论工业社会及其未来(6)——卡钦斯基

SIMPLER SOCIAL PROBLEMS HAVE PROVED INTRACTABLE
更简单的社会问题也无法得到解决

If anyone still imagines that it would be possible to reform the system in such a way as to protect freedom from technology, let him consider how clumsily and for the most part unsuccessfully our society has dealt with other social problems that are far more simple and straightforward. Among other things, the system has failed to stop environmental degradation, political corruption, drug trafficking or domestic abuse.

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假如还有人以为可以通过改革的方式保护自由不受技术的侵害,那就让他想想我们的社会在应对远远更加简单直接的其他问题时到底有多么笨拙且往往不成功好了。体系未能制止的问题有很多,比方说环境恶化、政治腐败、贩毒或家庭暴力等等。

Take our environmental problems, for example. Here the conflict of values is straightforward: economic expedience now versus saving some of our natural resources for our grandchildren [22] But on this subject we get only a lot of blather and obfuscation from the people who have power, and nothing like a clear, consistent line of action, and we keep on piling up environmental problems that our grandchildren will have to live with. Attempts to resolve the environmental issue consist of struggles and compromises between different factions, some of which are ascendant at one moment, others at another moment. The line of struggle changes with the shifting currents of public opinion. This is not a rational process, or is it one that is likely to lead to a timely and successful solution to the problem. Major social problems, if they get "solved" at all, are rarely or never solved through any rational, comprehensive plan. They just work themselves out through a process in which various competing groups pursing their own (usually short-term) self-interest [23] arrive (mainly by luck) at some more or less stable modus vivendi. In fact, the principles we formulated in paragraphs 100-106 make it seem doubtful that rational, long-term social planning can EVER be successful.

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以环境问题为例。在这里价值的冲突是直截了当的:是要眼前的经济利益还是为我们的子孙保留一些自然资源[22]。然而,关于这个问题我们从掌权者那里得到的只是一些废话和胡话,而没有得到任何清楚一贯的行动路线。与此同时我们则继续为子孙积累环境问题。解决环境问题的尝试成为不同集团之间的斗争与妥协,有时这边占上风,有时那边占上风。战线随着公众舆论的飘移不定而变化。这不是一个理性的过程,也不能及时且成功地解决问题。大的社会问题,即使能够“解决”,解决方式也很少是理性、全面的计划。各个相互竞争的群体在各自追求(往往是短期的)自身利益的过程中 [23] 主要凭运气达成了某种多多少少还算稳定的临时解决办法,这样问题就算是得到了解决。实际上,我们在100-106段系统地阐述的原理已经显示了理性长期的社会计划很难成功。

[22]. (Paragraph 137) Here we are considering only the conflict of values within the mainstream. For the sake of simplicity we leave out of the picture "outsider" values like the idea that wild nature is more important than human economic welfare.
[22](137段)我们这里仅仅考虑主流之内的价值观冲突。为了简化讨论,我们姑且忽略了“非主流”理念的价值观,例如认为野生自然界比人类经济福祉更重要的看法。

[23]. (Paragraph 137) Self-interest is not necessarily MATERIAL self-interest. It can consist in fulfillment of some psychological need, for example, by promoting one's own ideology or religion.
[23](137段)自身利益未必一定是物质性的,也可能包含特定心理需求的满足,例如通过传播自身信仰的宗教或意识形态来获得满足感。

Thus it is clear that the human race has at best a very limited capacity for solving even relatively straightforward social problems. How then is it going to solve the far more difficult and subtle problem of reconciling freedom with technology? Technology presents clear-cut material advantages, whereas freedom is an abstraction that means different things to different people, and its loss is easily obscured by propaganda and fancy talk.

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因此很显然,即使只解决相对直截了当的社会问题,人类的能力也是十分有限的。那么,人类又怎么能够解决协调自由与技术关系这样远为困难且微妙的问题呢?技术显示的是明确的物质优势,而自由是对不同的人有着不同含义的抽象概念,宣传和花哨的言论很容易掩盖自由的缺失。

And note this important difference: It is conceivable that our environmental problems (for example) may some day be settled through a rational, comprehensive plan, but if this happens it will be only because it is in the long-term interest of the system to solve these problems. But it is NOT in the interest of the system to preserve freedom or small-group autonomy. On the contrary, it is in the interest of the system to bring human behavior under control to the greatest possible extent. [24] Thus, while practical considerations may eventually force the system to take a rational, prudent approach to environmental problems, equally practical considerations will force the system to regulate human behavior ever more closely (preferably by indirect means that will disguise the encroachment on freedom.) This isn't just our opinion. Eminent social scientists (e.g. James Q. Wilson) have stressed the importance of "socializing" people more effectively.

