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Debate about artificial intelligence (AI) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic bias and discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity.
关于人工智能(AI)的争论往往集中在它的潜在危险上:算法偏见和歧视，就业机会的大规模破坏，甚至有人说，人类的灭绝。
As some observers fret about these dystopian scenarios, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards.
然而，当一些观察人士对这些反乌托邦的设想感到担忧时，另一些人则专注于潜在的回报。
AI could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and thorniest problems.
他们声称，人工智能可以帮助人类解决一些最大、最棘手的问题。
And, they say, AI will do this in a very specific way: by radically accelerating the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.
而且，他们说，人工智能将以一种非常具体的方式做到这一点:从根本上加快科学发现的步伐，特别是在医学、气候科学和绿色技术等领域。
Luminaries in the field such as Demis Hassabis and Yann LeCun believe that AI can turbocharge scientific progress and lead to a golden age of discovery.
杰米斯·哈萨比斯和扬·勒昆等领域杰出人士认为，人工智能可以加速科学进步，引领一个科学发现的黄金时代。
Could they be right?
他们是对的吗?
Such claims are worth examining, and may provide a useful counterbalance to fears about large-scale unemployment and killer robots.
这样的说法值得研究，或许可以有效地抵消对大规模失业和机器杀手的担忧。
Many previous technologies have, of course, been falsely hailed as panaceas.
当然，以前的许多技术都被错误地誉为灵丹妙药。
The electric telegraph was lauded in the 1850s as a herald of world peace, as were aircraft in the 1900s;
19世纪50年代，电报被誉为世界和平的先驱，20世纪初，飞机也是如此;
pundits in the 1990s said the internet would reduce inequality and eradicate nationalism.
上世纪90年代的权威人士说，互联网将减少不平等，根除民族主义。
But the mechanism by which AI will supposedly solve the world’s problems has a stronger historical basis,
但人工智能解决世界问题的机制有更强大的历史基础，
because there have been several periods in history when new approaches and new tools did indeed help bring about bursts of world-changing scientific discovery and innovation.
因为在历史上有几个时期，新方法和新工具确实有助于带来改变世界的科学发现和创新。
In the 17th century microscopes and telescopes opened up new vistas of discovery and encouraged researchers to favour their own observations over the received wisdom of antiquity, while the introduction of scientific journals gave them new ways to share and publicise their findings.
在17世纪，显微镜和望远镜开辟了发现的新视野，鼓励研究人员更倾向于相信自己的观察，而不是前人公认的智慧，而科学期刊的引入为他们提供了分享和公布发现的新途径。
The result was rapid progress in astronomy, physics and other fields, and new inventions from the pendulum clock to the steam engine—the prime mover of the Industrial Revolution.
其结果是天文学、物理学和其他领域的迅速发展，以及从摆钟到蒸汽机——工业革命的原动力——的新发明。
