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演讲者：Kathryn Bouskill
演讲题目: The unforeseen consequences of a fast-paced world
中英对照翻译
Do you ever wonder why we're surrounded with things that help us do everything faster and faster and faster? Communicate faster, but also work faster, bank faster, travel faster, find a date faster, cook faster, clean faster and do all of it all at the same time? How do you feel about cramming even more into every waking hour?
你们有没有想过，为什么我们身边的东西总是让我们的行动变得越来越快，越快越快？更快的沟通，还有更快的工作，更快的交易，更快的旅行，更快的约会，更快的做饭，更快的清洁，甚至同时做很多事情？在每一个清醒的小时里面塞进更多的东西，你们是什么感觉？
Well, to my generation of Americans, speed feels like a birthright. Sometimes I think our minimum speed is Mach 3. Anything less, and we fear losing our competitive edge. But even my generation is starting to question whether we're the masters of speed or if speed is mastering us.
对于我这一代美国人来说，速度就像是与生俱来的权利。有时，我觉得我们的最低速度就是3马赫（3倍音速，形容速度很快）。如果慢一点，我们就会担心失去我们的竞争优势。但是，甚至我这一代也开始反问到底我们是速度的主人，还是速度在主宰着我们。
I'm an anthropologist at the Rand Corporation, and while many anthropologists study ancient cultures, I focus on modern day cultures and how we're adapting to all of this change happening in the world. Recently, I teamed up with an engineer, Seifu Chonde, to study speed. We were interested both in how people are adapting to this age of acceleration and its security and policy implications.
我是兰德公司的一名人类学家，尽管许多人类学家研究古代文化，而我研究的是当代文化，以及我们如何适应现在世界上正在发生的诸多变化。最近，我和工程师赛孚·康德在一起研究速度。我们对人类如何适应这个加速的时代以及它的安全性和政策建议非常感兴趣。
What could our world look like in 25 years if the current pace of change keeps accelerating? What would it mean for transportation, or learning, communication, manufacturing, weaponry or even natural selection? Will a faster future make us more secure and productive? Or will it make us more vulnerable?
如果现在改变的步伐持续加速，那么我们的世界在25年后会变成什么样子？对于交通，或是学习、通讯、制造、武器、甚至是自然选择来说，这意味着什么？一个更快的未来会让我们更安全、更有生产力吗？还是会让我们更脆弱？
In our research, people accepted acceleration as inevitable, both the thrills and the lack of control. They fear that if they were to slow down, they might run the risk of becoming obsolete. They say they'd rather burn out than rust out. Yet at the same time, they worry that speed could erode their cultural traditions and their sense of home. But even people who are winning at the speed game admit to feeling a little uneasy. They see acceleration as widening the gap between the haves, the jet-setters who are buzzing around, and the have-nots, who are left in the digital dust.
在我们的研究中，人们接受加速并将其视为不可避免的，既兴奋，但又有失控之感。他们害怕如果他们慢下来了，就会面临被淘汰的风险。他们说他们宁愿累死也不愿意被淘汰。然而，在同时，他们担心速度会侵蚀他们的文化传统以及家庭观念。但甚至是那些赢得了速度赛跑的人们也承认他们感到一丝不安。他们认为这种加速扩大了那些坐私人飞机四处环游的富人和那些被覆盖在电子尘埃中的穷人之间的差距。
Yes, we have good reason to forecast that the future will be faster, but what I've come to realize is that speed is paradoxical, and like all good paradoxes, it teaches us about the human experience, as absurd and complex as it is.
是的，我们有很好的理由预测将来会变得更快，但是我逐渐意识到速度这个概念是充满矛盾的，就像所有好的矛盾体一样，它教会我们人类自身的经历既荒谬又复杂。
The first paradox is that we love speed, and we're thrilled by its intensity. But our prehistoric brains aren't really built for it, so we invent roller coasters and race cars and supersonic planes, but we get whiplash, carsick, jet-lagged. We didn't evolve to multitask. Rather, we evolved to do one thing with incredible focus, like hunt -- not necessarily with great speed but with endurance for great distance.
