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七岁的小女孩爱丽丝在梦里跌入了兔子洞见到了稀奇古怪的人物和光怪陆离的场景。虚拟现实就是要创造出这样的梦，用计算机及传感器技术，以假乱真，让人身临其境。VR眼镜的流行，宣告着这项技术的进一步发展。然而，这场人类企图战胜时空的梦，究竟是美梦还是噩梦呢？
In 1965， Ivan Sutherland， a computer-graphics pioneer， addressed an international meeting of techies on the subject of virtual reality. The ultimate virtual-reality display， he told the audience， would be “a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining， and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming， such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.”
Virtual reality has advanced rapidly in the past couple of years—the much-anticipated Oculus Rift headset arrived in stores in early 2016， followed closely by several other devices. Yet the technology is still very new， and Sutherland’s vision seems little closer to， well， actual reality. “Right now， it’s like when you first had cellphones，” Richard Marks， one of the lead engineers working on Project Morpheus1， Sony’s virtual-reality headset， told me. “A lot of focus is still on the most basic things.”
I recently spoke with scientists， psychologists， engineers， and developers about the possibilities for this emerging field. Where might it eventually take us—and will that be somewhere we want to go？
Being Virtually Anywhere
During a recent demonstration of Google Cardboard—a DIY headset that’s made of cardboard and uses a smartphone for the display—I found myself by turns atop a rocky peak， in a barn next to a snorting horse， and on a gondola making my way up a mountain.2 The gondola ride gave me vertigo3.
We react like that， experts say， because our brains are easily fooled when what we see on a display tracks our head movements. “We have a reptilian4 instinct that responds as if it’s real： Don’t step off that cliff； this battle is scary，” Jeremy Bailenson， the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab， told me. “The brain hasn’t evolved to tell you it’s not real.”
Much of the excitement about virtual reality has come from the gaming community. Who wouldn’t want to experience a game so completely？ But gaming is just the start. At Sony， Marks has worked with NASA to conjure5 the experience of standing on Mars—a view that could help scientists better understand the planet. David Laidlaw， the head of the Visualization Research Lab at Brown University， told me that his team has re-created a temple site in Petra， Jordan， enabling researchers to see previously unclear relationships between objects found there. Google is testing Expeditions， a way of sending students to places like the Great Barrier Reef， where they can virtually scuba dive as part of a lesson on marine biology and ocean acidification.6 Similar approaches may enhance professional training. By donning a pair of goggles， a neurosurgeon could navigate brain structures before surgery； a chemist could step inside a drug to understand it on the cellular level；7 an architect could walk through a building she’s designing.
Another possibility： Imagine that you’re unable to attend a family gathering. With a pair of glasses， you’re in the middle of the action. And everyone there wears glasses that make it appear as though you’re present. The whole thing is recorded， so you can replay the experience whenever you’d like. Ten years from now， such a scenario8 might be common.
And consider the potential for telecommuting9. Henry Fuchs， a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leader in the field， envisions virtual offices. You could use the physical space of your house—a real desk， a real computer—but interact with your colleagues as if they were in the same room as you.
Engaging All Your Senses
Google recently acquired Thrive Audio， a company that specializes in spatial audio—sounds that your ear registers as emanating from a particular place.10 A virtual waterfall grows louder as you move toward it. Something catches your ear from behind. You turn， and see a deer approaching. The audio becomes three-dimensional， truly surrounding you.
Smell could become part of the virtual experience as well. A company called Feelreal has developed a mask that releases scents， such as the smell of fire or the ocean， to enhance what you see in a headset. （The project is hampered by the need to preload the scents you’re likely to encounter， among other problems.） Closely related is the ability to taste what you see. Researchers in Singapore are developing electrodes that， when placed on your tongue， mimic basic tastes，11 such as sweet， salty， bitter， and sour.
