新概念英语（第四册，旧版）复习（原文及全文翻译）——Lesson 56 - The Age of Automation（自动化时代）

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Lesson 56 - The Age of Automation

Science and technology have come to pervade every aspect of our lives and, as a result, society is changing at a speed which is quite unprecedented. There is a great technological explosion around us, generated by science. This explosion is already freeing vast numbers of people from their traditional bondage to nature, and now at last we have it in our power to free mankind once and for all from the fear which is based on want. Now, for the first time, man can reasonably begin to think that life can be something more than a grim struggle for survival. But even today, in spite of the high standard of living which has become general in the more fortunate West, the majority of people in the world still spend nearly all their time and energy in a never-ending struggle with nature to secure the food and shelter they need. Even in this elementary effort millions of human beings each year die unnecessarily and wastefully from hunger, disease, or flood.

Yet, in the West, science and technology have made it possible for us to have a plentiful supply of food, produced by only a fraction of the labour that was necessary even a few decades ago. In the United States, for instance, one man on the land produces more than enough food to feed fifteen men in the cities, and, in fact, there is a surplus of food grown even by this small proportion of the American labour force. We have considerably extended our expectation of life. We have enriched our lives by creating physical mobility through the motor-car, the jet aeroplane, and other means of mechanical transport; and we have added to our intellectual mobility by the telephone, radio, and television. Not content with these advances, we are now thrusting forward to the stars, and the conquest of space no longer strikes us as Wellsian or Jules Vernian. And with the advent of the new phase of technology we call automation, we have the promise both of greater leisure and of even greater material and intellectual riches.But this is not inevitable. It depends on automation being adequately exploited. We shall need to apply our scientific and technological resources to literally every aspect of our society, to our commerce, our industry, our Medicine, our agriculture, our transportation. It is fascinating and encouraging to observe the development of this immense process, a process in which man appears all the time to be engaged in the act of creating an extension of himself. In his new technological successes this appears particularly true. He is extending his eyes with radar; his tongue and his ear through telecommunication; his muscle and body structure through mechanization. He extends his own energies by the generation and transmission of power and his nervous system and his thinking and decision-making faculties through automation. If this observation is accurate, as I believe it is, the implications are far-reaching. It might be reasonable to conclude that the direction of modern science and technology is towards the creation of a series of machine-systems based on man as a model.

参考译文——自动化时代

科学技术已经深入到了我们生活的方方面面，因此，社会正以前所未有的速度变化。科学在我们周围引发了一场技术大爆炸，使天下苍生摆脱了对自然的传统束缚，让人类摆脱了对物质匮乏的恐惧。现在，人类第一次有理由相信生命不仅仅是为了生存而进行的残酷斗争。时至今日，在较为幸运的西方社会，人们的生活水平普遍较高，但世界上大多数人仍然需要竭尽全力与大自然进行永无休止的斗争，才能获得所需的食物和住所。即使这般努力，每年仍有数百万人因饥饿、疾病或洪水而不幸死亡。

然而，在西方社会，科学和技术使人们能够拥有充足的粮食供应，而生产这些粮食所需劳动力的仅是几十年前的一小部分。例如，在美国，一个人生产的粮食养活城市中的十五个人绰绰有余。我们的预期寿命大大延长了。汽车、喷气式飞机和其他现代交通工具提高了我们身体的流动性，丰富了我们的生活，而电话、广播和电视提高了我们智力上的流动性。不满足于这些进步，我们现在正向恒星挺进，对太空的征服不再像威尔斯或儒勒·凡尔纳那样让我们感到新奇。随着我们称之为自动化的新技术阶段的到来，我们拥有更多的闲暇时间、更强的财力和智力。但这些并非手到擒来，而取决于我们能否充分利用自动化。我们需要将我们的科技资源应用到我们社会的各个领域，包括商业、工业、医药、农业和交通。观察自动化的发展过程是令人鼓舞、令人陶醉的，在这个过程中，人类似乎一直在从事让自我得到扩展的活动。不断涌现的新的技术成果就是很好的证明。人类用雷达扩展自己的眼睛，用通信技术拓展自己的嘴巴和耳朵，用机械化扩展自己的肌肉，用能源的产生和传输扩展自己的能量，用自动化来扩展自己的神经系统、思维和决策能力。如果这一观察结果是正确的，正如我所认为的那样，其影响将是深远的。由此可得出这样的结论：现代科学技术的发展方向是建立一系列以人为模型的机器系统。

注：博主基于百度翻译校译而成

参考资料：

https://www.51test/show/6864076.html

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