当代研究生英语读写教程上

U1:CYBERSPACE:IF YOU DON'T LOVE IT, LEAVE IT信息空间：出入随愿

Something in the American psyche loves new frontiers.we hanker after wide-open spaces; we like to explore; we like to make rules but refuse to follow them. But in this age it’s hard to find a place where you can go and be yourself without worrying about the neighbors.美国人的内心深处具有一

种酷爱探索新领域的气质。我们渴求宽敞的场地，我们喜欢探索，喜欢制定规章制度，却不愿

去遵守。在当今时代，却很难找到一块空间，可以供你任意驰骋，又不必担心影响你的邻居。

There is such a place: cyberspace. Formerly a playground for computer fans, cyberspace now embraces every conceivable constituency: schoolchildren, flirtatious singles, Hungarian-americans, accountants. Can they all get along? Or will our fear of kids surfing for dirty pictures behind their bedroom doors provoke a crackdown?确实有这样一个空间，那就是信息空间。这里原本是计算机

迷的游戏天地，但如今只要想像得到的各类人群应有尽有，包括少年儿童、轻佻的单身汉、美

籍匈牙利人、会计等。问题是他们都能和睦相处吗？人们是否会因为害怕孩子们躲在卧室里看

网上的淫秽图片而将它封杀？

The first order of business is to grasp what cyberspace is. It might help to leave behind metaphors of highways and frontiers and to think instead of real estate. Real estate, remember, is an intellectual, legal, artificial environment constructed on top of land. Real estate recognizes the difference between parkland and shopping mall, between red-light zone and school district, between church , state and drugstore.首先要解决的问题是，什么是信息空间。我们可以抛开高速公路、前沿新领域等比喻，把信息空间看作一个巨大的庄园。请记住，庄园是人们智慧的结晶，是合法的、人工营造的氛

围，它建立在土地之上。在庄园里，公园和商业中心、红灯区与学校、教堂与杂货店都能区分

开来。

In the same way, you could think of cyberspace as a giant and unbounded world of virtual real estate. Some property is privately owned and rented out; other property is common land; some places are suitable for children, and others are best avoided by all citizens. Unfortunately, it’s those places that are now capturing the popular imagination, places that offer bomb-making instructions, pornography, advice on how to steal credit cards. They make cyberspace sound like a nasty place. Good citizens jump to a conclusion: better regulate it.你可以用同样的方法把信息空间想像为一个巨大的、无边无际的虚拟庄园。其中有些房产为私人拥有并已租出，有些是公共场所；有的场所适合儿童出入，而有些地方人们最好避开。不幸的是，正是这些应该避开的地方使得人们心

向神往。这些地方教唆你如何制造炸弹、为你提供淫秽材料、告诉你如何窃取信用卡。所有这

些使信息空间听起来像是一个十分肮脏的地方。正直的公民纷纷作出这样的结论：最好对它严

加管理。

But before using regulations to counter indecency it is fundamental to interpret the nature of cyberspace. Cyberspace isn’t a frontier where wicked people can grab un suspecting children, nor is it a giant television system that can beam offensive messages at unwilling viewers. In the kind of real estate, users have to choose where they visit, what they see, what they do. It’s optional. In other words, cyberspace is a voluntary destination -----in reality, many destinations. You don’t just get “onto the net ”; you have to go someplace in particular. That means that people can choose where to go and what to see. Yes, community standards should be enforced, but those standards should be set by cyberspace communities themselves, not by the courts or by politicians in Washington.但是，在利用规章制度来反击下流之举之前，关键是从根本上理解信息空间的性质。恶棍并不能在信息空间抢走毫无提防之心的儿童；信息空间也不像一台巨大的电视机，向不情愿的观众播放令人作呕的节目。在信息空间这座庄园里，用户对他们所去之处、所见所闻、所做所为都要作出选择，

一切都出于自愿。换句话说，信息空间是个出入自便的地方，实际上，信息空间里有很多可去

之处。人们不能盲目上网，必须带着具体的目标上网。这意味着人们可以选择去哪个网址、看

什么内容。不错，规章制度应该在群体内得以实施，但这些规章制度必须由信息空间内各个群

体自己来制定，而不是由法庭或华盛顿的政客们来制定。

What makes cyberspace so alluring is precisely the way in which it’s different from shopping malls, television, highways and ot her terrestrial jurisdictions. But let’s define the territory:信息空间之

