读麦·讲演·人与媒介（1979）·035

Now, suppose that we put questions to that mass through electronic media concerning the problems of our time; suppose that top researchers in various fields, in biology and chemistry and physics and town planning and so on, ask these questions; suppose they were to go to the broadcasting studios and present not their knowledge but their hang-ups; suppose they were to tell the mass, in the most succinct, atavistic, and structured form, where the difficulties are. Out in the mass audience, every single possible mode of perception exists unawares. But how do we tap that resource? I suggest that one possibility would be to take these highly specialist problems to this mass of untutored, non-specialist people. There is always one man in a million for whom any problem is not a problem at all. For a long time mathematicians used to pose as un¬ answerable the problem, “How far can you go into a forest?” One day some child simply said, “Halfway.” And that is the answer; after that, you are coming out.

像这样，假设我们通过电子媒介向大众提出了有关我们时代的问题；假设生物学、化学、物理和城市规划等各个领域的顶尖研究人员提出这些问题；假设他们要去电台播音室，展示的不是他们的知识而是他们的问题；假设他们要用最简洁的、原始的、有条理的形式告诉大众困难在哪里。在大众受众当中，每一种可能的感知模式都未被觉察地存在着。但我们如何利用这种资源呢？我建议，一种可能是把这些高度专业化的问题交给未经训练的非专业人群。百万人中总会有一人，对他来说，任何问题都不成问题。长期以来，数学家们常常提出一个无法回答的问题：“走进森林你能走多远？”有一天，一个小孩只说了一句，“走一半。”这就是答案；到一半以后，你就要走出来了。

按：大众当中藏有未被觉察的感知模式，借助于电子媒介可以利用这哪怕百万分之一的智力资源：公开问题焦虑困难烦恼，答案也许会涌现出来；人到了能以最简洁的、最原始的、最有条理的形式表述问题的时候，离问题的解决就不远了。