PBS高端访谈:为什么我们要现在对高科技的未来发问?

 　　AMY WEBB, Futurist:We don't stop to think about it, but if you really want to freak yourself out, and you own a cell phone, go to Google and look up your personal information, every single place that you have been since you have been online. We don't think about those digital bread crumbs¹, there are lots of third parties out there that are happily scooping² them up and doing something with that data.

　　If you stop to think about it, your phone knows you better, has a more intimate relationship with you than whoever it is that you're sleeping with, than your loved one. This is for PBS, isn't it? I can't say that.

　　NARRATOR: You can say that.

　　AMY WEBB: We are entering a period in which you can be expected to talk to machines for the rest of your life.

　　The thing that's coming is artificial intelligence. It won't just be you talking to a machine. A lot of it's going to be invisible, and it's going to make our lives easier. It's going to allow scientists to leapfrog ahead in their research.

　　And I do believe that, within my lifetime, life as we know it on this planet is probably going to look a little bit different than it is today. There's some really interesting bioinformation tools that are coming to market.

　　So, one big trend is, how can we prevent against hackers³? No matter how hard we try to tell people, you have got to change your passwords, most people don't change their passwords. What if we no longer had passwords, but instead we are using our own biometric information?

　　为什么我们要现在对高科技的未来发问?

　　You're probably already doing that if you have a newer phone. You're using your thumbprint as a way to make payments. Some of the interesting things on the horizon are things like heat maps. All of the capillaries⁴ of your face are in very slightly different places, which means that your face sort of gives off this unique heat map. And that unique heat map is one way that we can authenticate⁵ you.

　　One of the challenges with technology is that, as it becomes more sophisticated, it also becomes more hidden. If you look under the hood⁶ of a modern car, you see what looks like a flat surface. Not every person who drives a car needs to be Lewis Hamilton's F1 pit crew boss, but I do think it's dangerous for us to continue going forward without having some of that lexicon⁷.

　　We have to be able to have conversations with each other and with the people creating these devices, because, if we can't have the conversations, then we can't ask the questions. And if we can't ask the questions, the problem is that, 10 years into the future, we're going to look back at this moment in time and wish that we had done things differently.

　　My name is Amy Webb, and this was my Brief But Spectacular take on the future.

1 crumbs   

int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式

参考例句：

• She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her sweater. 她站起身掸掉了毛衣上的面包屑。
• Oh crumbs! Is that the time? 啊，天哪！都这会儿啦？

2 scooping   

n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• Heated ice cream scoop is used for scooping really cold ice cream. 加热的冰淇淋勺是用来舀非常凉的冰淇淋的。 来自互联网
• The scoop-up was the key phase during a scooping cycle. 3个区间中，铲取区间是整个作业循环的关键。 来自互联网

3 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

4 capillaries   

毛细管，毛细血管( capillary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。
• While Joe sleeps, a large percentage of his capillaries are inactive. 当乔睡觉时，他的毛细血管大部分是不工作的。

5 authenticate   

vt.证明…为真，鉴定

参考例句：

• We would have to authenticate your relationship with the boy.我们必须证实一下您和那个孩子的关系。
• An expert was needed to authenticate the original Van Gogh painting from his imitation.这幅画是凡·高的真迹还是赝品,需由专家来鉴定。

6 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

7 lexicon   

n.字典，专门词汇

参考例句：

• Chocolate equals sin in most people's lexicon.巧克力在大多数人的字典里等同于罪恶。
• Silent earthquakes are only just beginning to enter the public lexicon.无声地震才刚开始要成为众所周知的语汇。