In an era of extreme polarization, it's really dangerous to talk about right and wrong. You can be targeted, judged for something you said 10 years ago, 10 months ago, 10 hours ago, 10 seconds ago. And that means that those who think you're wrong may burn you at the stake or those who are on your side that think you're not sufficiently orthodox may try and cancel you. As you're thinking about right and wrong, I want you to consider three ideas. What if right and wrong is something that changes over time. What if right and wrong is something that can change because of technology. What if technology is moving exponentially?
在两极极度分化的时代, 谈论是非十分危险。 无论是你在十年前、 十个月前、十小时前, 还是十秒前说过的话, 都会被人针对,遭人议论。 这意味着 那些认为“你是错的”的人 会让你如临炮烙之刑。 而那些与你相同阵营 却认为你站队不够彻底的人 会试图将你封杀。 如果你要思考是与非, 我希望你思考三个点。 假如是非概念会随着 时间流逝而变化, 假如是非概念会因为 科技进步而变化, 假如科技会呈指数级发展, 会怎么样?
So as you're thinking about this concept, remember human sacrifice used to be normal and natural. It was a way of appeasing the gods. Otherwise the rain wouldn't come, the sun wouldn't shine. Public executions. They were common, normal, legal. You used to take your kids to watch beheadings in the streets of Paris. One of the greatest wrongs, slavery, indentured servitude, that was something that was practiced for millennia. It was practiced across the Incas, the Mayas, the Chinese, the Indians in North and South America. And as you're thinking about this, one question is why did something so wrong last for so long? And a second question is: why did it go away? And why did it go away in a few short decades in legal terms?
当你在思考这个概念时, 别忘了活人献祭 也曾被认为是自然常态, 一种绥靖众神的方式。 否则雨水不至、 太阳无辉。 示众处刑 也是常事,合规合法。 曾经的人们还会带着孩子, 在巴黎街头观看斩首处刑。 其中一项极恶:奴役制。 契约奴隶, 实施了上千年的制度 曾经奴役着 印加人、玛雅人、中国人, 以及南北美洲的印第安人。 当你在思考时, 要问个问题:为何如此恶劣的制度 会延续这么长的时间? 第二个问题: 它又为什么消失了? 为什么在短短几十年间 它就不合法了?
Certainly there was a work by extraordinary abolitionists who risked their lives, but there may be something else happening alongside these brave abolitionists. Consider energy and the industrial revolution. A single barrel of oil contains the energy equivalent of the work of five to 10 people. Add that to machines, and suddenly you've got millions of people's equivalent labor at your disposal. You can quit oppressing people and have a doubling in lifespan after a flattened lifespan for millennia. The world economy, which had been flat for millennia, all of a sudden explodes. And you get enormous amounts of wealth and food and other things produced by far fewer hands.
这当然少不了那些伟大的、 奋不顾身的废奴主义者的努力, 但这些勇敢的废奴主义者 也许并不是仅有的原因。 想一想能源与工业革命。 单单一桶油足以储备 五到十人劳动力的能量。 配以机械, 你就陡然拥有了等同于 数百万人的劳动力, 任你支配。 你可以不再压迫人民 让人类的寿限在停滞不变了 上千年后出现倍增。 世界经济水平, 在停滞不变了上千年后 也都出现了暴增。 你可以得到丰厚的财富和粮食等产出, 而生产所需的劳动力却大幅减少了。
Technology changes the way we interact with each other in fundamental ways. New technologies like the machine gun completely changed the nature of warfare in World War I. It drove people into trenches. You were in the British trench, or you were in the German trench. Anything in between was no man's land. You entered no man's land. You were shot. You were killed. You tried to leave the trench in the other direction. Then your own side would shoot you because you were a deserter.
科技从根本上 改变了人与人之间的交互方式。 新技术如机关枪 在第一次世界大战 彻底改变了战争的本质。 肉体对抗成了战壕对抗。 你要么身在英军战壕, 要么身在德军战壕。 双方战壕间的区域是一片不毛之地。 你若步入其中, 就会被枪击,被射杀。 而你若试图朝另一个方向 逃离战壕, 和你同阵营的人就会向你开枪, 因为你是逃兵。
In a weird way, today's machine guns are narrowcast social media. We're shooting at each other. We're shooting at those we think are wrong with posts, with tweets, with photographs, with accusations, with comments. And what it's done is it's created these two trenches where you have to be either in this trench or that trench. And there's almost no middle ground to meet each other, to try and find some sort of a discussion between right and wrong.
在某种程度上,窄播特定群体的 社交媒体就是当代的机关枪。 我们相互射击, 向那些认为我们不对的人开枪。 贴文、博客、照片、指控、评论 就是我们的子弹。 这样的后果 就是产生了两道战壕, 而你必须选择为其一而战。 战壕之间几乎没有中立之地, 无法展开是非对错的讨论。
As you drive around the United States, you see signs on lawns. Some say, "Black Lives Matter." Others say, "We support the police." You very rarely see both signs on the same lawn. And yet if you ask people, most people would probably support Black Lives Matter and they would also support their police. So as you think of these polarized times, as you think of right and wrong, you have to understand that right and wrong changes and is now changing in exponential ways.
