3.自动驾驶汽车
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，全球大约有130万人死于车祸。而交通本身就是罪魁祸首，一个美国上班族每年平均被困于车上38小时，这就浪费了整整一个星期的生产力。
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.
进入谷歌自动驾驶汽车时代，就能通过其系统运算法则减少车祸的发生，使交通流量保持平稳。车内装有强大的导航驾驶系统，它可以通过GPS 导航保持车辆在规定路线上行使，通过车顶扫描仪对临近车辆做出反应。直至2013年，这款车仍在进行第二阶段测试。但在加利福尼亚州和内华达州，一批自动驾驶车已经准备行驶上路。
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.
对于这款汽车，人们最担心的并不是软件失灵的情况，而是自动模式与手动模式之间转换的灵活性。在遇到需要手动驾驶的情况，如棘手的合并路段和进入收费站时，自动驾驶系统会用舒缓的声音通知车主。但是，谷歌的工程师们仍在测试究竟多长的缓冲时间才是合理的？或是驾驶人出现打瞌睡这样的常见行为时，该怎么办？谁也不想一觉醒来就发现自己正以65英里/时（105公里/时）的车速跟在一辆SUV的后面快速驶入收费站，甚至没有人想在收费站看到这种场景。
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.
机动车辆、发电机和工业制造业是工业时代的三大重要创新工程，也是二氧化碳的主要来源。对于减少温室气体的排放，世界各国领导人都没有表现出足够的意愿及能力采取行之有效的行动，因此一些特立独行的科学家就提出了一个风险极大的解决方案：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:
地球工程是指通过科技手段像黑客一样“侵入”地球，使其恢复常态。鉴于全球变暖已成为对人类最大的威胁，科学家们提出了一些极具创造力又令人毛骨悚然（还非常昂贵）的怪招，通过阻挡太阳光或是吸收二氧化碳的方法来降低大气温度。其中有：
Spraying chemical aerosols like sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to bounce a fraction of sunlight back into space
喷洒化学气雾剂（如二氧化硫）到大气中，将一部分太阳光线反射回太空。
Pouring iron into the ocean to spur algae blooms that consume CO2
将铁质注射入海洋，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
将海水喷洒到大气中，以增加云层的亮度，反射更多太阳光线。
Planting forests of artificial trees that use chemical reactions to absorb and store CO2
种植“人造树”，利用化学反应来吸收和储存二氧化碳。
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.
地球工程的发起人曾警告过世人这可能会带来意想不到的副作用：失控的浮游植物会导致大量海洋生物死亡；在一个国家上空喷洒海水可能会影响到大半个世界的季风情况；化学反应会对自然环境和人类生活造成巨大损害。然而，即使听到了这样的警告，地球工程的支持者们仍然认为不采取任何行动的危害更大。不过通过目前对这些技术的研究，至少在情况变得令我们不知所措的时候还能按下应急开关启动这项技术。
For our last scary technology, we consider a little thing called the Internet.
至于最后一项吓人的科技，我们考虑将互联网这项新兴科技纳入清单。
1.互联网监视
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.
谷歌和雅虎网站2013年的月平均浏览量超过三亿八千万人次。每一封通过谷歌邮箱发送的邮件，每一份储存在谷歌文档的电子表格，还有每一段在雅虎通上发生的对话，都记录在云服务器上—一个全球性的服务器和数据中心网络。可能你还以为“窥探魔眼”这个程序可以加密保护自己的私人信息和数据，但事实不是这样的，现在真相就赤裸裸地摆在我们眼前。
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.
感谢前国家安全局（NSA）承包商爱德华•斯诺登于2013年的透露，让我们能够了解到，原来美国情报机构一直在积极筛选数百万无辜者的电子邮件、搜索历史和电话记录，以此查找潜在的恐怖活动。作为“棱镜”这个秘密计划的参与者，美国国家安全局获得了法庭的批准，可以强行要求像谷歌和雅虎这样的公司上交外国网络用户的记录。如果这还不足以得到足够的信息，那么在没有告知相关企业并得到批准的情况下，美国国家安全局还能悄悄进入谷歌和雅虎的云服务器查看信息。批评者们认为，在用户毫不知情的情况下全面监测其网络信息，这样的行为是公然违反宪法的。
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!
假设你自己的网络活动正在被某人监视着，这个人可能是你的互联网服务提供商，也可能是谷歌或执行着秘密监视计划的政府，想想这是多么可怕的事啊。希望你还能睡个好觉，可别被监视的大佬吓到了！
审校:Fiona 校对:落花生 编辑:Freya然
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