Global technopolitics--The new grand bargain?

Without teaming up, democracies will not be able to establish a robust alternative to China’s autocratic technosphere

Let us?cling?together?

Until last month, such ideas seemed?premature.?But with Joe Biden soon in the White House, they have become more realistic: IT will be high on the agenda of the “summit?of democracies” he has promised to convene.?Closer co-ordination and some new institutions to back it up are also more needed, and not just because of the Chinese threat. The coronavirus, by pushing much of human activity into the cloud, has emphasised the importance of the digital realm and its governance. Left alone, the world of technology will continue to disintegrate?into a?splinternet?in which digital protectionism is widespread much as the global financial system fell apart before the second world war.

Cling??v. /kl??/ ?

1.~ (on) to sb/sth?；~ on/together 抓緊；緊握；緊抱??survivors clinging to a raft 緊緊抓住救生筏的幸存者??She clung on to her baby. 她緊緊抱住她的嬰兒。

2.~ (to sth) ?粘?。桓街?a dress that clings 緊身連衣裙??The wet shirt clung to his chest. 濕襯衫緊貼在他的胸部。

3.~ (to sb) ( usually disapproving )（尤指情感上）依戀，依附??After her mother's death, Sara clung to her aunt more than ever. 薩拉在母親去世后比以往任何時候都更依附于她的姨媽。

4.?CLING TO STH?CLING ?ON TO STH不愿放棄；堅(jiān)持

?Throughout the trial she had clung to the belief that he was innocent. 在整個審判中，她都堅(jiān)持相信他是清白的。

?He had one last hope to cling on to. 他還抱著最后的一線希望。

Premature??/?prem?t??r/ adj. 早產(chǎn)的；不成熟的；比預(yù)期早的；n. 早產(chǎn)兒；過早發(fā)生的事物

Summit??/?s?m?t/n. 頂點(diǎn)；最高級會議；最高階層adj. 最高級的；政府首腦的

Convene??v. /k?n?vi?n/ ?

1.召集，召開（正式會議）?to convene a meeting 召開會議

2.（為正式會議而）聚集，集合?The committee will convene at 11.30 next Thursday. 委員會將在下星期四上午11:30開會。

Disintegrate??v. /d?s??nt?ɡre?t/ 1.碎裂；解體；分裂??The plane disintegrated as it fell into the sea. 飛機(jī)墜入大海時解體了。 2.衰微；瓦解；崩潰

Splinternet：The splinternet (also referred to as cyberbalkanization or Internet Balkanization) is a characterization of the Internet as splintering and dividing due to various factors, such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and interests. 各種原因?qū)е禄ヂ?lián)網(wǎng)各個勢力割據(jù)，分裂

To make sense of all this, it helps to see the political world as one in which technology is beginning to look ever more like geography. The geopolitical way of looking at the world, which was born in the 19th century and revolutionised strategic thinking in the 20th, was based on the idea that the geographical aspects of the physical world could be crucially important to the relations between states.?Mountains that blocked transit and plains that permitted it; oilfields and coalfields; pinch-points?where maritime traffic could be constrained. ?Where a state’s territory stood in respect to?such geographical facts of life told it what it should fear and what it might aspire to, whose interests conflicted with its own and whose might align with them. In other words, geography was destiny.

pinch-point?N 夾點(diǎn)，關(guān)鍵點(diǎn)，道路變窄讓路提示? ? ? ?in respect to?關(guān)于，涉及

The units of analysis for today’s nascent technopolitics are platforms: the technologies on which other technologies are built and alongside them, increasingly, businesses, governments and ways of life. The platform of all platforms is the internet. Some of the things which stand upon it are huge and widely known, such as Facebook, others small and obscure, such as Kubernetes, a sort of software used in cloud computing.?Like geographical territories, these platforms have their own politics. They have their own populations, mostly users, coders and other firms. They have their own laws, which lay out who can change code and access data. They have a position with respect to other platforms which underpin, compete with or build on them, just as territories have defined relationships with their neighbours.

nascent ?adj. ??/?n?snt/ ?新生的；萌芽的；未成熟的

Obscure??/?b?skj??r/ adj. 昏暗的，朦朧的；晦澀的，不清楚的；隱蔽的；不著名的，無名的；vt. 使…模糊不清，掩蓋；隱藏；使難理解；n. 某種模糊的或不清楚的東西

Underpin??v. /??nd??p?n/ ?1.加強(qiáng)，鞏固，構(gòu)成（…的基礎(chǔ)等）??The report is underpinned by extensive research. 這份報(bào)告以廣泛的研究為基礎(chǔ)。2.加固（墻）基

And they have their own governance systems. Some are “open”. The most famous is Linux, an operating system created and maintained through co-operative efforts to which all are, in principle, free to contribute and from which all are welcome to benefit. Others are “closed”, as is the convention among many corporate-software makers, such as Oracle. Some are run like absolute?monarchies, such as Apple under Steve Jobs, who was the final arbiter?over the smallest details in his tech empire.

monarchy ?n./?m?n?ki/ 1.君主制；君主政體?plans to abolish the monarchy 廢除君主政體的計(jì)劃；2.君主國；3.君主及其家庭成員

arbiter ?n. /?ɑ?b?t?(r)/ ~ (of sth) 仲裁人；公斷人；裁決人；決定者；權(quán)威人士?? an arbiter of taste/style/fashion 鑒賞╱款式╱時裝權(quán)威

