📕 选读 1945 年的一篇文章 ——《诚如所思》

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背景

本瓜最近在了解 notion 的交互设计思想,读到它起源于 道格拉斯·恩格尔巴特

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道格推断出:

1.他想将事业专注在让世界变得更好上面;

2.任何让世界变得更好的都是集体协作的结果;

3.利用人类集体的智慧来找到有效的解决方法是问题的关键;

4.若能大幅度地提高集体智慧,就能推进每一个重要问题的解决;

5.计算机可能作为大幅度地提高人类这一能力的工具。

而他又是在年轻时受启发于一篇文章—— 《诚如所思》,所以本瓜想稍稍作深入地阅读,以期用先贤的智慧照亮我辈。

所以本篇带来节选分享,以及一些杂思。

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核心观点

科学使人类摆脱了自身束缚

原文:

Of what lasting benefit has been man's use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence? First, they have increased his control of his material environment. They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.

翻译:

人类应用科学、使用从研究中开发的新型设备所带来的长久利益是什么?首先,它们增强了人类对自身物质环境的控制力。它们改善了人类“衣、食、住”三方面;增强了人类的安全感,也使人类部分摆脱了自身束缚。它们增加了人类对其自身生命过程的了解,使人类逐步摆脱疾病,延长寿命。它们启发人类了解其身心功能的交互作用,有望改善人类的心理健康。

杂思:

“应用科学”改变了我们生活中的方方面面,不止是在一些大事上,而在很多细节上;上述(改善衣食住行、增进了解、延长寿命)是我们常常会谈到的大的方向。有些细节改变是我们没关注到、但实际影响很大的?比如云存储的应用-微信收藏功能(其它平台也类似都有),随手遇到一些多媒体信息,觉得喜欢或者以后会用到,就先收藏。然后系统就自动根据类型归类,届时可以通过检索功能得到所想要的。这样的形式,会比自己创建一个云空间、手动同步更新,要更轻松、自然。收藏的时间久了、信息多了,对所有信息作更细化的分类、打标签,可能就会分析出更多结论、然后被拿去更多事,比如推广告等等。简而言之,“个性化推荐”对我们影响很大,我们存在信息茧房里出不来,再往后发展,如果极端一点,是不是会有点像《火影忍者》里实现无限月读一样?每个人被裹成木乃伊、吊在神树上做梦,只要你喜欢的,“梦境”(网络虚拟)都会给你。谜之发问:应用科技发展的走向真的是人为可控的吗?如果不是,可控的比例能计算吗?大概占多少?

协作的重要性

原文:

There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.

翻译:

人类正在开展大规模的研究,但是更多证据表明,目前随着专业化的延伸人类正在逐步走入困境。研究人员看起来一时无法掌握其他研究者所提出的数以万计的研究成果和结论,能够记忆下来的更是少之又少。而专业化对科学进展来说变得越来越重要,相对地,在学科之间架起桥梁的努力也越来越表面化。

杂思:

信息存储在目前几乎不再是“困境”,谁都能轻易获得几百G、甚至上T的空间来存储,而 1G 的文本就有上亿的字。什么是“困境”?用存储的信息得出有效的结论,然后应用结论,是“困境”!根据数据得出结论很简单、直白,但是要得出能“应用”的结论,就很难了。再用“个性化推荐”举例,除了广告,好像也很难再去变现。有些信息可以帮助作下一步的决策、有些信息涉及隐私窥探人心。在专业领域中,基于信息的结论更难扩散、应用,隔行如隔山,让外行听懂你专业上的意思,真的不简单。这也就是说,如果加强协作、抽取共通的想法、设计共通的模型,一起去建设,能更好利用“由存储得到的结论”,但这真的很难!

信息爆炸

原文:

The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record. The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.

