新資本主義更應以人爲本

Artificial intelligence is upon us, even as it seems that the real kind may be deserting us. Big technology companies are appointing ethicists to guide the development of machine learning; the prospect of robots and self-driving vehicles has given rise to a cottage industry of books and studies on the "future of work". How many jobs will be left and what jobs will they be?

人工智能正來到我們身邊，即便看起來人類智慧或許正在棄我們而去。大型科技公司正任命倫理學家指引機器學習的發展；機器人、自動駕駛汽車的發展前景催生了大量有關"工作的未來"的書籍和研究。有多少工作崗位會被留下，這些將是什麼樣的工作？

But we would do well to focus on a much bigger question: the evolution of capitalism itself. We live in revolutionary times, even if pitchforks have been replaced (we hope) by the ballot box. Why not imagine different futures before they are thrust upon us?

但我們最好關注一個大得多的問題：資本主義自身的進化。即便乾草叉已被投票箱取代（但願），我們仍生活在革命時代。爲什麼不在未來壓頂之前設想幾種不同的未來？

Whole Foods chief executive John Mackey and his collaborators, for example, have embraced "conscious capitalism". They believe in free enterprise, but insist "we can aspire to even more", creating businesses with purpose beyond profit. Conscious businesses focus on empowering employees and creating a culture of care and trust.

例如，全食(Whole Foods)首席執行官約翰?麥基(John Mackey)及其合作者已經接受了"自覺資本主義"。他們信奉自由企業體制，但堅稱"我們能夠做得更多"，創建不僅以利潤爲目的的企業。自覺的企業關注的是向員工賦權，並創造一種關懷和信任的文化。

Conscious capitalism still sees the firm as the basic economic unit. New York University business professor Arun Sundararajan, by contrast, focuses on the crowd. Crowd-based capitalism, which he outlines in The Sharing Economy , is the 21st-century version of village life, in which people engage in commercial transactions with peers, bolstered by trust generated by intertwined social networks. Digital platforms expand the village to encompass cities; blockchain technologies create trust at scale; individuals support themselves as small-scale entrepreneurs, like craftspeople and merchants of old.

自覺資本主義仍將企業視爲基本經濟單位。與此相反，紐約大學(New York University)商學教授阿倫?孫達拉拉詹(Arun Sundararajan)聚焦的是大衆。他在《共享經濟》(The Sharing Economy)一書中指出，以大衆爲基礎的資本主義是鄉村生活的21世紀版本，人們在其中相互進行商業交易，這種交易由相互交織的社會網絡產生的信任支撐。數字平臺使鄉村擴大至包含城市；區塊鏈技術大規模地創造信任；個人依靠成爲小創業者養活自己，就像過去的手工藝人和商人。