【英语语言学习】未来的犯罪将会是什么样子

GUY RAZ, HOST:

OK, so after this point the future is looking pretty awesome¹, you know, all this incredible technology to cure disease and make us live better lives but like the force, there is of course a dark side. Which is what Mark Goodman worries about. He used to be a beat cop with the LA police department and now he studies the future of crime and terrorism.

MARK GOODMAN: Today I'm going to show you the flip² side of all those technologies that we marvel³ at. The ones that we love. In the hands of the TED⁴ community these are awesome tools which will bring about great change for our world. But in the hands of suicide bombers⁵, the future can look quite different.

RAZ: And Mark Goodman believes we all caught a glimpse of that future in November 2008, when 10 men - just 10 men - brought a city of 20 million people to a standstill in Mumbai, India.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS REPORT)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: ...We're continuing to follow the deadly coordinated⁶ terror attacks there across the city. More than 80 people have been killed. Here's the latest report...

(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)

GOODMAN: The men that carried that attack out were armed with AK-47s, explosives and hand grenades. But heavy artillery⁷ is nothing new in terrorist operations. Guns and bombs are nothing new. What was different this time is the way that the terrorists used modern information communications technologies to locate additional victims and slaughter⁸ them.

RAZ: So how did they do it?

GOODMAN: What was different is that the terrorists innovated⁹ a terrorist ops center. So at the very same time that the attack was taking place on the ground in Mumbai there was an op center back in Pakistan monitoring, in real time, Al Jazeera.

(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS REPORT)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: The police have cordoned¹⁰ off all of the areas in south Mumbai...

GOODMAN: CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: Reporting live from the scene as the Taj Hotel...

GOODMAN: BBC.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: What you're hearing is a lot of explosions...

GOODMAN: ...As well as the Internet and they were culling¹¹ all of that data for intelligence related to the attack and relaying that information to their terrorist operatives on the ground in real time. And that was something that we had never seen before.

RAZ: The main target was a luxury hotel in downtown. It's called the Taj. And during the siege the terrorists went from room...

GOODMAN: ...to room and on the top floor of Taj there was a big suite¹².

RAZ: They found a man hiding in his room. They tied him up and they interrogated¹³ him.

GOODMAN: And they said to him, who are you? And what are you doing here?

K.R. RAMAMOORTHY: So I said that I am a teacher.

RAZ: This is that man, K.R. Ramamoorthy.

RAMAMOORTHY: Then they asked me, where from you come? I said I come from Bangalore.

GOODMAN: The terrorists were dumb but they weren't that dumb and they know that no Indian schoolteacher could afford to stay in the Taj, let alone in a suite.

RAMAMOORTHY: They say what is your name? I said K.R. Ramamoorthy. But I didn't believe at the time they are doing Google search.

GOODMAN: And what did they do? Using their smartphones, phoned it in to their terrorist operation center. And they began an open source intelligence search for the man. They were able to locate a photograph which matched the name and then over the phone they did a match comparison.

RAMAMOORTHY: Then back came the questions from them.

GOODMAN: The terrorist ops center asked the terrorists on the ground, your hostage...

RAMAMOORTHY: ...Is he bald in his head?

GOODMAN: Is he bald in front?

RAMAMOORTHY: He said yes.

GOODMAN: Yes he is.

RAMAMOORTHY: Is he wearing spectacles?

GOODMAN: Wearing glasses?

RAMAMOORTHY: Then they said yes.

GOODMAN: Is he heavyset?

RAMAMOORTHY: Is he heavy built? He said yes. It is at that stage possibly they identified who am I.

RAZ: The ops center had a match and they saw that K.R. Ramamoorthy was actually a top executive at a bank. And so when they figured that out, what did they tell the gunmen?

RAMAMOORTHY: I think they told him he's an important person. And kill him meant your life is under danger.

RAZ: Obviously, K.R. Ramamoorthy survived. A blast in another part of the hotel distracted the terrorists and he was able to escape. But Mark Goodman thinks that what happened in that hotel in Mumbai was almost like a template for the future of crime and terrorism.

