正文翻譯
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com 翻譯：chinawungbo2 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


Chips with everything

芯片無(wú)處不在

How the world will change as computers spread into everyday obxts

隨著計(jì)算機(jī)被應(yīng)用于日常物品，世界將發(fā)生什么變化

The “Internet of Things” will fundamentally change the relationship between consumers and producers

“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)”將從根本上改變消費(fèi)者與生產(chǎn)商之間的關(guān)系

On august 29th, as Hurricane Dorian tracked towards America’s east coast, Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, an electric-car maker, announced that some of his customers in the storm’s path would find that their cars had suddenly developed the ability to drive farther on a single battery charge. Like many modern vehicles, Mr Musk’s products are best thought of as internet-connected computers on wheels. The cheaper models in Tesla’s line-up have parts of their batteries disabled by the car’s software in order to limit their range. At the tap of a keyboard in Palo Alto, the firm was able to remove those restrictions and give drivers temporary access to the full power of their batteries.

8月29日，颶風(fēng)“多里安”向美國(guó)東海岸襲來(lái)，電動(dòng)汽車(chē)制造商“特斯拉”的總裁艾倫·馬斯克宣布，處在風(fēng)暴路徑上的部分消費(fèi)者將發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們的汽車(chē)突然具備單次充電續(xù)航更遠(yuǎn)的能力。正如許多現(xiàn)代車(chē)輛，馬斯克先生的產(chǎn)品被視為車(chē)輪上的聯(lián)網(wǎng)計(jì)算機(jī)再恰當(dāng)不過(guò)。在特斯拉的陣容中，比較便宜的車(chē)型有部分電池被汽車(chē)軟件禁用了，目的是限制續(xù)航里程。坐落于美國(guó)帕羅奧多的這家公司只需敲擊鍵盤(pán)，就能取消該限制，讓駕駛員臨時(shí)使用全功率電池。

Businesses will get efficiency, as information about the physical world that used to be ephemeral and uncertain becomes concrete and analysable. Smart lighting in buildings saves energy. Computerised machinery can predict its own breakdowns and schedule preventive maintenance. Connected cows can have their eating habits and vital signs tracked in real time, which means they produce more milk and require less medicine when they fall ill. Such gains are individually small but, compounded again and again across an economy, they are the raw material of growth—potentially a great deal of it.

隨著物質(zhì)世界的信息從過(guò)去的瞬息萬(wàn)變變得具體而可分析，企業(yè)效率將有所提升。建筑物的智能照明節(jié)約能源，計(jì)算機(jī)化設(shè)備預(yù)測(cè)自身故障并安排預(yù)防性維護(hù)。聯(lián)網(wǎng)的母牛擁有各自的飲食習(xí)慣，生命體征被實(shí)時(shí)跟蹤，這意味著產(chǎn)奶量增加，患病所需藥量減少。這些益處對(duì)于個(gè)人微不足道，但在整個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)中會(huì)不斷增強(qiáng)，成為經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)的原動(dòng)力——可能帶來(lái)巨幅的增長(zhǎng)。

In the long term, though, the most conspicuous effects of the iot will be in how the world works. One way to think of it is as the second phase of the internet. This will carry with it the business models that have come to dominate the first phase—all-conquering “platform” monopolies, for instance, or the data-driven approach that critics call “surveillance capitalism”. Ever more companies will become tech companies; the internet will become all-pervasive. As a result, a series of unresolved arguments about ownership, data, surveillance, competition and security will spill over from the virtual world into the real one.

