打開潘多拉魔盒的八大發明

楊瑞

很多人小時候都曾夢想過要當發明家，希望自己的奇思妙想能給人類帶來福音。不過，很多現實中的發明不僅沒能造福人類，讓世界變得更美好，反而違背了發明者的初衷，令發明者深感懊悔。下面就請隨本文一起看看都有哪些令發明者后悔的發明。

僅僅因為一個人發明了一件東西，并不意味著其會對最后的結果感到高興。

J. Robert Oppenheimer1）/ Albert Einstein—The Atomic Bomb

Its J. Robert Oppenheimer who， as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory2） during World War II， is credited with the creation of the atomic bomb. But Albert Einsteins work made it possible.

Despite past associations with left wing organizations， Oppenheimer welcomed the opportunity to play a part in the war effort. Later， however， he had mixed feelings about the bomb. “I have no remorse3） about the making of the bomb … As for how we used it， I understand why it happened and appreciate with what nobility those men with whom Id worked made their decision. But I do not have the feeling that it was done right. The ultimatum4） to Japan [the Potsdam Proclamation5） demanding Japans surrender] was full of pious6） platitudes7） .... Our government should have acted with more foresight and clarity in telling the world and Japan what the bomb meant，” he said.

Einstein was less equivocal8）. Years later he regretted having signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to support the research of physicists into nuclear chain reactions and their use as a weapon， because he believed the Germans were already working on it. “Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb，” he said， “I would have never lifted a finger.”

J·羅伯特·奧本海默/阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦：原子彈

J·羅伯特·奧本海默是二戰時期洛斯·阿拉莫斯實驗室的主任，他被認為是原子彈的發明者。但卻是阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦的工作讓這一發明成為可能。

盡管曾與左翼組織有關聯，奧本海默仍很高興能有機會參與這一與戰爭有關的工作。但后來，他對原子彈卻百感交集。“我不后悔研制原子彈……至于我們是怎么使用它的，我知道事情發生的原因，理解那些曾與我一起共事的人是懷著怎樣崇高的理由做出了他們的決定。但我并不認為這么做就是對的。對日本的最后通牒（指要求日本投降的《波茨坦公告》）里頭全是虛偽的套話……我們的政府本應更加深謀遠慮，更加明確地告訴全世界，告訴日本，原子彈意味著什么。”奧本海默說。

愛因斯坦的態度就沒這么模棱兩可。他曾在致羅斯福總統的信上署名，敦促羅斯福總統支持物理學家研究核鏈式反應及其武器用途，因為那時他以為德國人已經在研究了。多年后，他對此表示后悔。“要是早知道德國人造不出原子彈，”他說，“我決不會出手幫忙。”

Mikhail Kalashnikov9）—AK-47

Kalashnikov designed the rifle that bore his name for the Russian army at the end of the Second World War after witnessing terrible casualties in battle and being injured himself. Designed to be a simple automatic rifle that could be made cheaply using the mass production methods available at the time， Kalashnikov， who died in 2013， lived long enough to see his creation be responsible for more deaths than any other assault rifle.

“I keep coming back to the same question. If my rifle claimed peoples lives， can it be that I， an Orthodox believer， am to blame for their deaths， even if they are my enemies？” he wrote in a letter to the head of the Russian Orthodox church in 2010.

米哈伊爾·卡拉什尼科夫：AK-47突擊步槍

在目睹了戰場上的恐怖傷亡、自己也負過傷之后，卡拉什尼科夫在二戰末期為俄國軍隊設計了這一以自己名字命名（編注：AK-47中的K是Kalashnikov的第一個字母）的步槍。卡拉什尼科夫設計的是一種簡單、造價低廉的自動步槍，可用當時的大規模生產方式制造。他于2013年去世，在有生之年看到自己的發明所殺的人比其他任何突擊自動步槍都要多得多。

“我總是在想一個問題。如果我的步槍奪走了人們的生命，即使他們是我的敵人，那么我作為一名東正教信徒，是不是應該為他們的死而受到責難？”2010年他在一封致俄羅斯東正教大牧首的信中這樣寫道。

Tim Berners Lee10）—The Double Slash

Given what Sir Tim did for all of us when he developed HTML11） and created the World Wide Web， hes got a fair amount of credit in the bank. If he did have any major regrets about the web， we wouldnt find it too difficult to forgive him， but his mea culpa12） relates to only two characters， the “//” at the beginning of every web address. “Really， if you think about it， it doesnt need the //. I could have designed it not to have the //，” he said， according to Business Insider.

