几周前，我意外收到厚厚的一摞书，是从微软(Microsoft)创始人比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)的办公室寄来的。随寄的便条解释说，盖茨挑选这些书作为他夏季最喜欢的读物，并且希望把它们寄给朋友、熟人和记者，它们“发人深省，包含有传记、历史和小说”。A couple of weeks ago, I unexpectedly received a hefty pile of books, dispatched from the office of Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. An accompanying note explained that Gates had selected the tomes as his favourite summer reads – and was keen to send these around to friends, contacts and journalists as a “thought-provoking mix of memoir, history and fiction”.
“好耶！”我想欢呼。这在一定程度上是因为我自己也出过书，因此我对于支持图书行业是完全赞成的。老天知道，在亚马逊(Amazon)等网站上图书价格在不断下滑，这个行业需要帮助。“Hooray!” I wanted to cheer. That is partly because I am a published author myself, and thus completely biased in favour of supporting the book industry. Heaven knows it needs help at a time when the price of books keeps tumbling on websites such as Amazon.
还有一点让我高兴的是盖茨挑选的这些书。在你外出度假时，它们让你能够在泳池边愉快地进行阅读。可想而知，这里面有让人感觉不错、赞扬技术进步和天才的非小说类图书，例如汉斯•罗斯林(Hans Rosling)的《事实真相》(Factfulness)，沃尔特•艾萨克森(Walter Isaacson)的《莱昂纳多•达芬奇》(Leonardo da Vinci)。此外还有充满奇思妙想的文学佳作《林肯在中阴界》（Lincoln in the Bardo），以及一本关于对信念和生命的思考的书，内容引人深思，名为《万事皆有因以及我所爱的其他谎言》(Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved)，作者是在35岁确诊癌症四期的凯特•鲍勒(Kate Bowler)教授。I was also rather delighted by Gates’s selections, which could easily keep somebody happily engaged round a holiday pool. There were some predictably feel-good non-fiction books celebrating technological progress and genius, such as Hans Rosling’s Factfulness and Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. But the pile included the whimsical literary gem Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, and a challenging meditation on faith and life by Kate Bowler, a professor diagnosed with stage IV cancer at the age of 35, called Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved.
我对这些赠书感到高兴的第三个原因是：这似乎是一个小小的迹象，表明科技界现在正出现一股较大的反主流文化的趋势。如今的人们越来越担心，无休止地沉浸在虚拟网络空间的现象正在毁坏现代生活：让人哀叹的是，我们如此沉迷于我们的平板电脑、手机和其他数字设备，以至于我们的社交活动变得浅薄和短暂，我们的思想被严重分散，无法集中。There was a third reason I was pleased by the book offering: it seems to be one small sign of a bigger countercultural trend now afoot in the tech world. These days, there is increasing anxiety that modern life is being damaged by a relentless slide into disembodied cyberspace: we are so addicted to our tablets, phones and other digital devices, the lament goes, that our social interactions are becoming shallow and brief, and our minds too distracted to concentrate.
或许如此。但在多数西方消费者更深地坠入数字深渊时，一些对创建这个分心的世界起过作用的科技大佬现在正公开鼓励一种更多地反思的生活方式，提倡人与人的接触、长时间的交谈以及老式的“真实世界”的有形体验。Perhaps so. But even as most western consumers drift ever deeper into the digital abyss, some of the same tech gurus who helped to create this world of distraction are now publicly encouraging a more reflective approach, celebrating the alternative of human contact, long conversations and old-fashioned ,“real world”, tangible experience.
以这些书为例。如果盖茨想展开一场知识辩论，他大可以在tweeter上推一两篇文章，但他选择推荐厚厚的书籍，每一本都要花上好几个小时才能读完和消化，而且外出携带不便。Take those books. If Gates wanted to start an intellectual debate, he could have just tweeted about an essay or two. But he has chosen to champion thick piles of paper that require hours to read and absorb, and are fairly inconvenient to lug around.
去年，Facebook创始人马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)创建了一个非正式的图书俱乐部，在网上列出了他最喜欢的图书的名单，其中包括尤瓦尔•赫拉利(Yuval Harari)的《人类简史》(Sapiens)和马特•里德利(Matt Ridley)的《理性乐观派》(The Rational Optimist)。尽管扎克伯格似乎不像盖茨那样喜欢纸质书，但俩人传达出的信息是一样的：在疯狂分心的世界中，我们需要花时间反思。Last year Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook, created an informal book club, posting a list of his favourites on the internet (this included books such as Sapiens by Yuval Harari and The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley). While Zuckerberg does not seem quite so fond as Gates of actual paper books, the message is the same: in a world of frenetic distraction, we need to take time to reflect.
