好凶残!外国人发明了治乱花钱神器:电击手环 | 双语阅读

Tech companies believe that knowledge is power, and the digital banks vying for the world’s savers are no exception. By offering colourful apps that promise users control over their finances, companies such as Atom, Monzo and Tandem think that giving people more information will help them make smarter decisions.

科技公司认为，知识就是力量。而这一点也获得正在争夺全球储户的数字银行的认同。Atom、Monzo和Tandem等公司向用户提供各式各样的应用，它们标榜这些应用能帮助用户控制其财务状况。这些公司认为，向人们提供更多信息会有助于他们做出更加明智的财务决定。

Enter a new breed of sneaky financial apps, which also collect information about your spending habits. They don’t, however, bother telling you about them but quietly take action on your behalf. I’m thinking of apps such as Plum and Chip, which monitor your spending and move cash from your current account into your savings when you spend less than usual.

市面上出现了一批鬼祟的新型财务应用，它们也会收集你的支出习惯信息。不过，这些应用不会费那个劲告知你的消费习惯究竟如何，而是默默地代表你采取行动。我想到的类似应用包括Plum和Chip。这两款应用能监控你的支出，如果支出低于平常水平，应用就会将钱从你的往来账户转入储蓄账户。

For many, this undercover assistance will be helpful. But for anyone really serious about stopping their coffee habit, there’s a new way. Pavlok — its name inspired by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov — is a bracelet that gives you a mild electric shock if you do something you don’t want to do. This method has no interest in your comfort and dignity, only in “allowing you to achieve 100 per cent of your goals 100 per cent of the time” (in the words of its creator).

对于许多人来说，这种不知不觉的帮助会很有用。不过，对于那些真正认真考虑戒掉喝咖啡习惯的人，可以尝试一种新的方式——巴甫洛克(Pavlok)手环。这个名字的灵感来自俄罗斯心理学家伊万•巴甫洛夫(Ivan Pavlov)。如果你做了一些你不希望自己做的事情，手环就会轻微地电你一下。这种方法对你的舒适感和尊严不感兴趣，（用其设计者的话说），只在乎 “让你在100%的时间里100%达成目标”。

More data cannot help you resist Pret coffees but what if someone electrocuted you every time you bought one? Might it work?

再多的数据也无法帮助你抵御Pret（英国连锁健康快餐品牌Pret a Manger的简称——译者注）咖啡的诱惑，但是，如果你每次买咖啡时，就电你一下，会有效吗？

Maneesh Sethi, Pavlok’s inventor, admits that people have been slow to catch on to the idea of negative stimuli instead of rewards — although he has sold about 50,000 Pavloks so far. 

巴甫洛克手环的发明人马内什•塞西(Maneesh Sethi)承认，人们对负面刺激而不是奖励这种想法的接受速度还是有点慢 —— 尽管如此，他迄今为止已售出了约5万个巴甫洛克手环。

Sethi invented this bracelet because he had what he described as “a severe addiction to Facebook”. In a neat circle, technology is rounding on itself, getting your attention to stop you squandering your attention. “The thing is, there are lots of positive stimuli in the world, and people get addicted to checking their phones,” says Sethi. “With this, your hand reaches in for your phone and it zaps you.”

”塞西之所以发明这个手环，是因为他患上了自己所述的“严重脸书(Facebook)上瘾症”。这真是“一报还一报”：技术开始自己对付自己，通过获得你的注意来阻止你挥霍你的注意力。“事实上，世界上有很多刺激是正面的，而且人们确实是查看手机成瘾，”塞西说，“戴上这个手环后，当你伸手去拿手机时，它就会电击你。”

Intelligent Environments, another tech company, which develops software for large banks, has linked the Pavlok bracelet directly to users’ bank accounts. Tom Stinton, head of product at the company, says technologies such as contactless debit cards or Amazon buttons are helping people spend their money more swiftly. But our growing aversion to physical cash means people now find it harder to monitor their spending. For Intelligent Environments, the answer is not a digital bank but an “internet of things bank”.

另一家为大型银行开发软件的科技公司“智能环境”(Intelligent Environments)，将巴甫洛克手环直接与用户的银行账户相连接。该公司的产品负责人汤姆•斯廷顿(Tom Stinton)表示，非接触式借记卡或亚马逊(Amazon)一键购物按钮等技术正在帮助人们更快速地花钱。但是，我们越来越不喜欢使用实物现金，意味着人们现在发现对支出进行监控的难度加大。对“智能环境”而言，解决之道不是数字银行，而是“物联网银行”。

Unfortunately, Intelligent Environment’s clients (ie, large banks) have yet to be persuaded that electrocuting their customers is a good idea. Fear not, though, because Pavlok has found another way to tame your manic profligacy. Its new version can, somewhat worryingly, track your movements and electrocute you if you go anywhere you’re not supposed to (like the coffee shop).

遗憾的是，“智能环境”尚未说服其客户（即大银行）相信电击提醒客户是个好主意。不过，也毋须担心，因为巴甫洛克手环已经找到了另一种缓解你的挥霍狂躁症的方法。新款手环可以跟踪你的行踪（这有点令人担心），如果你去了不该去的地方（如咖啡店等），它就会电击你。

None of this is particularly sophisticated, of course. But perhaps it’s the logical conclusion of the never-ending clamour for our attention and cash. Maybe our willpower is weaker than before, just as our attention spans are shorter, and the Pavlok is both the result of a tech-powered information overload and an antidote to it.

当然，这些都不是特别复杂的技术。不过，在无休止地抱怨我们注意力不集中和钱花得太快后，这或许最合理的解决方式。也许我们的意志力已大不如前，正如我们保持注意力的时间变短了一样，巴甫洛克手环是技术发展导致信息超载的产物，同时也是信息超载的一剂解药。

There is only one more problem:"What if I just decide to take off the bracelet? "

最后还剩下一个问题：如果我决定摘掉手环，那怎么办？

“We’re developing a lock,” he replies.

“我们正在开发一个手环锁，”他如是说。