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圖片發(fā)自簡書App
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If you could live forever, would you want to? The challenge of keeping your body alive seems impossible, but some scientists are working on an alternative. They want to create a digital copy of your “self” and keep that copy “alive” long after your physical body has stopped functioning.
alternative = 可供選擇的事物
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In effect, their plan is to clone a person electronically. Unlike ordinary physical clones –which have identical features as their parents, but which are independent organisms, each with a different conscious self– your electronic clone would believe itself to be you.
electronically = 電子地
identical = 完全相同的
organism = 生物體焙贷，有機體
conscious self = 有意識的自我
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One plan relies on the development of nano technology. Ray Kurzweil, a leading futurist, predicts that within two or three decades we will have tiny transmitters that can be injected into the brain. How might this be possible? Once there they would line up alongside neurons and monitor the details of the brain’s activity. They would then be able to transmit that information to receivers inside a special helmet, allowing us to map the brain.
nano technology = 納米技術
futurist = 未來主義者欠拾，未來派藝術家
transmitter = 發(fā)射器
line up = 排隊等候
neuron = 神經元，神經細胞
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As a further step, Kurzweil foresees using these tiny transmitters to connect you to a world of virtual reality. With the transmitters in place, you could think your way onto the internet. Instead of seeing pictures on a screen, you would see them in your mind. Rather than send emails to your friends, you could meet them on some virtual tropical beach and exchange messages in “virtual person”.
foresee = 預知驾诈，預見
virtual = 虛擬的
tropical = 熱帶的
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For a futurist like Ray, this would be heaven, a virtual heaven. Once you upload the brain onto the Internet and log on to that virtual world, your body can be left to decompose while your virtual self can play games for as long as you wish.
decompose = 分解
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However, there is still a problem. To exist on the net, your virtual self will have to reside on the computer of a web-hosting company. These companies want to be paid real money, or they will delete your “self” and sell the space to someone else. With your body long gone how you pay?
reside = 存在跟继，留在
web-hosting = 網站托管蜓竹，網頁寄存
delete = 刪除
Exercises:
1. According to the author, digital technologies are creating new possibilities for extending life.
2. What will be injected into the brain in order to monitor and map its activity?
>> tiny transmitters
3. What is this article about?
>> It’s about the possibility of staying alive along after our bodies have stopped functioning.
4. Neurons are nerve cells.
5. When someone goes to heaven, they are going to the place of God and eternal happiness.
6. To clone something means to make copies of it from itself.
Please tap the first correct sentence to appear:
1. How soon it will be before we can have tiny transmitters that can be injected into the brain?
>> Ray Kurzweil, a leading futurist, predicts that within two or three decades we will have tiny transmitters that can be injected into the brain.
2. How do the web-hosting companies want to be paid?
These companies want to be paid real money, or they will delete your “self” and sell the space to someone else.
Fill in the blanks:
1. The challenge of keeping your body alive seems impossible, but some scientists are working on an alternative. They want to create a digital copy of your “self” and keep that copy “alive” long after your physical body has stopped functioning.
2. Ray Kurzweil, a leading futurist, predicts that within two or three decades we will have tiny transmitters that can be injected into the brain. How might this be possible? Once there they would line up alongside neurons and monitor the details of the brain’s activity. They would then be able to transmit that information to receivers inside a special helmet, allowing us to map the brain.
Put the sentences below in order:
(1) Once you upload the brain onto the Internet and log on to that virtual world, your body can be left to decompose while your virtual self can play games for as long as you wish.
(2) These companies want to be paid real money, or they will delete your “self” and sell the space to someone else.
(3) To exist on the net, your virtual self will have to reside on the computer of a web-hosting company.
(4) However, there is still a problem.
Correct Order: (1) (4) (3) (2)
Repeat & Read Sentences:
1. With the transmitters in place, you could think your way onto the Internet.
2. One plan relies on the development of nanotechnology.
3. For a futurist like Ray, this would be heaven, a virtual heaven.
4. To exist on the net, your virtual self will have to reside on the computer of a web-hosting company.
5. Tiny transmitters will be injected into the brain to monitor and map its activity.
6. If you could live forever, would you want to?