谷歌(Google)首席商务官菲利普•申德勒(Philipp Schindler)在倡导类似的主题。谷歌今年在欧洲召开Zeitgeist会议时，代表们收到了挪威探险家艾林•卡格(Erling Kagge)所著的《安静：在喧嚣时代》(Silence:in the Age of Noise)，作者曾用50天时间独自徒步到南极。本书主张，当我们偶尔和有意消除所有噪音和分心之事（包括安装了谷歌等平台的无处不在的数字设备）时，我们才是理性的。Philipp Schindler, head of business at Google, is promoting a similar theme. When Google held its Zeitgeist conference in Europe this year, delegates were handed the book Silence in the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge, a Norwegian explorer who spent 50 days trekking to the South Pole in total isolation. This book argues that we can only be sane when we sporadically and deliberately remove all noise and distraction – including those ubiquitous digital devices that feature platforms such as Google.
卡格对安静的探寻达到了极端。不过，很多科技界大佬以在教养子女过程中设法让他们尽可能少接触电子设备为荣，做不到的话，他们可能把孩子送到故意追求“返朴归真”（即摆脱智能手机）的夏令营。例如，申德勒会带家人去美国荒原没有WiFi的偏远地区参加“简朴”的露营旅行。还有一些科技界人士开始找时间戒除数字瘾，以“重新集中精神”或者体验网络安静。Kagge’s search for silence is taken to the extreme. However, many tech gurus take pride in seeking out ways to educate their kids with minimal exposure to electronic devices – or, if that fails, they dispatch them to summer camps that are deliberately “back to basics” (ie free from smartphones). Schindler, for example, takes his family on “simple” camping trips in the more remote and WiFi-deprived areas of the American wilderness. Meanwhile, others in the tech world are embarking on periods of digital detox in an effort to “refocus” – or experience cyber silence.
愤世嫉俗的人可能会辩称，在这个专家们担心数字成瘾有害的世界里，这是一种新的释放道德信号(virtue signalling)的方式。此外，科技领袖们也可能在试图消除越来越多的有关他们助长网络狂热的政治批评——但这不太可能做到。实际上，所有硅谷巨擘似乎都面临压力，要证明他们正努力应对这个问题。例如，苹果(Apple)最近令人吃惊地宣布了iPhone的一些新功能，让用户可以减少屏幕使用时间和限制对应用的访问。A cynic might argue that this is a new form of virtue signalling in a world where pundits fret that digital addiction is evil. It is also possible – if not likely – that tech leaders are trying to stave off the rising political criticism about their role in fostering cyber mania. Indeed, all the Silicon Valley giants seem to be under pressure to show that they are making efforts to combat it. Apple, for example, recently startled its users by unveiling new iPhone features to reduce screen time usage and limit interruptions.
另一个因素是文化等级：面对众多使人分心的数字设备和各种现代化创新，“返朴归真”（有时间读本书或烧柴煮饭）的想法如今带有高高在上的意味，只属于精英群体。当为了反对其他观点（关于我们对如今什么是“正常”的网络无处不在的生活的想法）而提出这个主张时，就显得尤其如此。稀缺创造价值。Another factor is cultural hierarchy: with so many digital distractions and modern innovations, the idea of going “back to basics” – of having the time to read a book or cook over a wood fire – now signals exclusivity and belonging to an elite group. This is particularly so when it is presented in opposition to something else (ie our idea of what is now a “normal”, cyber-infused life). Scarcity creates value.
抛开这种人类学的解释不谈，赠书（以及赞扬伟大观点）仍然是一件很棒的事。我还没找到时间读完盖茨送的书，但堆在我书桌上的这一大摞书寓示着在理想情况下我希望怎样度过这个夏季——要是我能管住自己，摆脱掉那些使人分心的数字噪音就好了。 Leaving aside the anthropological interpretation, the fact remains that giving books – and celebrating big ideas – is a wonderful thing. I have not yet found time to read all the volumes that Gates sent. But they are sitting on my desk in a lofty pile – representing the aspiration of how I would ideally like to spend my summer days – if only I could organise myself to turn off the distracting digital noise.
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