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而且请注意这样一项重要区别:可以想像某一天我们的环境问题(比方说)可以通过一项理性的全面计划得到解决,但这一切只有在解决环境问题符合体系的长期利益时才可能发生。然而保留自由和小群体的自主权却不符合体系的利益。正相反,最大程度地控制人类行为才符合体系的利益。因此出于实际利益的考虑有可能最终迫使体系采取理性且深谋远虑的手段去解决环境问题,但同样的实际考虑却会迫使体系更严格地管制人类的行为(最好是通过能够掩盖其侵蚀自由之举的间接手段)。这不仅仅是我们的看法。杰出的社会科学家们(例如James Q. Wilson)也曾经强调过更有效地“社会化”人民的重要性。

[24]. (Paragraph 139) A qualification: It is in the interest of the system to permit a certain prescribed degree of freedom in some areas. For example, economic freedom (with suitable limitations and restraints) has proved effective in promoting economic growth. But only planned, circumscribed, limited freedom is in the interest of the system. The individual must always be kept on a leash, even if the leash is sometimes long( see paragraphs 94, 97).
[24](第139段)一个限制条件:在某些领域允许某些指定程度的自由符合体系的利益。例如经济自由(辅之以适当的限制和约束)可以有效地促进经济发展。但只有有计划、有约束、有限制的自由才符合体系利益。个人必须得被拴上绳子,即使绳子有时放得很长(参看94、97段)

REVOLUTION IS EASIER THAN REFORM
革命比改革更容易

We hope we have convinced the reader that the system cannot be reformed in a such a way as to reconcile freedom with technology. The only way out is to dispense with the industrial-technological system altogether. This implies revolution, not necessarily an armed uprising, but certainly a radical and fundamental change in the nature of society.

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我们希望我们已经说服了读者,体系无法通过改革来调和自由与技术。唯一的出路是摒弃整个工业-技术休系。这意味着革命,不一定是武装起义,但肯定是激烈而根本的社会性质变化

People tend to assume that because a revolution involves a much greater change than reform does, it is more difficult to bring about than reform is. Actually, under certain circumstances revolution is much easier than reform. The reason is that a revolutionary movement can inspire an intensity of commitment that a reform movement cannot inspire. A reform movement merely offers to solve a particular social problem A revolutionary movement offers to solve all problems at one stroke and create a whole new world; it provides the kind of ideal for which people will take great risks and make great sacrifices. For this reasons it would be much easier to overthrow the whole technological system than to put effective, permanent restraints on the development of application of any one segment of technology, such as genetic engineering, but under suitable conditions large numbers of people may devote themselves passionately to a revolution against the industrial-technological system. As we noted in paragraph 132, reformers seeking to limite certain aspects of technology would be working to avoid a negative outcome. But revolutionaries work to gain a powerful reward -- fulfillment of their revolutionary vision -- and therefore work harder and more persistently than reformers do.

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人们倾向于想当然地认为,由于革命带来的变化比改革大,所以革命也就比改革更难发动。实际上,在某些条件下革命比改革容易得多。这是因为一场革命运动能够激发出人们极大的献身热情,而一场改革运动却不能。一场革命运动许诺一下子解决所有问题并创造整个新世界;它提供人民为之甘冒风险、甘作牺牲的理想。由于这些理由,推翻整个技术体系要比对技术的某一部分——如遗传工程的应用发展——进行有效、持久的限制容易得多。在适当的条件下,许许多多的人会热情地献身于推翻工业技术体系的革命。正如我们在132段提到的那样,寻求限制技术的某些方面的改革者是为了避免不良后果而工作。然而,革命者是为了获得强力的报偿一一实现其革命理想——而工作,因此他们比改革者更努力且更执著。

Reform is always restrainde by the fear of painful consequences if changes go too far. But once a revolutionary fever has taken hold of a society, people are willing to undergo unlimited hardships for the sake of their revolution. This was clearly shown in the French and Russian Revolutions. It may be that in such cases only a minority of the population is really committed to the revolution, but this minority is sufficiently large and active so that it becomes the dominant force in society. We will have more to say about revolution in paragraphs 180-205.

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改革总是为对于变化过大有可能带来的痛苦后果的恐惧所阻遏。而一旦革命的狂热控制了一个社会,人民会为了革命事业而忍受无与伦比的苦难。法国与俄国革命充分显示了这一点。很可能在这些案例中,只有少数人真正献身于革命,但这少数人已足够多且足够积极,足以成为社会的主导力量。我们将在180-200段更深入地探讨革命.

