视频脚本1
Future or Fantasy?
Not so very long ago,the idea of flying across the Atlantic Ocean in just a few hours would have been pure fantasy.The American aviator Orville Wright even declared in 1908 that"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris..."Yet,today,we think little of hopping on a plane to take such a journey.
Looking back at some of the predictions throughout history,what is perhaps most remarkable is that they were made decades or even centuries before becoming reality. More than 300 years ago,the world's first scientific body,the Royal Society,was founded in London.Its motto Nullius in verba,meaning "take nobody's word for it",reflected its founders'spirit of investigation-a spirit that led them to predict flying machines,organ transplantation and "perpetual light" with extraordinary accuracy.
But it's not only scientists who have looked into the future.Predictions have also been made by writers.At the start of the twentieth century,H.G.Wells predicted the invention of the atom bomb in his novel The World Set Free.And in the 1940s,author Arthur C.Clarke proposed that space stations would one day broadcast television signals all over the globe.
Not all predictions,however,have turned out to be quite so accurate.Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM,was quoted as saying in 1943 that"there is a world market for maybe five computers".As for the 1955 prediction in The New York Times that "nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years"-well,even today that sounds rather a lot like science fiction.
Correct and incorrect,the great number of insights into the unknown indicates that the future is filled with unlimited possibilities.Who knows what we will be able to create tomorrow?Only time will tell.
视频脚本2
Isaac Asimov and the Three Laws of Robotics
Isaac Asimov is celebrated as one of the 20th century's greatest science fiction writers.Born in Russia in 1920,he was three years old when his family moved to the United States.It was by reading the newspapers and magazines sold in his parents'candy store that he developed a love for the written word.Growing up to become a professor of biochemistry at Boston University,he divided his time between his teaching and writing.
Asimov's first novel,Pebble in the Sky,was published in 1950.That same year,he began to work on I,Robot.This collection of short stories centers on the idea of robots being programmed with ethics and Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
1.A robot may not injure a human being or,through inaction,allow a human being to come to harm.
2.A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The Three Laws of Robotics have inspired the work of many other science fiction writers, as well as real-life pioneers of artificial intelligence.Movie adaptations of Asimov's works have been made,including I,Robot and Bicentennial Man,with his science fiction stories continuing to inspire and excite readers to this day.
Translation to be continued~