譯文

Let us?cling?together?團(tuán)結(jié)就是力量

Until last month, such ideas seemed?premature.?But with Joe Biden soon in the White House, they have become more realistic: IT will be high on the agenda of the “summit?of democracies” he has promised to convene.?Closer co-ordination and some new institutions to back it up are also more needed, and not just because of the Chinese threat. The coronavirus, by pushing much of human activity into the cloud, has emphasised the importance of the digital realm and its governance. Left alone, the world of technology will continue to disintegrate?into a?splinternet?in which digital protectionism is widespread much as the global financial system fell apart before the second world war.

就在上個月，這樣的設(shè)想還是不切實(shí)際的。但隨著拜登即將入駐白宮，設(shè)想變成現(xiàn)實(shí)的可能性變強(qiáng)：拜登承諾在他召集“民主國家峰會”中IT將會是重要議題。此外，還需要更加緊密的合作、新的支持機(jī)構(gòu)等，不僅僅是因?yàn)橹袊耐{。新冠疫情推動人類活動大部分走向云端，顯示了數(shù)字領(lǐng)域和其管理的重要性。置之不理，技術(shù)世界將繼續(xù)瓦解成數(shù)字保護(hù)主義盛行、四分五裂的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，就像全球金融體系在二戰(zhàn)前分崩離析一樣。

To make sense of all this, it helps to see the political world as one in which technology is beginning to look ever more like geography. The geopolitical way of looking at the world, which was born in the 19th century and revolutionised strategic thinking in the 20th, was based on the idea that the geographical aspects of the physical world could be crucially important to the relations between states.?Mountains that blocked transit and plains that permitted it; oilfields and coalfields; pinch-points?where maritime traffic could be constrained. ?Where a state’s territory stood in respect to?such geographical facts of life told it what it should fear and what it might aspire to, whose interests conflicted with its own and whose might align with them. In other words, geography was destiny.

為了理解這一切，把政治世界看作科技因素開始越來越像地理因素的世界是有幫助的。以地緣政治角度分析世界誕生于19世紀(jì)，20世紀(jì)其戰(zhàn)略思維革新。它的觀點(diǎn)基礎(chǔ)是物質(zhì)世界中的地理因素可能成為國與國之間關(guān)系的關(guān)鍵。高山阻礙交流，平原允許流動；油田與煤礦；海運(yùn)可能受到限制的咽喉要道。一個國家的國土領(lǐng)域立足自身地理地貌，則知道自己需要害怕什么，追求什么，自身或與其相關(guān)的利益沖突。簡而言之，地理環(huán)境定命數(shù)。

The units of analysis for today’s nascent technopolitics are platforms: the technologies on which other technologies are built and alongside them, increasingly, businesses, governments and ways of life. The platform of all platforms is the internet. Some of the things which stand upon it are huge and widely known, such as Facebook, others small and obscure, such as Kubernetes, a sort of software used in cloud computing.?Like geographical territories, these platforms have their own politics. They have their own populations, mostly users, coders and other firms. They have their own laws, which lay out who can change code and access data. They have a position with respect to other platforms which underpin, compete with or build on them, just as territories have defined relationships with their neighbours.

現(xiàn)今新興地緣政治分析的單位是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)平臺：基于平臺開發(fā)新技術(shù)或者其他與平臺共存的技術(shù)。特別是越來越多的商業(yè)活動、政府、生活方式基于平臺進(jìn)行技術(shù)開發(fā)?；ヂ?lián)網(wǎng)是所有平臺的歸宿。有一些基于互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的產(chǎn)品非常龐大并被世人所知，如facebook；還有一些微小而隱秘，比如kubernetes，一款云計(jì)算軟件。如同地緣疆土，這些平臺有自身的政治體系；有自己的人口-用戶、碼農(nóng)以及其他企業(yè)；有自身法律--展現(xiàn)為誰有權(quán)更改編碼，訪問數(shù)據(jù)；就像領(lǐng)土定義了國家與鄰國的關(guān)系一樣，它們對其他支撐、競爭或建立在它們基礎(chǔ)上的平臺安排有適當(dāng)?shù)奈恢谩?/span>

And they have their own governance systems. Some are “open”. The most famous is Linux, an operating system created and maintained through co-operative efforts to which all are, in principle, free to contribute and from which all are welcome to benefit. Others are “closed”, as is the convention among many corporate-software makers, such as Oracle. Some are run like absolute?monarchies, such as Apple under Steve Jobs, who was the final arbiter?over the smallest details in his tech empire.

他們也有自身的統(tǒng)治體系，一些是開源的，比如Linux，一款通過合作創(chuàng)建并運(yùn)營的操作系統(tǒng)。原則上，無門檻，所有人都可以貢獻(xiàn)自己的力量，也歡迎所有的人從中受益。有一些是封閉的，是一些軟件開發(fā)商老傳統(tǒng)，例如Oracle；還有一些就像君主國家，例如喬布斯在位時的蘋果公司，他是自己科技帝國中即使最微小事務(wù)的最終決裁者。