What about touch？ Could we one day find that when we dip our fingers in virtual water， it actually feels wet？ David Laidlaw considers resolving this challenge， known as the haptics problem， to be the holy grail of virtual reality.12 But that doesn’t mean it’s insurmountable13. “I’m confident we’ll do it within our lifetimes，” Palmer Luckey， the founder of Oculus， told me. “There are no fundamental physical laws that prevent us from building something that’s almost perfect.” Laidlaw is less optimistic—he thinks that creating lifelike haptics will take 100 years—but he agrees that a virtual world may one day be a nearly perfect simulacrum14 of the real one. Of course， there could be unintended consequences. Already people are developing vision problems and vitamin D deficiencies—not to mention obesity and diabetes15—because they spend too much time in front of screens. What might a flawlessly rendered virtual world mean for our health？
A Neuromancer Future？
Jeremy Bailenson was inspired to work in virtual reality in part by Neuromancer， a 1984 novel that depicts a future in which people can “jack in” their brains directly to a virtual world. Perhaps， Bailenson speculates16， that’s where virtual reality is headed. He imagines that in 50 or 100 years we might develop a brain-machine interface17 that taps directly into the nervous system.
Perhaps then we’ll find that rather than jacking in for a while and calling it quits， we can， like Alice， move wholly into a Wonderland where the laws of the prosaic18 world （gravity， aging） no longer apply. Virtual reality could then become akin to the Singularity， a concept described by Ray Kurzweil，19 a futurist and Google engineer， among others： a way for our minds to separate from our bodies and， uploaded into a digital realm， live on even as our physical selves grow old and die. Just like Wonderland， it’s a vision equal parts entrancing and frightening.
1965年，计算机图形学先驱伊凡·苏泽兰在一个全球性的科技会议上发表了一场关于虚拟现实的演讲。他告诉听众，“最终的虚拟现实，将会呈现出一个这样的房间，里面所有的物品都由电脑控制。房里的凳子真的可以坐，手铐真的可以铐住人，子弹也真的会置人于死地。只要合理设定程序，这样的房间完全可以变成爱丽丝踏入的那个奇境。”
过去的几年里，虚拟现实技术发展迅速。备受期待的Oculus Rift头戴式显示器2016年初就已经面世，其他设备也相继推出。但这项技术还是太新，苏泽兰的设想也太遥远。“现在这个阶段，就跟我们刚有手机那会儿一样，注意力还是集中在一些基础的问题上。”索尼公司代号为“摩尔甫斯”的虚拟现实头显设备项目的工程师理查德·马克斯告诉我说。
这个逐渐壮大的领域能走多远，我最近跟科学家、心理学家、工程师、开发人员都谈到过。它最终会把我们带向哪里，是我们想要到达的终点吗？
虚拟无处不在
在最近一次的“谷歌纸盒”（一个由纸盒做成的手工头显设备，可用智能手机操控）展览上，我接连体验到了身处险峻的山巅、站在牲口棚里呼呼喷气的马匹旁边，以及坐在缆车中盘山而上之感。乘坐缆车着实令我头晕目眩。
专家说，我们之所以会有这样的感觉，是因为当我们看到的东西跟随头部的运动而变化时，大脑很容易上当。“我们有着像爬行动物一样的直觉，会误以为是真实情况并作出反应：那个悬崖别踩空了；这场战役很残酷。”斯坦福虚拟人机交互实验室的创办主任杰里米·拜伦森告诉我说，“大脑还没有进化到可以告诉你那不是真的。”
对虚拟世界的热衷大多来自源于游戏社区。谁不想全方位地体验游戏场景呢？但游戏只是一个开始。在索尼公司，马克斯和美国国家航空航天局一道，创造出了站在火星上的视觉感受，以帮助科学家更好地理解火星。布朗大学可视化研究实验室的负责人戴维·莱德劳告诉我，他的团队重现了约旦古城佩特拉的庙宇遗址，帮助研究者弄清此前在遗址里发现的各个文物之间的联系。
