A Biopunk Manifesto(Chinese translation)

A Biopunk Manifesto是由现居比利时的美女生物黑客Meredith L. Patterson在2010年1月30日所写,这份Manifesto的内容对于计算机黑客而言很容易理解,黑客伦理影响的第一大领域当然是计算机领域,Creative Commons许可证作为类GPL在艺术领域的变种一直支撑着像Clearbits(当年的beta legal torrents)这样的艺术黑客社区的发展.但这个时代性的背景毋庸置疑的指向了科技,而能改变未来的三大科技就是AI, Biotechnology和Quantum Mechanics,如果非要用Singularitarian的术语:G(enetic), N(anotechnology), R(obtics);whatever,所有的技术的方向都是朝着Strong AI进军.当然这个过程会经历几个阶段,而这个阶段(2011--2022)则是生物科技商业化的最后预备阶段,难怪Bill Gates也在劝大家去研究molecular biology,生物黑客至今的影响力已经超过艺术黑客,成为黑客伦理直接影响下的第2大社区.

Shawn自从2010年11月开始hacking复杂系统,最近一年的业余hacking搞明白了为什么复杂系统的基础概念和跟奇点的联系,自然跟奇点(Shawn上次对奇点的总结:The Singularity is coming: A Monkey-coder's Perspective)有关的领域特别是那三大领域就特别关注,生物领域肯定是首当其冲,Shawn这次翻译这篇文章只是出于兴趣,也让更多的中国年轻人认识到世界的进化历程,对于翻译质量Shawn可没有什么保证.

btw: 犹太人必定言出必行!!!

这篇文章遵循创作共享协议3.0(Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License)

原文url: http://maradydd.livejournal.com/496085.html

作者: Meredith L. Patterson
译者: Shawn the R0ck

A Biopunk Manifesto
一名生物朋克的宣言

The following was delivered yesterday at the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics' symposium, "Outlaw Biology? Public Participation in the Age of Big Bio".
继续跟踪了昨天提交到UCLA(加州大学洛杉矶分校)中心的社会与基因学研讨会上的文章: "丧失公民公共参与的大生物学时代?"

It is inspired by, and deliberately follows the form of, "A Cypherpunk Manifesto" by Eric Hughes.
编写生物朋克宣言是受到了Eric Hughes的"一名电子朋克的宣言"的启发.

Scientific literacy is necessary for a functioning society in the modern age. Scientific literacy is not science education. A person educated in science can understand science; a scientifically literate person can *do* science. Scientific literacy empowers everyone who possesses it to be active contributors to their own health care, the quality of their food, water, and air, their very interactions with their own bodies and the complex world around them.
科学素养是一个健全的现代社会的必需元素.科学素养不是科学教育.一个受过科学教育的人可以明白科学;而一个具有科学素养的人则可以为科学"做"一些事情.科学素养可以让所有的人成为很多方面的积极贡献者比如关注他们自身的健康,食物,水和空气的质量以及一切身体与这个复杂世界交互的事情.

Society has made dramatic progress in the last hundred years toward the promotion of education, but at the same time, the prevalence of citizen science has fallen. Who are the twentieth-century equivalents of Benjamin Franklin, Edward Jenner, Marie Curie or Thomas Edison? Perhaps Steve Wozniak, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard or Linus Torvalds -- but the scope of their work is far narrower than that of the natural philosophers who preceded them. Citizen science has suffered from a troubling decline in diversity, and it is this diversity that biohackers seek to reclaim. We reject the popular perception that science is only done in million-dollar university, government, or corporate labs; we assert that the right of freedom of inquiry, to do research and pursue understanding under one's own direction, is as fundamental a right as that of free speech or freedom of religion. We have no quarrel with Big Science; we merely recall that Small Science has always been just as critical to the development of the body of human knowledge, and we refuse to see it extinguished.
过去的几百年里神奇的社会进化历程让教育得到了普及,但同时,曾经盛行的公民科学已经濒临消亡.谁是20世纪的Benjamin Franklin, Edward Jenner, Marie Curie or Thomas Edison? 或许他们是Steve Wozniak, Bill Hewlett, Dave Packard or Linus Torvalds(Shawn:怎么能没有RMS, Linus只是个工程师, 而大胡子是真正的哲学家) --- 但他们的工作领域比起自然哲学家的确太过于狭窄.公民科学遭受了多元性的减少,而这样的多元性正是生物黑客所需要回归的本质.我们抛弃那些大众的错误观念:科学研究需要大学,政府和财团的实验室投入上百万的美刀才能完成.我们断言探究未知领域的权利就像言论自由和宗教自由一样是基本的权利.我们不是指需要大量人力财力投入的"大科学",而是指个人和小社区能够通过hacking完成的"小科学",我们拒绝看到它灭绝.

Research requires tools, and free inquiry requires that access to tools be unfettered. As engineers, we are developing low-cost laboratory equipment and off-the-shelf protocols that are accessible to the average citizen. As political actors, we support open journals, open collaboration, and free access to publicly-funded research, and we oppose laws that would criminalize the possession of research equipment or the private pursuit of inquiry.
自由的探索需要工具,自由的探索需要无拘无束的访问那些工具.作为工程师,我们开发低成本的实验室设备足以让公民可以支付的起.作为政治参与者,我们支持开放的杂志,开放的合作和开放的访问公共的研究资源,我们反对那些给拥有研究设备或者私人的自由探索权利贴上犯罪标签的法律.

