技術治國運動的啓示
One of history’s recurring themes is that technology sometimes outruns society, leaving politicians gasping to catch up with the consequences. So it was with the impact of the printing press, the steam engine and the computer. Arguably, so it is again today with gene editing, social media and artificial intelligence.
歷史上反覆出現的一個主題是，科技發展有時會超前於社會，讓政治人士滿頭大汗地跟在後面處理隨之而來的後果。印刷機、蒸汽機和電腦的出現就是如此。如今，基因編輯、社交媒體和人工智能的出現可以說同樣如此。While technologists often rail that politicians just do not “get” technology, politicians counter that technologists all too rarely grasp politics.
技術專家經常抱怨政治人士不“懂”技術，政治人士則反擊道，技術專家大多數時候也不懂政治。One fascinating example of both sides of the debate was the history of the technocracy movement that briefly flourished in North America in the 1930s. The “revolt of the engineers”, as it was called, holds some interesting lessons for today.
對辯論雙方都適用的一個有趣例子是上世紀30年代在北美短暫興盛的技術治國(technocracy)運動。這場當時被稱爲“工程師起義”(revolt of the engineers)的運動，有不少地方值得今天的人們思考。
It was understandable that radical movements emerged in the US in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression, just as communism and fascism proliferated in Europe. The technocracy movement argued that the best way out of the crisis was to reject the messiness of the market and old-fashioned politics and adopt a “modern scientific point of view”.
可以理解的是，上世紀30年代，各種迴應“大蕭條”(Great Depression)的激進運動在美國興起，正如共產主義和法西斯主義當時在歐洲興起。技術治國運動提出，擺脫危機的最佳方法是拒絕亂糟糟的市場體系以及老式的政治，採用一種“現代、科學的觀點”。