但從長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)來(lái)看，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)將對(duì)世界的運(yùn)作方式產(chǎn)生最顯著的影響。一種思考方式是將物聯(lián)網(wǎng)視為互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的第二階段，它將具備第一階段的主要商業(yè)模式——例如“平臺(tái)”壟斷，或者說(shuō)數(shù)據(jù)驅(qū)動(dòng)方法，批評(píng)人士稱其為“監(jiān)視型資本主義”。越來(lái)越多的公司將變成科技企業(yè)；互聯(lián)網(wǎng)將無(wú)處不在。因此，諸如所有權(quán)、數(shù)據(jù)、監(jiān)視、競(jìng)爭(zhēng)、安全等一系列懸而未決的爭(zhēng)議將從虛擬世界向現(xiàn)實(shí)世界蔓延。

Start with ownership. As Mr Musk showed, the internet gives firms the ability to stay connected to their products even after they have been sold, transforming them into something closer to services than goods. That has already blurred traditional ideas of ownership. When Microsoft closed its ebook store in July, for instance, its customers lost the ability to read titles they had bought (the firm offered refunds). Some early adopters of “smart home” gadgets have found that they ceased to work after the firms that made them lost interest.

首先是所有權(quán)問(wèn)題。正如馬斯克先生所展示的，產(chǎn)品賣(mài)出去后，企業(yè)能夠與產(chǎn)品保持聯(lián)網(wǎng)，說(shuō)它們是產(chǎn)品，倒不如說(shuō)是服務(wù)。這已經(jīng)模糊了傳統(tǒng)的所有權(quán)概念。例如，微軟公司在7月份關(guān)閉了電子書(shū)店，用戶無(wú)法閱讀購(gòu)買(mǎi)過(guò)的書(shū)籍（微軟提供退款）。 “智能家居”小家電的一些早期用戶發(fā)現(xiàn)，產(chǎn)品隨著制造商失去興趣而停止運(yùn)行。

Then there is competition. Flows of data from iot gadgets are just as valuable as those gleaned from Facebook posts or a Google search history. The logic of data-driven businesses, which do ever better as they collect and process more information, will replicate the market dynamics that have seen the rise of giant platform companies on the internet. The need for standards, and for iot devices to talk to each other, will add to the leaders’ advantages—as will consumer fears, some of them justified, over the vulnerability of internet-connected cars, medical implants and other devices to hacking.

再有就是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)?！澳槙?shū)”帖子和谷歌搜索歷史搜集寶貴的數(shù)據(jù)流，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)也是如此。數(shù)據(jù)驅(qū)動(dòng)型企業(yè)將復(fù)制互聯(lián)網(wǎng)平臺(tái)型巨頭企業(yè)興起時(shí)的市場(chǎng)動(dòng)態(tài)，搜集和處理的信息越多就做得越好。市場(chǎng)對(duì)制定標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的需求，對(duì)物聯(lián)網(wǎng)設(shè)備相互溝通的需求將增強(qiáng)龍頭企業(yè)的優(yōu)勢(shì)——消費(fèi)者擔(dān)心聯(lián)網(wǎng)汽車(chē)、醫(yī)用植入物及其他設(shè)備存在的漏洞容易遭到黑客的入侵，其中某些擔(dān)憂不無(wú)道理。

Predicting the consequences of any technology is hard—especially one as universal as computing. The advent of the consumer internet, 25 years ago, was met with starry-eyed optimism. These days it is the internet’s defects, from monopoly power to corporate snooping and online radicalisation, that dominate the headlines. The trick with the iot, as with anything, will be to maximise the benefits while minimising the harms. That will not be easy. But the people thinking about how to do it have the advantage of having lived through the first internet revolution—which should give them some idea of what to expect.

科技的后果難以預(yù)料，尤其像計(jì)算機(jī)這種普遍應(yīng)用的技術(shù)。25年前，人們以天真的樂(lè)觀心態(tài)迎接消費(fèi)者互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的到來(lái)。如今，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的缺陷成了頭條新聞：壟斷力量、企業(yè)窺探、網(wǎng)絡(luò)激進(jìn)化。與任何事情一樣，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)的把戲是將利益最大化，傷害最小化。這絕非易事，但思考如何做到這一點(diǎn)的人有一個(gè)優(yōu)勢(shì)，就是經(jīng)歷過(guò)第一次互聯(lián)網(wǎng)革命，這應(yīng)該讓他們知道該期待什么。