又到以色列队在比赛中崭露头角了星期一，继续工作学习。总是想着，什么时候能放假，什么时候能休息。休假似乎遥遥无期。但已经有人担心，随着科技的高速发展，社会上会产生“无用阶级”--不但没有工作，还找不到工作。如果没有了工作，如果无事可做，人类该如何找到生活的意义？

没有了工作，生活的意义在哪里？

译者以色列队在比赛中崭露头角：王乐颖

校对：李林治

词汇：徐 唱

策划：朱宇晴

　　As technology renders jobs obsolete, what will keep us busy?

　　随着工作逐渐被科技淘汰，我们能做些什么？

　　本文选自 The Guardian | 取经号原创翻译

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　　Most jobs that exist today might disappear within decades. As artificial intelligenceoutperforms humans in more and more tasks, it will replace humans in more and more jobs.

　　未来几十年，目前大部分的工作可能会消失。随着人工智能在越来越多工作中打败人类，它将取代越来越多的岗位。

　　outperform /?outp?r?fôrm / v. to be more successful than someone or something else 做得比…好; 胜过

　　The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable.

　　最关键的问题不是创造新的工作，而是要创造出人类比算法更擅长的工作。因此，到2050年，可能会出现一个新的阶级：无用阶级。他们不但没有工作，而且还找不到工作。

　　The same technology that renders humans useless might also make it feasible to feed and support the unemployable masses through some scheme of universal basic income. The real problem will then be to keep the masses occupied and content. People must engage in purposeful activities, or they go crazy. So what will the useless class do all day?

　　将人类变得无用的科技，同样可能通过普遍基本收入机制，来供养没有工作的人群。那时，真正的难题是，怎样让人们有事可做并获得满足感。人必须参与到有目的性的活动中去，不然就会发疯。所以，无用阶级每天该做些什么呢？

　　render /?rend?r/ v. to cause someone or something to be in a particular condition使成为; 使变得; 使处于某种状态: render sb / sth

　　One answer might be computer games. Economically redundant people might spend increasing amounts of time within 3D virtual reality worlds, which would provide them with far more excitement and emotional engagement than the “real world” outside. This, in fact, is a very old solution. For thousands of years, billions of people have found meaning in playing virtual reality games. In the past, we have called these virtual reality games “religions”.

　　可能性之一是电脑游戏。经济富余的人们，可能会投入越来越多的时间到3D虚拟世界中去，比起现实，它能提供更多的刺激与感情交流。这事实上是一个非常老套的解决方法。数千年来，几十亿人在虚拟现实游戏中找到了意义。过去，我们把这些游戏称之为“宗教”。

　　redundant /r??d?nd?nt / adj. not necessary because something else means or does the same thing 多余的; 累赘的

　　What is a religion if not a big virtual reality game played by millions of people together? Religions such as Islam and Christianity invent imaginary laws, such as “don’t eat pork”, “repeat the same prayers a set number of times each day”, “don’t have sex with somebody from your own gender” and so forth. These laws exist only in the human imagination. No natural law requires the repetition of magical formulas, and no natural law forbids homosexuality or eating pork. Muslims and Christians go through life trying to gain points in their favorite virtual reality game. If you pray every day, you get points. If you forget to pray, you lose points. If by the end of your life you gain enough points, then after you die you go to the next level of the game (aka heaven).

　　宗教如果不是几百万玩家共同参与的虚拟现实游戏，还能是什么呢？诸如伊斯兰教和基督教之类的宗教，会创造出假想的法则，例如：“不能吃猪肉”、“每天要重复相同的祷告若干次”和“不得和同性发生性行为”等等。这些法则只存在于人类想象之中。没有任何自然规律要求你重复有法力的口诀，也没有禁止同性性行为或是食用猪肉。终其一生，穆斯林和基督徒都希望能在自己最爱的游戏中得分。每天祈祷就加分，忘记祈祷就减分。假如死前攒够了一定分数，死后就有资格晋级游戏的下一关（也就是天堂）。

　　As religions show us, the virtual reality need not be encased inside an isolated box. Rather, it can be superimposed on the physical reality. In the past this was done with the human imagination and with sacred books, and in the 21st century it can be done with smartphones.

　　宗教告诉我们，虚拟现实不一定要装在一个单独的盒子里。更确切地说，它会反映在现实中。过去，这是由人类想象和宗教典籍完成的，而21世纪，这可以由智能手机完成。

　　encase /in?kās,en?kās/v. 常作 (be encased) enclose or cover in a case or close-fitting surround把…装入盒（或箱）内以色列队在比赛中崭露头角；包，裹

　　superimpose / ?so?op(?)r?m?pōz/ v. 1. to put one picture, image, or photograph on top of another so that both can be partly seen 使〔图画、图像或照片〕重叠，使叠加; 2. to combine two systems, ideas, opinions etc so that one influences the other使〔两种制度、思想、意见等〕相结合，使融合

　　Some time ago I went with my six-year-old nephew Matan to hunt for Pokémon. As we walked down the street, Matan kept looking at his smartphone, which enabled him to spot Pokémon all around us. I didn’t see any Pokémon at all, because I didn’t carry a smartphone. Then we saw two others kids on the street who were hunting the same Pokémon, and we almost got into a fight with them. It struck me how similar the situation was to the conflict between Jews and Muslims about the holy city of Jerusalem. When you look at the objective reality of Jerusalem, all you see are stones and buildings. There is no holiness anywhere. But when you look through the medium of smartbooks (such as the Bible and the Qur’an), you see holy places and angels everywhere.

