最近我时常处于幻觉之中,因为大部分时间被无意义的荒废在虚拟世界里。那些据称与我有着千丝万缕联系的国际政治、财经、科技、文化报道实际上需要很长时间的额外思考,才能知道我们之间到底处于一种什么关系。就像是可笑的六度分割理论,它试图向我证明世界有多么小,我可以和很多不可思议的人取得联络,可是,这却完全不适用于现实。
幻觉发生在卫生间。大学学生寝室的卫生间很宽敞,提供了一个可以让很多不同基因的人一起排泄的公共场所。在那里我遇见一个多月没见的朋友,他一边洗衣服一边问正在小便的我什么时候回来,我对他说:明天上午。
从卫生间出来,我一路上默念着Life is like a box of chocolates...然后向右转进了对门的寝室。没有什么人表示格外热烈的欢迎,一个人在打游戏,他的技术很烂,但是这却不影响另一个看电影的心情。从那些外国电影中我唯一熟练掌握的恐怕首先是粗口。我自己和自己说了几句话从桌上拿起一张上个星期的报纸,碰巧是IT版,里面写ORACLE如何如何,我说ORACLE是一个慈祥的老太太,转身离去。
这张报纸上用羡慕的语气写着Steve Jobs的好主意。这个男人总是在你认为他是一个商人的时候摆出一个时尚艺术家的pose。无论如何不屑,公园里还是到处有白色的小盒子晃来晃去,佩戴它们的人律动点着头,仿佛作晨祷。
这几天电脑把我的脖子搞坏了,它疼得厉害,我害怕起来,因为这可能意味着有一天我会变得残废。还有学校的食堂完全没有新气象,我的胃口一直不好,
食欲几乎丧失。可笑的是肚子仍然会及时地饿起来,让我不得不出现在那个让我讨厌的地方,吃一些东西。
北京已经是个大城市了。尽管从一开始就是这么注定的,可是现在它还是在阳光灿烂的日子刮一些不大受人欢迎的风,非常硬而且冷。经常顺着我大衣的领口钻进衬衣里面。所以我很少能在外面正常的走路,都是缩成一团,可是这更加剧我的颈椎痛。几乎所有人都回来准备开学了,可是一直去打印东西的地方还是没做好准备。二月份开始这么多天,我还没有一个好的计划呢。
今天的纽约时报的OP-ED中有
这样的文章出来,我非常认真的把它看完。
Notice that it's supposed to be the chip, not the human, that goes off to do something else while the keyboard idles. But internal engineering principles have a way of becoming external; software designers unconsciously adopt the values of the machine they're working on. After years of working in an environment where efficiency is a god and idleness in any component is intolerable, a programmer comes to think it's logical to keep humans as busy as possible.
And soon we, the users, give in to the idea that rapidly switching the focus of our attention is not just normal but advisable. So we drive and eat and talk on the cellphone, check e-mail in the middle of conversations, stop writing a paragraph to check its spelling, get used to ads that dazzle us while we try to read Web pages or watch TV. Everything in our machines encourages us to be like them: busy, attention-hopping.
Multitasking, throughput, efficiency: these are excellent machine concepts, useful in the design of computer systems. But are they principles that nurture human thought and imagination? Not that long ago, we didn't think so. I am reminded of the scene in the 1976 movie "The Man Who Fell to Earth" in which David Bowie, playing an alien, sits watching a bank of television sets, each tuned to a different channel. The screens flash, the sound blares - the sensory overload is almost unbearable. Yet he watches unfazed. It is the surest sign that he is not human.
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