CONTROL OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
控制人类行为

Since the beginning of civilization, organized societies have had to put pressures on human beings of the sake of the functioning of the social organism. The kinds of pressures vary greatly from one society to another. Some of the pressures are physical (poor diet, excessive labor, environmental pollution), some are psychological (noise, crowding, forcing humans behavior into the mold that society requires). In the past, human nature has been approximately constant, or at any rate has varied only within certain bounds. Consequently, societies have been able to push people only up to certain limits. When the limit of human endurance has been passed, things start going rong: rebellion, or crime, or corruption, or evasion of work, or depression and other mental problems, or an elevated death rate, or a declining birth rate or something else, so that either the society breaks down, or its functioning becomes too inefficient and it is (quickly or gradually, through conquest, attrition or evolution) replaces by some more efficient form of society.?

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自文明肇始,有组织的社会便对人们施加压力以保证社会有机体的运行。这类压力在各个社会中极为不同。某些压力是生理的(缺乏营养、过度劳累、环境污染),某些是心理的(噪音、拥挤、按社会所要求的模式重塑人类行为)。过去,人性基本上是恒定的,有变化也不会超越某种界限。因此社会也不能将人推过一定界限。当人的耐受极限被突破时,问题就来了:反叛、犯罪、腐败、逃避工作、抑郁和其他精神问题、死亡率升高、出生率降低,等等;社会或是崩坏,或是不能有效运行,最终将会(或快或慢地通过征服、内耗或演进)被其他更为有效的社会形式所取代。

[25]. (Paragraph 143) We don't mean to suggest that the efficiency or the potential for survival of a society has always been inversely proportional to the amount of pressure or discomfort to which the society subjects people. That is certainly not the case. There is good reason to believe that many primitive societies subjected people to less pressure than the European society did, but European society proved far more efficient than any primitive society and always won out in conflicts with such societies because of the advantages conferred by technology.
[25](143段)我们并不是说一个社会生存的效能和潜能总是与该社会加于其人民的压力或不适成反比。这显然是不正确的。有充分理由相信许多原始社会加于其人民的压力比欧洲社会小,但欧洲社会远比任何原始社会更有效能,而且在与这些社会冲突时总能因为技术优势而胜出。

Thus human nature has in the past put certain limits on the development of societies. People coud be pushed only so far and no farther. But today this may be changing, because modern technology is developing way of modifying human beings.

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因而在过去,人性对于社会的发展设置了某些界限,人们至多被推到此处而不会逾越。然而今天情况已经发生了变化,因为现代技术正在开发改造人类的方法。

Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribley unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. It is well known that the rate of clinical depression had been greatly increasing in recent decades. We believe that this is due to disruption fo the power process, as explained in paragraphs 59-76. But even if we are wrong, the increasing rate of depression is certainly the result of SOME conditions that exist in today's society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed, modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect, antidepressants area a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to toelrate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable. (Yes, we know that depression is often of purely genetic origin. We are referring here to those cases in which environment plays the predominant role.)

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设想这样一个社会,它可以迫使人们处于极度不快的状况,然后向他们提供药物以解消他们的不快。这是科学幻想吗?某种程度上这种事正在我们的社会里上演。在最近几十年中,可临床诊断的抑郁症发病率迅速上升。我们相信这是由于权力过程遭到打断而导致的,如59-76段解释的那样。但即使我们错了,抑郁症发病率的提高也肯定是由于当代社会的某些条件造成的。现代社会不是去改变那些使人们抑郁的条件,而是给人们抗抑郁药。实际上抗抑郁药是改变个人的内在状态以使其能够忍受其原先不能忍受的社会条件的一种手段(是的,我们知道抑郁显时常是纯遗传性的。我们在这里谈的是那些环境起决定作用的病例)

Drugs that affect the mind are only one example of the methods of controlling human behavior that modern society is developing. Let us look at some of the other methods.

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用于人类头脑的药物仅仅是现代社会正在开发的控制人类行为方法的一个例子。让我们看看其他例子

To start with, there are the techniques of surveillance. Hidden video cameras are now used in most stores and in many other places, computers are used to collect and process vast amounts of information about individuals. Information so obtained greatly increases the effectiveness of physical coercion (i.e., law enforcement).[26] Then there are the methods of propaganda, for which the mass communication media provide effective vehicles. Efficient techniques have been developed for winning elections, selling products, influencing public opinion. The entertainment industry serves as an important psychological tool of the system, possibly even when it is dishing out large amounts of sex and violence. Entertainment provides modern man with an essential means of escape. While absorbed in television, videos, etc., he can forget stress, anxiety, frustration, dissatisfaction. Many primitive peoples, when they don't have work to do, are quite content to sit for hours at a time doing nothing at all, because they are at peace with themselves and their world. But most modern people must be contantly occupied or entertained, otherwise the get "bored," i.e., they get fidgety, uneasy, irritable.

