This interview was conducted in 2019, and was originally published in Chinese. Our founder, Dr. Sister Gracie assisted translation and Chinese proofreading.
Manuel Castells is Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Before he was Professor of Planning at the University of California-Berkeley for 24 years. He has also been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at MIT, Oxford, and Cambridge. He is currently appointed as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Communication at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Manuel Castells is considered the leading scholar in the study of the network society, and in the social and economic implications of information technology. His trilogy “The Information Age: Economy, society and culture” is studied in universities around the world including in Chinese universities.
Manuel Castells was one of the first researchers to investigate the formation of Silicon Valley, as he was living there for 24 years. Later on he has conducted comparative studies on the formation of high technology urban-industrial systems in different countries in the world.
腾讯研究院: 如何评价近20年来互联网产品和服务带来的改变？您认为，最大的成就与最大的问题何在？
How do you evaluate the changes brought by Internet products and services in the past 20 years? What do you think are the biggest achievement and biggest problem?
Manuel Castells： 互联网的出现是对人类活动和日常生活一次革命性重塑，互联网本身没有好坏，互联网之于网络社会，就像电力之于工业时代，它早已变成社会的基础。
互联网最大的成就，在我看来是其连接所有人和所有物的能力，包括触达海量信息、自由通讯、避免信息独裁和信息控制等。而最大的问题是隐私权的缺失和数据商品化带来的一系列转变。
The emergence of the Internet is a revolutionary reshaping of human activities and daily lives. The Internet itself is not good or bad. The Internet to the network society is just like electricity to the industrial age. It has already become the foundation of our society.
The greatest achievement of the Internet is its ability to connect everyone and everything, including our access to massive information, free communication, and the avoidance of information dictatorship and information control. The biggest problem is the lack of privacy and the series of changes brought by data commoditization.
腾讯研究院: 互联网、人工智能这一波技术革命，与工业革命对经济社会的改变，对人们的挑战，是否相同？有哪些可以借鉴的经验，有哪些需要警惕的？
Are technological revolutions such as the Internet and artificial intelligence (AI) the same as the changes in economics and challenges posed to people by the industrial revolution? What experiences can we learn from, and what should we be wary of?
Manuel Castells： 工业革命彻底改变了能源生产和分配的模式，同理，互联网改变了信息生产和分配的模式。相比之下，我认为互联网对我们的影响更加深刻，因为我们是信息生物，我们的大脑在所有物种中是独一无二的，网络时代人类大脑已经全部相连。
The Industrial Revolution completely changed the model of production and distribution. In the same way, the Internet changed the model of information production and distribution. I think the Internet has a more profound impact on us because we are information creatures, and our brains are unique among all species. In the Internet age, human brains are all connected.
人类正面临着同样的挑战：在不知道很多技术产品运行代码和机制的情况下，我们不得不去使用这些产品，大多数人对此是恐惧的。这种不可知性、不可控性，意味着技术越强大，它们潜在的破坏力也就越大。
Our humanity is facing the challenge: We have to use many technological products without knowing the code and mechanisms that run them, and most people are afraid of this. The unknowability and uncontrollability means that the more powerful the technology is, the greater its potential destructive power will be.
工业革命引发了两次世界大战和对第三世界的剥削，并建立了一个新的生产系统。这个系统威胁着人类在地球上的生存，由于它引发的一系列气候问题：我们的生产系统，以汽车工业为最典型代表，是造成气候危机的元凶。
The Industrial Revolution led to two world wars and the exploitation of the Third World, and also established a new production system. This system threatens human existence on earth because of a series of climate problems it triggers: Our production system, with the automobile industry as a typical example, is the main culprit of the climate crisis.
Continuted.
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