翻译:

我们所面临的难题看起来并不是我们从当前兴趣的深度和广度出发发表了不恰当的观点,而是我们现有能力根本不足以使这些观点产生多大影响。人类获取的经验正在以飞快的速度增长,而我们从知识迷宫中获取信息与知识的方法,却与过去造横帆船时一样工程浩大。

杂思:

诚如上文所说,我们现在并不缺“存储信息”的能力,缺的是:提取有效信息的能力、利用有效信息的能力;在互联网时代,每个人都能发表观点,复刻观点更是轻而易举。面对一个新兴观点,我们似乎无从谈起,所以说模仿爆款是成为爆款的最佳途径,这里是不是“传媒”会发挥很大的力量?也许,传媒和人工智能是信息时代造船的关键两要素。

机器时代

原文:

Machines with interchangeable parts can now be constructed with great economy of effort. In spite of much complexity, they perform reliably. Witness the humble typewriter, or the movie camera, or the automobile. Electrical contacts have ceased to stick when thoroughly understood. Note the automatic telephone exchange, which has hundreds of thousands of such contacts, and yet is reliable. A spider web of metal, sealed in a thin glass container, a wire heated to brilliant glow, in short, the thermionic tube of radio sets, is made by the hundred million, tossed about in packages, plugged into sockets—and it works! Its gossamer parts, the precise location and alignment involved in its construction, would have occupied a master craftsman of the guild for months; now it is built for thirty cents. The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.

翻译:

如今人们能十分省力的生产出带有互换零件的机器,尽管构造十分复杂,但性能很可靠。简陋的打印机,或电影摄影机,或汽车就是证明。当人们深入理解之后,电触点材料就不再粘连了。注意一下自动电话交换台,尽管有着数以十万计的联系,但是很可靠。金属交织的丝网,密封在一个薄薄的玻璃容器里,钢丝加热就会得到明亮的光芒;收音机里的热离子管,简单地说,是由一亿个金属丝组成,反复密封,插入插座——然后它就工作了。在制造时涉及的游丝部分的精确定位和调整可能会占用专业技师数月的时间,而现在完成它只需三十美分。事实上,一个可生产具有可靠性、廉价的、复杂的仪器的时代已经到来,我们一定会从中获得一些新的事物。

杂思:

没人会质疑现在是科技时代、信息时代、机器时代,如果固步自封、闭门造车,耗尽心血,也不能创作出新的什么。这是客观上的发展,任何演进都要联系机器、联系互联网、让自己被看到,让更多人参与。况且,单独的个体能做的太少了、太少了,一个芯片,复杂程度不是个体能想象的,现在它们复杂又精确,还又廉价,不去借势发展,面临的一定是被淘汰。


输出与输入

原文:

A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted. Today we make the record conventionally by writing and photography, followed by printing; but we also record on film, on wax disks, and on magnetic wires. Even if utterly new recording procedures do not appear, these present ones are certainly in the process of modification and extension.

翻译:

如果一条记录对科学具有实用价值,它必然会得到不断扩展,人们也必须把它存储下来,而最重要的就是它必须能够被查询到。现在按照惯例,我们通常是将记录以书面和摄影的方式存储下来,其次可通过印刷方式;我们也使用胶片、增大磁盘以及录音磁线来存储记录,即使不会出现一些全新的记录方式,当前这些形式也一定会得到不断地修正与扩展。

杂思:

记录一定会有价值吗?不一定,目前是认为:认真的记录一定会有价值。我想,这是这篇文叫《诚如所思》真正的原因。真正怎么思考的,就记录下来,真诚是必杀技,而不是“用垃圾信息充斥互联网环境”。但有时候会觉得没有想说的,这个时候就是要输出了,输出可以引导输出,我们将别人的想法输入到自己脑袋中,然后吸收,然后思考,然后再输出,这就是一种“不断修正与扩展”的过程。

预言成真

作者关于拍照技术、打印技术、存储技术的预言,在 21 世纪都成真了!!

现在做到的比以往更令人惊讶,就比如 notion 的 AI 技术,你想写任何东西,都可以借助它:

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人与机器

原文:

All else he should be able to turn over to his mechanism, just as confidently as he turns over the propelling of his car to the intricate mechanism under the hood. Only then will mathematics be practically effective in bringing the growing knowledge of atomistics to the useful solution of the advanced problems of chemistry, metallurgy, and biology. For this reason there still come more machines to handle advanced mathematics for the scientist. Some of them will be sufficiently bizarre to suit the most fastidious connoisseur of the present artifacts of civilization.

