This transmission is for future generations. As it stands, a small sliver of humanity is currently imposing their visions on the rest of us. They invest in space travel and AI superintelligence and underground bunkers, while casting health care and housing for all as outlandish and unimaginable. These futurists let their own imaginations run wild when it comes to bending material and digital realities, but their visions grow limp when it comes to transforming our social reality so that everyone has the chance to live a good and meaningful life.
我在这里要传达的讯息 是为了未来的世代。 就目前而言, 一小部分人 正在将他们的愿景 强加给我们其他人。 他们投资太空旅行、 超级人工智能 和地下掩体, 同时将为所有人提供 医疗保健和住房问题 认为是匪夷所思 和难以想象的。 当涉及到强力改变物质世界 和数字化现实的时候, 这些未来主义者 任其想象力大放异彩, 但在改变我们的社会现实, 让每个人都有机会 过上美好而有意义的生活之时, 他们的愿景变得软弱无力。
We are in many ways trapped inside the lopsided imagination of those who monopolize power and resources to benefit the few at the expense of the many. And as I see it, there are two stories these monopolists sell us about what the future holds.
在许多方面, 我们受困于那些垄断权力和资源 以牺牲许多人为代价 来使少数人受益的人的 不平衡想象之中。 在我看来, 这些垄断者向我们兜售 两种关于未来的故事。
The first is the Silicon Valley version, in which all our preferences are tracked and desires catered to. Chatbots, virtual assistants, driverless cars at our beck and call. All our wants and needs met in an instant. This is their utopia, where technology is our savior, a future where our automated offspring know us better than we know ourselves. Ease and convenience, just a click away. And in their wildest dreams, we merge with technology, optimizing our potential to be stronger, smarter, superhuman.
第一个是硅谷版本, 其中我们所有的偏好和欲望 都被追踪并满足。 聊天机器人、虚拟助手、 无人驾驶汽车随叫随到。 我们所有的愿望和需求 都能立即得到满足。 这是他们的乌托邦, 科技是我们的救星, 在这个未来, 我们的自动化了的后代 比我们自己更了解我们。 轻松、方便, 一切只需点击一下即可。 在他们最疯狂的梦想中, 我们与科技融为一体, 优化我们成为更强大、 更聪明的超级人类。
The other story, preferred by Hollywood, is grittier, more chaotic. Conflict and competition run rampant. It's "Hunger Games" meets "Blade Runner" meets "The Matrix." People are ruthless and unpredictable. Inequality and precarity are permanent features in our lives. In this dystopian vision, technology is our slayer, displacing and dominating humanity.
另一个故事是粗粝的,混乱的, 更受好莱坞青睐。 里面冲突和竞争猖獗。 是《饥饿游戏》遇上《银翼杀手》 遇上《黑客帝国》。 人们是冷酷无情和不可预测的。 不平等和不稳定 是我们生活中的永久特征。 在这种反乌托邦视野中, 科技是我们的杀手, 它会取代和统治人类。
And while these sound like opposing narratives, they have different endings for sure, one in which we're saved, one in which we're slayed, they actually share an underlying logic. And in both, we give up power. Both stories assume technology is in the driver's seat, propelled by a will of its own. In the utopic and dystopic stories, technology impacts us for better or worse. But our impact on technology, the human inputs, shall we say, are missing. The values, assumptions, interests and needs that shape our digital and physical worlds are nowhere to be seen. To move forward, we have to pull back the screen. Rather than agonizing about a coming dystopia or longing for a future utopia, we have to reckon with ustopia.
虽然这些听起来像是 截然相反的叙述, 而且它们的结局肯定不同, 一个是我们得拯救, 一个是我们被杀死, 它们实际上有一个共同的逻辑。 在这两个方面, 我们都放弃了权利。 这两个故事都假设 科技有其自主意识, 并由此推动下处于主导地位。 在乌托邦和反乌托邦故事中, 技术对我们的影响非好即坏。 但是,我们对科技的影响,人类的作用, 可以说是完全没有体现。 塑造我们数字和现实世界的 价值观、假想、 兴趣和需求完全看不见。 为了继续往前, 我们必须开拓视野。 与其为即将到来的 反乌托邦感到痛苦 或渴望未来的乌托邦, 不如思考如何实现我们的乌托邦世界。
Ustopia is a word I'm borrowing from Margaret Atwood to describe the fact that the future is us. However loathsome or loving we are, so will we be. Whereas utopias are the stuff of dreams, dystopias, the stuff of nightmares, ustopias are what we create together when we're wide awake. Ustopias invite us into a collective imagination in which we still have tensions, but where everyone has what they need to thrive.
