内容来源：https://www.wired.com/story/pope-leo-schooled-the-tech-bros-on-tolkien/

内容总结：

教皇方济各首道通谕引托尔金名言，剑指科技寡头与AI伦理

罗马时间4月21日，教皇方济各发布其就任以来的首道通谕《伟大的人文》（Magnifica humanitas）。这份聚焦“人工智能时代守护人类尊严”的教义文件，不仅引用了多位圣徒和前任教宗的训导，更意外地大篇幅援引《魔戒》作者、天主教作家J.R.R.托尔金的作品，被外界视为对硅谷科技巨头的直白警告。

通谕中，教皇延续了对技术理性至上主义的批判，将人工智能的崛起类比于18世纪至20世纪初的工业革命，并引用其同名前任教皇利奥十三世在1891年通谕中维护工人权益的主张。他警示这种“技术官僚范式”正在“将受造界沦为掠夺对象，将人类降格为追求效率系统里的齿轮”。

值得关注的是，通谕特意引用托尔金笔下甘道夫的名言：“我们无法掌控世间所有潮流，但应在属于我们的岁月里，致力于耕耘眼前土地、根除已知的恶，让后人拥有清洁的土地可耕种。”这段文字被普遍认为是在回应部分右翼科技富豪对托尔金作品的有意曲解。

报道指出，彼得·蒂尔将其数据分析公司命名为“帕兰提尔”（Palantir，即《魔戒》中叛徒巫师萨鲁曼用于监视的水晶球），其风险投资公司“创始人基金”甚至被内部称为“宝贝”（指代至尊魔戒）。埃隆·马斯克则曾在社交媒体上借托尔金的故事宣扬反移民论调，声称“霍比特人的安宁全靠刚铎的硬汉守护”。这些解读被托尔金迷普遍批评为背离原著精神——托尔金创作《魔戒》的核心正是批判权力腐化与工业扩张对自然和人的奴役。

事实上，托尔金亲历一战的机械化杀戮，其作品中萨鲁曼砍伐森林炼铁、奴役半兽人发动战争的情节，正是对工业化和极权统治的深刻讽喻。分析认为，教皇选择此时引用托尔金，显然意在提醒那些正在开发超人类通用人工智能的“科技大神”：他们究竟是幻想用技术治愈疾病、应对气候变化，还是在建造无止境逐利和支配他者的引擎？

通谕发表后，蒂尔和马斯克均未回应置评请求。但截至发稿，梵蒂冈也未对通谕是否刻意“钓取”这些科技寡头作出说明。

中文翻译：

教皇利奥十四世在其首道通谕《崇高人性》中引用著名圣徒和先任教宗的言论，于周一发布这份精神指引文件时，无人感到意外。但令众多读者眼前一亮的，竟是一位与奇幻文学画上等号的名字：《魔戒》的天主教作者J.R.R.托尔金。

利奥的通谕聚焦“在人工智能时代守护人类尊严”，这是他执掌天主教会第一年的核心议题。他引用前任教宗方济各的论述，警告“技术官僚范式的日益主导”，这种范式可能“将造物沦为剥削对象，将人类降格为追求极致效率系统里的齿轮”。他再次将人工智能崛起比作横跨18世纪中叶至20世纪初的工业革命，并援引其同名先辈教宗利奥十三世的训导——后者在1891年的通谕中，于技术剧变与资本主义帝国初兴之际，强调了工人权利与尊严的重要性。

这份长篇文本进一步巩固了利奥作为人工智能怀疑论者的立场。而托尔金的引用尤为引人注目，因为彼得·蒂尔与埃隆·马斯克等右翼富豪对中土世界神话的扭曲解读，早已被其他《魔戒》粉丝调侃多时。人们甚至怀疑教宗是否在故意戏弄。（梵蒂冈未立即回应置评请求。）

显然，教宗对科技寡头竞相开发超越人类能力的通用人工智能的动机心存疑虑。他们真的想用这项技术治愈疾病、解决气候变化，还是在建造无限盈利与统治文化的引擎？正是在呼吁人们直面黑暗势力时，利奥借用了托尔金笔下著名巫师甘道夫的箴言：“我们不必驾驭世间所有浪潮，只需尽己所能，为所处的时代带来慰藉，在已知的田野上根除邪恶，让后来者拥有洁净的土地可耕种。”

这一训诫与马斯克和蒂尔从托尔金巨著中解读出的含义相去甚远。

蒂尔将其数据分析公司命名为帕兰提尔，取自传奇故事中叛徒巫师萨鲁曼用作间谍工具的水晶球；据报道，他将风险投资公司创始人基金称为“宝贝”，这正是扭曲贪婪的咕噜对至尊戒的称呼——这件拥有极权力量的魔法器物。但凡接触过托尔金作品（或其改编作品）的人都能看出，他书写的是权力带来的腐蚀效应：在小说中，统治的诱惑终将摧毁所有屈服者。然而蒂尔似乎同反派们一样，对专制控制与全知全能的可能颇为自得。

马斯克则提出，《魔戒》可被解读为反移民、筑高墙的寓言：“托尔金笔下的霍比特人，指的是英格兰郡县那些不知远方苦难的乡绅，”他去年10月在X平台发帖称，“他们能平静生活，只因刚铎的硬汉们庇护着他们。”这番对《魔戒》的明显误读，被用来为恐伊斯兰的英国极右翼煽动者汤米·罗宾逊辩护。