第一个矛盾是我们喜欢速度，它的强度让我们兴奋。但是我们史前形成的大脑并不是为此而生的，所以我们发明出过山车、赛车和超音速飞机，但我们又面临着颈椎受损、晕车或是时差问题。我们进化不是为了多线程工作。相反，我们进化是为了用超常的专注去做一件事情，就像是狩猎——靠的不一定是速度，而是长途跋涉的耐力。
But now there's a widening gap between our biology and our lifestyles, a mismatch between what our bodies are built for and what we're making them do. It's a phenomenon my mentors have called "Stone Agers in the fast lane."
但如今，我们的生理和生活方式之间出现了一条鸿沟，我们身体的设计初衷与我们让身体所做的事情出现了错配。我的导师将这种现象称作“快车道上的石器时代人。”
A second paradox of speed is that it can be measured objectively. Right? Miles per hour, gigabytes per second. But how speed feels, and whether we like it, is highly subjective. So we can document that the pace at which we are adopting new technologies is increasing. For example, it took 85 years from the introduction of the telephone to when the majority of Americans had phones at home.
第二个关于速度的矛盾在于速度是用客观标准来衡量的。对吧？每小时几英里，每秒多少千兆字节。但是对于速度的感知，以及我们是否喜欢速度，都是高度主观的。我们的文件记录到：我们采用新技术的速度正在加快。例如，从电话问世到大多数美国家庭拥有电话花了85年的时间。
In contrast, it only took 13 years for most of us to have smartphones. And how people act and react to speed varies by culture and among different people within the same culture. Interactions that could be seen as pleasantly brisk and convenient in some cultures could be seen as horribly rude in others. I mean, you wouldn't go asking for a to-go cup at a Japanese tea ceremony so you could jet off to your next tourist stop. Would you?
相反，我们中大部分拥有智能手机只花了13年的时间。人们如何应对这种速度对于不同文化，以及对于同一文化中的不同人来说都存在差异。在某些文化中被视为轻松活跃的互动可能在某些文化看来是相当粗鲁的。我想说的是，你不会在日本茶道仪式上要一杯外带的茶，以便赶快到达下一个旅游景点吧。你会这么做吗？
A third paradox is that speed begets speed. The faster I respond, the more responses I get, the faster I have to respond again. Having more communication and information at our fingertips at any given moment was supposed to make decision-making easier and more rational. But that doesn't really seem to be happening.
第三个矛盾是速度导致速度。我回复得越快，我得到的回复就越多，于是我不得不回复得更快。在任何一个时刻，我们手头正在进行的更多交流和获得的更多信息本应是让决策更加容易、更加理性。但是看起来事实并非如此。
Here's just one more paradox: If all of these faster technologies were supposed to free us from drudgery, why do we all feel so pressed for time? Why are we crashing our cars in record numbers, because we think we have to answer that text right away? Shouldn't life in the fast lane feel a little more fun and a little less anxious? German speakers even have a word for this: "Eilkrankheit." In English, that's "hurry sickness."
还有另一个矛盾：如果所有这些更快的科技本应让我们免于苦差，为什么我们总是觉得时间如此紧迫？为什么我们不断刷新车祸数字，只因我们觉得我们必须马上回复消息？在快车道的生活不是应该更多一些乐趣，更少一些焦虑吗？德语中甚至有一个词来形容这种现象：“Eilkrankheit”。翻译过来，就是“速度不适感”。
When we have to make fast decisions, autopilot brain kicks in, and we rely on our learned behaviors, our reflexes, our cognitive biases, to help us perceive and respond quickly. Sometimes that saves our lives, right? Fight or flight. But sometimes, it leads us astray in the long run.
当我们不得不快速做出决定时，自控式的大脑开始运作，我们依赖于我们习得的行为、反射，以及认知偏差，来帮助我们快速感知并反应。有时这可以救命，对吧？要么战斗，要么逃跑。但有时，这会在长期让我们陷入迷途。
Oftentimes, when our society has major failures, they're not technological failures. They're failures that happen when we made decisions too quickly on autopilot. We didn't do the creative or critical thinking required to connect the dots or weed out false information or make sense of complexity. That kind of thinking can't be done fast. That's slow thinking. Two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, started pointing this out back in 1974, and we're still struggling to do something with their insights.
