书呆子奥巴马的下一份工作 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.

华盛顿——本月，在匹茨堡大学(University of Pittsburgh)的一个飞行模拟器里，奥巴马总统专注地盯着两块屏幕，操作着他面前的控制装置，启动模拟推进器。他是在假装操作自己驾驶的航天飞机飞向国际空间站。逐渐向上。向右渐转。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.”

“优步飞机，”满脸笑容的总统在结束了短暂但成功的对接任务后对记者说，并开玩笑称优步(Uber)的下一个市场是外太空。“要是有人叫飞机，我们五分钟后就到。”

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.

在近八年时间里，总统职位一直是奥巴马的科技游乐场。在这个职位上，他试图成为推行先进的电池、强大的医疗设备和前沿研究的行业的首席倡导者。

“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.”

“我是个书呆子，对此我没有丝毫的歉意，”奥巴马在模拟飞行结束后说，并接着表示：“这是一件很酷的事情。正是这个东西让我们与众不同，这种想象和假设，然后试验并弄明白，不断修改和发明创造并逐步改善，然后把它们拆散重做。”

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.

在总统任期只剩下不到三个月的情况下，奥巴马正在为离开白宫后的生活做准备。卸任后的生活极有可能涉及到他与硅谷的亲密关系。过去一年里，奥巴马的总统基金会的负责人前往加利福尼亚州的科技要塞大约十次，帮他部署接下来的步骤。

“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.

“如果那是他卸任后的重点关注领域之一，我不会惊讶，”美国在线(AOL)联合创始人史蒂夫•凯斯(Steve Case)说。

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

从奥巴马领导的白宫到科技巨头——其中很多都是奥巴马重要的政治捐助者——已经是一条老路了。