英语四级六级阅读练习（43）：TED的绝妙创意——关闭科技

本篇阅读材料“TED的绝妙创意——关闭科技”选自《时代》（原文标题：The Surprising Big Idea at TED: Turn Off Technology 2012.3.6）。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^

It’s a TED tradition: when the stage lights go up at the beginning of a talk, the little gadgets go away—iPhones, iPads, and Blackberries all have to be powered down, even by the tech big wigs who were in attendance, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Linked In’s Reed Hoffman, and Google’s Marissa Mayer. Fully listen without technological distraction. Though it sounds simple, it was the most radical message being spread at TED 2012.

A surprising number of this year’s wide variety of speakers seemed to be joining one another in a resounding chorus, a call really, for a renaissance in technological discernment. Technology is powerful, the thinking went, but it actually disempowers us when we use it addictively and indiscriminately. And further, what really matters is the ways in which our technological advancements allow us to connect more deeply and widely with real human beings.

The leader of the pack was definitely MIT professor and author of Alone Together, Sherry Turkle. She described the bleak reality many of us live in, by which we stare into our screens—big and small—while our sensual, visceral lives pass us by. Our very emotional cores, she explains, are being altered by our inability to disconnect from the digital world. But it’s not too late, according to Turkle: “We grew up with digital technology so we see it as all grown up. It’s not.” In other words, we still have time to develop our capacity to be discerning when it comes to those glowing screens.

While one would expect thought leaders like Turkle to focus on technology, it was interesting to see the theme pop up in unexpected moments as well. Joshua Foer, who wrote Moonwalking with Einstein, spoke about the ways in which our memories have been eroded by sheer neglect in the age of Google searches and instantaneous results. As he trained for the U.S. Memory Championship, he learned about the ancient idea of building a “memory castle” by which the average human mind can expand its capacity to remember a flabbergasting number of names, faces, or digits. But the real takeaway wasn’t about freakish recall, it was about everyday meaning. Foer asked, “How much are we willing to lose by not leading a memorable life? Be a person who remembers to remember.”

Designer Chip Kidd spoke animatedly about the power of a well-designed book to relay a visual message about the story inside: “A book cover is a distillation: It is a haiku, if you will, of the story.” Reminiscing about the incredible smell of old books, he teased the audience, “I am all for the iPad, but trust me: smelling it will get you nowhere.”

Legal defender Bryan Stevenson warned that all the technological advances in the world don’t add up to justice: “No technology or design will allow us to being fully human until we also pay attention to suffering.” And Atul Gawande, beloved doctor and journalist, reminded the audience of the power of the simple intervention when speaking about the ways in which the use of a basic checklist has transformed public health: ““We have trained, hired and rewarded people to be cowboys. But it’s pit crews we need.”

These big thinkers, and many more over the course of last week, reminded us that, though they spoke at a conference renowned for its technological prowess, our tools are only virtuous when coupled with the Platonic ideal of the examined life. Our identities, relationships, and good work, may be fed, nurtured, and amplified by the gadgets at our fingertips, but they most vividly come to life in the precious, white spaces that punctuate our otherwise overscheduled, overconnected lives.

【重点单词及短语】

big wig 【俚】大人物；大亨；要人

distraction n. 注意力分散；分心

radical adj. 激进的；彻底的

disempower  v. 剥夺权力；力量剥夺；使失去影响力

indiscriminately  adv. 不加选择地；任意地

stare into  凝视

pass by  经过；逝去

discerning adj. 有辨识能力的；眼光敏锐的

pop up  突然出现

instantaneous  adj. 瞬间的；即时的

flabbergasting  adj. 令人大吃一惊的

animatedly  adv. 精力旺盛地；活生生地

relay v. 转播；转发

distillation  n. 精华；蒸馏

haiku  n. 俳句（日本一种无韵节的三行诗）

reminisce  v. 追忆；回忆

tease  v. 取笑；戏弄

add up to 意味着

intervention  n. 介入；调停；妨碍

pit crew  后勤维修人员

virtuous  adj. 有效力的；正直的；有道德的

couple with  与……结合；伴随

Platonic  adj. 柏拉图哲学的；不切实际的；理想的

amplify  v. 扩大；放大；详述

Question time:

1. What's the TED tradition according to the author's introduction?

2. Why tech big wigs on TED suggest us to turn off technology?