有趣 ● 有料 ● 有分量 ● 有價值
今年11月初，在由亞瑟·克拉克基金會主辦的克拉克獎頒獎禮上，中國著名科幻小說家、《三體》作者劉慈欣被授予2018年度克拉克想像力服務社會獎（Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society），成為獲得該獎的第一位中國人。
劉慈欣曾獲得過雨果獎、全球華語科幻星雲獎等重量級獎項，但這次的克拉克獎，對他來說意義非凡。阿瑟·克拉克是劉慈欣非常崇拜的科幻小說家，每次做閱讀書籍推薦，他也總會推薦克拉克的作品。
在頒獎禮致答謝詞時，劉慈欣表示，正是克拉克將自己引進了科幻閱讀和寫作之門。晚宴上，劉慈欣首次用英文發表獲獎演說，乾貨滿滿，思想深刻。
以下是演講現場視頻和雙語摘錄，快來一起欣賞吧！enjoy~
This award is a reward for imagination, a capability that should have been exclusive to God but we, as human beings, luckily have. And the meaning of the existence of imagination is far beyond our imagination. A historian used to say that the main reason why human beings have been able to surpass other species on Earth and build civilizations is that they can create, in their brains, something non-existent in reality. In the future, when artificial intelligence becomes smarter than us, imagination may be the only advantage we have over AI.
這個獎項是對想像力的獎勵，而想像力是人類所擁有的一種似乎只應屬於神的能力，它存在的意義也遠超出我們的想像。有歷史學家說過，人類之所以能夠超越地球上的其它物種建立文明，主要是因為他們能夠在自己的大腦中創造出現實中不存在的東西。在未來，當人工智慧擁有超過人類的智力時，想像力也許是我們對於它們所擁有的惟一優勢。
At the very beginning, I wrote sci-fi because I decided to escape the dull life, and to reach out, with imagination, to the mysterious time and space that I could never truly reach. But then I found that the world around me became more and more like science fiction, and this process is speeding up. Future is like a pouring rain. It falls right on us even before we have time to open an umbrella. Meanwhile, it is frustrating to find that when sci-fi becomes reality, it won’t be hailed as magical any more. It will soon become part of our lives. Therefore, the only thing I can do is to push my imagination to even more distant time and space to hunt for the mysteries of sci-fi, which will become part of our daily life with greater speed. As a sci-fi author, I think my job is to write things down before they get really boring.
我最初創作科幻小說的目的，是為了逃離平淡的生活，用想像力去接觸那些我永遠無法到達的神奇時空。但後來我發現，周圍的世界變得越來越像科幻小說了，這種進程還在飛快地加速，未來像盛夏的大雨，在我們還不及撐開傘時就撲面而來。同時我也沮喪地發現，當科幻變為現實時，沒人會感到神奇，它們很快會成為生活中的一部分。所以我只有讓想像力前進到更為遙遠的時間和空間中去尋找科幻的神奇，科幻小說將以越來越快的速度變成平淡生活的一部分，作為一名科幻作家，我想我們的責任就是在事情變的平淡之前把它們寫出來。
This being said, the world is moving in the direction opposite to Clarke’s predictions. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the year of 2001, which has already passed, human beings have built magnificent cities in space, and established permanent colonies on the moon, and huge nuclear-powered spacecraft have sailed to Saturn. However, today, in 2018, the walk on the moon has become a distant memory. And the farthest reach of our manned space flights is just as long as the two-hour mileage of a high-speed train passing through my city.
但另一方面，世界卻向著與Clarke的預言相反的方向發展。在《2001:A Space Odyssey》中，在已經過去的2001年，人類已經在太空中建立起壯麗的城市，在月球上建立起永久性的殖民地，巨大的核動力飛船已經航行到土星。而在現實中的2018年，再也沒有人登上月球，人類的太空中航行的最遠的距離，也就是途經我所在的城市的高速列車兩個小時的裡程。
At the same time, information technology is developing at an unimaginable speed. With the entire world covered by the Internet, people have gradually lost their interest in space, as they find themselves increasingly comfortable in the space created by IT. Instead of an exploration of the real space, which is full of real difficulties, people now just prefer to experience virtual space through VR. Just like someone said, 「You promised me an ocean of stars, but you actually gave me Facebook.」
與此同時，信息技術卻以超乎想像的速度發展，網絡覆蓋了整個世界，在IT所營造的越來越舒適的安樂窩中，人們對太空漸漸失去了興趣，相對於充滿艱險的真實的太空探索，他們更願意在VR中體驗虛擬的太空。這像有一句話說的：「You promised me Mars colonies, instead, I got Facebook.（說好的星辰大海，你卻只給了我FACEBOOK。）」
This reality is also reflected in science fiction. Clarke’s magnificent imagination about space has gradually faded away. People have taken back their eyes from the stars. In the sci-fi works today, there are more imagination about how we live in cyber utopia or dystopia. Writers focus more on various problems we encounter in reality. The imagination of science fiction is abandoning the vastness and profoundness of Arthur Clarke, and embracing the narrowness and introversion of cyberpunk.
這樣的現實也反映在科幻小說中，Clarke對太空的瑰麗想像已經漸漸遠去，人們的目光從星空收回，現在的科幻小說，更多地想像人類在網絡烏託邦或反烏託邦中的生活，更多地關注現實中所遇到的各種問題，科幻的想像力由Clarke的廣闊和深遠，變成Cyberpunk的狹窄和內向。
As a sci-fi writer, I have been striving to continue Clarke’s imagination. I believe that the boundless space is still the best direction and destination for human imagination. I have always been portraying the grandeur and mysteries of the universe, interstellar expeditions, and the lives and civilizations in the distant worlds, even if for today’s sci-fi writers, this may seem childish and even outdated. As Clarke’s epitaph says, 「He never grew up, but he never stopped growing.」
作為科幻作家，我一直在努力延續著Clarke的想像，我相信，無垠的太空仍然是人類想象力最好的去向和歸宿，我一直在描寫宇宙的宏大神奇，描寫星際探險，描寫遙遠世界中的生命和文明，儘管在現在的科幻作家中，這樣會顯得有些幼稚，甚至顯得跟不上時代。正如Clarke的墓志銘：「他從未長大，但從未停止成長」。
Unlike the misconception of many people, sci-fi is not written to predict the future. It just makes a list of possibilities of the future, like displaying a pile of cobblestones of imagination for people to see and play with. Science fiction can never tell which possible future will become the real future. This is not sci-fi’s job. It’s also beyond its capabilities.
與人們常有的誤解不同，科幻小說並不是在預測未來，它只是把未來的各種可能性排列出來，就像一堆想像力的鵝卵石，擺在那裡供人們欣賞和把玩。這無數個可能的未來哪一個會成為現實，科幻小說並不能告訴我們，這不是它的任務，也超出了它的能力。
But one thing is certain: in the long run, for all these countless possible futures, any future without space travel will be bleak, no matter how prosperous our own world becomes.
但有一點可以確定：從長遠的時間尺度來看，在這無數可能的未來中，不管地球達到了怎樣的繁榮，那些沒有太空航行的未來都是暗淡的。
But even at that time, the universe is still something so big that even our wildest imagination fails to catch its edge. And the closest star is still out of our reach. The vast ocean of stars can always carry our infinite imagination.
即使在這個時候，宇宙仍是一個大的無法想像的存在，距我們最近的恆星仍然遙不可及。浩瀚的星空永遠能夠承載我們無窮的想像力。
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