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让我们从监视技术开始。隐蔽的录像摄影机今天在大多数商店和许多其他地方使用,计算机被用来收集和处理大量的个人信息。如此获取的信息大大加强了生理强制(即执法)的有效性。[26] 然后是宣传手段,大众传播媒介为此提供了有效的载体。有效的技术被开发来,使选举、销售产品、影响民意娱乐的产业成为了体系的重要心理工具,即使是在大量播放性与暴力的时候。娱乐业为现代人提供了逃避现实的必要手段。当人们关注于电视、录像等时,就会忘悼紧张、焦虑、挫折、不满等情绪。许多原始民族在无需劳作的闲暇时候很乐意一连坐上几个小时无所事事,因为他们与自身以及外在世界和睦相处。但是多数现代人必须不停地忙碌或不停地娱乐,不然就会“厌倦”,坐立不安、心神不定、烦燥易怒。

[26]. (Paragraph 147) If you think that more effective law enforcement is unequivocally good because it suppresses crime, then remember that crime as defined by the system is not necessarily what YOU would call crime. Today, smoking marijuana is a "crime," and, in some places in the U.S.., so is possession of ANY firearm, registered or not, may be made a crime, and the same thing may happen with disapproved methods of child-rearing, such as spanking. In some countries, expression of dissident political opinions is a crime, and there is no certainty that this will never happen in the U.S., since no constitution or political system lasts forever.
[26] 如果你认为更有效的执法手段打击了犯罪,因此只有好处没有坏处,那么不要忘了,体系定义的犯罪未必就是在你眼中的犯罪行为。吸食大麻在今天美国的某些地区是“犯罪”。持有火器,无论注册与否,也有可能变成犯罪。同样,不受认可的育儿方式,例如打屁股,也有可能变成犯罪。在某些国家,表达异见政治观点是犯罪。谁也不敢说美国永远也不会发生这种事,因为任何宪制或政体都不可能永远存在下去。

If a society needs a large, powerful law enforcement establishment, then there is something gravely wrong with that society; it must be subjecting people to severe pressures if so many refuse to follow the rules, or follow them only because forced. Many societies in the past have gotten by with little or no formal law-enforcement.

如果一个社会需要一个庞大且强有力的执法机构,那么这个社会肯定有些什么严重的毛病:如果有那么多的人拒绝遵守规则,或者只有在遭受强迫的时候才肯遵守规则,那么这个社会必须向人们施以强大压力。过去很多社会并没有正式执法力量,或者执法力量有限,不过也照样运行得很好。

Other techniques strike deeper that the foregoing. Education is no longer a simple affair of paddling a kid's behind when he doesn't know his lessons and patting him on the head when he does know them. It is becoming a scientific technique for controlling the child's development. Sylvan Learning Centers, for example, have had great success in motivating children to study, and psychological techniques are also used with more or less success in many conventional schools. "Parenting" techniques that are taught to parents are designed to make children accept fundamental values of the system and behave in ways that the system finds desirable. "Mental health" programs, "intervention" techniques, psychotherapy and so forth are ostensibly designed to benefit individuals, but in practice they usually serve as methods for inducing individuals to think and behave as the system requires. (There is no contradiction here; an individual whose attitudes or behavior bring him into conflict with the system is up against a force that is too powerful for him to conquer or escape from, hence he is likely to suffer from stress, frustration, defeat. His path will be much easier if he thinks and behaves as the system requires. In that sense the system is acting for the benefit of the individual when it brainwashes him into conformity.) Child abuse in its gross and obvious forms is disapproved in most if not all cultures. Tormenting a child for a trivial reason or no reason at all is something that appalls almost everyone. But many psychologists interpret the concept of abuse much more broadly. Is spanking, when used as part of a rational and consistent system of discipline, a form of abuse? The question will ultimately be decided by whether or not spanking tends to produce behavior that makes a person fit in well with the existing system of society. In practice, the word "abuse" tends to be interpreted to include any method of child-rearing that produces behavior inconvenient for the system. Thus, when they go beyond the prevention of obvious, senseless cruelty, programs for preventing "child abuse" are directed toward the control of human behavior of the system.

