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段义孚告别演说:空间、地方与自然(最后一部分)

已有 241 次阅读2020-8-4 20:24 |系统分类:其他分类

Social Implications社会影响

What I have sought to provide in this talk are vignettes concerning space, place, and nature. Though disparate in thematic content, they nevertheless have a common social message and it is to this that, by way of summary, I would like to draw your attention. In the vignettes on “space and place,” I pointed to a decline in the intensity of human relationships and in the bond to place, a trend that is not necessarily regrettable. After all, passionate drama of the kind written by Sophocles or Shakespeare, which draws on deep roots in particular localities and on unbreakable human ties, may be enthralling to watch in the theater but is hell to live through. Of passionate attachments to place, nationalism still remains, but perhaps it too will decline. Should it do so, rousing words such as “motherland” and “fatherland” will drop out of use, for what can they mean if Rupert Brooke’s English soldier—“A dust whom England bore, shaped, and made aware”—becomes a rarity, and there remains only the British soldier of no profound loyalty to any particular place? If the word “mother” or “motherhood” survives as an emotive word for a place that truly nurtures, we can hope that it will be at two ends of the scale--one’s college (alma mater) and the planet Earth.

想在这篇演讲中提供一些关于空间、地和自然的小插曲。虽然主题内容不同,但它们都有一个共同的社会信息,因此,作为总结,我想提请大家注意。在关于“空间和地”的小插曲中,我指出了人际关系的强度和与地方的联系的下降,这一趋势并不一定令人遗憾。毕竟,索福克勒斯或莎士比亚所写的那种充满激情的戏剧,它深深植根于特定的地方和牢不可破的人类联系,可能会吸引人在剧院里观看,但却是地狱般的生活/在剧院里观看可能很吸引人,但却是生活的地狱 对地方充满激情的依恋,民族主义仍然存在,但也许它也会衰落.如果这样做的话,“祖国(motherland)”和“祖国(fatherland)”等振奋人心的词将不再使用,因为如果鲁珀特·布鲁克笔下的英国士兵——“一个被英国所孕育、塑造和意识到的尘埃”成为珍品,而只剩下对某个特定地方没有深厚忠诚的英国士兵,那又意味着什么呢?如果“母亲”或“母性(motherhood)”这个词作为一个真正有教养的地方的情感词存在,我们可以希望它将是在天平的两端——一个人的学院(母校)和这个星球的地球。

As with human relations, so with nature, a loosening of bond has occurred. Such loosening is desirable in that nature is no longer feared for its malice, but undesirable in that it is no longer loved for its ability to console and inspire to the degree it could in the past. If the decline of human passion means that the bloodier Shakespearean plays can no longer be written, the decline in the awe of nature means that certain kinds of nature poetry is also no longer possible. We can hardly speak of the tiger as William Blake did, when tiger is for us no longer a creature of awesome power but is rather a pathetic animal in need of our protection. Even in the early twentieth century, a different attitude prevailed. Bertrand Russell as a young man was struck with awe when in the narrow staircase of the college dorm, he heard a fellow undergraduate declaim,

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immoral hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

与人的关系一样,与自然的关系也有所松动。这种放松是可取的,因为大自然不再因为它的恶意而令人恐惧;但不可取的是,它不再因为它能像过去那样能够安慰和激励人而受到喜爱。如果人类热情的下降意味着不再写更血腥的莎士比亚戏剧,那么对自然敬畏的下降就意味着某些种类的自然诗歌也将不再可能。我们几乎不能像威廉·布莱克(William Blake)所说的那样谈论老虎,那时老虎对我们来说不再是一种强大的生物,而是一种需要我们保护的可悲动物。使在二十世纪初,一种不同的态度仍然盛行。年轻时的伯特兰·罗素(Bertrand Russell)在大学宿舍狭窄的楼梯上,听到一位大学同学的高呼:

老虎,老虎,明亮燃烧

在夜晚的森林里

什么不道德的手或眼睛

能构筑您可怕的对称性吗?

