Longreads Best of 2017: Science, Technology, and Business Writing

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in science, tech, and business writing.

这里有最好的科学、技术和商业写作。

Deborah BlumDirector of the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT and author of The Poisoner’s Handbook

黛博拉·布鲁姆 (Deborah Blum) 麻省理工学院奈特科学新闻项目主任，《投毒者手册》作者

## The Touch of Madness (David Dobbs, Pacific Standard)

## 疯狂之触（大卫·多布斯，太平洋标准）

A beautifully rendered exploration of the slow, relentless creep of schizophrenia into the life of a brilliant graduate student, her slow recognition of the fact, and the failure of her academic community to recognize the issue or to support her.

这部精美的影片探讨了精神分裂症如何缓慢、无情地蔓延到一名优秀研究生的生活中，她对这一事实的缓慢认识，以及她的学术界未能认识到这个问题或支持她。

Dobbs’ piece functions both as an inquiry into our faltering understanding of mental illness and our cultural failure to respond to it with integrity.

多布斯的作品既是对我们对精神疾病的摇摇欲坠的理解的调查，也是对我们文化上未能诚实地回应它的失败的调查。

It’s the kind of compassionate and morally-centered journalism we should all aspire to.

这是我们都应该向往的富有同情心和以道德为中心的新闻业。

Elmo KeepAustralian writer and journalist living in Mexico, runner-up for the 2017 Bragg Prize for Science Writing

Elmo Keep 居住在墨西哥的澳大利亚作家和记者，2017 年布拉格科学写作奖亚军

## How Eclipse Chasers Are Putting a Small Kentucky Town on the Map (Lucas Reilly, Mental Floss)

## 日食追逐者如何让肯塔基州小镇名声大噪（Lucas Reilly，Mental Floss）

Anyone willing to write about syzygy in the shadow of Annie Dillard’s classic 1982 essay “Total Eclipse” has balls for miles.

任何愿意在安妮·迪拉德 (Annie Dillard) 1982 年的经典文章《全食》(Total Eclipse) 的阴影下写有关 syzygy 的人都可以有胆量。

Reilly’s decision to focus on the logistics faced by tiny towns preparing to be inundated by thousands of eclipse watchers was inspired.

赖利决定重点关注准备被数千名日食观察者淹没的小镇所面临的后勤问题。

It brilliantly conveyed the shared enthusiasms that celestial events animate in us.

它出色地传达了天体事件在我们心中激发的共同热情。

Between these two essays, I’m convinced a total eclipse would be a psychic event so overwhelming I might not survive it.

在这两篇文章之间，我确信日全食将是一场心灵事件，如此势不可挡，我可能无法幸存。

I’ve got 2037 in Antarctica on my bucket list — if it’s still there in twenty years.

我的愿望清单上有 2037 年南极洲——如果 20 年后它仍然存在的话。

Rose EvelethProducer and creator of the Flash Forward podcast

Rose EvelethFlash Forward 播客的制作人和创作者

## A Very Old Man for a Wolf (Emma Marris, Outside)

## 老人换狼（艾玛·马里斯，外面）

The story of the wolf in question, called OR4, hits on every fascinating, murky, and difficult piece of our human interactions with our wild predators.

这部名为 OR4 的狼的故事触及了人类与野生掠食者互动中每一个令人着迷、阴暗和困难的部分。

We want to be close, but not too close.

我们想要接近，但又不想太接近。

We want to admire and preserve them, but only as long as they follow our rules.

我们想要欣赏并保护它们，但前提是它们遵守我们的规则。

Marris does an incredible job of teasing out how humans and wolves both try to survive while at odds with one another.

马里斯做了一件令人难以置信的工作，梳理了人类和狼如何在彼此不和的情况下努力生存。

## Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Protect White Men From Hate Speech But Not Black Children (Julia Angwin, ProPublica)

## Facebook 的秘密审查规则保护白人免受仇恨言论的影响，但不能保护黑人儿童（Julia Angwin，ProPublica）

Everything in ProPublica’s Machine Bias series is a must read, in my opinion.

在我看来，ProPublica 的 Machine Bias 系列中的所有内容都是必读的。

They’re doing an incredible job opening up the algorithmic black boxes tech companies hide behind, revealing how they are all biased in their own ways.

他们做了一项令人难以置信的工作，打开了科技公司隐藏的算法黑匣子，揭示了他们如何以自己的方式存在偏见。

This particular piece helps us understand how Facebook is parsing hate speech.

这篇特别的文章可以帮助我们了解 Facebook 如何解析仇恨言论。

Considering that Facebook is a powerful platform for news and information, it’s worth taking a hard look at who they’re choosing to protect.