所以具有如此大的诱惑力，正是因为它不同于商场、电视、公路或地球上的其他地方。那么，

让我们来描述一下这个空间。

First, there are private e-mail conversations, similar to the conversations you have over the telephone.These are private and consensual and require no regulation at all. 首先，信息空间里人与

人之间可以进行电子邮件交流。这种交流类似于电话交谈，都是私人之间的，两厢情愿的谈话，

不需要任何规章制度加以限制。

Second, there are information and entertainment services, where people can download anything from legal texts and lists of “great new restaurants” t o game software or dirty pictures. These places are like bookstores, malls and movie houses-----places where you go to buy something. The customer needs to request an item or sign up for a subscription; stuff(especially pornography) is not sent out to peop le who don’t ask for it. Some of these services are free or included as part of a broader service like compuserve or America online; others charge and may bill their customers directly.其次，信息空

间提供信息与娱乐服务。人们可以从中下载各种信息，从法律文件、“大型新饭店”名单，到游

戏软件、下流图片，无奇不有。这里如同书店、商场和电影院，属购物区域。顾客必须通过索

求或者登记来购物，物品（特别是淫秽之物）不会发送给那些没有索取的人。有些服务可以免

费，或作为总服务费用的一部分计算，如“计算机服务”和“美国在线”就是如此。而有些服务要

向顾客收费，而且可能会让顾客直接支付账单。

Third, there are “real ”communities-----groups of people who communicate among themselves. In real-estate terms, they’re like ba rs or restaurants or bathhouses. Each active participant contributes to a general conversation, generally through posted messages. Other participants may simply listen or watch.. some services are supervised by a moderator; others are more like bulletin boards------anyone is free to post anything. Many of these services started out unmoderated but are now imposing rules to keep out unwanted advertising, extraneous discussions or increasingly rude participant第三，信息空间里还有真正意义上的群体, 那就是在内部互相交流思想的人群。从庄园的角度来看，这些群体就像酒吧、饭店或公共浴室。每个活跃的人都积极参与谈话，谈话一般通过邮件方式进行；

而有的人也许只充当旁观者或旁听者。有些活动由专人监督，有些则像公告牌，任何人可以任

意在上面张贴。很多活动起初都无人监督，但现在实行强制管理，用规章制度来扫除那些不受

欢迎的广告、不相干的讨论或日渐粗鲁的成员。

Cyberspace communities evolve just the way terrestrial communities do: people with like-minded interests band together. Every cyberspace community has its own character. Overall, the communities on compuserve tend to be more professional; those on America online, affluent young singles; prodigy, family-oriented. Then there are independents like echo, a hip, downtown new york service, or women’s wire, targeted to women who want to avoid the male culture prevalent elsewhere on the net. On the internet itself there are lots of passionate noncommercial discussion groups on topics ranging from Hungarian politics (hungary online) to copyright law.信息空间里群体的演变过程正如陆地社会团体的演变过程，即情趣相投的人们聚在一起。信息空间里每一个团体都各具特色。总的来说，“计算机服务”上的团体一般由专业技术人员组成；“美国在线”上的

团体一般为富有的独身者；“奇才”主要面向家庭。另外还有一些具有独到见解的服务机构，“共

鸣” 为其中之一，是纽约市中心一家时髦的服务机构。再如“妇女专线”，是专为女性开辟的，

她们希望逃避网上其他地方盛行的男性文化。就因特网本身也有大量情绪激昂的讨论小组，都

属非商业性质，讨论话题广泛，从匈牙利政治（匈牙利在线）到版权法，无所不及。

What’s unique about cyberspace is that it allows communities of any size and kind to flourish; in cyberspace, communities are chosen by the users, not forced on them by accidents of geography. This freedom gives the rules that preside in cyberspace a moral authority that rules in terrestrial environments don’t have. Most people are stuck in the country of their birth, but if you don’t like the rules of a cyberspace community, you can just sign off. Love it or leave it. Likewise, if p arents don’t like the rules of a given cyberspace community, they can restrict their children’s access to it.信息空间的独

