“書呆子”奧巴馬的下一份工作？硅谷在招手

WASHINGTON — Staring intently at the dual screens inside a flight simulator this month at the University of Pittsburgh, President Obama tapped the controls in front of him, firing faux thrusters as he pretended to maneuver his space shuttle toward the International Space Station. Pulse up. Pulse to the right. Left. Down. Down. Left. Left.

華盛頓——本月，在匹茨堡大學(xué)(University of Pittsburgh)的一個飛行模擬器里，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)專注地盯著兩塊屏幕，操作著他面前的控制裝置，啟動模擬推進器。他是在假裝操作自己駕駛的航天飛機飛向國際空間站。逐漸向上。向右漸轉(zhuǎn)。左。下。下。左。左。

“Uber shuttle,” the beaming president told reporters after a brief but successful docking mission, joking that the next market for Uber would be outer space. “In case anyone calls, we’ll be there in five minutes.”

“優(yōu)步飛機，”滿臉笑容的總統(tǒng)在結(jié)束了短暫但成功的對接任務(wù)后對記者說，并開玩笑稱優(yōu)步(Uber)的下一個市場是外太空。“要是有人叫飛機，我們五分鐘后就到。”

For nearly eight years, the presidency has been Mr. Obama’s science and technology playground, a place where he sought to become the advocate in chief for industries pushing advanced batteries, powerful medical devices and cutting-edge research.

在近八年時間里，總統(tǒng)職位一直是奧巴馬的科技游樂場。在這個職位上，他試圖成為推行先進的電池、強大的醫(yī)療設(shè)備和前沿研究的行業(yè)的首席倡導(dǎo)者。

“I’m a nerd, and I don’t make any apologies for it,” Mr. Obama said after his faux shuttle flight. He added: “It’s cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart, that ability to imagine and hypothesize, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.”

“我是個書呆子，對此我沒有絲毫的歉意，”奧巴馬在模擬飛行結(jié)束后說，并接著表示：“這是一件很酷的事情。正是這個東西讓我們與眾不同，這種想象和假設(shè)，然后試驗并弄明白，不斷修改和發(fā)明創(chuàng)造并逐步改善，然后把它們拆散重做。”

With less than three months left in his presidency, Mr. Obama is preparing for a life after the White House that will most likely include a close relationship with Silicon Valley. Officials running Mr. Obama’s presidential foundation have made about 10 trips to tech strongholds in California in the past year as they help him plot his next steps.

在總統(tǒng)任期只剩下不到三個月的情況下，奧巴馬正在為離開白宮后的生活做準(zhǔn)備。卸任后的生活極有可能涉及到他與硅谷的親密關(guān)系。過去一年里，奧巴馬的總統(tǒng)基金會的負責(zé)人前往加利福尼亞州的科技要塞大約十次，幫他部署接下來的步驟。

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the key focus areas for him post-presidency,” said Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL.

“如果那是他卸任后的重點關(guān)注領(lǐng)域之一，我不會驚訝，”美國在線(AOL)聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人史蒂夫·凱斯(Steve Case)說。

The path from the Obama White House to the tech giants — many of them major political donors to Mr. Obama — is already well worn.

從奧巴馬領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的白宮到科技巨頭——其中很多都是奧巴馬重要的政治捐助者——已經(jīng)是一條老路了。

David Plouffe, the architect of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, is at Uber. Jay Carney, his onetime press secretary, is at Amazon. Dan Pfeiffer, the former communications guru, is at GoFundMe. Lisa Jackson, who once led Mr. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, is a senior executive at Apple. Last year, Chris Lehane, an alumnus of Bill Clinton’s White House, took a job at Airbnb, which offers short-term home rentals.

