《开学第一课》背后：爱国教育的新形式与潜在隐忧

按照学校的通知，小宝贝和其他同学一样，在8月31日返校。老师检查了他们的暑假作业，发放了新课本，然后又布置了一道每人必做的家庭作业，就是在9月1日晚上7点观看央视一套的节目《开学第一课》。

这个节目的主要目的是进行爱国主义宣传。但在这个年代，直接的说教已经起不了什么作用。节目的编排费了很多心思，也有一些实质性的内容，而且请的都是各行各业的大咖。

节目开始的两个环节介绍了中国古代文字的演化以及自然环境和野生动物保护。其中的深意在成年人看来也很明显，就是通过潜移默化的方式强调中国历史和版图的延续性，宣扬政权的正统性。因为在中国，民众对政治的参与度是非常低的，只有将现实与辉煌的久远历史连接在一起，才能在这些小孩子心目中树立认同感。

接下来的大部分环节就是介绍现当代取得的成就。这些成就可谓是数不胜数，从嫦娥探月到蛟龙入海，再到被称为"天眼"的巨大射电望远镜等等。而今年着重介绍的是刚刚通车的深中通道跨海大桥，这个超级巨大的工程。

显然，这些经过精心挑选的巨大科学工程，与我们的日常生活还是有些遥远。特别是嫦娥探月之类的航天工程，由于中国已经崛起为仅次于美国的航天大国，火箭发射这样的事情已经变得稀松平常。就像美国人一样，在执行阿波罗17号任务时，几乎已经没有普通民众关注这件事情了。在他们看来，飞往月球的漫长旅途就像开车一样无聊。

某种意义上说，这些离民众生活比较遥远的巨大科学工程，类似于古埃及法老建立金字塔这样的奇观，主要是展示政权的强大与能力。但是深中通道作为一项基建工程，离民众的生活还是很近的，至少它连接着三个巨型城市的居民，是可以从中享受到好处的。

紧接着，节目请出了各行各业的杰出人物，有刚获得奥运游泳冠军的潘展乐，有运-20大型运输机的飞行员和空降兵战士，然后是科学领域的各位学者大拿，其中一位还是人工智能领域的国家队顶级专家。

这位AI专家展示的成果让人感觉有点摸不着头脑。他自我介绍研究领域是通用人工智能，展示的成果却是一个3D动画，其中主角是一个小女孩。按他的说法，他们的人工智能已经具备了3到4岁小孩的心智。小女孩在一个装修很漂亮的家庭环境中与环境产生各种互动，这些互动完全由她自主、由她内心的一套价值尺度自主产生。比如他看到地上脏了会抹布去擦地，擦完地，还会去清洗抹布。由于她个子小够不着水池，还会去搬小板凳。

这位专家解释说，现在的人工智能都是通过大数据训练出来的，在专门领域有非常好的表现。而他研究的通用人工智能就是要让AI做那些对人来说很平常、很小的事情。然而，通用人工智能（AGI）按我的理解似乎有专门的定义，与这位专家的定义完全不同。AGI的目标应该是像人类一样能够自主决策解决复杂问题，甚至是人类解决不了的复杂问题，而不是去做这些洗碗擦地的简单工作。

更让人啼笑皆非的是，这位专家认为现在的AI研究还处于格物致知的阶段。AI的下一步发展重点应该让AI具备"有心"的能力。这哪是AI的发展方向，这分明是借鉴了儒家学说的发展脉络。他提到的"格物致知"是宋代大儒朱熹提出的重要概念，而"心"则是明朝学者王阳明提出的心学核心观点。从中国传统文化中汲取灵感应用到科技研发上并无不妥，但如此生搬硬套儒学的发展脉络来预测和指导AI技术的下一步发展方向，不免让人对这位专家在AI领域的理解深度产生怀疑。

总的来说，整个《开学第一课》看起来还是非常积极的，都是些鲜活的事例。虽然这些事例的背后，仍然是大家心知肚明的爱国主义和民族主义宣传，目的是培养学生对政权的认同感。但正是因为这一目的，这些例子虽然显得很鲜活，却都存在一个共同的问题。

这些被选上台来向同学们进行宣讲的杰出人士，作为学生们的榜样，他们真的适合吗？某种意义上他们确实是成功的，但他们的成功存在一个问题。无论是运-20的飞行员还是空降兵精英战士，还是嫦娥探月工程的成功采样，还有那位AI专家的研究成果，甚至包括那座恢弘的跨海大桥给人民生活带来的便利，他们都有一个共同点：他们的成功来源于国家的财政收入和投入，而不是它们自己的财富积累。而国家的财政收入则是从全社会强制收取的。

如果每个人都追求这样的成功，即通过强制使用他人创造的财富来成就自己的事业与成功，那么我们这个社会还有多少人会去创造那些真正的财富呢？这是一个值得我们深思的问题。

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According to the notice of the school, Xiao Bao returned to school on August 31, just like other students. The teacher checked their summer homework, handed out new textbooks, and then assigned a homework that everyone must do, which is to watch the program "The First lesson of School" on CCTV at 7 p.m. on September 1.