特之处在于允许任何规模、任何种类的团体发展繁荣。在信息空间，用户自愿参加任何团体，

而不是因为地理位置的巧合而被迫参加某个团体。这种自由赋予主宰信息空间的准则一种道义

上的权威，这种权威是地球空间里的准则所没有的。多数人呆在自己出生的国土上动弹不得，

而在信息空间，假若你不喜欢某一群体的准则，脱离这个群体即可。出入自由。同样，如果做

父母的不喜欢某一群体的准则，便可以限制孩子，不让他们参与。

What’s likely to happen in cyberspace is the formation of new communities, free of the constraints that cause conflict on earth. Instead of a global village, which is a nice dream but impossible to manag e, we’ll have invented another world of self-contained communities that cater to their own members’ inclinations without interfering with anyone else’s. The possibility of a real market-style evolution of governance is at hand. In cyberspace, we’ll be able to test and evolve rules governing what needs to be governed------intellectual property, content and access control, rules about privacy and free speech. Some communities will allow anyone in; others will restrict access to members who qualify on one basis or another. Those communities that prove self-sustaining will prosper (and perhaps grow and split into subsets with ever-more-particular interests and identities). Those that can’t survive----either because people lose interest or get scared off-----will simply wither away.

在信息空间，可能会发生的情况是形成新的群体，新群体的形成不像在地球上那样受到限制，

产生冲突。我们不是要建立一个梦寐以求、而又难以管理的全球村，而是要建立一个由各种独

立的、不受外界影响的群体组成的世界，这些群体将投其成员所好，而又不干涉他人。一种真

正的市场型管理模式很快成为可能。在信息空间，我们将能够检验并完善所需要的管理制度——

知识产权制度、服务内容与使用权的控制制度、个人隐私权与自由言论制度等。有些群体允许

任何人加入，而有些则只允许符合这样或那样条件的人加入。能够自持的群体会兴旺发展（或

许也会因为志趣与身份日趋特殊，而发展成为几个分支）。有些群体或因为成员失去兴趣，或因

为成员被吓跑而不能幸存下来，它们将渐渐萎缩消亡。

In the near future, explorers in the cyberspace will need to get better at defining and identifying their communities. They will need to put in place-----and accept-----their own local governments apart from terrestrial governments, just as the owners of expensive real estate often have their own security guards though they can call in the police to get rid of undesirable customers.在不远的将来，信息空间的探索者应该更善于解释和辨别各群体的性质。除了现实中的政府之外，他们将有必要安置

并接受自己的地方政府，就如同豪华庄园的业主一样，尽管可以叫警察来驱逐不受欢迎的顾客,

但还是宁愿雇佣自己的保安。

Then what should be done about undesirable material in cyberspace? What to do, for instance, about pornography? The answer is labeling, besides banning, questionable material. It makes sense for cyberspace participants themselves to agree on a scheme for questionable items, so that people or automatic filters can avoid them. It’s easy enough for software manufacturers to build an automatic filter that would prevent you or your child from ever seein g the undesired item on a menu. ( it’s as if

the items were wrapped, with labels on the wrapper.) someone who posted pornographic material under the title “kid-fun” could be sued for mislabeling.那么，该如何处置信息空间不受欢迎的材料呢？例如，淫秽材料该怎么办？答案除了禁止以外，就是在有问题的材料上贴上标签。信息空

间的成员对有问题的内容应该达成共识，拿出一个解决方案来，使人们或自动过滤系统避开这

些内容，这样可能会有助于解决问题。软件制造商很容易建立一套自动过滤系统，使你和孩子

们在菜单上见不到不想见到的内容。（就好像所有的内容都被包装了起来，并在包装纸上贴有标

签。）如果有人在色情材料上贴上“童趣”的标签，便可能会因错贴标签而被起诉。

Without a lot of fanfare, private enterprises and local groups are already producing a variety of labeling services, along with kid-oriented sites like kidlink and kids’space. People differ in their tastes and values and can find services on the net that suit them in the same way they select books and magazines. Or they can wander freely if they prefer, making up their own itinerary.一些私人组织和地方团体已经在不声不响地建立各种标签服务系统，并建立了适合儿童的网站，如“儿童连接”、“儿

童空间”等。具有不同品味和抱有不同价值观念的人如同挑选书刊、杂志一样，可以从网上挑选

出适合自己的服务机构。如果愿意，他们还可以在网上无拘无束地逍遥漫游，完成自己的旅程。

In the end, our society needs to grow up. Growing up means understanding that there are no perfect answers, no all-purpose solutions, no government-sanctioned safe havens. We haven't created a perfect society on earth, and we won't have one in cyberspace either. But at least we can have individual choice--and individual responsibility. 总之，我们的社会需要发展，要发展就意味着我们必须明白，世上没有完美无缺的答案，没有能够解决各种问题的妙方，没有政府认可的安全避

难所。我们不能在地球上建立一个十全十美的社会，同样也不能在信息空间营造一个这样的社

会。但是至少我们可以有个人的选择—也有个人的责任。