很多时候，我们的社会出现的严重问题并不是技术性失误，而是当我们依赖反射快速做出决定时而造成的错误。我们没有进行必要的创造性或批判性思考，连接信息节点，滤除错误信息，厘清复杂状况。这种思考模式是不能快速完成的。这是慢思考。两位心理学家，丹尼尔·卡尼曼和阿莫斯·特沃斯基在1974年就指出了这一点，而我们仍在他们的洞见下挣扎。
All of modern history can be thought of as one spurt of acceleration after another. It's as if we think if we just speed up enough, we can outrun our problems. But we never do. We know this in our own lives, and policymakers know it, too. So now we're turning to artificial intelligence to help us make faster and smarter decisions to process this ever-expanding universe of data. But machines crunching data are no substitute for critical and sustained thinking by humans, whose Stone Age brains need a little time to let their impulses subside, to slow the mind and let the thoughts flow.
整段当代历史都可以被视为一场接一场的加速。就好像是我们觉得只要我们的速度够快，我们的问题就可以迎刃而解。但事实从来不是这样的。我们从自己的生活中领悟到这一点，政策制定者也知道这一点。如今，我们正寄希望于人工智能帮助我们做出更快、更聪明的决策，来处理这体量不断扩大的数据。但是依靠机器分析数据并非是人类进行批判性和可持续思考的替代品，我们的石器时代大脑需要一些时间来平息冲动，来放慢思考，来让思想发展。
If you're starting to think that we should just hit the brakes, that won't always be the right solution. We all know that a train that's going too fast around a bend can derail, but Seifu, the engineer, taught me that a train that's going too slowly around a bend can also derail.
如果你开始考虑——我们就应该立即停下脚步，这并不总是正确的解决方案。我们都知道在弯道处开得太快的火车会脱轨，但是工程师赛孚告诉我在弯道开得太慢的火车也会脱轨。
So managing this spurt of acceleration starts with the understanding that we have more control over speed than we think we do, individually and as a society. Sometimes, we'll need to engineer ourselves to go faster. We'll want to solve gridlock, speed up disaster relief for hurricane victims or use 3-D printing to produce what we need on the spot, just when we need it. Sometimes, though, we'll want to make our surroundings feel slower to engineer the crash out of the speedy experience. And it's OK not to be stimulated all the time. It's good for adults and for kids. Maybe it's boring, but it gives us time to reflect. Slow time is not wasted time.
所以要掌控这种加速度，需要从一个正确的认识开始——我们对速度的控制能力超乎想象，不论是个体还是整个社会。有时，我们需要工程师更快一点。我们想要解决交通堵塞问题，加快飓风灾民的灾后安置，或仅仅在我们需要某个东西的时候利用3D打印现场生产。但有时，我们却想让周遭慢下来，处理速度带来的杂乱无章。我们完全可以不用时时刻刻都紧绷着。这对成人还有儿童来说都很好。也许这很无聊，但是这给了我们时间去反思。放慢速度不是浪费时间。
And we need to reconsider what it means to save time. Culture and rituals around the world build in slowness, because slowness helps us reinforce our shared values and connect. And connection is a critical part of being human. We need to master speed, and that means thinking carefully about the trade-offs of any given technology. Will it help you reclaim time that you can use to express your humanity?
我们也需要重新思考节约时间究竟意味着什么。全世界的文化和习俗都在慢速中成型，因为放慢脚步能帮助我们加强我们的共同价值和联结，而且联结是人之所以为人的一个关键部分。我们需要成为速度的主人，这意味着仔细思考使用任何科技的权衡。这种科技会帮助你夺回可用来表达人性的时间吗？
Will it give you hurry sickness? Will it give other people hurry sickness? If you're lucky enough to decide the pace that you want to travel through life, it's a privilege. Use it. You might decide that you need both to speed up and to create slow time: time to reflect, to percolate at your own pace; time to listen, to empathize, to rest your mind, to linger at the dinner table.
会给你造成速度不适感吗？会给他人带去速度不适感吗？如果你足够幸运，就可以决定你生活的步调，这是一种特权。要充分利用好它。你也许会决定既要加速，也要减速：放慢脚步来反思，来沉淀，来倾听，来共情，放空大脑，逗留于餐桌边。
So as we zoom into the future, let's consider setting the technologies of speed, the purpose of speed and our expectations of speed to a more human pace.
所以当我们展望未来时，让我们试着将速度背后的技术、速度的目的，以及我们对速度的期望变得更加符合人的步伐吧！
Thank you.
谢谢。
Remark：一切权益归TED所有，更多TED相关信息可至官网www.ted.com查询！
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