第2731期:How to deal with milestone birthday blues

Now these are simple things for many businesses to do, but they're very hard for creative people to do. But artist corporations will take these same capabilities and put them in the hands of the entire creative community. And creative people are already leaders and entrepreneurs. We just don't think of them that way. The painter Mike Kelley once said, "I started out an anarchist and a hippie, and now I'm an entrepreneur with 15 employees." Look at Tyler, The Creator, teenage hip hop phenom turned fashion impresario and now world builder. Or Dolly Parton, who turned her incredible talent and fame into a whole world of businesses and even a theme park that celebrates where she comes from in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Now these are people at the top of their game who use their agency to take these bigger risks. But what if you didn't have to be in the one percent to get that chance? What if these sort of tools and self-determination were a part of every artist's kit?这些事情对许多企业来说很简单，但对创意工作者却非常困难。而“艺术家公司”（Artist Corporations）将把这些能力交到整个创意群体的手中。其实，创意人本身就是领导者和企业家——只是我们平常不这么看待他们。画家麦克·凯利（Mike Kelley）曾说：“我起初是个无政府主义者和嬉皮士，现在却成了带着15名员工的企业家。”再看 Tyler, The Creator，从青少年嘻哈天才变成时尚品牌主理人，再到如今的“世界建构者”；还有 Dolly Parton，她把自己的才华与名气转化为一个商业帝国，甚至打造了一座主题公园，纪念她来自田纳西州烟雾山的故乡。这些人站在各自领域的顶峰，用主动性去承担更大的风险。但如果并不需要进入“金字塔顶尖的1%”，也能获得这样的机会呢？如果这些工具和自主权成为每一位艺术家的“标准配置”，那会怎么样？So this is not a government handout, this is not a charity, this is not a special favor, this is the exact opposite. Right now, creative people are excluded from the full benefits of capitalism. Artist Corporations will treat them as real economic actors for the first time. Creating a consistent structure for how we value creative work is going to cause a revolution in how these industries operate. And it's going to bring more money into the space than we've ever seen before. A lot of it coming from fans who just want to support the world they want to see and won't be looking for a big financial return. Other people will. And I fully expect venture capital for artists and creators to become a real thing. And to be honest, this is where I start to get nervous. But then I remember the way things are now. And that in the past, artists have had to answer to the church, to kings, the aristocracy, wealthy patrons, network executives, now corporate algorithms. But Artist Corporations finally give us our own seat at the table.所以，这不是政府补贴，也不是慈善，更不是某种特殊照顾——它恰恰相反。如今，创意人被排除在资本主义全部收益之外。而艺术家公司，第一次把他们当作真正的经济主体来对待。为创作工作建立一个统一、持续的价值架构，将会彻底改变整个产业的运作方式。它也将带来比以往更多的资金投入——其中许多将来自粉丝，他们只是想支持那个他们希望看到的世界，并不指望获得高额回报。当然也会有一些人希望获得投资收益。我完全可以预见：面向艺术家和创意者的风险投资将成为现实。老实说，想到这里我会有些紧张。但我又想到现在的现状：过去，艺术家必须向教会、君主、贵族、富有的资助人、电视台高层“交账”，而现在则要听命于企业算法。但艺术家公司，将终于让我们自己在这个体系中拥有一个真正的席位。To make this a reality, we're following an established path for making new corporate forms, and we have people on our team who have successfully done this before. A lot of this work will be happening in public. Building a coalition of artists, creators, fans, investors, politicians, all people who believe that artist corporations are a good thing for everybody. Because this isn't anti-tech. This isn't anti-AI. This is about what type of world we want to live in.为了让这一切成为现实，我们正在沿用一条已有的、成熟的路径来建立新的公司形式，我们团队中也有曾经成功创建过这种新公司结构的人。很多工作将会在公众视野下进行。我们正在组建一个联盟，聚集艺术家、创作者、粉丝、投资人、政策制定者等，所有相信艺术家公司对每个人都利大于弊的人。因为，这并不是反对科技，也不是反对人工智能，而是关于——我们究竟想要一个怎样的世界。One where we rent access to corporate-controlled AI-generated platforms, or one where our creative and cultural institutions are owned by the people who made them.一个是我们“租用”由公司控制、用 AI 生成的平台；另一个是由创作者自己拥有他们所创建的创意和文化机构。If we keep artists powerless, the options are just going to get more and more limited. But if we allow them to be more than just individuals, whole new possibilities await. The next Disney won't be started by AI or some traditional company. It'll start as an artist corporation, a creative vision brought to life by a person or group of people that changes how the rest of us see the world.如果我们继续让艺术家没有力量，那么他们的选择只会越来越少。但如果我们允许他们不仅仅是“个体”，那么全新的可能性就会出现。下一个迪士尼，不会是由人工智能或传统公司创造的，它将诞生于一个艺术家公司，是由一个人或一群人将创意愿景变为现实，改变我们对世界的看法。Artists don't need pity. Artists need power.艺术家不需要同情，艺术家需要权力。And together, we're going to build it.而我们，将一起去构建这个未来。

Eventually I got so frustrated, I started a new project to help creative people release work together. It's called Metalabel. And one of the first releases was by myself and 10 other writers who'd all independently written about the same subject. So I reached out to these people who I didn't know, and I proposed a way that we would work together. We would publish our pieces together in a book, and the initial sales would go back to paying the cost of making it. After that, 70 percent of the profits would be split equally among us, and 30 percent would go into a shared treasury that we could use for a future project if things went well. Everyone agreed, and we became the Dark Forest Collective. And now, a year later, we've sold 2,000 copies of this book. More than 70,000 dollars has automatically flowed through our arrangement. And just now we published our second book by another author, even better than the first. And our little collective is going to make six figures, which is wild.