2 . Given how valuable intelligence and automation are, we will continue to improve our technology if we are at all able to. At a certain point, we will build machines that are smarter than we are. Once we have machines that are smarter than we are, they will begin to improve themselves. The concern is really that we will build machines that are much more competent than we are. And the slightest divergence (分歧) between their goals and our own could destroy us.

Just think about how we relate to ants. We don’t hate them. We don’t go out of our way to harm them. In fact, sometimes we take pains not to harm them. We step over them on the sidewalk. But whenever their presence seriously conflicts with one of our goals, we will kill them without hesitation. The concern is that we will one day build machines that, whether they’re conscious or not, could treat us with similar disregard.

The bare fact is that we will continue to improve our intelligent machines. We have problems that we desperately need to solve. So we will do this, if we can. The train is already out of the station, and there’s no brake to pull. If we build machines that are more intelligent than we are, they will very likely develop in ways that we can’t imagine, and transcend us in ways that we can’t imagine.

So imagine we hit upon a design of super intelligent AI that has no safety concerns. This machine would be the perfect labor-saving device. It can design the machine that can build the machine which can do any physical work, powered by sunlight, more or less for the cost of raw materials. So we’re talking bout the end of human labour. We’re also talking about the end of most intellectual work. So what would apes like ourselves do in these circumstances?

But the moment we admit that information processing is the source of intelligence, we have to admit that we are in the process of building some sort of god. Now would be a good time to make sure it’s a god we can live with.

3 . Space tourism is the term used to describe space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. What was once only a dream, as described in A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, is now becoming a reality.

Futurologists attempt to make predictions of what life will be like in the future. After the first man landed on the moon, they thought that hotels would be built on the moon by the year 2000. They also considered the possibility that, in the 21st century, families might go for a holiday on the moon. Neither of these predictions have come true yet-but the rapid development of technology may mean these predictions are possible in the years to come.

Space Adventures is currently the only company to have succeeded in sending paying passengers into space. It worked with the Federal Space Agency of Russia and Rocket and Space Corporation Energia to provide flights for the world’s first private space explorers. Each paid over $20 million for their 10-day trip to the International Space Station.

Following successful explorations into space, other companies are now considering the possibility of enabling tourists to visit space. To make it affordable, suborbital space travel is being considered by some companies, like Virgin Galactic. Passengers would be transported to a height of between 100 and 160 km above earth, experience 3 — 6 minutes of weightlessness and a view of the stars before back to earth. This is expected to cost around $200, 000 per person.

Whilst it could be an enriching experience, there are some disadvantages. Many critics say that a huge growth in the spaceflight industry could drastically speed up the process of global warming. The ozone layer would be damaged further and the polar regions would suffer. In addition, space travel is only really affordable for the super-rich, though Virgin Galactic claims to be ‘opening space to the rest of us’.

6 . With over 4.1 billion people, or around 55 percent of the world’s population, living in urban areas, cities and towns worldwide are getting increasingly jammed. In addition to spending hours stuck in traffic, residents are also exposed to high air pollution levels caused by   transportation emissions(排放). Now, Saudi Arabia hopes to overturn urban living with “The   Line”—a futuristic city designed around nature, without cars, roads and crowded places!       

The totally different city, announced on January 10, 2021, is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince(王储)Mohammed bin Salman(MBS).Located in Neom, a 10, 000-square-mile high-tech planned development on the Red Sea coast. The Line will be the base of MBS’s Saudi Vision 2030. The strategic plan aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy into other fields, like                    tourism, and create exciting job opportunities for its citizens.

The 105-mile-long city, expected to cost between $100 billion and $200 billion, will be built along a straight line and comprise several self-sustaining communities. To ensure all services are within a short, five-minute walk, each community will feature a three-layer infrastructure(基础设施)．

There will be no cars or roads on the top “pedestrian layer”, so residents can freely walk and bike in the surrounding green spaces. The second “service layer”, will include all essential daily services, such as schools, medical clinics, leisure facilities, and grocery stores. The third “spine layer” will house ultra-high-speed transportation and autonomous vehicles transporting residents across communities in less than 20 minutes. The entire city will be powered with renewable clean energy sources such as solar and wind, and possibly even hydrogen．

If all goes according to the plan, construction of this groundbreaking, complex infrastructure project will start before the end of 2021. In addition to providing up to a million residents with a clean and stress-free living environment, the Line is expected to create 380, 000 new jobs, promote economic diversification, and contribute a shocking $48 billion to Saudi Arabia’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP)by 2030. More importantly, MBS believes it will provide governments worldwide a blueprint for how people and planet can co-exist in harmony.