事实上，托尔金对掠夺大军蹂躏大地的描写，源于对军事化与工业化这两大现象的恐惧——这正是他同代英国人再熟悉不过的体验。他在一战中经历的机械化恐怖，被广泛视为萨鲁曼死亡战役的关键灵感来源：为获取燃料毁灭古老森林，驱使被兽化的半兽人进行奴隶劳动。

若说讽喻，这反而更适合教宗利奥对科技精英的批判：他们是播撒分裂与不平等、倾资源于战争、蹂躏环境、不惜代价攫取权力之人。（蒂尔与马斯克均未立即回应就通谕置评的请求。）

至少蒂尔在这一点上似有自觉——从他偏爱的托尔金隐喻和帕兰提尔与美国移民及海关执法局的合作可见一斑。马斯克即便自视为故事中的英雄，其主导裁撤美国国际开发署的行为，已导致全球数十万可预防的死亡，未来还将有更多牺牲。而两人持续支持的特朗普政府，正将人工智能用于从种族主义宣传到规划伊朗轰炸目标等各类事务——当然，也利用《魔戒》美化移民执法局。

在此背景下，教宗对甘道夫的援引显然经过深思熟虑。

在这份谴责效率至上、权力与财富集中于少数人之手的社会弊病的文告中，引用这位深受爱戴的角色之语，即便并非刻意，也似在向特定人群传递直接讯息。但以他们的阅读理解能力，能否领会其中深意，不得而知。

英文来源：

Nobody was surprised that Pope Leo XIV cited well-known saints and previous pontiffs in his first encyclical, or papal letter of spiritual guidance, “Magnifica humanitas,” released Monday.
But the name that immediately jumped out to many readers is one synonymous with high fantasy literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Catholic author of The Lord of the Rings.
Leo’s letter is concerned with “safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” a major theme of his first year as leader of the Catholic Church. Drawing from his predecessor, Pope Francis, he warns of “the growing dominance of a technocratic paradigm,” one capable of “reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.” He again compares the rise of AI to the Industrial Revolution that spanned from the mid-18th century to the beginning of the 20th, alluding to the teachings of his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, who in his own 1891 encyclical asserted the importance of workers’ rights and dignity during a time of technological upheaval and burgeoning capitalist empire.
The lengthy text further solidifies Leo’s stance as an AI skeptic. But the Tolkien nod is particularly salient given some backward interpretations of Middle-earth mythology by right-wing billionaires like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, which have long been ridiculed by other Lord of the Rings fans. One might even think Leo is trolling. (The Vatican did not immediately return a request for comment.)
Clearly, the pope is somewhat concerned about the motives of tech oligarchs racing to develop artificial general intelligence that surpasses human capabilities. Do they really dream of using this tool to cure diseases and solve climate change, or are they building engines of limitless profit and cultural dominance? It’s when he addresses our personal responsibility in challenging such dark forces that Leo borrows an insight from Tolkien’s famous wizard, Gandalf: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.”
That lesson is miles away from what Musk and Thiel apparently see in Tolkien’s masterpiece.
Thiel named his data analytics firm Palantir, after the crystal ball used as a spying device by the traitorous wizard Saruman in the saga; he reportedly calls his venture capital firm, the Founders Fund, “the precious,” which is what the twisted and covetous character Gollum calls the One Ring, a magical means of totalitarian power. Almost anyone who encounters Tolkien (or adaptations of his work) can see that he was writing about the corrupting effect of such power—in the novels, the temptation to rule inevitably undoes anyone who succumbs to it—yet Thiel seems to revel in the same possibilities of authoritarian control and omniscience as the villains.
Musk, for his part, has suggested that Tolkien’s epic can be read as an anti-immigration, build-the-wall parable: “When Tolkien wrote about the hobbits, he was referring to the gentlefolk of the English shires, who don’t realize the horrors that take place far away,” he posted on X in October. “They were able to live their lives in peace and tranquility, but only because they were protected by the hard men of Gondor.” He offered this simply inaccurate recollection of Lord of the Rings as a defense of Islamophpbic far-right UK agitator Tommy Robinson.
In fact, Tolkien’s depictions of marauding armies pillaging the land were inspired by the horrors of militarization and industrialization—two phenomena that the English of Tolkien’s generation were more than familiar with. His experience of mechanized horrors in World War I is widely understood as crucial inspiration for Saruman’s campaign of death, which relied upon the destruction of an ancient forest for fuel and the slave labor of brutalized orcs.
If anything, this allegory better suits Pope Leo’s critique of the tech-bro elite as those who would sow division and inequality, bend their resources toward war, ravage the environment, and seize power at any cost. (Neither Thiel nor Musk immediately returned a request for comment on the encyclical.)
Thiel, at least, appears somewhat self-aware on this point, given his preferred Tolkien allusions and Palantir’s collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Musk, even if he sees himself as one of the heroes of the story, oversaw the bulldozing of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths around the globe and likely millions more to come. And both continue to support a Trump administration that has leveraged AI for everything from racist propaganda to planning where to drop bombs in Iran—and, of course, have used Lord of the Rings to promote and valorize ICE.
In that context, Leo shouting out Gandalf could be seen as very deliberate.
A quote from this beloved character in a treatise condemning a society that prizes efficiency above all else, and concentrates immense power and wealth in the hands of a few, scans as a direct message to those people—whether intentional or not. But with their reading comprehension, who knows if it can get through.