TED演讲:为什么好的黑客可以塑造好的公民(1)

 　　I'm going to talk about hackers³. And the image that comes to your mind when I say that word is probably not  今天我要谈的是有关黑客的话题。 当我说到“黑客”这个词的时候 你脑中所出现的画面可能不会是

　　of Benjamin Franklin, but I'm going to explain to you why it should be. The image that comes to your mind  本杰明富兰克林， 但我想要告诉你，为什么应该是富兰克林。 你脑中出现的画面

　　is probably more likely of a pasty kid sitting in a basement doing something mischievous⁴, or of a shady criminal who is trying to steal your identity,  估计是一个面色苍白的年轻人 在地下室里做坏事 他可能要盗用你的身份，

　　or of an international rogue⁵ with a political agenda. And mainstream⁶ culture has kind of fed this idea  或者进行有政治意图的 跨国诈骗。 主流文化告诉我们

　　that hackers are people that we should be afraid of. But like most things in technology and the technology world,  黑客是我们应当害怕，并且远离的人群。 但是，在科技世界里的 大部分科技活动，

　　hacking⁷ has equal power for good as it has for evil. For every hacker² that's trying to steal your identity there's one that's building a tool  黑客制造福祉，和破坏的能力是等同的。 有个在试图盗用你身份的黑客 同时就有一个黑客在创建

　　that will help you find your loved ones after a disaster or to monitor environmental quality after an oil spill.  可以帮助你在灾难后寻找亲人的工具， 或者在漏油事件后 监控环境质量的工具。

　　Hacking is really just any amateur innovation on an existing system, and it is a deeply democratic activity.  黑客行为真的只是一种对现有系统 的业余创新行为， 并且是一种影响深远的民主活动，

　　It's about critical thinking. It's about questioning existing ways of doing things. It's the idea that if you see a problem, you work to fix it,  它与批判性思维有关， 它也与挑战现有的处事方式有关。 主要的意义是，当你发现问题，

　　and not just complain about it. And in many ways, hacking is what built America. Betsy Ross was a hacker.  你不是仅仅在旁边抱怨，而是会找到方法去解决问题。 从某种程度上来说，黑客行为建立了美国， 贝琪罗斯是一个黑客。

　　The Underground Railroad was a brilliant hack¹. And from the Wright brothers to Steve Jobs, hacking has always been at the foundation  地铁的设计是一个绝妙的黑客发明。 从怀特兄弟到史蒂夫乔布斯， 黑客行为一直是美国

　　of American democracy. So if there's one thing I want to leave you here with today, it's that the next time you think about who a hacker is,  民主的基石。 所以今天，我想要告诉你们最重要的是， 下次当你们想黑客是什么样的时候，

　　you think not of this guy but of this guy, Benjamin Franklin, who was one of the greatest hackers of all time.  你不要想到这个家伙， 而是这位先生，本杰明富兰克林， 他是史上最伟大的黑客。

　　He was one of America's most prolific⁸ inventors, though he famously never filed a patent, because he thought that all human knowledge  他是美国最多产的发明家之一， 尽管他不曾有一个专利， 因为他认为，人类的知识发明

　　should be freely available. He brought us bifocals and the lightning rod, and of course there was his collaboration⁹  应免费共享。 他发明了双光眼镜和避雷针， 当然，他还协助建立了

　　on the invention of American democracy. And in Code For America, we really try to embody¹⁰ the spirit of Ben Franklin.  美国民主制度。 我所在的机构“为美国编程” 就尝试去实践本杰明富兰克林的精神。

　　He was a tinkerer and a statesman whose conception of citizenship¹¹ was always predicated on action.  他是一位多面手和政治家， 他认为，作为公民 需要将公民的想法付诸行动。

　　He believed that government could be built by the people, and we call those people civic¹² hackers.  他认为政府可以 由人民建立， 我们称呼这些人为公民黑客。

　　So it's no wonder that the values that underly a healthy democracy, like collaboration and empowerment  所以不足为奇的是 支撑起健康的民主机制的价值基石， 像协作和赋予权力、

　　and participation¹³ and enterprise, are the same values that underly the Internet. And so it's no surprise that many hackers  参与和创业精神， 和互联网的价值基石是同样的。 所以不令人意外的是，很多骇客

　　are turning their attention to the problem of government. But before I give you a few examples of what civic hacking looks like,  把注意力转向政府的问题。 但在我给你举几个例子 告诉你什么是公民黑客之前，

　　I want to make clear that you don't have to be a programmer to be a civic hacker. You just have to believe that you can bring a 我想要清楚地告诉你， 你不需要先成为一名程序员才能做公民黑客。 你只需要相信，你可以

　　21st-century tool set to bear on the problems that government faces. And we hear all the time from our community  用21世纪的现代工具来解决 政府面临着的问题。 我们时常发现，我们

　　of civic hackers at Code for America that they didn't understand how much nontechnical work actually went into civic hacking projects.  “为美国编程”社群的公民黑客 并不懂到底有多少非技术性工作 进入民间黑客项目。

　　So keep that in mind. All of you are potential civic hackers. So what does civic hacking look like?  因此，请记住， 你们都有可能成为公民黑客。 公民黑客是怎样的呢？

　　Our team last year in Honolulu, which in this case was three full-time¹⁴ fellows who were doing a year of public service,  我们团队去年在檀香山， 这三位都是全职雇员， 他们正在担任为期一年的公职，

　　were asked by the city to rebuild the website. And it's a massive thing of tens of thousands of pages which just wasn't going to be possible in  工作是按市政府的要求重建网站。 它是成千上万页面的大规模工作， 这工作，在他们仅有的几个月时间内

　　the few months that they had. So instead, they decided¹⁵ to build a parallel site that better conformed to how citizens actually  是不可能完成的。 所以，他们决定建立一个平行的网站 更好地符合公民实际上

　　want to interact with information on a city website. They're looking for answers to questions, and they want to take action when they're done,  想要从城市网站上，汲取信息的需求。 他们在寻找答案， 他们想要在网站做好的时候人们可以有实际的行动

　　which is really hard to do from a site that looks like this. So our team built Honolulu Answers,  从这样的一个网站 真的很难。 随后我们的团队搭建了“檀香山答案”，

　　which is a super-simple search interface¹⁶ where you enter a search term or a question and get back plain language answers  它是一个超简单的搜索界面， 你只需要输入搜索词或一个问题， 就可以得到用平实语言写成的答案，

　　that drive a user towards action.  这驱使用户继续使用。

1 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

2 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。

3 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

4 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

5 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

6 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

7 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

8 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

9 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

10 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

11 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

12 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

13 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

14 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。