考虑到 Facebook 是一个强大的新闻和信息平台，值得认真考虑他们选择保护的对象。

Follow up this feature with another smart bit of reporting in which the team at ProPublica bought ads targeting anti-Semitic phrases like “Jew hater.”

在此功能之后，ProPublica 的团队购买了针对“犹太人仇恨者”等反犹太主义短语的广告。

Tim Hwang

蒂姆·黄

Director of the MIT-Harvard Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, and editor of the California Review of Images and Mark Zuckerberg.

麻省理工学院-哈佛人工智能伦理与治理计划主任，《加州图像评论》和马克·扎克伯格的编辑。

## Using Artificial Intelligence to Augment Human Intelligence (Shan Carter and Michael Nielsen, Distill)

## 使用人工智能增强人类智能（Shan Carter 和 Michael Nielsen，Distill）

The field of computing has often been characterized as a struggle between Doug Englebart’s vision of machines as a tool for intelligence augmentation and the full automation contemplated by artificial intelligence.

计算领域经常被描述为道格·恩格尔巴特（Doug Englebart）将机器作为智能增强工具的愿景与人工智能所设想的完全自动化之间的斗争。

Carter and Nielsen make an argument for a new emerging path: artificial intelligence augmentation (AIA), the use of AI systems to help develop new methods for intelligence augmentation.

卡特和尼尔森提出了一条新兴道路的论点：人工智能增强（AIA），即使用人工智能系统来帮助开发智能增强的新方法。

It’s a journey that starts with a simple demo and accelerates into a fractally fascinating and complex discussion.

这是一个从简单的演示开始，加速进入分形迷人且复杂的讨论的旅程。

Also wonderful is Distill itself — a beautiful, richly interactive approach to explaining and clarifying the often arcane finer points of machine learning.

同样精彩的是 Distill 本身——一种美丽的、丰富的交互式方法，用于解释和澄清机器学习中经常晦涩难懂的细节。

Two great tastes that taste great together.

两种美妙的味道放在一起味道很棒。

## The Mother of All Swipes (Marie Hicks, Logic Magazine)

## 所有滑动之母（Marie Hicks，Logic 杂志）

Hicks busts up the prevailing folklore that attributes the origins of computerized dating to Operation Match — the brainchild of a troika of Harvard undergrads in the 1960s.

希克斯打破了流行的民间传说，将计算机化约会的起源归因于“匹配行动”——这是 20 世纪 60 年代哈佛大学本科生三人组的创意。

Running parallel is the story of Joan Ball, working-class woman from East London who launched her punch card-driven Eros Friendship Bureau close to a year before the technology appeared in the US.

与之平行的是来自东伦敦的工薪阶层女性琼·鲍尔 (Joan Ball) 的故事，她在该技术出现在美国的前一年推出了打孔卡驱动的爱神友谊局 (Eros Friendship Bureau)。

It’s an awesome lens for thinking about how the aspirations that lead to computational power have been used as a salve to loneliness.

这是一个很棒的镜头，可以让我们思考对计算能力的渴望如何被用来缓解孤独。

Andrea ValdezEditor, Wired.com

安德里亚·瓦尔迪兹 (Andrea Valdez) 《连线》杂志编辑

## Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber (Susan J.

## 反思 Uber 非常非常奇怪的一年 (Susan J.

Fowler, personal website)

福勒，个人网站）

Before Roy Moore and Al Franken, before Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, before #MeToo and Harvey Weinstein and the ever-unfurling list of politicos, media men, and Hollywood elites stood accused of sexual misconduct, there was an essay published in February by a former Uber engineer detailing allegations of sexual harassment she experienced during her two years working at the popular ride-sharing company.

在罗伊·摩尔和艾尔·弗兰肯之前，在马特·劳尔和查理·罗斯之前，在#MeToo和哈维·韦恩斯坦以及不断展开的政治家、媒体人和好莱坞精英被指控性行为不当之前，一名前Uber工程师在二月份发表了一篇文章，详细描述了她在这家流行的乘车共享公司工作两年期间所经历的性骚扰指控。

Fowler’s bombshell post set off a reaction that not only led to the eventual downfall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, but prompted a number of tech companies to examine their own workplace cultures — and in some cases, fire or suspend their own executives.

福勒的爆炸性帖子引发了强烈反应，不仅导致 Uber 首席执行官特拉维斯·卡兰尼克最终下台，还促使许多科技公司审视自己的职场文化，在某些情况下甚至解雇或停职了自己的高管。

To say one blog post catalyzed a movement is a weighty mantle to lay upon anyone’s shoulders, but it’s hard to ignore the influence Fowler’s essay had in sparking the current national dialogue about power imbalances, workplace behavior, and sexual misconduct.