正在测试的谷歌探险项目，可以把学生送到大堡礁等地，让他们进行虚拟水肺潜水，以此作为海洋生物学和海洋酸化课程的一部分。同样的方法也可以用来强化专业培训。戴上护目镜，神经外科医生可以在手术前就探测好大脑的结构；药剂师则可以进入到药物内部，从细胞层面去了解它的效用；设计师可以走进她正在设计的建筑。
还有一种情况，比如有一次家庭聚会你没法参加。戴上一副眼镜，你就可以置身其中了。现场的每个人也都戴着眼镜，也会感觉你在现场。全程都有录像，这样你随时都可以重温这个场景。10年后，这种情况可能会很普遍。
虚拟现实还有可能应用在家庭办公方面。亨利·福克斯是北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的教授，也是相关领域的领头人，他提出了虚拟办公室的设想。你可以用家里的真实场景——真实的书桌，真实的电脑——跟同事互动，就像他们和你在同一间屋子里一样。 调动所有感官
谷歌最近收购了Thrive Audio，这家公司专注于空间音频——能让耳朵分辨出来自特定方位的声音。你靠得越近，虚拟瀑布的声音越响。你听到身后的响动，转过身，发现是一只鹿正在走近。声音变成了三维的，实实在在环绕着你。
气味也可以成为虚拟体验的一种。一家名叫Feelreal的公司研发出了一种可以释放气味的面具，通过释放出燃烧物或者海洋这类的气味，强化你在头显中看到的场景。（这个项目还有一些问题没有解决，比如必须事先就存入可能需要的气味。）与此密切相关的还有，在你看到一个东西的同时，也能够尝到它的味道。新加坡的研究人员正在开发一种电极，它可以在被放到舌头上时，模拟出甜、咸、苦、酸等一些基础味道。
那么触觉呢？会不会有一天，我们把手伸到虚拟的水中时，会真的感觉到水的湿润？戴维·莱德劳把触觉技术看作虚拟现实领域一个难以逾越的高峰，但也不是完全不能攻克。Oculus的创始人帕尔默·勒基对我说：“我相信我们会在有生之年攻克这个难关。创造出近乎完美的技术，并不会违反基本的物理定律。”莱德劳则没有那么乐观，他认为创造栩栩如生的触觉体验需要一百年时间，但他也认同总有一天虚拟世界会模拟出一个近乎完美的真实世界。
当然，结果可能会出人意料甚至适得其反。因为在电子屏幕前待得太长，人们已经开始出现视力障碍和维生素D缺乏症，更别提肥胖和糖尿病了。一个完美的虚拟世界对我们的健康又意味着什么呢？
《神经漫游者》式的未来？
杰里米·拜伦森致力于虚拟现实领域，部分是因为受到了《神经漫游者》的启发。在这部1984年出版的小说里，未来的人们可以直接将大脑“接入”到虚拟世界。或许，拜伦森推测，这就是虚拟现实发展的方向。他预测在50至100年后，我们可能会研制出一种人机接口，可以直接将机器连入大脑神经系统。
恐怕到那时，我们甚至都不用接入一会儿，再退出来，而是像爱丽丝一样，完完全全地进入一个奇境，不再受重力、衰老等各种规则的束缚。那时虚拟世界会类似于“奇点”，这是未来学家、谷歌工程师雷·库兹韦尔描述的概念：我们的灵魂从躯体中脱离出去，进入到数码国度，即便躯体衰老死亡，灵魂都能永生。跟爱丽丝的奇境一样，这样的未来既让人向往，也有些可怖。
1. Morpheus： 摩尔甫斯，希腊神话中的梦神。
2. barn： 牲口棚，谷仓；gondola：（索道）缆车。
3. vertigo： 眩晕。
4. reptilian： 爬行动物的，爬行动物似的。名词形式为reptile，爬行动物。
5. conjure： 用魔法变出，使某事发生。
6. scuba dive： 水肺潜水，scuba是self-contained underwater breathing apparatus的缩写，指潜水员自行携带水下呼吸系统所进行的潜水活动；acidification： 酸化。海洋酸化（ocean acidification）是指海洋摄入大气中的二氧化碳后，海水碱度减弱，酸度上升的趋势。海洋酸化会破坏海洋生态系统的功能，对海洋物种产生影响。
7. don： 戴上；goggles： [复]护目镜； neurosurgeon： 神经外科医生；cellular： 细胞的，由细胞组成的。
8. scenario： 可能发生的事，可能出现的情况。
9. telecommute： 家庭办公，远距离工作。
10. register： 注意到；emanate： 散发出，传出。
11. electrode： 电极；mimic： 模拟。
12. haptics： 触觉学；holy grail： 原指耶稣死前用过的圣杯。传说如果能找到圣杯，喝下其盛过的水，就能返老还童、死而复生。此处用来比喻梦寐以求的目标，尽力实现的梦想。
13. insurmountable： 不可逾越的，难以克服的。
14. simulacrum： 拟像，模拟物。
15. deficiency： 缺乏，不足；diabetes： 糖尿病。
16. speculate： 推测，猜测。
17. interface： 接口。
18. prosaic： 乏味的，缺乏想象力的。
19. Singularity： 奇点，是时空无限弯曲的那一个点，一般认为存在于黑洞中央，可以看成空间时间的边缘；Ray Kurzweil： 雷·库兹韦尔（1948— ），现任谷歌工程总监，发明家、企业家，在人工智能、机器人等领域被视为奇才。
In 1965， Ivan Sutherland， a computer-graphics pioneer， addressed an international meeting of techies on the subject of virtual reality. The ultimate virtual-reality display， he told the audience， would be “a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining， and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming， such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.”
