推薦序

后工業化地區的新機遇

基思·伯內特爵士（Keith Burnett）

英國皇家學院院士

納菲德基金會主席

英國物理學會候任主席

2500多年以前，古希臘哲學家赫拉克利特觀察到一切事物都處于永恒的變化中。“一切事物都處在流變之中，”他說，“沒有什么是靜止不變的。”

做了近50年的科學研究，我確信赫拉克利特是對的。在我的人生經歷中，我看到太多的變化，這些變化包括個體和我們對世界的理解。

1970年的我還是個年輕人，第一次搭飛機從故鄉威爾士飛到巴黎，準確地說，是搭了好幾次飛機。因為這一趟旅程我就換乘了三架飛機，花了整整一天的時間。很多年以后，我飛到北京所花的時間比那次飛到巴黎要少得多。從飛機座位前的電子屏幕上，我還可以看到這趟旅程飛越了無數山脈和海洋。

這幾十年來，還發生了很多其他的技術飛躍。在我小的時候，計算機很龐大，如今經過一步步的小型化，出現了可以隨身攜帶的筆記本電腦和智能手機。通過互聯網，人們可以分享更多的知識。

作為一個年輕人，我曾經見證了人類第一次踏上月球并且安全返回。通過電視這個新媒介，所有國家的人都從太空的角度看到了地球，意識到我們生活在一個共同的家園里。很多年后，我又見證了中國發射了自己的空間站，這代表中國的科技取得了非凡的進步。

但是我發現，有些變化在給我所熟悉的人們和社區的發展帶來益處的同時，也帶來了困擾。

我在威爾士的朗達山谷里長大。那里因為發展煤炭和鋼鐵工業而聞名，這也為當地提供了很多就業機會。我的岳父參與設計和建造了當地最大的鋼鐵廠，我的父親曾為一家工業陶瓷廠工作。制造業就圍繞在我的身邊。

后來，我離開了朗達山谷去牛津大學讀書，而我的故鄉也在經歷著變化。工業逐漸衰退，隨之而來的便是工人失業和經濟困難。原來很多適合當地年輕人的工作崗位逐漸消失，人們似乎只能去別的地方或別的行業中找工作了。

但我從不認為成為一個科學家就可以脫離熟練工人所具備的工程技術能力。我的父親使我清晰地認識到，即使動腦過日子也不能離開動手的技巧。將理論與實踐分離開來一定是錯的。

作為一個物理學家，我深深地了解這一點。所有有成就的科學家都會告訴你，他們之所以可以得出重要的發現，無論是研究宇宙還是病毒，無論是設計大型粒子對撞機還是基因排序，都要依靠出色的動手能力。我們的通信依賴半導體技術，空間站依賴高質量的金屬和加工這些金屬的技能。

因此，我意識到，在這個“第四次工業革命”的時代，把我現在所做的研究和我兒時就已熟悉的制造業結合在一起會給社會帶來巨大的影響。這個時代把我們的最新技術突破與傳統制造業中真正做實業的人和地區聯系了起來。

對于像我的故鄉威爾士一樣受銹帶問題困擾的后工業化地區，這是一個新生的機會。發生同樣問題的地區還有英格蘭北部和中國的工業中心，這些地方也面臨著來自海外更廉價的勞動力和工作機會流失的挑戰。

讓我尤其興奮的是，這也意味著為年輕人創造更多的機會，重塑工人的尊嚴，他們可以在新工廠里使用數字技術，同時結合他們已經具有的工程技術來重新塑造未來。在曾經的舊工廠和礦區，新的研究機構給社區創造了更多的就業機會，也為當地企業帶來了訂單。一度頹廢的工業城市如今煥發了生機。

能推動這種轉變的人需要有遠見和敢為天下先的勇氣。而回報將體現在愿意做出轉變的人的工作和生活中。在這個過程中，我們也會發展更加綠色的工業技術，把一個充滿更加新鮮的空氣和充足的自然資源的地球留給后人。