最终，我感到非常沮丧，于是开始了一个新项目，目的是帮助创意人士以合作的方式发布作品。这个项目叫做 Metalabel。而第一批发行的作品之一，是我和另外十位作家各自独立写的同一个主题。我联系了这些原本不认识的人，提出一个合作方式：我们将各自的文章集结成一本书出版，最初的销售收入用来支付制作成本。之后，70%的利润平均分给我们每个人，剩下的30%进入一个共享资金池，如果项目顺利，可以用来支持下一个项目。大家都同意了，我们成立了“幽暗森林联盟（Dark Forest Collective）”。一年后，我们已经卖出了2000本书，通过我们的机制自动分配了超过7万美元的收入。现在我们刚刚发布了第二本书，由另一位作者撰写，比第一本还要好。我们这个小联盟的收入很快就会突破六位数，真是难以置信。But then I realized it was kind of silly to be so legally YOLO about this, and so I should create some sort of structure to represent what we were doing. And I was surprised to find there wasn't an obvious fit. We could be an LLC, but that just puts a shield over the project. It doesn't help you grow the pie or share it. We could be a C corporation, but then you're taxed twice and you have all sorts of overhead. You could be a nonprofit and then be wrapped in red tape.但后来我意识到，这样在法律上“随便搞搞”其实挺不靠谱的，我需要为我们正在做的事情建立一个正式的结构来承载它。但令我惊讶的是，竟然没有一个现成的、合适的形式。我们可以注册成有限责任公司（LLC），但那只是给项目加了个保护壳，无法帮助我们“做大蛋糕”或合理分配成果。我们也可以成立C型公司，但那样就要被双重征税，还会有各种运营负担。如果选择非营利组织，就又陷入繁琐的行政和法律程序中。So I started thinking, what if you could create a new structure for a project like ours? So I reached out to a trusted colleague, and soon we were speaking to experts in making new corporate forms. And for the last year, a small team of us have been working together, digging into this question, and I'm here representing our work because we've come up with something. A new structure for creative work. We call it the Artist corporation or A Corp.于是我开始思考：我们能不能为这样的项目创造一种新的结构？我联系了一位值得信赖的同事，没多久我们就开始和设计新型企业结构的专家对话。在过去一年里，我们组成了一个小团队，一起深入研究这个问题。今天我来分享我们的成果：我们确实创造出一种新的创作组织结构，我们称之为“艺术家公司”（Artist Corporation），简称 A Corp。Now I realize that a new corporate structure sounds like the last thing creative people need.我知道，说要搞一个“新企业结构”听起来完全不是创意工作者所需要的东西。And that these two words are the exact opposite of each other. But the A Corp just might be the door that opens up a new path to prosperity for creative people. You could think of an A Corp as like a company but built for how creative people work.而且“艺术家”和“公司”这两个词，几乎听起来就是相反的概念。但 A Corp 可能正是一扇大门，为创意人打开通往繁荣的新路径。你可以把 A Corp 理解为一个公司，但它是为创作者的工作方式量身打造的。And we can imagine a band starts, and right from the beginning they have an A Corp. So not just five individuals, they're people who collectively own an organization that has the power to own their intellectual property, their gear, their business. As they start to get paid, that money can automatically flow to each of the members according to pre-set amounts, and they could even set aside money to be saved for future projects in a treasury, or pooling together with other Artist Corporations to get better healthcare or other benefits.比如，我们可以设想一个乐队刚起步时就成立了一个 A Corp。他们不只是五个单独的人，而是共同拥有一个组织，这个组织可以拥有他们的知识产权、设备和整个业务运营。收入进来后，资金会根据预设比例自动分配给每位成员。他们还可以设立资金池，用于未来项目的投资，或者和其他 A Corp 联合起来，共享更好的医保或其他福利。As an Artist Corporation, they would also be able to receive both commercial revenue as well as non-profit sources of funding. And if a label or a bigger commercial entity came along, rather than just selling the rights to their intellectual property, which has been customary until now, as an artist corporation, they can issue shares. So instead, that entity would make an investment in the artist corporation, allowing it to be valued more highly and everyone to benefit if things went well.作为一个艺术家公司（A Corp），他们不仅可以获得商业收入，也可以接收非营利性质的资助。而当唱片公司或大型商业机构出现时，他们不需要像以往那样直接出售自己的知识产权，而是可以发行股份。这样，外部机构相当于是在对艺术家公司进行投资，从而提升其整体估值，一旦项目成功，所有人都能受益。

So if you want to understand how challenging the future could be for creative people, just look at what's happening with musicians right now. Up until the late '90s, people either listened to music for free on the radio or by buying a physical copy to listen to at home. But then the internet happened, and now Spotify and other streaming services give us access to an infinite catalog of music. We don't own anything, but we can rent pretty much all of it. So people pay less money, which means musicians make less money, but the platforms make a lot of money.所以，如果你想了解未来对创作者来说会有多么艰难，只需看看当下音乐人的处境。在90年代末之前，人们要么在广播上免费听音乐，要么买实体唱片回家听。但随后互联网出现了，如今 Spotify 和其他串流服务让我们可以无限制地访问海量音乐。我们不再拥有任何音乐，但几乎所有音乐都可以“租”来听。于是，人们花的钱变少了，音乐人的收入减少了，而平台却赚得盆满钵满。Recently, researchers have discovered a new type of song on Spotify, a ghost song by a ghost artist. These are unnamed, uncredited musicians who are paid to make music that sounds like what the Spotify algorithm says people want to hear. In recent years, some of Spotify's most prominent playlists have seen real songs by real artists, replaced with ghost songs by ghost artists. Real songs have to be paid real royalties. Ghost songs don't.最近，研究人员在 Spotify 上发现了一种新的歌曲类型——由“幽灵艺术家”创作的“幽灵歌曲”。这些创作者没有名字，也不被署名，他们只是被雇佣来创作出符合 Spotify 算法推荐的“大众爱听”的音乐。近年来，Spotify上一些最热门的歌单，已经把真实音乐人创作的歌曲，换成了这些幽灵艺术家的作品。因为真实歌曲要支付版权费用，而幽灵歌曲则不需要。Something like this dynamic is playing out across every creative industry: maximize profits by minimizing creator compensation. Now add AI, and the ghost artist doesn’t even have to be human anymore. A future of art without artists.类似的情况正在所有创意产业中发生：通过压缩创作者的收入来最大化利润。如今再加上人工智能，连“幽灵艺术家”都不需要是真人了——我们正迈向一个没有艺术家的“艺术未来”。