新资本主义更应以人为本

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?

人工智能正来到我们身边，即便看起来人类智慧或许正在弃我们而去。大型科技公司正任命伦理学家指引机器学习的发展；机器人、自动驾驶汽车的发展前景催生了大量有关"工作的未来"的书籍和研究。有多少工作岗位会被留下，这些将是什么样的工作？

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?

但我们最好关注一个大得多的问题：资本主义自身的进化。即便干草叉已被投票箱取代（但愿），我们仍生活在革命时代。为什么不在未来压顶之前设想几种不同的未来？

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)首席执行官约翰?麦基(John Mackey)及其合作者已经接受了"自觉资本主义"。他们信奉自由企业体制，但坚称"我们能够做得更多"，创建不仅以利润为目的的企业。自觉的企业关注的是向员工赋权，并创造一种关怀和信任的文化。

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.

自觉资本主义仍将企业视为基本经济单位。与此相反，纽约大学(New York University)商学教授阿伦?孙达拉拉詹(Arun Sundararajan)聚焦的是大众。他在《共享经济》(The Sharing Economy)一书中指出，以大众为基础的资本主义是乡村生活的21世纪版本，人们在其中相互进行商业交易，这种交易由相互交织的社会网络产生的信任支撑。数字平台使乡村扩大至包含城市；区块链技术大规模地创造信任；个人依靠成为小创业者养活自己，就像过去的手工艺人和商人。