第三世界百元笔电 掀激辩 A Third-World Laptop Provokes a Big Debate 王丽娟译 电脑业高层听说有人计画为开发中世界的儿童制造每台一百美元的笔记型电脑 时，普遍加以冷嘲热讽。他们问，单是萤幕造价就要一百美元，何来这种电脑？ CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world’s children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100? 一个洞见，将百元笔电从乌托邦般的美梦变身为可用的电脑原型，计画首席科 技顾问玛丽露．杰普森形容这是个「超怪的点子」。 Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as “a really wacky idea.” 曾任英特尔晶片设计师的杰普森找到方法，改良传统笔电的显示幕，将萤幕制 造成本压到40美元，同时减少耗电量80%以上。新技术还附带一项好处，在阳 光下显示幕仍清晰可读。 Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen’s manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight. 「一童一笔电」的非营利计画，就靠上述等等技术进步，过去两年半以来，让 无数怀疑论者服服气气。阿根廷、巴西、利比亚、奈及利亚、泰国五国已暂时 承诺，让数以百万计学生拥有这部电脑。这款百元笔电预计2007年中期开始在 台湾生产。 That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five countries — Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand — have made tentative commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007. 这款笔电不用微软视窗作业系统，连硬碟都不用，萤幕也很小。制造成本现在 已接近150美元，而不是一百美元。但这种价格仍将改变开发中国家的经济等式。 The laptop does not come with a Microsoft Windows operating system or even a hard drive, and the screen is small. And the cost is now closer to $150 than $100. But the price tag, even compared with low-end $500 laptops now widely available, transforms the economic equation for developing countries. 由知名电脑研究人员尼可拉斯‧尼葛洛庞帝想出来的这项努力，仍然无可避免 地成为一项论战的焦点，双方为电脑对学习与经济发展的价值各执一词。 That has not prevented the effort, conceived by Nicholas Negroponte, a prominent computer researcher, from becoming the focal point of a debate over the value of computers to both learning and economic development. 反对贬抑者包括英特尔与微软，两大电脑巨擘另有所图。英特尔针对校园与教 育计画，锁定教师而非学生，研发一款400 美元的笔电。微软董事长兼头号慈 善家比尔‧盖兹则质疑尼葛洛庞帝的概念，说「仅是炮制我们在富裕世界的作 法」，并认定此法也有益开发中国家。 The detractors include two computer industry giants, Intel and Microsoft, pushing alternative approaches. Intel has developed a $400 laptop aimed at schools as well as an education program that focuses on teachers instead of students. And Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and a leading philanthropist for the third world, has questioned whether the concept is “just taking what we do in the rich world” and assuming that that is something good for the developing world, too. 「麻省理工学院媒体实验室」创办人尼葛洛庞帝说，他的小机器受到如此重视 ，他感到很有意思。他已不是第一次因预告科技前景而受到挑战。他说：「这 就像大家只注意哥伦布的船，而不看他要往何处去。各位必须记得，这一切都 是为了教育。」 Mr. Negroponte, the founding director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, said he was amused by the attention his little machine was getting. It is not the first time he has been challenged for proclaiming technology’s promise. “It’s as if people spent all of their attention focusing on Columbus’s boat and not on where he was going,” he said in an interview here. “You have to remember that what this is about is education.” 电脑学家与教育家、也是这项计画的顾问赛穆尔‧派普特说，儿童拥有电脑而 能自己探索，就能「学习如何学习」。派普特说，这是一项有用的学习技巧， 比侧重记忆和考试的传统教学方法更有用。 Seymour Papert, a computer scientist and educator who is an adviser to the project, has argued that if young people are given computers and allowed to explore, they will “learn how to learn.” That, Mr. Papert argues, is a more valuable skill than traditional teaching strategies that focus on memorization and testing. 这项构想也包括将系统维修责任大半交给儿童，不再仰赖他人，也不用官僚机 构插手。 The idea is also that children can take on much of the responsibility for maintaining the systems, rather than relying on or creating bureaucracies to do so. 