我借用玛格丽特·阿特伍德 (Margaret Atwood) 的一个词 “ustopia(正反乌托邦)” 来说, 我们就是我们的未来。 无论我们当下多么令人讨厌 或充满爱心,未来也将如此。 乌托邦表现的是梦想之境, 反乌托邦代表噩梦的想象, 而 ustopia 则是我们 在清醒时共同创造的东西。 ustopia 邀请我们 进入一种集体想象, 这当中虽然也存在紧张角力, 但每个人都可以得到所需 来蓬勃发展。
When I was a grad student at UC Berkeley in the early 2000s, I witnessed firsthand how innovation often deepens social inequity. As the tech sector grew, people who had lived in the Bay area for generations were displaced and discarded. At the time, I was researching the social dimensions of biotechnology. As I observed scientists growing heart cells using pluripotent stem cells beating in a petri dish, I thought about how hard it is to grow empathy for other human beings in our everyday lives. Here were billions of dollars being poured into the future of medicine, but health care for all was somehow far-fetched. This is what I mean by a lopsided imagination, where we can imagine regenerating sick bodies but not an ailing body politic.
2000 年代初,当我还是 加州大学伯克利分校的研究生时, 我亲眼目睹了创新 往往会加深社会不平等。 随着科技行业的发展, 世代生活在湾区的本地人 被迫流离失所和被抛弃。 当时,我正在研究生物技术的 社会层面影响。 当我观察到科学家 用多能干细胞培养的 心脏细胞在培养皿中跳动, 我想到了在日常生活中 培养对他人的同情是多么困难。 数十亿美元被投入到 研究医学的未来, 但全民医疗保健 却莫名其妙地难以企及。 这就是我所说的 一边倒的想象力, 我们可以想象 让生病的身体重生, 但无法拯救衰败的政治体。
Utopias require inequality and exclusion. Ustopias center collective well-being over gross concentrations of wealth. They're built on an understanding that all of our struggles, from climate justice to racial justice, are interconnected. That we are interconnected.
乌托邦需要不平等和排外。 Ustopias 以集体福祉为中心, 而不是财富的高度集中。 它们建立在这样一种认识之上, 即我们的所有斗争, 从气候正义到种族正义, 都是相互关联的。 我们都是内在相关的。
Take what's happening in Barcelona, Spain, where a large-scale participatory experiment has been underway for almost ten years now using a digital platform called “Decidim,” which means "we decide" in Catalan, alongside in-person neighborhood-level deliberations to create policies that respond to people's actual needs.
以西班牙巴塞罗那 正在发生的事情为例, 一项大规模参与的 社会实验 已经进行了将近十年。 这个实验使用名为 “Decidim” 的数字平台 这个词在加泰罗尼亚语中 意为 “我们决定”, 加上面对面进行的 社区层面的讨论, 以制定满足 人们实际需求的政策。
And the thing is, technology companies are not driving what's happening. The collective intelligence of people from all walks of life are. Proponents call it a “New Deal on Data” that recognizes data sovereignty, privacy, collective rights to data. Decidim is open-source software, so it's already been adapted and used in over 80 other cities, guaranteeing public transparency in a way commercial platforms don't. Once you install Decidim, you can create, comment, consult on ideas and track what happens in real time. Over 40,000 residents have submitted proposals on everything from affordable housing to air quality, and about 70 percent of the government's action plan have been derived directly from these proposals.
事实上,科技公司并没有 推动正在发生的事情。 各行各业人们的集体智慧 才是推动其发展的力量。 支持者称之为 “数据新政”, 承认数据主权、隐私 和集体数据权益。 Decidim 是开源软件, 因此已经在其他80多个城市 进行了更新和使用, 以商业平台无法做到的方式 保证了其公共透明度。 安装 Decidim 后, 您可以创建、评论、咨询想法 并实时跟踪发生的事情。 超过四万名居民 提交了方案 内容涵盖从可负担住房 到空气质量几乎所有方面, 约 70% 的政府行动计划 直接源自于这些提案。
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Take “Superblocks,” an initiative to cut carbon emissions and improve air quality, where 12 city districts have been closed to through traffic so the interior blocks are more hospitable to pedestrians, cyclists, more green space. On the Barcelona coastline, another initiative is underway in which residents are working to make it more accessible to locals, rather than simply a playground for elites and cruise ships.
以 “超级街区” 为例, 这是一项旨在减少碳排放 和改善空气质量的举措, 那里有 12 个城市区域 已禁止无停靠交通, 因此街区内部 更适合行人、 骑自行车者和更多的绿色空间。 在巴塞罗那海岸线上, 另一项计划正在进行中, 居民正在努力让这里 更加方便本地人, 而不仅仅是精英 和游轮客的游乐场。
Notice how different this is than the typical top-down, "we know best" approach to shaping the future. Like what happened with Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, Google's urban development smart city play that would have collected masses of data data in order to create more efficient and convenient city services. But which in the end was tech-driven rather than people-driven. Sidewalk Labs staged public input sessions in order to appear responsive to residents' concerns about the newfangled surveillance that would have been embedded into the Quayside neighborhood. But people saw through the proposal and put an end to the development.
