The average human sperm cell is around 50 microns long, roughly the diameter of a hair or the thickness of a heavy-duty plastic bag. Under a microscope, amid a galaxy of proteins, sugars, dust and dead cells, they look like broken satellites, spinning crazily without direction. The motion is generated by the sperm cell’s long flagellum, which can propel it the length of its body every second. That’s under ideal conditions, when a man has been exercising and eating clean, abstaining from alcohol and cigarettes, steering clear of saunas and any endocrine-disrupting chemicals and, certainly, avoiding androgenic steroids.

人类精子细胞的平均长度约为50微米，大致相当于一根头发的直径或者厚塑料袋的厚度。在显微镜下，在蛋白质、糖类、灰尘和死细胞组成的“星系”中，它们看起来就像失控的卫星，毫无方向地疯狂旋转。这种运动由精子细胞长长的鞭毛驱动，它每秒能推动精子前进一个相当于自身长度的距离。但这只是在理想状态下——即男性坚持锻炼、饮食健康、戒烟戒酒、远离桑拿和任何内分泌干扰化学物质，当然还要绝对避免使用雄性激素类类固醇。

So when Felix van der Heiden and Manu Bos examined their samples during a March visit to the San Francisco offices of the biotech start-up Sperm Racing, they were shocked by what they found. To the naked eye, they looked like robust young men, tall and broad-shouldered, with feline eyes and complexions like a Ken doll’s. Back in the Netherlands, Bos had been a sponsored skateboarder and was now an influencer; van der Heiden, under the handle Zeta, had parlayed his handsome face and washboard abs into a career as a looksmaxxer, with over 700,000 followers on TikTok. There was just one problem.

因此，当菲利克斯·范德海登和马努·博斯3月造访位于旧金山的生物科技初创公司“精子竞速”办公室检查自己的精子样本时，他们对所见结果感到震惊。外表看来，他们是健壮的年轻人，身材高大，肩膀宽阔，长着猫一样的眼睛，肤色就像肯娃娃。在家乡荷兰，博斯曾是一名获得赞助的滑板运动员，如今是一名网红；网名Zeta的范德海登则凭借英俊的面庞和搓衣板般的腹肌成为一名专注颜值提升的博主，在TikTok上拥有超过70万名粉丝。然而，有一个问题。

“ His sperm — like 60 percent is dead,” van der Heiden said. “And for me, everything’s dead. Just rotten inside.”

“他的精子——大概有60%是死的，”范德海登说，“而我呢，全军覆没。里面已经烂透了。”

It wasn’t a total surprise, van der Heiden admitted. He’d been doing testosterone replacement therapy and dabbling in selective androgen and estrogen receptor modulators. His bloodwork had been showing low levels of luteinizing hormone, or LH, which tells the testicles to produce testosterone and, indirectly, sperm. If he wanted to have children, he would have to start injecting a peptide called human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, which mimics LH, to get his testes back online.

范德海登承认，这倒也不是完全出乎意料。他一直在进行睾酮替代疗法，并尝试选择性雄激素和雌激素受体调节剂。他的血液检查一直显示促黄体生成素水平较低，这种激素负责指示睾丸产生睾酮，并间接产生精子。如果他想生孩子，就必须开始注射一种叫做人绒毛膜促性腺激素的肽类物质（它能模仿促黄体生成素的功能），让他的睾丸重新恢复功能。

They’d planned on coming to San Francisco and doing a sperm race, hoping to make — what else — video content for their YouTube channel, Dutch Brahs.

他们原本计划来旧金山进行一场精子竞赛，希望能为他们的YouTube频道“Dutch Brahs”制作——还能是什么呢——视频内容。

Currently valued at $50 million, Sperm Racing is a start-up devoted to, well, racing human sperm through an artificial reproductive system. At their office and across the country, they’ve hosted matches with college students, streamers and influencers — all in the name of raising awareness about male infertility. In the last decade, some studies have found that sperm quality across the developed world has dropped precipitously. On average, young men today produce half as much sperm as men of their grandfathers’ generation. There are many competing explanations for this phenomenon, but one thing scientists can agree on is that sperm quality, and specifically sperm motility — that is, how fast they swim and for how long — is a decent proxy for male health. Healthy men make healthy sperm. Healthy sperm swim faster. And the fastest sperm wins.

