内容简介

　　生命从何而来？它究竟有没有内在的能动性？当人工智能和机器学习变为现实，人类和机器的边界又在哪里？

　　现代科学的一个基础原则是，科学解释不能将意志或能动性赋予自然现象，我们不会说岩石掉落是因为要寻找地心，水蒸气上升是因为要靠近天空。自17世纪中期机械论作为现代科学的核心范式以来，整个世界被视为一台机器，禁用能动性的原则也扩展至对生命现象的解释。然而，这一原则伴随着两种相互竞争的生命模型，引发了一场持续四个世纪的争论：生命究竟是由外力驱动的被动的钟表，还是主动的、永不停歇的时钟。

　　本书从中世纪晚期欧洲教堂和宫廷的自动机开始，考察了这场科学争论的起源和历史。我们将一路看到飞翔的机械天使、会排便的机械鸭、会“编程”写字的机械小男孩、会下棋的机器“土耳其人”，以及弗兰肯斯坦的怪物的诞生等，能工巧匠和科学家们试图从各种荒诞的人造机器中寻找生命的能动性产生于何处。同时，以被动机械论为代表的笛卡儿和以主动机械论为代表的莱布尼茨，都赢得了各自的追随者，这不仅影响了拉马克、达尔文、魏斯曼、道金斯等各时代中人，还推动了进化论、控制论、有机论、认知科学、人工智能等领域的研究和发展，在社会文化环境的联动下，一幅气势磅礴、方兴未艾的现代科学图景铺展开来。

　　被动机械论和主动机械论之间的冲突在当前科学中仍保持着一种隐秘的力量，并继续在对生命本质的探索中发挥作用。里斯金通过这段历史的回顾，证明了历史理解对于科学思考的重要性。了解现代科学的历史，不仅可以重启之前被摒弃的思考方式，还为我们认知当下、想象未来提供更多可能性。

　　作者简介

　　杰西卡·里斯金（Jessica Riskin）

　　先后毕业于哈佛大学和加州大学伯克利分校，曾任教于麻省理工学院和巴黎政治学院，现于斯坦福大学教授欧洲史和科学史。

　　研究方向包括早期现代科学、政治文化和科学解释史。她所著的《感性时代的科学：法国启蒙运动的感性经验主义者》（Science in the Age of Sensibility：The Sentimental Empiricists of the French Enlightenment）获得美国历史学会的J.拉塞尔·梅杰奖，是全面了解法国历史的最佳英语图书。此外，还合著有《自然参与：从文艺复兴到现在的实践中的科学》（Nature Engaged：Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present）。

Content introduction

Where does life come from? Does it have any inherent agency? When artificial intelligence and machine learning become a reality, where is the boundary between humans and machines?

A fundamental principle of modern science is that scientific explanations cannot ascribe will or agency to natural phenomena; we do not say that rocks fall because they are seeking the center of the earth, or that water vapor rises because they are approaching the sky. Since the mid-17th century, when mechanism became the central paradigm of modern science, the whole world has been treated as a machine, and the principle of prohibiting agency has been extended to the interpretation of living phenomena. However, this principle, accompanied by two competing models of life, has sparked a four-century debate over whether life is a passive clock driven by external forces, or an active, never-ending clock.

This book examines the origins and history of this scientific controversy, beginning with the automata of the churches and courts of late Medieval Europe. Along the way, we will see the flying mechanical angel, the defecating mechanical duck, the mechanical boy who can "program" to write, the chess machine "Turk", and the birth of Frankenstein's monster, and so on, as skilled craftsmen and scientists try to find out where the agency of life originated from various absurd artificial machines. At the same time, Descartes, represented by passive mechanics, and Leibniz, represented by active mechanics, won their own followers, which not only influenced Lamarque, Darwin, Weismann, Dawkins and other people in various eras, but also promoted the research and development of evolution, cybernetics, organic theory, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and other fields. Under the linkage of social and cultural environment, A magnificent, burgeoning picture of modern science unfolds.

The conflict between passive and active mechanics remains a hidden force in current science and continues to play a role in the search for the nature of life. Through this historical review, Riskin demonstrates the importance of historical understanding for scientific thinking. Understanding the history of modern science can not only revive previously abandoned ways of thinking, but also provide us with more possibilities to understand the present and imagine the future.

About the author

Jessica Riskin

A graduate of Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, he has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Sciences Po, and now teaches European history and the history of science at Stanford University.

His research interests include early modern science, political culture, and the history of scientific interpretation. She is the author of Science in the Age of Sensibility: The Empiricists of the French Enlightenment. The Sentimental Empiricists of the French Enlightenment) received the American Historical Association's J. The Russell Major Prize for the best English-language book with a comprehensive understanding of French history. He is also the co-author of "Nature Engaged: Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present."