主题：【原创】炮打工业党：《论工业社会及其未来》 -- 万年看客

THE 'BAD' PARTS OF TECHNOLOGY CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM THE 'GOOD' PARTS

技术的负面效应不可能与正面效应分割开来

121. A further reason why industrial society cannot be reformed in favor of freedom is that modern technology is a unified system in which all parts are dependent on one another. You can't get rid of the "bad" parts of technology and retain only the "good" parts. Take modern medicine, for example. Progress in medical science depends on progress in chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and other fields. Advanced medical treatments require expensive, high-tech equipment that can be made available only by a technologically progressive, economically rich society. Clearly you can't have much progress in medicine without the whole technological system and everything that goes with it.

121，工业化社会不能迸行有利于自由的改革的一个更深层原因在于，现代技术是一个统一的系统，其中所有部分都相互依存。你不可能去掉技术当中“坏的”部分，只保留“好的”部分。以现代医学为例。医学的进步有赖于化学、物理、生物、计算机科学以及其他领域的进步。先进的医疗需要昂贵的高科技设备。只有技术先进、经济富裕的社会才能提供。显然，抛除了整个技术体系及其所有伴生物，你就不可能在医学领域有任何进步。

122. Even if medical progress could be maintained without the rest of the technological system, it would by itself bring certain evils. Suppose for example that a cure for diabetes is discovered. People with a genetic tendency to diabetes will then be able to survive and reproduce as well as anyone else. Natural selection against genes for diabetes will cease and such genes will spread throughout the population. (This may be occurring to some extent already, since diabetes, while not curable, can be controlled through the use of insulin.) The same thing will happen with many other diseases susceptibility to which is affected by genetic degradation of the population. The only solution will be some sort of eugenics program or extensive genetic engineering of human beings, so that man in the future will no longer be a creation of nature, or of chance, or of God (depending on your religious or philosophical opinions), but a manufactured product.

122，即使医学进步可以不依赖技术体系的其他部分，这一进步本身也会带来特定的弊端。例如，假设我们发现了治疗糖尿病的办法。带有糖尿病遗传倾向的人就会生存下来并且与他人一样繁殖，淘汰糖尿病基因的自然选择就会中止，而这类基因就会在人口中扩散。（在一定程度上这种现象已经发生了，因为糖尿病虽然仍旧不可治愈，却可以用胰岛素控制）许多其他疾病的易感性也会受到人口遗传退化的影响。这个问题的解决之道无非是优生学计划或者大规模人体基因改造工程。换句话说，未来的人类将不再是自然、偶然或者上帝（根据各人哲学观点而异）的造物，而是人造的产品。

123. If you think that big government interferes in your life too much NOW, just wait till the government starts regulating the genetic constitution of your children. Such regulation will inevitably follow the introduction of genetic engineering of human beings, because the consequences of unregulated genetic engineering would be disastrous. [19]

123，如果你认为现在的大政府过度地干涉了你的生活，那么你就等着政府着手管制你的孩子的遗传构造吧。随着人类遗传工程的到来，这种管制将不可避免，因为没有管制，遗传工程的后果将是灾难性的。

[19] (Paragraph 123) Just think an irresponsible genetic engineer might create a lot of terrorists.

【19】（123段）可以设想一下某无良基因工程师创造出一群恐怖分子的场景。

124. The usual response to such concerns is to talk about "medical ethics." But a code of ethics would not serve to protect freedom in the face of medical progress; it would only make matters worse. A code of ethics applicable to genetic engineering would be in effect a means of regulating the genetic constitution of human beings. Somebody (probably the upper-middle class, mostly) would decide that such and such applications of genetic engineering were "ethical" and others were not, so that in effect they would be imposing their own values on the genetic constitution of the population at large. Even if a code of ethics were chosen on a completely democratic basis, the majority would be imposing their own values on any minorities who might have a different idea of what constituted an "ethical" use of genetic engineering. The only code of ethics that would truly protect freedom would be one that prohibited ANY genetic engineering of human beings, and you can be sure that no such code will ever be applied in a technological society. No code that reduced genetic engineering to a minor role could stand up for long, because the temptation presented by the immense power of biotechnology would be irresistible, especially since to the majority of people many of its applications will seem obviously and unequivocally good (eliminating physical and mental diseases, giving people the abilities they need to get along in today's world). Inevitably, genetic engineering will be used extensively, but only in ways consistent with the needs of the industrial-technological system. [20]

124通常对于这类担忧的反应是谈论所谓的“医学伦理”，但是伦理规范无法在医学进步面前保护自由，只能使事情变得更糟。能够应用于遗传工程的伦理规范事实上将成为管制人类遗传构造的手段。一部分人（多半是上层阶级）将决定如此这般的遗传工程合乎“道德”，如此这般的做法则不道德，因而他们将在实际上将自己的价值观强加于整个人口的遗传构造。即使伦理规范是以完全民主的方式选择出来的，多数族裔也会将他们自己的价值观强加于那些很可能对于如何 “道德地”运用遗传工程另有看法的少数族裔。真正能够保护自由的伦理规范只能是一挑，那就是禁止任何人类遗传工程。而我们可以十分有把握地说，这一点恰恰不可能在技术社会中得到实现。任何将遗传工程贬低成配角的规范都不可能维持下去，因为生物技术的巨大力量所产生的诱惑是无法抗拒的。特别是在大多数人看来，大量生物技术的应用显然且肯定是有益的（可以根除身体与精神疾病，赋予人们当今世界所需要的能力）。基因技术必将不可避免地得到大规模应用，但应用方式只能与工业-技术体系的需求相一致。[20]

[20]. (Paragraph 124) For a further example of undesirable consequences of medical progress, suppose a reliable cure for cancer is discovered. Even if the treatment is too expensive to be available to any but the elite, it will greatly reduce their incentive to stop the escape of carcinogens into the environment.

【20】（124段）再举一个医学进步导致负面后果的例子。假设人们发现了治疗癌症的可靠方法，哪怕这种疗法过于昂贵，只能用于少数精英，依然会极大地削弱人们制止致癌物质逸入环境的意愿。