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I got invited to an exclusive resort to deliver a talk about the digital future
我曾应邀到一个高端度假村，讲一下关于人类的数字未来，
to what I assumed would be a couple of hundred tech executives.
去之前，我以为听众是几百位科技高管。
And I was there in the green room, waiting to go on, and instead of bringing me to the stage,
我在休息室，等待演讲的开始，然而，他们并没把我领到台上，
they brought five men into the green room who sat around this little table with me. They were tech billionaires.
而是领着五个人来到休息间，和我一起坐在这样的小桌旁。这些人都是科技界的亿万富翁！
And they started peppering me with these really binary questions, like:
他们开始连珠炮似地问些二元问题，比如：
Bitcoin or Etherium? Virtual reality or augmented reality?
比特币还是以太币？虚拟现实VR还是增强现实AR呢？
I don't know if they were taking bets or what.
我不知道他们是在打赌还是有其他目的。
And as they got more comfortable with me, they edged towards their real question of concern. Alaska or New Zealand?
当他们和我熟络了以后，就试探着问起了真正的关心问题：（当世界末日来临时）去阿拉斯加还是新西兰？
That's right. These tech billionaires were asking a media theorist for advice on where to put their doomsday bunkers.
一点没错。这些科技界的亿万富翁在寻求一个媒体理论家的建议：世界末日来临时，去哪里才可以避祸。
We spent the rest of the hour on the single question: "How do I maintain control of my security staff after the event?"
在一小时剩下的时间里，我们全聚焦在一个问题上：“事件发生以后，我如何保持对安保人员的控制？”
By "the event" they mean the thermonuclear war or climate catastrophe or social unrest that ends the world as we know it,
他们所说的“事件”，指的就是大家所知的由热核战争、气候灾难或社会动荡带来的世界末日，
and more importantly, makes their money obsolete.
更重要的是，世界末日让他们的钱毫无用处了。
And I couldn't help but think: these are the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world,
但我不禁想到：这些人可都是当今世界最富有、最有权势的人，
yet they see themselves as utterly powerless to influence the future.
然而，他们却认为自己对末日来临束手无策。
The best they can do is hang on for the inevitable catastrophe
他们能做的，就是直面在劫难逃的命运，
and then use their technology and money to get away from the rest of us.
然后用他们的技术和金钱，远离我们这些等闲之辈。
And these are the winners of the digital economy.
数字经济时代的赢家们竟然是这样的嘴脸！
The digital renaissance was about the unbridled potential of the collective human imagination.
数字复兴，把人类集体想像力发挥到了极致。
It spanned everything from chaos math and quantum physics to fantasy role-playing and the Gaia hypothesis, right?
它涵盖了从混沌数学、量子物理，到奇幻角色扮演和盖亚假说的方方面面，对吧？
We believed that human beings connected could create any future we could imagine.
我们曾相信，人类联合起来就可创造出我们想像的未来。
And then came the dot com boom. And the digital future became stock futures.
接下来，互联网泡沫时代来临了。而所谓的数字未来，则变成了股票未来。
And we used all that energy of the digital age to pump steroids into the already dying NASDAQ stock exchange.
我们竭尽数字时代的所有能量，为垂死的纳斯达克证券交易所注入了一剂强心针。
The tech magazines told us a tsunami was coming.
科技杂志告诉我们，金融海啸就要来临。
And only the investors who hired the best scenario-planners and futurists would be able to survive the wave.
只有聘请了顶级全局策划者和未来学家的投资者，才能在这波浪潮中存活下来。
And so the future changed from this thing we create together in the present
因此，未来从我们当下共同创造的这个时代怪胎，
to something we bet on in some kind of a zero-sum winner-takes-all competition.
变为竞争中我们的押注，这种类似于“零和”的，“胜者拥有一切”的竞争。
And when things get that competitive about the future, humans are no longer valued for our creativity.
当未来的竞争变得如此激烈时，人类则不再因为拥有创造力而受到重视。
No, now we're just valued for our data. Because they can use the data to make predictions.
不，现在我们受重视只因我们的数据而已。因为他们可以使用我们的数据进行预测。
Creativity, if anything, that creates noise. That makes it harder to predict.
创造力，如果有的话，只会产生不和谐因素。使预测变得更加困难。
So we ended up with a digital landscape that really repressed creativity, repressed novelty,
所以我们最终得到的，是一个数字蓝图，它真正压制了创造力、压制了创新性，
it repressed what makes us most human. We ended up with social media.
它恰恰压制了让我们之所以成为人类的、最根本的东西。我们最终得到是社交媒体。
Does social media really connect people in new, interesting ways?
