首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The year 1972 was marked by publication of a controversial book, The Limits to Growth. This study of the world’s future, done by
The year 1972 was marked by publication of a controversial book, The Limits to Growth. This study of the world’s future, done by
admin
2012-10-30
23
问题
The year 1972 was marked by publication of a controversial book, The Limits to Growth. This study of the world’s future, done by a team of MIT scientists with the aid of computer "models" of the future of our society, forecast a planetwide disaster unless humankind sharply limits its population growth and consumption of natural resources.
Most people were caught by surprise when the book came out.
Many refused to believe that disaster is possible, probable, inevitable—if we don’t change our mode of running Spaceship Earth. But science fiction people were neither surprised nor outraged. The study was really old news to them. They’d been making their own "models" of tomorrow and testing them all their lives.
For what the scientists attempted with their computer model is very much like the thing that science fiction writers and readers have been doing for decades. Instead of using a computer to "model" a future world society, science fiction writers have used their human imaginations. This gives the writers some enormous advantages.
One of the advantages is flexibility.
Science fiction writers are not in the business of predicting the future. They do something much more important. They try to show the many possible futures that lie open to us.
For there is not simply a future, a time to come that’ s inevitable. Our future is built, bit by bit, minute by minute, by the actions of human beings. One vital role of science fiction is to show what kinds of future might result from certain kinds of human actions.
To communicate the ideas, the fears and hopes, the shape and feel of all the infinite possible futures, science fiction writers lean heavily on another of their advantages: the art of fiction.
For while a scientist’ s job has largely ended when he’s reduced his data to tabular or graph form, the work of a science fiction writer is just beginning. His task is to convey the human story: the scientific basis for the possible future of his story is merely the background. Perhaps "merely" is too limiting a word. Much of science fiction consists of precious little except the background, the basic idea, the gimmick. But the best of science fiction, the stories that make a lasting impact on generations of readers, are stories about people. The people may be non-human. They may be robots or other types of machines. But they will be people, in the sense that human readers can feel for them, share their joys and sorrows, their dangers and their ultimate successes.
The art of fiction has not changed much since prehistoric times.
The formula for telling a powerful story has remained the same: create a strong character, a per- son of great strengths, capable of deep emotions and decisive action. Give him a weakness. Set him in conflict with another powerful character--or perhaps with nature. Let his exterior conflict be the mirror of the protagonist’s own interior conflict, the clash of his desires, his own strength against his own weakness. And there you have a story. Whether it’s Abraham offering his only son to God, or Paris bringing ruin to Troy over a woman, or Hamlet and Claudius playing their deadly game, Faust seeking the world’s knowledge and power—the stories that stand out in the minds of the readers are those whose characters are unforgettable.
To show other worlds, to describe possible future societies and the five problems lurking ahead, is not enough.
The writer of science fiction must show how these worlds and these futures affect human beings. And something much more important, he must show how human beings can and do literally create these future worlds. For our future is largely in our own hands. It doesn’t come blindly rolling out of the heavens; it is the joint product of the actions of billions of human beings. This is a point that’s easily forgotten in the rush of headlines and the hectic badgering of everyday life. But it’s a point that science fiction makes constantly, the future belongs to us—whatever it is. We make it, our actions shape to morrow. We have the brains and guts to build paradise(or at least try). Tragedy is when we fail, and the greatest crime of all is when we fail even to try.
Thus science fiction stands as a bridge between science and art, between the engineers of technology and the poets of humanity. Never has such a bridge been more desperately needed.
Writing in the British journal New Scientist, the famed poet and historian Robert Graves said in 1912, "Technology is now warring openly against the crafts, and science covertly against poetry. "
What Graves is expressing is the fear that many people have: technology has already allowed machines to replace human muscle power; now it seems that machines such as electronic computers might replace human brainpower. And he goes even further, criticizing science on the grounds that truly human endeavors ours such as poetry have a power that scientists can’t recognize.
Apparently Graves sees scientists as a sober, plodding phalanx of soulless thinking machines, never making a step that hasn’t been carefully thought out in advance.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
C
解析
本文中没有牵涉此话题。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PZ57777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteacompositiononthetopicADescriptionofanEnglishCorner.Youshouldwri
A、Tonyshouldcontinuetakingthecourse.B、SheapprovesofTony’sdecision.C、Tonycanchooseanothersciencecourse.D、Shecan
ThereisprogresstowardapossibletreatmentforlungdiseasessuchasSARS(severeacuterespiratorysyndrome).Researchers
Acollegeeducationisaninvestmentinthefuture.Butitcanbea【47】one.TheCollegeBoard【48】thatthecostsatafour-yearp
She’sbecomequite______tothecompanyafterherserviceasadeputymanagerforawholeyear.
I’mafraidthatyouhavetoalteryour______viewsinlightofthetragicnewsthathasjustarrived.
A、Solutionsfortheparent-teenproblems.B、Futureoftheparent-teenrelationship.C、Causesfortheparent-teenconflicts.D、Ex
A、Hereadthenewspaper.B、Hereadthecabinetreport.C、Helistenedtoaradioreport.D、Hissecretarytelephonedhim.A对话中女士问男
A、Becauseshecouldn’trecognizeherformerclassmate.B、Becausethemandidn’tunderstandher.C、Becauseshedidn’thaveenough
A、Thewomanmisplacedherclasspermitforbiology.B、Thewomanarrivedforregistrationtooearly.C、Thewomanmissedregistrat
随机试题
在休克期,又称可逆性失代偿期,微循环出现淤血,病人出现休克的典型症状。()
四物汤的组成药味有()。
某男性,30岁,近二周前牙咀嚼疼痛,且牙龈肿胀有脓液流出,二年前该牙曾因龋坏而疼痛,未曾治疗。检查:残冠,近中邻面探及深龋洞,牙变色,叩诊有不适感,唇侧牙龈见一瘘管,有脓液溢出,X线片显示根尖有阴影。以下均是增强桩冠固位的方法,除外()
接收投标文件和开标前后两个环节,检查投标文件的密封情况应当依次分别由()负责。[2011年真题]
国家信用是国家(政府)以()身份筹集资金的一种信用形式。
公民认为具体行政行为侵犯其合法权益的,可以自知道该具体行政行为之日起()日内提出行政复议申请。
根据以下资料,回答问题。2011年第4季度,我国网上银行市场交易金额为209.91万亿,环比增长5.2%,2011年,网上银行市场全年交易金额为780.94万亿,同比增长42.1%,截至2011年年底,我国个人网上银行用户数达到4.34亿。2011
教师的教育情感主要表现在哪些方面?
历史向世界历史的转变,是人类历史发展进程中的重要转变。此前世界处于相对隔绝状态下的国家发展传统模式将被彻底打破,从此,任何国家和民族都必须在参加普遍交往和国际竞争中求得生存和发展。也就是说,愈来愈多的民族、国家和地区间的闭塞或半隔绝状态被打破,世界逐渐连成
Thetaskofbeingacceptedandenrolledinauniversitybeginsearlyforsomestudents.Long(1)_____theygraduatefromhighsc
最新回复
(
0
)