每日一篇:《经济学人》读译参考 Day85

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经济学人:脑机接口:下一个前沿地带(2)

Leaders

领导者

The next frontier

下一个前沿地带

As our Technology Quarterly in this issue explains, the pace of research into BCIs and the scale of its ambition are increasing.Both America's armed forces and Silicon Valley are starting to focus on the brain.Facebook dreams of thought-to-text typing.Kernel, a startup, has $100m to spend on neurotechnology.Elon Musk has formed a firm called Neuralink; he thinks that, if humanity is to survive the advent of artificial intelligence, it needs an upgrade.

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正如本期的《科技季刊》所诠释的那样，对BCI的研究步伐及其雄心壮志的规模正在加快和扩大。美国军方和硅谷都正在开始聚焦人脑。脸书梦想着思维转化为文字的打字技术。创业公司Kernel有1000万美元要花在神经技术上面。马斯克组建了一家名为Neuralink的公司。他认为，在人工智能降临之后，如果人类想生存下去，需要一次升级。

Entrepreneurs envisage a world in which people can communicate telepathically, with each other and with machines, or acquire superhuman abilities, such as hearing at very high frequencies.These powers, if they ever materialise, are decades away.But well before then, BCIs could open the door to remarkable new applications.

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创业者们描绘了一个身在其中的人们能够相互或是与机器之间进行心灵感应式的沟通交流、或是获得诸如以甚高频听声辨音这样的超人能力的世界。如果想让它们成为看得见摸得着的东西，这些力量尚有数十年之遥。但是，在那之前，BCI可能对全新的应用敞开大门。

Imagine stimulating the visual cortex to help the blind, forging new neural connections in stroke victims or monitoring the brain for signs of depression.By turning the firing of neurons into a resource to be harnessed, BCIs may change the idea of what it means to be human.

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设想一下刺激视觉皮层以帮助盲人、在中风患者身上再造新的神经连接，或者是为了抑郁迹象而监视大脑等诸如此类的应用前景吧。把神经元的燃烧转化为一种可资利用的资源，借此，BCI或许就能改变做人意义何在的思想。

Sceptics scoff.Taking medical BCIs out of the lab into clinical practice has proved very difficult.The BrainGate system used by Mr Kochevar was developed more than ten years ago, but only a handful of people have tried it out.Turning implants into consumer products is even harder to imagine.The path to the mainstream is blocked by three formidable barriers—technological, scientific and commercial.

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怀疑论者不屑一顾。让医用脑机接口走出实验室进入临床实践，已经被证明是非常困难的。被科其瓦使用的BrainGate系统早在十多年前就被开发出来了。但是，只有屈指可数的几个人试用过这种系统。让植入物变成消费品甚至更难想象。通向主流的道路被三大的障碍——技术的、科学的和商业的——给堵住了。

注释

1.focus on 专注于

例句:Their talks are expected to focus on arms control.

他们的会谈预计会集中讨论军备控制问题。

2.a handful of 少量的；小部分的

例句:A handful of onlookers stand in the field watching.

少数几个旁观者站在现场观看。

3.artificial intelligence 人工智能

例句:They have made great progress in machine translation and artificial intelligence.

他们在机器翻译和人工智能方面取得了重大进展。

4.clinical practice 临床实践

例句:Eminent senior doctors and dentists taking part in research, teaching or clinical practice.

杰出的高级医生和牙医参加研究，教学和医学实践。

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