蒂姆·伯納斯·李：雙斜杠

鑒于蒂姆爵士研發了HTML技術，創造了萬維網，為我們所有人做了這么多貢獻，他已經在銀行有了相當的信用額度。如果他真的在萬維網方面有什么重大悔過，我們也不會覺得很難原諒他。而他的過錯只涉及兩個字符，即每個網址前頭的“//”。據《商業內幕》網站報道，蒂姆爵士曾這樣說：“真的，你想想，其實不需要雙斜杠。我當初設計的時候原本可以不要的。”

Ethan Zuckerman—The Pop-up Advert

If youve ever found yourself yelling at your computer screen in frustration as yet another pop-up ad leaps into view， obscuring13） the content behind it， Zuckerman is the person to blame.

Now head of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology， Zuckerman wrote an essay for The Atlantic last year entitled “The Internets Original Sin，” in which he took full responsibility for the pesky blighters14）. Working as an employee of web host15） Tripod at the time， Zuckerman explained that the company， which provided free web pages for consumers， had spent five years looking for a way to generate revenue.

“At the end of the day， the business model that got us funded was advertising. The model that got us acquired was analyzing users personal homepages so we could better target ads to them. Along the way， we ended up creating one of the most hated tools in the advertisers toolkit： the pop-up ad.”

伊桑·佐克曼：彈窗廣告

如果你曾發現自己因又一個彈窗廣告蹦入視野擋住后面的內容而對著電腦屏幕沮喪地叫喊，那你就該責怪佐克曼。

佐客曼現任麻省理工學院公民媒體中心主任，去年曾為《大西洋月刊》寫過一篇題為《互聯網的原罪》的文章。在這篇文章中，他表示對這個討厭的玩意兒負全責。佐克曼解釋稱，自己當時是網絡主機公司“三腳架”的員工。該公司為消費者提供的網頁是免費的，為了尋找一種盈利方式已經花了五年的時間。

“最后，我們能夠獲利的商業模式就是廣告。使我們獲得融資的這一模式就是分析用戶的個人主頁，以便我們能更具針對性地向他們投放廣告。一路走來，我們最終創造出了廣告商工具箱里最令人討厭的一種工具：彈窗廣告。”

Dong Nguyen—Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird was a sensation a year ago. What looked like a crude and simple game proved to be hugely addictive thanks to it hitting that sweet spot16） between infuriating17） difficulty and being just playable enough to make you think that next time youll do better. Downloads soared and controversy raged until， after 50 million downloads and advertising revenue that was hitting around $45，000 a day， Nguyen had had enough and announced that he was going to withdraw it from app stores. “I cannot take this anymore，” he tweeted. Apparently， the publicity generated by the game had attracted the attention of the worlds press and Nguyen was bombarded with calls， tweets， and emails.

The removal of the game from app stores did little to quell the publicity. Nguyen received death threats， while phones with the game already installed sold on eBay for small fortunes18）， and app stores were flooded with copycat19） titles.