Now I’m not an expert on AI, but I have spent the last 25 years working as a creative person and making tools for creative people. I'm a son of a musician, and my career began writing about music for "Pitchfork" and "The Village Voice," I started a tiny record label, and I’m one of the cofounders of Kickstarter, which gave creative people a way to bypass the gatekeepers and go straight to the public with their projects.我并不是人工智能方面的专家，但过去25年来，我一直是一位创作者，也在为创作者打造工具。我是音乐人的儿子，职业生涯起步于为《Pitchfork》和《Village Voice》撰写音乐评论，后来我创办了一个小唱片公司，并且是 Kickstarter 的联合创始人之一。Kickstarter 为创作者提供了一条途径，让他们绕过传统的把关者，直接将项目面向大众。Before Kickstarter, so many amazing projects had no chance to exist because they didn't fit some pre-existing business model. After Kickstarter, millions of people have exchanged billions of dollars in support of new ideas. Where there was a wall, we built a door.在 Kickstarter 诞生之前，很多精彩的项目根本没有机会问世，只因为它们不符合既有的商业模式。而在 Kickstarter 之后，数百万人用数十亿美元的资金，支持了各种新想法。原本是一堵墙的地方，我们开出了一扇门。But despite what you hear about the creator economy, the reality for most creative people is stark. It's estimated that 85 percent of visual artists make less than 25,000 dollars a year, and that just 13 percent of creative people earn a full-time living from their work. So we're not talking about aristocrats and rock stars. We're talking about people working hard, trying to make a living by doing what comes natural to them. A musician, a craftsperson, a community theater director, a potter. Millions of people who are our friends, our family, our neighbors who inspire us and millions more people too. But despite being so central to how we experience life, we don't make things easy for these folks. There's no automatic health care, there's no retirement benefits, there's no path to collective wealth at all. They're entirely on their own. In a world of global capitalism, creative people operate like 18th-century traveling peddlers, moving from village to village and project to project, trying to piece together a living.尽管你可能听说“创作者经济”很有前景，但大多数创意工作者的现实却非常残酷。据估计，85%的视觉艺术家年收入低于2.5万美元，只有13%的创意人士能靠作品维持全职生计。所以我们不是在谈论贵族或摇滚明星，而是那些努力工作、试图靠天赋谋生的人：音乐人、手工艺人、社区剧团导演、陶艺师。他们是我们身边的朋友、家人、邻居，是激励我们的人，还有更多不被看见的人。但尽管他们在我们生活体验中扮演着如此重要的角色，我们却没有为他们提供便利。他们没有自动医保、没有退休金、没有建立财富的路径。他们完全是孤军奋战。在全球资本主义的语境下，创作者们就像18世纪的流动小贩，从一个村子走向另一个村子，从一个项目转向另一个项目，勉强拼凑生活。So there’s something missing here: a way for creative people to get access to the basics and be a part of something bigger than just them on their own. And I personally really struggled with this a few years ago. I was grinding away in the creator economy and getting lonelier by the second. The people most like me, were my biggest competition. It left me constantly on edge and burnt out and alone.所以我们现在缺少的，是一个机制——能让创意工作者获得基本保障，并参与到一个比他们自己更大的整体之中。几年前，我自己也在为这个问题而痛苦挣扎。我在创作者经济里拼命奋斗，却感到越来越孤独。那些和我最相似的人，反而成了我最大的竞争对手。这种状态让我持续焦虑、精疲力尽，也越来越孤单。

When's your next big birthday? How do you feel about that? Do you feel you need to do something spectacular to mark it? Are you excited by the prospect, or dreading the future?你的下一个重要生日是什么时候？你对它有什么感受？你是否觉得需要做一些特别的事情来纪念这个日子？你是对它感到兴奋，还是对未来感到担忧？We usually think of birthdays as a time to celebrate, but they can also cause stress and worry. Research suggests that this can be even stronger for '9-enders', the 29, 39 and 49-year-olds who are worried about the milestone they are about to reach. What is it that makes a number that ends in zero so daunting?我们通常认为生日是一个值得庆祝的时刻，但它们有时也会带来压力和焦虑。研究表明，这种情绪在“9结尾的人”中尤为明显——例如29岁、39岁和49岁的人，他们对即将到来的里程碑感到担忧。到底是什么让以“0”结尾的数字如此令人畏惧？New decades can seem like a fresh start where we evaluate how we are doing. The problem is that many of us look for something to compare with. This might be people that we know or that we follow on social media, or just what we think society expects us to have achieved by a certain age. Any differences can lead us to question ourselves. This links to other stresses that can come with getting older. We might worry that there is limited time to achieve society's expectations. We may also know people from older generations who had health problems at a certain age, and fear that the same thing will affect us.新的十年看起来像是一个新的开始，让我们重新评估自己过得如何。问题在于，很多人会寻找比较对象。这个比较对象可能是我们认识的人、在社交媒体上关注的人，或者是我们认为社会期望我们在某个年龄应该达成的成就。任何差距都可能让我们怀疑自己。这与随着年龄增长而来的其他压力相关联。我们可能会担心实现社会期待的时间已经不多了。我们或许还认识一些年纪更大的人，他们在某个年龄段出现了健康问题，因此害怕自己也会遭遇同样的事情。So, what can we do? Psychologists advise a few steps. Many agree that it's important to celebrate or mark your birthday in your own way. Do something you genuinely enjoy to avoid feeling the pressure of having to celebrate in a particular way. Another key piece of advice that psychologists offer is that we should use the opportunity to reflect on our lives, but in positive ways. First, consider what you have achieved recently and record those achievements. Then decide what you want to achieve next, and what steps you can take to get there. Having achievable goals can help give our lives greater purpose.那么我们该怎么办呢？心理学家提出了一些建议。许多人认为，用你自己的方式庆祝或纪念生日是很重要的。做一些你真正喜欢的事，避免因必须“按规定”庆祝而产生压力。心理学家的另一个关键建议是：要借这个机会积极地反思自己的生活。首先，思考你最近取得了哪些成就，并将它们记录下来。接着，决定你接下来想要实现什么目标，以及你可以采取哪些步骤来达成它。有现实可行的目标能让我们的生活更有意义。If we can celebrate our successes, set ourselves realistic and achievable goals, and find a way to spend our day that we really enjoy, then maybe we'll find it much easier to deal with those big milestone birthdays.如果我们能够庆祝自己的成就，设定现实可达的目标，并找到真正享受的方式度过这一天，那么，也许我们会更轻松地应对那些重要的生日节点。

