It's time for humankind to recognize a disturbing truth: we have colonized the future. In wealthy countries, especially, we treat it like a distant colonial outpost where we can freely dump ecological damage and technological risk as if there was nobody there.
是时候,让人类认识 一个令人不安的真相了: 我们已经殖民了未来。 特别是在富裕国家, 我们将未来视为遥远的殖民地哨所, 可以自由的进行生态破坏, 带来技术风险, 好像那里没有人居住一样。
The tragedy is that tomorrow's generations aren't here to challenge this pillaging of their inheritance. They can't leap in front of the king's horse like a suffragette or stage a sit-in like a civil rights activist or go on a Salt March to defy their colonial oppressors like Mahatma Gandhi. They're granted no political rights or representation; they have no influence in the marketplace. The great silent majority of future generations is rendered powerless.
然而可悲的是,未来的一代 并没有在这里挑战这种 对他们遗产的掠夺。 他们不能像妇女政权论者 那样跳到国王的马前, 也不能像民权主义者那样上演静坐, 更不能像圣雄甘地那样 抗击殖民地压迫者。 他们没有任何政治权利或代表权, 在商业市场上也没有任何影响力。 后代中沉默的绝大多数人 对此根本无能为力。
It could be hard to grasp the scale of this injustice, so look at it this way: There are 7.7 billion people alive today. That's just a tiny fraction of the estimated 100 billion people who have lived and died over the past 50,000 years. But both of these are vastly outnumbered by the nearly seven trillion people who will be born over the next 50,000 years, assuming current birth rates stabilize. In the next two centuries alone, tens of billions of people will be born, amongst them, all your grandchildren, and their grandchildren and the friends and communities on whom they'll depend. How will all these future generations look back on us and the legacy we're leaving for them?
要深切理解 这种不公正的程度并不容易。 不妨试着这样看: 今天地球上有 77 亿人口。 相比在过去的 5 万年中 地球上出现过的 1000 亿人, 这只是很小的一部分。 但是,如果按当前的出生率计算, 那么在未来的 5 万年中, 地球上还会诞生近 7 万亿人口, 远远超过了之前的两个数字。 仅在接下来的两个世纪中, 就将有数百亿人出生, 其中就包括你们所有的孙辈, 孙辈的孙辈, 以及他们所依赖的朋友和社区。 这些子孙后代将如何审视我们 以及我们为他们留下的遗产?
We've clearly inherited extraordinary legacies from our common ancestors: the gift of the agricultural revolution, medical discoveries and the cities we still live in. But we've certainly inherited destructive legacies too. Legacies of slavery and colonialism and racism creating deep inequities that must now be repaired. Legacies of economies that are structurally addicted to fossil fuels and endless growth that must now be transformed. So how can we become the good ancestors that future generations deserve?
我们显然已经继承了 我们祖先留下的珍贵遗产: 农业革命, 医学发现和我们仍然 生活于其中的城市。 但是,我们当然也继承了 那些破坏性遗产。 奴隶制、殖民主义 和种族主义的遗留产物, 造成了严重的不平等。 那些在结构上 依赖化石燃料和无休止增长的 经济体的遗留问题, 现在也必须得到解决。 那么,我们如何才能 为后代做出好的榜样呢?
Well, over the past decade, a global movement has started to emerge of people committed to decolonizing the future and extending our time horizons towards a longer now. This movement is still fragmented and as yet has no name. I think of its pioneers as time rebels. They can be found at work in Japan's visionary Future Design movement, which aims to overcome the short-term cycles that dominate politics by drawing on the principle of seventh generation decision making practiced by many Native Americans communities.