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其他技术的影响比上文所述更深远。教育已经不再是孩子不会功课时打打他的屁股、会了就拍拍他的头这样简单的事了。它成了一门控制儿童发展的科学技术。例如,西尔瓦学习中心(Sylvan Learning Centers)在激励儿童学习方面取得了很大成功,而心理学技术在许多常规学校中的应用也多多少少取得了成功。教给家长们的“如何做家长”的技术是为了使儿童接受体系的基本价值观并按照体系的要求行事而设计的。“精神健康”计划、“参与教学”技术、心理治疗等等表面上是为了个人的利益设计的,但实际上它们往往是诱导个人按照体系的要求去想去做的一种方法(这里确实也没有什么矛盾,如果个人的态度和行为与体系发生了冲突,那么他就是在与一个极为强大的力量作对,他既无法战胜也无法躲避,因此他就会因紧张、挫折、失败而痛苦。如果他按照体系的要求去想去做,他的路就会容易得多。在这个意义上,体系对个人进行洗脑,使他顺从,确实是为了他好。大多数文化——如果不是全部——都不赞同以粗暴且明显的方式虐待儿童。为了一点小事或无事便折磨一个儿童,这使几乎每一个人都感到厌恶。但是许多心理学家把虐待的概念无限扩大。打屁股,作为教育孩子遵守纪律的理性并合谐的体系的一部分,是否算虐待?这个问题的答案最终要由打屁股是否能使一个人良好地适应社会的现存体系而定。实际上,虐待这个词的解释几乎包括了所有会导致不利于体系的行为的抚育儿童方法。因此,当防止“虐待儿童”的计划超出了防止明显且无意义的残酷行为时,其目的就已经在于加强体系对于人类行为的控制了。

Presumably, research will continue to increas the effectiveness of psychological techniques for controlling human behavior. But we think it is unlikely that psychological techniques alone will be sufficient to adjust human beings to the kind of society that technology is creating. Biological methods probably will have to be used. We have already mentiond the use of drugs in this connection. Neurology may provide other avenues of modifying the human mind. Genetic engineering of human beings is already beginning to occur in the form of "gene therapy," and there is no reason to assume the such methods will not eventually be used to modify those aspects of the body that affect mental funtioning.

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可以推测,研究将继续增强心理学技术用于控制人类行为的有效性。但是,我们认为。仅凭心理学技术就使人类适应技术正在创造的这种杜会是不可能的。生物学方法多半也会被用上。这方面我们已经提到了药物的使用。神经病学也许可以提供改造人类头脑的其他途径,人类遗传工程已经以“基因疗法”的形式开始冒头了,没有理由认为这些办法最终不会被用来改造能够影响思维的身体机能。

As we mentioned in paragraph 134, industrial society seems likely to be entering a period of severe stress, due in part to problems of human behavior and in part to economic and environmental problems. And a considerable proportion of the system's economic and environmental problems result from the way human beings behave. Alienation, low self-esteem, depression, hostility, rebellion; children who won't study, youth gangs, illegal drug use, rape, child abuse , other crimes, unsafe sex, teen pregnancy, population growth, political corruption, race hatred, ethnic rivalry, bitter ideological conflict (i.e., pro-choice vs. pro-life), political extremism, terrorism, sabotage, anti-government groups, hate groups. All these threaten the very survival of the system. The system will be FORCED to use every practical means of controlling human behavior.

150
正如我们在134段提到的那样。工业化社会似乎正在进人一个严重紧张的时期,部分是由于人类行为的问题,部分是由于经济及环境问题。而体系的经济及环境问题当中很大一部分又是由人类行为引起的。异化、缺乏自尊、抑郁、敌意、叛逆、厌学儿童、青少年犯罪团伙、毒品、强奸、虐待儿童、其他罪行、滥交、少女怀孕、人口增长、吹治腐败、种族仇恨、民族对立、意识形态对立(例如支持与反对人工堕胎的问题)、政治极端主义、恐怖主义、破坏、反政府集团、仇恨集团,等等。所有这些都直接威胁着体系的生存,体系将被迫使用所有可行的手段来控制人类行为。

The social disruption that we see today is certainly not the result of mere chance. It can only be a result of the conditions of life that the system imposes on people. (We have argued that the most important of these conditions is disruption of the power process.) If the systems succeeds in imposing sufficient control over human behavior to assure itw own survival, a new watershed in human history will have passed. Whereas formerly the limits of human endurance have imposed limits on the development of societies (as we explained in paragraphs 143, 144), industrial-technological society will be able to pass those limits by modifying human beings, whether by psychological methods or biological methods or both. In the future, social systems will not be adjusted to suit the needs of human beings. Instead, human being will be adjusted to suit the needs of the system. [27]

