We see it in cultural evolution too, as Robert Wright explained in his 1999 book, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny. [qh]
我们在文化演化中也看到了这一点,正如罗伯特·赖特在他1999年的著作《非零和博弈—人类命运的逻辑》中所解释的那样
Wright showed that history involves a series of transitions, driven by rising population density plus new technologies (writing, roads, the printing press) that created new possibilities for mutually beneficial trade and learning.[qh]
赖特指出,历史涉及一系列转变,这是由不断增加的人口密度以及新技术(书写、道路、印刷机)推动的,这些新技术为互利的贸易和学习创造了新的可能性
Zero-sum conflicts—such as the wars of religion that arose as the printing press spread heretical ideas across Europe—were better thought of as temporary setbacks, and sometimes even integral to progress. [qh]
零和博弈--比如印刷机在整个欧洲传播异端思想时引发的宗教战争--被认为是暂时的挫折,有时甚至被认为是进步的必经之路
(Those wars of religion, he argued, made possible the transition to modern nation-states with better-informed citizens.) [qh]
(他认为,那些宗教战争使向公民消息灵通的现代民族国家过渡成为可能
President Bill Clinton praised Nonzero’s optimistic portrayal of a more cooperative future thanks to continued technological advance.[qh]
美国总统比尔·克林顿(Bill Clinton)赞扬了非零和博弈对未来合作的乐观描绘,这得益于持续的技术进步
The early internet of the 1990s, with its chat rooms, message boards, and email, exemplified the Nonzero thesis, as did the first wave of social-media platforms, which launched around 2003. [qh]
20世纪90年代早期的互联网及其聊天室、留言板和电子邮件就是非零和理论的例证,2003年左右推出的第一波社交媒体平台也是很好的例证
Myspace, Friendster, and Facebook made it easy to connect with friends and strangers to talk about common interests, for free, and at a scale never before imaginable.[qh]
Myspace、Friendster和Facebook让人们可以很容易地与朋友和陌生人联系,谈论共同的兴趣爱好,而且是免费的,而且规模之大是前所未有的
By 2008, Facebook had emerged as the dominant platform, with more than 100 million monthly users, on its way to roughly 3 billion today. [qh]
到2008年,Facebook已成为占主导地位的平台,每月用户超过1亿,目前用户约为30亿
In the first decade of the new century, social media was widely believed to be a boon to democracy.[qh]
在新世纪的头十年,社交媒体被广泛认为是民主的福音
What dictator could impose his will on an interconnected citizenry? [qh]
哪个独裁者能把自己的意志强加给彼此相互关联的公民? [qh]
What regime could build a wall to keep out the internet?[qh]
哪个政权能建一道墙把互联网挡在外面?[qh]
The high point of techno-democratic optimism was arguably 2011, a year that began with the Arab Spring and ended with the global Occupy movement. [qh]
技术民主的乐观主义的高潮可以说是在2011年,这一年始于阿拉伯之春,结束于全球占领运动
That is also when Google Translate became available on virtually all smartphones, so you could say that 2011 was the year that humanity rebuilt the Tower of Babel. [qh]
这也是谷歌翻译在几乎所有智能手机上可用的时候,所以你可以说2011年是人类重建巴别塔的一年
We were closer than we had ever been to being “one people,” and we had effectively overcome the curse of division by language. [qh]
我们比以往任何时候都更接近成为“一个民族”,我们有效地克服了语言分裂的诅咒
For techno-democratic optimists, it seemed to be only the beginning of what humanity could do.[qh]
对于对技术民主持乐观态度的人来说,这似乎只是人类所能做的事情的开始
In February 2012, as he prepared to take Facebook public, Mark Zuckerberg reflected on those extraordinary times and set forth his plans.[qh]
2012年2月,当马克·扎克伯格准备让Facebook上市时,他回想起了那些非常时期,并阐述了自己的计划
“Today, our society has reached another tipping point,” he wrote in a letter to investors. Facebook hoped “to rewire the way people spread and consume information.”[qh]
他在给投资者的一封信中写道:“今天,我们的社会又到了一个临界点
By giving them “the power to share,” it would help them to “once again transform many of our core institutions and industries.”[qh]
通过赋予他们“分享的权力”,这将帮助他们“再次改变我们的许多核心机构和行业”