Virtual reality has advanced rapidly in the past couple of years—the much-anticipated Oculus Rift headset arrived in stores in early 2016， followed closely by several other devices. Yet the technology is still very new， and Sutherland’s vision seems little closer to， well， actual reality. “Right now， it’s like when you first had cellphones，” Richard Marks， one of the lead engineers working on Project Morpheus1， Sony’s virtual-reality headset， told me. “A lot of focus is still on the most basic things.”
I recently spoke with scientists， psychologists， engineers， and developers about the possibilities for this emerging field. Where might it eventually take us—and will that be somewhere we want to go？
Being Virtually Anywhere
During a recent demonstration of Google Cardboard—a DIY headset that’s made of cardboard and uses a smartphone for the display—I found myself by turns atop a rocky peak， in a barn next to a snorting horse， and on a gondola making my way up a mountain.2 The gondola ride gave me vertigo3.
We react like that， experts say， because our brains are easily fooled when what we see on a display tracks our head movements. “We have a reptilian4 instinct that responds as if it’s real： Don’t step off that cliff； this battle is scary，” Jeremy Bailenson， the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab， told me. “The brain hasn’t evolved to tell you it’s not real.”
Much of the excitement about virtual reality has come from the gaming community. Who wouldn’t want to experience a game so completely？ But gaming is just the start. At Sony， Marks has worked with NASA to conjure5 the experience of standing on Mars—a view that could help scientists better understand the planet. David Laidlaw， the head of the Visualization Research Lab at Brown University， told me that his team has re-created a temple site in Petra， Jordan， enabling researchers to see previously unclear relationships between objects found there. Google is testing Expeditions， a way of sending students to places like the Great Barrier Reef， where they can virtually scuba dive as part of a lesson on marine biology and ocean acidification.6 Similar approaches may enhance professional training. By donning a pair of goggles， a neurosurgeon could navigate brain structures before surgery； a chemist could step inside a drug to understand it on the cellular level；7 an architect could walk through a building she’s designing.
Another possibility： Imagine that you’re unable to attend a family gathering. With a pair of glasses， you’re in the middle of the action. And everyone there wears glasses that make it appear as though you’re present. The whole thing is recorded， so you can replay the experience whenever you’d like. Ten years from now， such a scenario8 might be common.
And consider the potential for telecommuting9. Henry Fuchs， a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a leader in the field， envisions virtual offices. You could use the physical space of your house—a real desk， a real computer—but interact with your colleagues as if they were in the same room as you.
Engaging All Your Senses
Google recently acquired Thrive Audio， a company that specializes in spatial audio—sounds that your ear registers as emanating from a particular place.10 A virtual waterfall grows louder as you move toward it. Something catches your ear from behind. You turn， and see a deer approaching. The audio becomes three-dimensional， truly surrounding you.
Smell could become part of the virtual experience as well. A company called Feelreal has developed a mask that releases scents， such as the smell of fire or the ocean， to enhance what you see in a headset. （The project is hampered by the need to preload the scents you’re likely to encounter， among other problems.） Closely related is the ability to taste what you see. Researchers in Singapore are developing electrodes that， when placed on your tongue， mimic basic tastes，11 such as sweet， salty， bitter， and sour.
What about touch？ Could we one day find that when we dip our fingers in virtual water， it actually feels wet？ David Laidlaw considers resolving this challenge， known as the haptics problem， to be the holy grail of virtual reality.12 But that doesn’t mean it’s insurmountable13. “I’m confident we’ll do it within our lifetimes，” Palmer Luckey， the founder of Oculus， told me. “There are no fundamental physical laws that prevent us from building something that’s almost perfect.” Laidlaw is less optimistic—he thinks that creating lifelike haptics will take 100 years—but he agrees that a virtual world may one day be a nearly perfect simulacrum14 of the real one. Of course， there could be unintended consequences. Already people are developing vision problems and vitamin D deficiencies—not to mention obesity and diabetes15—because they spend too much time in front of screens. What might a flawlessly rendered virtual world mean for our health？
A Neuromancer Future？
Jeremy Bailenson was inspired to work in virtual reality in part by Neuromancer， a 1984 novel that depicts a future in which people can “jack in” their brains directly to a virtual world. Perhaps， Bailenson speculates16， that’s where virtual reality is headed. He imagines that in 50 or 100 years we might develop a brain-machine interface17 that taps directly into the nervous system.