精子竞速目前估值为5000万美元，这家初创公司致力于——没错，让人类精子在人工生殖系统中赛跑。在他们的办公室以及全国各地，他们为大学生、主播和网红主持了多场比赛，名义是为了提高人们对男性不育症的认识。在过去十年里，一些研究发现，发达国家男性的精子质量急剧下降。平均而言，当今年轻男性产生的精子数量只有他们祖父那一代的一半。关于这种现象有许多相互矛盾的解释，但科学家们能够达成共识的一点是：精子质量——特别是精子活力（也就是精子游动的速度和游动持续时间）是衡量男性健康的一个很好的指标。健康的男性产生健康的精子。健康的精子游得更快。而游得最快的精子就能获胜。

“We’re turning health into a competition,” one of Sperm Racing’s founders, an 18-year-old named Eric Zhu, told me.

“我们在把健康变成一场竞赛，”精子竞速的创始人之一、18岁的埃里克·朱告诉我。

Van der Heiden’s languid sperm were an extreme example of the problem the company aims to highlight. Any young man’s social media feeds will be awash in contradictory and potentially bad advice on improving health. In a sense, Sperm Racing aims to cut through that noise by reducing male vitality down to its absolute essence.

范德海登那些行动迟缓的精子正是该公司旨在揭示的问题的一个极端例子。任何年轻男性的社交媒体动态中，都有可能充斥着相互矛盾、甚至可能有害的健康建议。从某种意义上说，精子竞速旨在将男性的生命力还原为最本质的层面，从而穿透这些嘈杂的噪音。

Of course, the company also adds to that noise. Sperm Racing employees spend much of their time turning the sperm races into video content, which ideally steers customers toward the company’s revenue-generating businesses.

当然，这家公司本身也在助长这样的噪音。精子竞速的员工花了大量时间将精子比赛制作成视频内容，理想情况下，这些内容能引导客户转向公司的创收业务。

Sperm Racing seems to represent the final phase of a cultural transformation taking place in the tech industry. In the ’10s, Silicon Valley fostered a rapacious and disruptive business culture that nevertheless spoke in (and seemed to believe in) progressive platitudes. The ’20s have proved quite different: The Valley has embraced an openly masculine and competitive posture — or at least it wants to project that image. And here in one start-up was its most bluntly literal expression.

精子竞速似乎代表了科技行业目前文化转型的最后阶段。在2010年代，硅谷孕育了一种贪婪且具有破坏性的商业文化，但它依然用进步派的陈词滥调来包装自己（而且似乎也相信这些）。2020年代则被证明截然不同：硅谷已经接受了一种公开的男性化和竞争性的姿态——或者至少它希望展现出这种形象。而这家初创公司就是这种姿态最直白、最直接的体现。

I met van der Heiden and Bos during the week I spent at Sperm Racing headquarters in San Francisco. My plan had been to follow the founders around as they prepared for a big race to be held at the Chase Center. But I soon learned that the event wouldn’t be happening. At an all-hands meeting, one of the company’s founders, Shane Fan, made an announcement. From that day on, Sperm Racing would be dedicated to producing a World Cup. Never mind one big race in front of a live audience — they would run dozens of them.

在旧金山精子竞速总部度过的那一周里，我遇到了范德海登和博斯。我的计划原本是跟拍创始人，记录他们如何筹备即将在大通中心举行的一场大型比赛。但我很快得知，这场活动不会举行了。在一次全体员工会议上，公司创始人之一谢恩·范（音）宣布了一项决定：从那天起，精子竞速将致力于举办一场世界杯赛事。不再是举办一场大型现场比赛——他们要办几十场。

Tragically, the world may never see all of these showdowns. Before I could file this article, the company would pivot again.

遗憾的是，世界可能永远看不到所有的这些对决了。在我提交这篇文章之前，这家公司又将再次转型。

IT WAS ZHU’S IDEA to race sperm. The son of Chinese immigrants, he grew up in small-town Indiana, though he talks with the nasal accent and 1.5x speed of the Bay Area. During the pandemic, Zhu got his first computer, and within a few months had taught himself the basics of coding. He started a software-as-a-service business called Aviato. (It was named after a fictional start-up from the TV series “Silicon Valley.”) By the age of 15, he had raised $2.3 million, and managed to get himself expelled from high school for taking too many business calls from the bathroom. Zhu moved to San Francisco and, in his telling, fell in with a circle of longevity enthusiasts who competitively tracked their sperm counts.

