末日狂想-世界灭亡N种方式.docVIP

末日狂想:世界灭亡N种方式虽然2012并非世界末日，但是谁又能保证地球永世长存？随着科技的发展，人类利用自己的伟大智慧探索神秘莫测的宇宙黑洞、天体运动，研制出极具毁灭性的核武器、无所不能的机器人以及方便快捷的交通工具等高科技产品，却也给自然界带来了温室效应、水土流失、生物多样性丧失，造成海啸、泥石流等诸多灾害频发。或许某一天，世界真的就会因此而灭亡…… Black Holes 黑洞 Stars collapse on an almost daily basis. When a massive star collapses， it produces an immense gravitational pull along the way， drawing everything in its path—including light—toward its core， like a giant vacuum cleaner from which there’s no escape. While black holes sit at the center of most galaxies， including our own， the real danger comes from a discovery made in the year 2000. “We now have conclusive evidence，” physicist Michio Kaku told ABC News， “that there are wandering black holes—nomads1）， renegades2）—and right next to us in our own galaxy.” How long until one of these nomads bumps into Earth？ No one is sure， and it’s a big universe， but everyone agrees that it’s going to happen sooner or later. 几乎每天都有恒星坍缩。大质量恒星坍缩过程中会产生强大的引力，犹如一个巨大的真空吸尘器将轨道沿途的一切物体（包括光）吸入核心，无物可逃脱。坍缩形成的“黑洞”位于大多数星系（包括我们所在的银河系）的中心区域，并不会对我们构成危险，而2000年的一项发现则说明了真正的危险是什么。“现在我们有确凿证据表明，”物理学家加来道雄在接受美国广播公司新闻网的采访时说，“我们所在的银河系存在着流浪黑洞，它们不守规矩、四处游荡，而且就在地球的近旁。”这些“流浪黑洞”哪天会撞上地球？宇宙浩瀚，无人得知，但我们都认为，那一天迟早会来。 Nanotech 纳米技术 What if the programming of billions of tiny self-replicating robots—nanobots—suddenly went awry3）？ And instead of doing the job for which they were built， they started consuming all matter on Earth—while building more of themselves？ In his 1986 book， Engines of Creation， nanotech pioneer Eric Drexler describes it this way： “Imagine such a replicator floating in a bottle of chemicals， making copies of itself.... The first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds， the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds， the four build another four， and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours， there are not thirty-six new replicators， but over 68 billion. In less than a day， they would weigh a ton； in less than two days， they would outweigh Earth； in another fou