关于未来，人类最需要了解的10件事

人类对未来世界总是充满好奇和想象。100年后我们靠什么发电？癌症会治愈吗？精神病能成为历史吗？汽车可以飞吗？近日，英国广播公司《地平线》节目的科学家团队总结了关于未来我们最需要知道的10件事情，一起来看看吧。

如何让电灯一直亮下去？

Much of our electricity is generated by burning coal or gas, both of which will ultimately run out. Renewable energy sources are fraught with their own problems (not least the changeable nature of British weather), so could a Norwegian concept of erecting wind turbines thousands of feet in the air where there is always a breeze become a reality?

大部分的电能是通过燃烧煤或天然气产生的，这两种能源最终都会耗尽。可再生能源自身存在问题（尤其对于英国多变的天气来说），那么，挪威风口处竖立数千英尺高的风力发电机的概念也许会成为现实？

癌症可以治愈吗？

A team of scientists of BBC's Horizon meets researchers pioneering gene-based therapies that early results suggest could offer a cure for leukaemia.

《地平线》的科学家团队见到了基因治疗领域的顶尖研究人员，他们此前的研究结果表明，白血病可以治愈。

It works by 'editing' a patient's genome by inserting genes that will allow the immune system to identify cancerous cells as alien and destroy them.

其原理是通过插入基因对病人的基因组进行“编辑”，让免疫系统将癌症细胞识别为外来细胞并摧毁它们。

精神疾病会成为过去吗？

Michael Mosley visits a research project at St Thomas's Hospital in London, where doctors are working to map the developing brain by safely MRI scanning foetuses as they grow.

迈克尔•莫斯利参观了伦敦圣托马斯医院的一个研究项目，那里的医生正在对生长期的胎儿进行安全的核磁扫描，以绘制出发育中的大脑。

The plan is to use the increased knowledge to identify pathologies that could shed light on conditions like autism and schizophrenia.

医生计划利用这些新获取的知识，发现一些病理，解释自闭症、精神分裂症等病症。

人类会变成机器人吗？

James Young, who lost an arm and a leg in an accident, goes in search of integrated technologies that might reveal a future for human-machine chimeras.

詹姆斯•杨在一次事故中失去了一只胳膊和一条腿，他开始寻找可能开启人机结合未来的集成技术。

James meets self-proclaimed cyborg Neil Harbisson, who claims to have 'cured' his colour-blindness by converting colour to sounds that are then transmitted to his skull.

詹姆斯见了自称机器人的尼尔•哈尔比森。哈尔比森称，他将颜色转化为声音，传到大脑，从而“治好”了自己的色盲症。

人类可以长生不死吗？

The average life expectancy in the UK has been steadily increasing since records began in 1840, but the fact remains that the human body gives up at around the 100 year mark - so could that change?

英国人的平均寿命自1840年以来一直保持稳定增长，但事实是，人类的寿命始终维持在100岁左右，那么这点可以改变吗？

The team turns to the east African naked mole rat, which enjoys ten times the lifespan of other species, to see if they can shed any light on the subject.

科学家们将目光转向东非的裸鼢鼠，想看看能否在它们身上找到一些答案。裸鼢鼠的寿命是其他品种的10倍。

Dr Chris Faulkes, of Queen Mary University of London, asks whether - given the unique protein in their skin that makes it super stretchy and means cancer is virtually unheard of - the mole rat actually holds the secret to a long life.

伦敦大学玛丽皇后学院的克里斯•福克斯博士想知道裸鼢鼠身上是否有长寿的秘密。因为它们的皮肤中含有独特的蛋白质，可以保持超强弹性，也不会得癌症。

未来的天气怎么样？

Britain's famously uNPRedictable climate may soon be a thing of the past, according to weatherman and meteorologist Peter Gibbs, who argues that we can expect a hotter, drier south, and a warmer, wetter north.

英国的天气是出了名的阴晴不定，不过据气象预报员兼气象学家皮特•吉布斯称，这也许很快就会成为历史，他认为南方天气可能更热、更干燥，而北方天气更加温暖潮湿。

地球上的生命会怎样？

Biologist Adam Rutherford outlines the potentially catastrophic impact of plummeting numbers of non-human vertebrate species between now and 2030 - including the rise of smaller predators like rats as a knock-on effect should we lose apex predators such as lions and tigers.

生物学家亚当•罗瑟夫介绍了从现在到2030年非人类脊椎动物种类数量急剧下降的潜在灾难性影响，比如如果我们失去了狮子、老虎等食物链顶端的肉食动物，产生的连锁反应包括老鼠等小型肉食动物数量的增长。

He also warns that changing environments could lead us to a point where coffee can no longer survive on planet, or where entire marine systems disappear.

他还警告说，不断变化的环境可能导致人类无法在地球上种植咖啡，或者整个海洋系统消失。

'Life will continue on earth as it has for four billion years,' he said. 'What we are doing is removing the ability for us to live on earth.'

他说：“地球上的生命已经存在40亿年，而且将继续存活下去，我们的所作所为是在削弱人类在地球上生存的能力。”

机器人会抢走人类的工作吗？

Some jobs seem more susceptible than others to being taken over by robots, but how sure can we be that 'soft skill' careers will always require human ability?

有些工作似乎比其他工作更容易被机器人接管，但我们能有多少把握那些依靠“软技能”的职业将始终需要人力完成呢？

To give some indication, Dr Zoe Williams discovers an Artificial Intelligence programme that's as good as she is at being a GP.

为了展示一些可能性，佐伊•威廉姆斯博士开发了一款人工智能程序，这款程序能跟她一样出色完成全科医生的职责。

我的车会飞吗？

According to the show, several groups are developing what they hope will become 'drone taxis'. But can we be trusted at the controls? The answer is emphatically 'no'.

据《地平线》称，几个团队正在开发一种“无人驾驶飞行出租车”，但是我们能放心让操控台自己操作吗？答案当然是“不能”。

But help is at hand. Dr Raffaello D'Andrea designed the complex programme that runs Amazon's fiercely efficient warehouse robots – hundreds of which select products for dispatch to customers, all without crashing into one another.

但是希望就在前方。拉斐尔·D·安德拉博士设计了一个复杂的程序，可以操控亚马逊公司的高效仓库机器人，几百台机器人在不会撞车的前提下高效运转，分拣出配送给顾客的产品。

By taking unreliable human pilots out of the equation, It could – perhaps – be the start of just the thing to finally make flying cars – or at least flying taxis – a reality.

抛开不靠谱的人类飞行员，这个系统或许是飞行汽车，或者至少是飞行出租车变为现实的起点。

相信会有意外发生

Crucial among the things we 'need to know' about the future? And the one the team of scientists are 100 percent confident will prove accurate? Expect the unexpected.

在人类需要知道的关于未来的事情中，最重要的是什么？科学家团队百分百确信真实的一件事就是：会有意料之外的事情发生。