評論
打印
DISAPPEARING THR0UGH THE SKYLIGHT
從天窗中消失
Osborne Bennet Hardison Jr.
小奧斯本本內特哈迪森
Science is committed to the universal. A sign of this is that the more successful a science becomes, the broader the agreement about its basic concepts: there is not a separate Chinese or American or Soviet thermodynamics, for example; there is simply thermodynamics For several decades of the twentieth century there was a Western and a Soviet genetics, the latter associated with Lysenko's theory that environmental stress can produce genetic mutations. Today Lysenko's theory is discredited,and there is now only one genetics.
科學是能夠為人們普遍接受的。有一個事實可用來說明這一點：一門科學發展程度越高，其基本概念就越能為人們普遍接受。舉例而言，世界上就只有一種熱力學，并不存在什么分開獨立的中國熱力學、美國熱力學或者蘇聯熱力學。在二十世紀的幾十年的時間里，遺傳學曾分為兩派;西方遺傳學和蘇聯遺傳學。后者源于李森科的理論，即環境的作用可能造成遺傳基因的變異。今天，李森科的理論已經被推翻，因此，世界上就只有一種遺傳學了。
As the corollary of science, technology also exhibits the universalizing tendency. This is why the spread of technology makes the world look ever more homogeneous. Architectural styles, dress styles, musical styles-even eating styles-tend increasingly to be world styles. The world looks more homogeneous because it is more homogeneous. Children who grow up in this world therefore experience it as a sameness rather than a diversity,and because their identities are shaped by this sameness, their sense of differences among cultures and individuals diminishes. As buildings become more alike, the people who inhabit the buildings become more alike. The result is described precisely in a phrase that is already familiar." the disappearance of history.
作為科學的自然產物，工藝技術也顯示出一種世界通用的傾向。這就是為什么工藝技術的發展傳播使世界呈現出一體化特征的原因。原本各異的世界各地的建筑風格、服飾風格、音樂風格--甚至飲食風格--都越來越趨向于變成統一的世界流行風格了。世界呈現出同一性特征是因為它本來具有同一性。在這個世界上長大的兒童感受到的是一個千篇一律的世界而不是一個多樣化的世界。他們的個性也受到這種同一性的影響，因此，在他們的感覺中，不同文化和個人之間的差異變得越來越小了。由于世界各地的建筑越來越千篇一律，居住在這些建筑里的人也越來越千人一面了。這樣帶來的結果用一句人們已經聽熟的話來描述再恰當不過：歷史要消失了。
