12月1日，Facebook的创始人扎克伯格和其妻子普莉希拉宣布了他们的女儿麦克斯（Max）的出生，同时发布公开信称将在接下来的人生中捐出他们99%的Facebook股份。—— “你的妈妈和我还无法用语言来形容你给予我们的未来的希望。你的新生命充满了可能性，我们也希望你能够健康开心地去充分探索它们。你的降生，让我们有理由去重新审视这个你将要居留的世界。”
以下为公开信全文：
给我们女儿的信
亲爱的麦克斯，
你的妈妈和我还无法用语言来形容你给予我们的未来的希望。你的新生命充满了可能性，我们也希望你能够健康开心地去充分探索它们。你的降生，让我们有理由去重新审视这个你将要居留的世界。
像所有的父母一样，我们希望你在一个更好的世界中成长。
当新闻的头条常常聚焦于什么是错的，那么在很多方面我们的世界都在变得更好。健康在改善，贫穷在萎缩，知识在增长，人们相互连接（connecting）。每个领域的技术进步意味着你的生活应该明显好于我们的。
我们尽力去让它变为现实，不仅仅因为我们爱你，而且基于我们对下一代孩子们的道德责任。
我们相信所有的生命都有平等的价值，这不仅包括生活在今天的人们，也包括那些生活在未来世代的更多人。当下，我们的社会有更多的义务去提升那些将来之人的生活，而不仅仅是已在之人的。
然而就在现在，我们并不总是共同努力，在你们这一世代将面临的最大机会和问题上投入资源。
想想疾病吧，目前社会在救治病人方面的投入要比预防疾病的研究的投入多五十倍。
医学真正被称为科学的历史还不到100年，我们已经看到许多疾病被完全治愈，其他的许多也取得了很大进步。随着技术发展的加速，在接下来的100年里，我们有足够的信心（real shot）预防、治愈和管理其余疾病中的大部分或者全部。
今天，大多数人死于五种疾病——心脏病、癌症、中风、神经退行性疾病和传染病——我们可以在这些和其他问题上取得更快的进步。
每当我们想到你这一代和你孩子一代人可能不必遭受疾病之苦，我们就感觉到有责任让它变为现实，把我们的投资向未来倾斜一点，这些都可能实现。你的妈妈和我都希望自己尽一份力。
治愈疾病需要一定的时间，短时间内——五年或十年，可能看不出我们起了多大的作用。但是长期来看，今天种下的种子将会生长，总有一天，你和你的孩子将看到只出现在我们想象中的一幕：一个没有疾病痛苦的世界。
类似的机遇还有很多。如果全社会在这些巨大挑战上投入更多精力，我们会留给你们这一代一个更好的世界。
……
对你们的希望集中在两个想法上：拓展（advance）人类潜能和推进平等。
拓展潜能就是推动人类伟大生活的边界。
你的学习和体验能够一百倍于我们今天么？
你们这一辈能够治愈疾病从而获得更长更健康的生命么？
我们能不能连接这个世界使你们得以接触每个观点、每个人和每个机会？
我们能不能够使用更清洁的能源，使你们能够发明我们今天难以设想的方式保护环境？
我们能不能培育这样的企业家精神使你们能够建立任何事业解决任何挑战，从而实现和平与繁荣？
推进平等是保证每个人都能够拥有这样的机会——无论国籍、家庭或出生的环境。
我们的社会必须推进平等，不仅是出于平等或慈善的考虑，而是为了更伟大的人类进步。
今天我们实现的潜能都远不及我们被赋予的。（Today we are robbed of the potential so many have to offer）。实现我们潜能的唯一途径就是集中全世界每个人的天赋、想法和贡献。
我们这一代能消除贫困和饥饿么？
我们能够为每个人提供基本的卫生保健么？
我们能够建立包容和令人愉悦（welcoming）的社区么？
我们能够在各个国家的人民之间培育和平和理解的关系么？
我们能否真正赋予每个人权利——女人、孩子、少数族裔、移民和未融入社会的人（the unconnected）。
如果我们这一代人做了正确的投资，以上每个问题的答案都是“能（yes）”——而且有望在你的一生中得到实现。
