科幻小說是科技的天堂 還是人類的末日

Once upon a time, science fiction was just a genre among other genres. There were crime stories, there were horror stories, there was literary fiction–and there was science fiction.

曾幾何時，科幻小說不過是諸多小說類別中的一種：犯罪小說、恐怖小說、文學小說……還有，科幻小說。

But today science themes dominate these other genres. It’s difficult to think of much modern crime, horror or “serious” fiction that doesn’t involve science.

但現在，科幻主題卻佔領了其他類型的小說。我們已經很難想象現代犯罪小說、恐怖小說或者其它“嚴肅”的文學作品中有哪些是不涉及科幻元素的。

And it’s not just books. With every second movie and computer game having a sci-fi element, science fiction seems to have colonized our entire entertainment culture.

不僅僅是書籍，電影和電腦遊戲也不例外，每一秒似乎都離不開科幻元素。科幻似乎已經佔領了整個娛樂文化。

It’s clear that if we want to define science fiction we should relate it to the role that science plays in our lives. Perhaps the place to start is by noting when it began.

我們都清楚，要想給科幻小說下個定義，就不得不考慮到科學在我們生活中所扮演的角色。也許，我們應該從科幻小說的緣起談起。

Although some experts have claimed to be able to trace sci-fi back to ancient times, it is more plausible to find it in fledgling form in the 19th century, when industrial societies emerged.

儘管一些專家聲稱科幻小說的誕生可以追溯到遙遠的古代，但科幻小說於19世紀初具雛形的說法似乎更爲可信，因爲當時正值工業社會出現。

One of the features that set industrial societies apart from other kinds was the increasing part that science played in everyday life. Factories with vast machines churned out huge quantities of goods, which were transported by trains, motor vehicles and ships all over the world. Cities were built on the back of technology, with electricity in homes and hospitals helping everyone to lead healthier, more convenient lives. All of these changes had profound effects not only on people’s real lives, but on their imaginative ones.

工業社會區別於其它社會類型的特徵之一就是科學在人們生活中扮演了日益重要的角色：工廠林立，巨大的機器批量生產出各種產品，經火車、汽車和輪船運往世界各地。城市建設也離不開科技，家庭和醫院都通上了電，人們的生活因此變得更健康、更便利。所有這些變化不僅對人們的實際生活產生了深遠影響，也同樣影響了他們想象中的生活。

Writers began to articulate these changing physical and mental landscapes, eventually giving science fiction a large and devoted fanbase of especially young readers, who found that it spoke to their curiosity about the future that science would create.

作家們開始將這些變化中的現實世界和想象中的世界聯繫起來，科幻小說因此逐漸吸引了一大批忠實讀者。特別是年輕讀者，他們對科學創造的未來充滿好奇，而這些小說正滿足了他們的好奇心。

But sci-fi reflected fears about science more than it did hopes. These early novels were dystopian rather than utopian.

不過，科幻小說反映更多的並不是對科學的希望，而是恐懼。早期的科幻小說大多是反烏托邦式的。

The typical early science fiction novel might be a UK novel like H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1897). With great skill, Wells played upon the fears of technology by imagining Earth under threat by a civilization –that of men from Mars.

比如早期科幻小說的代表作品——英國小說家赫伯特•喬治•威爾斯的《星際戰爭》（1897）。小說中，威爾斯想象了地球遭受火星文明威脅的情景，並用精湛的寫作技巧展現出人們對科技的恐懼。

The science fiction of today expresses the impact of the computing revolution, robotics and our environmental challenges, while it is less concerned with “little green men from Mars” and other themes of past sci-fi.

現在的科幻小說則更多地着墨於計算機革命、機器人還有環境問題對人類的影響，而類似 “來自火星的小綠人”和過去的科幻主題已經很少有作家涉及。

Given that science, technology and politics are always intertwined, contemporary science fiction often has a great deal to say about power. Many recent novels – like American Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008)– are concerned with government and security service “conspiracies” against the people, particularly as the revelations of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden sink in. This can give sci-fi writing a “paranoid” feel.

由於科學、技術與政治的話題總是彼此交錯，權力在當代科幻小說中成了重頭戲。近年來，隨着揭發真相的“告密者”們（比如愛德華•斯諾登）走入人們的視線，很多科幻小說都圍繞政府與安全機構密謀侵犯人民權利而展開，美國科幻小說家科裏•多克託羅的《小兄弟》（2008）就是一例。科幻小說也因此平添了一分“多疑偏執”的感覺。

This underlines one of the features that remains constant between the beginnings of the empire of science fiction and its state today.

這也成爲科幻小說“帝國”從建立之初至今都存在的一個特點。

As then, so now: We want to read about how fearful the future will be, not how it will be a paradise.

鑑於此，我們想讀到的不再是未來如何變成美好的天堂，而是未來到底有多可怕。