The main purpose of this program is to promote patriotism. But in this day and age, direct preaching doesn't work. The programming took a lot of thought, but also some substantive content, and invited all walks of life big people.

The first two segments of the program introduced the evolution of ancient Chinese characters and the protection of the natural environment and wildlife. The profound meaning is also obvious to adults, which is to emphasize the continuity of Chinese history and territory in a subtle way, and promote the legitimacy of the regime. Because in China, people's participation in politics is very low, only by connecting reality with the glorious long history can these children establish a sense of identity.

Most of the next steps are to introduce modern and contemporary achievements. These achievements are numerous, from the Chang 'e lunar exploration to the flood dragon into the sea, to the huge radio telescope known as the "eye of Heaven" and so on. This year focuses on the introduction of the Shenzhen-China Channel bridge, which has just opened to traffic, this super huge project.

Obviously, these huge, carefully selected scientific projects are still a little distant from our daily lives. Especially for space projects such as Chang 'e lunar exploration, rocket launches have become commonplace as China has emerged as a space power second only to the United States. Like the Americans, by the time of the Apollo 17 mission, almost no ordinary people were paying attention. For them, the long journey to the moon was as boring as driving a car.

In a sense, these huge scientific projects that are relatively distant from people's lives are similar to wonders such as the pyramids built by the pharaohs in ancient Egypt, mainly to demonstrate the power and ability of the regime. However, as an infrastructure project, the Shenzhen-China Corridor is still very close to people's lives, at least it connects the residents of three megacities and can enjoy the benefits from it.

Then, the program invited outstanding people from all walks of life, Pan Zhanle, who just won the Olympic swimming champion, the pilot and airborne soldiers of the Y-20 large transport aircraft, and then the scholars in the field of science, one of whom is the top expert of the national team in the field of artificial intelligence.

The results presented by this AI expert are a little confusing. He introduced himself as a general artificial intelligence research field, but presented a 3D animation in which the main character is a little girl. According to him, their AI already has the mind of a 3 - or 4-year-old child. The little girl in a beautifully decorated home environment has all kinds of interactions with the environment that are entirely independent of her, of her inner set of values. For example, when he sees the ground is dirty, he will wipe the ground with a rag, and after wiping the ground, he will clean the rag. Because she was too small to reach the pool, she would carry a small bench.

The expert explained that today's artificial intelligence is trained through big data and has very good performance in specialized fields. And the general artificial intelligence he studies is to let AI do those things that are ordinary and small for people. However, Artificial General intelligence (AGI), as I understand it, seems to have a specialized definition that is completely different from the expert's definition. The goal of AGI should be to be able to make autonomous decisions to solve complex problems like humans, even complex problems that humans can't solve, rather than doing these simple tasks of washing dishes and cleaning the floor.

What is even more ironic is that the expert believes that the current AI research is still in the stage of knowledge. The next step in the development of AI should focus on giving AI the ability to "have a heart." This is the development direction of AI, which clearly draws on the development context of Confucianism. He mentioned that "the object of knowledge" was an important concept put forward by Zhu Xi, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, and "the heart" was the core view of the mind put forward by Wang Yangming, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty. There is nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese culture and applying it to science and technology research and development, but such a raw adaptation of the development context of Confucianism to predict and guide the next development direction of AI technology can not help but make people doubt the depth of the expert's understanding in the field of AI.

In general, the whole "First Lesson" seems to be very positive, are some fresh examples. Behind these instances, though, is a clear sense of patriotism and nationalist propaganda aimed at fostering a sense of identity with the regime. But precisely because of this purpose, these examples are vivid, but there is a common problem.

Are these distinguished people, who have been chosen to speak to the students, suitable role models for the students? They are successful in a sense, but there is a problem with their success. Whether it is the Y-20 pilots or elite airborne soldiers, or the successful sampling of the Chang 'e lunar exploration project, the research results of the AI expert, or even the convenience brought to people's lives by the magnificent cross-sea bridge, they all have one thing in common: their success comes from the country's financial revenue and investment, rather than their own wealth accumulation. On the other hand, the financial revenue of the state is compulsorily collected from the whole society.

If everyone pursues this kind of success, that is, by forcing the use of wealth created by others to achieve their own career and success, how many people in our society will create those real wealth? This is a question worth thinking about.