为何"进步"这一理念在现代世界中如此举足轻重？
Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?
原因显然在于，某种特定的进步正在我们周围切实发生，并且变得越来越显而易见。
Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us and is becoming more and more manifest.
尽管人类在智识或道德方面并无任何普遍性的提升，但它在知识的积累方面却取得了非凡的进步。
Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality, it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.
知识一俟一个人的思想能够借助语言传递给他人，便开始增长。
Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual could be communicated to another by means of speech.
随着文字的发明，人类取得了一大进步，因为知识此后不仅能够得以传播，还能被储存下来。
With the invention of writing, a great advance was made, for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.
图书馆使教育成为可能，而教育反过来又充实了图书馆：知识的增长遵循一种类似复利的法则，而这一法则又因印刷术的发明而得到了极大的强化。
Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries: the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law, which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.
凡此种种，增长速度都相对缓慢，直到随着科学的兴起，节奏才骤然加速。
All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science, the tempo was suddenly raised.
此后，知识开始依照一套系统性的计划被积累起来。
Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.
涓涓细流变成了溪流；而溪流而今已成滔滔洪流。
The trickle became a stream: the stream has now become a torrent.
此外，新知识一旦被获取，如今便立刻被付诸实际应用。
Moreover, as soon as new knowledge is acquired, it is now turned to practical account.
所谓"现代文明"，并非人类本性全面均衡发展的成果，而不过是积累的知识被运用于实际生活的产物。
What is called 'modern civilization' is not the result of a balanced development of all man's nature, but of accumulated knowledge applied to practical life.
而今摆在人类面前的问题是：这一切知识将要如何处置？
The problem now facing humanity is: What is going to be done with all this knowledge?
正如人们常常指出的，知识是一把双刃剑，可以被同等地用于行善或作恶。
As is so often pointed out, knowledge is a two-edged weapon which can be used equally for good or evil.
而如今，它正被漫不经心地同时用于两者。
It is now being used indifferently for both.
举例而言，还有什么景象能比这更为阴郁而荒诞——炮手们运用科学将人的躯体轰然击碎，而与此同时，就在近旁，外科医生却用同样的科学来修复这些躯体？
Could any spectacle, for instance, be more grimly whimsical than that of gunners using science to shatter men's bodies while, close at hand, surgeons use it to restore them?
我们必须极为严肃地自问：如果这种对知识的双重使用——随着其力量的不断增强——持续下去，将会发生什么。
We have to ask ourselves very seriously what will happen if this twofold use of knowledge, with its ever-increasing power, continues.