Map
It was probably many, many years ago that six billion people on Earth came together to discuss how to find a path to the moon. It was not easy to manage so many people doing the same thing simultaneously, and in the beginning, the religious leaders led the way. Whenever they came to a fork in the road, they would stop for days to consult the teachings or scriptures of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, or Siddhartha. Surprisingly, the three prophets were overwhelmingly in agreement about guiding people to the moon, although there were occasional disputes that turned out to be inconsequential misinterpretations. So the religious leaders led the crowd day after day, over mountains and hills, but the distance to the moon still seemed far. At this point, some voices of doubt slowly spread through the crowd, at first only as some wishy-washy ramblings after dinner, but once the seed of doubt was planted, it would take root like a weed and could never be eradicated. This doubt spread like a disease through the crowd, and finally, at a fork in the road, a political leader, whose name we later learned was Philip IV, came forward and insisted on making the opposite choice of the religious leaders. This was the first split in the crowd, and later, more and more political leaders came out against the religious leaders, arguing that they had done nothing to help man reach the moon and had wasted so many generations of people’s time. They decided to hold a general meeting when they came to a fork in the road and let the people discuss the choice. After one fork in the road after another, the people split into more than a hundred small groups, and they occasionally used torches and horns to communicate with each other so that after some of the crowd realized they were going the wrong way, they could still catch up by taking a shortcut. At times, these groups argued and even fought among themselves, but it was peaceful to reach the moon for the most part. However, the trouble for the political leaders was that people seemed to have difficulty getting a consensus. Sometimes they sit at the fork in the road for a week until the debating crowd is dry-mouthed and exhausted. Other times, the crowd chose never to reach a consensus. Hence, people decided to go off on different tangents based on their positions, sometimes on racial equality, sometimes on wealth disparity, and sometimes just on common themes, habits, aesthetics, or blood, and the divisions were bloody, often accompanied by arguments, curses, fights, and words like “never see each other again “never see each other again.” More and more groups split off, and the crowds grew smaller and smaller. Sometimes they walked on the vast plains at night, so quiet that only insects could be heard, and began to feel lonely before falling asleep with their companions, feeling something like a ship’s anchor hitting their chests. They, too, knew less and less of the others. But this is not the end, the fork in the road continues to appear, and eventually, the people in the small group gradually reveal their differences, and one by one, they say goodbye at the fork in the road, hug, and leave. On the way to the moon, we ended up alone. Fortunately, there was an engineer who invented a machine to make us copy and split so that we could split into two identical people at the fork in the road and move forward at the same time, just as the me who was eating was different from me who was taking a bath. The me who was sleeping was different from the me who was thinking. I, copying countless me, was exploring simultaneously, with different feelings, but also rational, silent, and fascinated by some beautiful mistakes. I often look at the moon, quietly panicking, thinking about how we should tell the next generation that this is our history and how I should answer when they take out the complete map of the world and ask curiously, “Dad, but there is no road to the moon on the map”. And I, remembering how I have experienced the division of the human race and even a few inventors who were obsessed with the idea of going to Mars[1], might say:
“But we really don’t know how big this map is.”
Dec 2021
[1] Elon Musk (1950-), American entrepreneur. CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink.
地图
大概是很多很多年前，地球上的60亿人聚集在一块，一起讨论如何寻找一条通向月球的路。同时管理这么多人齐心协力地做同一件事并不容易，一开始的时候，还是由宗教领袖们带队，每当他们走到岔路口，他们就会停下好几天，查阅耶稣基督、穆罕默德或是悉达多的教诲或是经文。令人惊奇的是，三位先知在绝大多数时候，对于指引人们抵达月球这件事上出奇地一致，虽然偶尔起过一点争执，但最后被证明是无足轻重的误读。于是宗教领袖们带领着人群日以继日地前进，翻山越岭，但似乎与月球的距离仍是遥远。这时，一些质疑的声音在人群中慢慢传播开来，起初还只是茶余饭后的一些杞人忧天般的胡思乱想，但怀疑的种子一旦被种下，它就会像野草一般生根发芽，再也无法将它铲除。这种怀疑像疾病一般在人群中传播，终于在某个岔路口，一位政治领袖站出来坚持要做出与宗教领袖相反的选择，后来我们知道他的名字叫做腓力四世。这是人群的第一次分裂，后来，越来越多的政治领袖们站出来反对宗教领袖，认为他们对于帮助人类抵达月球这件事上毫无裨益，浪费了一代又一代人的时间。他们决定在遇到岔路口时召开大会，让人们共同讨论如何抉择。在经过了一个又一个岔路口之后，人们分裂成了一百多个小团体，他们之间偶尔还用火炬和号角作为通信，以至于在一些人群发觉他们走错道路之后还能抄小道赶上。有时候，这些团体之间也会发生争执，甚至剑拔弩张，但为了抵达月球，大多数时候还是和平的。不过，让这些政治领袖们头疼的是人们似乎很难达成一致。有时候，他们在岔路口一坐就是一个星期，直到辩论的人群口干舌燥，精疲力尽才肯罢休。还有些时候，人群就选择永远不达成一致，于是人们就各自依据着各自的立场选择不同的岔路，有时候是关于种族平等，有时候是贫富差距，还有时候只是出于共同话题，习惯，审美，或是血缘，这时的分裂是血腥的，常常伴随争执，诅咒，打斗和“永不相见”的协议。分裂出去的组织越来越多，人群也越来越小。有时候他们走在夜间广袤的平原上，安静地只能听见虫鸣，在与同伴们一同入睡前，开始感到孤单，感觉到有什么船锚般的东西撞击着他们的胸口。他们，也越来越少地知道别人的消息。但这并不是终点，岔路仍在不断地出现，最终小团体里的人也逐渐显露出分歧，他们一个个地在岔路口告别，拥抱，离开。在走向月球的路途中，我们最终只身一人。而岔路似乎仍没有尽头，还好这时有一位工程师，发明了让我们复制分裂的能力，让我们在岔路口能够分裂成两个一模一样的人，同时前进，就宛如在吃饭的我不同于在洗澡的我，睡梦时分的我不同于思考中的我，我，复制出了无数的我，同时探索着，他们拥有不同的感情，但同样理性、沉默、着迷于一些美丽的错误。我常常望着月亮，心里安静地发慌，我想着我们应该如何告诉下一代，这就是我们的历史，当他们拿出那张完整无缺的世界地图，好奇地质问起 “爸爸，可是这里并没有通向月球的路呀” 的时候，我应该如何回答。而我，我会想起我是如何经历了一次次人类的分裂，甚至想到还有几个执着于前往火星的发明家的往事时[1]，也许会说：
“可是我们真的不知道，这张地图到底有多大”。
2021.12
[1] 伊隆·马斯克，美国企业家，Tesla，SpaceX 和 Neuralink 创始人
Yisheng's blog 