麻省理工学院校长 2025毕业演讲 MIT

摘要：OK, folks, there is a time and a place to express yourselves, and you will have many, many years to do it.

Listen, folks.

听着，伙计们。

At MIT, we value freedom of expression.

在麻省理工学院，我们重视言论自由。

But today is about the graduates, so it's time for me to charge you all.

但今天是关于毕业生的，所以现在是我给你们所有人加油打气的时候了。

So good afternoon, everyone.

所以下午好，大家。

Good afternoon, Governor Healey, who I'm so happy to have here.

下午好，黑利州长，很高兴您能来这里。

OK, folks, there is a time and a place to express yourselves, and you will have many, many years to do it.

好的，大家，有时间有场合来表达自己，你们还有很多很多年可以去做这件事。

Let's talk today about our graduates.

今天我们来谈谈我们的毕业生。

So I have to give a shout out to the members of the class of 1975 in their incredibly fashionable red jackets-- --and, of course, to you, all the members of the class of 2025, and your devoted family, and your friends.

所以我要特别感谢1975届那些穿着极其时尚的红色夹克的同学们——当然，还有你们， 2025届的所有同学，以及你们忠诚的家人和朋友们。

So at MIT, it is customary for the president to deliver a charge to the graduating class.

所以在麻省理工学院，校长向毕业生发表讲话是一种惯例。

And I'll start by reflecting briefly on the world we make together here at MIT.

我将从简要反思我们在麻省理工学院共同创造的世界开始。

Now, as you've seen, at MIT, we allow a lot of room for disagreement whether the subject is scientific, personal, or political.

现在，正如你们所见，在麻省理工学院，我们允许对任何主题——无论是科学、个人还是政治—— 持有不同的意见。

The friction of disagreement is a very effective way that we sharpen each other's thinking.

争论的摩擦是一种非常有效的让我们相互磨炼思维的方式。

And if you don't believe me, I urge you all to attend a faculty meeting.

而且如果你不相信我，我强烈建议你们都去参加一次教师会议。

But in this disconcerting time, as we prepare to send the class of 2025 out into the world, I want to celebrate three fundamental things that we do agree on.

但在这个令人不安的时期，当我们准备将2025届毕业生送入社会时，我想庆祝我们一致认同的三个基本点。

The rock solid foundation of our shared work and our understanding.

我们共同工作和理解的基础坚如磐石。

First, we believe in the beauty and power of the scientific method.

首先，我们相信科学方法的美丽与力量。

Winston Churchill once observed that no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.

温斯顿·丘吉尔曾经观察到，没有人会认为民主是完美或全知全能的。

In fact, as he famously acknowledged, democracy is the worst form of government except for all of the other forms that have ever been tried.

事实上，正如他着名地承认的那样，民主是除了所有曾经尝试过的其他形式之外最糟糕的政府形式。

And you could say the same with reverence for the scientific method.

你也可以这么说，对科学方法的敬畏也是一样的。

None of us would argue that it's perfect or all-wise.

我们都不会认为它是完美或全知的。

But the scientific method remains the single most reliable tool humans have ever devised to arrive at the truth about the physical world.

但科学方法仍然是人类发明的用来探索物理世界真相的最可靠工具。

It is designed to root out error, protect us against our own biases and assumptions, and provide a systematic way to turn facts we cannot see at first into knowledge we can act on.

它旨在根除错误，保护我们免受自身偏见和假设的影响，并提供一种系统的方法，将我们最初无法看到的事实转化为可以付诸行动的知识。

It is hard to imagine anything more useful than that.

很难想象有什么比这更有用的了。

Second, we believe in the beauty and power of fundamental scientific discovery.

其次，我们相信基础科学发现的美丽与力量。

The incredibly intricate, maddening, heroic, intoxicating process of exploration and testing that somehow got stuck with the bland label "basic research." We believe scientific discovery is deeply valuable and inspiring in and of itself.

