Longreads Best of 2018: Science and Technology

Deborah BlumDirector of the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT and author of The Poison Squad.

黛博拉·布鲁姆 (Deborah Blum) 麻省理工学院奈特科学新闻项目主任，《毒药小队》一书的作者。

## They Know Seas Are Rising, but They’re Not Abandoning Their Beloved Cape Cod (Meera Subramanian, InsideClimate News)

## 他们知道海平面正在上升，但他们并没有放弃他们心爱的科德角（Meera Subramanian，InsideClimate News）

For more than a year, Meera Subramanian has been traversing the country for InsideClimate News, creating a series of vivid and wonderfully balanced portraits of small communities wrestling with the havoc of climate change (whether they admit it or not).

一年多来，米拉·萨勃拉曼尼安 (Meera Subramanian) 为《内部气候新闻》(InsideClimate News) 走遍全国，创作了一系列生动且完美平衡的小社区肖像，描绘了小社区与气候变化浩劫的斗争（无论他们承认与否）。

This one from October, focused on an increasingly flood-washed area called Blish Point, stands out for me.

这张十月份的照片对我来说很引人注目，它关注的是一个日益被洪水冲刷的地区，名为 Blish Point。

It’s a tapestry-like picture woven of relentlessly rising seas, threatened homes and businesses, the politics of climate change science, and pure, stubborn human reluctance to give up on a beloved way of coastal living.

这是一幅像挂毯一样的图画，交织着不断上升的海平面、受到威胁的家庭和企业、气候变化科学的政治，以及纯粹而顽固的人类不愿放弃心爱的沿海生活方式。

Subramanian never raises her voice or treats any viewpoint with less than respect — although she occasionally deftly slides in the scientific arguments that counter climate denialism.

萨勃拉曼尼亚从不提高自己的声音，也不以不尊重的态度对待任何观点——尽管她偶尔会巧妙地加入反对气候否认主义的科学论点。

She has an elegant way of making both people and place live on the page.

她以一种优雅的方式让人物和地点都生动地出现在页面上。

The result is a compelling and compassionate narrative in which this one small, beautiful, vanishing strip of Massachusetts, perched on the edge of an encroaching ocean, becomes a microcosm for the much bigger story of change — and its reckoning — now being realized around the world.

其结果是一个引人入胜且富有同情心的叙述，其中马萨诸塞州这片美丽的、正在消失的狭长地带，坐落在不断侵蚀的海洋边缘，成为了世界各地正在实现的更大的变革故事及其清算的缩影。

Aleszu BajakFreelance science journalist, former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and lecturer at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.

阿莱斯祖·巴贾克（Aleszu Bajak）自由科学记者，前麻省理工学院奈特科学新闻研究员，东北大学新闻学院讲师。

## God Is in the Machine (Carl Miller, The Times Literary Supplement)

## 上帝在机器中（卡尔·米勒，《泰晤士报文学副刊》）

Whether it’s your social media feed, prison sentence, or driverless car, our world is increasingly governed by algorithms.

无论是社交媒体、监狱判决还是无人驾驶汽车，我们的世界越来越受到算法的控制。

The terrifying thing is that we’re quickly approaching a horizon after which no one will be able to explain the code used or decisions made to build these things.

可怕的是，我们正在迅速接近一个地平线，之后没有人能够解释构建这些东西所使用的代码或做出的决定。

This sobering excerpt from Carl Miller’s book, The Death of the Gods: The new global power grab, makes startlingly clear our ignorance of the machines we’ve hacked together.

卡尔·米勒（Carl Miller）的书《众神的死亡：新的全球权力争夺》中的这段发人深省的摘录，令人震惊地清楚地表明我们对我们一起入侵的机器的无知。

“Truth is dead,” as one programmer tells him.

“真理已死，”一位程序员告诉他。

“There is only output.”

“只有输出。”

Ashley CarmanTech reporter at The Verge and co-host of Why’d You Push That Button?

阿什利·卡曼 (Ashley Carman) 是 The Verge 的科技记者，也是《你为什么按下那个按钮？》的联合主持人。

## How Forlini’s Survives the Instagram Horde (Alex Vadukul, The New York Times)

## Forlini’s 如何在 Instagram 群体中生存下来（Alex Vadukul，《纽约时报》）

Instagram has fundamentally changed where and why we visit the places we do.

