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Well, I gather I'm not the only one who spends a lot of time thinking about AI these days. And by think I mean panic.嗯，我想，最近花大量时间思考人工智能的人不止我一个。我说的“思考”指的是恐慌。

I'm not even worried about the doomsday scenarios because I have no way to assess those. I just think about what's going to happen to jobs, because even if we solve the AI safety problem, it's still going to displace a lot of workers, maybe including me.我甚至不担心末日景象，因为我无法评估。我只是在想工作岗位会发生什么变化，因为即使我们解决了人工智能的安全问题，它仍然会取代很多工人，也许包括我在内。

Twenty years ago, I decided to take my very expensive MBA and use it to become a journalist. That decision did not have what we MBAs like to call a "positive expected cash flow."二十年前，我决定攻读昂贵的MBA学位，并利用它成为一名记者。这个决定并没有带来我们MBA们所说的“正预期现金流”。

When I was interviewing for a job at "The Economist," one of the interviewers actually just asked me, "Why are you doing this?" I told him, "I only have so much time on this planet, and I want to spend it doing something that matters. And also, by the way, something I really, really, really love to do."我在《经济学人》面试的时候，一位面试官直接问我：“你为什么要做这份工作？” 我告诉他：“我的生命有限，我想用这段时间做一些有意义的事情。顺便说一句，也做一些我非常非常热爱的事情。”

I got lucky and it worked out. Today I'm a columnist at the "Washington Post." But every day, AI seems to get better and better at writing competent prose. And I don't know what I'm supposed to do if typing words in a row stops being a semi profitable occupation.我很幸运，成功了。如今我是《华盛顿邮报》的专栏作家。但人工智能似乎每天都在写出越来越优秀的文章。如果打字不再是一项半盈利的职业，我真不知道该怎么办。

Now I'm a libertarian columnist, which means I believe in progress and creative destruction. But here’s something I also believe: The Luddites had a point.现在我是一位自由意志主义专栏作家，这意味着我相信进步和创造性破坏。但我也相信一点：卢德分子说得有道理。

Look, you don't normally hear libertarians praising Luddites, so let me explain. Today, Luddite is a broad-spectrum term for technophobes. But the Luddites weren't your mom using a landline instead of a cell phone or sending you Hallmark cards with little words underlined. They were skilled artisans who made handcrafted textiles in an era when everyone wore lovingly handcrafted textiles.听着，你通常不会听到自由主义者赞扬卢德分子，所以让我解释一下。如今，“卢德分子”是一个泛指科技恐惧者的术语。但卢德分子可不是你妈妈用座机代替手机，也不是你妈妈给你寄带有下划线小字的贺卡。他们是技艺精湛的工匠，在那个人人都穿着精心制作的手工纺织品的时代，制作手工纺织品。

Then mechanized mill owners started underpricing them using some of the most cutting-edge technology of their day, like, spinning jenni