在过去的十年中, 一项全球运动开始兴起, 人们致力于让未来非殖民化, 并将我们着眼的时间范围 进行延伸。 这项运动仍然只是星星之火, 也没有正式的名字。 我认为它的先驱是“时间反叛者”。 日本富有远见的“未来设计”运动 (Future Design)就体现了这一点。 该运动旨在通过借鉴 许多美国原住民社区践行的 第七代决策原则, 来克服主导政治的短视现象。
Future Design gathers together residents to draw up and discuss plans for the towns and cities where they live. Half the group are told they're residents from the present day. The other half are given ceremonial robes to wear and told to imagine themselves as residents from the year 2060. Well, it turns out that the residents from 2060 systematically advocate far more transformative city plans, from healthcare investments to climate change action. And this innovative form of future citizens assembly is now spreading throughout Japan from small towns like Yahaba to major cities like Kyoto. What if Future Design was adopted by towns and cities worldwide to revitalize democratic decision making and extend their vision far beyond the now?
“未来设计”将居民聚集在一起, 草拟并讨论他们 所居住的城镇的计划。 一半的人被告知, 他们是现在的居民。 另外一半的人会穿上仪式长袍, 并被告知把自己 想象成 2060 年的居民。 结果,2060 年的居民 系统的倡导了从医疗保健投资 到气候变化行动 等一系列更具变革性的城市计划, 目前,这种未来公民集会的创新形式 已经日本各地得到了推广—— 从 Yahaba 这样的小城镇 到京都这样的大城市。 如果“未来设计”的理念 被世界各地的城镇采纳, 以振兴民主决策, 并将他们的视野扩展到 遥远的未来,会怎样呢?
Now, time rebels have also taken to courts of law to secure the rights of future people. The organization Our Children's Trust has filed a landmark case against the US Government on behalf of 21 young people campaigning for the legal right to a safe climate and healthy atmosphere for both current and future generations. Their David versus Goliath struggle has already inspired groundbreaking lawsuits worldwide from Colombia and Pakistan to Uganda and the Netherlands. And this wave of activism is growing alongside the movement to grant legal personhood to nature, from the Whanganui River in Aotearoa, New Zealand to the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India.
同时,时间反叛者 也在通过诉诸法律 来保障未来人民的权利。 一个名为“我们的儿童基金会”的组织 代表 21 个年轻人向美国政府 提起了具有里程碑意义的诉讼, 为本代人和子孙后代争取 获得安全气候 和健康大气的合法权利。 他们的“大卫诉歌利亚 (David versus Goliath)”之争 已经在世界各地 引发了开创性的诉讼, 从哥伦比亚、巴基斯坦 到乌干达和荷兰。 从新西兰旺格努伊河 到印度的恒河和亚穆纳河, 这一波行动主义运动 与赋予大自然 法律人格的运动同时兴起。
Time rebels are taking action at the ballot box too. In 2019, teenagers across Europe began lobbying their parents and grandparents to give them their votes in the European parliamentary elections of that year. The hashtag #givethekidsyourvote went viral on social media and was spread by climate campaigners as far as Australia. My partner and I heard about it and decided to give our votes in the last UK general election to our 11-year-old twins. So we all sat around the kitchen table and debated the party manifestos, and they then each told us where to put the X on the ballot sheet. And in case you're wondering, no, they didn't simply mirror their parents' political opinions.
时间反叛者也在 通过投票来实现同样的目的。 在 2019 年,欧洲各地的青少年 开始游说父母和祖父母 在当年的欧洲议会选举中 投票给他们。 标签 #givethekidsyourvote 在社交媒体上迅速流行起来, 并由气候运动人士 推广到了遥远的澳大利亚。 我和我的伴侣听说了这件事, 并决定在上次英国大选中 把票投给了我们 11 岁的双胞胎。 我们大家围坐在厨房桌边, 讨论了党派宣言, 然后他们各自告诉我们 如何填选票。 别误会, 他们并没有简单的重复 父母的政治观点。
So the time rebellion has begun. The rebels are rising to decolonize the future founding a global movement for long-term thinking and intergenerational justice that may turn out to be one of the most powerful political movements of this century. They're helping us escape the short-term cycles that digital distraction and consumer culture trap us in, with the lure of the Buy Now button and 24/7 news. They inspire us to extend our time horizons from seconds and minutes to decades and far beyond.