Perhaps then we’ll find that rather than jacking in for a while and calling it quits， we can， like Alice， move wholly into a Wonderland where the laws of the prosaic18 world （gravity， aging） no longer apply. Virtual reality could then become akin to the Singularity， a concept described by Ray Kurzweil，19 a futurist and Google engineer， among others： a way for our minds to separate from our bodies and， uploaded into a digital realm， live on even as our physical selves grow old and die. Just like Wonderland， it’s a vision equal parts entrancing and frightening.
1965年，计算机图形学先驱伊凡·苏泽兰在一个全球性的科技会议上发表了一场关于虚拟现实的演讲。他告诉听众，“最终的虚拟现实，将会呈现出一个这样的房间，里面所有的物品都由电脑控制。房里的凳子真的可以坐，手铐真的可以铐住人，子弹也真的会置人于死地。只要合理设定程序，这样的房间完全可以变成爱丽丝踏入的那个奇境。”
过去的几年里，虚拟现实技术发展迅速。备受期待的Oculus Rift头戴式显示器2016年初就已经面世，其他设备也相继推出。但这项技术还是太新，苏泽兰的设想也太遥远。“现在这个阶段，就跟我们刚有手机那会儿一样，注意力还是集中在一些基础的问题上。”索尼公司代号为“摩尔甫斯”的虚拟现实头显设备项目的工程师理查德·马克斯告诉我说。
这个逐渐壮大的领域能走多远，我最近跟科学家、心理学家、工程师、开发人员都谈到过。它最终会把我们带向哪里，是我们想要到达的终点吗？
虚拟无处不在
在最近一次的“谷歌纸盒”（一个由纸盒做成的手工头显设备，可用智能手机操控）展览上，我接连体验到了身处险峻的山巅、站在牲口棚里呼呼喷气的马匹旁边，以及坐在缆车中盘山而上之感。乘坐缆车着实令我头晕目眩。
专家说，我们之所以会有这样的感觉，是因为当我们看到的东西跟随头部的运动而变化时，大脑很容易上当。“我们有着像爬行动物一样的直觉，会误以为是真实情况并作出反应：那个悬崖别踩空了；这场战役很残酷。”斯坦福虚拟人机交互实验室的创办主任杰里米·拜伦森告诉我说，“大脑还没有进化到可以告诉你那不是真的。”
对虚拟世界的热衷大多来自源于游戏社区。谁不想全方位地体验游戏场景呢？但游戏只是一个开始。在索尼公司，马克斯和美国国家航空航天局一道，创造出了站在火星上的视觉感受，以帮助科学家更好地理解火星。布朗大学可视化研究实验室的负责人戴维·莱德劳告诉我，他的团队重现了约旦古城佩特拉的庙宇遗址，帮助研究者弄清此前在遗址里发现的各个文物之间的联系。
正在测试的谷歌探险项目，可以把学生送到大堡礁等地，让他们进行虚拟水肺潜水，以此作为海洋生物学和海洋酸化课程的一部分。同样的方法也可以用来强化专业培训。戴上护目镜，神经外科医生可以在手术前就探测好大脑的结构；药剂师则可以进入到药物内部，从细胞层面去了解它的效用；设计师可以走进她正在设计的建筑。
还有一种情况，比如有一次家庭聚会你没法参加。戴上一副眼镜，你就可以置身其中了。现场的每个人也都戴着眼镜，也会感觉你在现场。全程都有录像，这样你随时都可以重温这个场景。10年后，这种情况可能会很普遍。
虚拟现实还有可能应用在家庭办公方面。亨利·福克斯是北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的教授，也是相关领域的领头人，他提出了虚拟办公室的设想。你可以用家里的真实场景——真实的书桌，真实的电脑——跟同事互动，就像他们和你在同一间屋子里一样。 调动所有感官
