Have you ever believed that there was a real superman in reality? That’s actually almost the biggest dream of every child. However, whether the world would really turn out to be a better place if there were a superman has been a paradox for a long time.
你是否曾经幻想过我们的现实生活中存在一个超人？这几乎是每个小孩子最大的梦想了。但是，如果真的有超人出现在人类社会，我们的世界会变得更好吗？这是一个永久的争论话题。
What’s superman? An agreement has been finally reached after going through a considerable number of conflicts that superman is a miracle existence that has the power which is impossible for our human to exceed, not to say reach.
什么是超人？超人的定义在经过无数争论后，终于达成共识：超人就是有着超乎人类极限的能力的存在。
Some people believe that superman is born to do good to the human society. On the one hand, they can contribute to the solution of some unavoidable disasters. For example, if one day the earthquake happened, a superman could hold the earth still and if another day the world was flooded, a superman could block the crazy water and protect human from being attacked. By this way, human could always be sheltered by superman, and therefore sorrow and unfortune could be significantly reduced. On the other hand, superman is actually also an idol. Due to its perfect image, numerous people would certainly admire him a lot. Under this circumstance, a superman is equal to an idol, even if it was someone else that were saved by him you would still get endless courage for no reason and spare no efforts to be a better man like the superman.
一些人相信，超人生来就是为人类社会变得更好而服务的。一方面，他们可以帮助解决令人类束手无措的灾难。比如，如果有一天爆发了超强地震，一个超人可以扶住地球不让她再颤动。如果有一天洪水突袭，超人可以挡住水流保护人类。这样，超人保护着人类不受灾难折磨，悲伤与不幸便会减少很多。另一方面，超人事实上也可以被看作一个偶像。由于他完美的形象，很多人都十分仰慕他。在这种情况下，即使超人救的是别人不是你，你也会感到振奋，并努力成为一个更好的自己。
However, the others don’t totally agree. Some of them believe that the existence of superman would make “perfect” to be possible, and therefore raise the standard of “good”. In this case, it would cost us humans much more than ever to reach the “good standard”. Though our humans have not got that big progress yet, the standard has already been raised, causing the imbalance between the judging system and our real ability. So, you would soon find that you need to squeeze your sleeping time to make up for the distance of efficiency between you and the superman, which would definitely bring a strong feeling of failure and upset. This might deepen the social phenomenon called “Involution”.
然而，另一些人并不完全同意。他们中的一些认为超人的存在使“完美”成为可能，从而也抬高了“优秀”的标准。在这样的情况下，人们需要花费比之前更大的努力去达到和以前同样的标准，这自然会带来一定的焦虑和沮丧。这可能会加剧“社会内卷化”现象。
Actually, from the above two opinions we can at least reach one agreement that whether superman should exist or not depends on whether he could bring human society enough advantages. But why don’t we just save the time spent on imagining and debating and use it to bring advantages to the society by ourselves? Wouldn’t it be more realistic and direct? So just roll up our sleeves and go for it! At least we could be the superman of ourselves!
事实上，通过以上几个观点，我们至少可以达成共识：我们认为超人该不该存在取决于与他们是否能为人类社会带来益处。但为什么我们不能节约下讨论和想像这个问题的时间去通过自己的努力为人类社会造福呢？这样不会更现实、更直接吗？所以，撸起袖子加油干吧！至少我们能成为自己的超人！
Translator：Wang Xiaoyu
Date: December 3, 2020