社交媒体果真以新的、有趣的方式将人们联系在一起了吗？
No, social media is about using our data to predict our future behavior.
没有！社交媒体只是用我们的数据，来预测我们未来的行为。
Or when necessary, to influence our future behavior so that we act more in accordance with our statistical profiles.
或者，在必要时，影响我们未来的行为，以便我们更多地按照我们的统计概况行事。
The digital economy -- does it like people?
数字经济--它喜欢人类吗？
No, if you have a business plan, what are you supposed to do? Get rid of all the people.
不，如果你有商业计划，你一般会怎么实施？远离所有人。
Human beings, they want health care, they want money, they want meaning. You can't scale with people.
人类，他们想要医疗、想要钱，还想要存在的意义。如果雇佣人类的话，公司规模不可能做大。
Even our digital apps -- they don't help us form any rapport or solidarity.
即便是我们的数字应用--它们也无助于我们形成任何融洽或团结的关系。
I mean, where's the button on the ride hailing app for the drivers to talk to one another about their working conditions or to unionize?
我是说，打车软件上有哪个按钮，可以让司机们交流各自的工作环境、或一起组建工会？
Even our videoconferencing tools, they don't allow us to establish real rapport.
即使是视频会议工具，它们也不允许我们建立真正的融洽关系。
However good the resolution of the video, you still can't see if somebody's irises are opening to really take you in.
无论视频的分辨率多高，你仍然无法看到对方眼睛虹膜是否打开，以此判断是否认可你。
All of the things that we've done to establish rapport that we've developed over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution,
我们历经几十万年演变、为在彼此之间建立融洽的关系所做的一切，
they don't work, you can't see if someone's breath is syncing up with yours.
都不好使了，你无法看到对方是否与你同呼吸共命运。
So the mirror neurons never fire, the oxytocin never goes through your body,
因此，镜像神经元无法兴奋起来，体内也不会有让人与人变得亲密的催产素，
you never have that experience of bonding with the other human being.
你永远也不会再有与他人同舟共济的那种经历。
And instead, you're left like, "Well, they agreed with me, but did they really, did they really get me?"
相反，你会说，“嗯，他们同意我的看法，但他们真正理解我的意思吗？”
And we don't blame the technology for that lack of fidelity. We blame the other person.
而且，我们不去责怪造成交流失真的技术，反而会去责怪对方。
You know, even the technologies and the digital initiatives that we have to promote humans, are intensely anti-human at the core.
即便是那些用于促进人类发展的技术和数字计划，其核心也是强烈反人类的。
Think about the blockchain. The blockchain is here to help us have a great humanized economy?
就拿区块链来说吧。区块链是为了帮我们拥有高度人性化经济的吗？
No. The blockchain does not engender trust between users,
不！区块链并不能在用户之间建立信任，
the blockchain simply substitutes for trust in a new, even less transparent way.
区块链只是用一种新的、更不透明的方式，取代了用户间的信任。
Or the code movement. I mean, education is great, we love education,
再譬如代码运动。教育是伟大的，我们都热爱教育，
and it's a wonderful idea that we want kids to be able to get jobs in the digital future, so we'll teach them code now.
这样的理念很棒：现在就教孩子们编码，以便能在数字未来找到工作。
But since when is education about getting jobs?
但从何时起，教育就是为了找工作？
Education wasn't about getting jobs. Education was compensation for a job well done.
教育并不是为了找工作！教育是对出色工作的补偿。
The idea of public education was for coal miners, who would work in the coal mines all day,
公共教育的初衷是为了整日在矿山工作的煤矿工人，
then they'd come home and they should have the dignity to be able to read a novel and understand it.
让他们下班回家后，带着人生尊严看看小说，能读懂它。
Or the intelligence to be able to participate in democracy.
或让睿智之人能够参与民主管理。
When we make it an extension of the job, what are we really doing?
当把教育变成工作的延伸时，我们到底在做什么呢？
We're just letting corporations really externalize the cost of training their workers.
我们只是让公司真正将培训工人的成本外部化。
And the worst of all really is the humane technology movement.
而真正最糟糕的却是人道科技运动。
I mean, I love these guys, the former guys who used to take the algorithms from Las Vegas slot machines
其实，我喜欢这帮人，在早期能将拉斯维加斯的老虎机算法
and put them in our social media feed so that we get addicted.
应用到我们的社交媒体上，就为了让大家上瘾。
Now they've seen the error of their ways and they want to make technology more humane.
