美国大选与科技的利害关系

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。

For this last episode in our podcast series on the stakes for science in this election, I talked about tech with Scientific American senior features editor Jen Schwartz.

这是我们播客系列节目的最后一集，是关于这次选举与科学的利害关系 ，我和《科学美国人》的高级专题编辑珍·施瓦茨谈论了科技。

So Jen, what’s going in the world of, for simplicity’s sake, technology that will possibly be affected by this election?

所以，珍，简单地说，可能会受到这次选举影响的科技领域会发生什么?

“So technology is such a huge category these days. It really depends how you define it.

“因此，如今科技是一个如此庞大的类别。这真的取决于你如何定义它。

But at Scientific American, we sort of look at it as, you know, there’s the very high-end, whizbang innovation stuff and maybe the more traditional things we think about when we say technology, like machine learning and advanced therapeutics and things like this.

但在《科学美国人》，我们把它看作是非常高端的，绝妙的创新，也许我们在谈到技术时想到的是更传统的事物，例如机器学习和先进疗法之类的东西。

But right now so much of what we’re dealing with in this country is the application of a lot of technologies or tools, if we want to simplify.

但是现在我们在这个国家要处理的很多事情都是大量技术或工具的应用，如果我们想要简化的话。

And we’re sort of dealing with both the ramifications—the major ramifications of how technology has affected our society, the soul of our country, how we have been divided, how we get information.

我们在处理两方面的问题——科技如何影响我们的社会，影响我们国家的灵魂，影响我们是如何分裂的以及影响我们如何获取信息。

Or as one researcher, Claire Wardle, calls it, information disorder is what we’re up against.

或者正如研究人员克莱尔·沃德尔所说的，我们面临的是信息紊乱。

This feeling of overwhelm, of noise and just the polarization in this country—of how we just glean knowledge at this point, and how trust and information is transmitted.

有这种压倒一切的，嘈杂的，以及国家两极分化的感觉，我们在这种时候如何收集知识以及如何传播信任和信息。

And so that’s such a huge part of what’s really at stake.

所以这是真正利害攸关的重要部分。

“And then another really big part that I think about, when it comes to the broader world of technology, is, you know, a lot of infrastructure issues in this country.

“当涉及到更广泛的技术领域时，我想到的另一个真正重要的部分是这个国家的许多基础设施问题。

When you, when you really look already, and in the near future, how we’re going to be adapting to the effects of climate change, to recovering from the pandemic, public health issues, you’re really looking at all of these infrastructure needs that encompass just well-being and public health and national security.

当你在不久的将来真正了解，我们将如何适应气候变化的影响，从疫情大流行这个公共卫生问题中恢复过来，你就会真正了解所有这些基础设施需求是福祉、公共卫生和国家安全。

And there’s all these technological elements to that, of new ways of doing things, of new ways of, you know, securing the world, securing our communities.

这其中包含了所有的科技元素，新的做事方式，新的保护世界的方式，保护我们群体的方式。

“And technology, you know, there’s a lot of interesting sort of new flashy stuff. But then there’s the question of how it’s going to be implemented.

“还有科技，你知道，有很多有趣的显眼的新事物。但接下来的问题是如何实施的问题。

And is it going to be accessible to everyone?

每个人都可以使用吗?

Or there’s so many ethical considerations and just questions of equity and equality of how a lot of our innovation is going to be distributed.

或者有很多道德上的考虑，还有公平和平等的问题，关于如何分配我们大量的创新产品。

And, I think, even more so than talking about the fascinating new devices or new technologies or—that stuff is great, and we do that so much at Scientific American.

我认为，比起谈论那些令人着迷的新设备或新技术，这些东西是更重要的，我们在《科学美国人》做了很多这样的事情。

But I think when it comes to the election, we’re looking at vastly different ways of applying those things—or even just maintaining the systems that we already have and have shown their fragility in recent months and years.”

但我认为，当涉及到选举时，我们正在寻找应用这些东西的截然不同的方式，甚至只是维持我们现有的系统，所以已经在最近几个月和几年里显示出它们的脆弱性。”

On that note, let me recommend the November issue of Scientific American, with its special section called Confronting Misinformation,

在这一点上，让我向大家推荐11月号的《科学美国人》，它的特别版块叫做“直面错误信息”，

which contains articles such as Jen Schwartz’s piece on how to train journalists not to be unwitting transmitters of bogus information,

其中包括珍·施瓦茨的关于如何训练记者不要在不知情的情况下传播虚假信息的文章，

and an article by Tanya Lewis called “Eight Persistent COVID-19 Myths and Why People Believe Them,” and a piece by Zakiya Whatley and Titilayo Shodiya titled “Why So Many Americans Are Skeptical of a Coronavirus Vaccine.”

坦尼娅·刘易斯的一篇文章《关于COVID-19的八种持续的谬论和人们为什么相信它们》，扎基亚·沃特利和提蒂莱约·肖迪亚的一篇文章《为什么这么多美国人对冠状病毒疫苗持怀疑态度》。

For Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。