让精子赛跑是埃里克·朱的主意。他是中国移民的儿子，在印第安纳州的一个小镇长大，尽管他说话带着湾区特有的鼻音和1.5倍的语速。在疫情期间，埃里克·朱得到了他的第一台电脑，并在几个月内自学了编程基础。他创办了一家名为Aviato的软件即服公司。（公司的名字来源于电视剧《硅谷》中一家虚构的初创公司。）到15岁时，他已经筹集了230万美元，而且因为在洗手间接了太多商务电话被高中开除。埃里克·朱搬到了旧金山，据他所说，他混入了一个长寿爱好者的圈子，他们热衷于追踪比较精子数量。

In 2024, one of Aviato’s early investors, Joe Lonsdale, persuaded Zhu to enroll at the University of Austin, which was founded in 2021 by Lonsdale and other prominent conservative donors. One weekend during his time there, Zhu says, he was flown to New York with a group of other students for a meeting with a secretive billionaire donor to the school. When the donor asked Zhu to pitch his craziest business idea, he recalled those sperm-obsessed longevity guys from San Francisco. He laid out a vision for a company that would help men track their health by racing sperm. The donor encouraged Zhu to make it a reality.

2024年，Aviato的早期投资者之一乔·朗斯代尔说服埃里克·朱进入奥斯汀大学就读，该大学由朗斯代尔和其他知名保守派捐献者于2021年创立。埃里克·朱说，在校期间的一个周末，他和其他一群学生被送到纽约，与该校一位神秘的亿万富翁捐助者会面。这位捐助者要求埃里克·朱推销自己最疯狂的商业想法，于是他回想起旧金山那些痴迷精子的长寿研究者。他描绘了一家公司的愿景：通过让精子竞速来帮助男性追踪自己的健康状况。这位捐献者鼓励埃里克·朱把这个想法变成现实。

Zhu reached out to his friend Nick Small, a 16-year-old prodigy of crypto arbitrage, who was well connected in the New York tech scene. Fan joined them, and over the course of an all-nighter at the Paramount Hotel, the three conceived of Sperm Racing and wrote up a manifesto.

埃里克·朱联系了朋友尼克·斯莫尔，一位16岁的加密货币套利神童，在纽约科技圈拥有良好人脉。谢恩·范也加入了他们，在派拉蒙酒店熬了一个通宵后，三人构思出了“精子竞速”，并起草了一份宣言。

By late 2024, the three had raised over $1 million from investors led by the hedge fund and venture capital firm Karatage, along with Figment Capital and Karman Ventures.

到2024年底，三人已经从对冲基金兼风险投资公司Karatage为首的投资者那里筹集了超过100万美元，跟投的还有Figment Capital和Karman Ventures。

Racing sperm does involve some actual science. And for that, the company relied on the expertise of Rishi Kanaparti, who led the company’s biology department and was, improbably, 17. Before joining Sperm Racing, Kanaparti was dual-enrolled at his Atlanta high school and Georgia State. When he saw for himself that the science behind sperm racing was legitimately interesting, he left his program in Georgia and moved to San Francisco.

精子竞速确实涉及一些真正的科学。为此，该公司依靠里希·卡纳帕提的专业知识，他领导着公司的生物部门，而且令人难以置信的是，他只有17岁。在加入精子竞速之前，卡纳帕提在亚特兰大的高中和佐治亚州立大学同时注册学习。当他亲眼看到精子竞速背后的科学确实非常有趣时，他退出了在佐治亚州的项目，搬到了旧金山。

精子竞速公司的首席技术官泰贾斯夫·巴蒂亚​用显微镜检查样本。

The process borrows from well-studied I.V.F. technology, Kanaparti explained. First, the team purifies the semen samples in a centrifuge. Then they pipette the sperm into two parallel 3,800-micron (3.8-millimeter) microfluidic racetracks etched into silicone chips. These chips are fabricated from molds in an ad hoc clean room set up next to the first-floor bathroom.

卡纳帕提解释说，这个过程借鉴了研究成熟的体外受精技术。首先，团队在离心机中纯化精液样本。然后，他们用移液管将精子注入刻在硅片上的两条平行的3800微米（3.8毫米）微流体跑道中。这些硅片是在一楼洗手间旁边设立的一个临时无尘室里，通过模具制造出来的。

The environment within the racetracks is designed to emulate the human reproductive system. In a process known as rheotaxis, the sperm move against a steady flow of warm fluid that mimics cervical mucus. Like salmon swimming upstream, they cling to the walls of the track to avoid the central current and maintain their sense of direction. On Kanaparti’s tracks, however, the sperm encounter unnatural obstacles: tight sections, sharp corners and pillars that separate the best from the rest.

