疯狂英语精选辑 An Interview with Bill

Question 1: When will the information highway be here?
Bill: One of the key propositions in the book is that this will be a more evolutionary process than many people have suggested, that is, the PC will continue to get better; the internet will have more and more cool content on it; people be connecting up at higher speed through ISDN and PC cable Modems. And so all those here-and-now things that companies are going after and there is a real business case for them. The ultimate where you connect up all the video devices, as we say, information appliances in the book, ah, we'll take quite some time. I still believe that within a decade pretty much that ultimate vision will be available to a lot of people around the world.

Question 2: Why did you decide to write a book now?
Bill: I think if I had known how much time it would take to write a book, I might not have done a book. I did think it was a great time to share some thoughts on the potential of technology, and take some of the themes that come up again and again, as I talk about the topic, the fears that people have, the dreams that people have, and show those to widen the debate, and really make my contribution to, what should be, a very broad discussion about the future.

Question 3:How would the information highway affect social interaction?
Bill: I think probably the most difficult thing to predict about the electronic world, is how it would affect socialization. This is not an area that people change very rapidly. And yet the idea of being able to get so much information about the need things going on in town, and how you can get there when it’s scheduled, what your friends though about it, you know, see the menu before you go to the restaurant, that information access part I think will be a great success. The bigger question now is elderly, can’t get out as much, can share their video with other people, playing games, going to forums where you have common interests and talk about what should be done. The possibilities for socialization would be vast, and it may be that it’s really the young generation going up with these tools right now, that would take this tool’s fullest potential.

问1：信息高速公路什么时候会成为现实？
比尔：我书中一个重要的看法是，我比许多其他人更倾向于认为信息高速公路是一个渐次发展的过程。因为个人电脑将会继续升级换代，互联网也将越来越精益求精。人们将越来越快地被诸如综合服务数字网、电脑调制器等联结起来，而这些立刻成为商家所追逐的目标，又确实是不错的商业机会。就如我们所说，最终我们将会把所有视频设备连接起来。那就是书中所谈到的所有的图表，信息手段，然而这需要时间。我仍然相信十年之内，这一前景将会在世界上许多人身上实现。

问2：你为什么决定写这本书呢？
比尔：我想，如果我早知道写一本书要花费这么多的时间，我恐怕不会写成这本书。我确实认为这是个大好机会把我对技术前景的瞻望，以及一些时不时冒出来的想法与这个时代共享。正如我书中谈到的，人们（对技术）的恐惧，梦想，这些已经引起广泛争论的问题，我就做贡献。这是一广泛的关于将来的问题进行的讨论。

问3：信息高速公路将会对人们的社会交往产生什么影响呢？
比尔：我想，关于电子世界最难以预测的，便是它将如何影响社会交往。因为在这一领域人们并不容易很快地发生变化。但是想到你可以取得那么多城里必需品的消息，想到时间决定以后你可以怎样抵达那儿，想到你可能知道你的朋友对于这些消息的看法。想到你可以在走进餐馆之前便可以浏览一下他们的菜单，等等，我认为这种获取信息的手段是一个极大的成功。更大的问题是出外不多的老年人是否能够与其他人同享图象信息。因为这些年轻人还把电脑用来玩游戏，参加自己感兴趣的讨论会以及讨论如何进行这些活动。电脑对社会化的潜在影响可能会在与电脑共同长大的青年一代身上实现，并能充分发挥这一潜能。