151
我们今天所见的社会动荡肯定不是偶然,只能是体系强加于人们的生存条件所造成结果(我们曾经论证过这些条件中最重要的是权力过程的中断)。如果体系能够成功地对人类行为施加足够的控制以保障其自身的生存,那么,人类历史将跨越一条分水岭。过去,人类耐受力的界限曾经成为社会发展的界限(如我们在143,144段中解释的那样),但是工业——技术社会将能够通过改造人类—无论是依靠心理学方法还是生物学方法,抑或双管齐下——来逾越这些界限。未来的社会体系将不再作调整以适应人类的需要,而是人类作调整以适应社会的需要。[27]

[27]. (Paragraph 151) To be sure, past societies have had means of influencing behavior, but these have been primitive and of low effectiveness compared with the technological means that are now being developed.
[27](第151段)的确,过去的社会也拥有影响人类行为的手段,但是与现代技术发展起来的现金手段相比,这些手段十分原始且效果有限。

Generally speaking, technological control over human behavior will probably not be introduced with a totalitarian intention or even through a conscious desire to restrict human freedom. [28] Each new step in the assertion of control over the human mind will be taken as a rational response to a problem that faces society, such as curing alcoholism, reducing the crime rate or inducing young people to study science and engineering. In many cases, there will be humanitarian justification. For example, when a psychiatrist prescribes an anti-depressant for a depressed patient, he is clearly doing that individual a favor. It would be inhumane to withhold the drug from someone who needs it. When parents send their children to Sylvan Learning Centers to have them manipulated into becoming enthusiastic about their studies, they do so from concern for their children's welfare. It may be that some of these parents wish that one didn't have to have specialized training to get a job and that their kid didn't have to be brainwashed into becoming a computer nerd. But what can they do? They can't change society, and their child may be unemployable if he doesn't have certain skills. So they send him to Sylvan.

152
一般来说,对于人类行为的技术控制多半并非出于极权主义意图,甚至并非出于有意识地限制人类自由的愿望。[28] 控制人类思想的每一步都是针对社会所面临问题的合理反应。例如防治酗酒、降低犯罪率或者引导年轻人学习科学技术。在许多情况下,总能找到正当的人道主义理由。例如,当一个精神病专家给一个抑郁症患者开抗抑郁药物时,他显然是在帮助那个人。不给一个需要药物的人吃药是不人道的。家长们把他们的孩子送到西尔瓦学习中心去接受改造从而使他们热爱学习的动机自然也是关心自己孩子的幸福。也许其中有些家长并不喜欢不经特殊训练就找不到工作的社会现实,也不希望看到自已的孩子被迫经过洗脑后变成计算机宅男。但他们有什么办法?他们不能改变社会,他们的孩子如果不掌握某些技术就找不到工作,所以他们把孩子送去西尔瓦。

[28]. (Paragraph 152) However, some psychologists have publicly expressed opinions indicating their contempt for human freedom. And the mathematician Claude Shannon was quoted in Omni (August 1987) as saying, "I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines."
[28](第152段)无论如何,一些心理学家公开表示了他们付于人类自由的蔑视。《Omni》杂志 (1987年8月号)曾引用数学家克劳德.香农的言论:“我想象有一天我们与机器人的关系就像今天的狗与人一样,而我支持机器人那边。”

Thus control over human behavior will be introduced not by a calculated decision of the authorities but through a process of social evolution (RAPID evolution, however). The process will be impossible to resist, because each advance, considered by itself, will appear to be beneficial, or at least the evil involved in making the advance will appear to be beneficial, or at least the evil involved in making the advance will seem to be less than that which would result from not making it (see paragraph 127). Propaganda for example is used for many good purposes, such as discouraging child abuse or race hatred. [14] Sex education is obviously useful, yet the effect of sex education (to the extent that it is successful) is to take the shaping of sexual attitudes away from the family and put it into the hands of the state as represented by the public school system.

153
因此,对于人类行为的控制并非出自当局的蓄意的决策,而是出自社会进化(快速进化)过程。这一过程将是难以抗拒的,因为单独考虑向前迈出的每一步,则似乎每一步都是有利的,或者至少迈出这一步所产生的危害比不迈这一步所产生的祸害要小(参见127段)。例如,宣传被用于许多良好的目的,如减少虐待儿童或种族仇恨。性教育显然是有用的,然而性教育(如果有效的话)的作用是把对于性观念的引导权从家庭夺走,交到以公立学校体系为代表的国家手中。

Suppose a biological trait is discovered that increases the likelihood that a child will grow up to be a criminal and suppose some sort of gene therapy can remove this trait. [29] Of course most parents whose children possess the trait will have them undergo the therapy. It would be inhumane to do otherwise, since the child would probably have a miserable life if he grew up to be a criminal. But many or most primitive societies have a low crime rate in comparison with that of our society, even though they have neither high-tech methods of child-rearing nor harsh systems of punishment. Since there is no reason to suppose that more modern men than primitive men have innate predatory tendencies, the high crime rate of our society must be due to the pressures that modern conditions put on people, to which many cannot or will not adjust. Thus a treatment designed to remove potential criminal tendencies is at least in part a way of re-engineering people so that they suit the requirements of the system.