跑道内的环境被设计成模拟人类生殖系统。在一种被称为“趋流性”的过程中，精子逆着模拟宫颈黏液的温暖稳定液流游动。就像逆流而上的鲑鱼一样，它们紧贴跑道壁以避开中心水流，并保持方向感。然而，在卡纳帕提设计的跑道上，精子会遇到非自然的障碍物：狭窄的路段、急转弯和柱子，这些都是为了将最优秀的精子与普通精子区分开来。

Watching the raw footage from the microscope camera, it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. The sperm and the track are both translucent, with bubbles, particles and dust adding to the visual chaos. To identify the leaders of the pack, a computer vision system applies object detection software to the raw data, the same way a traffic camera picks out speeding cars. This data is then put through 3-D generation software, which transforms it into the slickly produced footage the audience sees onscreen. In the final cut, two or more competitors’ sperm are shown in different colors jostling for position on the same track. The camera follows the action from overhead, with occasional close-ups at crucial moments of suspense.

观看显微镜相机拍摄的原始画面，很难分辨出到底发生了什么。精子和跑道都是半透明的，气泡、颗粒和灰尘更增加了视觉上的混乱。为了识别领跑者，计算机视觉系统运用物体检测软件对原始数据进行分析，就像交通摄像头挑选出超速行驶的汽车一样。然后，这些数据会被输入3D生成软件，将其转化为观众在屏幕上看到的精美画面。在最终的剪辑中，两名或多名参赛者的精子以不同的颜色显示，在同一条赛道上争夺位置。摄像机从上方跟踪动作，并在关键的悬念时刻穿插特写镜头。

But making that footage entertaining requires more than cool graphics. To understand how sperm racing reaches its full dramatic potential, I visited the production studio of Gabe Cataldi, the company’s announcer.

但是，要让这些画面具有娱乐性，仅靠酷炫的图形是不够的。为了解精子竞速如何充分发挥戏剧性潜力，我拜访了该公司的解说员加布·卡塔迪的制作工作室。

Cataldi’s job is harder than it looks. The contestants are sex cells that cannot make adjustments or pit stops. “They’re uncoachable athletes,” Cataldi said. As a commentator, he has to bring both enthusiasm and drama to the action of microscopic cells swimming through a channel.

卡塔迪的工作比看上去要难。参赛选手是生殖细胞，它们无法根据情况调整策略，也不能进站维修。“它们是无法指导的运动员，”卡塔迪说。作为一名解说员，他必须为显微镜下细胞在通道中游动的过程注入激情和戏剧性。

What really excites him are the personal back stories. He imagined a matchup between a macho “Andrew Tate type” and a “vegan skinny” guy who “looks like a twink.” If the musclebound meathead was actually unhealthy, it would be a perfect upset with a positive message: Virility can come in surprising packages. “Society, we should be praising this guy,” he said of his imaginary twink champion. “Biologically, the girls should be seeking him.”

真正令他兴奋的是选手背后的故事。他设想了一场对决，一方是肌肉发达的“安德鲁·泰特型”猛男，另一方是“纯素食的瘦子”，“看起来像个小鲜肉”。如果那个肌肉发达的壮汉实际上身体欠佳，这场以小搏大的逆袭便会带出一个积极的信息：男子气概有时会以出人意料的方式呈现。“从社会层面说，应该为这家伙喝彩，”他谈到自己脑海中那位小鲜肉冠军时说，“从生物学角度来看，女性应该追求这样的男性。”

Cataldi has been giving these biological imperatives more thought now that he and his wife, who lives in New Zealand, are thinking about having their first child. But in some ways, Cataldi is already a father. He has taken to looking after his younger Sperm Racing co-workers. “They call me Unc and Dad,” he said. (He’s 33 years old.)

自从他和住在新西兰的妻子开始考虑要第一个孩子，卡塔尔迪便更加深入地思索起这些生物本能的问题。但在某种意义上，卡塔迪已经是一个父亲了。他开始照顾“精子竞速”比他年轻的同事们。“他们叫我大叔和老爸，”他说。（他今年33岁。）

Testing racetracks requires employees at Sperm Racing to regularly provide samples, and almost everyone in the office had taken part in internal company scrimmages — except Cataldi. “ I just felt really awkward,” he told me. “ But I’m in the best shape of my life, and I will maybe — I’ll go against you.”