……
这些使命——拓展人类潜能和推进平等——实现这些目标的所有工作，都需要新的实现途径。
我们必须进行25年、50年甚至100年的长期投资。这些最大的挑战需要非常长时间跨度的思考，短期的思考无济于事。
我们必须尽力理解我们要服务的人。如果不理解他们社区的需求和渴望，我们无法赋予人们权利。
我们必须发展（build）技术做出改变。许多机构都为应对这些挑战投资，但最重要的进步都来自于创新带来的生产率提高。
我们必须参与政策和宣传以影响辩论。许多机构无意从事于此，但是进步必须由可持续的运动支持。
我们必须支持各个领域最强和最独立的领导人物。与专家建立伙伴关系，而非我们自己领导，这能让我们更有效的完成使命。
我们必须在今天敢于冒险，为明天积累经验。我们的学习资历尚浅，我们努力的许多事情不见成效，但是我们会注意倾听和学习，保持进步。
……
我们在个性化学习、访问互联网、社区教育和健康方面的经验塑造了我们的人生观念。
我们这一代在教室里成长，在那里我们以相同的进度学习相同内容，而不顾我们的兴趣和需求。
你们这一代人可以为“想要成为什么”设立目标——比如工程师、卫生工作者、作家或者社区领袖。你们会拥有这样的技术，使你们了解怎样学得最好，哪里需要注意。你们会在自己最感兴趣的领域进步神速，在你们认为最有挑战性的领域获得足够的帮助。你们将会探索那些今天学校里并不提供的课程。你们的老师也会拥有更好的工具和资料去帮助你们实现目标。
更妙的是，世界上的所有学生将可以使用互联网上的个性化的学习工具，即使他们并不住在好学校附近。当然，除了科技之外，我们还需要投入更多努力让每个人的生命都有公平的起点。但是个性化的学习能够以可扩展的方式给所有孩子提供更好的教育和更为平等的机会。
我们现在正在发展这样的技术，目前的结果也令人充满希望，学生们不仅在考试中有更好的表现，而且获得了学习任何内容的技巧和信心。
这一旅程才刚刚开始，科技和教学会在你上学后每一年都得到快速改善。
你的妈妈和我都曾经教过学生，而且我们看到要想使愿望成真需要付出什么。这将需要与教育界最强的领导者合作，帮助全世界的学校采用个性化学习。这将需与社区建立密切的关系，这正是我们在旧金山湾区社区着手去做的。这将需要发展新的技术尝试新的观念。而且在达成这些目标之前，我们会犯一些错误，吸取一些教训。
但是想到我们可以为你们这一代人创造的世界，我们社会就有责任使投资聚焦于未来，让这一梦想成真。
一同努力，我们可以做到。而当我们做到之后，个性化学习不仅仅会帮到好学校中的学生，也会为每个接入互联网的人提供平等的机会。
……
你们这一代人中最大的机会之一就是每个人都可以使用互联网。人们常以为互联网仅仅是用来娱乐和交流的，但是对于这个世界上大多数人来说，互联网就是生命线。
如果你身边没有很棒的学校，它会给你提供教育。如果你身边没有医生，它会提供有关预防疾病和生养健康孩子的健康资讯。如果你身边没有银行，它会给你提供金融服务。如果你经济条件不乐观，它会给你提供工作和机会。
互联网是这么重要：每10个接入互联网的人中就有1个摆脱贫困，与此同时一个工作岗位也被创造出来。
但是世界上仍有一半以上的人口——超过40亿人——并没有接入互联网。
如果我们这一代人能够与他们连接，我们可以帮助亿万人摆脱贫困，我们也可以帮助亿万儿童获得教育。而通过帮助人们预防疾病，我们也可以拯救数百万生命。
这一长期的努力，也可以由科技和伙伴关系推进。这将需要发明新的技术使互联网更加便宜，使未连接的地区加入互联网。这将需要与政府、非盈利机构和公司的伙伴关系。这将需要与社区建立密切联系，去理解他们真正需要什么。善良的人们对于未来最好的道路有不同的看法，成功之前我们将会做很多尝试。
但是在一起我们会成功并且创造更为平等的世界。
……
科技并不会解决它自己产生的问题。 建设一个更好的世界始于建设更为强大和健康的社区。
当可以学习的时候，儿童拥有最好的机会，而身体健康，可以让儿童学得更好。