那项复杂得令人抓狂、英勇而令人陶醉的探索与测试过程，却不知为何被贴上了“基础研究” 这个平淡无奇的标签。我们相信，科学发现本身具有深远的价值并能激发灵感。

And we know that it's absolutely essential for driving innovation and delivering new tools, technologies, treatments, and cures.

我们知道这绝对对于推动创新和提供新的工具、技术、治疗和疗法至关重要。

And finally, from direct personal experience here at MIT, we know that we are sharper, more rigorous, more curious, more inventive, and more likely to achieve breakthrough results when we work together with brilliant people across a broad spectrum of backgrounds, perspectives, and viewpoints from across the country and all around the world.

而且最后，从我们在麻省理工学院的直接个人经验来看，我们知道当我们与来自全国各地乃至全世界、背景、视角和观点各异的杰出人士一起工作时，我们会变得更加敏锐、更加严谨、更加好奇、更具创造力，并且更有可能取得突破性成果。

You do not find the big ideas in an echo chamber.

你不会在回音室里找到大想法。

And I want to say something I have said repeatedly.

我想说一些我反复说过的话。

MIT It would not be MIT without our international students.

麻省理工学院如果没有国际学生，那就不是麻省理工学院了。

The beauty and the power of the scientific method, the beauty and the power of scientific discovery, and frankly, the beauty and power of the Institute's incredible global community.

科学方法的美丽与力量，科学发现的美丽与力量，坦率地说，还有学院令人惊叹的全球社区的美丽与力量。

For those of us associated with MIT, these three concepts may seem almost too obvious to require explanation, let alone celebration.

对于我们这些与麻省理工学院有关的人来说，这三个概念可能显得过于显而易见，根本不需要解释，更不用说庆祝了。

But we find ourselves in a bewildering time, a time when these concepts have never been more important and have rarely been in such peril.

但我们发现自己处在一个令人困惑的时代，一个这些概念从未如此重要且很少处于如此危险境地的时代。

So now, I offer my charge to the members of the class of 2025.

所以现在，我把这份嘱托交给2025届的全体成员。

To today's graduates, I hope and believe that in your time here, you've prepared yourself very effectively for the next steps in your life and your career.

致今天的毕业生们，我希望并且相信你们在这里的时间里已经为自己接下来的生活和职业生涯做好了充分的准备。

I wish you every success in that next step and all that come after it.

祝你在接下来的每一步以及之后的所有步骤中都取得成功。

But I must ask that each of you take on another job, a lifelong job, an urgent job.

但我必须请求你们每个人承担另一项工作，一项终身的工作，一项紧迫的工作。

I need you all to become ambassadors for the way we think, and work, and thrive at MIT; ambassadors for scientific thinking and scientific discovery, for thoughtful research of every kind here and at universities across the country.

我需要你们都成为麻省理工学院思维方式、工作方式和繁荣之道的倡导者；成为科学思维和科学发现的倡导者，成为这里以及全国各地大学各种深思熟虑的研究的倡导者。

For the importance of research to the advancement of our nation and our species, and ambassadors for the limitless possibilities When we understand, appreciate, and magnify each other's talent and potential in a thriving global community.

为了研究对我们国家和物种的进步的重要性，以及在全球繁荣的社区中理解、欣赏并放大彼此才能和潜力的无限可能性的倡导者。

This ambassadorship has no salary besides your sense of its crucial importance.

这个倡导者的角色除了你对其关键重要性的认同外，没有任何薪酬。

But I hope you will accept the responsibility because no one else can make this case more effectively.

但希望你们能承担起这个责任，因为没有人能比你们更有效地做到这一点。

And these concepts are the indispensable foundation of everything else we aim to achieve.

而这些概念是我们旨在实现其他一切目标不可或缺的基础。

There's only one way to get through MIT; the hard way.

只有一种方式能从麻省理工学院毕业；那就是硬着头皮熬过来。

Each of you has done that, and in the context of historic challenges.

你们每个人都做到了这一点，在面对历史性挑战的背景下。

May all the strengths and insights that you've gained here serve you brilliantly on the road ahead.