2011年考研英語(yǔ)特訓(xùn)：看閱讀背單詞(5)

　　Planet Earth will do an electronic skin in the not-too-distance future. It will use the internet as a scaffold to transmit its sensations. This skin is being stitched together. It consists of millions of electronic measuring devices, such as thermostats, pollution detectors, cameras, EKGs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, and our ships, highway vehicles, and our bodies. For a decade or longer there will be no central nervous system to manage this vast signaling network. And there will be no central intelligence. But we believe that some qualities of self-awareness will emerge once the Net is sensually enhanced and emulated the complexity of the human brain.

　　Sensuality is only one force pushing the Net toward intelligence. An eerie symbiosis of human and machine effort is also starting to evolve. The Internet creates a channel for thousands of programmers around the world to collaborate on software development and debugging. Through collaboration, this community can push past the technical barriers to machine intelligence.

　　And though silicon networks today look nothing like the brain, nodes of the Net have begun to function as neuron. Researchers have already tackled complex computing problems, such as interpreting interstellar radio signals with about a million PCs working in concert. Before long, discrete microprocessors will probably be knitted together into ad hoc distributed computers. Don’t think of these as PC networks. The terminals would just as likely be cell phones of palm-like devices, each one far smarter than today’s heftiest desktops. We may think of this as a whole ecology, an information environment that’s massively connected.

　　Humanity is now preparing to cast its net across the solar system. At a NASA laboratory in California, scientists are devising a version of the Internet called Inter Planet that will weave the moon, Mars, and some asteroids and comets into the earth’s expanding nervous system.

　　Today’s communications between earth and unmanned probes are expensive, proprietary, and complex. With Inter Planet, we can simplify everything, cut costs, and engage the public more effectively. Then, the earth’s telemetric body will span the reaches of the solar system. The Net may not experience all the human thrills of exploration, but it will feel some tingles up and down its spine.

　　譯文

　　在不太遙遠(yuǎn)的將來(lái)，地球?qū)⒈簧弦粚与娮悠つw。地球?qū)⒗�用因特網(wǎng)作為框架來(lái)傳輸它的感覺(jué)。這張電子皮膚正在縫合。它由數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的電子測(cè)量?jī)x組成，例如恒溫計(jì)、污染檢測(cè)器、攝像機(jī)、心電圖儀等。這些測(cè)量?jī)x將對(duì)城市、瀕臨滅絕的物種、大氣層、輪船、高速公路上行駛的車輛和人體進(jìn)行探測(cè)和監(jiān)視。在10年或更長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間里，不會(huì)有中樞神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)來(lái)管理這一龐大的新號(hào)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，不會(huì)出現(xiàn)中樞智能。但我們相信，一旦這張網(wǎng)絡(luò)的感覺(jué)能力得到提高并能模擬人腦的復(fù)雜功能，某些自我意識(shí)的性能就會(huì)隨之而來(lái)。

　　官能性只是驅(qū)動(dòng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)智能化的一種力量。一種怪誕可怕的人機(jī)共生現(xiàn)象已開(kāi)始出現(xiàn)。因特網(wǎng)為世界各地成千上萬(wàn)的編程人員在軟件的開(kāi)發(fā)與測(cè)試方面進(jìn)行合作提供了一個(gè)渠道這種協(xié)作可以使軟件編程界越過(guò)技術(shù)障礙，向機(jī)器智能的方向邁進(jìn)。

　　雖然今天的硅片網(wǎng)絡(luò)看上去和大腦并沒(méi)有任何相似之處，但是網(wǎng)絡(luò)節(jié)點(diǎn)已開(kāi)始發(fā)揮類似神經(jīng)元的作用。研究人員早已解決了復(fù)雜的計(jì)算問(wèn)題，例如通過(guò)約100萬(wàn)臺(tái)個(gè)人電腦協(xié)同計(jì)算，來(lái)解譯星際無(wú)線電信號(hào)用不了多久，分散的微處理器可能被編織在一起，組成一臺(tái)臺(tái)執(zhí)行特定任務(wù)的計(jì)算機(jī)。不要把這類系統(tǒng)認(rèn)作是個(gè)人電腦網(wǎng)絡(luò)，它們的終端機(jī)很可能是一些手掌般的手機(jī)，其智能程度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)如今最先進(jìn)的臺(tái)式計(jì)算機(jī)。我們可以把這種系統(tǒng)看作為一個(gè)完整的生態(tài)圈系統(tǒng)，一種大規(guī)模連結(jié)的信息環(huán)境。

　　人類正準(zhǔn)備把自己的網(wǎng)絡(luò)撒向整個(gè)太陽(yáng)系。美國(guó)國(guó)家航空宇航局設(shè)在加利福尼亞州的一家實(shí)驗(yàn)室的科學(xué)家們正在設(shè)計(jì)一種“星際網(wǎng)”的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，該網(wǎng)將把月球、火星、一些小行星和彗星編入日益擴(kuò)展的地球神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)。

　　目前地球與無(wú)人駕駛之間的通信不僅費(fèi)用昂貴，而且信息專有、操作復(fù)雜。有了星際網(wǎng)后，我們可以簡(jiǎn)化所有程序，降低成本，能更有效地使公眾入網(wǎng)。到了那個(gè)時(shí)侯，地球的遙測(cè)體將遍布整個(gè)太陽(yáng)系。網(wǎng)絡(luò)可能體會(huì)不到人類所有的激情，但其脊椎的上下會(huì)感覺(jué)到某些激動(dòng)的震顫。