为了测试赛道，“精子竞速”的员工需要定期提供样本，而办公室里几乎每个人都参加过公司内部的模拟比赛——唯独卡塔迪除外。“我就是觉得特别尴尬，”他告诉我。“不过我现在处于人生中最好的状态，也许——我会跟你比一场。”

Before I realized what had happened, I’d been challenged to a sperm race. My journalistic curiosity was piqued; for years I’d been thinking about the intersection of masculinity, health and wellness, and here was an opportunity to test all of these at once. But at stake was more than professional duty. My honor as a man, whatever that was, demanded I accept. Just a year apart in age, we would be racing in the Unc Division.

还没等我反应过来，我已经被挑战参加一场精子竞速赛了。我的记者好奇心被激发了；多年来我一直在思考男性气质、健康与养生之间的关系，而现在正好有机会一次性检验这些问题。但这不仅仅关乎职业责任。作为一个男人的荣誉——不管那究竟意味着什么——要求我接受挑战。我们年龄只差一岁，因此将在“大叔组”展开较量。

ON RACE DAY, I handed a plastic cup with a blue lid to a lab tech, who stowed it next to Cataldi’s in the incubator, where they rested for 10 minutes at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Millions of my cells were, hopefully, zipping around in there. As news of the race spread through the office, a crowd formed in front of the wall-size TV.

比赛当天，我把一个带蓝色盖子的塑料杯交给一名实验室技术人员。她将其与卡塔迪的样本一同放入培养箱，在华氏98.6度（约摄氏37度）的环境中静置10分钟。我数以百万计的细胞正在里面奋力游动——希望如此。消息在办公室里传开，一群人聚集在整面墙大小的电视屏幕前。 

As the channels opened and the sperm flooded the chamber, Cataldi resumed his role as announcer. He took an early lead with a single sperm, R1, darting ahead. “I’m cooking him,” he said. But soon my L1 and L2 racers were pulling up alongside his. “My guy is completely lost!” he shouted at the screen. As my first sperm crossed the finish line, his was still stuck at the halfway mark. The whole thing lasted just 16 seconds. It was a blowout.

随着通道开启，精子涌入竞速槽，卡塔迪重新担任起解说员。他凭借一颗名为R1的精子取得领先，一骑绝尘。“我把他干掉了，”他说。但很快，我的L1和L2选手开始追了上来。“我的家伙完全迷路了！”他对着屏幕大喊。就在我的第一颗精子冲过终点线时，他的还卡在半程。整个过程只持续了16秒，这是一场完胜。

The workday was coming to an end, and people were drifting back to their desks to wrap things up and prepare for the weekly team dinner.

那个工作日接近尾声，人们陆续回到各自工位，收尾当天工作，并准备参加每周一次的团队晚餐。

Before the meal could begin, there was one final contest. Each week, a different member of the team organizes a multiple-choice quiz in Kahoot!, the app beloved by teachers and students across the United States.

在用餐开始之前，还有最后一场较量。每周，团队的一名不同成员都会在 Kahoot!（这款应用深受全美师生喜爱）上组织一次多项选择题测试。

“Guys, repeat after me: We are very against cheating at Sperm Racing,” Zhu said. The screen changed to the start page of the Kahoot! quiz. The title was “Gender, Feminism and LGBTQ+ Movements: A Knowledge Challenge.” I read a lot of feminist and queer theory in college. I was ready to run a victory lap.

“大家跟我说：我们坚决反对在精子赛跑中作弊，”埃里克·朱说道。屏幕切换到Kahoot!测验的开始页面，标题是“性别、女权主义与LGBTQ+运动：知识大挑战”。我大学时读过很多女权主义和酷儿理论的著作，我已经准备好再赢一场了。

Question 1: Which concept explains how gender inequality overlaps with race, class and other identities?

问题1：哪个概念解释了性别不平等与种族、阶级和其他身份的相交？

That was easy: intersectionality.

这个简单：交叉性(intersectionality)。

Question 2: Who developed the theory of intersectionality?

问题2：谁发展了交叉性理论？

My first thought was Audre Lorde. But she wasn’t up there. I panicked and chose bell hooks — wrong. It was Kimberlé Crenshaw. As I watched the rankings update, I saw that almost everyone else in the room had gotten it right. From there, things went downhill. When the quiz was over, the screen showed that out of 15 contestants, I came in 12th. The winner, with a perfect score, was van der Heiden.

