2019年经济学人 埃隆·马斯克的脑机接口(1)

埃隆·马斯克的脑机接口(1)

Elon Musk¹, perhaps the world's most famous entrepreneur,

埃隆·马斯克也许是世界上最著名的企业家，

is sometimes referred to as "the Trump² of technology"— not for political reasons,

有时他被称为是“技术界的特朗普”—并非出于政治原因，

but because of his habit of making, at short notice, spectacular pronouncements that stretch the bounds of credibility.

而是因为他习惯于在短时间内发表引人注目且超出可信度的声明。

On July 16th he was at it again, unveiling a new type of brain-machine interface³ (BMI).

7月16日，他再次博人眼球，推出了一种新型的脑机接口（BMI）。

If human beings do not enter a symbiosis⁴ with artificial intelligence (AI), he declared, they are sure to be left behind.

他宣称，如果人类不与人工智能（AI）建立共生关系，他们肯定会被甩在后面。

And he, the announcement implied, was going to be the man who stopped that happening.

并且声明暗示，他将是阻止这一切发生的人。

Connecting brains directly to machines is a long-standing aspiration⁵. And it is already happening, albeit⁶ in a crude way.

将大脑直接连接到机器上是一个长存的愿望。这已经在发生了，虽然是以一种粗糙的方式。

In deep-brain stimulation⁷, for example, neurosurgeons implant⁸ a few electrodes into a patient's brain in order to treat Parkinson's disease.

例如，在深部脑刺激中，为了治疗帕金森氏症，神经外科医生在病人的大脑中植入一些电极。

Utah arrays, collections of 100 conductive silicon⁹ needles, are now employed experimentally to record brain waves.

犹他阵列由100根导电硅针组成，目前已被用于记录脑电波的实验。

A team at the University of Washington has built a "brain-to-brain network"

华盛顿大学的一个团队已经建立了一个“脑对脑网络”

that allows people to play games with each other using just their thoughts.

可以让人们利用自己的思维和对方玩游戏。

And researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have captured neural¹⁰ signals from people as they talk,

旧金山加利福尼亚大学的研究人员捕捉到了人们说话时的神经信号

and have then turned that information, via a computer, into intelligible¹¹ speech.

然后通过电脑将这一信息转化成可理解的语言。

As with all things Musk-related, Neuralink is much more ambitious. The firm does not just want to develop a better BMI.

和所有与马克斯相关的事物一样，Neuralink的野心要大得多。该公司不仅仅想开发一个更好的BMI。

Its aim is to create a "neural lace", a mesh¹² of ultra-thin electrodes that capture as much information from the brain as possible.

其目标是创造一个“神经蕾丝”，一种极薄的电极网，它能从大脑中捕捉尽可能多的信息。

Unsurprisingly, hurdles¹³ abound¹⁴. The electrodes needed to do this must be flexible,

不出所料，障碍大量存在。这样做所需要的电极必须是灵活的，

so that they do not damage brain tissue and will also last for a long time.

这样才不会损坏脑组织并且还能持续很长一段时间。

They have to number at least in the thousands, to provide sufficient bandwidth.

为了提供足够的带宽，它们必须至少以数千计。

And to make the implantation of so many electrodes safe, painless and effective, the process has to be automated¹⁵,

为了安全、无痛且有效植入这么多的电极，这个过程必须是自动化的，

much like LASIK surgery, which uses lasers to correct eyesight.

这很像是激光眼角膜手术，利用激光矫正视力。

Neuralink does indeed seem to have made progress towards these goals.

Neuralink似乎确实在实现这些目标方面取得了进展。

Its presentation, at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco,

在旧金山的加利福尼亚科学院，其演讲展示中

included videos of a neurosurgical robot that is best described as a sewing machine.

包含了一个神经外科机器人（最好形容为一台缝纫机）的视频。

This robot grabs "threads" (films, containing electrodes, that measure less than a quarter of the diameter of a human hair),

这个机器人抓取“线”（包含电极的薄膜，尺寸不到人类头发直径的四分之一），

and shoots them deep into the brain through a hole in the skull¹⁶. It is capable of inserting six threads, each carrying 32 electrodes, per minute.

并通过头骨上的一个洞把它们射入大脑深处。它每分钟能够插入六根线，每根线携带32个电极。

1 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

4 symbiosis   

n.共生（关系），共栖

参考例句：

• They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing.他们与他们服务的政府互利共存。
• The symbiosis between social values and political structure has produced extraordinary achievement.社会价值观念和政治结构的共生现象带来了非凡的成就。

5 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

6 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

7 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

8 implant   

vt.注入，植入，灌输

参考例句：

• A good teacher should implant high ideals in children.好教师应该把高尚理想灌输给孩子们。
• The operation to implant the artificial heart took two hours.人工心脏植入手术花费了两小时。

9 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

10 neural   

adj.神经的，神经系统的

参考例句：

• The neural network can preferably solve the non- linear problem.利用神经网络建模可以较好地解决非线性问题。
• The information transmission in neural system depends on neurotransmitters.信息传递的神经途径有赖于神经递质。

11 intelligible   

adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的

参考例句：

• This report would be intelligible only to an expert in computing.只有计算机运算专家才能看懂这份报告。
• His argument was barely intelligible.他的论点不易理解。

12 mesh   

n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络

参考例句：

• Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
• This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。

13 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

14 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

15 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

16 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。