Ballot pops up on my screen, and the ballot itself is simple and easy to use, and I go through it, I take my time, no rush. Whenever I'm ready, I hit submit. And when I hit submit, three things happen. First, my ballot is encrypted. Second, it's anonymized. Third, I get a tracking code, like if it were a FedEx package, so I can track the progress of my ballot all the way through the process.选票会在我的屏幕上弹出，整个选票设计得简单易用，我可以慢慢来，不着急。等我准备好，就点击“提交”。当我提交时，会发生三件事：第一，选票被加密；第二，身份被匿名处理；第三，我会收到一个追踪码，就像寄 FedEx 包裹那样，可以在整个流程中追踪我的选票状态。Then it goes back to the New York City Board of Elections, and they air-gap it, which means they take it offline. And once my ballot is no longer connected to the internet, then they decrypt it, a paper copy is printed out that gets mixed in with all of the other ballots.之后，选票会被送回纽约市选举委员会，他们会将其“隔离”，也就是断网处理。一旦选票完全脱离互联网环境，他们就会将其解密，然后打印出纸质副本，与其他所有纸质选票一起混合处理。I know where my ballot stands, because I can see from the tracking code that it was received, tabulated, printed and so on. And the underlying code itself is open source, which means that anyone can audit it. Anyone can verify it. It's totally transparent.我能清楚地知道我的选票走到哪一步了，因为从追踪码上可以看到它是否被接收、统计、打印等。并且，整个系统的底层代码是开源的，意味着任何人都可以审核、验证它，一切都是完全透明的。To me, that's a lot more secure than the way we vote right now. And we've already built it. We've already paid for it, and we're giving it away to anyone who wants to use it for free.对我来说，这种方式比我们现在的投票方式要安全得多。而且这个系统我们已经开发完成了，也已经为它买单了。现在，我们把它免费开放给任何想使用它的政府。And with a little more work, I think we could do even more. We could register people to vote on the app. We could give voters nonpartisan information about candidates or ballot measures so you actually know what you're voting on.再多做一点努力，我认为我们还可以做得更多。我们可以在应用中让人们注册为选民；我们可以向选民提供关于候选人或公投事项的非党派信息，让你真正知道自己在投什么票。And versions of this already do exist. Mobile voting in a way, exists in Estonia. They use it in party elections in the UK. Somemunicipalities here in Canada use it. But not in the US, and not in most democracies.事实上，这种形式的投票已经存在于一些地方。在爱沙尼亚，某种程度上已经实现了移动投票；英国的党内选举中也使用过；加拿大一些市政选举中也采用了。但在美国，还没有，在多数民主国家也还没有。And that's where the hard part really kicks in: getting politicians to let us use our phones to vote in elections, because in my experience, people in power don't like making it easier for other people to gain power. And that's -- Yeah, exactly.而最难的部分正是这里：让政治人物同意我们使用手机进行投票。因为根据我的经验，掌权者通常不喜欢让别人更容易获取权力。对，就是这样。And that's why I'm here. Because they're not just going to do it if I ask nicely. They're not just going to do it if I snarl at libertarians on X or at the liberals on Bluesky. They're only going to do it if you make it happen. If we all make it happen. And we can.这也是我为什么站在这里。因为光靠我礼貌地请求，政治人物不会做这件事；即使我在 X 上对自由意志主义者怒吼、在 Bluesky 上对自由派咆哮，也没用。他们只会在你们推动下才会动起来。如果我们大家一同努力，就能让它发生。我们做得到。Every major right that has ever been won, anywhere: the right to vote, the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, same-sex marriage, anything, has only happened because enough people stood up loud enough and long enough and demanded their rights, and eventually the status quo had to give in历史上每一项重要权利的争取，无论在哪：投票权、《民权法案》、《美国残障人法案》、同性婚姻……所有这些，都是因为有足够多的人站出来，发出足够大的声音，持续足够长的时间，坚持要求自己的权利，最终旧有秩序不得不让步。And we can do that here, too. We can make voting easier and a lot more secure. We can bring regular people back into the process. We can take power away from the extremes. We can end the dysfunction and polarization that plagues our society today.而我们在这里，也完全可以做到。我们可以让投票更容易、更安全。我们可以让普通人重新参与到民主程序中。我们可以削弱极端派的权力。我们可以终结困扰当今社会的混乱与撕裂。We can give our politicians the cover and the courage they need to work together and to finally, finally get things done. We can do all of this in the next ten years. We can do it with mobile voting.我们可以为政治人物提供掩护和勇气，让他们彼此合作，终于——真的可以办成事。我们可以在接下来的十年内做到这一切。我们可以用“移动投票”来实现。

About a decade or so ago, I helped run a lot of the campaigns around the US to legalize Uber. And I know that now when you guys think of Uber, it's this giant corporation. But back then, we were a tiny little tech startup, and taxi was this big, politically powerful industry who really didn't like us.大约十年前，我协助推动了美国各地让 Uber 合法化的许多宣传活动。我知道现在大家一想到 Uber，就觉得它是一家巨头公司。但那时候，我们只是一个小小的科技初创企业，而出租车行业则是一个庞大且政治势力强大的产业，他们非常不喜欢我们。And we knew we couldn’t out-muscle them. And so instead, we turned to the people. And by making it possible for our customers to tell their elected officials, "Hey, I like this Uber thing, please leave it alone," we were able to mobilize millions of people through the app to advocate on our behalf.我们知道自己无法硬碰硬地打败他们。所以我们转而寻求人民的支持。我们让顾客可以通过应用程序直接告诉他们的民选官员：“嘿，我挺喜欢 Uber 的，请不要干涉。”就这样，我们动员了数以百万计的用户为我们发声。And when mayors and city council members started hearing from thousands of their constituents, that's exactly what they did. They left Uber alone. It's how we won at basically every market in the country.当市长和市议员们开始收到成千上万选民的来信后，他们确实就不再干涉 Uber 了。正是这样，我们几乎在全国每一个市场都赢得了胜利。And while this was happening, I just remember sitting there thinking, "God bless these people. They're making my job a lot easier." But my guess is they don't know who their city council member is. They don't vote in state Senate primaries. And you know, why would they? They're busy, they have kids, they have jobs, they have lives.在这一过程中，我记得我坐在那里想：“感谢老天，这些人真是帮了我大忙。”但我猜他们其实并不知道自己的市议员是谁，也不去参与州参议院初选。你想想，为啥他们要去投？他们很忙，有孩子、有工作、有生活要过。