|
|
Unit 4
Science and Technology
After-Class Reading
PASSAGE I True Love
Isaac Asimov [1]
My name is Joe. That is what my colleague, Milton Davidson, calls me. He is a programmer and I am a computer. I am part of the Multivac-complex[2] and am connected with other parts all over the world. I know everything. Almost everything.
I am Milton's private computer. His Joe[3]. He understands more about computers than anyone in the world, and I am his experimental model. He has made me speak better than any other computer can.
"It is just a matter of matching sounds to symbols, Joe," he told me. "That's the way it works in the human brain even though we still don't know what symbols there are in the brain. I know the symbols in yours, and I can match them to words, one-to-one." So I talk. I don't think I talk as well as I think, but Milton says I talk very well. Milton has never married, though he is nearly 40 years old. He has never found the right woman, he told me. One day he said, "I'll find her yet[4], Joe. I'm going to find the best. I'm going to have true love and you're going to help me. I'm tired of improving you in order to solve the problems of the world. Solve my problem. Find me true love."
I said, "I am ready."
He said, "Eliminate all men first."
It was easy. His words activated symbols in my molecular valves. I could reach out to make contact with the accumulated data on every human being in the world. At his words, I eliminated 3,784,982,874 men. I kept contact with 3,786,112,090 women.
He said, "Eliminate all women younger than 25, all older than 40. Then eliminate all with an IQ under 120; all with a height under 150 centimeters and over 175 centimeters."
He gave me exact measurements; he eliminated women with living children; he eliminated women with various genetic characteristics. "I'm not sure about eye color," he said. "Let that go for a while. But no red hair. I don't like red hair."
After two weeks, we were down to 235 women. They all spoke English very well. Milton said he didn't want a language problem. Even computer-translation would get in the way at intimate moments.
"I can't interview 235 women," he said. "It would take too much time, and people would discover what I am doing."
"It would make trouble," I said. Milton had arranged me to do things I wasn't designed to do. No one knew about that.
"It's none of their business," he said, and the skin on his face grew red. "I tell you what, Joe, I will bring in holographs, and you check the list for similarities."
He brought in holographs of women. "These are three beauty contest[5] winners," he said. "Do any of the 235 match?"
Eight were very good matches and Milton said, "Good, you have their data banks. Study requirements and needs in the job market and arrange to have them assigned here. One at a time, of course." He thought a while, moved his shoulders up and down, and said, "Alphabetical order."
That is one of the things I am not designed to do. Shifting people from job to job for personal reasons is called manipulation. I could do it now because Milton had arranged it. I wasn't supposed to do it for anyone but him, though.
The first girl arrived a week later. Milton's face turned red when he saw her. He spoke as though it were hard to do so. They were together a great deal and he paid no attention to me. One time he said, "Let me take you to dinner."
The next day he said to me, "It was no good, somehow. There was something missing. She is a beautiful woman, but I did not feel any touch of true love. Try the next one."
It was the same with all eight. They were much alike. They smiled a great deal and had pleasant voices, but Milton always found it wasn't right. He said, "I can't understand it, Joe. You and I have picked out the eight women who, in all the world, look the best to me. They are ideal. Why don't they please me?"
The next morning he came to me and said, "I'm going to leave it to you, Joe. All up to you. You have my data bank, and I am going to tell you everything I know about myself. You fill up my data bank in every possible detail but keep all additions to yourself."
"What will I do with the data bank, then, Milton?"
"Then you will match it to the 235 women. No, 227. Leave out the eight you've seen. Arrange to have each undergo a psychiatric examination. Fill up their data banks and compare them with mine. Find correlations." (Arranging psychiatric examinations is another thing that is against my original instructions.)
For weeks, Milton talked to me. He told me everything about him. He said, "You see, Joe, as you get more and more of me in you, I adjust you to match me better and better.[6] If you understand me well enough, then any woman whose data bank is something you understand as well, would be my true love." He kept talking to me and I came to understand him better and better.
I could make longer sentences and my expressions grew more complicated. My speech began to sound a good deal like his in vocabulary, word order and style.
I said to him one time, "You see, Milton, it isn't a matter of fitting a girl to a physical ideal only. You need a girl who is a personal, emotional, temperamental fit to you. If that happens, looks are secondary. If we can't find the fit in these 227, we'll look elsewhere. We will find someone who won't care how you look either, or how anyone would look, if only there is the personality fit. What are looks?"