所以说,反叛的时代已经开始了。 反叛者正在为实现 未来的非殖民化而抗争, 建立一个眼光长远 和代际正义的全球运动, 这可能演变为 本世纪最强大的政治运动之一。 他们正在帮助我们摆脱 那些以速购按钮 和全天候新闻为诱饵的 电子产品和消费文化 让我们陷入的 一系列短视的周期。 他们激励着我们,不只着眼于 几秒钟和几分钟的时间范畴, 而是要放眼到几十年后, 甚至更遥远的未来。
The artist Katie Paterson's project, Future Library, will be a century in the making. Every year, a famous writer donates a book which will remain completely unread until 2114 when the whole collection will be printed on paper made from a forest of trees planted for this very purpose. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault sets its vision even further, housing millions of seeds in an indestructible rock bunker in the Arctic Circle that's designed to last 1,000 years. But how can we really think and plan on the scale of millennia?
艺术家凯蒂·帕特森( Katie Paterson)的 “未来图书馆”项目 将持续一个世纪。 每年,一位著名作家 会捐赠一本书, 这本书将一直 被秘密保存到 2114 年, 届时全部藏书将被印刷在纸上, 而这些纸来自 为此目的而栽种的一大片树林。 斯瓦尔巴特群岛全球种子库 (Svalbard Global Seed Vault) 进一步确立了自己的愿景, 在北极圈内的一个设计寿命为 1000 年的坚不可摧的岩石地堡里 存放了数百万颗种子。 但我们如何才能真正 在千年的尺度上进行思考和规划呢?
Well, the answer is perhaps the ultimate secret to being a time rebel, and it comes from the biomimicry designer Janine Benyus, who suggests we learn from nature's 3.8 billion years of evolution. How is it that other species have learned to survive and thrive for 10,000 generations or more? Well, it's by taking care of the place that would take care of their offspring, by living within the ecosystem in which they're embedded, by knowing not to foul the nest, which is what humans have been doing with devastating effects at an ever-increasing pace and scale over the past century.
答案也许是 成为时间反叛者的最终秘诀, 这一秘诀来自仿生设计师 亚尼内·班亚斯(Janine Benyus)。 她建议我们从大自然 38 亿年的进化中吸取经验。 其他物种是如何学会生存 并繁衍超过 1 万代的呢? 事实上,它们是通过保护 让它们能够繁衍后代的地点, 通过居住在对它们来说 最宜居的生态系统中, 以及认识到不要破坏 自己的巢穴来实现的, 而人类在过去的一个世纪里 一直在以前所未有的规模 加速破坏自己的生存环境。
So a profound starting point for time rebels everywhere is to focus not simply on lengthening time but on regenerating place. We must restore and repair and care for the planetary home that will take care of our offspring. For our children, and our children's children, and all those yet to come, we must fall in love with rivers and mountains, with ice sheets and savannas, and reconnect with the long and life-giving cycles of nature.
因此,对于世界各地的 时间反叛者来说, 一个深刻的出发点不只是 单纯关注如何延长时间范畴, 还要着眼于栖息地的再生。 我们必须为了子孙后代的福祉 而修复和维护我们的行星家园。 对于我们的孩子, 我们孩子的孩子, 以及之后的若干代人, 我们必须珍惜河流和山脉, 热爱冰盖和热带稀树草原, 并重新与漫长且赋予生命的 自然循环建立连接。
Let us all become time rebels and be inspired by the beautiful Mohawk blessing spoken when a child is born: "Thank you, Earth. You know the way."
让我们所有人都成为时间反叛者, 并谨记在孩子出生时被赠予的 美丽的莫霍克语祝福: “谢谢,地球。 你知道如何引领我们走向未来。”