健康则从充满爱意的家庭，良好的营养和安全稳定的环境开始。
儿童早年的创伤经历常常影响他们的身心健康。研究表明大脑发展中的物理变化会导致较低的认知能力。
你的妈妈是一位医生和教育者，她很早就注意到这点。
如果你的童年不健康，那么你很难完全实现你的潜能。
如果你必须为食物和房租担心，或者为辱骂和犯罪担心，那么你很难完全实现你的潜能。
如果你担心因为自己的肤色而进入监狱而不是大学，如果你担心你的家庭因为法律地位而将被遣返，或者你可能因为自己的宗教信仰、性取向或性别认同而成为暴力的受害者，那么你很难完全实现你的潜能。
这些议题都是相互联系的，我们需要能够理解这一现状的机制。这正是你妈妈正在建立的一种新型学校的理念。
通过与学校、健康中心、家长团体和当地政府建立伙伴关系，通过确保所有儿童会从一开始得到很好的照顾和关心，我们可以开始处理这些相互联系的不平等现象。只有这样我们才能共同为每个人提供平等的机会。
充分发展这一模式可能需要很多年。这是拓展人类潜能和推进平等两个议题紧密联系的又一个例证。如果我们想要其中任一，都必须首先建设包容性的健康社区。
……
为了让你们这一代生活在更好的世界上，我们这一代人还有太多的事情要做。
今天，你的妈妈和我致力于做好自己的一小部分工作，以应对这些挑战。我会在接下来很多年里继续担任Facebook的CEO。但是这些议题太重要以至于不能等到你更大一些再去着手。而在年轻的时候开始，我们希望在有生之年看到这一决定带来的好处。
随着你成为陈—扎克伯格家族的下一代，我们也发起了 陈 — 扎克伯格 项目（Chan Zuckerberg Initiative），聚合全世界的人们的力量，为了所有下一代的儿童拓展人类潜能的和推动平等。我们项目领域集中在个性化学习、治愈疾病、连接人群和建设强大的社区。
在接下来的人生中，我将会捐出Facebook股份的99%——现在的价值大约是450亿美元——推进这一使命。我们知道与已经在这一领域耕耘的资源和天才相比，这只是一笔很小的捐赠。但是我们希望与其他人一道，去做我们能做之事。
接下来几个月，等我们融入了新的家庭节奏，从产假中恢复过来之后，我们会分享更多的相关细节。我们理解，关于我们为什么这样做和如何做下去，你们会有很多疑问。
在我们为人父母，生命翻开了新的一页，对于一切使之成为可能的人，我们希望表达自己的深深感激。
我们能这样做只是因为有强大的全球社区站在我们背后。创立Facebook为改善下一代的世界创造了资源。Facebook社群的每一位成员都在这一项工作中扮演角色。
站在专家的肩膀上——我们的导师、伙伴和那些为这些领域做出贡献的值得信赖的人，我们才可以不断取得进展。
我们只需要集中精力服务社区和使命，因为我们身边都是充满爱意的家庭、给予帮助的朋友和了不起的同事。我们希望你在生命中也拥有这种有深入的、鼓舞人心的关系。
麦克斯，我们爱你，我们有强烈的责任感把你和所有的孩子们居住的世界变成更好的地方。我们希望你的生命也充满爱、希望和愉快，就像你给我们带来的一样。我们迫不及待地想要看到，你给这个世界带来的美好。
爱你的，
妈妈和爸爸
Mark Zuckerberg·Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Dear Max,
Your mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. Your new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be happy and healthy so you can explore it fully. You've already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in.
Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today.
While headlines often focus on what's wrong, in many ways the world is getting better. Health is improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is growing. People are connecting. Technological progress in every field means your life should be dramatically better than ours today.
We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.
We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.
But right now, we don't always collectively direct our resources at the biggest opportunities and problems your generation will face.
Consider disease. Today we spend about 50 times more as a society treating people who are sick than we invest in research so you won't get sick in the first place.
Medicine has only been a real science for less than 100 years, and we've already seen complete cures for some diseases and good progress for others. As technology accelerates, we have a real shot at preventing, curing or managing all or most of the rest in the next 100 years.
Today, most people die from five things -- heart disease, cancer, stroke, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases -- and we can make faster progress on these and other problems.
Once we recognize that your generation and your children's generation may not have to suffer from disease, we collectively have a responsibility to tilt our investments a bit more towards the future to make this reality. Your mother and I want to do our part.
Curing disease will take time. Over short periods of five or ten years, it may not seem like we're making much of a difference. But over the long term, seeds planted now will grow, and one day, you or your children will see what we can only imagine: a world without suffering from disease.
There are so many opportunities just like this. If society focuses more of its energy on these great challenges, we will leave your generation a much better world.
• • •
Our hopes for your generation focus on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality.
Advancing human potential is about pushing the boundaries on how great a human life can be.
Can you learn and experience 100 times more than we do today?
Can our generation cure disease so you live much longer and healthier lives?
Can we connect the world so you have access to every idea, person and opportunity?
Can we harness more clean energy so you can invent things we can't conceive of today while protecting the environment?
Can we cultivate entrepreneurship so you can build any business and solve any challenge to grow peace and prosperity?
Promoting equality is about making sure everyone has access to these opportunities -- regardless of the nation, families or circumstances they are born into.
Our society must do this not only for justice or charity, but for the greatness of human progress.
Today we are robbed of the potential so many have to offer. The only way to achieve our full potential is to channel the talents, ideas and contributions of every person in the world.
Can our generation eliminate poverty and hunger?
Can we provide everyone with basic healthcare?
Can we build inclusive and welcoming communities?
Can we nurture peaceful and understanding relationships between people of all nations?
Can we truly empower everyone -- women, children, underrepresented minorities, immigrants and the unconnected?
If our generation makes the right investments, the answer to each of these questions can be yes -- and hopefully within your lifetime.
• • •
This mission -- advancing human potential and promoting equality -- will require a new approach for all working towards these goals.
We must make long term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years. The greatest challenges require very long time horizons and cannot be solved by short term thinking.
We must engage directly with the people we serve. We can't empower people if we don't understand the needs and desires of their communities.
We must build technology to make change. Many institutions invest money in these challenges, but most progress comes from productivity gains through innovation.
We must participate in policy and advocacy to shape debates. Many institutions are unwilling to do this, but progress must be supported by movements to be sustainable.
We must back the strongest and most independent leaders in each field. Partnering with experts is more effective for the mission than trying to lead efforts ourselves.
We must take risks today to learn lessons for tomorrow. We're early in our learning and many things we try won't work, but we'll listen and learn and keep improving.
• • •
Our experience with personalized learning, internet access, and community education and health has shaped our philosophy.
Our generation grew up in classrooms where we all learned the same things at the same pace regardless of our interests or needs.
Your generation will set goals for what you want to become -- like an engineer, health worker, writer or community leader. You'll have technology that understands how you learn best and where you need to focus. You'll advance quickly in subjects that interest you most, and get as much help as you need in your most challenging areas. You'll explore topics that aren't even offered in schools today. Your teachers will also have better tools and data to help you achieve your goals.
Even better, students around the world will be able to use personalized learning tools over the internet, even if they don't live near good schools. Of course it will take more than technology to give everyone a fair start in life, but personalized learning can be one scalable way to give all children a better education and more equal opportunity.