杰普森说：「我们相信，必须让儿童起杠杆作用，发挥影响力。他们就是学习 机。」 “We believe you have to leverage the kids themselves,” Ms. Jepsen said. “They’re learning machines.” 她以笔电背光模组为例。根据设计，此物寿命五年，但是万一坏了，必须和换 闪光灯(手电筒)的电池一样简单。她说，这是儿童也会做的事。 As an example, she pointed to the backlight used by the laptop. Although it is designed to last five years, if it fails it can be replaced as simply as batteries are replaced in a flashlight. It is something a child can do, she said. 这套理论，也是这项计画的世界观核心，引起一些异议。 That philosophy, at the heart of the project’s world view, has stirred criticism. 史丹福大学教育教授赖利‧古班说：「如果电力不成问题，我认为将电脑交到 小孩和父母手中很棒，会影响他们的人生。如果他们的理论是这东西将在各国 带动教育革命，我不以为然，他们对正规教育的现实太天真无知。」 “I think it’s wonderful that the machines can be put in the hands of children and parents, and it will have an impact on their lives if they have access to electricity,” Larry Cuban, a Stanford University education professor, said in an interview. “However, if part of their rationale is that it will revolutionize education in various countries, I don’t think it will happen, and they are naive and innocent about the reality of formal schooling.” 这款电脑在台湾的广达电脑（全球第二大笔电厂）开始全面生产时，争论必定 将迈入一个新阶段。虽然一般消费者无法购买，这款笔电可能成为全球最热卖 的一款可携式电脑。 The debate is certain to enter a new phase when the machines go into full-scale production by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, the world’s second-largest laptop maker. Even though it will not be available to consumers, the laptop could become the best-selling portable computer in the world. 这项计画目前已有三百万台的承购量，获得非洲、拉丁美洲、亚洲至少各一国 提出承诺，总订单达五百万台时，将开始大规模量产。尼葛洛庞帝说，根据现 在的谈判结果，预期2007年年中可达这项目标。 The project now has tentative commitments for three million computers and will begin large-scale manufacturing when it reaches five million with separate commitments from at least one country each in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Based on current negotiations, Mr. Negroponte says he expects that goal to be reached by mid-2007. 美洲开发银行11月15日签字，同意提供购买电脑的贷款与捐款，为计画注入一 帖有力的强心剂。 The project got a significant boost on Nov. 15 when the Inter-American Development Bank signed an agreement to supply both loans and grants to buy the machines. 世界银行执行董事、独立经济发展专家胡安‧荷西‧达布比说：「几年前，我 认为这只是幻想或不切实际的乌托邦点子，现在它已成真，令人士气大振。」 “Several years ago, I thought it was an illusion or a utopian idea,” said Juan Jose Daboub, managing director of the World Bank and an independent economic-development expert. “But this is now real and encouraging.” 接替尼葛洛庞帝成为「媒体实验室」总裁，目前兼任笔电计画软体研发领导人 的电脑研究员华特‧班德说：「这只特洛伊木马肚子里藏的是配备笔电的儿童。」 Walter Bender, a computer researcher who served as director of the Media Laboratory after Mr. Negroponte and now heads software development for the laptop project, said “The soldiers inside this Trojan horse are children with laptops,” By JOHN MARKOFF / NY TIMES 关键字句 有人认为替开发中国家儿童制造一百美元的笔记型电脑（laptop／notebook computer），是一种幻想（illusion）。 现在，这项非营利（nonprofit）计画（project）从不切实际的美梦（utopian dream），转变成有用的（working）的电脑原型（prototype）。 不过，反对诋毁者（detractor）怀疑电脑对开发中国家儿童的学习与经济发展 的价值，认为对富国有用的点子，在开发中国家不见得行得通。 （王丽娟） 【2006-12-11/联合报/B6版/UNITED DAILY NEWS】 -- 赵客缦胡缨 吴钩霜雪明 银鞍照白马 飒沓如流星 十步杀一人 千里不留行 事了拂衣去 深藏身与名 闲过信陵饮 脱剑膝前横 将炙啖朱亥 持觞劝侯赢 三盃吐然诺 五岳倒为轻 眼花耳热後 意气素霓生 救赵挥金槌 邯郸先震惊 千秋二壮士 烜赫大梁城 纵使侠骨香 不惭世上英 谁能书合下 白首太玄经 李白 侠客行 --

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