The Ination Superhighway信息高速公路.doc

The Information Superhighway Are you too tired to go to the video store but you want to see the movie Beauty and the Beast at home? Want to listen to your favorite guitar players latest jazz cassette? Need some new reading material, like a magazine or book? No problem. Just sit down in front of your home computer or TV and enter what you want, when you want it, from an electronic catalogue containing thousands of titles. Your school has no professors of Japanese, a language you want to learn before visiting Japan during the coming summer holiday. Dont worry. Just sign up for the language course offered by a school in another district or city, have the latest edition of the course teaching materials sent to your computer, and attend by video. If you need extra help with a translation assignment or your pronunciation, a tutor can give you feedback via your computer. Welcome to the information superhighway. While nearly everyone has heard of the information superhighway, even experts differ on exactly what the term means and what the future it promises will look like. Broadly speaking, however, the superhighway refers to the union of todays broadcasting, cable, video, telephone, and computer and semiconductor industries into one large all-connected industry. Directing the union are technological advances that have made it easier to store and rapidly transmit information into homes and offices. Fiber-optic cable, for example made up of hair-thin glass fibers is a tremendously efficient carrier of information. Lasers shooting light through glass fiber can transmit 250,000 times as much data as a standard telephone wire, or tens of thousands of paragraphs such as this one every second. The greatly increased volume and speed of data transmission that these technologies permit can be compared to the way in which a highway with many lanes allows more cars to move at faster speeds than a two-lane highway hence, the information superhighway. The closest thing to an information superhighway today is the Internet, the system of linked computer networks that allows up to 25 million people in 135 countries to exchange information. But while the Internet primarily moves words, the information superhighway will soon make routine the electronic transmission of data in other formats, such as audio files and images. That means, for example, that a doctor in Europe who is particularly learned will be able to treat patients in America after viewing their records via computer, deciding the correct dose of medicine to give the patient, or perhaps even remotely controlling a blade wielding robot during surgery. Sending a segment of video mail down the hall or across the country will be easier than typing out a message on a keyboard, predicts one correspondent who specializes in technology. The world is on the eve of a new era, says the former United States Vice President Al Gore, the Clinton administrations leading high-technology advocate. Gore wants the federal government to play the leading role in shaping the superhighway. However, in an era of smaller budgets, the United States government is unlikely to come up with the money needed during the next 20 years to construct the superhighway. That leaves private industry computer, phone, and cable companies to move into the vacuum left by the governments absence. And while these industries are pioneering the most exciting new technologies, some critics fear that profit-minded companies will only develop services for the wealthy. If left in the hands of private enterprise, the data highway could become little more than a synthetic universe for the rich, worries Jeffrey Chester, president of the Center for Media Education in Washington, D.C. Poor people must also have access to high technology, says another expert. Such access will be crucial to obtaining a high-quality education and getting a good job. So many transactions and exchanges are going to be made through this medium banking, shopping, communication, and information that those who have to rely on the postman to send their correspondence risk really falling behind, he says. Some experts were alarmed earlier this year when diagrams showed that four regional phone companies who are building components of the superhighway were only connecting wealthy communities. The companies denied they were avoiding the poor, but conceded that the wealthy would likely be the first to benefit. We had to start building some place, says a spokesman for one of the companies, and that was in areas where there are customers we believe will buy the service. This is a business. Advocates for the poor want the companies building the data highway to devote a portion of their profits to insuring universal access. Advocates of universal access have already launched a number of projects of their own. In Berkeley, California, the citys Community Memory Project has placed computer terminals in public buildings and subway stations, where a message can be sent for 25 cents. In Santa Monica, California, computers have replaced typewriters in all public libraries, and anyone, not just librarians, can send correspondence via computer. Many challenges face us as we move closer to the reality of the information superhighway. In order for it to be of value to most people, individuals need to become informed about what is possible and how being connected will be of benefit. The possibilities are endless but in order for the information superhighway to become a reality, some concrete steps need to be taken to get the process started. 信息高速公路 你是否太累了，不想去录像店却又想在家看美女与野兽？ 是不是想听听你最喜欢的吉他手最新的爵士乐磁带？ 或需要一些新的阅读材料，比如杂志或书？ 没问题。只要坐在家中的电脑或电视机前，在一个含有上千个条目的电子目录中输入你想要的东西和需要的时间就行了。 在暑假去日本之前你想学日语，可学校又没有日语老师。 不用担心，你可以向另一地区或城市的学校报名，上他们提供的日语课，让他们将这门课程最新的教材传送到你的电脑上，然后通过视听方法上课。 如果你在翻译作业或发音上还需额外帮助，辅导教师可通过电脑给你反馈。 欢迎来到信息高速公路。 尽管几乎人人都听说过信息高速公路，可即使专家们对这一名称的确切含义，以及它预示着什么样的未来也有分歧。 但广义地说，信息高速公路是指由今天的广播、电视、录像、电话、电脑、半导体等产业组合而成的一个互相关联的大产业。 是技术进步在引导着这一大联合。这些技术进步已使储存信息以及向家庭和办公室快速传输信息更为容易。 例如，光纤电缆 - 由细如发丝的玻璃纤维制成 - 是一种极为高效的信息载体。 射过玻璃纤维的激光可以传送高达标准电话线25万倍的数据，或者说，每秒可传送几万段像这样的文字。 这些技术使得数据传送的容量和速度大大提高。这种情况可与一条高速公路相比，多车道比双车道能使更多的车以更高的速度行驶 - 信息高速公路由此得名。 今天，与信息高速公路最接近的就是互联网，这是一个由电脑连接而成的网络系统，它使得135个国家多达2,500万的人能进行信息交换。 但是，互联网主要是传送文字，而信息高速公路不久将使其他形式的电子数据传送（如声音资料和图像的传送）成为常规。 那就是说，举个例子，欧洲的一位医道高明的医生通过电脑看了病历就能给美洲的病人治病，决定病人用药的剂量，甚至还可以遥控一个操手术刀的机器人施行手术。 一位专门从事技术方面报道的记者预言道：把录像邮件的片段传送到大楼的其他地方或国内的其他地方要比在键盘上打出文字来更为容易。 美国前副总统阿尔戈尔说，我们这个世界正处于新时代的前夜，他是克林顿政府中推行高科技的主要人物。 戈尔希望联邦政府在决定信息高速公路的发展方面发挥领导作用。 然而，在一个预算拨款相对较少的时期，美国政府不可能拿得出今后20年里建造信