We're starting to build this technology now, and the results are already promising. Not only do students perform better on tests, but they gain the skills and confidence to learn anything they want. And this journey is just beginning. The technology and teaching will rapidly improve every year you're in school.
Your mother and I have both taught students and we've seen what it takes to make this work. It will take working with the strongest leaders in education to help schools around the world adopt personalized learning. It will take engaging with communities, which is why we're starting in our San Francisco Bay Area community. It will take building new technology and trying new ideas. And it will take making mistakes and learning many lessons before achieving these goals.
But once we understand the world we can create for your generation, we have a responsibility as a society to focus our investments on the future to make this reality.
Together, we can do this. And when we do, personalized learning will not only help students in good schools, it will help provide more equal opportunity to anyone with an internet connection.
• • •
Many of the greatest opportunities for your generation will come from giving everyone access to the internet.
People often think of the internet as just for entertainment or communication. But for the majority of people in the world, the internet can be a lifeline.
It provides education if you don't live near a good school. It provides health information on how to avoid diseases or raise healthy children if you don't live near a doctor. It provides financial services if you don't live near a bank. It provides access to jobs and opportunities if you don't live in a good economy.
The internet is so important that for every 10 people who gain internet access, about one person is lifted out of poverty and about one new job is created.
Yet still more than half of the world's population -- more than 4 billion people -- don't have access to the internet.
If our generation connects them, we can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. We can also help hundreds of millions of children get an education and save millions of lives by helping people avoid disease.
This is another long term effort that can be advanced by technology and partnership. It will take inventing new technology to make the internet more affordable and bring access to unconnected areas. It will take partnering with governments, non-profits and companies. It will take engaging with communities to understand what they need. Good people will have different views on the best path forward, and we will try many efforts before we succeed.
But together we can succeed and create a more equal world.
• • •
Technology can't solve problems by itself. Building a better world starts with building strong and healthy communities.
Children have the best opportunities when they can learn. And they learn best when they're healthy.
Health starts early -- with loving family, good nutrition and a safe, stable environment.
Children who face traumatic experiences early in life often develop less healthy minds and bodies. Studies show physical changes in brain development leading to lower cognitive ability.
Your mother is a doctor and educator, and she has seen this firsthand.
If you have an unhealthy childhood, it's difficult to reach your full potential.
If you have to wonder whether you'll have food or rent, or worry about abuse or crime, then it's difficult to reach your full potential.
If you fear you'll go to prison rather than college because of the color of your skin, or that your family will be deported because of your legal status, or that you may be a victim of violence because of your religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, then it's difficult to reach your full potential.
We need institutions that understand these issues are all connected. That's the philosophy of the new type of school your mother is building.
By partnering with schools, health centers, parent groups and local governments, and by ensuring all children are well fed and cared for starting young, we can start to treat these inequities as connected. Only then can we collectively start to give everyone an equal opportunity.
It will take many years to fully develop this model. But it's another example of how advancing human potential and promoting equality are tightly linked. If we want either, we must first build inclusive and healthy communities.
• • •
For your generation to live in a better world, there is so much more our generation can do.
Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook's CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.
As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.
We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.
We'll share more details in the coming months once we settle into our new family rhythm and return from our maternity and paternity leaves. We understand you'll have many questions about why and how we're doing this.
As we become parents and enter this next chapter of our lives, we want to share our deep appreciation for everyone who makes this possible.
We can do this work only because we have a strong global community behind us. Building Facebook has created resources to improve the world for the next generation. Every member of the Facebook community is playing a part in this work.
We can make progress towards these opportunities only by standing on the shoulders of experts -- our mentors, partners and many incredible people whose contributions built these fields.
And we can only focus on serving this community and this mission because we are surrounded by loving family, supportive friends and amazing colleagues. We hope you will have such deep and inspiring relationships in your life too.
Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you give us. We can't wait to see what you bring to this world.
Love,
Mom and Dad