 
Whatever our attitude toward the natural world, we know that it is in retreat, being displaced by mega-cities bound by ribbons of concrete. Soon, moreover, something else will be conspicuous in these mega-cities—robots that do all sorts of work and perform all sorts of service in public and private places. How will their ubiquitous presence affect our capacity for affection and love, which up to now is still directed mostly at humans who can reciprocate? The optimistic view is that it will not be much affected and the reason is that humans are natural poets, able to see moods, feelings, and intentions in almost everything around them. Scientific knowledge may have dimmed the poetic vision but has not by any means destroyed it. Society’s practical needs may have reduced nature to resource but a residue of pure affection for living creatures nevertheless remains. To me, this means that robots can seem to us “human,” able to give and receive love even though we know them to be programmed and mechanical. Why not? After all, we see our animal pets as human, notwithstanding their significantly different biological programs. What matters in the world of affection and bonding is behavior. We identify with and love animals by how they behave, just as we identify with and love human beings by how they behave. And it is only a matter of time that we will identify with and love robots by the same criterion. Behavior is that which truly counts in the world of affection, and not whether perceptual and mental realities match, or even that they exist.

无论我们对自然世界持何种态度,我们都知道它正在退却,被钢筋水泥铺就的巨型城市所取代。此外,很快,在这些巨型城市将出现另一件引人注目的事情——在公共和私人场所做各种工作和提供各种服务的机器人。它们无处不在的存在将如何影响我们的情感和爱的能力?到目前为止,这些能力仍然主要针对有回报的人类。乐观的观点认为它不会受到太大的影响,原因是人类是天生的诗人,能够从周围的一切事物中看到情绪、情感和意图。科学知识可能使诗意的视野黯淡,但却丝毫没有摧毁它。社会的实际需要也许已经把自然变成了资源,但对生物的纯粹的爱仍然存在。对我来说,这意味着机器人在我们看来是“人类”,能够给予和接受爱,即使我们知道它们是程序化的和机械化的。为什么不呢?毕竟,我们认为我们的动物宠物是人类,尽管他们的生物程序有很大的不同。在感情和感情的世界里,重要的是行为。我们通过动物的行为来认同和爱动物,正如我们通过动物的行为来认同和爱人类一样。我们将以同样的标准认同和热爱机器人,这只是时间问题。行为是在感情世界中真正重要的行为,而不是知觉和心理现实是否匹配,甚至它们是否存在。

I speak of the world of affection—affection being the glue that binds society as its best. So I may also be said to have touched on the social world. What, then, about the intellectual world—the life of the mind and imagination that we here at the university are committed to foster? To judge by what we do, the life of the mind and imagination at the university is of secondary importance.  Overwhelmingly, our energies and talents are geared to improving technology, society, and the natural habitat. Of course, to be effective in these areas, the mind has to be sharp, but it does not necessarily have to be imaginative, least of all when being imaginative threatens to cast a shadow over the good life. As a geography professor, I teach students to understand and appreciate nature. I tell them that if their taste for Lake Mendota has dulled through familiarity, they can revive it with what they have learned in glaciology. But should I stop there, or should I press on and ruin their appreciation of nature—say, mountains--by telling them that if they fully used their imagination they might feel sickeningly dizzy as they see in the twisted rock formations time that has “no vestige of a beginning—no prospect of an end,” a vast, bottomless hole that will swallow everything—all the darling creatures they seek to preserve--and eventually even the mountains themselves. 

我说的是/情感世界-/情感是将社会凝聚成最美好状态的粘合剂。 因此,也可以说我触及了社会世界。那么,知识世界——我们大学里所致力于培养的思想和想象力的生活——又如何呢?从我们所做的事情来看,大学里的思想生活和想象力是次要的,我们的精力和才能绝大多数都是为了改进技术、社会和自然栖息地。当然,要在这些方面有效,头脑必须敏锐,但不一定必须富有想象力,尤其是想象力有可能给美好的生活蒙上阴影的时候。作为一名地理学教授,我教学生理解和欣赏大自然。我告诉他们,如果他们对门多塔湖的兴趣因为熟悉而变得迟钝,他们可以用他们在冰川学上学到的知识来恢复它。但是,我是应该就此止步,还是应该继续下去,毁掉他们对自然的欣赏——比如说,山脉——告诉他们,如果他们充分利用自己的想象力,他们可能会感到恶心的头晕,就像他们在扭曲的岩层中看到的那样,“没有开始的痕迹,没有终点的前景”,一个巨大的、无底的洞穴,会吞噬一切所有他们想要保护的可爱的生物,最终甚至是山脉本身。

