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About 10,000 years ago, humans evolved a tolerance to cow’s milk; over the
past 150 years, we’ve added 10 centimetres to our average height; and over the
past 65 years, we’ve added 20 years to the average lifespan, mostly thanks to
advances in science.
大约1万年前，人类进化出了对牛奶的耐受能力;在过去150年里，我们的平均身高增加了10厘米;在过去65年里，我们的平均寿命增加了20岁，而这些主要得益于科学的进步。
We’ve come so far in such an incredibly short period of time, so what will
we look like in another 1,000 years?
在如此短的时间内，我们已经发生了如此大的变化，那么在接下来的1000年里，我们又会变成什么样子?
In this episode of AsapSCIENCE, the boys run through some of the most
exciting scientific breakthroughs that are being made today in order to propel
our species into the future.
在AsapSCIENCE的这一集里，男孩们经历了一些最令人兴奋的科学突破，这些突破是为了推动我们的物种走向未来。
First off, we humans have a reason to be as smug as we are - our brains are
so good, even the most advanced computer system doesn’t even come close.
首先，我们人类有理由像我们现在这样自鸣得意——我们的大脑非常棒，就连最先进的计算机系统也无法企及。
In fact, in 2014 researchers used the K computer in Japan - one of the most
powerful computers in the world - to simulate human brain activity, and it took
705,024 processor cores, 1.4 million GB of RAM, and 40 minutes to process the
same amount of data processed by 1 second of brain activity.
事实上，研究人员曾在2014年使用日本的K计算机——世界上最强大的计算机之一——来模拟人类的大脑活动，它使用了705024个处理器、140万GB字节内存和40分钟时间才处理了人类大脑1秒钟就能处理的事。
But we might not always have an edge over the machines we create.
但我们并不是总比我们所创造出来的电脑强。
Scientists predict that in the future, computers will not only match the
computational speed of the human brain, we’ll also develop artificial
intelligence that can speak, interact, listen, and remember. Let’s just hope
they don’t use all that information to turn against us.
科学家预测，未来，计算机将不仅能够赶上人类大脑的计算速度，而且我们还将开发出能够说话、互动、倾听和记忆的人工智能。但愿它们不要用这些信息来对付我们。
And as computers grow progressively more human, so too will humans become
more integrated with robots.
随着计算机变得日益人性化，人类也将日益与机器人结合在一起。
In the future, scientists predict that we’ll have minuscule robots called
nanobots swimming around our bodies and enhancing our natural abilities. Known
as transhumanism, this could see us no longer limited to what biology can be
achieved, and the possibilities of that are pretty incredible to think
about.
科学家预测，未来我们将拥有被称为“纳米机器人”的微型机器人，它们能够在我们的身体里游动，增强我们的自然能力。这种被称为“超人类主义”的理论认为我们将不再局限于生物学能够实现的东西，而这种可能性简直令人难以想象。
And it’s not just our own bodies that technology has the potential to
completely change.
此外，技术有可能彻底改变的将不仅仅是我们自己的身体。
As the video points out, ’utility clouds’ of microscopic robots could
assemble themselves into entire buildings and them disassemble just as
easily.
正如视频里所讲，微型机器人组成的“实用云”可以自行组装成完整的建筑物，也可以轻易拆卸。
"Picture your house disassembling when you leave in the morning so that
space can be used for something else," says AsapSCIENCE.
AsapSCIENCE说:“想象一下，早上出门后，你的房子被拆掉了，这样你的空间就可以用来做别的事情了。”
In the next 1,000 years, the amount of languages spoken on the planet are
set to seriously diminish, and all that extra heat and UV radiation could see
darker skin become an evolutionary advantage.
在接下来的1000年里，地球上使用的语言数量将大大减少，所增加的热量和紫外线辐射可能会使黑皮肤成为一种进化优势。
And we’re all set to get a whole lot taller and thinner, if we want to
survive, that is.
如果我们想要生存下去，就一定会变得比现在高得多也瘦得多。
Why? I’ll let AsapSCIENCE explain that one in the video above, but let’s
just say global warming is going to have a much bigger impact on our appearance
than you might think.
为什么呢?我会让AsapSCIENCE在上面的视频中解释这一点，但我们得说，全球变暖对我们的外表的影响比你想象的要大得多。
A version of this article was first published in October 2015.
本文的其中一版最先于2015年发表。 |
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发表于 2018-11-17 13:02:18