十種可怕的現代科技(3)

erless Cars

3.自動駕駛汽車

Worldwide, roughly 1.3 million people are killed in car accidents each year. And then there's the evil of traffic itself; the American commuter is trapped in his or her car for an average of 38 hours each year. That's a full week of lost productivity!

每年，全球大約有130萬人死於車禍。而交通本身就是罪魁禍首，一個美國上班族每年平均被困於車上38小時，這就浪費了整整一個星期的生產力。

Enter the Google self-driving car, an autonomous vehicle that promises to steer clear of accidents and keep traffic flowing smoothly via algorithm. Powered by Google Chauffeur software, the car uses GPS and a rooftop scanner to stay on course and respond to nearby vehicles. As of 2013, the car was still in its beta testing phase, but dozens of robotic cars were already on the road in California and Nevada.

進入谷歌自動駕駛汽車時代，就能通過其系統運算法則減少車禍的發生，使交通流量保持平穩。車內裝有強大的導航駕駛系統，它可以通過GPS 導航保持車輛在規定路線上行使，通過車頂掃描儀對臨近車輛做出反應。直至2013年，這款車仍在進行第二階段測試。但在加利福尼亞州和內華達州，一批自動駕駛車已經準備行駛上路。

One of the biggest concerns about driverless cars isn't a software glitch, but the awkward transition from robot mode to human mode. The soothing voice of Google Chauffeur alerts its human driver of upcoming situations that require hands-on control, like a tricky merge or a tollbooth. But Google engineers are still working out how much warning time is needed before the hand-off, or what to do if the driver has done something understandably human like doze off. No one wants to wake up behind the wheel of an SUV barreling down on a tollbooth at 65 mph (105 kph). And even fewer people want to be in that tollbooth.

對於這款汽車，人們最擔心的並不是軟件失靈的情況，而是自動模式與手動模式之間轉換的靈活性。在遇到需要手動駕駛的情況，如棘手的合併路段和進入收費站時，自動駕駛系統會用舒緩的聲音通知車主。但是，谷歌的工程師們仍在測試究竟多長的緩衝時間纔是合理的？或是駕駛人出現打瞌睡這樣的常見行爲時，該怎麼辦？誰也不想一覺醒來就發現自己正以65英里/時（105公里/時）的車速跟在一輛SUV的後面快速駛入收費站，甚至沒有人想在收費站看到這種場景。

ngineering

2.地球工程

The most important engineering innovations of the industrial age — motorized vehicles, electricity generation and industrial manufacturing — are the greatest sources of CO2 emissions. Since world leaders appear unwilling or unable to take meaningful action to reduce greenhouse emissions, some maverick scientists are proposing a risky solution called geoengineering.

機動車輛、發電機和工業製造業是工業時代的三大重要創新工程，也是二氧化碳的主要來源。對於減少溫室氣體的排放，世界各國領導人都沒有表現出足夠的意願及能力採取行之有效的行動，因此一些特立獨行的科學家就提出了一個風險極大的解決方案：地球工程。

Geoengineering uses science and technology to "hack" the planet back into shape. Since global warming is the biggest threat, scientists are proposing creatively creepy (and very expensive) ways to artificially cool the atmosphere by either blocking the sun's rays or sucking up excess CO2. Among them:

地球工程是指通過科技手段像黑客一樣“侵入”地球，使其恢復常態。鑑於全球變暖已成爲對人類最大的威脅，科學家們提出了一些極具創造力又令人毛骨悚然（還非常昂貴）的怪招，通過阻擋太陽光或是吸收二氧化碳的方法來降低大氣溫度。其中有：

Spraying chemical aerosols like sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to bounce a fraction of sunlight back into space

噴灑化學氣霧劑（如二氧化硫）到大氣中，將一部分太陽光線反射回太空。

Pouring iron into the ocean to spur algae blooms that consume CO2

將鐵質注射入海洋，催生浮游植物繁殖以吸收二氧化碳。

Spraying a mist of seawater into low-lying clouds to make them brighter, reflecting more sunlight

