A Glimpse into the Future

冠军：陈逸贤， 清华大学

演讲题目：展望未来

Title：A Glimpse into the Future

Do you know people who post pictures of themselves almost every day? Snap!Look at my new watch.Snap! Westlake in spring. Snap! Here’s me in the middle ofa speech competition. From streets to campuses, people are obsessed with takingphotos of themselves. But when photography was first introduced to China in the19th century, it traumatized a generation. With the drawtube shaped like acannon, the dazzling firework at exposure, like that, and most horrifying ofall, the bizarre feeling of your own face staring back at yourself on a pieceof paper. “Witchcraft,”They say. “An evil ritual taking away our spirits!”

【译】你认识几乎每天都贴自己照片的人吗？快！看我的新表。快！春天的西湖。快！我正在参加演讲比赛。从街道到校园，人们都沉迷于为自己拍照。但当摄影术在19世纪首次传入中国时，它给一代人带来了创伤。像大炮一样的抽吸管，像那样暴露在外的耀眼烟花，最恐怖的是，你自己脸上的奇异感觉在一张纸上盯着你自己。“巫术，”他们说。“一个夺走我们灵魂的邪恶仪式！”

As the development of technology moves the wheel of history forward, it wasalways accompanied by fear. Judging in retrospect from an era of selfie craze,of course we would want to tell those benighted people of the past: Fear not!Your souls won’t be sucked into a camera! This, is exactly what I want to tell peopleof thepresent: Fear not! Because when technology revolutionizes our lives,humanity frames our action.

【译】随着科技的发展推动着历史的车轮前进，它总是伴随着恐惧。从一个自拍热潮的时代来看，我们当然想告诉过去那些愚昧的人们：不要害怕！你的灵魂不会被摄像机吸引！这，正是我想告诉现在的人们的：不要害怕！因为当科技改变我们的生活时，人类就制定了我们的行动框架。

Look at our world now, the debate between scientists and humanists never seemto set our minds atrest. When scientists are bragging about generalizing 5G6G,the humanists say,you are providing easier ways to infringe on personalprivacy; When scientistsbrag AI as human’s ultimate assistant, the sci-fiwriters say, beware that they develop consciousness of their own! Once I, aself-proclaimed physicist, talked to my pals from the school of humanitiesabout teleportation, I said,“Theoretically we can transport anything from hereto there instantly by disintegrating the stuff here and reconstructing anidentical one there.” But I was instantly bombarded with: “Oh, soon you will betransporting people in this way, won’tyou? But will one be the same personafter teleport? Will my consciousness be instantly terminated upondisintegration here, leaving only a duplicate of meto be reconstructed there?”So innocent bystanders, upon hearing these fantastic debates, panic. Oh no! Thegeeks are going to read our mails! Robots are going to take over the earth!Teleportation is going to destroy thousands of people every day, leaving aworld full of clones!

【译】看看我们现在的世界，科学家和人文主义者之间的争论似乎从来没有让我们的思想受到重视。当科学家吹嘘推广5G、6G的时候，人文主义者说，你提供了更容易侵犯个人隐私的方法；当科学家把bag AI作为人类的终极助手时，科幻作家说，当心他们发展了自己的意识！有一次，我，一个自称物理学家的人，和我的人文学院的朋友们谈到了心灵传输，我说：“理论上，我们可以通过分解这里的东西，在那里重建一个相同的东西，把任何东西从这里立即传送到那里。”但我立刻被炮轰到：“哦，很快你就会用这种方式运送人了，是吗？但是在传送之后，一个人会是同一个人吗？我的意识会在这里瓦解时立即终止吗，只留下一个复制的我在那里被重建？“如此无辜的旁观者，听到这些奇妙的辩论，惊慌失措。哦，不！极客们要看我们的邮件了！机器人将接管地球！传送将摧毁成千上万的人每天，留下一个充满克隆人的世界！

But none of thisis actually going to happen, because humanists are notalarmists and scientist sare not geeks. Humanists point out pertinent ethicalissues with the hope of correcting them and scientists listen to suggestionsrationally to make adjustments as well as amendments. Just like the firstpioneer who modified thecamera to make it less scary, we can always improvetechnology withhumanitarian care. We can enhance the security of networks byintroducing quantum cryptography. We can put restrictions on AI to prevent rogueelements.As for teleportation, maybe it’s too risky to transport humans, but itcanstill relieve a considerable burden of Beijing traffic by taking care of thedelivery system!

【译】但这些都不会真的发生，因为人文主义者不是危言耸听者，科学家也不是怪人。人文主义者指出相关的伦理问题，希望加以纠正，科学家理性地听取建议，做出调整和修正。就像第一个修改摄像机使其不那么可怕的先驱一样，我们总是可以在人道主义的关怀下改进技术。引入量子密码技术可以提高网络的安全性。我们可以对人工智能进行限制，防止流氓分子。至于传送，也许传送人类风险太大，但它仍然可以通过照顾传送系统来减轻北京交通的巨大负担！

So, taking a glimpse into the future, what exactly do Isee? Not the AI-reignedDystopia where humans are reduced to slaves, not the post-apocalypse desertafter a nuclear war, but a future where humanity thrivewith technology as aninstrument of success, and technology thrive with humanity as its code ofconduct. Just like how we mock at the 19th century people for being fearful infront of a camera, our future generations will also be wondering why we hadfeared some of their daily routines in the first place,as they reach everhigher dimensions and roam across the stars.

【译】那么，展望未来，我到底看到了什么？不是人工智能统治下人类沦为奴隶的反乌托邦，也不是核战争后的后启示沙漠，而是人类以技术作为成功工具而繁荣昌盛，以技术作为行为准则而繁荣昌盛的未来。就像我们嘲笑19世纪的人们在镜头前的恐惧一样，我们的后代也会想，为什么我们一开始就害怕他们的一些日常生活，因为他们达到了更高的维度，在星星间漫游。