Envoi发送/使者

Since this is my last talk, I’d like to end on a didactic note, with students in mind. Our department has a tradition of welcoming newcomers at the beginning of the academic year with pizza and Pepsi. But perhaps the best part of the reception is when young and old introduce themselves. One by one, they say who they are and what their specialty is. After giving one’s name, a student will say, “I am a first-year people-environment student,” another will say, “I am a second-year GIS student,” and so on. When it is my turn, I’d say something like I am a fifty-seventh year human geography student. When I say this, I see smiles in the audience, but much as I appreciate the approbation it misses the point, which is that I am simply stating a fact. And what is the fact? It is that I, an octogenarian, feel no wiser now than I did when I was a graduate student. Such awareness used to depress me, but no longer because I have come to realize that immaturity is a defining characteristic of the human species. A wise old dog or chimpanzee, that I can accept, though not a wise old man or woman. The image of a guru sitting cross-legged on a mountain ledge or of a professor corseted in thick layers of arcane knowledge is to me not only distasteful but comic. Why? Because both self-satisfied figures seem to take pride in having lassoed their roaming mind long before their bodily death.

由于这是我的最后一次演讲,我想以一个带着学生思想的教诲来结束我的演讲/说教式的讲义结束,并以学生为中心。我们系有一个传统,在学年开始时用披萨和百事可乐欢迎新来者。但是,也许最好的部分接待是当年轻人和老年人自我介绍。他们一个个,说他们是谁,他们的专长是什么。给出名字后,一个学生会说"我是一年级学生",另一个学生会说"我是地理信息系统二年级的学生",等等。轮到我的时候,我会说一些类似我是五十七岁的人文地理学生。当我这样说时,我看到观众中的笑容,但尽管我很欣赏这种认可,但却忽略了这一点,即我只是在陈述一个事实。事实是什么?就是我,一个八旬老人,现在感觉没有比我研究生时更聪明了。这种意识曾使我沮丧,但现在不再是因为我意识到不成熟是人类的一个决定性特征。一只聪明的老狗或黑猩猩,我可以接受,尽管不是一个聪明的老人或女人。一个大师盘腿坐在山脊上的形象,或者一个穿着厚厚一层神秘知识紧身衣的教授的形象,对我来说不仅令人厌恶,而且很滑稽。为什么?因为这两个自鸣得意的人物似乎都为自己在肉体死亡前很久就束缚了漫游的心灵而感到自豪。

What, then, is my self-image? Naturally it is a flattering one —yet one that is not wholly delusory, for it is backed by a surprising incident. One day, as I walked down State Street, I heard the voice of a child behind me saying repeatedly, “Are you a student? Are you a student?” I ignored the question, for it could hardly be addressed to me. But I got curious, turned around, and asked the child, “Now, look here, do I look like a student?” His reply, “Yes, you have a backpack.”  Well, that made my day! I have a backpack, which means that I am a student still open to life.

那么,我的自我形象是什么?当然,这是一个讨人喜欢的——然而,它并不完全是虚幻的,因为它有一个令人惊讶的事件作为后盾。有一天,当我走在州立大街上时,我听到身后一个孩子的声音反复说:“你是学生吗?你是一个学生吗?”我不理睬这个问题,因为这个问题很难回答。但我很好奇,转过身来问孩子:“现在,看看这里,我看起来像个学生吗?他的回答是,“是的,你有一个背包。”好吧,这让我很高兴!我有一个背包,这意味着我还是一个对生活开放的学生。

To young people in the audience, I wish you the same destiny—that in the remote future when your spectacles slide down your nose and your voice, like mine, turns to childish treble, you will carry, figuratively speaking, a backpack such that children will see you as a student still open to life.    

对于观众中的年轻人,我祝愿你们同样的命运——在遥远的未来,当你的眼镜从鼻子上滑落,你的声音,像我一样,变成幼稚的高音,你会背着一个背包,让孩子们看到你作为一个学生仍然对生活开放。

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