评论
打印
DISAPPEARING THR0UGH THE SKYLIGHT
从天窗中消失
Osborne Bennet Hardison Jr.
小奥斯本本内特哈迪森
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.
科学是能够为人们普遍接受的。有一个事实可用来说明这一点：一门科学发展程度越高，其基本概念就越能为人们普遍接受。举例而言，世界上就只有一种热力学，并不存在什么分开独立的中国热力学、美国热力学或者苏联热力学。在二十世纪的几十年的时间里，遗传学曾分为两派;西方遗传学和苏联遗传学。后者源于李森科的理论，即环境的作用可能造成遗传基因的变异。今天，李森科的理论已经被推翻，因此，世界上就只有一种遗传学了。
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.
作为科学的自然产物，工艺技术也显示出一种世界通用的倾向。这就是为什么工艺技术的发展传播使世界呈现出一体化特征的原因。原本各异的世界各地的建筑风格、服饰风格、音乐风格--甚至饮食风格--都越来越趋向于变成统一的世界流行风格了。世界呈现出同一性特征是因为它本来具有同一性。在这个世界上长大的儿童感受到的是一个千篇一律的世界而不是一个多样化的世界。他们的个性也受到这种同一性的影响，因此，在他们的感觉中，不同文化和个人之间的差异变得越来越小了。由于世界各地的建筑越来越千篇一律，居住在这些建筑里的人也越来越千人一面了。这样带来的结果用一句人们已经听熟的话来描述再恰当不过：历史要消失了。