如果你在美国开车, 你会看草坪上立着的标语。 有的写着:“黑人的命也是命”, 有的写着:“我们支持警察”。 但你鲜少能看见 这两种标语立在一块。 而如果你直接向人提问, 大部分人应该即会支持 “黑人的命也是命”, 也会支持他们的警察。 所以当你想到这些两极分化的时期, 当你想到这些是非对错, 你必须明白是与非都会转变, 而现在这种转变也在呈指数变化。
Take the issue of gay marriage. In 1996, two-thirds of the US population was against gay marriage. Today two-thirds is for. It's almost 180-degree shift in the opinion. In part, this is because of protests, because people came out of the closet, because of AIDS, but a great deal of it has to do with social media. A great deal of it has to do with people out in our homes, in our living rooms, through television, through film, through posts, through people being comfortable enough, our friends, our neighbors, our family, to say, "I'm gay." And this has shifted opinion even in some of the most conservative of places. Take the Pope. As Cardinal in 2010, he was completely against gay marriage. He becomes Pope. And three years after the last sentence he comes out with "Who am I to judge?" And then today, he's in favor of civil unions.
拿同性婚姻来说。 1996 年,三分之二的美国人 反对同性婚姻。 而今天的三分之二表示支持。 近乎于 180 度的态度转变。 部分因素, 在于有人抗议, 在于有人公开出柜, 以及艾滋病的出现, 但很大一部分原因 必然和社交媒体有关。 很大一部分原因必然在于 人们可以在自己的家中、卧室里, 通过电视、电影、贴文, 通过自己觉得能自在相处的人, 通过朋友、邻居、家人 来发声:“我是同志”。 甚至连最为保守的地域 也因此转变了态度。 拿教皇来说。 2010 年,在他还是红衣主教时, 他彻底反对同性婚姻。 他后来当了教皇。 当上教皇的三年后 他对外称:“我有什么资格评论?” 而今天,他赞同各式民事结合。
As you're thinking about technology changing ethics, you also have to consider that technology is now moving exponentially. As right and wrong changes, if you take the position, "I know right. And if you completely disagree with me, if you partially disagree with me, if you even quibble with me, then you're wrong," then there's no discussion, no tolerance, no evolution, and certainly no learning.
当你想到科技改变道德准则, 你也得考虑到科技如今 也在呈指数级变化。 随着是与非的转变, 如果你的立场是: 我知道什么是对的。 如果你彻底反对我, 如果你有所选择地反对我, 如果你对我稍有非议, 你就是错的。 那就不会有讨论、 不会有容忍,或进步, 自然也没有学习了。
Most of us are not vegetarians yet. Then again, we haven't had a whole lot of faster, better, cheaper alternatives to meat. But now that we're getting synthetic meats, as the price drops from 380,000 dollars in 2013 to 9 dollars today, a great big chunk of people are going to start becoming vegetarian or quasi-vegetarian. And then in retrospect, these pictures of walking into the fanciest, most expensive restaurants in town and walking past racks of bloody steaks is going to look very different in 10 years, in 20 years and 30 years.
我们大部分人都还不是素食主义者。 再次,我们以前也没有多少 更便捷、更优质、 更廉价的肉类替代品, 但现在我们有合成肉类。 其价格从 2013 年的 38 万美元 降到了如今的 9 美元, 许多人将因此 开始成为素食或准素食主义者。 再回看过去的照片, 人们走进城里最奢华、 最昂贵的餐厅, 经过一排排汁血淋漓的牛排。 10年、20年、30年后再来看, 人们都会对这场景有不同看法。
In these polarized times, I'd like to revive two words you rarely hear today: humility and forgiveness. When you judge the past, your ancestors, your forefathers, do so with a little bit more humility, because perhaps if you'd been educated in that time, if you'd lived in that time, you would've done a lot of things wrong. Not because they're right. Not because we don't see they're wrong today, but simply because our notions, our understanding of right and wrong change across time.
在这两极分化的时代, 我想重拾两个如今鲜少听到的词: 人性和原谅。 当你评论过去, 评论父辈和先人时, 要怀有更多的人性。 因为如果你也受教于那个时代, 如果你也生活在那个时代, 你也会做出许多错事。 不是因为他们是对的, 不是因为 我们现在认为他们是对的, 仅仅只是因为我们的观念、 我们的是非观随着时间转变了。
The second word, forgiveness. Forgiveness is incredibly important these days. You cannot cancel somebody for saying the wrong word, for having done something 10 years ago, for having triggered you and not being a hundred percent right. To build a community, you have to build it and talk to people and learn from people who may have very different points of view from yours. You have to allow them a space instead of creating a no man's land. A middle ground, a creation and a space of empathy. This is a time to build community. This is not a time to continue ripping nations apart.
第二个词,原谅。 原谅在当今极其重要。 不能因为某个人说错了话、 或是在十年前犯了错, 或是因为你觉得此人 无法保持百分百的正确 而将此人封杀。 要创建一个社群, 你必须在创建的同时 和那些观点跟你千差万别的人 保持对话和学习。 你必须为他们保留空间, 而非创造一片不毛之地。 一个中立之地, 一个能相互感同身受的空间。 这是一个创建社群的时代, 不是继续民族分化的时代。
Thank you very much.
非常感谢。