But when we made it really easy, when we let people reach their politicians directly from their phones, everything changed. So what if we could vote this way?但当我们把事情变得非常简单，让人们可以直接通过手机联系他们的政治代表，一切都改变了。那么，如果我们也能用这种方式来投票，会怎样？So in 2017, we created the Mobile Voting Project. And the first thing we did was work with election officials in seven states, red and blue, where either deployed military or people with disabilities were able to vote in real elections on their phones. Soldiers from West Virginia stationed in Afghanistan. People who are blind in Denver. In one election in Seattle, we let everyone participate. And after doing it for two years in a row, turnout tripled.于是，在2017年，我们创建了“移动投票项目”。我们首先做的是与七个红州蓝州的选务官合作，让驻外军人或残障人士能通过手机在正式选举中投票。比如驻扎在阿富汗的西弗吉尼亚州士兵，丹佛的盲人选民。在西雅图的一次选举中，我们甚至让所有人都能参与。连续两年之后，投票率增长了三倍。Denver did a poll of those who participated in their election, and 100 percent, so every single respondent, said, "Yeah, I like pressing a button better than having to go somewhere." Shocking, right? In other big news, water is wet, and ice cream tastes good.丹佛对参加那次投票的选民做了调查，结果是 100% 的受访者——也就是说每一个人——都表示：“是的，我更喜欢按个按钮，而不是跑一趟投票站。”是不是很震惊？呵呵，就跟“水是湿的、冰淇淋好吃”一样，是个“震惊的常识”。But that was for specific groups of voters. And we wanted everyone to be able to vote securely on their phones.但那还只是针对特定群体的投票。我们想让所有人都能安全地用手机投票。So four years ago, we started building our own mobile voting technology. We're almost done, we're going to finish it this summer. And when we do, it's going to be free and open-source to any government in the world that wants to use it.于是四年前，我们开始开发自己的移动投票技术。现在已经快完成了，预计今年夏天就会完成。一旦完成，它将免费开源，供全球任何愿意使用的政府采用。And to be clear, this is just an additional way to vote. If you like voting by mail, vote by mail. If you like voting in person, great, do that. Some people really like the ceremony that comes with going somewhere and waiting in line and all of that. And if that happens to be you, knock yourself out. But based on turnout, that's not most of you. So let's give people another option.需要说明的是，这只是一种额外的投票方式。如果你喜欢邮寄投票，那就邮寄；喜欢亲自到投票站，那就去吧。有些人真的很享受那种仪式感——走进投票站、排队等待这一套。如果你就是这种人，那请尽情享受。但根据目前的投票率来看，大多数人并不是这样的人。所以我们应该给人们提供另一个选择。So as I mentioned before, and as you can probably tell from my accent, I'm from New York, so I'm going to use that as the example for how it works. I go on the App Store, and I download the New York City Board of Elections app.正如我之前说过的，也如你可能从我的口音中听出来的，我来自纽约，所以我就用纽约来举例说明这个流程。我会打开 App Store，然后下载“纽约市选举委员会”的官方应用。And the first thing they do is say, OK, is Bradley really a registered voter here in New York City? I put in my address. Fine. Next thing is multi-factor authentication. So you know how, like, when you forget your Google password, they send you a code and you put it back into the app? Same thing here.首先，系统会核实：“Bradley 是否真的是纽约市的注册选民？”我输入我的地址。没问题。接下来就是多重身份验证。就像你忘了 Google 密码时，他们会发你一个验证码，然后你在应用里输入一样，这里也是同样的流程。Then we take a scan of your face, match that up against your government ID. And at this point we've fully established, OK, Bradley is really Bradley.然后我们会扫描你的脸部图像，并与政府颁发的身份证件进行比对。到了这一步，我们就完全确认了：好的，Bradley 就是 Bradley 本人。

So let me ask you a question. How many of you do your banking, your health care on your phones? Right, of course you do. How about like, your love life, your entertainment, travel planning, all that kind of stuff? Right. How many of you vote on your phones? That's the problem.那我问你们一个问题。你们当中有多少人是在手机上处理银行业务或健康事务的？对吧，当然是这样。那你们的恋爱、娱乐、旅行计划这些呢？也是如此，对吧？那有多少人是在手机上投票的？这就是问题所在。So I spent the first 15 years of my career working in US government and politics. City government, state government, federal government, you name it, I saw it from pretty much every angle. And the main thing that I took away from it, really, more than anything else, is why politicians make the decisions they make. Is it based on what they believe in? No. Is it what's best for their city or their state or their country? Not really. How about what's best for their constituents specifically? Not even that. It's actually a lot simpler. Virtually every politician makes every decision solely based on winning the next election and nothing else. And that's true for the next election and then the next election after that.我职业生涯的前15年都在美国政府和政治体系中工作。市政府、州政府、联邦政府……你能想到的层级我基本都经历过，从各个角度观察过。而我最大的收获之一就是：为什么政治人物会做出某些决策。他们是基于自己的信仰吗？不是。是为了他们的城市、州或国家的最佳利益吗？也不是。是为了他们选民的最大利益吗？甚至也不是。其实原因简单得多——几乎所有政治人物做每一个决定，都是为了赢得下一次选举，仅此而已。这适用于下一次选举，也适用于再下一次。And it's a problem in democracies all over the world, but it's especially pervasive in the United States because we have this corrupt practice known as gerrymandering. And what that allows the two political parties to do is divvy up all the legislative districts so that, as a result, the only election that ever really matters is the party primary.这是全球民主制度中的普遍问题，但在美国尤其严重，因为我们有一种腐败的操作方式，叫做“选区划分操控”（gerrymandering）。这种做法让两个主要政党得以重新划分所有立法选区，结果导致唯一真正重要的选举成了党内初选。Now we had a big election last fall. You guys might have heard something about it. And in that election, about two thirds of Americans voted. But that was for president. I live in New York City. In 2023, we had city council primaries. Turnout was 7.2 percent. So I don't know if you guys have ever been to New York, but if you have, you will know, we are not a shy people. And yet, in this city of 8.5 million highly opinionated people, you could win a council seat with just 8,000 votes. And the same thing is true in state legislative races, congressional, mayoral, you name it, and it's true everywhere.