子曰，智者動，仁者靜，智者樂，仁者壽。這本書結合了我們已知的經驗和最新的研究發現，來講述在這一轉變中我們如何把事情做得更好，從而進一步改善人們的生活。

這本書旨在幫助中國的政府、工業界、研究人員和工程師了解后工業化社會中的制造業升級這種轉變是如何實現的。我在牛津大學的學生馬兆遠教授為此付出了巨大的努力，像他當年從事物理學研究一樣富有熱情。他相信這種轉變會使中國和全球其他地方受益。因此，我向讀者推薦這本書，希望它有益于我們為未來人類建設一個更好的社會和世界。

（特此附上推薦序的英文原文）

Over two and a half thousand years ago, the Ancient Greek Philosopher Heraclitus observed that the one constant in life was change.“All is flux,”he said.“Nothing stays still.”

As a scientist for almost five decades, I can confirm that Heraclitus was correct. In my lifetime I have seen enormous changes for individuals and our understanding of the world.

As a young man in 1970 I took my first flight to Paris from my home in Wales. It should I say flights. The journey was broken into three parts and took a full day. Years later it took me less time to fly to Beijing, tracking my journey on the monitor in front of me as I travelled over mountains and oceans.

There have been so many other breakthroughs too. The large computers of my youth were miniaturized until they could fit on a desk or even into a phone. They were networked together so knowledge could be shared.

As a young man I saw a man set foot on the moon and then safely return to our planet. Through the new medium of television, all nations viewed our earth from space and realised we shared a common home. Years later I would watch China launch its own space station, a sign of its extraordinary technological development.

But some of the changes I saw brought problems as well as benefits for the people and communities I knew best.

I grew up in the Rhondda Valley in Wales, a place famous for mining and steel manufacture which provided local employment. My father-in-law helped design and build one of the great steel works of the region and my father worked for a company that made industrial ceramics. Manufacturing was all around me.

I left my valley to study at Oxford University but my home region was already changing and facing industrial decline. With it came unemployment and economic difficulties. The jobs which has once been so plentiful for local young people dried up. It seemed that the jobs of the future would be found in other places and lines of work.

But I never accepted the ideas I was learning as a scientist should be separated from the technical abilities of skilled workers. My father had made it clear to me that the life of the mind should not be separated from the skills of the hand. To separate theory from application was an error.

I knew this was true from my work as a physicist. All good scientists will readily tell you that their ability to make important discoveries about the nature, the universe or the makeup of a virus is dependent on outstanding technical skills, whether that is in creating a particle collider or sequencing DNA. Our communications needed breakthroughs in semiconductor technologies. The space station needed an understanding of high performance metals and how these could be manufactured.

So it was I came to recognise the powerful impact of bringing together research and the manufacturing industries of my childhood in what has been called a fourth industrial revolution-one that unites our break through technologies with the places and people who make things.

This approach I saw might be the power to bring new life to the struggling post-industrial wastelands of my home valley in Wales, of the North of England or to the manufacturing heartlands of China-now also facing cheaper labour costs from overseas and the loss of employment.

What was especially exciting to me was the possibility that this approach might create opportunities for young people and restore the dignity of the workers who would forge their futures in new factories in which digital technologies would work hand-in-hand with existing skills and craftsmanship. On the very site of former factories and mines, new research campuses could grow which would create jobs for communities and orders for companies. The tired industrial towns and cities could have new life.

Those who make such a change possible need vision and a willingness to do things differently. But the rewards will be seen in the work and lives of those who make this transition. In the process we might also develop greener design industrial processes which do less damage to our environment, which keep the air cleaner and preserve the resources of our planet for generations to come.

The great teacher Confucius said,“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.”But the change this book is proposing unites what we have long known with what we are just discovering, how to make things better and improve our lives in the process.

This text was written to help the industrialists, policy makers, researchers and workers of China to understand how this shift might take place. It is the work of my former student Professor Ma who has dedicated his energies to this challenge just as he first did to the study of Physics, convinced that this change might benefit the people of China and beyond. I commend it to his readers in the hope that it will help future generations make a better society and world.