今日新科技 明日黄菜花
日新月异的现代科技影响着我们的日常生活。Hints：
Steve Fritzinger
Steve Hallman
University of Alabama
state-of-the-art noise-cancelling
must-have
semi-silence
hand-me-down
1/50
校对：cryforwhat
翻译&注解：cjsfight
组长：lanmao982711
答疑：liuczhihttp://t1.g.hjfile.cn/listen/201206/201206100421557034313.mp3Now despite all the economic gloom, it's not always so easy to measure the downward curve in the quality of our daily lives. For those of us who depend on modern consumer gadgets for example, they've become unquestionably faster, lighter and cheaper than they used to be. But does that make us richer? It's a question that's been entertaining our commentator, Steve Fritzinger.
Years ago, I purchased a pair of state-of-the-art noise-cancelling headphones to use on business travel. At the time, these gadgets were the must-have item for road warriors. As soon as the plane reached the safe altitude, we would all unzip our laptop bags, pull out our headphones and enjoy the flight in the relative quiet of electronically generated semi-silence. Today, I travel with a pair of eight-dollar earbuds. Jammed into my ears, they sound almost as good as the headphones and block almost as much engine noise at 1/50 of the price. We're used to these kinds of changes in our electronics. The best PC on the market two years ago is a hand-me-down today. Our televisions get bigger and brighter every year. Our cars talk to us, navigate for us and park for us. But these advances are not limited to electronics. In clothing, travel, access to fresh fruits and vegetables and many other areas, our quality of life has increased incredibly over the years. This progress is so widespread that Steve Hallman of the University of Alabama coined the term "luxury compression" to describe how quickly things go from elite status symbol to mass market commonplace.尽管目前经济低迷，衡量我们每况愈下的日常生活质量依然不太容易。比如说，对那些总要依靠现代消费品的人来说，这些小玩意儿毫无疑问越来越迅捷、轻便而且廉价了。但是这让我们变得富有了吗？这正是我们的评论员史蒂夫•弗利京格尔目前遇到的有趣问题。
几年前，我买了一副时下流行的商旅降噪耳机。那时，这些小物件可谓是旅途奔波中的马路勇士的必备物品。当飞机起飞达到一定安全高度，我们就会打开手提电脑包，拿出我们的头戴式耳机，在电子产品创造的相对安静的环境下享受这一旅途。今天，我携带一副八美元的耳塞乘坐飞机。把它们塞入我的耳中，一切如头戴式耳机一样美好，仅需2%的价格就可以阻隔绝大部分的引擎噪音。我们早已习惯这类电子产品的巨变。两年前市场上最好的个人电脑如今已是个二手产品。我们的电视年复一年变得越来越大，越来越亮。我们可以和自己的车交谈，它们为我们导航，并可以自主停车。但是进步可不限于电子产品。在服装，旅游，新鲜瓜果蔬菜的涌现以及其他很多方面，我们的生活质量在近几年都实现了飞跃。这样的进步在阿拉巴马大学的史蒂夫•霍尔曼看来非常普遍，并将之称为“压缩的豪华品”，以此来形容目前产品的市场形势从精英阶层的标志滑落到大众市场的流行货。
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