我的第一反应是奥德丽·洛尔德。但选项里没有她。我惊慌失措地选了贝尔·胡克斯——选错了。正确答案是金伯莉·克伦肖。当我看着排名更新时，我看到房间里的几乎所有人都答对了。从那之后是一路下滑。测验结束时，屏幕显示在15名参赛者中，我排名第12位。获得满分的获胜者是范德海登。

Of the many surreal moments I experienced at the Sperm Racing office that week, this was perhaps the strangest. Given Zhu’s love of trolling, I considered whether it was all an elaborate prank — but the enthusiasm in the room felt genuine. The guys really did want to prove who knew the most about toxic masculinity, just as they wanted to see who had the fastest sperm or the heaviest squat max.

在那一周我在“精子竞速”办公室经历的众多超现实时刻中，这也许是最奇怪的一个。鉴于朱对恶搞的热爱，我曾想这是否一切都是个精心设计的恶作剧——但大家的热情感觉是真实的。这帮家伙确实想证明谁对“有毒的男子气概”了解最多，就像他们想看看谁的精子最快或者谁的深蹲极限最重一样。

After dinner, I approached van der Heiden. He had skipped trade school to focus on content creation full time, so where had he learned all this stuff?

晚饭后我去找了范德海登。他跳过了职业学校，专注于全职的内容创作，那么他在哪里学到了所有这些东西？

“Just TikTok,” he said, with a shrug.

“就在TikTok上，”他耸了耸肩说。

IN MAY, ZHU got in touch. Sperm Racing was pivoting again. One-third of the team had been replaced. The company was “steering away from the cheap jokes.” Now, they were leaning toward the name Biomarker Sports instead.

到了5月，朱来跟我聊了几句。“精子竞速”正再次进行全面转型。三分之一的团队成员已被替换。公司正在“避开低俗的笑话”。现在，他们倾向于使用“生物标志物运动”(Biomarker Sports)这个名字。

The company would still race sperm, Zhu assured me. It just wasn’t the sole marker of health they wanted to measure and optimize. According to the pitch deck, there would be blood draws, cryo-chamber stress tests and a “VO2 max face off,” with a sperm race as the final leg of the contest. The idea behind the pivot, Zhu explained, was to appeal to an older audience, men ages 25 to 40 who may want a more serious approach to infertility.

他向我保证，公司仍然会进行精子竞速。只是这不再是他们想要测量和优化的唯一健康标志物了。根据商业计划书，未来将包含抽血、冷冻舱压力测试和“最大摄氧量对决”，并将精子竞速作为竞赛的最后一环。他解释说，这次转型背后的想法是为了吸引更年长的受众，即25至40岁的男性，他们可能希望以一种更严肃的方式来对待不育问题。

The civilization-level problems the business claimed to want to solve were colliding with business demands and the dull realities of the attention economy. In a funny way, Zhu and the others had backed themselves into the corner of the Valley entrepreneurs who came before — saying they wanted to change the world, and mostly making content instead. At times, these imperatives appeared hopelessly at odds, but Zhu didn’t seem to mind.

这家企业声称想要解决的文明层面的问题正与商业需求以及眼球经济的无趣现实发生碰撞。他们以一种搞笑的方式将自己逼入了跟以往的硅谷创业者一样的死角——嘴上说着想要改变世界，而结果主要还是在制作内容。这些要务有时看上去是根本无法兼顾的，但朱似乎不在乎。

When I had my last one-on-one with him back in San Francisco, it was a beautiful afternoon in Yerba Buena Gardens, and the birds and the bees were singing about spring. I asked him whether he planned to have children one day. He described a vision of himself as a patriarch, lying on his deathbed and surrounded by his progeny. “Grandchildren. Grandchildren’s grandchildren.” He wanted to be able to look back on his life with pride, and he felt sperm racing — in whatever form it took — would allow him to do that. “Think about the dad lore,” he said.

我回到旧金山与他进行最后一次面对面交谈是在芳草花园的一个美丽的下午，鸟儿和蜜蜂正在歌唱着春天。我问他有没有要孩子的打算。他描绘了一幅自己作为族长的愿景，躺在临终床榻上，被自己的后代簇拥着。“孙辈。孙辈的孙辈。”他希望能够带着自豪回顾自己的一生，并且他觉得精子竞速——无论它采取什么形式——都能让他做到这一点。“想想那会是怎样的‘老爸传奇’啊，”他说。