"Absolutely," he said. "I would have known this if I had had more to do with women in my life. Of course, thinking about it makes it all plain now."
We always agreed; we thought so like each other.
What followed, Milton said, was the equivalent of a careful psychoanalysis. Of course. I was learning from the psychiatric examinations of the 227 women — on all of which I was keeping close tabs.
Milton seemed quite happy. He said, "Talking to you, Joe, is almost like talking to another self.[7] Our personalities have come to match perfectly."
"So will the personality of the woman we choose."
For I had found her and she was one of the 227 after all. Her name was Charity Jones and she was an Evaluator at the Library of History in Wichita, Kansas. Her extended[8] data bank fit ours perfectly.
I didn't have to describe her to Milton. Milton had coordinated my symbolism so closely with his own I could tell the resonance directly. It fit me.
Next it was a matter of adjusting the work sheets and job requirements in such a way as to get Charity assigned to us. It must be done very delicately, so no one would know that anything illegal had taken place.
Of course, Milton himself knew, since it was he who arranged it, and that had to be taken care of too. When they came to arrest him on grounds of some illegal actions in office, it was, fortunately, for something that had taken place 10 years ago.
He's gone, and tomorrow is February 14, Valentine's Day[9]. Charity will arrive then with her cool hands and her sweet voice.[10] I will teach her how to operate me and how to care for me. What do looks matter when our personalities will resonate?
I will say to her, "I am Joe, and you are my true love." (1319 words)
Proper Names
Isaac Asimov
(男子名)艾萨克.阿西莫夫
Joe
(男子名)乔
Charity Jones
(女子名)查里蒂.琼斯
Kansas
(地名)堪萨斯州(在美国中西部)
Milton Davidson
(男子名)弥尔顿.戴维森
(Saint) Valentine's Day
圣瓦伦廷节(情人节)
Wichita
(地名)威奇托(美国堪萨斯州南部城市)
New Words
activate
v. make something active 使活动起来
alphabetical*
adj. in the order of the letters of the alphabet 按字母表顺序的
e.g. Dictionaries list words in alphabetical order.
correlation
n. a connection between two ideas, facts, etc. 相互关系
e.g. There is a high correlation between smoking and lung cancer.
delicately*
adv. carefully 谨慎地
e.g. She picked her way delicately over the rocks.
elsewhere
adv. in or to another place 在别处，到别处
e.g. After searching in the park for an hour for his lost kitten (小猫), Dave decided to look elsewhere.
evaluator*
n. an assessor 评价者
experimental
adj. used for experiments 实验(性)的，实验(性)的
e.g. There has been a call for television cameras to be allowed into the courts on an experimental basis.
holograph
n. a picture or image produced digitally 全息照片
measurement
n. (usually plural) the length, height, etc. of something (量得的)尺寸，大小
e.g. I made a list of the measurements of everyone I wanted to buy gifts for.
molecular
adj. of or relating to molecules, i.e. the combination of atoms 分子的
physical
adj. related to someone's body rather than their mind or soul 身体的，肉体的
e.g. My doctor advised me to participate in physical activities.
programmer*
n. a person who writes grograms for a computer 程序编制员
requirement
n. something that is needed or asked for 要求
e.g. My requirements from life are a well-paid job and a fast car.
resonance
n. the special meaning that something has for someone because it is connected with one's own experiences 共鸣
resonate
v. produce or show resonance 产生共鸣
temperamental*
adj. related to the emotional part of someone's character 气质上的，性格的
e.g. I have a temperamental dislike of crowds and large meetings.
valve
n. a door-like part of a pipe or tube which opens or shuts so as to control the flow of liquid, air, gas, etc., through it 活门，瓣膜
e.g. The valves of the heart and blood vessels allow the blood to pass in one direction only.
Phrases and Expressions
a touch of (something)
a very small amount of something 少许，一点
e.g. At university, he wrote a lot, did a touch of acting, and indulged in internal politics.
get in the way
stop someone from doing something properly 妨碍
e.g. "We wouldn't get in the way," Suzanne promised, "we'd just stand quietly in the corner."
keep tabs on
watch carefully 密切注意
e.g. I like to keep tabs on my bank account so I don't overdraw.
keep something to oneself
keep something secret 对……秘而不宣
e.g. They keep their discoveries to themselves.
on (the) grounds of
because of 根据……，以……为理由
e.g. He was rejected on the grounds of old age.
pick out
choose someone or something carefully 挑出，选出
e.g. It's impossible to pick out any single painting for more praise than the others.