谷歌最近收购了Thrive Audio，这家公司专注于空间音频——能让耳朵分辨出来自特定方位的声音。你靠得越近，虚拟瀑布的声音越响。你听到身后的响动，转过身，发现是一只鹿正在走近。声音变成了三维的，实实在在环绕着你。
气味也可以成为虚拟体验的一种。一家名叫Feelreal的公司研发出了一种可以释放气味的面具，通过释放出燃烧物或者海洋这类的气味，强化你在头显中看到的场景。（这个项目还有一些问题没有解决，比如必须事先就存入可能需要的气味。）与此密切相关的还有，在你看到一个东西的同时，也能够尝到它的味道。新加坡的研究人员正在开发一种电极，它可以在被放到舌头上时，模拟出甜、咸、苦、酸等一些基础味道。
那么触觉呢？会不会有一天，我们把手伸到虚拟的水中时，会真的感觉到水的湿润？戴维·莱德劳把触觉技术看作虚拟现实领域一个难以逾越的高峰，但也不是完全不能攻克。Oculus的创始人帕尔默·勒基对我说：“我相信我们会在有生之年攻克这个难关。创造出近乎完美的技术，并不会违反基本的物理定律。”莱德劳则没有那么乐观，他认为创造栩栩如生的触觉体验需要一百年时间，但他也认同总有一天虚拟世界会模拟出一个近乎完美的真实世界。
当然，结果可能会出人意料甚至适得其反。因为在电子屏幕前待得太长，人们已经开始出现视力障碍和维生素D缺乏症，更别提肥胖和糖尿病了。一个完美的虚拟世界对我们的健康又意味着什么呢？
《神经漫游者》式的未来？
杰里米·拜伦森致力于虚拟现实领域，部分是因为受到了《神经漫游者》的启发。在这部1984年出版的小说里，未来的人们可以直接将大脑“接入”到虚拟世界。或许，拜伦森推测，这就是虚拟现实发展的方向。他预测在50至100年后，我们可能会研制出一种人机接口，可以直接将机器连入大脑神经系统。
恐怕到那时，我们甚至都不用接入一会儿，再退出来，而是像爱丽丝一样，完完全全地进入一个奇境，不再受重力、衰老等各种规则的束缚。那时虚拟世界会类似于“奇点”，这是未来学家、谷歌工程师雷·库兹韦尔描述的概念：我们的灵魂从躯体中脱离出去，进入到数码国度，即便躯体衰老死亡，灵魂都能永生。跟爱丽丝的奇境一样，这样的未来既让人向往，也有些可怖。
1. Morpheus： 摩尔甫斯，希腊神话中的梦神。
2. barn： 牲口棚，谷仓；gondola：（索道）缆车。
3. vertigo： 眩晕。
4. reptilian： 爬行动物的，爬行动物似的。名词形式为reptile，爬行动物。
5. conjure： 用魔法变出，使某事发生。
6. scuba dive： 水肺潜水，scuba是self-contained underwater breathing apparatus的缩写，指潜水员自行携带水下呼吸系统所进行的潜水活动；acidification： 酸化。海洋酸化（ocean acidification）是指海洋摄入大气中的二氧化碳后，海水碱度减弱，酸度上升的趋势。海洋酸化会破坏海洋生态系统的功能，对海洋物种产生影响。
7. don： 戴上；goggles： [复]护目镜； neurosurgeon： 神经外科医生；cellular： 细胞的，由细胞组成的。
8. scenario： 可能发生的事，可能出现的情况。
9. telecommute： 家庭办公，远距离工作。
10. register： 注意到；emanate： 散发出，传出。
11. electrode： 电极；mimic： 模拟。
12. haptics： 触觉学；holy grail： 原指耶稣死前用过的圣杯。传说如果能找到圣杯，喝下其盛过的水，就能返老还童、死而复生。此处用来比喻梦寐以求的目标，尽力实现的梦想。
13. insurmountable： 不可逾越的，难以克服的。
14. simulacrum： 拟像，模拟物。
15. deficiency： 缺乏，不足；diabetes： 糖尿病。
16. speculate： 推测，猜测。
17. interface： 接口。
18. prosaic： 乏味的，缺乏想象力的。
19. Singularity： 奇点，是时空无限弯曲的那一个点，一般认为存在于黑洞中央，可以看成空间时间的边缘；Ray Kurzweil： 雷·库兹韦尔（1948— ），现任谷歌工程总监，发明家、企业家，在人工智能、机器人等领域被视为奇才。