Instagram 从根本上改变了我们访问目的地的地点和原因。

Alex Vadukul’s piece on New York Italian restaurant Forlini’s taps into this idea.

Alex Vadukul 关于纽约意大利餐厅 Forlini’s 的文章就利用了这个想法。

He perfectly captures how one establishment’s demographics can change over time.

他完美地捕捉到了一个机构的人口统计数据如何随着时间的推移而变化。

One group of patrons goes for the food and convenience — Forlini’s is next to the courthouse — while another prefers it as a backdrop for Instagram photos.

一部分顾客追求美食和便利——Forlini's 就在法院旁边——而另一部分顾客则更喜欢将其作为 Instagram 照片的背景。

Vadukul includes incredible quotes, too, especially the one in which a Forlini’s owner marvels at how influencers manage to drink alcohol and stay thin.

Vadukul 还引用了令人难以置信的引言，尤其是其中一位 Forlini 的老板对影响者如何设法喝酒并保持苗条感到惊讶的那句话。

I wonder that, too.

我也想知道。

Meehan CristWriter-in-residence in biological sciences at Columbia University, previously editor at Nautilus and The Believer.

Meehan Crist 哥伦比亚大学生物科学系常驻作家，曾任《Nautilus》和《The Believer》杂志编辑。

## Survival of the Richest (Douglas Rushcoff, Medium)

## 富人的生存 (Douglas Rushcoff, Medium)

There’s a lot of bad science writing about transhumanism − rich people wanting to live forever by uploading their minds to computers, etc. But Rushcoff explores the very human drive for a post-human future by elegantly tracing links between the failures of global capitalism, the growing divide between rich and poor, the ongoing climate catastrophe, and what transhumanism is really all about: escape.

有很多关于超人类主义的糟糕科学文章——富人希望通过将自己的思想上传到计算机等来永生。但拉什科夫通过优雅地追踪全球资本主义的失败、贫富差距日益扩大、持续的气候灾难以及超人类主义的真正含义之间的联系，探索了人类对后人类未来的驱动力。

It’s the best thinking I’ve read on the subject, and the piece stands out as a clear articulation of how some imagine − or fail to imagine − our digital future.

这是我读过的关于这个主题的最好的思考，这篇文章清楚地阐述了一些人如何想象——或无法想象——我们的数字未来。

I’m still haunted by the moment when a super-wealthy CEO who has paid to pick Rushcoff’s brain about “the future of technology” asks, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

当一位超级富有的首席执行官花钱请拉什科夫思考“技术的未来”时，他问道：“事件发生后我如何保持对我的安全部队的权威？”那一刻我仍然心有余悸。

Surya MattuInvestigative data journalist at The Markup, research scientist at the Center for Civic Media at MIT.

Surya Mattu 是 The Markup 的调查数据记者，麻省理工学院公民媒体中心的研究科学家。

## See No Evil (Miriam Posner, Logic)

## 勿视邪恶（米里亚姆·波斯纳，《逻辑》）

Posner’s piece on using software to make supply chains more transparent contains some powerful observations.

波斯纳关于使用软件使供应链更加透明的文章包含一些有力的观察。

It elegantly highlights how some characteristic features of modernity have harmed rather than helped this endeavor.

它优雅地强调了现代性的一些特征如何损害而不是帮助了这一努力。

Large scale, distributed networks like the internet and global supply chains might be more resilient and efficient than their predecessors, but they are almost impossible to regulate.

互联网和全球供应链等大规模分布式网络可能比其前身更具弹性和效率，但它们几乎不可能受到监管。

Similarly, modular information design and the ‘black box architecture’ of software helps scale businesses, but they can also obfuscate the decision making process of those in charge, leading to a lack of accountability.

同样，模块化信息设计和软件的“黑匣子架构”有助于扩大业务规模，但它们也会混淆负责人的决策过程，导致缺乏问责制。

As we grapple with the challenge of how to hold algorithmic decision-making accountable for the harm it can cause, this piece reminds us that the harm is often a feature of these systems, not a bug.

当我们努力应对如何让算法决策对其可能造成的危害负责时，这篇文章提醒我们，危害通常是这些系统的一个功能，而不是一个错误。

Neel V.