阮哈東：飛揚的小鳥

一年前，“飛揚的小鳥”是一款有轟動效應的游戲。事實證明，這款看起來粗糙且簡單的游戲非常容易讓人上癮，因為它戳到了游戲玩家的死穴：難度之大讓人極為懊惱，上手又恰恰容易得足以讓你覺得下次會玩得更好。游戲下載量激增，爭議隨之肆虐，在下載量達5000萬、廣告收益接近每天4.5萬美金之后，阮哈東受夠了，他宣布要將游戲從蘋果應用商店下架。“我再也受不了這個了。”他在推特上說。顯然，游戲帶來的知名度已經吸引了全世界媒體的注意。阮哈東每天都得承受各種電話、推特消息和郵件的狂轟濫炸。

將游戲從蘋果應用商店下架對降低其知名度沒什么效果。阮哈東收到了死亡威脅，而裝有這款游戲的手機則能在eBay網上賣到不菲的價錢，蘋果應用商店里到處都是這款游戲的山寨版。

Bob Propst—The Office Cubicle

While working as a consultant for Herman Miller20） in the 1960s， Bob Propst introduced America to the open plan office and with it， the office cubicle. It was， he told the New York Times in 1997， designed to “give knowledge workers a more flexible， fluid environment than the rat-maze boxes of offices.”

Companies saw his invention as a way to save money， doing away with individual offices and replacing them with open plans and cubicles. Propst came to lament his invention. “The cubiclizing of people in modern corporations is monolithic insanity，” he said.

鮑勃·普羅普斯特：辦公室隔間

20世紀60年代，鮑勃·普羅普斯特在赫曼米勒公司當顧問，其時他將開放式辦公室及隨之一起的辦公室隔間引入美國。他曾在1997年向《紐約時報》表示，這一設計原本是為了“給知識工人一個相對于老鼠迷宮般的辦公室而言更靈活、更富于變化的環境”。

各公司將他的發明視為一種省錢的方法，淘汰掉單個的辦公室，用開放式辦公和小隔間取而代之。普羅普斯特到后來對他的這一發明感到后悔。他說：“現代企業都將人們放在這樣的小隔間里辦公，這是一種極端瘋狂的行為。”

Vincent Connare—Comic Sans

“If you love it， you dont know much about typography21）.” An anonymous critic of the font22） Comic Sans didnt say that， for those are the words of its designer， Vincent Connare， talking to the Wall Street Journal. Connare followed up that comment， however， with this： “If you hate it， you really dont know much about typography， either， and you should get another hobby.”

Connares view， and one shared by lots of others， is that the problem with Comic Sans is not with the font itself， but its overuse and misuse. Designed for a Microsoft application aimed at children to be used as a replacement in speech bubbles for Times New Roman， Connare never imagined it would become so widely used and derided23）.

文森特·康納爾：Comic Sans字體

“你如果喜愛這一字體，那你就對印刷排版所知不多。”說這話的人并不是Comic Sans字體的什么匿名批評人士，因為這是該字體的設計者文森特·康納爾對《華爾街日報》講的原話。但是康納爾隨即又說了這么一句：“你如果討厭這一字體，那你對印刷排版更是所知不多，而且你應該找一個別的愛好。”

康納爾的觀點也是其他很多人的觀點，他們認為Comic Sans字體的問題不在字體本身，而在于該字體被濫用、誤用。這本是為一款針對兒童的微軟應用而設計的字體，用來代替Times New Roman字體，用于漫畫中的話框。但是康納爾永遠想不到，該字體的使用會變得如此廣泛并招致嘲弄。

Tom Karen—Raleigh Chopper24）

Before the BMX25） arrived on the scene in the late 1970s， if you wanted a bike that wasnt of the drop-handlebarred26） racing variety， Raleighs Chopper was one of the few options. Loved by millions for its comfortable saddle， laid-back seating position， and those huge Harley Davidson-esque27） handlebars， it was one of Raleighs best-selling bikes in the 1970s.

However， its designer， Tom Karen， wasnt enthusiastic when a comeback28） for the Chopper was mooted29） last year. He told The Telegraph： “The Chopper wasnt a very good bike. It was terribly heavy so you wouldnt want to ride it very far. There was some guy who rode it from Lands End to John OGroats30） for a good cause and by the end he was cursing it.”