　　不久前，我和六岁的外甥马丁一起玩精灵宝可梦。在我们走过街道时，马丁一直盯着手机，这让他能看到我们身边的宠物小精灵。我没带手机，所以我什么也没看到。之后，我们碰见了两个也在找宠物小精灵的小孩，而且差点和他们打了起来。这让我觉得，这跟犹太教徒、穆斯林之间对圣城耶路撒冷冲突是多么的相似。当你寻找伊斯兰教存在的物证时，你能见到的只有建筑和石头。但当你翻阅圣书（例如《圣经》和《可兰经》）时，随处都是圣地和天使。

　　The idea of finding meaning in life by playing virtual reality games is of course common not just to religions, but also to secular ideologies and lifestyles. Consumerism too is a virtual reality game. You gain points by acquiring new cars, buying expensive brands and taking vacations abroad, and if you have more points than everybody else, you tell yourself you won the game.

　　当然，通过想象现实寻找生命意义不仅常见于宗教，还常见于世俗意识形态和生活方式。消费主义也是一个虚拟现实游戏。人们通过购买新车、消费昂贵品牌产品和出国旅游累积分数。如果分数比其他人高，你就觉得自己赢了。

　　consumerism /k?n?su?.m?.?.z?m/ the situation in which too much attention is given to buying and owning things 消费主义

　　In Israel, a significant percentage of ultra-orthodoxJewish men never work. They spend their entire lives studying holy ures and performing religion rituals. They and their families don’t starve to death partly because the wives often work, and partly because the government provides them with generous subsidies. Though they usually live in poverty, government support means that they never lack for the basic necessities of life.

　　在以色列，有很大一部分极端正统的犹太人从不工作。他们的生命都用在学习圣经和举行宗教仪式上。他们和家人没有饿死，一部分原因是妻子会去工作，另外一部分原因是政府会提供大笔补贴。尽管他们通常生活贫困，但政府补贴意味着他们永远不会缺少基本所需。

　　That’s universal basic income in action. Though they are poor and never work, in survey after survey these ultra-orthodox Jewish men report higher levels of life-satisfactionthan any other section of Israeli society.

　　这就是真实的普遍基本收入。尽管这些犹太男子穷困潦倒，从不工作，但各类调查显示，这些极端正统的犹太男子对生活的满意程度是以色列社会中最高的。

　　In global surveys of life satisfaction, Israel is almost always at the very top, thanks in part to the contribution of these unemployed deep players.

　　在全球生活满意程度调查中，以色列几乎一直名列前茅。这些没有工作的虔诚教徒是其中一个原因。

　　You don’t need to go all the way to Israel to see the world of post-work. If you have at home a teenage son who likes computer games, you can conduct your own experiment. Provide him with a minimum subsidy of Coke and pizza, and then remove all demands for work and all parental supervision. The likely outcome is that he will remain in his room for days, glued to the screen. He won’t do any homework or housework, will skip school, skip meals and even skip showers and sleep. Yet he is unlikely to suffer from boredom or a sense of purposelessness. At least not in the short term.

　　要见识“后工作”世界，无需长途跋涉去以色列。如果家里有一个喜欢电脑游戏、正值青春期的儿子，你就可以自己开展实验。给他提供最少量的可乐和披萨，然后不要求他工作，也不管他。他可能会一直呆在自己房间，盯着屏幕。他不会做任何作业或家务；他不会上学、不会吃饭甚至不会洗澡、睡觉。但他不太会感到无聊或是迷茫。至少短期内是这样。

　　Hence virtual realities are likely to be key to providing meaning to the useless class of the post-work world. Maybe these virtual realities will be generated inside computers. Maybe they will be generated outside computers, in the shape of new religions and ideologies. Maybe it will be a combination of the two. The possibilities are endless, and nobody knows for sure what kind of deep plays will engage us in 2050.

　　因此，在后工作世界，虚拟现实将成为向无用阶级提供意义的关键。这些虚拟现实可能在电脑内部形成；可能以新宗教和意识形态的形式在电脑外部形成；也可能两者兼具。可能性无穷无尽，也没有人能确定2050年我们将参与到什么样的深度游戏中。

　　But what about truth? What about reality? Do we really want to live in a world in which billions of people are immersed in fantasies, pursuing make-believe goals and obeying imaginary laws? Well, like it or not, that’s the world we have been living in for thousands of years already.

　　但真理呢？现实呢？我们真的希望生活在一个数十亿人沉浸于幻想、追求虚幻目标、遵循假想法则的世界中吗？事实上，不管喜不喜欢，这就是我们已经生存了数千年的世界。

　　immerse /i?m?rs / v. immerse yourself in sth, to become completely involved in an activity 潜心于某事，专心于某事

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　　<原文链接：https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/08/virtual-reality-religion-robots-sapiens-book>