7 . After astronaut Rusty Schweickart looked down at the Earth from space for the first time, he described a sense of awe that has become common to almost every space traveler since. “You realize that on that little blue and white thing there is everything that means anything to you, all history and music and poetry and art and death and birth and love, all of it on that little spot out there you can cover with your thumb.” No matter what country you’re from, you return from space with a feeling that our home is tiny, fragile, and something we need to protect.

Anyone who reads the new book Growth by one of my favorite thinkers will come with similar urgency. The author, Czech-Canadian profe Vaclav Smil, approaches things from a scientist’s point of view, but he reaches the same conclusion: The Earth is fragile and “before it is too late, we should launch the most fundamental task of making any future growth consistent with the long-term preservation of our planet.”

Before I get into how Smil came to this conclusion, I should warn you. Although Growth is a brilliant combination of everything we can learn from patterns of growth in the natural and human-made world, it’s not for everyone. Long sections read like a textbook or an engineering guidebook. And it has 99 pages of references!

The book covers everything from agriculture to steel production to smartphone use. Smil’s goal is to show that no matter what field you’re talking about, eventually you hit growth limits. As Smil writes, “My aim is to explain varieties of growth in evolutionary and historical perspectives and to appreciate both the accomplishments and the limits of growth in modern ivilization…”

I don’t agree with all of his analysis. In particular, I'm more optimistic than he is about the degree to which today’s renewable energy technologies carl be used, and the pace at which scientists and engineers will develop new clean sources. In my view, Smil underestimates our accelerating ability to model the physical world using digital technologies equipped with artificial intelligence.

But I've always felt that Smil’s great strength isn’t predicting the future, but documenting the past. There’s great value in that—you can’t see what’s coming next if you don’t understand what’s come before. Nobody sees the big picture with as wide an aperture(光圈孔径) as Vaclav Smil.

There is no doubt that humankind dreams of making Mars our second home. However, sending people there will require all the skills, courage and     1     (intelligent) of the human race. While the Moon can be reached within days, it would take months to reach Mars,     2     (travel) through dangerous solar radiation. And even if the first settlers do reach Mars safely, staying alive will be     3    daily challenge, but as proved by the Biosphere experiment, not impossible.

As early as the 1980s, scientists were building Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. It consisted of a closed space    4     people, animals and plants could live together. The “closed” concept meant that the space was designed     5     (function) with its own oxygen, food and water, needing nothing from the outside world.     6     the two-year experiment was not a success, it did provide us with a better understanding of how humans might be able to live on another planet. More recently, scientists     7     (succeed) in growing a variety of plants in an environment similar to that on Mars. That     8     (definite) is a big step forward.

9 . Have you ever seen a rushing car without a driver?    1     Companies like Google and Tesla have been designing and testing these cars.

So how do they work? The cars have sensors all around which can detect other cars and obstacles in the road. Sensors on the wheels also help when parking, so the car knows how far it is from the kerb (马路牙子) or other parked cars. Road signs are read by cameras, and satellite navigation systems are used so the car knows how to get to your destination.     2    .

Sound like your idea of heaven? Sitting back, looking out of the windows and even watching a film or reading a book while “driving” would be possible with this new technology.     3     They would drive more safely than people and they have quicker reaction time in case of an emergency.

    4     For example, computers would have difficulties making ethical (伦理的) decisions: if a child ran into the road, would the computer choose to hit the child or swerve(突然转向) and potentially kill the car’s passengers?

Although being driven around by a machine would perhaps mean that no one needs a driving license, saving money for everyone, many people would be put out of a job by the dawn of driverless cars.     5     I’m not convinced I’d want a driverless car --- but it’s only a matter of time before they’ll become more affordable and commonplace on our roads.

Get ready and you will enjoy a space travel. The sky outside your spacecraft is mostly black. The planet you’re looking for is 4. 65 billion    1    (mile) away. Almost no light    2    (reach) it. Suddenly you see a glow (暗光) in the    3     (distant). As you approach, it becomes bigger and stranger. The light    4     (shine) ahead of you is bright pink. Getting closer, you realize    5    is giving off this glow. It's a magenta (紫红色的) planet!

    6    (name) GJ 504b, the planet is made of pink gas. It's similar to Jupiter, a giant gas planet in our own solar system. But GJ 504b is four times more    7     (mass). At 460°F, it’s the temperature of a hot oven, and it’s the planet’s intense heat that causes it to glow.

You stop your spacecraft to take     8    close look. The sky turns pink as you enter GJ 504b’s atmosphere. Since GJ 504b is made of gas, it has no solid surface. So you can fly right inside the planet, in    9    the gas envelops you like a thick fog. As you go    10    (deep), the gas begins to get darker. If you keep going down, your spacecraft could melt from the heat. You get away from this pink world and back into the darkness of outer space.