What if our plants could sense the toxicity levels in the soil and express that toxicity through the color of its leaves? What if those plants could also remove those toxins from the soil? Instead, what if those plants grew their own packaging, or were designed to only be harvested by their owners' own patented machines? What happens when biological design is driven by the motivations of mass-produced commodities? What kind of world would that be?
如果我们的植物 能够感觉到土壤中的毒性强弱, 并通过叶子的颜色来表示毒性强弱。 如果这些植物还能够把毒素从土壤中移除? 或者,如果那些植物 生长自己的包装, 或者只能被所有者的专利机器收割。 当生物设计是被大批量产品所驱使 事情会是怎样? 那样的世界会是怎么样?
My name is Ani, and I'm a designer and researcher at MIT Media Lab, where I'm part of a relatively new and unique group called Design Fiction, where we're wedged somewhere between science fiction and science fact. And at MIT, I am lucky enough to rub shoulders with scientists studying all kinds of cutting edge fields like synthetic neurobiology, artificial intelligence, artificial life and everything in between. And across campus, there's truly brilliant scientists asking questions like, "How can I make the world a better place?" And part of what my group likes to ask is, "What is better?" What is better for you, for me, for a white woman, a gay man, a veteran, a child with a prosthetic? Technology is never neutral. It frames a reality and reflects a context. Can you imagine what it would say about the work-life balance at your office if these were standard issue on the first day?
我的名字是安妮,我是MIT媒体实验室 的一个设计师和研究人员, 我是新成立的组织“虚构设计”的一员, 我们挤在科幻和科学之间。 在MIT,我很幸运能够和在最先进领域 像人工神经学、人工智能、人工生活 等等等等领域研究的科学家比肩。 校园里,有很多聪明的科学家 问像“我们如何让世界变的更好?”这样的问题。 我的团队喜欢问的,是“什么是更好?” “更好”对于你,对于我, 对于一个白人女士,一个同性恋男人, 一个退役军人,一个有假体的孩子是什么? 科技永远都不是中性的。 它搭建现实的框架, 反射社会背景。 你能够想象如果这是 你工作第一天的常见问题, 你在办公室的生活和工作的平衡会是怎样的吗?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I believe it's the role of artists and designers to raise critical questions. Art is how you can see and feel the future, and today is an exciting time to be a designer, for all the new tools becoming accessible. For instance, synthetic biology seeks to write biology as a design problem. And through these developments, my lab asks, what are the roles and responsibilities of an artist, designer, scientist or businessman? What are the implications of synthetic biology, genetic engineering, and how are they shaping our notions of what it means to be a human? What are the implications of this on society, on evolution and what are the stakes in this game?
我相信是艺术家和设计师的责任, 来提出批判性问题。 艺术是你能够看见和感受未来的方式, 现在成为一个设计师是很激动人心的, 因为新的工具变的容易获取。 比如,人工生物学 把生物学变成一个设计学。 通过这些发展, 我的实验室问:作为一个艺术家、 设计师、科学家或者商人 的角色和责任? 人工生物学、基因工程的含义是什么? 以及它们是如何改变 我们作为人类的概念? 这对我们的社会、 进化论的影响是什么? 这其中有哪些利害关系
My own speculative design research at the current moment plays with synthetic biology, but for more emotionally driven output. I'm obsessed with olfaction as a design space, and this project started with this idea of what if you could take a smell selfie, a smelfie?
我的现在的臆想设计实验 和人工生物学有关, 但是更和情感的表达有关。 我痴迷于对气味的设计, 这个项目开始于一个主意: 如果你能够有一个气味自拍?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
What if you could take your own natural body odor and send it to a lover? Funny enough, I found that this was a 19th century Austrian tradition, where couples in courtship would keep a slice of apple crammed under their armpit during dances, and at the end of the evening, the girl would give the guy she most fancied her used fruit, and if the feeling was mutual, he would wolf down that stinky apple.
如果你能够提取你的自然体味 并发给一个爱人? 很好笑的是,我发现这是奥地利 19世纪的一个传统, 情侣在求爱期会在跳舞时 把一片苹果放在他们的腋下, 在晚上快结束时, 女孩会把用过的水果送给她最喜欢的男孩 如果感情是相互的, 他会吃掉那个有气味的苹果。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Famously, Napoleon wrote many love letters to Josephine, but perhaps amongst the most memorable is this brief and urgent note: "Home in three days. Don't bathe."
拿破仑给约瑟芬写了一份情书, 但是可能情书中最值得记住的 是这个简短迫切的话: “三天内到家。不要洗澡。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Both Napoleon and Josephine adored violets. Josephine wore violet-scented perfume, carried violets on their wedding day, and Napoleon sent her a bouquet of violets every year on their anniversary. When Josephine passed away, he planted violets at her grave, and just before his exile, he went back to that tomb site, picked some of those flowers, entombed them in a locket and wore them until the day he died.
拿破仑和约瑟芬都喜欢紫罗兰。 约瑟芬用紫罗兰味道的香水, 在婚礼当天戴紫罗兰花, 拿破仑每年在纪念日 都会送她一束紫罗兰。 当约瑟芬去世的时候, 他在她的坟墓上种了紫罗兰, 在他被驱逐前, 他回到她的坟墓, 捡起一些花朵,放在项链坠内 并戴到他去世的那一天。
And I found this so moving, I thought, could I engineer that violet to smell just like Josephine? What if, for the rest of eternity, when you went to visit her site, you could smell Josephine just as Napoleon loved her? Could we engineer new ways of mourning, new rituals for remembering? After all, we've engineered transgenic crops to be maximized for profit, crops that stand up to transport, crops that have a long shelf life, crops that taste sugary sweet but resist pests, sometimes at the expense of nutritional value. Can we harness these same technologies for an emotionally sensitive output?
我觉得这非常感人, 我想,我能够改变那朵紫罗兰, 让它闻起来像约瑟芬吗? 如果,在未来, 你去拜访她的坟墓, 你能够闻到约瑟芬, 就像拿破仑那样爱她吗? 我们能够创造吊唁的新方式, 新的记忆的仪式吗? 毕竟我们已经创造了转基因庄稼, 来最大化收益, 能够承受住运输的庄稼, 有长保质期的庄稼, 吃起来很甜但是抵抗害虫的庄稼, 有的时候以营养价值为代价。 我们能够有同样的科技, 为了情感的表达吗?
So currently in my lab, I'm researching questions like, what makes a human smell like a human? And it turns out it's fairly complicated. Factors such as your diet, your medications, your lifestyle all factor into the way you smell. And I found that our sweat is mostly odorless, but it's our bacteria and microbiome that's responsible for your smells, your mood, your identity and so much beyond. And there's all kinds of molecules that you emit but which we only perceive subconsciously.
所以现在在我的实验室里, 我在研究像 “什么让人类 闻起来像人类?”这样的问题。 结果,这挺复杂的。 你的饮食,你的药物和 你的生活方式等等因素 都影响你的气味。 我发现我们的汗绝大多数是无味的, 但是是我们的细菌和微生物 产生了我们的气味、我们的心情、 我们的身份等等。 你释放出非常多种分子 被我们无意间接收。
So I've been cataloging and collecting bacteria from different sites of my body. After talking to a scientist, we thought, maybe the perfect concoction of Ani is like 10 percent collarbone, 30 percent underarm, 40 percent bikini line and so forth, and occasionally I let researchers from other labs take a sniff of my samples. And it's been interesting to hear how smell of the body is perceived outside of the context of the body. I've gotten feedback such as, smells like flowers, like chicken, like cornflakes, like beef carnitas.
所以我一直在分类和收集 我身体不同部分的细菌。 在与一个科学家的谈话后,我们想, 安妮最好的混合体可能是 10%的锁骨,30%的腋下, 40%比基尼线等等, 偶尔,我让其他实验室的研究人员 闻闻我的样本。 身体的气味是如何在身体外被接收的 一直让我觉得有兴趣。 我听过反馈, 像闻起来像花朵,像鸡, 像脆玉米片, 像墨西哥玉米牛肉卷。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
At the same time, I cultivate a set of carnivorous plants for their ability to emit fleshlike odors to attract prey, in an attempt to kind of create this symbiotic relationship between my bacteria and this organism. And as it so happens, I'm at MIT and I'm in a bar, and I was talking to a scientist who happens to be a chemist and a plant scientist, and I was telling him about my project, and he was like, "Well, this sounds like botany for lonely women."
同时,我种植了一系列食肉植物, 因为他们能够释放 像动物一样的气味来吸引猎物, 创造这种共生的关系, 在我的细菌和这个生物之间。 当这发生的时候, 我在MIT,我在一个酒吧里, 我在和一个科学家说话, 他正好是一个化学家和植物学家, 我在跟他说关于我的项目, 他回答:“好吧,这听起来 像是一个孤独的女人的园艺。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Unperturbed, I said, "OK." I challenged him. "Can we engineer a plant that can love me back?" And for some reason, he was like, "Sure, why not?"
镇定地,我说:“好吧。” 我挑战了他, “我们能改造一个植物, 让它回应我的爱吗?” 他回答:“当然,为什么不呢?”
So we started with, can we get a plant to grow towards me like I was the sun? And so we're looking at mechanisms in plants such as phototropism, which causes the plant to grow towards the sun by producing hormones like auxin, which causes cell elongation on the shady side. And right now I'm creating a set of lipsticks that are infused with these chemicals that allow me to interact with a plant on its own chemical signatures -- lipsticks that cause plants to grow where I kiss it, plants that blossom where I kiss the bloom.
所以我们以“能否让一个植物朝我生长”开始, 就好像我是太阳一样。 所以我们查找植物的机制,比如趋光性, 它让植物向太阳生长, 通过分泌像生长素一样的荷尔蒙, 这能够引起在阴暗处的细胞生长。 现在,我在创造一套唇膏, 能够和这些化学成分融合, 使我和一株有自己独特 化学标志——唇膏的植物互动, 能够使我亲吻的那部分植物生长, 在我亲吻处开花。
And through these projects, I'm asking questions like, how do we define nature? How do we define nature when we can reengineer its properties, and when should we do it? Should we do it for profit, for utility? Can we do it for emotional ends? Can biotechnology be used to create work as moving as music? What are the thresholds between science and its ability to shape our emotional landscape?
通过这些项目, 我问问题,像 “我们如何定义自然?” 我们如何定义自然, 当我们可以重建它的特点? 什么时候我们应该付诸行动? 我们应该以盈利还是效用为目的? 我们能够为感情需求做什么吗? 生物科技能否被用来 创造动作或者音乐作品? 科学和改变我们情绪的门槛在哪里?
It's a famous design mantra that form follows function. Well, now, wedged somewhere between science, design and art I get to ask, what if fiction informs fact? What kind of R&D lab would that look like and what kind of questions would we ask together?
形态和功能是设计最出名的颂歌。 挤在科学、设计和艺术之间, 我不得不问, 如果虚幻启发现实,会怎样? 那样的研究与开发实验室会是什么样子? 我们应该一起问怎样的问题?
We often look to technology as the answer, but as an artist and designer, I like to ask, but what is the question?
我们通常认为科技是答案, 但是作为一个艺术家和设计师, 我喜欢问问题,但是问题是什么?
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)