Yet broadening our horizons can backfire by making us more confused and inactive than before.
但是拓展范围将会适得其反，让我们比以前更加的混乱和懈怠。
With so many scenarios and possibilities, what should we pay attention to?
这么多场景和可能性，我们应该注意哪些呢？
The world is changing faster than ever before, and we are flooded by impossible amounts of data, of ideas, of promises and of threats.
世界比以前变化更快，我们被可能的大量数据、想法、承诺、威胁所淹没。
Humans relinquish authority to the free market, to crowd wisdom and to external algorithms partly because they cannot deal with the deluge of data.
人类放弃了管理自由市场、大众智慧、外部算法，部分是因为他们无法处理海量的数据。
In the past, censorship worked by blocking the flow of information.
过去，审查工作阻断了信息流动。
In the twenty-first century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information.
在二十世纪，人们淹没在审查无关信息的洪流中。
People just don’t know what to pay attention to, and they often spend their time investigating and debating side issues.
人们不知道该注意什么，他们经常在细枝末节上花费了很多时间去调查和争论。
In ancient times having power meant having access to data.
在古代拥有权力意味着可以获取数据。
Today having power means knowing what to ignore.
现在拥有权力意味着知道哪些可以忽略。
So of everything that happens in our chaotic world, what should we focus on?
因此在我们混沌的世界里发生的所有事，我们应该关注什么呢？
If we think in term of months, we had probably better focus on immediate problems such as the turmoil in the Middle East, the refugee crisis in Europe and the slowing of the Chinese economy.
如果我们以月为周期来考量，我们最好关注当前的问题，例如中东动乱、欧洲的难民危机、中国的经济增长放缓。
If we think in terms of decades, then global warming, growing inequality and the disruption of the job market loom large.
如果我们以十年为周期来考量，应该关注全球变暖、发展不均衡、日益混乱的就业市场。
Yet if we take the really grand view of life, all other problems and developments are overshadowed by three interlinked processes:
如果我们以真正关注生命的观点来看，所有其它问题和发展问题都被三个内在相关的三个过程所掩盖：
1. Science is converging on an all-encompassing dogma, which says that organisms are algorithms, and life is data processing.
科学正在融合一个包罗万象的教条，即有机体是算法，生命是数据过程。
2. Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness.
智能将会减退意识。
3. Non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms may soon know us better than we know ourselves.
无意识但高智慧的算法可能很快就比我们自己更了解我们。
These three processes raise three key questions, which I hope will stick in your mind long after you have finished this book:
这三个过程引出了三个关键问题，我希望你在读完这本书后长时间牢记在你脑海中：
1. Are organisms really just algorithms, and is life really just data processing?
算法真的仅仅是算法，生命真的仅仅是数据过程吗？
2. What’s more valuable – intelligence or consciousness?
智能和意识哪一个更有价值？
3. What will happen to society, politics and daily life when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves?
当无意识但高智能的算法比我们自己更好的知道自己时，社会、政治、日常生活将会发生什么？
词汇
backfire v. 适得其反，事与愿违
scenario n. 情景
relinquish v. 放弃，让出
deluge n. 洪水，泛滥
censorship n. 审查制度，审查机构
side issues 细枝末节
chaotic adj. 混沌的，一片混乱的
turmoil n. 混乱，焦虑
refugee n. 难民
loom large 赫然耸立，显得严重
interlink v. 连结
converge v. 聚集
all-encompassing 保包含一切的
dogma n. 教义，教条
decouple v. 衰退
broadening：加宽，拓展
horizons：眼界、范围、地平线
inactive：不活跃、懒惰
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