154
假设人们发现某种生物学性状能够增加某个儿童长大后成为罪犯的概率,并假设某种基因疗法可以去除这种性状 [29],当然许多家长都会把具有这种性状的子女送去接受治疗。不这么做是不人道的,因为如果孩子长大后成为罪犯,他的一生多半会很悲惨。但许多或大多数原始社会的犯罪率都比我们的社会低,虽然它们既没有高科技的抚育儿童方法,也没有严厉的惩罚制度。没有理由认为现代人比原始人天生就更为掠夺成性。我们社会的高犯罪率必然是现代生活条件强加于人的压力造成的,对于这些压力许多人不能或不愿适应。因此去除潜在犯罪倾向的疗法至少在一定程度上是一种重新设计制造人类以便使他们满足体系要求的方法。

[29]. (Paragraph 154) This is no science fiction! After writing paragraph 154 we came across an article in Scientific American according to which scientists are actively developing techniques for identifying possible future criminals and for treating them by a combination of biological and psychological means. Some scientists advocate compulsory application of the treatment, which may be available in the near future. (See "Seeking the Criminal Element", by W. Wayt Gibbs, Scientific American, March 1995.) Maybe you think this is OK because the treatment would be applied to those who might become drunk drivers (they endanger human life too), then perhaps to peel who spank their children, then to environmentalists who sabotage logging equipment, eventually to anyone whose behavior is inconvenient for the system.
[29](第154段)这不是科学幻想!在写完第154段后。我们碰巧在《科学美国人》当中发现了一篇文章。据这篇文章说,科学家们正在积极开发辩认潜在罪犯并用生物学和心理学的综合手段为其治疗的技术。一些科学家家主张施行义务治疗,这种疗法可能不久就会出现。(参见《寻找犯罪分子》(Seeking the Criminal Element),作者 W. Wayt Gibbs,《科学美国人》,1995年3月号)。也许你认为这挺好,因为他们治的是那些有可能醉酒驾车的人(这些人也对人类生命构成了威胁),不过此后他们就要修理那些打孩子屁股的人,然后是那些破坏伐木机械的环境主义者,最后是任何为体系找麻烦的人。

Our society tends to regard as a "sickness" any mode of thought or behavior that is inconvenient for the system, and this is plausible because when an individual doesn't fit into the system it causes pain to the individual as well as problems for the system. Thus the manipulation of an individual to adjust him to the system is seen as a "cure" for a "sickness" and therefore as good.

155
我们的社会倾向于将不利于体系的思想或行为模式视为“病态”,这样做看起来似乎也很有道理,因为如果一个人不适应体系,其后果不仅仅是给体系带来麻烦,其个人也会遭受痛苦。因此,揉搓一个人使其适应体系被看作是“治病”,因而是好事。

In paragraph 127 we pointed out that if the use of a new item of technology is INITIALLY optional, it does not necessarily REMAIN optional, because the new technology tends to change society in such a way that it becomes difficult or impossible for an individual to function without using that technology. This applies also to the technology of human behavior. In a world in which most children are put through a program to make them enthusiastic about studying, a parent will almost be forced to put his kid through such a program, because if he does not, then the kid will grow up to be, comparatively speaking, an ignoramus and therefore unemployable. Or suppose a biological treatment is discovered that, without undesirable side-effects, will greatly reduce the psychological stress from which so many people suffer in our society. If large numbers of people choose to undergo the treatment, then the general level of stress in society will be reduced, so that it will be possible for the system to increase the stress-producing pressures. In fact, something like this seems to have happened already with one of our society's most important psychological tools for enabling people to reduce (or at least temporarily escape from) stress, namely, mass entertainment (see paragraph 147). Our use of mass entertainment is "optional": No law requires us to watch television, listen to the radio, read magazines. Yet mass entertainment is a means of escape and stress-reduction on which most of us have become dependent. Everyone complains about the trashiness of television, but almost everyone watches it. A few have kicked the TV habit, but it would be a rare person who could get along today without using ANY form of mass entertainment. (Yet until quite recently in human history most people got along very nicely with no other entertainment than that which each local community created for itself.) Without the entertainment industry the system probably would not have been able to get away with putting as much stress-producing pressure on us as it does.

