我为什么要写博客
经常有朋友问我为什么要坚持写博客，我一直想不到很完美的理由来回答这个问题。今天看到一篇文章我认为很完美的替我回答了这个问题，特意贴到博客这里来（后附中文机翻）。
原文链接：https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128195-700-how-computers-can-cure-cultural-diabetes/
英文原文：
How computers can cure cultural diabetes
The networked computer offers an antidote to the junk culture of broadcasting. Why not choose the healthy option?
THINK of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aeroplane window and realise that, regardless of the indignities of commercial air travel, you are flying, higher than a bird, an Icarus safe from the sun. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a manila envelope, or your cellphone nestled in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.
The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, pacifists, cranks, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.
The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production (you can make stuff), means of distribution (you can upload stuff to the network), site of reception (you can download stuff and interact with it), and locus of praise and critique (you can talk about the stuff you have downloaded or uploaded). The computer is the 21st century’s culture machine.
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading – between passive consumption and active creation – whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine. I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.
All animals download, but only a few upload anything besides faeces and their own bodies. Beavers build dams, birds make nests and termites create mounds, yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods – paintings, sculpture and architecture – and superfluous experiences – music, literature, religion and philosophy. Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.
“Failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity”
For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world’s media culture has been defined by a single medium – television – and television is defined by downloading.
Television is a one-way spigot gushing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after they have turned it on. The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.
What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of “stickiness” – creations and experiences to which others adhere. Tweets about celebrity gaffes are not sticky but rather little Teflon balls of meaninglessness. In contrast, applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others – and engendering more of the same. The explosion of apps for mobile phones and tablets means that even people with limited programming skills can now create sticky things.
The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players. It is far more profound than that, because it can bring about a radical break from the culture of television and a shift from a consumption model to a production model.
This is a historic opportunity. Fifty years of television dominance has given birth to an unhealthy culture. Created like fizzy drinks and burgers by multinational conglomerates, the junk culture of broadcasting has turned us into intellectual diabetics. The cure is now in our collective grasp. It involves controlling and rationing our intake, or downloading, and increasing our levels of activity – uploading. Not to break it down too much, watching is ingesting is downloading and making is exercising is uploading.
Of course people will still download. Nobody uploads more than a tiny percentage of the culture they consume. But the goal must be to establish a balance between consumption and production. Using the networked computer as a download-only device, or even a download-mainly device, is a wasted opportunity of historic proportions.
Peter Lunenfeld is a professor in the Design Media Arts department at the University of California, Los Angeles. This is adapted from his new book The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the computer as culture machine (The MIT Press)
中文机翻：
计算机如何治愈文化糖尿病
作者：Peter Lunenfeld
联网的计算机为广播的垃圾文化提供了解毒剂。为什么不选择健康的选择呢？
想想那些转瞬即逝的时刻，当你从飞机窗口望出去，意识到，不管商业航空旅行有多么不体面，你都在飞行，比鸟儿还高，就像伊卡洛斯在太阳下的安全。现在想想你的笔记本电脑，比马尼拉信封还薄，或者你的手机依偎在你的手掌上。花一两分钟时间对这些奇迹感到惊奇。你是一个梦想成真的幸运继承者。
20世纪下半叶，一群天才、战士、和平主义者、怪人、企业家和有远见的人努力创造了一台神奇的机器，它可以作为打字机和印刷机、工作室和剧院、画笔和画廊、钢琴和收音机、邮件以及邮递员。他们不仅开发了这样的设备，而且在千年之交，他们还设法将其嵌入一个每天有数十亿人访问的全球系统中。
联网的计算机是一个惊人的设备，是第一台作为生产方式（你可以制造东西）、传播手段（你可以把东西上传到网络上）、接收地点（你可以下载东西并与之互动）和赞扬与批评的场所（你可以谈论你下载或上传的东西）的媒体机器。计算机是21世纪的文化机器。
但是，尽管有这么多的理由来庆祝电脑，我们也必须谨慎行事。这是因为联网的电脑已经引发了一场下载和上传之间的秘密战争--在被动消费和主动创造之间，其结果将以我们只能开始想象的方式塑造我们的集体未来。我称它为一场秘密战争，有两个原因。首先，大多数人没有意识到，有强大的商业议程在发挥作用，使他们处于被动消费模式。第二，大多数使用联网计算机上传的人甚至没有意识到他们所做的事情的意义。
所有的动物都会下载，但除了粪便和自己的身体，只有少数动物会上传任何东西。海狸筑坝，鸟儿筑巢，白蚁造丘，但在大多数情况下，动物王国在这个世界上移动时都是在下载。人类的独特之处在于他们不仅有能力制造工具，而且还能转过身来用它们来创造多余的物质产品--绘画、雕塑和建筑，以及多余的经验--音乐、文学、宗教和哲学。当然，恰恰是这些多余的东西定义了人类文化，并最终定义了人类的意义。下载和消费文化需要伟大的技能，但如果不能超越下载，就等于剥夺了人类的一个决定性成分。
"如果不能超越下载，就等于剥夺了人类的一个决定性的组成部分"
对于我们新文化机器的所有可能性，大多数人仍然停留在下载模式。即使在广泛的社交媒体出现后，生产的金字塔仍然存在，少数人上传材料，稍大的群体对这些内容进行评论或修改，还有很大比例的内容只是消费。这种生产金字塔持续存在的一个原因是，在过去的半个世纪里，世界上大部分的媒体文化都是由一个单一的媒介--电视--定义的，而电视是由下载定义的。
电视是一个单向的水龙头，涌入我们的家庭。电视对任何人提出的最困难的任务是在他们打开电视后关闭电源。联网的计算机提供了50年来的第一个机会来扭转这种流动，鼓励有思想的下载，甚至更重要的是，有意义的上传。
什么算是有意义的上传？我的定义围绕着 "粘性 "的概念--其他人坚持的创作和经验。关于名人口误的推文不是粘性，而是毫无意义的特氟隆小球。相比之下，像tumblr.com这样的应用程序，允许用户以创造性的方式结合图片、文字和其他媒体，然后分享它们，有可能通过逗乐、娱乐和启迪他人来增加粘性--并产生更多相同的东西。手机和平板电脑应用程序的爆炸性增长意味着，即使是编程技能有限的人现在也能创造出有粘性的东西。
因此，计算机对电视的挑战与一种格式被另一种格式取代的情况并不相似，就像唱片机被CD机取代一样。它比这要深刻得多，因为它可以带来与电视文化的彻底决裂，以及从消费模式到生产模式的转变。
这是一个历史性的机遇。50年的电视主导地位已经催生了一种不健康的文化。就像跨国企业集团制造的汽水和汉堡一样，广播的垃圾文化已经把我们变成了智力糖尿病患者。治疗方法现在在我们的集体掌握之中。它涉及到控制和配给我们的摄入量，或下载，以及增加我们的活动水平--上传。不要把它分解得太厉害，看就是摄取就是下载，做就是运动就是上传。
当然，人们仍然会下载。没有人上传超过他们所消费的文化的极小比例。但目标必须是在消费和生产之间建立一种平衡。把联网的电脑作为一个只下载的设备，甚至是一个以下载为主的设备，是浪费了一个历史性的机会。
Peter Lunenfeld是加州大学洛杉矶分校设计媒体艺术系的教授。本文改编自他的新书《下载和上传之间的秘密战争》。作为文化机器的计算机的故事》（麻省理工学院出版社）。
tz@HZAU
2018/11/5
