对科技简约的赞美编辑本段回目录
科技产业似乎愈发青睐“少即是多”这一观点。
Jun 10th 2010
2010 年 6月10日
当前节俭这个词大多出现在政客或经济学家的嘴边；但这个词极少能从科技专家的听到。虽然“少即是多”这一理念在建筑、设计及时装等领域上的应用颇广，科技领域从古至今都对此持反对意见。产品的功能自然是越多越好；而其明年的新版本拥有的功能则应该更多。随着价格的下跌，一开始惹人眼球的新特性很快变得平凡无奇——不信的话你可以买部没有摄像功能的手机或是一辆没电动车窗的车子——这使得各个公司为了胜过它们的竞争对手，竞相为自己的产品加新的特色。不要管有没有人会用这些新功能（就比如说，本文虽然是在1997年开发的文字处理软件中键入的，但这软件用起来似乎一点问题都没有），在一场军备竞赛中，多永远是多的。
But now there are signs that technologists are waking up to the benefits of minimalism, thanks to two things: feature fatigue among consumers who simply want things to work, and strong demand from less affluent consumers in the developing world. It is telling that the market value of Apple, the company most closely associated with simple, elegant high-tech products, recently overtook that of Microsoft, the company with the most notorious case of new-featuritis. True, Apple’s products contain lots of features under the hood, but the company has a knack for concealing such complexity using elegant design. Other companies have also prospered by providing easy-to-use products: think of the Nintendo Wii video-games console or the Flip video camera. Gadgets are no longer just for geeks, and if technology is to appeal to a broad audience, simplicity trumps fancy specifications.
但如今科技工作者们似乎发现了简约主义的好处，原因有二：只需要能够正常工作的产品消费者对新特性的厌倦，以及发展中国家中不十分富裕的消费者的强烈要求。据说苹果公司的市场价值最近超过了微软，苹果公司是与其简单巧妙的高科技产品紧密联系在一起的，而微软则闻名于其层出不穷，繁复的新特性。诚然，苹果的产品在其外壳之下藏有很多特性，但这个公司有本事能是这些繁复的东西藏身于其巧妙的产品设计中。其他公司同样也成功的推出了简单易用的产品：想想任天堂的Wii游戏机或是翻转式摄像机。精巧玩意儿不再只是电脑怪才们的专属，如果科技要想吸引更多的人，简约的设计是势必要胜过让人眼花缭乱的说明书的。
Another strand of techno-austerity can be found in software that keeps things simple in order to reduce distractions and ensure that computer-users remain focused and productive. Many word processors now have special full-screen modes, so that all unnecessary and distracting menus, palettes and so on are disabled or hidden; rather than fiddling with font sizes or checking e-mail, you are encouraged to get on with your writing. If the temptation to have a quick look at Facebook proves too much, there are programs that will disable access to particular websites at specified times of day; and if that is not draconian enough, there are even some programs that can block internet access altogether (see Technology Quarterly). A computer on which some features are not present, or have been deliberately disabled, may in fact be more useful if you are trying to get things done. There are no distracting hyperlinks on a typewriter.
科技简约的另一个方面便是不断简单化的软件，这减少了电脑用户的注意力分散，使得他们能够集中精力，工作效率提高。许多文字处理软件现在提供了特殊的全屏模式，这样一切不必要的让人分神的如菜单、调色板等部件都被关掉或者隐藏了；你不用受到字体大小、查看Email等事情的烦扰，专心写作。想要看看FACEBOOK上有什么新鲜事的念头如果诱惑力实在太大的话，有些软件能在特定时间封死特定网站的访问；如果这还不够严厉，甚至有软件能完全将网络连接断掉。在工作的时候，一部功能不完整，或被人为关闭的电脑实际上更有利于工作。在打字机上可没有什么让人分心的超链接。
And then there is the phenomenon of “frugal” innovation—the new ideas that emerge when trying to reduce the cost of something in order to make it affordable to consumers in places like China, India and Brazil. The resulting products often turn out to have huge appeal in the rich world too, especially in an era of belt-tightening. The netbook, or low-cost laptop, was inspired by a scheme to produce cheap laptops for children in poor countries, but has since proved popular with consumers around the world. Tata devised the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, with India’s emerging middle classes in mind; it is now planning to launch it in Europe, too, where there is growing demand for cheap, simple vehicles.
有一种现象叫做节约型创新——这是种为缩减开支而兴起的新概念，其目的在于使中国、印度、巴西等地区的消费者能买得起以这一理念设计出的东西。但以这一概念设计出的产品反而通常在富裕国家也卖得很好，特别是在经济不景气的时期。上网本，或称廉价笔记本的概念的诞生最初是因为想要为贫穷国家的孩子生产一种廉价的笔记本，但自此之后上网本便受到全世界的消费者的欢迎。随着印度中产阶级人群的不断壮大，Tata开发了Nano，全世界最便宜的车；Tata现同样计划进军欧洲市场，在那里人们对廉价，简单的汽车的需求正日益膨胀。
All this offers grounds for hope. If the feature-obsessed technology industry can change its tune, perhaps there is a chance that governments—which have also tended to be inveterate believers in the idea that more is more—might also come to appreciate the merits of minimalism.
这一切都是希望的源泉。如果钟情于开发新功能新特性的科技产业能够改变其发展方向，可能政府——政府往往同样也顽固地认为“多便是多”——会逐渐意识到简约主义的好处。
参考文献编辑本段回目录
http://article.yeeyan.org/view/Oliver_wen/111240