翻译:

除此之外,它还应该具有运用数学原理的能力,就像他信心满满根据汽车的复杂原理在敞篷下更换汽车驱动一样。只有到那时,数学家才能实际有效地利用核子物理学日益更新的知识解决化学、冶金学和生物学的高端问题。为此,将出现更多为科学家所能使用的用以解决高等数学的仪器。有些仪器会十分奇特,能够满足最吹毛求疵的鉴定目前文明社会中出现的人工制品的鉴定家的口味。

杂思:

数学家不应该是会做算术、算的很 6 的人,而是要有数学思维、对数学有直觉、嗅觉的人,现在谁也算不过计算机;就像现在画家,不应是画的快、画的好的人,如今人工智能画画也贼 6,真正的画家应该是有创造力、想象力。这种可以类比到很多群体上、建筑家、程序员、作家等等;

私人图书馆

原文:

The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.

Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanency. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. Selection by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and, to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

翻译

人类有自己的思维模式。大脑通过联结来运转。头脑攫取一项信息后,沿着大脑细胞运行轨迹所形成的极为复杂网络,头脑会立即联想到另外一条信息。当然它还有其他特征;常常不被追踪到的轨迹就易于淡忘,头脑中的信息不是永久保存的,记忆是暂时的。而人类行为的速度,头脑轨迹的复杂性,想象的细致入微,是自然界所有其他的生灵所不及的,这真是令人惊叹。

人类不能希望人工的完全复制精神过程,但是人类肯定能从这个过程中学到东西。至少人类能够进步,因为人类得到的知识是相对持久的。而第一个类推出来的想法就关系到选择,通过联想的方式选择而非通过索引的方式选择,索引的方式可能更机械化一些。于是人类不能期望将思维联想的速度和灵活性等同起来,但是考虑到从头脑的存储中再现信息的持久性与清晰性,让思维变得更活跃是绝对可能的。

考虑到个人专用的未来设备,可能相当于一个机械化的私人文档和图书馆。它需要有个名字,随机抽取一个,就叫做记忆扩展器吧。人们可以将他看过的书、记录和交流都存储在其中。而由于其机械化的特征,人们可以快速而灵活地对其中的资源进行浏览。它是人类记忆的扩展装置。

杂思:

“私人图书馆”或“记忆扩展器”这个概念很棒,是人类记忆的扩展装置,目前 NOTION 似乎能成为这个扩展的绝佳备案;创造用大脑、记忆用 NOTION!会不会 ALL IN ONE 的 slogan 灵感就来自于此?

超链接的诞生

以下这段话被认为是万维网超链接最初的思想雏形:

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机器与人

原文:

The impulses which flow in the arm nerves of a typist convey to her fingers the translated information which reaches her eye or ear, in order that the fingers may be caused to strike the proper keys. Might not these currents be intercepted, either in the original form in which information is conveyed to the brain, or in the marvelously metamorphosed form in which they then proceed to the hand?

By bone conduction we already introduce sounds: into the nerve channels of the deaf in order that they may hear. Is it not possible that we may learn to introduce them without the present cumbersomeness of first transforming electrical vibrations to mechanical ones, which the human mechanism promptly transforms back to the electrical form? With a couple of electrodes on the skull the encephalograph now produces pen-and-ink traces which bear some relation to the electrical phenomena going on in the brain itself. True, the record is unintelligible, except as it points out certain gross misfunctioning of the cerebral mechanism; but who would now place bounds on where such a thing may lead?

翻译:

在打字员的手臂叶脉中流动的脉冲向她的手指传送着转换的信息,这些信息又传送至眼睛或耳朵,为的是能够指挥手指敲打正确的按键。信息流不可能被阻断吗?信息要么利用原初形式被传送至大脑,要么经过一种奇特的变化形式让手指进行工作。

经由骨传导我们已经将声音引入到聋人的神经通路为的是让他们听见声音。难道没有可能不引进当前这种将电振动首先转换为机械振动的,再将机械振动迅速转换回电振动的笨拙方法呢?通过头骨上的两块电极大脑X光片现在会生成笔墨记录,提供出一些有关头脑中发生的电学现象的信息。因此,记录变得难于理解了,除非指出大脑某个特定部位的发生了机械故障。

杂思:

人大脑的电信号转化为手指上的机械运动,记录在计算机的硬盘中,作者想:有没有可能把机械运动再转回大脑中的电信号?这是不是就模糊了计算机和人的边界?人可以编程计算机、计算机可以变成人,只是载体不一样,思想是一致的?疯狂~

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参考


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