大多數(shù)電子產(chǎn)業(yè)界人士都意識到，他們正在做的革命性技術(shù)研發(fā)工作，已經(jīng)永久改變了我們的生活方式。 他們對此感到自豪嗎？…你可以這么說。 他們愿意負(fù)起全部責(zé)任嗎？…他們應(yīng)該要，但首先讓我們在此檢驗一下其中現(xiàn)實。 我們之中的大部分恐怕很難想象某天會收不到任何一封電子郵件，或是無法用手機打電話；幾乎每一天，我們都會收到來自親朋好友的手機短信，或是那些我們認(rèn)識、甚至完全不相干的人所發(fā)出的，稍微有趣或是索然無味的新浪微博(或是人人網(wǎng)、騰訊微博)訊息。 你今天可能還沒上臉書(Facebook)更新近況，但絕對可肯定在你的朋友名單中，有人“每天早上起床第一件事”就是上臉書首頁，而不是去洗手間。 那些自認(rèn)方向感無敵的人，一旦開車到不熟悉的道路上，也會將GPS視為唯一的依靠；我們每天用悠游卡、無線感應(yīng)卡通過各種閘門，甚至出國旅游時拿出的護照里面也有RFID技術(shù)。 無論好或壞，今日的生活是無所不在的、與世界上幾乎所有人與所有地點的連結(jié)(或是相互糾纏)──包括實質(zhì)上以及電子上的；越是如此，我們越選擇過那樣的生活。 著眼于近十幾二十年來的“社會進步”，我們所有人都對工程師社群虧欠良多；那些實際在做繁重工程師工作的朋友們總是安安靜靜，他們很少會去吹噓自己的成就。 就連像是德州儀器(TI)這樣的公司，曾在2009年嘗試以一系列“感謝工程師(Thank an engineer)”的視頻短片(參考連結(jié))表彰工程師們的努力，看著那一群通常無名的勞動者如此赤裸裸地曝光在鏡頭前，感覺卻是小怪、小尷尬。 但是我對于工程師社群所推動的“社會進步”，卻有著完全不同的觀點；我最近看到一段視頻短片，它揭露了我們下一代人類基本行為的變化──而且主要是由新科技所驅(qū)動。 本文下一頁：被科技改變的人們 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載

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被iPad制約的小baby drGesmc

這段影片的主角是個年約1歲的小女娃、已經(jīng)很習(xí)慣偶爾玩玩爸媽的iPad；然后我們看到她在接觸實體印刷雜志時的挫折，因為紙本書籍的圖片不會響應(yīng)她小小手指的滑動、放大縮小指令，在上面點擊也不會出現(xiàn)互動效果。 以前我曾經(jīng)聽過，已經(jīng)習(xí)慣用手機打短信的年輕一代人，在按門鈴的時候會自然地傾向使用大拇指，而不是我們傳統(tǒng)會用的食指(這是TI某發(fā)言人所分享的故事)。 我還記得在大約20年前曾遇過一個工程師，說他兩歲女兒被爸爸的Mac洗 腦，有好幾個月時間都會在與她的人類同伴面對面展開語言對話時，先點擊兩下自己的胸膛。 當(dāng)時聽來頗感震驚，但現(xiàn)在，我們的下一代恐怕會認(rèn)為，如果Playboy雜志插頁圖片上的人物不會接受指令站起來、或是走過頁面…那應(yīng)該就是一臺壞掉的iPad ！ 能改變一種普遍的社會行為是件了不起的成就，但也是令人害怕而不可預(yù)測的，伴隨著意外的后果；就像是一個小嬰兒在不知不覺之間，已經(jīng)為了一只神奇手指賣掉了她的想象力。 而更可怕的，是被要求為這樣的事情負(fù)起責(zé)任。 編譯：Judith Cheng 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 參考英文原文：If it’s not an iPad, is Vanity Fair?，by Junko Yoshida

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{pagination} If it’s not an iPad, is Vanity Fair? Junko Yoshida MADISON, Wis. – Most people in the electronics industry today are aware of the revolutionary job they’ve done in developing technology that has changed forever the way we live. Are they proud? You betcha. Are they ready to take full responsibility? They should. But first, let us examine the reality here. Most of us can’t imagine a day when we receive not a single e-mail or make no cell phone calls. Not a day goes by without getting text messages from our kids, or finding mildly interesting or totally irrelevant tweets from someone we may or may not know that well. We may make no new entries in Facebook today, but we sure know someone among our circle of friends and relatives, whose “first-thing-in-the-morning ritual” is checking her Facebook page before even going to the bathroom. Even for those of us who trust no one for street directions, GPS has become our mainstay when we drive in unfamiliar territory. We zip through tolls using our E-Zpass (RFID), and we travel abroad with an RFID-embedded passport. For better or worse, life today is ubiquitously connected (or entangled) – virtually and electronically – to almost everyone and everywhere in the universe, the moreso the more we choose it to be. While all of us owe a lot to the engineering community for the “social” progress we’ve made in recent decades, those who have done the actual heavy-duty engineering work often remain quiet. They rarely brag about what they’ve engineered and accomplished. Even when an outfit like Texas Instruments tried to honor ‘engineers’ with its “Thank an engineer” series of video clips in 2009, it felt a little odd, and a tad embarrassing, to watch these normally anonymous toilers so nakedly exposed. But the whole notion of “social progress” engineered by the engineering community has become entirely a different story for me. I recently came across a video which captured changes – primarily instigated by new technology – in the basic behavior of our next generation of human beings. The video shows a one-year-old girl accustomed to playing randomly with her parent’s iPad. We witness her frustration with a regular paper magazine, which refuses to respond as she touches, sweeps, squeezes and pushes the images on the inert, non-interactive paper pages. I’ve heard before that a younger generation accustomed to using its thumbs for texting is more naturally inclined today to use thumbs, instead of the traditional index finger, to ring a doorbell. (A TI spokesperson shared this story). I also remember meeting an engineer almost 20 years ago. He said his two-year old daughter – brainwashed by Daddy’s Mac – spent months double-clicking herself on the chest first before initiating verbal contact with her fellow carbon-based life forms (people). That was a little shocking then. Now, we’ve got a whole generation in danger of thinking that a Playboy centerfold who doesn’t stand up, walk off the page and shake her booty on command is nothing but a broken iPad! Changing widespread social behavior is an awesome accomplishment. But it’s also scary and unpredictable, fraught inevitably with unintended consequences, like perhaps a baby who has unwittingly traded her imagination for a magic finger. It’s even scarier to claim responsibility for this sort of thing.