奧巴馬2008年競選活動的設(shè)計師戴維·普洛夫(David Plouffe)目前就職于優(yōu)步。曾擔(dān)任奧巴馬的新聞發(fā)言人的杰伊·卡尼(Jay Carney)在亞馬遜(Amazon)任職。前通訊聯(lián)絡(luò)主任丹·法伊弗(Dan Pfeiffer)在GoFundMe。曾擔(dān)任奧巴馬的環(huán)境保護局(Environment Protection Agency)局長的莉薩·杰克遜(Lisa Jackson)現(xiàn)在是蘋果(Apple)的高管。去年，曾在比爾·克林頓(Bill Clinton)時期的白宮任職的校友克里斯·勒漢(Chris Lehane)入職提供短期房屋租賃服務(wù)的Airbnb。

“This place is becoming an assisted living facility for political vets,” said Matt McKenna, a former spokesman for Mr. Clinton who decamped last year to Uber and now runs a boutique public relations firm in the center of the tech world.

“這個地方正在成為資深政界人士的輔助生活設(shè)施，”曾任比爾·克林頓發(fā)言人的馬特·麥克納(Matt McKenna)說。他去年加入優(yōu)步，如今在這個科技世界中心管理著一家高端公關(guān)公司。

Suspicions that Mr. Obama harbors some dreams of joining them — at least in some capacity — were given new life during the past several weeks. The president’s flight-simulator moment in Pittsburgh capped a recent flurry of White House activity highlighting American technology.

有關(guān)奧巴馬正夢想——至少以某種身份——加入那里的猜測，最近幾周再次受到熱議。總統(tǒng)在匹茨堡使用飛行模擬器的舉動，成為白宮最近一系列突顯美國科技的活動的高潮。

In the course of just one week this month, Mr. Obama promoted new frontiers in space on CNN.com, writing that government and industry should collaborate to send a manned mission to Mars by 2030. He guest-edited an issue of Wired magazine, challenging Silicon Valley to tackle inequality and civic participation. And, with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, he hosted the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh.

本月，在短短一周的時間里，奧巴馬在CNN.com上宣傳新的太空領(lǐng)域，撰文稱政府和行業(yè)應(yīng)該攜手，在2030年之前進行一次載人火星任務(wù)。他為一期《連線》雜志(Wired)擔(dān)任客座編輯，激勵硅谷解決不平等和公民參與問題。此外，他還和匹茨堡大學(xué)及卡耐基·梅隆大學(xué)(Carnegie Mellon)在匹茨堡共同主辦了白宮前沿會議(White House Frontiers Conference)。

“I would be surprised if he did not spend a significant amount of his post-presidency time and effort connecting the resources and ideas and capabilities that he has learned about in Silicon Valley with the kinds of causes that he will choose,” said Reid Hoffman, the executive chairman and co-founder of LinkedIn and a top political donor to Mr. Obama. “如果他卸任后不花大量時間和精力把他在硅谷了解到的資源、想法和能力同他將要選擇的事業(yè)結(jié)合起來，我倒是會感到驚訝，”領(lǐng)英(LinkedIn)執(zhí)行主席兼聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、奧巴馬最重要的政治捐贈人之一雷德·霍夫曼(Reid Hoffman)說。

White House aides declined to comment on the president’s plans for Jan. 21 and beyond. But Phil Larson, who was one of Mr. Obama’s advisers at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, called him “a true geek president.”

奧巴馬在白宮的助手拒絕評論總統(tǒng)1月21日及以后的安排。但曾在科技政策辦公室(Office of Science and Technology Policy)為奧巴馬擔(dān)任顧問的菲爾·拉森(Phil Larson)稱奧巴馬是“一個真正的極客總統(tǒng)”。

Mr. Larson, who is now at SpaceX, the rocket company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk, said Mr. Obama “loves sitting back and having scientists say magical things about the future.”

現(xiàn)就職于億萬富翁埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)創(chuàng)辦的火箭公司SpaceX的拉森稱，奧巴馬“喜歡閑坐著，聽科學(xué)家說未來的神奇事物”。

Mr. Obama is the first sitting president to post a selfie on Instagram, and he proudly gave the Vulcan salute when he met Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock in “Star Trek.” Mr. Obama created the position of United States chief technology officer on his first day in office, and he has championed initiatives on issues like funding for start-ups, visas for international entrepreneurs, and self-driving cars.

