互聯網先驅、EFF創始人John Perry Barlow在睡夢中先走一步

【按語】互聯網，是時代給我們每一個人的禮物。讓我們銘記那些在互聯網研發、壯大中做出過貢獻的、可愛的人們！

（J. P. Barlow最後一條「微博」的截圖，版權所有）

在他的眼中，互聯網就是自由的代名詞，那些曾經發聲無門的人可以在其中暢所欲言。

互聯網先驅——約翰?佩里?巴洛（1947-2018）

辛迪?科恩

懷著無比沉痛的心情，我不得不在此告訴大家，電子前沿基金會（EFF）的創始人，夢想家，不斷激發我們產生全新靈感的領導者約翰?佩里?巴洛於今晨（美國當地時間2月7日清晨）在睡夢中與世長辭。我們將銘記巴洛以及他所奉獻的智慧，他也永遠是電子前沿基金會不可分割的一部分。

毫不誇張地說，我們今天了解並熱愛的互聯網之所以能夠存在並得以蓬勃發展，很大一部分要歸功於巴洛的遠見和卓越的領導力。在他的眼中，互聯網就是自由的代名詞，那些曾經發聲無門的人可以在其中暢所欲言。巴洛認為，在互聯網中，人們不僅有了再度行使話語權的權利，而且遠隔千萬里的人也擁有了交流的渠道。

巴洛有時會被認為是一個幼稚的科技烏托邦主義者，人們覺得他的觀點就是互聯網能夠解決人類所有的問題，而同時又不會給人類造成新的麻煩。作為一個和巴洛在電子前沿基金會共事27年之久的人，我想說事實並非如此。巴洛知道，隨著新技術的出現而產生的「惡」一點都不會比隨之產生的「善」少。但是他選擇去探索和研究「善」的一面。

巴洛一生都致力於讓互聯網成為一個平等自由的空間，讓「任何人——無論種族，無論經濟地位，無論軍事力量，無論家庭背景——都能夠參與其中。這裡不會有任何的特權和偏見，所有人都可以無所畏懼地發表自己的觀點和信仰——無論有多麼的與眾不同。」這也是他留給我們不朽的遺產。

在接下來的幾天甚至幾周的時間裡，我們將會繼續為大家講述巴洛為互聯網和整個世界所做出的非凡的貢獻。與此同時，我們也將繼承他的遺志，繼續努力，完成他的夢想。

（蔡怡然編譯，有刪節）

英文原文

John Perry Barlow, Internet Pioneer, 1947-2018

BY CINDY COHN FEBRUARY 7, 2018

With a broken heart I have to announce that EFF』s founder, visionary, and our ongoing inspiration, John Perry Barlow, passed away quietly in his sleep this morning. We will miss Barlow and his wisdom for decades to come, and he will always be an integral part of EFF.

It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow』s vision and leadership. He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance.

Barlow was sometimes held up as a straw man for a kind of naive techno-utopianism that believed that the Internet could solve all of humanity』s problems without causing any more. As someone who spent the past 27 years working with him at EFF, I can say that nothing could be further from the truth. Barlow knew that new technology could create and empower evil as much as it could create and empower good. He made a conscious decision to focus on the latter: 「I knew it』s also true that a good way to invent the future is to predict it. So I predicted Utopia, hoping to give Liberty a running start before the laws of Moore and Metcalfe delivered up what Ed Snowden now correctly calls 『turn-key totalitarianism』.」

Barlow』s lasting legacy is that he devoted his life to making the Internet into 「a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth…a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.」

In the days and weeks to come, we will be talking and writing more about what an extraordinary role Barlow played for the Internet and the world. And as always, we will continue the work to fulfill his dream.

參考文獻：

[1] 獵雲網, http://www.lieyunwang.com/archives/411864.

[2]The Electronic Frontier Foundation,https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/john-perry-barlow-internet-pioneer-1947-2018.

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