说一篇博客文章催化了一场运动，对于任何人来说都是一件沉重的负担，但很难忽视福勒的文章在引发当前有关权力失衡、工作场所行为和性行为不端的全国对话方面所产生的影响。

Kashmir HillSenior reporter on Gizmodo’s Special Projects Desk

Kashmir HillGizmodo 特别项目台高级记者

## On YouTube Kids, Startling Videos Slip Past Filters (Sapna Maheshwari, The New York Times)

## 在 YouTube Kids 上，令人震惊的视频滑过过滤器（Sapna Maheshwari，《纽约时报》）

When I think back on the best stories of a year, I am usually drawn to the ones I wish I had written myself.

当我回想起一年中最好的故事时，我通常会被那些我希望自己写的故事所吸引。

This year it was Sapna Maheshwari’s dive into the disturbing videos served up to kids on YouTube.

今年，Sapna Maheshwari 深入研究了 YouTube 上向孩子们提供的令人不安的视频。

It has all the best elements of great technology reporting: algorithms gone wrong, victims suffering harm, and shocking screenshots.

它拥有优秀技术报道的所有最佳元素：算法出错、受害者遭受伤害以及令人震惊的屏幕截图。

It also resulted in action, with YouTube announcing plans to increase its video-reviewing moderation team to over 10,000 people, a staggering number that still pales in comparison to the millions of hours of video uploaded each year.

它还带来了行动，YouTube 宣布计划将其视频审核审核团队增加到 10,000 人以上，这个数字与每年上传的数百万小时的视频相比仍然相形见绌。

## Something Is Wrong on The Internet (James Bridle, Medium)

## 互联网上出了点问题（James Bridle，Medium）

I discovered Maheshwari’s story through James Bridle’s meditation on it in his wonderfully titled Medium essay “Something is Wrong on the Internet.” His meandering, hand-wringing post linked a number of articles on the topic of disturbing videos targeted at kids and captured the anxiety many of us feel about an attention-weaponized internet being pointed at young, developing minds.

我是通过詹姆斯·布里德尔（James Bridle）在Medium文章“互联网上出了点问题”的精彩思考中发现了马赫什瓦里的故事。他那篇曲折、令人揪心的帖子链接了多篇关于针对儿童的令人不安的视频主题的文章，并捕捉到了我们许多人对注意力武器化的互联网被指向年轻、发展中的思想所感到的焦虑。

Julia RosenFreelance science journalist based in Portland, Oregon.

朱莉娅·罗森 (Julia Rosen) 居住在俄勒冈州波特兰的自由科学记者。

## The Touch of Madness (David Dobbs, Pacific Standard)

## 疯狂之触（大卫·多布斯，太平洋标准）

This engrossing piece weaves one woman’s experience with schizophrenia into the broader history of mental illness, and the growing recognition that its manifestations are profoundly shaped by culture.

这部引人入胜的作品将一位女性患精神分裂症的经历融入到更广泛的精神疾病历史中，并逐渐认识到其表现受到文化的深刻影响。

Dobbs’s detailed reporting includes masterful descriptions of how schizophrenia alters people’s perceptions of reality.

多布斯的详细报告包括对精神分裂症如何改变人们对现实的看法的精彩描述。

The woman, Nev Jones, is herself an expert on how society’s attitudes about mental illness shape the experience of those affected by it.

这位名叫内夫·琼斯的女士本身就是社会对精神疾病的态度如何影响受其影响的人的经历的专家。

Both Jones and Dobbs force us to reckon with our own beliefs about conditions like schizophrenia and what harm they might do.

琼斯和多布斯都迫使我们思考自己对精神分裂症等疾病的看法以及它们可能造成的危害。

## A Very Old Man for a Wolf (Emma Marris, Outside)

## 老人换狼（艾玛·马里斯，外面）

I read this story at a coffee shop, which was a mistake because — as friends had warned would happen — I found myself weeping helplessly into my latte after I finished it.

我在一家咖啡店读到了这个故事，这是一个错误，因为——正如朋友们所警告的那样——我发现自己在喝完拿铁咖啡后无助地哭泣。

Marris tells the story of OR4, the first wolf to set foot in Oregon in 70 years, and his run-ins with humans, most notably with Russ Morgan, the wildlife biologist who, until recently, served as the state’s wolf coordinator.

