涓滴经济学”。没错，这就是共和党经济政策的真实写照：“把你们所有的钱都寄给富人，我们会回馈给你们更多”！！！钱寄出去了，所谓的“更多”却从未兑现，然后他们就不再回复你的邮件了。现在欧洲有蓬勃发展的中产阶级，而我们呢。嗯，富人更富了，中产阶级却在迅速消失。

Which brings us to education. After reading the above paragraph do I even have to explain that at this point?

Better, faster, cheaper internet and that applies to dam near anything technology related you can think of. Aside from a few bleeding-edge, still in the trial phase, bank-busting treatments most of the medical breakthroughs are coming out of Europe.

You know what? Just buy a plane ticket, take a vacation, and go tour Europe if you don’t come back seriously pissed off at what you’ve seen you’ve got one hell of a learning disability and you might want to get that checked. Well if you’ve got the insurance and the cash to actually do that in this country.

这就说到教育问题了。看了上面那段话，我在这一点上还有解释的必要吗？

欧洲有更优质、更快速、更便宜的互联网，而且这几乎适用于你能想到的任何与科技相关的事物。除了一些仍处于试验阶段、烧钱的前沿医疗手段外，大多数医学突破都来自欧洲。

知道吗？要是你不相信，就买张机票去欧洲度个假。要是你回来后不对自己的所见所闻感到极度愤怒，那你怕是有严重的学习障碍，最好去检查一下。当然，前提是在我们这个国家，你有保险，也有足够的钱去做这些。

MO LA Yem

Europe invests a lot in research, and publishes and patents many ideas. But it fails to compete with the US and China when it comes to translating its innovation effort into large, global technology firms. The seven largest US tech companies, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, are 20 times bigger than the EU’s seven largest, and generate more than ten times more revenue.

That isn’t to say Europe has no tech success stories. The world leader in music streaming is Spotify, a Swedish company. Dutch company ASML produces the world’s most advanced computer chips, and Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is leading the extremely profitable market for weight-loss drugs.

欧洲在科研方面投入巨大，发表了众多研究成果并申请了大量专利。然而，在将创新成果转化为大型全球性科技企业方面，欧洲却无法与美国和中国竞争。美国七家最大的科技公司，即字母表（谷歌母公司）、亚马逊、苹果、元（原脸书）、微软、英伟达和特斯拉，规模是欧盟七家最大科技公司的20倍，创造的营收更是后者的10倍多。

这并非意味着欧洲没有科技领域的成功范例。全球音乐流媒体领域的领军者是瑞典公司Spotify。荷兰企业阿斯麦（ASML）制造出全球最先进的计算机芯片，而丹麦制药商诺和诺德则在利润极为丰厚的减肥药市场独占鳌头。

Timothy Ellis Author

That’s a weird thing to even think.

Here in Australia, we’ve been using technology as standard that still isn’t normal in the US.

Last time I was in the US I couldn’t get over just how far behind they were with even basic tech.

Anyone holding the US up as the pinnacle of technology in the world obviously hasn’t been outside of the US

你们居然会这么想，真是奇怪。

在澳大利亚，我们日常使用的一些技术，在美国居然仍未普及。

上次我在美国的时候，看到连基础技术都如此落后，我震惊了。

任何把美国视为世界科技巅峰的人，显然都没离开过美国。

Arkadiusz Jenczak

CASE 1.

Just this week I was looking for a good internet service provider in city of Helper, Utah. My friend is going to move there for couple of years and asked me for help since he is not very tech savvy. I reside in Poland, so by default my help can only be provided remotely, but thanks to internet you can find information independent on where you live. So anyway, I went to search for ISP. TOTAL DISSAPOINTMENT.

Best service provider in 2024 (I was looking for fiber/FTTH connection) I could find, provides worse service than I had in Poland when I installed my fiber connection - in 2015. Literally, slower, with transfer caps, and price for the 100 Mbit/s connection+TV is 7 times higher than I pay for 1Gb/s connection + TV with more channels.

Got it? I have 10 times faster connection, no transfer limit, twice as much tv channels, for 15% of american service price. I am not sure if it is even fair to compare these services since american one is so far behind. Many providers do not even have the 100Mb/s option anymore.

Oh, and Poland in not even in the lead when it comes to internet speed and quality in EU.

就在本周，我在为犹他州赫尔珀市寻找一家优质的互联网服务提供商。我的朋友打算搬到那里住几年，由于他不太懂技术，便向我求助。我住在波兰，所以自然而然只能远程提供帮助，但好在借助互联网，无论身处何地都能获取信息。于是，我开始搜索互联网服务提供商，结果却大失所望。

2024年（我当时在找光纤到户连接服务），我能找到的该市最佳服务提供商所提供的服务，比我2015年在波兰安装光纤时的服务还要差。确切地说，网速更慢，还有流量限制，而且100兆比特每秒连接速度加电视服务的价格，是我在波兰支付的1千兆比特每秒连接速度加更多电视频道服务价格的7倍。

明白了吗？我的网速快10倍，没有流量限制，电视频道数量翻倍，而价格仅为美国该项服务的15%。我甚至觉得把这两种服务作比较都不太公平，因为美国的服务实在太过落后。很多提供商甚至都不再提供100兆比特每秒的服务选项了。

哦，顺便说一句，在欧盟各国中，波兰在网速和网络质量方面甚至都不处于领先地位。

Jorge Avila

Because in the United States big companies, startups, universities, research institutions and government agencies have been able to build and maintain a dynamic and collaborative/competitive business environment that promotes innovation faster and deeper than anywhere else in the world.

这是因为在美国，大型企业、初创公司、高校、科研机构以及政府部门，成功构建并维持了一种充满活力，且兼具协作与竞争的商业环境，这种环境推动创新的速度和深度，超越了世界其他任何地方。

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