我们在去年秋天举行了一场大型选举。你们可能听说过一些情况。在那场选举中，大约有三分之二的美国人投票了，但那是总统选举。我住在纽约市。在2023年，我们举行了市议会初选，投票率只有7.2%。我不知道你们有没有来过纽约，但如果来过，你就知道我们可不是害羞的人。可就是在这个拥有850万意见强烈市民的城市里，只需要8000票就可以赢得一个市议会席位。州议会、国会、市长选举也是一样，到处都是如此。So who are those voters? They're typically the far right or the far left, or special interests that know how to move money and votes in low-turnout elections. They dictate not only who wins office but then what happens once they're in office. And that gets us one of two types of government. Either the chaos and dysfunction that we call Washington, DC, or totally one-sided governments, whether it's the state of Texas on the right or the city of San Francisco on the left. And if we were truly hopelessly divided, if we just couldn't agree on any issue, that'd be one thing, but we're not.那么这些投票的人是谁？通常是极左或极右的人，或者是懂得如何在低投票率选举中操控资金和选票的特殊利益集团。他们不仅决定了谁能当选，还决定了当选者上任后会做些什么。这种状况导致我们只有两种政府：要么就是我们称之为“华盛顿特区”的混乱与瘫痪，要么就是极端一边倒的政府，比如右派主导的德克萨斯州，或左派主导的旧金山市。如果我们真的如此严重分裂，任何议题都无法达成共识，那还情有可原——但事实上并不是这样。Most people agree on the solutions to most issues, whether it's education or health care or climate or taxes or let's take guns as an example. The vast majority of Americans would say that we should neither confiscate everyone's guns, but nor should it be easy to walk into a store and walk out with an assault rifle. But the problem is, those Americans, the people in the center, the people in the middle, they don't vote in primaries. So politicians ignore their views and cater only to the extremes. And when the next school shooting happens, and it will happen, all of us are going to bang our heads against the wall and say, Why can’t our politicians just do the right thing for once?”大多数人在大多数议题上其实是有共识的，不论是教育、医疗、气候还是税收。就拿枪支问题来说，大多数美国人都认为，我们既不应该没收所有人的枪，也不该让人随便走进一家店就能带着突击步枪走出来。但问题在于，那些处于中间立场的人——也就是大多数人——他们并不参加初选。所以政客们无视他们的观点，只迎合极端选民。当下一起校园枪击案发生时（而它确实还会发生），我们所有人又会撞墙大喊：我们的政客为什么就不能做一次正确的事？Why? I'll tell you why. Because they're held hostage by the extremes. They're stuck. We have to free them from their clutches. We have to make it possible for them to move back to the middle. And the only way to do that is to get a lot more people voting. And the only way to do that is to meet the people where they are: on their phones.为什么？我来告诉你为什么。因为他们被极端派俘虏了。他们被困住了。我们必须把他们从这些人的控制中解放出来。我们必须让他们有可能回到中间立场。而实现这一点的唯一方法，就是让更多人参与投票。而要让更多人参与，唯一的办法就是在他们所在的地方找到他们：在他们的手机上。

You listed travel as one of your passions.你说旅行是你的兴趣之一。Yeah. But actually my passion is airport to airport, what happens between airports.是的。但实际上，我热爱的部分是“从一个机场到另一个机场”，也就是机场之间发生的一切。So you like the flying then, the journey?所以你喜欢的是飞行本身，也就是这个旅程？Absolutely.完全是。What about that do you like?那你喜欢飞行中的什么？I love airplanes. Do I love airports? Not really. When I go to an airport I go to the window to look at the airplanes. Since the tender age of five I've always had this passion for airplanes, and my dream was to become an airline pilot.我喜欢飞机。我喜欢机场吗？不太喜欢。每次我去机场，我都会走到窗边去看飞机。从我五岁那年起，我就对飞机充满热情，我的梦想就是成为一名航空公司飞行员。Okay. Have you ever flown an airplane?好吧，那你飞过飞机吗？Have I ever flown in an airplane?你是说坐过飞机吗？Not in an airplane. Have you ever flown an airplane?不是坐飞机。我是问你有没有亲自驾驶过飞机？I've never flown an airplane. I've been in the flight deck of a number of aircraft, but I've never flown one.我从没开过飞机。我进过不少飞机的驾驶舱，但从没亲自飞过。Okay. So walk us through a trip with Tony. What's going through your mind along the journey from airport to airport?好吧，那就带我们体验一趟“托尼之旅”。在机场到机场的过程中，你脑子里在想些什么？Well, just like the other souls on board, I go on, I sit, I buckle my seatbelt. I obey the commands from the cabin crew. I hear the pilots talking over the Intercom. But I take it another step further. I actually listen to the details of what the pilots are saying. I'm thinking about what's the weather going to be like, what's the weather on the ground, what's the surface winds on the runway? All these things that regular passengers don't think about when they're sitting in the seat and they're just like.嗯，就像机上的其他乘客一样，我登机、坐下、系好安全带，听从机组人员的指示，听飞行员在广播中讲话。但我会更进一步去听，我会认真听飞行员在说什么细节。我会思考天气会怎么样？地面的天气如何？跑道上的风速和风向是怎样的？这些都是普通乘客坐在座位上完全不会想的事。Yeah. I certainly don't think about that, no. I am probably just relaxing, and maybe once in a while looking out the window, if I'm privileged enough to get a window seat. And just seeing how pretty it is.是啊，我肯定不会想这些。我通常是在放松，要是运气好坐到靠窗的位子，偶尔看看窗外，觉得风景挺漂亮的，仅此而已。And if you're looking out, and you say you have a seat just over the wing, you're looking out and you're like, oh, there's the wing. It looks nice, long, okay.如果你坐在机翼旁，看向窗外，也许你会说：“啊，那是机翼，看起来还挺长的，还不错。”I don't even think that much at any rate.我甚至连这种程度都不会去想。Yeah. Yeah. But to me, I'm looking at the wing and I'm like, that's the forward slats, those are the landing flaps, that's the spoiler. Oh, look at the winglet at the end. Yeah.是啊。但对我来说，我看着机翼会想：“那是前缘缝翼，那是着陆襟翼，那是扰流板。哦，看，翼尖还有个小翼。”Okay. No, I'm definitely not thinking that at all. So you actually don't care about the cities that you're traveling to, and seeing new places?好吧，我绝对不会那样想。所以说，你其实并不在意你去的城市，也不在意看新地方？