將海水噴灑到大氣中，以增加雲層的亮度，反射更多太陽光線。

Planting forests of artificial trees that use chemical reactions to absorb and store CO2

種植“人造樹”，利用化學反應來吸收和儲存二氧化碳。

Even geoengineering promoters warn of unintended side effects. Out-of-control algae blooms could create massive dead zones in the ocean; one nation's seawater spray could cause monsoons halfway around the world; chemical reactions could cause widespread damage to natural habitats and human life. Geoengineers argue there's just as much danger in doing nothing. By researching these techniques now, at least we'll have some hard data when it's time to push the panic button.

地球工程的發起人曾警告過世人這可能會帶來意想不到的副作用：失控的浮游植物會導致大量海洋生物死亡；在一個國家上空噴灑海水可能會影響到大半個世界的季風情況；化學反應會對自然環境和人類生活造成巨大損害。然而，即使聽到了這樣的警告，地球工程的支持者們仍然認爲不採取任何行動的危害更大。不過通過目前對這些技術的研究，至少在情況變得令我們不知所措的時候還能按下應急開關啓動這項技術。

For our last scary technology, we consider a little thing called the Internet.

至於最後一項嚇人的科技，我們考慮將互聯網這項新興科技納入清單。

rnet Surveillance

1.互聯網監視

More than 380 million people visited Web sites owned by Google and Yahoo in an average month in 2013. Every e-mail sent through Gmail, every spreadsheet saved in Google Docs and every chat conversation held on Yahoo Messenger is stored in "the cloud," a global network of servers and data centers. You might assume that all of this private information and personal data is encrypted and protected from prying eyes. But now we know better.

谷歌和雅虎網站2013年的月平均瀏覽量超過三億八千萬人次。每一封通過谷歌郵箱發送的郵件，每一份儲存在谷歌文檔的電子表格，還有每一段在雅虎通上發生的對話，都記錄在雲服務器上—一個全球性的服務器和數據中心網絡。可能你還以爲“窺探魔眼”這個程序可以加密保護自己的私人信息和數據，但事實不是這樣的，現在真相就赤裸裸地擺在我們眼前。

Thanks to the leaked revelations of former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, we learned that the U.S. intelligence agency is actively sifting through e-mails, search histories and phone records of millions of innocent people, looking for potential terrorist activity. As part of a secret program called PRISM, the NSA won court approval to force companies like Google and Yahoo to turn over records on foreign Web users. If that wasn't enough, the NSA also secretly tapped into Google and Yahoo's cloud servers without the companies' knowledge or approval. Critics call it blatantly unconstitutional to submit every unwitting Web user to blanket surveillance.

感謝前國家安全局（NSA）承包商愛德華•斯諾登於2013年的透露，讓我們能夠了解到，原來美國情報機構一直在積極篩選數百萬無辜者的電子郵件、搜索歷史和電話記錄，以此查找潛在的恐怖活動。作爲“棱鏡”這個祕密計劃的參與者，美國國家安全局獲得了法庭的批准，可以強行要求像谷歌和雅虎這樣的公司上交外國網絡用戶的記錄。如果這還不足以得到足夠的信息，那麼在沒有告知相關企業並得到批准的情況下，美國國家安全局還能悄悄進入谷歌和雅虎的雲服務器查看信息。批評者們認爲，在用戶毫不知情的情況下全面監測其網絡信息，這樣的行爲是公然違反憲法的。

As scary as it is, you should assume that all your online activities are being collected by someone, whether it's your Internet provider, Google or a secret government spying program. Sleep tight and don't let Big Brother bite!

假設你自己的網絡活動正在被某人監視着，這個人可能是你的互聯網服務提供商，也可能是谷歌或執行着祕密監視計劃的政府，想想這是多麼可怕的事啊。希望你還能睡個好覺，可別被監視的大佬嚇到了！

審校:Fiona 校對:落花生 編輯:Freya然