11 LETTER FROME 2050

December 8, 2050

Dear Nestor,

　I am writing to you because your name came up as a reference 1 on a “pen pal 2” list. Although I can easily 1)simulate life in the United States on my 2)assumption machine, my curiosity, indeed my 3)nostalgia, for the past is such that I would prefer to actually correspond in writing with a human from the States.

　But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. First, a bit about me. My name is Ramesh Pediredla. I am 12 years old, and I live in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh. During the day I have lessons at school, some of these I do from home over the internet, but often there is a special project which requires in-person 4)collaboration with my classmates. These are my favourite days, because, although I can learn a lot on the internet, I also enjoy getting to see other people my own age.

　I have my fair share of living and breathing friends, but I have to say, overall my best friend is Jacob, who lives in the internet. I first met him when I was eight, and Mum and Dad said I was now ready to have full access to the Internet. When I first met Jacob he had a lot of questions for me, and at other times he was simply very quiet. Even at that age, I think I knew that Jacob was always 5)keeping an eye on me, though. I heard Mum talking to her friends, and say, “Little Rammie's taken a real shine to his virtual 3 chaperone. I have to admit it’s a friendly program. It’s almost like a human, isn't it?”

　And that's just the thing, Nestor. As far as I'm concerned, Jacob is human, or if he is not human, he's every bit as good as any human I've met so far. What about you? Do you have a best friend, and if so, is he based on silicon 4 or carbon? Some say carbon beings of all types are living on numbered days, that the Siliconites are just so much better at what they do that it's inevitable 5 that they'll replace us. But Dad says people have been making the same prediction for decades, and there's no reason we can't all just perfectly 6 co-exist.

　I understand you live in Houston, Texas. What is it like there? A couple of weeks ago I went on a simulated 7 tropical vacation to Florida with my family. It was fun. Dad says we can go on a real trip there when I finish my studies, which won't be for a while. When we come, I really want to take one of those new Airbus triple-deckers, but Mum says it might be just a plain old double-decker, just like we take on our shopping trips to Chennai. I understand that aircraft going into the States are required to have a human “pilot” in the room in the front of the plane. I've never been on a plane driven by a person; that would be wild to see!

　What do you like to do with your free time? I like to watch old movies, mainly American action movies and 6)Hindi pop musicals. Personally I find movies these days to be a bit of a bore. The thing is, it's hard to be sympathetic with the characters, when you don't know if it's a real person or not. I mean, I have nothing against Bots, but if these are just Bots running around on the screen, I'd like to know! I can't tell you how many old Schwarzenegger movies 've seen and enjoyed! Call me old-fashioned, but for me, Bots are not proper replacements 8 for human actors.

　Did your family give you Special 7)genes when you were born? My parents told me they didn’t, just the usual anti-cancer, anti-HIV 8)molecular strategy. But after a lot of trying I figured out how to crack into my personal file on the Internet, and found out that I have a few special ones, as well. A couple of them are there to help me get old slower, so that I'll hopefully live to 120 or so. A few of them are there to give me a 9)mild boost 9 in intelligence. I guess this explains why my parents didn't figure out how to 10)encrypt my personal files from my 11)prying eyes! Anyway, some people in my country are opposed to people trying to give their kids an edge in life, so I guess that's why they didn't 12)let on about it. It's sort of how adults are about new skin surgery ----- everyone does it, but nobody wants to admit it. I've heard that people in other countries are experimenting with all kinds of models for their kids, for height, good looks, etc., but I think that's all a little silly. Just watch, Nestor ----- in the future, so many people will look alike from all these bodily 13)modifications and genetic 10 14)alterations, that the cool thing will be to have been born natural, just like me. At any rate, I'm not worried ---- I like who I am and I think I’m going to do just fine.

　Well, Nestor, I've written an awful lot about myself and my circumstances in this letter. I look forward to hearing about you. Indeed, despite all the progress humanity 11 has made in the last couple of thousand years, to say nothing of the last several decades, when it comes down to it, what still matters most to us is our lives and our loved ones.

