译者按：我们应该只关注自己喜欢的讯息吗？如果只满足于阅读“大数据网站”推荐给我们的内容会给社会带来怎样的伤害？哈佛大学法学教授卡斯·桑斯坦在他的新书中给出了明确的答案和很多建设性的建议。比如在社交网站上增加一个“意外好运”的按钮——通过了解更多元的信息和与自己意见相左的观点使自己更广博更深刻更富有洞察力，从而获得“意外好运”。中国有句成语说的是同样的道理：“兼听则明，偏信则暗”。
本文译自《经济学人》3月11日刊。

意外好运

Social media

In praise of serendipity

为了赞美意外好运

Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media. By Cass Sunstein. Princeton University Press; 310 pages; $29.95 and £24.95

serendipity: the luck some people have in finding or creating interesting or valuable things by chance.

1. LAST June Facebook announced a change to its newsfeed. Henceforth it would rejig the way stories were ranked to ensure that people saw “the stories they find most meaningful”. But what does “most meaningful” actually mean? Posts from family and friends, apparently, as well as those users you frequently “like”. Your newsfeed should be “subjective, personal and unique”, Facebook went on, promising to work on building tools to give users “the most personalised experience”.

rejig: to arrange or organize something in a different way = reorganize

1）去年6月Facebook宣布更改其新闻推送方式。从此，它将重新组织故事排序的方式，以确保人们看到“他们觉得最有意义的故事”。但“最有意义的”实际意味着什么？显然，家人和朋友的帖子，以及那些你经常“喜欢”的用户。你的新闻推送应该是“主观、个人且独特的”，Facebook接着说，承诺努力开发工具以给用户“最个性化的体验”。

2. Cass Sunstein, a law professor at Harvard University and Barack Obama’s former regulation tsar, is one of Facebook’s dissatisfied customers. “Facebook can do better,” he writes in “#Republic”, his new book about democracy in the age of social media. Mr Sunstein is disturbed by some aspects of ultra-customised information, yet he shows himself a master of restraint in his criticism. He clearly wants to influence Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans without alienating them. Although Mr Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, perhaps he can still pick up the occasional book by a Harvard professor—along with his new honorary degree.

tsar: A particular kind of tsar is a person who has been appointed by the government to deal with a particular problem that is affecting the country.
e.g. the former New York police chief who was appointed as `drug tsar' by Bill Clinton.

2）卡斯·桑斯坦是哈佛大学的法学教授，也是巴拉克·奥巴马的前管制事务办公室主任，是Facebook不满意的客户之一。 “Facebook可以做得更好，”他在《#Republic》一书中写道，他的这本新书是关于社交媒体时代的民主。 桑斯坦先生对过度定制信息的一些方面感到不安，但他在自己的批评中显示出自己是一个克制的大师。他显然想影响马克·扎克伯格和其他技术巨头，而又不想疏远他们。虽然扎克伯格从哈佛辍学，也许他仍然可以捡起这本哈佛教授偶尔写的书读一读，连同他新的荣誉学位。

3. In some ways, “#Republic” is a kind of Democracy 101, a review of the basic requirements for those who may have skipped the course. These requirements include, among other things, that citizens be exposed to a wide range of ideas and perspectives—even, and especially, those they would not choose to see or hear. Unplanned, chance encounters—with a protest as one wanders down the street, or a competing argument aired on the evening news—help guard against “fragmentation, polarisation and extremism”. They ensure that people are not hearing only an echo of their own voice. They reduce the likelihood that people will be stirred to extremes, such as terrorism. And they promote shared information and experiences, making it easier to solve problems and govern in a heterogeneous society.

101: In American university course numbering systems, the number 101 is often used for an introductory course at a beginner's level in a department's subject area. This common numbering system was designed to make transfer between colleges easier. In theory, any numbered course in one academic institution should bring a student to the same standard as a similarly numbered course at other institutions.
Based on this usage, the term "101" has been extended to mean an introductory level of learning or a collection of introductory materials to a topic.——维基百科
heterogeneous: consisting of parts or members that are very different from each other

3）在某些方面，《#Republic》是一本民主初级教材，为了那些可能已经跳过这门课的人回顾了（民主的）基本要求。这些要求包括（诸多要求中的一条），公民应该暴露于广泛的想法和观点中——甚至，尤其是他们不会选择去看或听的那些观点。未经计划，有机会遇到 ——漫步在街上遇到一场抗议游行，或在晚间新闻上播出的相冲突的辩论——帮助防止“碎片化、两极化和极端主义”。它们确保人们不会只听到自己声音的回声。它们减少了人们被激起走向极端（例如恐怖主义）的可能性。他们促进共享的信息和经验，使得在多元化的社会解决问题和管理更加容易。

4. This is the positive side of the free-speech principle, Mr Sunstein writes. It means not only forbidding censorship, but also creating a culture where people engage with the views of fellow citizens.

engage with sb/sth: to get involved with other people and their ideas in order to understand them
e.g. She has the ability to engage with young minds.

