Bartleby
巴托比
The uses and abuses of hype
炒作的善用与滥用
How excitement can help and hinder entrepreneurs
兴奋情绪何以能助力企业家，也能拖累他们
- hype 电视、广播、互联网等媒体中言过其实的“促销广告、促销讨论”或者说“大肆的宣传、炒作”（参见：小词详解 | hype）
Hype and absurdity go together. As excitement about the next big thing builds, people fall over themselves to get on board. A year and a half ago, the metaverse was the future. Companies appointed chief metaverse officers, and futurologists burbled about web 3.0. The idea has not gone away. Colombia held its first court case in the metaverse last month (imagine a video game called Wii Justice and you get the picture). But the excitement has evaporated, at least for now. Microsoft disbanded its industrial metaverse team last month; the career prospects of chief metaverse officers are more virtual than even they would like.
炒作和荒谬相伴相生。随着下一个大事件引发的兴奋情绪日益高涨，人们争先恐后“上车”。一年半以前，元宇宙就是未来。公司纷纷任命首席元宇宙官，未来学家们絮絮叨叨谈论着web 3.0。这个构想并没有消失。上个月，哥伦比亚的一间法院首次在元宇宙里开庭（想象一款名叫《Wii Justice》的电子游戏，你就大概明白了那是个什么场景）。但是这股兴奋劲儿已经消散，至少现在是这样。微软上个月解散了自己的工业元宇宙团队；首席元宇宙官的职业前景之虚幻甚至是他们这些人也难以想象的。
- metaverse 元宇宙；虚拟世界
- futurologist 未来学家
- burble 语无伦次地讲、说蠢话；汩汩作响
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | court 是一种怎样的冒险？
- evaporate （使）蒸发，挥发；（逐渐）消失，消散，衰减（参见：小词详解 | evaporate）
- disband 解散、解体、散伙
Other technologies have suffered the same reversal. There was a point when it was deeply fashionable to rave about the blockchain, crypto and non-fungible tokens. Now the attention of users, investors and managers is firmly fixed on artificial intelligence (AI). Since ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, was made available to the public at the end of November, it has generated another wave of hype. Over 100m people have asked it to rewrite IKEA furniture instructions in iambic pentameter or something equally vital; venture-capital funds are pouring money into AI startups; established firms are rushing to explain how they will use the technology to do everything from customer service to coding.
其他技术也遭遇了同样的逆转。曾经有一段时间，热烈吹捧区块链、加密货币和非同质化代币是非常时兴的事情。现在，用户、投资者和管理者的注意力都盯牢在人工智能（AI）上。自去年11月底人工智能聊天机器人ChatGPT向公众开放以来，它又掀起了另一波炒作。已有超过一亿人让它用五步抑扬格写宜家家具的说明书，或者同等不可或缺的东西；风险投资基金正在向人工智能创业公司投入大量资金；老牌公司正忙不迭地解释它们将如何使用这项技术去做从客户服务到编程的所有事情。
- rave 热烈谈论（或书写）；（热情洋溢地）奋笔疾书
- blockchain 区块链
- crypto 加密货币；（政党，社团的）秘密成员，秘密支持者
- fungible 代替的、可取代的
- iambic pentameter 五步抑扬格（1. 每一行诗有十个音节。2．每十个音节中分五个音步。3．每一个音步有两个音节，重音落在第二个音节上。）
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | service 是一种什么仪式？
Hype need not end in disappointment. Some technologies are less speculative than others; the metaverse is still largely notional, for example, whereas AI is an established field. Even when bubbles burst, they can leave world-changing companies behind. The hype cycle, popularised by Gartner, a consultancy, is real. In essence, it describes a period of uncontrolled enthusiasm for a new idea followed by a backlash.
炒作也不一定就会以失望收尾。有些技术不像其他技术那样充满投机性。举例来说，元宇宙在很大程度上仍是概念性的，而人工智能已是一个成熟的领域。即使泡沫破裂，仍可能留下一些改变世界的公司。由咨询公司高德纳（Gartner）普及开来的“炒作周期”确实存在。这一概念实质上描述了一个新想法在一段时间内受到不受控制的热情追捧，接着又遭遇强烈抵制。
- essence 表示“本质上、实质上”，即从根本上来讲，不考虑周边细节（参见：小词详解 | essence）
- backlash （对社会变动等的）强烈抵制，集体反对