马里斯讲述了 OR4 的故事，OR4 是 70 年来第一只踏足俄勒冈州的狼，以及它与人类的冲突，其中最著名的是与野生生物学家拉斯·摩根 (Russ Morgan) 的冲突，直到最近，拉斯·摩根一直担任该州的狼协调员。

The two met many times in the decade OR4 lived in eastern Oregon, where he raised dozens of pups, hunted elk and deer in the rugged Wallowa Mountains, and inevitably killed livestock.

两人在十年间多次见面，OR4 住在俄勒冈州东部，在那里养育了数十只幼崽，在崎岖的瓦洛厄山脉 (Wallowa Mountains) 猎杀麋鹿和鹿，不可避免地杀死牲畜。

The relationship between Morgan and OR4, in Marris’ elegant telling, is like one between an Old West sheriff and an infamous outlaw.

在马里斯优雅的叙述中，摩根和 OR4 之间的关系就像旧西部警长和臭名昭著的歹徒之间的关系。

It is full of tension and mutual respect, and the tragic understanding that they occupy incompatible worlds that will eventually collide.

它充满了紧张和相互尊重，以及他们所处的不相容的世界最终会发生冲突的悲剧性理解。

Ingrid Burrington and Surya MattuJournalism R&D residents at Eyebeam

Ingrid Burrington 和 Surya Mattu Eyebeam 新闻研发驻员

## Thousands of Criminal Cases in New York Relied on Disputed DNA Testing Techniques (Lauren Kirchner, ProPublica)

## 纽约数以千计的刑事案件依赖于有争议的 DNA 检测技术（Lauren Kirchner，ProPublica）

Kirchner’s investigation shows that not all DNA evidence is equal, incisively illustrating the challenges of using forensic technology for prosecution.

基什内尔的调查表明，并非所有 DNA 证据都是平等的，这深刻地说明了使用法医技术进行起诉的挑战。

It demonstrates how these closed technologies are leveraged against defendants who have no way to challenge the accusations being made using their DNA.

它展示了如何利用这些封闭技术来对付那些无法质疑使用其 DNA 做出的指控的被告。

It’s also a fantastic example of how journalism can hold governments accountable for their uses of closed technologies: Kirchner’s reporting led to the release of the source code for New York City’s Forensic Statistical Tool.

这也是新闻业如何让政府对封闭技术的使用负责的一个绝佳例子：基什内尔的报告导致了纽约市法医统计工具源代码的发布。

Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads

Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑

## Bodega Isn’t Just Bad Branding, It’s Bad Business (Helen Rosner, Eater)

## 博德加不仅品牌不好，生意也不好（Helen Rosner，Eater）

Silicon Valley has a tendency to invent things that already exist: blenders, buses, the snack machine.

硅谷倾向于发明已经存在的东西：搅拌机、公共汽车、小吃机。

Helen Rosner is sick of it.

海伦·罗斯纳对此感到厌倦。

Not simply because of the hubris and waste, though there’s plenty of that, but because it exemplifies the tech industry’s obsession with the “last hundred feet.” It’s a failure not of imagination, but of logistics.

不仅仅是因为傲慢和浪费（尽管这样的事情很多），还因为它体现了科技行业对“最后一百英尺”的痴迷。这不是想象力的失败，而是物流的失败。

This piece, which grew out of a spectacular thread on Twitter, is a searing condemnation of the back end of so many startups, which are “poorly constructed and unsustainably scaled.” Rosner reminds us what success looks like to these companies, and how they wear the hollow crown of late-capitalism: “Bodega’s success will not be measured by how well it truly replaces the stores it wants to eliminate — by how many lives it makes better, how many jobs it creates, how many communities it strengthens, or how many families it serves.

这篇文章源自 Twitter 上的一个精彩帖子，是对众多初创公司后端的严厉谴责，这些初创公司“建设不善，规模不可持续”。罗斯纳提醒我们，这些公司的成功是什么样的，以及他们如何戴上晚期资本主义的空心王冠：“博德加的成功，并不是以它在多大程度上真正取代了它想要消除的商店来衡量的——而是以它改善了多少人的生活、创造了多少就业机会、加强了多少社区或服务了多少家庭来衡量。

Like most startups, its success will depend on whether its founders and investors make money.”

与大多数初创公司一样，它的成功将取决于其创始人和投资者是否赚钱。”

Ethan ChielContributing editor and fact checker, Longreads

Ethan ChielLongreads 特约编辑兼事实核查员

## So What If We’re Doomed?

## 如果我们注定失败怎么办？

(Brian Calvert, High Country News)

（布莱恩·卡尔弗特，《高地新闻》）

Large sections of Calvert’s lushly written, deeply personal essay thinking through the ecocide may not seem like science writing, and if that bugs you I can only encourage you to keep going.

卡尔弗特写得很丰富、深刻的个人文章对生态灭绝的思考可能看起来不像科学写作，如果这让你烦恼，我只能鼓励你继续写下去。

A non-exhaustive list of the topics covered includes the poet Robinson Jeffers, the value of natural beauty, Calvert’s family history in both the 20th and 17th centuries, a retreat in the Spanish Pyrenees, and photographic art documenting the trauma climate scientists endure.

所涵盖主题的非详尽清单包括诗人罗宾逊·杰弗斯、自然美的价值、卡尔弗特在 20 世纪和 17 世纪的家族历史、西班牙比利牛斯山脉的隐居，以及记录气候科学家所遭受创伤的摄影艺术。

At the outset it may seem as if Calvert is suggesting that the right response to climate science is a kind of quietism, but the way in which he grapples with what we as a species have done to this planet is far more complex.

一开始，卡尔弗特似乎在暗示，对气候科学的正确反应是一种安静主义，但他处理我们作为一个物种对这个星球所做的事情的方式要复杂得多。

## The Judge’s Code (Sarah Jeong, The Verge)

## 法官的准则（Sarah Jeong，The Verge）

Among many other things, Sarah Jeong’s profile of Judge William H.

除其他内容外，莎拉·郑 (Sarah Jeong) 对威廉·H·法官 (William H.

Alsup should be commended for putting to rest the question of whether or not Alsup knows how to code in Java (he doesn’t, he just learned a little during the first Oracle v.

Alsup 应该受到赞扬，因为他解决了 Alsup 是否知道如何用 Java 编写代码的问题（他不知道，他只是在第一次 Oracle v.1 中学到了一点）。

Google trial).

谷歌试用）。

Having taken care of that in the first few paragraphs, Jeong goes on to deliver a fascinating and complex profile of a judge who has and continues to preside over some of the most important tech-related cases of the present day, including Waymo v.

在前几段中介绍了这一点后，Jeong 继续介绍了一位法官的引人入胜且复杂的简介，这位法官已经并将继续主持当今一些最重要的技术相关案件，包括 Waymo 诉美国案。

Uber, which is currently on Alsup’s docket.

Uber，目前已列入 Alsup 的待审名单中。

She also weaves in questions and arguments about how judges, the press, and the public ought to approach cases where things get technical, without sacrificing any of Alsup’s humanity or charm.

她还提出了一些问题和争论，涉及法官、媒体和公众应该如何处理技术性案件，同时又不牺牲阿尔苏普的人性或魅力。

## The New MacBook Keyboard is Ruining My Life (Casey Johnston, The Outline)

## 新的 MacBook 键盘毁了我的生活（Casey Johnston，The Outline）

It’s satisfying to read good writing about hardware, especially when it’s good writing about bad hardware.

阅读关于硬件的好文章是令人满足的，尤其是当它是关于糟糕硬件的好文章时。

When our myriad devices function properly it can be easy to forget that they are one design flaw away from an enormous headache.

当我们的无数设备正常运行时，我们很容易忘记它们只是一个设计缺陷，而这却是一个令人头疼的问题。

The problem only gets more severe as some hardware producers, especially Apple, try to offer lighter computers and close off their product ecosystems, often by building computers or phones for which seemingly small fixes require maintenance that Casey Johnston rightly calls “major surgery.” This can mean going without your computer or smartphone for a while, something which, depending on your job or lifestyle, can be costly or even untenable.

随着一些硬件生产商（尤其是苹果公司）试图提供更轻的计算机并封闭其产品生态系统，问题只会变得更加严重，通常是通过制造看似很小的修复需要维护的计算机或手机，凯西·约翰斯顿（Casey Johnston）正确地称之为“大手术”。这可能意味着一段时间内没有电脑或智能手机，根据您的工作或生活方式，这可能会花费高昂甚至难以维持。

Johnston writes about this in the context process of trying to repair her MacBook’s spacebar, laid low by an errant speck of dust.

约翰斯顿在尝试修理 MacBook 的空格键时写到了这一点，空格键被一粒灰尘弄脏了。

She not only captures the absurdity and attendant frustration of dealing with Apple’s bizarre repair supply chain, but also seems to suggest that if the company doesn’t do better, then perhaps its customers should go elsewhere.

她不仅捕捉到了处理苹果公司奇异的维修供应链的荒谬性和随之而来的挫败感，而且似乎还暗示，如果该公司不能做得更好，那么也许它的客户应该去其他地方。