How to enhance humans

如何增强人类

Finding ways to live much longer—and better—shouldn’t be left to the cranks

探寻延年益寿、提升生活品质之法的任务不该由偏执狂主导

BRYAN JOHNSON wants to live for ever. The American businessman pops a hundred pills a day, never eats after 11am, and obsessively monitors dozens of his body’s “biomarkers”.

布莱恩·约翰逊一心追求永生。（译者注：布莱恩·约翰逊是美国科技企业家和生物黑客，以追求“抗衰老”和“人类增强”而闻名。他创立了脑机接口公司Kernel和支付公司Braintree（后被PayPal收购），现全身心投入“蓝图计划”（Project Blueprint）——一套严格的健康优化方案。）这位美国商人每日吞下百余粒药丸，自上午11点后便不再进食，还近乎痴迷地监测着自己体内几十项“生物指标”。

The goal, as he will tell anyone who asks, is not merely to live a few years longer. It is to vanquish death entirely.

但凡有人问起，他都会坦言，自己的目标绝非仅仅多享几年岁月，而是要彻底征服死亡。

Eccentric? Undoubtedly. But as we report this week, Mr Johnson is not alone. He is part of a growing movement that sees the human body as just another piece of hardware to be hacked, optimised and upgraded.

他这人性格古怪吗？这当然是毋庸置疑的。不过，正如我们本周的报道所述，约翰逊可不是在单打独斗。实际上，他是一场蓬勃兴起的运动中的一员，这一群体把人体视作另一件亟待破解、优化与升级的“硬件”。

In the name of “human enhancement” Mr Johnson and his fellows, who include Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, are exploring life extension, brain implants and drugs that enhance mind and body.

打着“人类增强”的旗号，约翰逊及其同道中人，包括彼得·蒂尔和埃隆·马斯克，正致力于研究如何延长人类寿命、开发脑机接口技术，以及研制能够提升心智与体能的药物。（译者注：人类增强是指那些希望通过自然或人工的手段暂时或永久的克服现在人体局限的尝试；彼得·蒂尔是美国硅谷传奇投资人、企业家，PayPal 联合创始人，Facebook 首位外部投资人，大数据公司 Palantir 创始人，他以“逆向思维”著称，投资领域涵盖航天（SpaceX）、长寿科技（抗衰老研究）、加密货币等，他是自由意志主义者，特朗普支持者，常因激进言论引发争议，被视为硅谷最具影响力的“异见者”。）

It would be easy to recoil from a project that is filled with cranks and has uncomfortable echoes of the eugenics movement of the early 20th century.

面对一个满是怪诞之人参与的项目，人们极易心生退意，更何况它还与20世纪初那场令人毛骨悚然的优生学运动有着令人不安的相似之处。（译者注：优生学运动是指通过人为选择优良基因、改善遗传素质，以提高人类整体遗传品质的一种思潮和实践。）

But it would be a mistake to dismiss all forms of human enhancement. The idea that medicine should seek to augment the body, not just restore it to health when it goes wrong, has plenty of merit.

然而，若全盘否定一切形式的人类增强手段，那可就大错特错了。医学不应仅仅满足于在身体抱恙时助其恢复健康，还应着眼于提升身体机能，这一理念有诸多可取之处。

The key to maximising the benefits and minimising the risks will be to drive out the quacks and bring this rapidly growing project into the scientific mainstream.

要想让该项目收益最大化、风险最小化，关键在于把那些招摇撞骗之徒驱逐出去，并将这个蓬勃发展的项目引入科学的主流轨道。

A wannabe superhuman has a large menu of techniques to choose from. Some of the options are already to be found in medicine cabinets.

对于想要成为“超人”的人来说，面前有着大量的技术手段供其挑选。有些办法翻翻自家药箱便能寻得。

The drug metformin, for instance, has been prescribed to diabetics for decades. In mice, at least, it seems to extend lifespans. Those results have not been confirmed in humans, but aspiring Methuselahs (including Mr Johnson) are taking it anyway.

就拿二甲双胍来说吧，几十年来，它一直被用于给糖尿病患者开方配药。至少在小鼠实验中，它似乎确实能延长寿命。但这些效果在人类身上还未得到确凿验证。然而，那些一门心思渴望长寿的人（约翰逊先生就是其中之一）还是照吃不误。