尼尔·V.

PatelScience and tech journalist, contributor to The Daily Beast, The Verge, Slate, Wired, Popular Science, Foreign Policy, and New York Magazine.

帕特尔是一位科学和科技记者，《The Daily Beast》、《The Verge》、《Slate》、《连线》、《大众科学》、《外交政策》和《纽约杂志》的撰稿人。

## How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War (Davey Alba, BuzzFeed News)

## 杜特尔特如何利用 Facebook 助长菲律宾毒品战争（Davey Alba，BuzzFeed 新闻）

Facebook had a bad year, culminating most damningly in a New York Times’ report in November that showed the company’s inability to safeguard the platform from nefarious parties trying to influence the 2016 election, as well as its unwillingness to take responsibility and make fixes.

Facebook 经历了糟糕的一年，最糟糕的是《纽约时报》11 月的一篇报道，该报道显示该公司无法保护该平台免受试图影响 2016 年大选的邪恶势力的侵害，也不愿承担责任并进行修复。

But the insidiousness of Facebook in the U.S. dwarfs what’s happening overseas.

但 Facebook 在美国的阴险让海外发生的事情相形见绌。

Davey Alba, writing for BuzzFeed News, illustrates how Rodrigo Duterte and his autocratic regime in the Philippines leveraged the platform to disseminate false news and propaganda, exacerbating the carnage inflicted by his war on drugs and dismantling many of the country’s democratic structures.

BuzzFeed News 的戴维·阿尔巴 (Davey Alba) 阐述了罗德里戈·杜特尔特 (Rodrigo Duterte) 及其菲律宾独裁政权如何利用该平台传播虚假新闻和宣传，加剧其禁毒战争造成的屠杀，并瓦解该国许多民主结构。

It’s a terrifying example of what happens when our biggest fears of the unregulated sprawl of Facebook are realized.

这是一个可怕的例子，说明当我们对 Facebook 不受监管的扩张的最大担忧成为现实时，会发生什么。

Catherine CusickAudience editor, Longreads

凯瑟琳·库西克（Catherine Cusick）长读读者编辑

## Can Dirt Save the Earth?

## 污垢能拯救地球吗？

(Moises Velasquez-Manoff, The New York Times Magazine)

（莫伊塞斯·委拉斯开兹-马诺夫，《纽约时报》杂志）

Readers may be more familiar with Nathaniel Rich’s historic New York Times Magazine story from this summer, Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change, than with this epic piece on dirt that came out back in April, but Moises Velasquez-Manoff literally redefined on-the-ground reporting — on soil itself.

读者可能更熟悉纳撒尼尔·里奇（Nathaniel Rich）今年夏天在《纽约时报》杂志上发表的历史性报道《失去地球：我们几乎阻止了气候变化的十年》，而不是四月份发表的这篇关于泥土的史诗般的文章，但莫伊塞斯·委拉斯开兹·马诺夫（Moises Velasquez-Manoff）确实重新定义了实地报道——关于土壤本身。

This story helped me dust off all of my murky grade school memories of nutrient cycles while teaching me anew why these basic, natural processes are so relevant to every sustainable challenge we face.

这个故事帮助我拂去了小学时关于营养循环的所有模糊记忆，同时重新教会了我为什么这些基本的自然过程与我们面临的每一个可持续挑战如此相关。

Maybe I’m just a fan of solarpunk, but I love reading about known, practical mitigation methods that are worth doing anyway, even past all of our many missed opportunities and catastrophic points of no return.

也许我只是太阳朋克的粉丝，但我喜欢阅读已知的、实用的缓解方法，无论如何，这些方法都是值得做的，即使我们错过了许多机会和灾难性的不归路。

Carbon farming may not be enough, but what it can do might still be miraculous.

碳农业可能还不够，但它的作用可能仍然是奇迹。

Stories that neither sugarcoat real options nor deny that any exist at least give us some time back — if not enough for a full second chance, then enough to do something more meaningful, ultimately, than wait.

故事既不粉饰真实的选择，也不否认任何真实选择的存在，至少给了我们一些时间——如果不足以给我们第二次机会，那么最终足以让我们做一些比等待更有意义的事情。

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