金融時(shí)報(bào):我的手機(jī)，我的寄生蟲(chóng)

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2021年11月11日

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我的手機(jī)，我的寄生蟲(chóng)

為了繁殖和傳播，病毒和其他寄生物侵占更大的生物體，并篡奪資源。智能手機(jī)和其他小玩意也對(duì)人類(lèi)做著同樣的事。

測(cè)試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識(shí)：

malign有害的[m?'la?n]adj.

commandeer征用，強(qiáng)占[?k?m?n'd??(r)]

umbilici核心，臍[??mb?'la?ka?]n.

phage噬菌體[fe?d?]

toxoplasmosis弓形蟲(chóng)病[?t?ks??plæz?m??s?s]n.

My mobile, the parasite (634 words)

by Jonathan Guthrie, January 2, 2015 6:52 am

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking, says Jonathan Guthrie.

While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less malign epidemic is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology. The outbreak reached its height at Christmas, when gift-giving was predicted to take worldwide shipments of smartphones to a record 1.3bn units in 2014. The total will rise to 1.4bn in 2015, according to IDC, a market research firm.

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking. Viruses and other parasites commandeer larger organisms, usurping resources in order to multiply and spread. Smartphones and other gadgets do the same thing, feeding on ever-increasing amounts of human attention and electricity supplied via wire umbilici.

It is tempting to impute a “strategy” to both phages and phablets, neither of which is sentient. Instead, the process is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations, as experimented with by legions of product designers. This makes it all the more potent.

Stephen Hawking believes intelligent machines could take over from humans and wipe us out. He may be the world's greatest living physicist, but he has not been paying attention. Unintelligent machines have already co-opted humans to serve their interests. Exterminating us would be counterproductive from their point of view, if they had one.

Fans of Apple are unlikely to agree that iPads resemble biological viruses. Peter Balfe, a virologist at the University of Birmingham, is sceptical too. He thinks tablet computers are more like a parasite, such as the single-celled toxoplasma gondii. This completes its life cycle through transmission between cats and mice.

“Toxoplasmosis suppresses the fear response in infected mice,” says Dr Balfe, who explains that they become attracted to cat odours. “They go out ‘looking' for cats they can be eaten by. Mobile devices are our toxoplasmosis. They change the way we behave.”

Tech addiction occurs through actively-learnt responses, or “operant conditioning” as animal behaviourists call it. The scientific parallel here also involves a rodent, typically a rat, which occupies a special cage called a Skinner Box. The animal is rewarded with a food pellet for solving puzzles and punished with an electric shock when it fails.

Mobile devices do not “taste” disobedient owners – yet. They do however deliver rewards in measured doses, exploiting our hunger for recognition. We get a jolt of pleasure when we receive a personal email or see an opinion endorsed in a retweet.

Desk-bound PCs were fostering operant conditioning long before the advent of the smartphone. But the latter silicon chip-based quasi-life form feeds more successfully on the energies of the host organism because it accompanies them everywhere.

“Are we getting a positive boost of hormones when we endlessly look at our phone, seeking rewards?” asks David Shuker, an animal behaviourist at St Andrews university, sounding a little like a man withholding serious scientific endorsement from an idea that a journalist had in the shower. Research is needed, he says.

Tech tycoons would meanwhile argue that the proliferation of mobile devices is a tribute to the brilliance of their designs. This is precisely what people whose thought processes have been modified by an invasive pseudo-organism would believe.

Fortunately, mobile technology causes symptoms less severe than physiological diseases. There are even benefits to compensate sufferers for shortened attention spans and the caffeine overload triggered by visits to Starbucks for the free wifi. Most importantly, you can obtain the FT in places as remote as Alaska or Sidcup.

In this sense, a mobile device is closer to a symbiotic organism than a parasite. This would make it akin to an intestinal bacterium that helps a person to stay alive, rather than a virus that may kill you. The similarity between the iPhone and a gut micro-organism is one that Apple boss Tim Cook is unlikely to dwell on in his next sales pitch, though.

請(qǐng)根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測(cè)題目：

1.According to the author, what is the similarity between Ebola and the mobile personal technology?

A.They are both fatal.

B.They are both from Africa.

C.They are both widespread through populations.

D.Both of them can cause serious outcomes and make people in panic.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, which of the statements below is true?

A.Stephen Hawking believes intelligent devices may enslave humans.

B.Phages and phablets are sentient and smart with strategies.

C.Smartphones and other gadgets occupy the organisms of humans just as what viruses do.

D.The process of developing new devices is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations.