My name is Jonathan Zittrain, and in my recent work I've been a bit of a pessimist. So I thought this morning I would try to be the optimist, and give reason to hope for the future of the Internet by drawing upon its present.
我是強納生·席全, 我最近的工作讓我有點悲觀, 所以我今早決定要讓自己樂觀一點, 我想談談網路的現狀, 好讓我們對網路的未來 能抱持一點希望。
Now, it may seem like there is less hope today than there was before. People are less kind. There is less trust around. I don't know. As a simple example, we could run a test here. How many people have ever hitchhiked? I know. How many people have hitchhiked within the past 10 years? Right. So what has changed? It's not better public transportation. So that's one reason to think that we might be declensionists, going in the wrong direction.
現在的人好像沒以前那麼充滿希望, 不那麼友善、不那麼互信。 這我可不確定。舉個簡單的例子 測驗一下。 搭過便車的人,請舉手? 我就知道。那麼,有多少人 過去十年內搭過便車的? 沒錯。到底有了什麼改變呢? 這可不是因為大眾運輸有了改善... 你們看,這就是讓我們相信 世風日下、人心不古的原因之一。
But I want to give you three examples to try to say that the trend line is in fact in the other direction, and it's the Internet helping it along. So example number one: the Internet itself. These are three of the founders of the Internet. They were actually high school classmates together at the same high school in suburban Los Angles in the 1960s. You might have had a French club or a Debate club. They had a "Let's build a global network" club, and it worked out very well.
但是我要告訴各位三個例子, 我要證明,整個趨勢其實還是 往另一個方向發展的, 而且網際網路一路上推波助瀾。 第一個例子:網路本身。 這三位是網際網路的創始人, 他們原先是高中同學, 1960年代就讀於洛杉磯市郊的同一所高中。 高中時你可能會參加法文社或辯論社, 他們參加的則是 「共同打造全球網路」社,結果還真不錯。
They are pictured here for their 25th anniversary Newsweek retrospective on the Internet. And as you can tell, they are basically goof balls. They had one great limitation and one great freedom as they tried to conceive of a global network. The limitation was that they didn't have any money. No particular amount of capital to invest, of the sort that for a physical network you might need for trucks and people and a hub to move packages around overnight. They had none of that.
這張是新聞週刊回顧網際網路報導 為他們拍的慶祝25年週年照片。 可以看出來, 他們基本上是一群呆瓜。 試圖構作全球網路時,他們得克服 一個很大的障礙, 但他們也有很大的創作自由。 障礙是他們沒有什麼錢, 實在沒有資本可以投入, 沒有建造實體網路時 所需的卡車、工人 或轉運中心,隔夜就可以把貨物送到。 那些他們都沒有。
But they had an amazing freedom, which was they didn't have to make any money from it. The Internet has no business plan, never did. No CEO, no firm responsible, singly, for building it. Instead, it's folks getting together to do something for fun, rather than because they were told to, or because they were expecting to make a mint off of it.
可是他們有驚人的自由, 也就是他們不必從這頂上賺什麼錢。 網際網路沒有營運計畫,從來沒有, 沒有CEO, 也沒有單獨的一家公司負責打造網際網路。 不過是一些人聚在一起, 為了好玩而做這件事而已, 既沒有人要他們做這件事, 也不是他們當時想靠這個發財。
That ethos led to a network architecture, a structure that was unlike other digital networks then or since. So unusual, in fact, that it was said that it's not clear the Internet could work. As late as 1992, IBM was known to say you couldn't possibly build a corporate network using Internet Protocol. And even some Internet engineers today say the whole thing is a pilot project and the jury is still out. (Laughter)
那樣的特質導致一種網路架構, 這種架構前所未有, 其後的其它數位網路也無法比擬。 真的很特別, 那時大家也搞不懂網際網路是否行得通。 直到1992年,IBM還宣稱 利用網際網路協定根本不可能 打造出公司網路。 甚至今天還有些 網路工程師說這只是個試行計畫,還沒有定論。 (笑聲)
That's why the mascot of Internet engineering, if it had one, is said to be the bumblebee. Because the fur-to-wingspan ratio of the bumblebee is far too large for it to be able to fly. And yet, mysteriously, somehow the bee flies. I'm pleased to say that, thanks to massive government funding, about three years ago we finally figured out how bees fly. (Laughter) It's very complicated, but it turns out they flap their wings very quickly. (Laughter)
因此有人說,若要幫網際網路選定吉祥物的話, 絕對非大黃蜂莫屬。 因為大黃蜂翅膀小,身體又太大得不成比例, 根本飛不起來才對。 但很奇怪的是,這些蜜蜂還是飛了起來。 我很高興在此宣布,感謝政府的大力資助, 我們三年前終於瞭解 蜜蜂到底是怎麼飛起來的。 (笑聲) 道理很複雜,但說穿了 就是翅膀拍得很快。 (笑聲)
So what is this bizarre architecture configuration that makes the network sing and be so unusual? Well, to move data around from one place to another -- again, it's not like a package courier. It's more like a mosh pit. (Laughter) Imagine, you being part of a network where, you're maybe at a sporting event, and you're sitting in rows like this, and somebody asks for a beer, and it gets handed at the aisle. And your neighborly duty is to pass the beer along, at risk to your own trousers, to get it to the destination.
究竟是什麼怪異的架構, 讓網路合唱得如此美妙與特別呢? 嗯,要從一個地方 傳送資料到另一個地方,這並不像包裹快遞, 反倒比較像魔秀舞池。 (笑聲) 假設你是某網路的成員, 你們在某個運動比賽場合, 像這樣坐成一排, 有人點了啤酒, 那要從走道傳進去給他, 你坐在鄰近就有義務 把啤酒傳過去, 冒著弄髒自己褲子的風險 也要把啤酒傳到。
No one pays you to do this. It's just part of your neighborly duty. And, in a way, that's exactly how packets move around the Internet, sometimes in as many as 25 or 30 hops, with the intervening entities that are passing the data around having no particular contractual or legal obligation to the original sender or to the receiver.
沒有人付錢要你這麼做, 你坐在鄰近就有這個義務。 某個程度上來說,這正是網路傳遞封包的方式, 有時得經過25到30個節點, 附上協調性的信息, 幫忙把資料傳遞下去, 與原始送件人或收件人之間, 並沒有特定的合約 或法律上的義務。
Now, of course, in a mosh pit it's hard to specify a destination. You need a lot of trust, but it's not like, "I'm trying to get to Pensacola, please." So the Internet needs addressing and directions. It turns out there is no one overall map of the Internet. Instead, again, it is as if we are all sitting together in a theater, but we can only see amidst the fog the people immediately around us. So what do we do to figure out who is where? We turn to the person on the right, and we tell that person what we see on our left, and vice versa. And they can lather, rinse, repeat. And before you know it, you have a general sense of where everything is.
當然,在魔秀舞池裡很難料定目的地, 需要很大的信任, 不能簡單說:「請送我到潘薩科拉,謝謝。」 網際網路上需要地址和方向, 可是網路世界並沒有涵蓋整個領域的地圖, 反倒比較像大家都坐在戲院裡, 只因為煙霧迷漫,我們只能看到 緊鄰我們的幾個人, 那要怎麼知道誰在哪裡呢? 我們轉向右邊的人, 告訴他我們在左邊看到的是什麼, 他也反過來依樣畫葫蘆, 大家告訴大家之後, 大家就大略知道戲院裡的狀況了。
This is how Internet addressing and routing actually work. This is a system that relies on kindness and trust, which also makes it very delicate and vulnerable. In rare but striking instances, a single lie told by just one entity in this honeycomb can lead to real trouble.
這就是網路找尋路徑的方法。 這個系統依賴的是大家的友善和信任, 但也因此,網路是很嬌嫩脆弱的。 在某些少見的特殊情況下, 只要有那麼個成員在這個蜂巢裡 撒了個小謊, 就可能造成大麻煩。
So, for example, last year, the government of Pakistan asked its Internet service providers there to prevent citizens of Pakistan from seeing YouTube. There was a video there that the government did not like and they wanted to make sure it was blocked. This is a common occurrence. Governments everywhere are often trying to block and filter and censor content on the Internet.
舉例來說,去年(2008), 巴基斯坦政府 要求當地的網路服務業者,不要讓 巴基斯坦人民看到YouTube,因為政府當局 不樂見那裡的某支影片, 所以想確保封鎖它。 這種事很常見, 到處總有政府試圖 封鎖、過濾、檢查網路內容。
Well this one ISP in Pakistan chose to effectuate the block for its subscribers in a rather unusual way. It advertised -- the way that you might be asked, if you were part of the Internet, to declare what you see near you -- it advertised that near it, in fact, it had suddenly awakened to find that it was YouTube. "That's right," it said, "I am YouTube." Which meant that packets of data from subscribers going to YouTube stopped at the ISP, since they thought they were already there, and the ISP threw them away unopened because the point was to block it.
好啦,這家巴基斯坦ISP 選用了一個相當不尋常的方式 來達到封鎖用戶的目的, 它宣稱-- 你若是網路的成員,有時別人會要你回報 你看到鄰近有些什麼--它宣稱 在它附近有...--不對--它突然發現 自己就是YouTube, 它說:「沒錯,我就是YouTube。」 從那一刻起,用戶們傳送 給YouTube的封包, 全都被那家ISP給擋了下來, 那家ISP不拆包就丟包了, 因為目的只是封鎖而已。
But it didn't stop there. You see, that announcement went one click out, which got reverberated, one click out. And it turns out that as you look at the postmortem of this event, you have at one moment perfectly working YouTube. Then, at moment number two, you have the fake announcement go out. And within two minutes, it reverberates around and YouTube is blocked everywhere in the world. If you were sitting in Oxford, England, trying to get to YouTube, your packets were going to Pakistan and they weren't coming back.
但這件事並非到此為止, 只要一點選YouTube, 那個公告就會傳出去, 每次點選都會把消息擴散出去。 要是我們從事後 來看這件事, 前一分鐘 YouTube還好好的, 下一分鐘, 那份假的公告傳了出去, 兩分鐘之後, 到處都在傳播這個假公告, 全世界的人都無法使用YouTube了。 假如你在英國牛津,想連上YouTube, 你的封包 就會被導向巴基斯坦,一去不復返。
Now just think about that. One of the most popular websites in the world, run by the most powerful company in the world, and there was nothing that YouTube or Google were particularly privileged to do about it. And yet, somehow, within about two hours, the problem was fixed. How did this happen?
現在請想想, 這是最受歡迎的網站之一, 也是最有權勢的公司所經營的, 但Google或YouTube卻無任何特權 可以處理這種情況。 但不知怎的,不到二個小時, 問題解決了。 到底怎麼回事?
Well, for a big clue, we turn to NANOG. The North American Network Operators Group, a group of people who, on a beautiful day outside, enter into a windowless room, at their terminals reading email and messages in fixed proportion font, like this, and they talk about networks. And some of them are mid-level employees at Internet service providers around the world. And here is the message where one of them says, "Looks like we've got a live one. We have a hijacking of YouTube! This is not a drill. It's not just the cluelessness of YouTube engineers. I promise. Something is up in Pakistan." And they came together to help find the problem and fix it.
嗯,NANOG可以提供一點線索, NANOG就是北美網路營運商會。 有一群人在外頭 天氣不錯的日子裡, 關在沒有窗戶的房間裡, 用他們的電腦 讀取像這種標準字體大小寫的 郵件和訊息, 他們談的是網路。 他們有些人是世界 各地ISP的中階員工, 其中有人寫下這則訊息: 「看來有麻煩,有人挾持了YouTube! 這不是演習,也不是YouTube工程師的愚蠢, 我保證不是。 問題出在巴基斯坦!」 然後他們集合起來找問題,把它修復。
So it's kind of like if your house catches on fire. The bad news is there is no fire brigade. The good news is random people apparate from nowhere, put out the fire and leave without expecting payment or praise. (Applause) I was trying to think of the right model to describe this form of random acts of kindness by geeky strangers. (Laughter) You know, it's just like the hail goes out and people are ready to help. And it turns out this model is everywhere, once you start looking for it.
這就像是你家失火了, 糟糕的是附近沒有救火隊, 但幸好有幾個不認識的人不期然出現, 幫你滅了火,然後分文不取就離開了。 (掌聲) 我在想,要用什麼模式來形容 這些電腦怪客 隨機的善行義舉呢? (笑聲) 就好像有人一招手, 就有人前來幫忙一樣。 我發現只要開始找尋,到處都有這種善行義舉。
Example number two: Wikipedia. If a man named Jimbo came up to you in 2001 and said, "I've got a great idea! We start with seven articles that anybody can edit anything, at any time, and we'll get a great encyclopedia! Eh?" Right. Dumbest idea ever. (Laughter) In fact, Wikipedia is an idea so profoundly stupid that even Jimbo never had it.
我們來看第二個例子:維基百科。 如果2001年有個名叫金寶的人來找你 說:「我有個好主意!我們設定七個主題, 人人都可以隨時上來編寫, 這不就可編寫出很棒的百科全書了嗎?」 沒錯,這是有史以來最笨的主意。 (笑聲) 其實,維基百科這個主意簡直笨到極點, 就連金寶也不這麼想。
Jimbo's idea was for Nupedia. It was going to be totally traditional. He would pay people money because he was feeling like a good guy, and the money would go to the people and they would write the articles. The wiki was introduced so others could make suggestions on edits -- as almost an afterthought, a back room. And then it turns out the back room grew to encompass the entire project.
金寶的主意是「新百科全書」, 完全傳統方式、付錢請人寫。 他覺得自己是個好人, 付錢請人寫, 就會寫出文章。 維基的概念來自於 讓別人提出編寫建議, 好比補充作業或加蓋密室, 但後來密室卻越蓋越大, 涵蓋了整個工程。
And today, Wikipedia is so ubiquitous that you can now find it on Chinese restaurant menus. (Laughter) I am not making this up. (Laughter) I have a theory I can explain later. Suffice it to say for now that I prefer my Wikipedia stir-fried with pimentos. (Laughter)
今天,維基百科已經普及到 連中國餐廳的菜單上也找得到它。 (笑聲) 這可不是我捏造的! (笑聲) 關於這點我有個理論,稍後再作解釋。 現在我只說我的最愛是 青椒炒維基就夠了。 (笑聲)
But now, Wikipedia doesn't just spontaneously work. How does it really work? It turns out there is a back room that is kind of windowless, metaphorically speaking. And there are a bunch of people who, on a sunny day, would rather be inside and monitoring this, the administrator's notice board, itself a wiki page that anyone can edit. And you just bring your problems to the page. It's reminiscent of the description of history as "one damn thing after another," right?
不過,維基並非自發性的作品而已。 究竟怎麼運作的呢? 打個隱喻說,我發現 維基有個沒窗戶的密室, 有那麼一群人 即使外頭陽光普照也寧可待在房間裡 盯著管理員的公布欄看, 那是人人都可以編輯的維基頁面, 可以把問題放到那個頁面上。 這讓人想起一句老話: 「壞事接踵而來」對不對?
Number one: "Tendentious editing by user Andyvphil." Apologies, Andyvphil, if you're here today. I'm not taking sides. "Anon attacking me for reverting." Here is my favorite: "A long story." (Laughter) It turns out there are more people checking this page for problems and wanting to solve them than there are problems arising on the page.
第一件:「安地夫菲爾的編輯有傾向性」。 安地夫菲爾,如果你在現場的話,對不起啦, 我沒有偏袒誰的意思。 還有「只因我撤回修改,阿儂就攻擊我」。 這是我最喜歡的:「說來話長」。 (笑聲) 結果,越來越多人在那個頁面上找問題, 想辦法解決問題, 那個頁面上就越來越少問題。
And that's what keeps Wikipedia afloat. At all times, Wikipedia is approximately 45 minutes away from utter destruction. Right? There are spambots crawling it, trying to turn every article into an ad for a Rolex watch. (Laughter) It's this thin geeky line that keeps it going. Not because it's a job, not because it's a career, but because it's a calling. It's something they feel impelled to do because they care about it.
那就是讓維基百科飄浮不沉的原因。 任何時刻,維基百科都面臨著 45分鐘後就會解體的危機,不是嗎? 惡意程式隨時伺機出手, 要把每一篇文章變成勞力士廣告。 (笑聲) 但就靠這群電腦狂熱份子單薄的力量, 使得維基能夠運作下去。 這既不是一份工作, 也不是一個職業生涯, 而是一種使命的召喚。 這是他們覺得非做不可的事, 因為他們在乎。
They even gather together in such groups as the Counter-Vandalism Unit -- "Civility, Maturity, Responsibility" -- to just clean up the pages. It does make you wonder if there were, for instance, a massive, extremely popular Star Trek convention one weekend, who would be minding the store? (Laughter)
他們甚至組成幾個小團體, 其中一個叫「反破壞小組」, 口號是:「文明、成熟、負責任」, 這個小組專門清理頁面。 這不禁讓人納悶,要是有一天週末 舉行極受歡迎的星際大戰迷的大型集會, 那還有誰來顧店? (笑聲)
So what we see -- (Laughter) what we see in this phenomenon is something that the crazed, late traffic engineer Hans Monderman discovered in the Netherlands, and here in South Kensington, that sometimes if you remove some of the external rules and signs and everything else, you can actually end up with a safer environment in which people can function, and one in which they are more human with each other. They're realizing that they have to take responsibility for what they do. And Wikipedia has embraced this.
我們所看到的... (笑聲) 我們在這個現象中看到的, 正如同醉心於交通的工程師漢斯·蒙德曼 最近在荷蘭以及 南肯辛頓所發現的一樣, 他說,有時如果拿掉某些外加的交通規則和標誌等等, 結果就會是 人人都有了更安全的環境, 因為大家會以更人性的方式對待彼此。 大家會體認到必須 為自己所做所為負責。 維基抱持的就是這種理念。
Some of you may remember Star Wars Kid, the poor teenager who filmed himself with a golf ball retriever, acting as if it were a light saber. The film, without his permission or even knowledge at first, found its way onto the Internet. Hugely viral video. Extremely popular. Totally mortifying to him.
你們有些人可能還記得這位星際大戰小子, 那位青少年把高爾夫取球桿當成光劍, 給自己拍了一段影片。 這影片未經他允許,他甚至一開始也不知情, 就流傳到網路上, 很快散佈出去,廣受大家喜愛, 但卻讓這個小男孩羞得要死。
Now, it being encyclopedic and all, Wikipedia had to do an article about Star Wars Kid. Every article on Wikipedia has a corresponding discussion page, and on the discussion page they had extensive argument among the Wikipedians as to whether to have his real name featured in the article. You could see arguments on both sides. Here is just a snapshot of some of them. They eventually decided -- not unanimously by any means -- not to include his real name, despite the fact that nearly all media reports did. They just didn't think it was the right thing to do. It was an act of kindness.
維基既然稱作百科, 那就得製作有關星際大戰小子的頁面。 維基的每一篇都有其討論頁, 星際大戰小子的討論頁裡, 大家熱烈討論的是 要不要把他的真實姓名 披露在文章裡。 正反二面的意見都有, 這裡看到的只是一部分。 最後他們決定, 雖非全體一致通過, 但是決定不披露。 儘管幾乎所有的媒體報導都披露了, 他們還是覺得不該披露。 這是一種善行義舉。
And to this day, the page for Star Wars Kid has a warning right at the top that says you are not to put his real name on the page. If you do, it will be removed immediately, removed by people who may have disagreed with the original decision, but respect the outcome and work to make it stay because they believe in something bigger than their own opinion. As a lawyer, I've got to say these guys are inventing the law and stare decisis and stuff like that as they go along.
直到今天,星際大戰小子 頁面頂端仍留有一段警語, 告訴大家不得在頁面上披露其真實姓名, 違者立即刪除。 刪除令的執行者原本或許並不贊同這個決定, 但他尊重大家的決議, 所以遵照決議執行, 因為他們認為還有比個人意見更重要的東西。 身為律師,我得說這群人是在制定 自己的法律、慣例等等這類東西。
Now, this isn't just limited to Wikipedia. We see it on blogs all over the place. I mean, this is a 2005 Business Week cover. Wow. Blogs are going to change your business. I know they look silly. And sure they look silly. They start off on all sorts of goofy projects.
這種現象也並不只出現在維基百科裡, 到處的網誌也如此, 請看,這是2005年商業週刊的封面, 哇!網誌會改變你的企業! 我知道這看起來很蠢,也還真的很蠢, 他們報導各種很蠢的網誌,
This is my favorite goofy blog: Catsthatlooklikehitler.com. (Laughter) You send in a picture of your cat if it looks like Hitler. (Laughter) Yeah, I know. Number four, it's like, can you imagine coming home to that cat everyday? (Laughter)
這是我最愛的蠢網誌: catsthatlooklikehitler.com(長得像希特勒的貓)。 (笑聲) 如果你的貓長得像希特勒, 可以把照片寄去。 (笑聲) 是啦,我懂,第四張嘛! 你能想像天天回家看到那隻貓嗎? (笑聲)
But then, you can see the same kind of whimsy applied to people. So this is a blog devoted to unfortunate portraiture. This one says, "Bucolic meadow with split-rail fence. Is that an animal carcass behind her?" (Laughter) You're like, "You know? I think that's an animal carcass behind her."
但是,你也會看到這種搞怪點子 適用在人的身上。 這個網誌專門蒐集拍壞了的人像, 這張的標題是:「有圍籬的鄉村草地... 她後面有一具動物屍體嗎?」 (笑聲) 你們好像在說:「我覺得 她後面的確實是動物屍體。」
And it's one after the other. But then you hit this one. Image removed at request of owner. That's it. Image removed at request of owner. It turns out that somebody lampooned here wrote to the snarky guy that does the site, not with a legal threat, not with an offer of payment, but just said, "Hey, would you mind?" The person said, "No, that's fine."
接下來這張照片, 當你要點進去時,照片應當事人要求已刪除。 沒錯,照片應當事人要求已刪除。 這似乎有人寫信 向愛搞怪的版主打槍, 既不威脅採取法律行動,也不說給錢了事, 只簡單說:「喂,拜託啦。」 版主回說:「哦,沒事兒。」
I believe we can build architectures online to make such human requests that much easier to do, to make it possible for all of us to see that the data we encounter online is just stuff on which to click and paste and copy and forward that actually represents human emotion and endeavor and impact, and to be able to have an ethical moment where we decide how we want to treat it.
我相信我們可以在網路上建立某種架構, 讓我們更容易提出 這種人性化的要求, 讓我們每個人都能瞭解, 我們在網路上所看到的資料, 我們每天所點選、複製、貼上、轉寄的資料, 其實背後都有每個人的情緒、 努力和衝擊, 而在我們決定要如何對待這些資料時, 每個人都能以道德的角度來想這件事。
I even think it can go into the real world. We can end up, as we get in a world with more censors -- everywhere there is something filming you, maybe putting it online -- to be able to have a little clip you could wear that says, "You know, I'd rather not." And then have technology that the person taking the photo will know later, this person requested to be contacted before this goes anywhere big, if you don't mind. And that person taking the photo can make a decision about how and whether to respect it.
我甚至覺得真實世界裡也可以採用這一套, 這個世界有愈來愈多的監視器, 你隨時都可能被拍到,也許有人會把你的照片po上網, 這時你可以穿上標語: 「這樣不好吧。」 而透過科技,我們可以 讓拍下你的人知道, 拜託一點, 請在散佈照片之前, 要和當事人聯絡。 拍攝照片的人可以決定, 要怎麼處理或要不要尊重。
In the real world, we see filtering of this sort taking place in Pakistan. And we now have means that we can build, like this system, so that people can report the filtering as they encounter it. And it's no longer just a "I don't know. I couldn't get there. I guess I'll move on," but suddenly a collective consciousness about what is blocked and censored where online. In fact, talk about technology imitating life imitating tech, or maybe it's the other way around.
在真實世界裡,我們會看到像巴基斯坦 這種過濾影片的事情發生, 而我們也有能力建造一個像這樣的系統, 告知大家有這樣一個過濾系統的存在, 那時就不會只是想:「不知道耶,就是連不上,回頭再試好了。」 而是大家突然都警覺到, 網路上有些什麼東西被封鎖了、 被河蟹了。 若要說科技模倣我們的生活, 或模倣其他的科技,倒不如反過來想:
An NYU researcher here took little cardboard robots with smiley faces on them, and a motor that just drove them forward and a flag sticking out the back with a desired destination. It said, "Can you help me get there?" Released it on the streets of Manhattan. (Laughter) They'll fund anything these days. Here is the chart of over 43 people helping to steer the robot that could not steer and get it on its way, from one corner from one corner of Washington Square Park to another.
