書呆子奧巴馬的下一份工作 硅谷在招手(上)

WASHINGTON — Staring intently at the dual screens inside a flight simulator this month at the University of Pittsburgh, President Obama tapped the controls in front of him, firing faux thrusters as he pretended to maneuver his space shuttle toward the International Space Station. Pulse up. Pulse to the right. Left. Down. Down. Left. Left.

華盛頓——本月，在匹茨堡大學(University of Pittsburgh)的一個飛行模擬器裏，奧巴馬總統專注地盯着兩塊屏幕，操作着他面前的控制裝置，啓動模擬推進器。他是在假裝操作自己駕駛的航天飛機飛向國際空間站。逐漸向上。向右漸轉。左。下。下。左。左。

“Uber shuttle,” the beaming president told reporters after a brief but successful docking mission, joking that the next market for Uber would be outer space. “In case anyone calls, we’ll be there in five minutes.”

“優步飛機，”滿臉笑容的總統在結束了短暫但成功的對接任務後對記者說，並開玩笑稱優步(Uber)的下一個市場是外太空。“要是有人叫飛機，我們五分鐘後就到。”

For nearly eight years, the presidency has been Mr. Obama’s science and technology playground, a place where he sought to become the advocate in chief for industries pushing advanced batteries, powerful medical devices and cutting-edge research.

在近八年時間裏，總統職位一直是奧巴馬的科技遊樂場。在這個職位上，他試圖成爲推行先進的電池、強大的醫療設備和前沿研究的行業的首席倡導者。

“I’m a nerd, and I don’t make any apologies for it,” Mr. Obama said after his faux shuttle flight. He added: “It’s cool stuff. And it is that thing that sets us apart, that ability to imagine and hypothesize, and then test and figure stuff out, and tinker and make things and make them better, and then break them down and rework them.”

“我是個書呆子，對此我沒有絲毫的歉意，”奧巴馬在模擬飛行結束後說，並接着表示：“這是一件很酷的事情。正是這個東西讓我們與衆不同，這種想象和假設，然後試驗並弄明白，不斷修改和發明創造並逐步改善，然後把它們拆散重做。”

With less than three months left in his presidency, Mr. Obama is preparing for a life after the White House that will most likely include a close relationship with Silicon Valley. Officials running Mr. Obama’s presidential foundation have made about 10 trips to tech strongholds in California in the past year as they help him plot his next steps.

在總統任期只剩下不到三個月的情況下，奧巴馬正在爲離開白宮後的生活做準備。卸任後的生活極有可能涉及到他與硅谷的親密關係。過去一年裏，奧巴馬的總統基金會的負責人前往加利福尼亞州的科技要塞大約十次，幫他部署接下來的步驟。

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the key focus areas for him post-presidency,” said Steve Case, a co-founder of AOL.

“如果那是他卸任後的重點關注領域之一，我不會驚訝，”美國在線(AOL)聯合創始人史蒂夫•凱斯(Steve Case)說。

The path from the Obama White House to the tech giants — many of them major political donors to Mr. Obama — is already well worn.

從奧巴馬領導的白宮到科技巨頭——其中很多都是奧巴馬重要的政治捐助者——已經是一條老路了。