A future half-empty? 末日別泛濫，未來莫悲觀
Our future, according to Hollywood, is not pretty. Take two movies that are currently showing for example: In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, humans battle with super-intelligent apes for world domination. In Divergent, survivors in a post-apocalyptic world are pigeonholed into five factions. Those who don’t fit in are hunted down and persecuted.
按照好萊塢大片的描寫，我們的未來不太樂觀。以最近上映的兩部影片為例：《猩球崛起2：黎明之戰(zhàn)》中，人類與擁有超級智能的猩猩為統(tǒng)治地球打得難解難分;而《分歧者》里，后末日時(shí)代幸存的人類被分成五種派系，無門無派之人慘遭追殺。
Both movies belong to the dystopian sci-fi genre. Dystopia is the antonym of utopia, which was coined by the English writer Thomas More. In his 1516 book Utopia, More described a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. A utopia is an ideal society with peace, equality, justice and prosperity.
這兩部影片都屬于反烏托邦式科幻電影。反烏托邦，即烏托邦的反義詞。后者最早由英國作家托馬斯•莫爾提出，他在1516年的同名著作《烏托邦》中描寫了一座大西洋上虛構(gòu)的島嶼社會(huì)。烏托邦是充滿和平、平等、正義、繁榮的理想社會(huì)的代名詞。
But in dystopian fiction, the world is usually a bleak place ruled by a totalitarian government. Mistrust and fear permeates the whole of society. High-tech machines and tools are used to wage wars or suppress discontent citizens.
而在反烏托邦小說中，世界通常被極權(quán)政府統(tǒng)治，暗無天日。整個(gè)社會(huì)彌漫著猜疑和恐懼。高科技機(jī)器與工具都被用來發(fā)動(dòng)戰(zhàn)爭，鎮(zhèn)壓不滿民眾。
Just as bad news grabs more attention, many dystopian works are immensely successful. Movies such as The Hunger Games trilogy, Total Recall and World War Z are all box office successes worldwide.
正像負(fù)面新聞更容易引人關(guān)注，許多反烏托邦作品也都大獲成功。如《饑餓游戲》三部曲、《全面回憶》、《末日之戰(zhàn)》等在全球范圍內(nèi)都是票房贏家。
But now a group of scholars and science fiction writers are saying: enough of the depressing stuff. They say negative visions of the future depicted in pop culture are limiting people’s abilities to dream of a better world.
但現(xiàn)在，一些學(xué)者和科幻小說作家表示：這些壓抑的內(nèi)容太多了!他們認(rèn)為，流行文化中對未來的負(fù)面描寫限制了人們對美好世界的向往。
US writer Neal Stephenson is one of the dissenters. A sci-fi writer himself, he sees the cynicism of the current dystopian sci-fi rut and calls for a more optimistic approach–fewer zombies and catastrophes, more creative inventions and solutions.
美國作家尼爾•斯蒂芬森就是反對者之一。作為一名科幻小說作家，他并不看好當(dāng)下反烏托邦的科幻作品狂潮，而是呼吁更多積極的內(nèi)容：少一些喪尸和大災(zāi)難，多一些有創(chuàng)意的發(fā)明與解決方案。
Bright, not bleak
光明，而非凄涼
In an interview with the BBC, Stephenson said he got this idea from president of Arizona State University (ASU) Michael Crow, who said at a conference on futurology that science fiction needed to supply ideas that scientists and engineers could actually implement.
斯蒂芬森在接受BBC采訪中表示，他的觀點(diǎn)來自亞利桑那州立大學(xué)校長邁克爾•克羅。這位校長曾在一場未來學(xué)的會(huì)議上說，科學(xué)家和工程師應(yīng)該為科幻小說提供更多科學(xué)依據(jù)。
Stephenson wasted no time to take action. In 2011, he partnered with ASU and started Project Hieroglyph to rally writers to inject new optimism into science fiction so as to inspire the next generation to build a better future.
斯蒂芬森也迅速付諸行動(dòng)：2011年，他與亞利桑那州立大學(xué)合作，展開名為“象形文字”的項(xiàng)目。為鼓勵(lì)下一代人創(chuàng)建更美好的未來，他聯(lián)合一眾作家為科幻小說注入新的樂觀主義觀點(diǎn)。
The project brings writers and scientists together to learn from and influence each other. Renowned writers have been working with scientists to imagine technically-grounded science fiction stories depicting futures achievable within the next 50 years, the BBC reported. These stories, collected in a book entitled Hieroglyph, were just released two weeks before.
該項(xiàng)目將作家和科學(xué)家聚集在一起，他們相互學(xué)習(xí)、彼此影響。據(jù)BBC報(bào)道，久負(fù)盛名的作家與科學(xué)家一道，創(chuàng)作出了具有科技背景的科幻小說，對未來觸手可及的50年提出展望。這些小說都被收錄在《象形文字》一書中，該書于兩周前正式發(fā)行。
Ed Finn, director of Project Hieroglyph, wrote in the Slate online magazine: “We are in desperate need of this sort of long view in contemporary culture, where we can barely see beyond the next Apple press conference.”
該項(xiàng)目主任艾德•芬恩在網(wǎng)絡(luò)雜志《板巖》上寫道，“當(dāng)代文化中，大家的目光最多只能看到下一次蘋果發(fā)布會(huì)，我們亟需一些長久的展望。”
“What’s really exciting about Hieroglyph is the idea of bringing some constructive criticism to our notions of the future: not just pointing out problems but ponying up some possible solutions,” Finn said.
芬恩說，“該項(xiàng)目對我們關(guān)于未來的觀點(diǎn)提出了建設(shè)性批評，它不僅指出了問題，而且提出了一些解決方案，這才是其真正令人振奮之處。”