湯姆·卡倫：蘭令Chopper自行車

在BMX小輪車于20世紀70年代登場以前，你想要的自行車如果不是那種帶下彎形把手的賽車，那蘭令的Chopper自行車就是你為數不多的選擇之一。無數人喜歡這款自行車舒服的車座、讓人感到放松的座椅位置和那種巨大的哈雷摩托風格的車把。這是蘭令公司20世紀70年代最暢銷的一款自行車。

但是，去年有人提出讓這款車回歸時，它的設計師湯姆·卡倫卻不是那么熱心。他向《每日電訊報》表示：“Chopper不是一款特別好的自行車。它很重，所以你不會想騎著它去很遠的地方。曾經有人騎著它進行公益活動，從蘭茲角騎到約翰奧格羅茨，到最后此人卻對這款車咒罵不已。”

1. J. Robert Oppenheimer：即尤利烏斯·羅伯特·奧本海默（Julius Robert Oppenheimer， 1904～1967），著名美籍猶太裔物理學家，曼哈頓計劃的領導者，原子彈之父。

2. Los Alamos Laboratory：即美國洛斯·阿拉莫斯國家實驗室，簡稱阿拉莫斯實驗室，世界上最大的多功能實驗室之一，曾云集大批世界頂尖科學家，發明了世界上第一顆原子彈和第一顆氫彈。

3. remorse [r??m??（r）s] n. 痛悔，悔恨，自責

4. ultimatum [??lt??me?t?m] n. 最后通牒

5. the Potsdam Proclamation：即《中美英三國促令日本投降之波茨坦公告》，簡稱《波茨坦公告》或《波茨坦宣言》，是二戰末期盟國對日本的最后通牒式公告，其中一條內容是：“盟國將予日本以最后打擊，直至停止抵抗。”

6. pious [?pa??s] adj. 虛偽的

7. platitude [?pl?t?tju?d] n. 套話

8. equivocal [??kw?v?k（?）l] adj. 模棱兩可的，態度曖昧的，含糊的

9. Mikhail Kalashnikov：米哈伊爾·卡拉什尼科夫（1919～2013），俄羅斯著名槍械設計師，以設計AK-47突擊步槍聞名。

10. Tim Berners Lee：蒂姆·伯納斯·李（1955～），英國計算機科學家，萬維網（World Wide Web）的發明者

11. HTML：超文本標記語言

12. mea culpa：拉丁語，意為“我的過失”；認錯

13. obscure [?b?skj??（r）] vt. 遮掩

14. blighter [?bla?t?（r）] n. 討厭的事物

15. host [h??st] n. [計]主機

16. sweet spot：（球拍、球棒等上的）最有效擊球點

17. infuriating [?n?fj??ri?e?t??] adj. 使人十分生氣的

18. small fortune：〈口〉大筆錢

19. copycat [?k?pi?k?t] n. 模仿者，仿效者

20. Herman Miller：赫曼米勒，美國最主要的家具與室內設計廠商之一

21. typography [ta??p?ɡr?fi] n. 印刷格式，排版式樣

22. font [f?nt] n. 字形

23. deride [d??ra?d] vt. 嘲笑，嘲弄

24. Raleigh Chopper：英國著名自行車公司蘭令（Raleigh）于20世紀70年代推出的一款造型獨特的經典自行車，有著高高的車把和形似靠背椅的厚實坐墊，后輪比前輪大。

25. BMX：指BMX小輪車，BMX的全稱是Bicycle Motocross （自行越野車），這種車結實、輕巧、抗震、耐摔，車胎粗而耐磨，剎車性能高，車把能360度旋轉。

26. drop-handlebarred：帶有競賽用自行車下彎形把手的

27. Harley Davidson-esque：哈雷摩托車風格的

28. comeback [?k?m?b?k] n. 恢復，重現

29. moot [mu?t] vt. 提出（問題、觀點等）供討論

30. from Lands End to John OGroats：從蘭茲角（Lands End，英格蘭最西南端的海岬）到約翰奧格羅茨（John OGroats，曾被認為是英國最北端），指橫跨英國的距離。