奧巴馬是首位在Instagram上發(fā)布自拍照的在任總統(tǒng)。見到在《星際迷航》(Star Trek)中扮演斯波克(Spock)的演員倫納德·尼莫伊(Leonard Nimoy)時，他自豪地行了瓦肯舉手禮。上任第一天，奧巴馬就創(chuàng)設(shè)了美國首席技術(shù)官這個職位。他還支持資助創(chuàng)業(yè)公司、向國際創(chuàng)業(yè)者發(fā)放簽證和研發(fā)自動駕駛汽車等問題上的行動。

A number of Silicon Valley executives have joined the Obama administration, including Megan J. Smith, a former Google executive who is now the United States chief technology officer, and Kurt DelBene, who left Microsoft in 2013 to manage Healthcare.gov and later returned to the tech company.

不少硅谷高管加入了奧巴馬政府，包括現(xiàn)任美國首席技術(shù)官的前谷歌(Google)高管梅甘·J·史密斯(Megan J. Smith)和2013年離開微軟(Microsoft)管理Healthcare.gov，后來又回到微軟的庫爾特·德爾貝恩(Kurt DelBene)。

But Mr. Obama has also angered civil liberties advocates who grew to view him as the “surveillance president,” too willing to continue government programs, put in place after the terrorist attacks of 2001, that use technology to snoop on Americans. A report last week from the Center for Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law chided the F.B.I. and the police for assembling a face-recognition database system that contains more than 117 million American adults, half of all adults in the country.

但奧巴馬也惹怒了公民自由倡導(dǎo)人士，他們認為他是“監(jiān)視總統(tǒng)”，過于熱心堅持2001年的恐怖襲擊后實施的政府計劃，利用技術(shù)手段監(jiān)視美國民眾。喬治城大學(xué)法學(xué)院隱私與技術(shù)中心(Center for Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law)上周發(fā)布的一份報告指責(zé)聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局(FBI)和警方集成了一個人臉識別數(shù)據(jù)庫系統(tǒng)。該系統(tǒng)有1.17億美國成年人的信息，相當(dāng)于美國一半的成年人。

“This president has presided over an era in which universal tracking is becoming more pervasive, not just from intelligence agencies but also at the level of local law enforcement,” said Ben Wizner, the director of the speech, privacy and technology project at the American Civil Liberties Union and the chief legal adviser to Edward J. Snowden, a former government contractor who revealed in 2013 that United States intelligence agencies had created a mass surveillance system to comb through Americans’ phone records and international internet traffic.

“這位總統(tǒng)在位期間，無處不在的追蹤變得更加普遍，不僅僅是來自情報機構(gòu)，還有地方執(zhí)法機構(gòu)層面的追蹤，”美國公民自由聯(lián)盟(American Civil Liberties Union)的演講、隱私與技術(shù)項目主任、愛德華·J·斯諾登(Edward J. Snowden)的首席法律顧問本·維茨納(Ben Wizner)說。2013年，曾是政府承包商雇員的斯諾登爆料稱美國情報機構(gòu)創(chuàng)建了一個大型監(jiān)視系統(tǒng)，檢查美國的電話記錄和國際互聯(lián)網(wǎng)通訊。

The public controversy that followed the disclosures emboldened some technology executives to stand up to government intrusion, leading to disagreements about how to ensure data security and privacy while meeting the needs of law enforcement. This year, Apple refused to comply with an F.B.I. demand that the company unlock an iPhone during a terrorism investigation.

爆料引發(fā)的公眾爭議促使一些科技高管開始抵制政府的干涉，引起了關(guān)于如何在滿足執(zhí)法需求的同時確保數(shù)據(jù)安全和隱私的分歧。今年，蘋果在一起恐怖主義調(diào)查中拒絕按照FBI的要求破解一部iPhone。

Still, that has not stopped Silicon Valley from keeping an open door for Mr. Obama.

但這并未阻止硅谷向奧巴馬敞開大門。

Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, suggested that the soon-to-be ex-president would be a good job candidate.

硅谷的創(chuàng)業(yè)孵化器Y Combinator的總裁薩姆·奧爾特曼(Sam Altman)表示，即將成為前總統(tǒng)的奧巴馬會是一個優(yōu)秀的應(yīng)聘者。

“We’d happily hire him,” Mr. Altman joked, “and give him a chance.”

“我們會很樂意雇傭他，”奧爾特曼開玩笑說，“給他一個機會。”