现在，他们看到了自己方式的错误，想让技术更加人性化。
But when I hear the expression "humane technology," I think about cage-free chickens or something.
但当我听到“人道科技”这个表达时，脑海里浮现的是散养鸡或类似的东西。
We're going to be as humane as possible to them, until we take them to the slaughter.
在送它们进屠宰场以前，我们会尽量人道地对待它们。
So now they're going to let these technologies be as humane as possible,
所以，他们现在要让这些技术尽可能人性化，
as long as they extract enough data and extract enough money from us to please their shareholders.
以便从我们身上能源源不断地提取足够的数据、足够的金钱，去取悦他们的股东们。
Meanwhile, the shareholders, for their part, they're just thinking,
同时，就股东们而言，他们也只是在想：
"I need to earn enough money now, so I can insulate myself from the world I'm creating by earning money in this way."
“我现在需要通过这样的方式去赚足够的钱，以便我能与自己所创的数字世界隔离开来。”
No matter how many VR goggles they slap on their faces and whatever fantasy world they go into,
不管他们往脸上戴多少个VR镜，也不管他们进入怎样的幻想世界，
they can't externalize the slavery and pollution that was caused through the manufacture of the very device.
均无法将制造这种装置所造成的对他人的奴役和污染外部化。
It reminds me of Thomas Jefferson's dumbwaiter.
这使我想起了托马斯·杰斐逊的上菜机。
Now, we like to think that he made the dumbwaiter
现在，我们喜欢这样认为，他做上菜机，
in order to spare his slaves all that labor of carrying the food up to the dining room for the people to eat.
是为了省去奴隶们把食物带到餐厅供人享用的所有劳动。
That's not what it was for, it wasn't for the slaves, it was for Thomas Jefferson and his dinner guests,
实情并非如此，才不是为了省去奴隶们的劳动呢，而是为了托马斯·杰斐逊和前来就餐的客人们，
so they didn't have to see the slave bringing the food up.
不用再看到奴隶把食物端出来。
The food just arrived magically, like it was coming out of a "Start Trek" replicator.
食物神奇地到达，就像从“星际迷航”变换器变出来一样。
It's part of an ethos that says, human beings are the problem and technology is the solution.
这代表一种社会思潮，认为人是问题的根本，技术才是解决方案。
We can't think that way anymore.
我们再也不能这样想了。
We have to stop using technology to optimize human beings for the market and start optimizing technology for the human future.
我们必须停止为迎合市场而使用技术来优化人类，而要开始为人类的未来去优化技术。
But that's a really hard argument to make these days, because humans are not popular beings.
但时下很难就这一点达成共识，因为人类太不受欢迎。
I talked about this in front of an environmentalist just the other day, and she said,
就在前几天，我在一位环保人士面前谈到了这一点，她说：
"Why are you defending humans? Humans destroyed the planet. They deserve to go extinct."
“你为什么要为人类辩护？是人类毁灭了地球，他们理应灭绝。”
Even our popular media hates humans.
就连我们的大众媒体也讨厌人类。
Watch television, all the sci-fi shows are about how robots are better and nicer than people.
看看电视就知道了，所有科幻节目都是关于机器人如何比人类好、比人类优秀。
Even zombie shows -- what is every zombie show about?
僵尸表演也不例外--僵尸表演的内容是什么？
Some person, looking at the horizon at some zombie going by,
有人看着地平线上的僵尸路过，
and they zoom in on the person and you see the person's face, and you know what they're thinking:
他们把人拉近放大，定焦在人脸上，你知道他们在想什么：
"What's really the difference between that zombie and me? He walks, I walk. He eats, I eat. He kills, I kill."
“僵尸和我之间有什么区别？他能走，我也能走；他吃东西，我也吃东西；他杀戮，我也杀戮。”
But he's a zombie. At least you're aware of it.
但他就是个僵尸而已。至少，你知道这一点。
If we are actually having trouble distinguishing ourselves from zombies, we have a pretty big problem going on.
如果我们连区分自己和僵尸都做不到了，那我们的麻烦可就大了。
And don't even get me started on the transhumanists.
不要让我开始讲超人类主义者。
I was on a panel with a transhumanist, and he's going on about the singularity.
曾与我在同一个专家组的一位超人类主义者是这样谈论奇点的到来：
"Oh, the day is going to come really soon when computers are smarter than people.
“噢，电脑比人聪明的那一天将很快到来。
And the only option for people at that point is to pass the evolutionary torch to our successor and fade into the background.
而那时，人们唯一的选择，就是把进化的火炬递给我们的继任者，并淡出到幕后。
Maybe at best, upload your consciousness to a silicon chip. And accept your extinction."