有一位紐約大學研究生做了一些紙板小機器人, 上面畫了笑臉, 機器人有馬達可讓他們前進, 後面的旗子上則標註了 機器人想去哪裡, 寫著:「可以幫忙我到那裡去嗎?」 然後把機器人放在曼哈頓的街上。 (笑聲) 這年頭什麼研究都有人贊助。 這張圖標示了有43位路人 幫忙找不到路的機器人, 讓它找到路, 從華盛頓廣場公園的一個角落 走到另一個角落。
That leads to example number three: hitchhiking. I'm not so sure hitchhiking is dead. Why? There is the Craigslist rideshare board. If it were called the Craigslist hitchhiking board, tumbleweeds would be blowing through it. But it's the rideshare board, and it's basically the same thing. Now why are people using it? I don't know. Maybe they think that, uh, killers don't plan ahead? (Laughter) No. I think the actual answer is that once you reframe it, once you get out of one set of stale expectations from a failed project that had its day, but now, for whatever reason, is tarnished, you can actually rekindle the kind of human kindness and sharing that something like this on Craigslist represents.
這很像我們要談的第三個例子:搭便車。 我不認為現在已經沒有人在搭便車了。 為什麼?因為有克雷格共乘佈告欄啊...(Craigslist網站) 如果改成克雷格搭便車佈告欄, 真情實相不就明白了? 共乘這件事不就和搭便車一樣嗎? 為什麼大家要用這個網站? 我不知道,也許大家想:殺人兇手總不會事先計畫吧? (笑聲) 不,我覺得真正的原因是, 一旦有人重新架構這件事, 一旦人們對以往有過好時光 而今卻玷上了污名的事,不再抱持 其中有詐的疑慮時, 人們就可能重新點燃人性的善良, 並且願意分享像克雷格網站上那樣的事情。
And then you can highlight it into something like, yes, CouchSurfing.org. CouchSurfing: one guy's idea to, at last, put together people who are going somewhere far away and would like to sleep on a stranger's couch for free, with people who live far away, and would like someone they don't know to sleep on their couch for free. It's a brilliant idea. It's a bee that, yes, flies.
你也可以把這種概念 延伸到另一件事上, 就是CouchSurfing.org(借宿沙發的網站), 借別人家的沙發睡。 某個人突發奇想,把想去遠方旅行, 而希望免費睡在陌生人的沙發上的人集合起來, 再搭配另一群住在遠方的人, 而他們也願意讓陌生人在他們的沙發上免費住宿。 這真是了不起的好點子! 就是那隻會飛的黃蜂!
Amazing how many successful couch surfings there have been. And if you're wondering, no, there have been no known fatalities associated with CouchSurfing. Although, to be sure, the reputation system, at the moment, works that you leave your report after the couch surfing experience, so there may be some selection bias there. (Laughter)
你想不到有多少人已經成功地借宿別人的沙發! 你可能想,到底有多少兇殺案是因為借宿沙發而發生的。 沒有! 雖然這個網站上的評價系統目前要求 借宿人在離開後要再上網呈報評價, 所以難免會有些失真... (笑聲)
So, my urging, my thought, is that the Internet isn't just a pile of information. It's not a noun. It's a verb. And when you go on it, if you listen and see carefully and closely enough, what you will discover is that that information is saying something to you. What it's saying to you is what we heard yesterday, Demosthenes was saying to us. It's saying, "Let's march." Thank you very much. (Applause)
所以我的想法是,我要呼籲, 網際網路不只是一堆資料而已, 不只是個名詞,而是個動詞。 當你要上網時, 如果你仔細傾聽,靠得夠近觀察, 你會發現 那些資料 在對你說話, 他們說的是我們昨天就聽到的一句話, 也就是古希臘演說家德摩西尼說的一句話: 「大家共同前進吧!」謝謝各位! (掌聲)