(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)

GOODMAN: We've all seen 3-D printers. We know with them that you can print in many materials. But I wonder for those people that strap¹⁴ bombs to their chests and blow themselves up - how might they use 3-D printers? We recently saw a case where some researchers made the H5N1 avian influenza¹⁵ virus more potent¹⁶. And the researchers who did this were so proud of their accomplishments¹⁷, they wanted to publish it openly so that everybody could see this. In the United States there are 60,000 people who have a pacemaker that connects to the Internet. All of the physical objects in our space are being transformed into information technologies. Criminals understand this. Terrorists understand this. Hackers¹⁸ understand this. If you control the code, you control the world. This is the future that awaits us.

RAZ: And you say this is the future that awaits us. And I saw that and I thought, that is not a future I want to be a part of. Like, that is frightening.

GOODMAN: It could and perhaps should be cause for concern. The goal is not to be alarmist. I am a huge proponent¹⁹ of technology. I work in Silicon²⁰ Valley. But we are leading a life that is increasingly disintermediated through technology. We don't talk to people face-to-face anymore. We used to reach out to them on a telephone and then on a computer, and now it's on an iPhone phone, an iPad. When we look at our cars today the speedometer is not a manual speedometer, it's a computer. When you go into the hospital and they check your heart, that is a computer that is checking your heart. When pilots on aircraft look at their navigational signals and instruments, that's all a computer. And the one thing that we know is that there has never been built a computer system that could not be hacked²¹. So when I look out into the future and see the technological²² horizon and the increased dependence²³ upon technology, and knowing that all technology to date is fundamentally insecure, I do have some growing concerns about that future.

(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)

GOODMAN: What to do? What to do about all this? That's what I get asked all the time. Policing doesn't scale globally, at least it hasn't. And our current system of guns, border guards, big gates and fences are outdated²⁴ in the new world into which we're moving. Whether or not you realize it, we are at the dawn of a technological arms race. An arms race between people who are using technology for good, and those who are using it for ill. The threat is serious and the time to prepare for it is now. I can assure you that the terrorists and criminals are. My personal belief is that rather than having a small, elite²⁵ force of highly trained government agents here to protect us all, we're much better off having average and ordinary citizens approaching this problem as a group and seeing what we can do. If we all do our part I think we'll be in a much better space. The tools to change the world are in everybody's hands. How we use them is not just up to me, it's up to all of us.

(APPLAUSE)

RAZ: Mark Goodman. Check out more of his predictions in his TED talk. Find it at TED.NPR.org. Stay with us - more predictions about our future in just a moment. I'm Guy Raz, it's the TED Radio Hour from NPR.

1 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

2 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

3 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

8 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

9 innovated   

v.改革，创新( innovate的过去式和过去分词 )；引入（新事物、思想或方法），

参考例句：

• He innovated a plan for increased efficiency. 他引进提高效率的（新）方案。 来自辞典例句
• We are using innovated metal detector which is imported from the U.K. 本工厂有先进的生产设备，拥有从英国进口的金属探测机。 来自互联网

10 cordoned   

v.封锁，用警戒线围住( cordon的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the area until the bomb was defused. 警方封锁了这个地区直到炸弹被拆除为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 culling   

n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mathematicians turned to culling periodic solutions. 数学家们转而去挑选周期解。 来自辞典例句
• It took us a week to find you, a week of culling out prejudice and hatred. 我们花了一个星期的时间找到你们，把偏见和憎恨剔除出去。 来自演讲部分

12 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

13 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 strap   

n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎

参考例句：

• She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
• The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。

15 influenza   

n.流行性感冒，流感

参考例句：

• They took steps to prevent the spread of influenza.他们采取措施
• Influenza is an infectious disease.流感是一种传染病。

16 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

17 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

18 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

19 proponent   

n.建议者；支持者；adj.建议的

参考例句：

• Stapp became a strong early proponent of automobile seat belts.斯塔普是力主在汽车上采用座椅安全带的早期倡导者。
• Halsey was identified as a leading proponent of the values of progressive education.哈尔西被认为是进步教育价值观的主要支持者。

20 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。

21 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

22 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

23 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

24 outdated   

adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时

参考例句：

• That list of addresses is outdated,many have changed.那个通讯录已经没用了，许多地址已经改了。
• Many of us conform to the outdated customs laid down by our forebears.我们许多人都遵循祖先立下的过时习俗。

25 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。