也许，最多只能把你的意识上传到一个硅芯片上，并接受自己灭绝的事实。”
And I said, "No, human beings are special.
而我说：“人类不会灭绝。人类是特别的。
We can embrace ambiguity, we understand paradox, we're conscious, we're weird, we're quirky.
我们可以接受歧义、理解悖论，我们有意识，我们很奇怪、也很古怪。
There should be a place for humans in the digital future."
数字未来应该会有人类的一席之地。”
And he said, "Oh, Rushkoff, you're just saying that because you're a human."
他说：“噢，拉什科夫，你这么说不过因为自己是类人罢了。”
As if it's hubris. OK, I'm on "Team Human."
好像有点狂妄自大。没错，我就是“人类战队”的一员。
That was the original insight of the digital age.
这就是数字时代的最初见解。
That being human is a team sport, evolution's a collaborative act.
成为人类是一项团队运动，进化是一种协作的行为。
Even the trees in the forest, they're not all in competition with each other,
即使是森林里的树木，它们也并非全都相互竞争，
they're connected with the vast network of roots and mushrooms
它们与巨大的、盘根错节的根系及菌类紧密连接，
that let them communicate with one another and pass nutrients back and forth.
使得它们能够相互交流，并来回传递营养。
If human beings are the most evolved species,
如果说人类是进化最好的物种，
it's because we have the most evolved ways of collaborating and communicating. We have language. We have technology.
那是因为我们进化出了最高等的合作和交流方式。我们有语言，我们还有技术。
It's funny, I used to be the guy who talked about the digital future for people who hadn't yet experienced anything digital.
听起来很可笑，我曾是那个向尚未体验过任何数字技术的人描述数字未来的人。
And now I feel like I'm the last guy who remembers what life was like before digital technology.
而现在，我觉得自己是唯一记得数字技术之前生活的人。
It's not a matter of rejecting the digital or rejecting the technological.
这不是拒绝数字产品或拒绝技术产品的问题。
It's a matter of retrieving the values that we're in danger of leaving behind
这是一个恢复频临被抛弃的价值，
and then embedding them in the digital infrastructure for the future.
并将其嵌入未来数字基础架构的问题。
And that's not rocket science.
这不像火箭科学那么高深。
It's as simple as making a social network that instead of teaching us to see people as adversaries,
这简单的就像让社交网络教我们把对手当人看待，
it teaches us to see our adversaries as people.
而不要教我们把人当成对手。
It means creating an economy that doesn't favor a platform monopoly that wants to extract all the value out of people and places,
这意味着，我们要创造的经济应杜绝只期望从人和地方中攫取所有价值的平台垄断，
but one that promotes the circulation of value through a community
而应是一个通过社区促进价值流通的经济，
and allows us to establish platform cooperatives that distribute ownership as wide as possible.
以便让我们建立尽可能广泛分权的平台合作体。
It means building platforms that don't repress our creativity and novelty in the name of prediction
这意味着要建立这样的平台，不以预测的名义来压制我们的创造力和创新性，
but actually promote creativity and novelty,
而是真正地促进创造力和创新性，
so that we can come up with some of the solutions to actually get ourselves out of the mess that we're in.
以便我们能想出一些解决方案，真正摆脱我们目前所处的混乱局面。
No, instead of trying to earn enough money to insulate ourselves from the world we're creating,
与其尽全力赚取足够的钱以脱离我们正在创造的世界，
why don't we spend that time and energy making the world a place that we don't feel the need to escape from.
为什么不把这些时间和精力花在把地球创造成一个根本没必要逃离的地方呢？
There is no escape, there is only one thing going on here. Please, don't leave. Join us.
完全可以不用逃离，大家需要同舟共济。拜托大家, 别走！加入我们吧。
We may not be perfect, but whatever happens, at least you won't be alone.
我们可能并不完美，但无论发生什么，至少你不用独自面对。
Join "Team Human." Find the others. Together, let's make the future that we always wanted.
加入“人类战队”吧。团结其他人。让我们携手，一起创造所憧憬的未来。
Oh, and those tech billionaires who wanted to know how to maintain control of their security force after the apocalypse,
对了，还有那些想知道如何保持对自己安全部队控制的科技亿万富翁们，
you know what I told them?
知道我是如何回答的吗？
"Start treating those people with love and respect right now.
“从现在开始，用爱和尊重来对待那些人。
Maybe you won't have an apocalypse to worry about." Thank you.
也许令你忧心的世界末日就不会来临。”谢谢。