4）这是自由言论原则的积极一面，桑斯坦先生写道。这不仅意味着禁止审查，而且意味着创造一种文化，人们在其中会去理解同胞们的观点。

5. In the digital age social media function as the public forums where ideas are exchanged. But when people filter what they see—and providers race towards ever greater “personalisation” in the name of consumer choice—democracy is endangered. People live in separate worlds. Even hash-tags, meant to help users find information on a certain topic, lead them to different bubbles. Democrats use #ACA and #blacklivesmatter; Republicans use #Obamacare and #alllivesmatter. Partyism might be said to exceed racism in America, Mr Sunstein argues. Whereas in 1960 only 5% of Republicans and 4% of Democrats said they would be “displeased” if their child married outside their political party, by 2010, those numbers had reached 49% and 33%, a far higher percentage than those who would be “displeased” if their child married outside their race.

bubbles: A fantastic or impracticable idea or belief; an illusion
Hash-tag: 主题标签。在Twitter等社群网站，用一个#号加上一个词、单字，或没有空格的一句话可用来标示一个特定的主题，将各篇独立的贴文串连在一起。——维基百科

5）在数字时代社交媒体的功能是作为交换想法的公共论坛。但是，当人们过滤他们看到的东西 ——（信息）提供者以消费者选择的名义竞相提供越来越多的“个性化” ——民主就处于危险之中。人们生活在分割的世界。甚至旨在帮助用户查找某个主题的信息的主题标签把他们带到不同的幻想中。民主党使用#ACA和#blacklivesmatter；共和党人使用#Obamacare和#alllivesmatter。 桑斯坦先生认为，在美国党派主义可能被认为超越了种族主义。在1960年，只有5％的共和党人和4％的民主党人说，如果他们的孩子与政党以外的人联姻，他们会“不高兴”，然而到2010年，这些人数已达到49％和33％，远远高于如果他们的孩子与种族之外的人结婚会“不悦”的人数。

6. Mr Sunstein wants an “architecture of serendipity” to combat these forces: that is, media that promote chance encounters and democratic deliberation like the public forums of old. Facebook might design “serendipity buttons”, he suggests, allowing users to click for opposing viewpoints or unfiltered perspectives. Conservative news sites could feature links to liberal sites and vice versa, alerting people to material beyond their usual sources. A site like deliberativedemocracy.com—the domain is not yet taken—could offer a space for people of divergent views to discuss issues. Democracies should take their cue from Learned Hand, an American judge who said the spirit of liberty is that “spirit which is not too sure that it is right”.

take their cue from: to use someone else's actions or behaviour to show you what you should do or how you should behave
e.g. Taking his cue from his companion, he apologized for his earlier display of temper.
** 勒恩德·汉德**（Learned Hand，1872年1月27日－1961年8月18日），哈佛大学本科主修哲学，哈佛法学院优等毕业(with honors)。是美国著名法官，他的著名成就是把经济分析的方法运用到了美国侵权法中。尽管未曾担任最高法院大法官，但他被公认为是美国最高法院三位大法官约翰·马歇尔、小奥利弗·温德尔·霍姆斯、本杰明·卡多佐之外的最有影响力的法官。

6）桑斯坦先生想要一个“意外好运的结构”来与这些力量作斗争：即，促进机会相遇和民主审议、像老年公共论坛这样的媒介。他建议，Facebook应该设计“意外好运的按钮”，允许用户点击查看相反的观点或未过滤的看法。保守的新闻网站可以重点突出自由主义网站的链接，反之亦然，提醒人们去接触他们日常新闻源之外的材料。一个像deliberativedemocracy.com的网站——域名尚未采用——可以为持不同观点的人提供一个空间来讨论问题。民主国家应该从“勒恩德·汉德（Learned Hand）身上获得启发，这位美国法官曾说，自由精神是“不太确定它是正确的精神”。

7. It is not just up to Mr Zuckerberg, then, to foster a culture of curiosity and openness. Citizens must demand it, Mr Sunstein argues, and they must seek out those serendipitous encounters. “#Republic” is full of constructive suggestions. It should be required reading for anyone who is concerned with the future of democracy—in Silicon Valley and beyond.
   7）那么，培养一种好奇心和开放的文化不仅仅取决于扎克伯格先生。公民必须对此有要求，桑斯坦先生认为，他们必须寻求那些意外好运的相遇。 《#Republic》充满了建设性的建议。它应该是任何关心民主未来的人的必读书 ——在硅谷以及其他地方。

---

试着翻译以下句子：
1、从此，它将重新组织故事排序的方式，以确保人们看到“他们觉得最有意义的故事”。
2、他们促进共享的信息和经验，使得在多元化的社会解决问题和管理更加容易。
3、民主国家应该从“勒恩德·汉德（Learned Hand）身上获得启发，这位美国法官曾说，自由精神是“不太确定它是正确的精神”。

---

原文出处：经济学人杂志

译者：七呵夫

本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用，谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文所涉法律后果均由本人承担。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后，删除文章。