COC 日本密史(3)

Man and Machine

人與機械

Japan has a love affair with machines and inanimate objects that is at once understandable, baffling and darkly disturbing. This obsession with things which require no social interaction rejects the sad state of our country’s youth, who can only microwave dinners and who prefer ATMs to living bank tellers. However, this integration has promise as well: taken to its logical conclusion, Japan may be the just to embrace cybernetic technology─ultimate fusion of man and inorganic artificial intelligence─into an entirely new species on our planet. The question is, will the electronic echo of a soul inhabit this new life form or will it be infested by a synthetic spirit, one incomprehensibly alien?

-Prof. Mari Makoto, excerpt from

Project Yhrei White Paper.

日本有種可以理解、又令人困惑和混亂不明的狀況─一種與機器和無機物的戀愛關係，這種對東西的執著必須要在不被社會干擾下，才不會被這個悲傷國家的那群只會微波晚餐和喜歡使用ATM提錢更勝過親自上銀行的年輕人抗議，然而，這條公式得到了完美的證明：將其導向合邏輯的結論，日本有可能才剛剛相信神經機械學的技術─能將人類與非自然人造物智慧融合的終極科技─可以在這星球上產生出全新的物種，問題在於，這些寄宿於全新生命型態，電子波動間寄宿的靈魂將會是一群人造的魂魄，抑或是令人費解的外來者？

Mari Makoto教授，

摘錄自Yhrei White Paper計畫

Now, in a new century, Japan wants to possess the newest and sleekest high technology to decorate its walls. Technology is a cornerstone for the future, and most Japanese believe it will make the country a trendsetter and economic powerhouse in the next century. To this end, modern Japan has firmly embraced high-tech as its new religion and philosophy, with disposable culture and sinful excess its artifacts.

現在的新世紀，日本想要擁有最新和最強大的高科技來建造出自己的防衛牆，科技是未來的基石，大部分的日本人相信它可以開創出國家下個世紀的新潮流，成為經濟的發電廠，為此現代日本斷然信奉高科技為其新宗教和哲學，一次性的文化和有罪的擴張其人造產物。

Most Japanese citizens feel much more comfortable with cold robotic gadgets than the inconveniences warm-blooded humans present. The extreme avoidance of social interaction by some Japanese has led to new dysfunctions in an otherwise smoothly interlocking society.

目前大部分日本市民都覺得冷兵兵的機器人工具遠比流淌著熱血的人類更加方便和舒適，有些日本人極端的避免與社會接觸，這導致他們難以與社會流暢的連結起來，產生一種全新的功能障礙。

Most new facets of modern society have developed to lessen physical interaction for the sake of convenience, as evidenced by cash machines, vending machines where you can buy anything imaginable, computer networks, and massive video game centers. Youths, welded to TV games for unending hours, find any undertaking more demanding than preparing an instant dinner an impossible task. The contents of video games played by kids are often quite disturbing to the older generation, leading to further questions about the alien morality exhibited by this new generation of zombified and passionless children. Combined with ignorance about the past deeds of the country and the world at large, the social ineptitude of the next generation is the greatest cultural problem facing Japan.

有鑑於現代社會多面向的發展，收銀機、可以買到任何你所想像得到的販賣機、電腦網路、和大型機台遊樂中心都左證了對機械的信心，也減少了實質上的阻力，年輕人無時無刻與電視遊戲緊密結合，想要找到一點未被開發的需求遠比瞬間準備好晚餐還要更像不可能的任務，這些小孩遊玩電視遊樂器的內容經常擾亂到老一輩，更加促進外來的倫理價值根生於這群無腦又冷漠的新世代小孩的問題，綜合這個國家對於過去的無視和世界觀的擴張，這個社會無力面對日本下個世代最嚴重的社會問題。

As people wantonly rush to embrace cold metal things, they leave behind a precious shard of their humanity: the human warmth that keeps people centered. Elite corporate elements have taken the Japanese love affair with machines as far as actually wedding metal and flesh together, creating new organisms with a science that seems almost sorcery. This level of technology has not been seen since the ancient Hyperborean  civilizations rose, and has not been explored since then due to moral and ethical considerations. Questions arise as to what such high tech wizards and their fleshy automatons deign worthy of worship in the coming new world order.

當人們全然的衝向冰冷的金屬製品的懷抱中，他們將其能將人們集中起來的人情味留在人性的外殼外，菁英組織的人員們借著日本人這種與機器的戀愛關係，盡可能的將金屬和肉體作出結合，創造出看起來幾乎是魔法才能達成的全新科學，這種層次的科技自古代極北文明的興起以來從未出現，也因為道德倫理上的考量沒辦法發展開來，這群高科技巫師和他們肉體的自動機器賜予即將來臨的新世界無上榮耀的問題也浮現出來。