No, no, no. Don't get me wrong. I actually do. I've had the fortune of visiting some really amazing places, like Glasgow, Scotland, which I do love. Meeting the people, meeting different people actually is something I look forward to. And the architecture and all the fun stuff, like art, artworks and crafts and all that stuff that when you travel you always try to secure before you return home. But yeah, I do, I do like the experiences outside of aviation when it comes to traveling. But for me, you may think it's weird, but it's still aviation for me. That's the top. That's definitely at the top of the list for me. When it comes to flight there are five critical phases. You have takeoff, climb out, cruise, descent and landing. Even at the end of a flight, coming to the end just before landing, the pilots are trying their best to keep the nose of the airplane training down the center line of the runway. After landing, when we're deplaning, I would often stop at the flight deck door and I'll be like, "What happened there just before touchdown?" And the pilots would laugh and be like, "Oh, just a little gust. Nothing really. But we're on the ground, we're safe."不是，不是，你别误会。其实我还是在意的。我有幸去过一些很棒的地方，比如苏格兰的格拉斯哥，我真的很喜欢那里。遇见新的人、不同的人，这也是我所期待的。而且像建筑啊、艺术啊、手工艺品这些旅行中必不可少的乐趣，我也会尽可能在回家前带一些。但对我来说，你可能觉得奇怪，但我最在意的始终还是航空。这是排在第一位的。一次飞行分为五个关键阶段：起飞、爬升、巡航、下降和着陆。即便是快要结束时，在落地前，飞行员还在尽力让飞机的机头保持在跑道的中心线上。飞机落地、下机的时候，我经常会停在驾驶舱门口，问飞行员：“刚才接地前那一下发生了什么？”飞行员会笑着说：“哦，就一阵小阵风，没什么事。但我们安全着陆了。”Oh my gosh. So basically you're grading the pilot as you are taking a trip somewhere.天啊。所以你基本上是在给飞行员打分，顺便去旅行？Weird. It's so weird, right?好奇怪吧，真的很奇怪，对吧？Absolutely. Absolutely weird.没错，确实很奇怪。That's what aviation buffs do.这就是航空迷的日常啦。Crazy. Crazy.疯了，疯了。

The phenomenon that many people believe is a mass psychogenic illness, with a particularly modern twist.许多人认为这是一种群体性心因疾病，但带有鲜明的现代特征。The thing about mass hysteria is that it's a line of sight thing, right? Part of the reason you get the symptoms is because you see somebody having the symptoms themselves.群体癔症的关键在于"视觉传染"——你出现症状，部分原因是你亲眼目睹了他人的症状。But with the advent of police body cams, each psychogenic overdose also creates a video. And that video then gets seen by other police officers, which potentially creates more psychogenic overdoses, which creates more videos -- you see the problem -- creating perhaps the perfect vector for spread.但随执法记录仪普及，每次心因性"吸毒过量"都会被录下。视频在其他警员间传播，可能引发更多案例，继而产生更多视频——这形成了完美的传播链条。Back in Le Roy, the outbreak there followed a pattern of many mass psychogenic illnesses. It came on strong, it wreaked havoc, and it faded away.勒罗伊事件符合典型群体心因疾病模式：猛烈爆发、造成混乱、逐渐消退。Why there? It's impossible to say for sure, but we do now know that some of the girls were experiencing their own personal, private, traumatic situations that may have contributed to their susceptibility.虽无法确定具体诱因，但现已得知部分女孩当时正经历个人创伤，这可能增加了她们的易感性。And of course, once mass hysteria sets in, it kind of brings its own stress and trauma, as does just being an American teenage girl today.当然，一旦群体癔症爆发，它本身就会带来压力与创伤——更何况当今美国少女本就承受着诸多压力。Before it was over, 19 girls at the high school came down with symptoms. All of them somehow connected to the others. Several of them were on the soccer team together. Several of them shared a very specific art class, and two of them were best friends.疫情结束前，该校共有19名女生出现症状，她们彼此都存在关联：有些是同队足球队员，有些共修特定艺术课，还有两人是挚友。By the time summer break arrived, the symptoms were all but gone from the high school. Almost. Remember Rose? She was the one with the tampon theory. Rose never caught those Tourette’s-like symptoms that ripped through the high school so severely because Rose already had Tourette's. She has since she was three.暑假来临，症状几乎从校园绝迹——但"几乎"不包括罗斯。就是提出卫生棉条理论的那个女孩。她没被传染类似妥瑞氏症的症状，因为她本就患有此症，三岁起便如此。I had always had very prominent tics from the time I was diagnosed, like I had facial twitches, I would go through spurts where I would be throwing things. I was always very loud, like I always have very loud vocal tics. You will always hear me. Everybody always knows who I am."确诊后我一直有明显抽搐，比如面部痉挛、突然扔东西。发声抽动尤其响亮，所有人老远就能认出我。"Unfortunately for Rose, when people with tic disorders are around other people who tic, both people tend to tic more severely. So you can imagine when 19 other girls are walking the halls ticking, Rose’s tics got worse. Much, much worse.的是，抽动症患者相处时会加重彼此症状。当19个女孩在走廊集体抽搐时，罗斯的症状急剧恶化。So I had a tic where I would punch myself right here in the face, over and over and over."我有个抽动动作是反复捶打自己脸部。"And your chin. That was your tic."还有下巴。"My tic was literally to coldcock myself. I have permanent damage in my right eye because my other tic was to punch myself in the eye. I was literally beating the shit out of myself."我会猛击自己眼部，右眼已留下永久损伤。那段时间我简直在自我殴打。"Rose had a really difficult year, to say the least. But it was something she told me about her life now that struck me about this idea of contagion and connection.至少可以说，罗斯那年过得异常艰难。但她现在的生活状态，让我对"传染与联结"有了新认识。So I volunteer at Tourette Syndrome Camp every summer, right?"我每年夏天都在妥瑞氏症夏令营做志愿者。"And I love it. It is one of the best things I do with my life every year. It's so amazing. But we all tic so much more because we’re all ticking."那是我生命中最美好的经历。虽然大家症状会相互加重，但实在太棒了。"Does that feel good or bad?"这种感觉是好是坏？"Oh, I love it."噢，我爱死它了。"At Rose's Tourette's Camp, when the contagion comes on, they let it happen. They don't hold back.在罗斯的夏令营里，当"传染"发生时，他们放任其发生。It is so worth every second of it, because you are having the best time and you are around your people. And there’s something called tic shopping. That’s the actual name for it. And you can pick up other people’s tics."每分每秒都值得，因为你和同类人共度美好时光。我们管这叫'抽动购物'——真的会不自觉地'买来'别人的症状。"They're literally sharing their symptoms. They're passing them back and forth unconsciously. And even if just for one weird, humid, buggy weekend in the summer, they're able to revel in those symptoms and really appreciate the connection that it gives them.他们共享症状，无意识地交换抽动。哪怕只是潮湿闷热、蚊虫肆虐的夏日周末，他们也能在症状中狂欢，珍视这种特殊的联结。So I always have to take the day after camp off, because I’ll come home with God knows what tics. But it's like the best feeling ever. It is the best feeling ever."每次夏令营后我都得休息一天，因为天知道会带回什么新症状。但那种感觉无与伦比。"The line between contagion and connection is a thin one. Sometimes it's hardly there at all.传染与联结的界限如此模糊，有时甚至根本不存在。

