When I was a kid, I was obsessed with science fiction. Paul Allen and I would spend countless hours discussing Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy. I read every book by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Heinlein. (The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was a particular favorite.) There was something so thrilling to me about these stories that pushed the limits of what was possible.
孩童时代，我痴迷于科幻小说。我和保罗·艾伦花了很多时间讨论艾萨克·阿西莫夫的原创小说《基地三部曲》。我读过埃德加·赖斯·巴勒斯和罗伯特·海因莱恩创作的每一本书。（我尤其爱读《严厉的月亮》一书。）这些故事让我兴奋不已，拓宽了（想象）可能的边界。
As I got older, I started reading a lot more non-fiction. I was still interested in books that explored the implications of innovation, but it felt more important to learn something about our real world along the way. Lately, though, I’ve found myself drawn back to the kinds of books I would’ve loved as a kid.
随着年龄的增长，我开始阅读更多的非小说类书籍。我仍然对那些探索创新意义的书籍感兴趣，但也愈发觉得，更为重要的是要在阅读过程中了解我们的现实世界。而最近，我发现自己又重新被孩童时候喜欢的那类书所吸引。
My holiday reading list this year includes two terrific science fiction stories. One takes place nearly 12 light-years away from our sun, and the other is set right here in the United States—but both made me think about how people can use technology to respond to challenges. I’ve also included a pair of non-fiction books about cutting-edge science and a novel that made me look at one of history’s most famous figures in a new light.
我今年的假期阅读清单上有两本很棒的科幻小说。其中一个故事发生在离太阳近12光年的地方，另一个故事的背景就在美国——但这两个故事都引发我思考一个共同的问题，即人们如何利用科技来应对挑战。我的清单上还有两本关于前沿科学的非小说类书籍，以及一本让我重新审视一位历史上最著名人物（莎士比亚）的小说。
I read a lot of great books this year—including John Doerr’s latest about climate change—but these were some of my favorites.
今年我读了很多好书（包括约翰·杜尔关于气候变化的最新著作），下面列出的是一些我最喜欢的书。
A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. Few subjects have captured the imaginations of science fiction writers like artificial intelligence. If you’re interested in learning more about what it might take to create a true AI, this book offers a fascinating theory. Hawkins may be best known as the co-inventor of the PalmPilot, but he’s spent decades thinking about the connections between neuroscience and machine learning, and there’s no better introduction to his thinking than this book.
《千脑筋：一种新的智能理论》（中文名暂译）作者：杰夫·霍金斯著。 很少有主题能像人工智能一样吸引科幻作家的想象力。如果你有兴趣进一步了解创造一个真正的人工智能可能需要什么，那么这本书提供了一个引人入胜的理论视角。霍金斯最广为人知的身份可能是掌上电脑PalmPilot的联合发明人，但他花了几十年的时间思考神经科学和机器学习之间的联系，没有什么能比这本书更好地阐释他的想法了。
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. The CRISPR gene editing system is one of the coolest and perhaps most consequential scientific breakthroughs of the last decade. I’m familiar with it because of my work at the foundation—we’re funding a number of projects that use the technology—but I still learned a lot from this comprehensive and accessible book about its discovery by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues. Isaacson does a good job highlighting the most important ethical questions around gene editing.
《密码破译者：珍妮弗·道德纳，基因编辑及人类未来》（中文名暂译）作者：沃尔特·艾萨克森。 CRISPR基因编辑工具是过去十年内最酷的、也许也是最重要的科学突破之一。我对这项技术的熟悉源自于我在基金会的工作（我们正在资助一些使用该技术的项目），但我仍然从这本全面详尽、通俗易懂的书中学到了很多东西。该书讲述了诺贝尔奖得主、生物化学家珍妮弗·道德纳和她的同事探索这项技术的历程。艾萨克森很好地强调了基因编辑中最重要的伦理问题。
Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I love a good robot story, and Ishiguro’s novel about an “artificial friend” to a sick young girl is no exception. Although it takes place in a dystopian future, the robots aren’t a force for evil. Instead, they serve as companions to keep people company. This book made me think about what life with super intelligent robots might look like—and whether we’ll treat these kinds of machines as pieces of technology or as something more.
《克拉拉与太阳》作者：石黑一雄。我喜欢写得好的机器人故事，石黑一雄的这部小说也不例外。该书讲述了一个生病女孩的“人工智能朋友”。虽然故事发生在一个反乌托邦的未来，但（书中）机器人并不代表一股邪恶的力量。相反，机器人作为伙伴来陪伴人们。这本书让我思考拥有超级智能机器人的生活将会是什么样子——我们会将这种机器视为一项技术，还是将其视为更重要的东西。
Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. If you’re a Shakespeare fan, you’ll love this moving novel about how his personal life might’ve influenced the writing of one of his most famous plays. O’Farrell has built her story on two facts we know to be true about “The Bard”: his son Hamnet died at the age of 11, and a couple years later, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy called Hamlet. I especially enjoyed reading about his wife, Anne, who is imagined here as an almost supernatural figure.
《哈姆内特》（中文名暂译）作者：玛吉·奥法雷尔。如果你是莎士比亚的粉丝，那么你会喜欢这部感人的小说，该书讲述了莎士比亚的个人生活如何影响他最著名的一部戏剧的创作。奥法雷尔的故事基于我们已知的关于“莎翁”的两个事实之上：他的儿子哈姆内特在11岁时去世，几年后，莎士比亚写了一部悲剧《哈姆雷特》。我特别喜欢读关于他妻子安妮的故事，在这些故事中她被想象成一个近乎超自然的人物。
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir. Like most people, I was first introduced to Weir’s writing through The Martian. His latest novel is a wild tale about a high school science teacher who wakes up in a different star system with no memory of how he got there. The rest of the story is all about how he uses science and engineering to save the day. It’s a fun read, and I finished the whole thing in one weekend.
《挽救计划》作者：安迪·威尔著。和大多数人一样，我是通过《火星救援》第一次接触到威尔的作品。他最新的一部小说讲述了一个疯狂的故事，一位高中科学老师在异星系醒来，却不记得自己是怎么到达那里的。故事的后半部分都是讲述他如何利用科学和工程来拯救世界的。这本书很有趣，我一个周末就读完了整本书。