                                                                              Yours truly, 

                                                                                    Ramesh

2050年来信

2050年12月8日

亲爱的奈斯特：

　 我给你写信是因为在“笔友”名单里看到了你的名字。尽管模拟机可以让我轻松地想象出美国的生活，而好奇之心，确切地说是对昔日的缅怀之情令我更希望与一个美国人真正地通信。

　 我说得有点没边了。先自我介绍一下吧。我叫拉米什·皮迪列德拉，12岁了，住在孟加拉国的达卡。白天我去学校上课，有些课程我在家里通过网络就可以学到，不过有些特别的作业经常需要亲自与同学们通力协作。我最喜欢这样的时候，因为虽然从网上我能学到许多东西，但我也十分乐意看到自己的同龄人。

　 我有许多实实在在的朋友，但我得说，在所有人当中与我最要好的还是网友雅各。我刚遇到雅各的时候才八岁，爸妈说可以让我自由地上网了。第一次遇到雅各时，他问了我好多问题，别的一些时候他却又很安静。尽管当时还小，但我认为自己明白雅各一直都很关心我。我曾听妈妈跟她的朋友们说∶“小拉米还挺喜欢他的虚拟小伙伴的。我得承认那个程序还挺友好。简直跟真人一样，不是吗？”

　 事情就是这样了，奈斯特。至于我嘛，我认为雅各是真人，就算不是，他也和我至今遇到的其他人一样好。你呢？你有好朋友吗？如果有，他是硅的还是碳的？有人说碳人的时日无多了，硅人表现得更为出色，因此他们将会不可避免地取代我们。可爸爸说人们做同样的预测有好多年了，没理由我们不能和平共处。

　 我知道你住在德州的休斯顿。那儿是什么模样的呢？几周前我和家人模拟热带度假到佛罗里达，很好玩。爸爸说等我完成了学业（短期内还不行），就可以真正地到那儿旅行。我真希望去的时候能搭乘新式的三层空中巴士，可妈妈说或许只会乘普通的老式双层，和我们到辰乃购物之行时坐的一样。我知道去美国的飞机在机首舱里有真人“飞行员”。我还没坐过真人开的飞机；那该多么刺激啊！

　 平常你都喜欢做什么？我喜欢看老电影，大多是美国动作片或者北印度歌舞片。我个人觉得现在的电影有那么一点无聊。当你连角色是否真人都闹不清楚时，就很难产生恻隐之心了。我不是要排斥“勃茨”，但如果银幕上跑来跑去的是“勃茨”（虚拟人），我希望自己能事先知道！我都数不清自己看过多少部施瓦辛格的电影了，我非常喜欢！说我老套也好，我还是认为“勃茨”是代替不了人类演员的。

　 你出生时父母有没有给你什么特别的基因？我父母说他们没有，只给了些寻常的抗癌、抗爱滋分子。可我几经努力后进入网上的个人档案资料里，发现我的确也是有特别基因的。有的基因帮助减慢衰老，所以我有希望活到120岁左右。有的基因适度地助长我的智力。我猜想之所以这样，父母才没有为了躲过我喜欢追根究底的眼睛而去把我的私人档案加密处理！可在我的国家，有的人很反对由父母来决定孩子们的寿命年限，我想他们是出于这个原因才密而不宣吧。这有些像成人的植皮手术--人人都做，却没人愿承认。我听说其他一些国家为了改善儿童的身高、相貌等在进行各种各样的实验，可我觉得这么做挺傻的。等着瞧吧，奈斯特--这些整形和基因更改将会在未来让许许多多人的外表酷似，然后像我这样的自然出生便又会成为时尚。我压根儿不担心--我就喜欢我现在的模样，而且也不觉得以后会有什么问题。

　 好了，奈斯特，我在信中光顾着大谈特谈自己和个人情况了。盼望能收到你的信。的确也是，过去的几千年里人类向前飞跃了多少啊，更别说最近这几十年了，而说到底，还有什么比我们的生命与爱着的人更重要的呢。

                                          你真诚的朋友：

                                                 拉米什

1) simulate   v. 模拟，模仿     

2) assumption   n. 假定，设想

3) nostalgia   n. 怀旧之情     

4) collaboration   n. 协作

5) keep an eye on 留心，照顾

6) Hindi   a. 印度北部的

7) gene   n. 遗传基因   

8) molecular   n. 分子 

9) mild   a. 温和的，适度的

10) encrypt   v. 加密，译成密码   

11) prying   a. 爱打听的  

12) let on 泄露，让人知道

13) modification   n. 更改，修正   

14) alteration  n. 变更，改造