The spread of the contagion tends to be a function of how connected the victims are to each other. So students at a small town high school, or workers on a factory floor, or even nuns in a convent.这种"传染"的传播程度往往取决于受害者之间的关联性。比如小镇高中的学生、工厂工人，甚至修道院的修女。In the Middle Ages, there were several cases reported in Europe in convents, including one extended case in France where a nun supposedly began meowing uncontrollably, only to have that symptom spread to the rest of the nuns in the convent.中世纪欧洲就记录过数起修道院群体癔症，其中法国一起持续事件中，一名修女突然无法控制地学猫叫，随后症状传染了整个修道院。And then, of course, there's the witches of Salem, right? Perhaps the archetypical women being hysterical. Many now believe that that was a mass psychogenic illness.还有著名的塞勒姆女巫审判事件——如今许多人认为那正是一场群体性心因疾病，堪称"女性歇斯底里"的典型案例。Why does it happen? There's usually some sort of underlying stress or trauma affecting the people involved.为何会出现这种现象？通常与当事人承受的压力或创伤有关。Like, for example, in the fall of 2001, when a mystery rash broke out in grade schools around the country, at least dozens and dozens of schools, hundreds of students affected.例如2001年秋天，全美数十所小学爆发神秘皮疹，数百名学生受影响。The rash would pass from student to student during the day in the school but then often disappear when the kid went home at night. And then it would reappear the next day and begin spreading all over again.皮疹白天在校内传播，晚上学生回家后却常会消退，次日返校又再度爆发。Tests showed no bacteria, no virus, no toxic exposure that would explain it. Turns out what may have been happening is that it was fear of toxic exposure that caused the contagion.检测未发现细菌、病毒或毒素。真相可能是：对有毒物质的恐惧引发了这场"传染"。In fact, the mystery rash began on the very day that the news reported that a man in Florida had been diagnosed with anthrax, just weeks after they began appearing in envelopes after September 11th in people's mailboxes.事实上，神秘皮疹爆发当日，新闻正报道佛罗里达州发现炭疽病例——就在9·11事件后带炭疽菌信封出现的几周内。Many epidemiologists now believe that the post-9/11 rash was a mass psychogenic illness, a real physical expression of the collective anxiety those kids were feeling at the time.许多流行病学家现在认为，这场后9·11皮疹是群体性心因疾病，是孩子们集体焦虑的躯体化表现。It's actually why I don't even care for the phrase "mass psychogenic illness." It's more polite, perhaps, but it's "mass hysteria" that really gets the messiness of it.这正是我不喜欢"群体性心因疾病"这个术语的原因——它更礼貌，但"群体癔症"才真正捕捉到其中的混乱本质。It's not just medical. It's not just psychological. It's social. It's cultural. It's about all of us.它不仅是医学或心理学问题，更是社会文化现象，关乎我们所有人。And it's not just women. You may have heard of Havana Syndrome. That's the neurological medical mystery affecting foreign workers in the United States and in Canada. Many people believe that that is a mass psychogenic illness.不仅限于女性。比如"哈瓦那综合征"——这个影响美加外交人员的神经医学谜团，就被许多人认为是群体心因性疾病。And these things don't just happen anywhere. They tend to happen at the stress points in the culture. Or as one expert put it to me, they tend to happen in the fissures of society.这类事件往往爆发于文化压力点。正如一位专家所言："它们总在社会裂缝中滋生"。I want to play you some more tape. These are all taken from police body cams of police officers in the field. In each instance, the police officer has just come into contact with the street drug fentanyl.请听这些警用执法记录仪片段——每位警官都声称刚接触了毒品芬太尼。It's so weird, man. He said he's floating. His legs are tingling. Yeah, yeah, my toes are tingling. We have fentanyl! We have fentanyl! You're good, you're good. You're good. Keep breathing. Hey, stay with me, OK? It's warrant officer. Possible exposure to fentanyl. I’m getting my -- you got yours out? All right. Relax."太诡异了，他说自己在飘""我脚趾发麻""是芬太尼！坚持住！""我是巡警，可能接触了芬太尼""快拿解毒剂"...You may have seen or heard footage like this in the news. It pops up all the time. Local新闻最爱这种戏剧性画面。我们追踪到332起类似案例——警员因"接触芬太尼"出现昏厥、刺痛、心跳加速等症状。But of those 332 cases that we were able to track the number of actual toxicology reports that showed fentanyl in those police officers' system at the time, as far as we can tell, one.但在这332起案例中，有确切毒理学报告证明警员体内含芬太尼的——据我们核实——仅1例。At a state prison in Alaska. And even that one hasn't been independently confirmed. In fact, the American Society of Medical Toxicology says it is near impossible to overdose on fentanyl in this way.（那例还在阿拉斯加州监狱，且未获独立验证。）美国医学毒理学会明确指出：这种接触方式几乎不可能导致芬太尼过量。And yet, it keeps happening. But it doesn't happen to doctors and nurses who handle fentanyl in hospital settings. It doesn't even really happen to fentanyl abusers who are obviously handling the drug all the time.然而事件仍在发生。奇怪的是，医院接触芬太尼的医护从未出现类似症状，长期接触毒品的瘾君子也不例外。It's only in this one specific preexisting social group: police officers, male police officers, incidentally.唯独这个特定群体——顺便说一句，主要是男性警官——反复出现这种状况。