156
在第127段我们曾指出,即使某一项新技术的使用一开始是非强制性的,它也不一定一直都会是非强制性的,因为新技术将改变社会,以致于个人离开了该项技术就很难或无法生存。这同样适用于涉及人类行为的技术。在一个大多数儿童都接受使之热爱学习的训练计划的世界里,家长几乎是被迫送他的孩子接受这种训练计划的。如果他不送,他的孩子长大后和其他人相比就会显得像个笨蛋,并因此而失业。再假设人们发明了一种生物学疗法,可以大大减少困扰我们社会中许多人的紧张症,并且没有什么副作用。如果许多人都接受这种治疗,社会的总的紧张水平就会降低,而体系也就可以增强制造紧张的压力。事实上,类似现象已经在我们的社会中出现了,这就是大众娱乐(参看147段),我们社会使人们能够减少(或至少暂时逃避)紧张的最重要的心理学工具之一。大众娱乐的使用是非强制性的:没有任何法律要求我们一定要看电视、听收音机、读杂志。然而,大众娱乐已经成为了我们之中大多数人所依赖的逃避或减少紧张情绪的手段。每一个人都抱怨电视节目尽是垃圾,但几乎每一个人都看电视。有些人可能不看电视,但令天已很少有人拒绝任何形式的大众娱乐。(然而,直至相当切近的人类历史时期,大多数人仅仅享用本地社区的娱乐便能够过得很好)

Assuming that industrial society survives, it is likely that technology will eventually acquire something approaching complete control over human behavior. It has been established beyond any rational doubt that human thought and behavior have a largely biological basis. As experimenters have demonstrated, feelings such as hunger, pleasure, anger and fear can be turned on and off by electrical stimulation of appropriate parts of the brain. Memories can be destroyed by damaging parts of the brain or they can be brought to the surface by electrical stimulation. Hallucinations can be induced or moods changed by drugs. There may or may not be an immaterial human soul, but if there is one it clearly is less powerful that the biological mechanisms of human behavior. For if that were not the case then researchers would not be able so easily to manipulate human feelings and behavior with drugs and electrical currents.

157
假如工业化社会能够存在下去,技术很可能最终将找到完全控制人类行为的某种方法。人类的思想和行为有着深厚的生物学基础,这一点已是不容质疑的了。实验人员告诉我们:通过用电刺激大脑的适当部位。可以挑起或关闭诸如饥饿、愉快、愤怒和恐惧等感觉。可以通过破坏大脑的某些部位来消除记忆,也可以通过电刺激来使记忆浮现。可以用药诱发幻觉,也可以用药改变情绪。非物质性的人类灵魂可能有也可能没有,即使有,它也显然不如人类行为的生物学机制那么强大。否则研究人员不可能如此容易地使用药物和电流来操纵人类的感情和行为。

It presumably would be impractical for all people to have electrodes inserted in their heads so that they could be controlled by the authorities. But the fact that human thoughts and feelings are so open to biological intervention shows that the problem of controlling human behavior is mainly a technical problem; a problem of neurons, hormones and complex molecules; the kind of problem that is accessible to scientific attack. Given the outstanding record of our society in solving technical problems, it is overwhelmingly probable that great advances will be made in the control of human behavior.

158
将所有人的脑袋都插上电极以便当局控制大概是不切实际的。但人类的思想和感觉如此易受生物介入这一事实说明控制人类行为仅仅是一个技术问题,一个涉及神经元、激素和复杂分子的问题,一个可以用科学解决的问题。我们的社会在解决技术问题方面有着非凡的记录,因此它在控制人类行为方面将取得巨大进步实在是十拿九稳的事。

Will public resistance prevent the introduction of technological control of human behavior? It certainly would if an attempt were made to introduce such control all at once. But since technological control will be introduced through a long sequence of small advances, there will be no rational and effective public resistance. (See paragraphs 127,132, 153.)

159
公众抵抗能够防止对人类行为进行技术控制吗?如果谁要想一下子就进行全面的控制,那么公众的抵抗肯定会奏效。但是因为技术控制将是通过一长串连续的微小进展逐渐实现的,也就不会出现理性或有效的公共抵抗。(见第127、132、153段)

To those who think that all this sounds like science fiction, we point out that yesterday's science fiction is today's fact. The Industrial Revolution has radically altered man's environment and way of life, and it is only to be expected that as technology is increasingly applied to the human body and mind, man himself will be altered as radically as his environment and way of life have been.

160
对于那些认为这一切无非是科幻小说的人们,我们想指出,昨天的科学幻想小说在今天已成为了现实。工业革命已经极大地改变了人类的环境和生活方式,完全可以预期,随着技术不断地应用于人类的身体和思维,人类自身将发生的变化不会小于其环境和生活方式已经产生的变化。

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