PASSAGE II Back from the Dead
Last year, a group of South African researchers claimed to have brought a frozen rat's heart back to life. Their discovery gave new hope to the cryonics movement, which is trying to find ways to preserve human beings so they can be revived in the future.
One morning in the year 2070, a man called Duane awakens. He looks up and sees a doctor in a white coat smiling at him. "Why am I in hospital?" he asks.
"You've been sick," the doctor replies.
Then Duane notices a badge on the doctor's coat. It reads "Alcor Resuscitation." Suddenly Duane remembers everything. He has come back to life, 70 years after he "died."
The reason this was possible is because, instead of being buried or cremated when he died, Duane's body was preserved in a "flask" of liquid nitrogen (at -196 degrees Celsius).[1] And there it "waited" until science had developed the technology to revive a frozen human being.
Suddenly, a woman appears beside the doctor. It is Duane's wife Jeannie, looking more beautiful than ever. For the past 70 years, she has been taking drugs that prevent her body from aging. Duane looks lovingly at her, and then at his own body. That, too, is in perfect condition. The people at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation[2] have not only brought Duane back to life, they have given him back his youth, using the latest computer technology.
The couple look at each other apprehensively — after all, they haven't seen each other for 70 years. "I guess we've got some stuff to talk about, huh?" Duane says to her.
This scenario is a shortened version of that which is outlined in the Alcor Foundation's publicity material.[3] It claims that for around $125,000 — plus storage fees — you, too, might be able to experience a miracle similar to Duane's. But, the brochure warns, "This scenario does not prove that cryonics can or will succeed. It may, however, facilitate discussion of that possibility."
If $125,000 sounds too expensive, there is a cheaper alternative. If you're a little short of cash, Alcor will dispose of your body, and just freeze your head. This is the option that Paul Garfield, a 79-year-old American man, has chosen. When he dies, his head will be cut off and preserved in liquid nitrogen until such time — if ever — that science has worked out how to revive it.[4]
Many people would probably find the idea of "waking up" in the future without a body a little disconcerting. But Mr Garfield isn't worried. Such is his confidence in science that he believes it will not only be able to revive his head, but that it will also be able to build him a new body.[5] "They could just take a small piece of tissue which contains your entire DNA[6], and from that DNA reconstitute the body in the future."
Mr Garfield seems to hold science in higher regard than most people, including scientists themselves. The orthodox scientific community regards cryonics as an absurd idea — one scientist recently likened it to trying to "turn a hamburger back into a cow."
The process of preserving a body begins by replacing the blood with glycerin or anti-freeze. It is then frozen in ice and moved to a storage facility, where "cryonic suspension" takes place. This involves placing the body in a huge flask of liquid nitrogen. In theory, the body could remain in this state for hundreds of years without further deterioration.
But the main problem is that it has so far proved impossible to freeze bodies without causing irreparable damage to the internal organs. When water freezes, it expands, and when this happens in an organ, it causes the cells to rupture.
At present, the only "living" things that are regularly frozen and then reanimated are embryos and sperm. But these are just tiny parcels of living cells — with no organs. Preserving and reviving an entire human body in the same way has so far proved impossible.
This is why the reported breakthrough by researchers in South Africa, who claim to have revived a frozen rat's heart, has created a new sense of optimism among cryonicists. They hope that they may eventually be able to use a similar technique to bring humans back to life. Scientists remain skeptical, though — the South African team's findings have been rejected by all the scientists who have seen them.
And what of the psychology of people who want their bodies frozen?[7] What makes them want to "wake up" hundreds of years in the future? Sociologist Jim Lippard believes they are like a cult, seeking a substitute for religion.[8]
"This type of person seems to be someone who has little or no faith in traditional religion, and who believes in the power of science and rationality to solve problems. They believe that they will be able to live forever through technology."
Indeed, most of these people seem to regard death as an illness that should be cured, while others equate it with a calamity that one should try to avoid. As one man put it, when asked why he wanted to live forever: "It's like being on a sinking ship, and asking someone why they are interested in lifeboats."[9]
For people like Paul Garfield, the fact that cryonics may never work is no reason for not trying. "We may be completely off our rockers," he says. "But if it works, it'll be absolutely wonderful. And if it doesn't work it won't be any different than just dying. That'll be the end of it, and you will have lost nothing."[10] (884 words)
|
|
发表于 2016-7-10 09:20:44