Brief Answers to Big Questions-10-How Do We Shape the Future?

霍金认为人类进步的一个重要推动力就是想象力，他拿爱因斯坦作为了一个典例：

A key element for Einstein was imagination. Many of his discoveries came from his ability to reimagine the universe through thought experiments.

霍金自己是一个好奇心特别重的人，他很喜欢钻研事物的工作原理：

As a boy, I was passionately interested in how things worked.

My job now is still to figure out how things work, only the scale has changed.

If you know how something works, you can control it.

“If you know how something works, you can control it.” 这句话让我想到了《蒋勋解读红楼梦》中的一个有趣观点。蒋勋先生认为，真正能够让一个家族长盛不衰的做法应该是诗书传家。比如曹家的创始人是江宁织造，那就应该让子孙后代学习纺织业的知识技能，并把纺织业作为一种家族产业经营起来，而不是安于自己的官职，想当然地认为替皇帝工作就能衣食无忧了。这样即使失宠于皇帝被抄家，也能很快自立门户，通过经营纺织业来重整家门。我认为这个例子正好印证了霍金的这句话，如果你知道事情的基本原理，那么你就能控制它，而不是被它控制。

如今由于金融危机的影响和经济紧缩政策的实施，用于科研的资金被大幅减少了，尤其是在基础科学领域。而且英国脱欧和特朗普对于移民和教育的政策表明，世界各国在文化上越发孤立了。

那么，如何确保科技教育的未来能够有一个较好的发展呢？——好老师至关重要。

The basis for the future of education must lie in schools and inspiring teachers.

霍金提出了推动未来人类进化的两个可选方案：

First, the exploration of space for alternative planets on which to live,

and second, the positive use of artificial intelligence to improve our world.

霍金提倡所有的年轻人都应该熟悉科学，无论他们从事何种工作。

But I am advocating that all young people should be familiar with and confident around scientific subjects, whatever they choose to do.

霍金还对仅有少部分精英懂得先进科技表示了担忧：

A world where only a tiny super-elite are capable of understanding advanced science and technology and its applications would be, to my mind, a dangerous and limited one. I seriously doubt whether long-range beneficial projects such as cleaning up the oceans or curing diseases in the developing world would be given priority. Worse, we could find that technology is used against us and that we might have no power to stop it.

这让我想到了前一阵子引发轩然大波的基因编辑婴儿事件。虽然贺建奎声称“志愿者得到了知情同意，他们已经非常了解基因编辑技术及其潜在的影响和好处。”但是我仍然很怀疑，实验受试夫妇是否真正知晓进行基因编辑所面临的风险。因为贺并没有提供知情同意现场的录像，谁知道他是不是以专家的身份忽悠了志愿者呢？设身处地想一想，如果我是志愿者，知道不依靠基因编辑也能通过其他的方式使自己的孩子免疫艾滋病，而且基因编辑存在脱靶风险和一系列潜在有害影响，那我怎么会愿意让自己的孩子做小白鼠呢？这其中很有可能存在信息不对称。