请注意, 这与典型的自上而下 所谓 “我们最了解” 的 塑造未来的方式 有什么不同。 就像多伦多的 Sidewalk Labs 一样, 谷歌的智慧城市发展计划 可以收集大量的数据, 以创建更高效、 更便捷的城市服务。 但这最终是由技术驱动的, 而不是以人来驱动的。 Sidewalk Labs 举办了 公众意见征询会, 目的是仿佛看起来 对公众关于新式的 可以嵌入码头社区的 新型监控系统的担忧 有所回应。 但是人们看透了提案, 结束了这个开发项目。
In fact, there are ustopias taking shape right here in Atlanta. Known by some as Silicon Peach or Techlanta, because it’s the fastest-growing urban tech hub in the country, it’s also the city with the highest income inequality in the nation. Which shouldn't surprise us when we remember that the fantasies of some are so often the nightmares of others. In many places, tech booms actually exacerbate inequality, increasing the cost of living, displacing local residents and creating high tech tools for surveillance and social control.
事实上, 在亚特兰大, 许多 ustopia 正在形成。 它被一些人称为 “Silicon Peach” (硅谷之桃) 或 “Techlanta”(科技亚特兰大) 因为它是美国增长最快的 城市科技中心, 也是全国收入不平等 程度最高的城市。 这似乎也并不出乎意料, 尤其是当我们想起 一些人的美梦常常是 另一些人的噩梦之时。 在许多地方,科技繁荣 实际上加剧了不平等, 增加了生活成本, 使当地居民流离失所, 并创造了用于监视和社会管控 的高科技工具。
But that's only half of the story. Because here in Atlanta, and in many other locales, we're also witnessing a historic mobilization of residents, creating ustopias that prioritize people over profit, public goods over policing. It started a few years ago, when Atlanta officials announced plans to build Cop City, a massive 90-million-dollar facility that would have trained police from all over the country. The development would include cutting down Weelaunee Forest, one of the four lungs of Atlanta that protects against heat waves and floods, and which is located next to a predominantly Black working-class community. But ATLiens were having none of it.
但这只是故事的一半。 因为在亚特兰大 和其他许多地方, 我们还目睹了 历史性的居民大动员, 创造的许多 ustopia 将人置于利润之上, 公共物品优先于警务管理。 它始于几年前, 当时亚特兰大官员宣布 计划建造警察城, 这是一个耗资 9000 万美元的 大型设施, 用于培训从全国各处而来的 专业警员。 该开发项目将包括 砍伐韦劳尼森林, 这是被称作亚特兰大的 “四个肺”的森林之一, 为该城市抵御热浪和洪水, 而且毗邻一个 以黑人为主的工人阶级社区。 但是亚特兰大民众坚决不同意此计划。
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(欢呼和掌声)
Utilizing direct action, digital tools, a broad coalition has formed to push back against the militarizing imagination of the city. Atlanta's forest defenders remind us that true community safety relies on connection, not cops. On public goods, like housing and health care, not punishment. They understand that protecting people and the planet go hand in hand. From college students to clergy, environmental activists to Indigenous elders, they’re inviting us into a collective imagination in which our ecological and our social well-being go hand in hand. An ustopia right in our own backyards.
利用直接行动和数字工具, 民众已经形成了 一个广泛的联盟, 以抵制对这座城市的 军事化想象。 亚特兰大的森林捍卫者提醒我们, 真正的社区安全 取决于人际关系, 而不是警察。 建立在住房和医疗保健 等公共资产之上, 而不是惩罚。 他们明白, 保护人类和保护地球 是相辅相成的。 从大学生到神职人员, 从环保活动家 到土著长者, 他们邀请我们 进入一种集体想象, 让我们的自然生态和社会福祉 协同发展。 ustopia 就在我们自己的后院。
And even children are pushing back against the lopsided imagination of city officials. Like one who asked, "What did cops do to deserve a playground?" As they sat in the kids zone outside of the city council meeting where hundreds of people had showed up to speak out against Cop City. Together, they're reminding us that deadly systems may seem durable, but they're not inevitable. And we don’t simply have to click: submit. We can each work to strengthen the social fabric in our own locale and create a shared vision in which no one is left behind. We can follow the example of data justice organizers in Barcelona, forest defenders in Atlanta, imagining and crafting the worlds we cannot live without, just as we dismantle the ones we cannot live within.
甚至孩子们也在抵制 市政官员一边倒的想象力。 比如有小朋友问道: “警察做了什么 而配得游乐场地?” 当他们坐在市议会会议之外 的儿童区时, 有数百人出现在市议会 会议外大声疾呼 反对警察城。 它们共同提醒我们, 致命的系统可能看起来牢不可破, 但他们并非不可避免。 而且我们不必简单地点击:提交。 我们每个人都可以努力加强 我们自己所在地区的社会结构, 并创造一个不让任何人掉队的 共同愿景。 我们可以效仿巴塞罗那的数据正义组织者、 亚特兰大的森林捍卫者的榜样, 想象和塑造 我们所赖以生存的世界, 就像拆除那些 我们无法在其中生活的世界一样。
The first step is to stop policing the borders of our own imagination. A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Naive. Work that doesn't drive us into the grave? Impossible. A society where everyone has food, shelter, love? In your dreams. Exactly.
第一步 是停止监管我们自己 想象的边界。 没有监狱的世界? 太荒谬了。 培养每一个孩子的 才华的学校? 天真。 拥有不逼迫人们劳作致死的工作? 不可能。 一个人人都有食物、 住所、爱的社会? 你做梦吧。 没错。
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