Perhaps it seems strange that scientists and engineers would seek to involve themselves in the political world -- but biohackers have, by necessity, committed themselves to doing so. The lawmakers who wish to curtail individual freedom of inquiry do so out of ignorance and its evil twin, fear -- the natural prey and the natural predator of scientific investigation, respectively. If we can prevail against the former, we will dispel the latter. As biohackers it is our responsibility to act as emissaries of science, creating new scientists out of everyone we meet. We must communicate not only the value of our research, but the value of our methodology and motivation, if we are to drive ignorance and fear back into the darkness once and for all.
或许科学家和工程师参与政治世界的活动看起来很陌生 --- 但生物黑客必须这么做.由于"无知"和它的邪恶的双胞胎兄弟---从被掠食者和掠食者的科学研究中发现的"恐惧",制定法律的人希望尽力减少个体的自由探索.如果我们能成功组织前者,我们就能驱散后者.作为生物黑客,我们的责任是作为科学的使者去创造新的领域,这些领域是我们认识的科学家没有触及的.如果我们打算把无知和恐惧都一次性驱散回黑暗之中,我们必须不仅仅关注对研究直接价值的方面,也要关注我们的方法论和动机方面的价值.

We the biopunks are dedicated to putting the tools of scientific investigation into the hands of anyone who wants them. We are building an infrastructure of methodology, of communication, of automation, and of publicly available knowledge.
我们生物朋克献身于制造所有人都能得到用于科学研究的工具.我们正在构建方法论,通信,自动化和公共知识领域的架构.

Biopunks experiment. We have questions, and we don't see the point in waiting around for someone else to answer them. Armed with curiosity and the scientific method, we formulate and test hypotheses in order to find answers to the questions that keep us awake at night. We publish our protocols and equipment designs, and share our bench experience, so that our fellow biopunks may learn from and expand on our methods, as well as reproducing one another's experiments to confirm validity. To paraphrase Eric Hughes, "Our work is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of our research topics." We are building on the work of the Cypherpunks who came before us to ensure that a widely dispersed research community cannot be shut down.
当生物朋克们在实验中遇到问题,我们不会等着其他人来解决.在好奇心和科学方法武装下,我们兴奋的整个晚上用公式来测试假设和寻找答案.我们会公布所有的草案和设备的设计,分享我们的经验,我们团契中的生物朋克可以学习和扩展我们的方法,就像重新产生了另外一次实验去验证有效性一样.Eric hughes所言,"我们的工作是让全世界都能自由的使用.我们不在乎你不赞同我们的研究题目.".我们正在构建一个像电子朋克那样渗透到诸多黑客社区的革命.

Biopunks deplore restrictions on independent research, for the right to arrive independently at an understanding of the world around oneself is a fundamental human right. Curiosity knows no ethnic, gender, age, or socioeconomic boundaries, but the opportunity to satisfy that curiosity all too often turns on economic opportunity, and we aim to break down that barrier. A thirteen-year-old kid in South Central Los Angeles has just as much of a right to investigate the world as does a university professor. If thermocyclers are too expensive to give one to every interested person, then we'll design cheaper ones and teach people how to build them.
生物朋克对于限制独立的研究感到悲伤,因为这是最基本的人类权利.好奇心并不在乎种族,性别,年龄或者经济情况,但是好奇心总是不断的创造出新的赚钱机会,我们会把技术门槛打破.一个生活在洛杉矶南区的13岁的小家伙有和大学教授一样的权利去探索未知的世界.如果温度循环器的价格对于每一个有兴趣的人太贵,那我们会设计一个更便宜的然后教人们如何去自己制造.

Biopunks take responsibility for their research. We keep in mind that our subjects of interest are living organisms worthy of respect and good treatment, and we are acutely aware that our research has the potential to affect those around us. But we reject outright the admonishments of the precautionary principle, which is nothing more than a paternalistic attempt to silence researchers by inspiring fear of the unknown. When we work, it is with the betterment of the community in mind -- and that includes our community, your community, and the communities of people that we may never meet. We welcome your questions, and we desire nothing more than to empower you to discover the answers to them yourselves.
生物朋克对他们的研究负责.我们时刻提醒自己那些有趣的研究主题都关乎值得尊重的活的有机体,我们敏锐的察觉到我们的研究对它们会有潜在的影响.但我们拒绝像家长式作风般地对未知领域的恐惧所产生的草率的预防警告原则.我们的工作是对社区的改造 --- 包括我们的社区,你们的社区和那些素未谋面的生物黑客社区.我们欢迎任何提问,我们渴望你能够去探索那些你想要知道答案的领域.

The biopunks are actively engaged in making the world a place that everyone can understand. Come, let us research together.
生物朋克致力于创造一个每个人都能够明白的世界.来吧,让我们一起研究吧.