思想史 intellectual history ; history of thought ; History of Ideas ; Ideological History
思想库 think tank ; thinking bank ; the brain trust ; Policy Planning Staff
1. Professor Baker is unacquainted with the idea of representative democracy.
贝克教授并不熟悉“代议制民主”这一思想。
2. He is loathed by some of the more traditionally minded officers.
他为某些思想较守旧的官员所憎恶。
3. Her literary criticism focuses on the way great literature suggests ideas.
她的文学批评集中关注的是伟大的文学作品表达思想的方式。
4. Without continued learning, graduates will lose their intellectual vitality.
如果不继续学习, 毕业 生就会失去思想上的活力。
5. The college has brought me into contact with western ideas.
上大学使我接触了西方的思想。
6. She applauds the fact that they are promoting new ideas.
他们在宣传新思想,对此她表示赞许。
7. Mainline feminism was arguing for the inherent beauty of the natural woman.
主流女权主义思想倡导女性天生的自然美。
8. He continues to insulate his country from the contagion of foreign ideas.
他继续使本国远离外来思想的侵袭。
9. Her actions and thoughts became distorted. So did her behavior.
她的行动和思想变得扭曲了,她的态度也是。
10. This served to hide the confusion and imprecision in their thinking.
这个被用来掩盖他们思想的混乱和不准确。
11. During the war his pacifist leanings were not helpful.
战时他的和平主义思想派不上用场。
12. She is known to have liberal views on divorce and contraception.
众所周知,她在离婚与避孕方面思想很开明。
13. Priestley's rational outlook in science carried over to religion.
普里斯特利在科学上的理性世界观延伸到了宗教思想上。
14. He's trying to bring together various strands of radical philosophic thought.
他正试图把各种激进的哲学思想综合在一起。
15. The interchange of ideas aids an understanding of family dynamics.
思想的交流有助于理解家庭动态。
In the movie Self/Less,which hits theaters July 10th,Sir Ben Kingsley transfers his consciousness to Ryan Reynold's body in an effort to stay alive forever,and effectively become immortal in a process called'shedding'.
Which sounds pretty awesome,I mean who wouldn't want more time to accomplish their dreams and goals in a younger body of your choice?Try being a professional athlete or solve the world's greatest problems.But is shedding actually plausible?Could you really be immortal in this way?
First,we need to understand how memories are stored.Your brain is a three-pound lump of fatty tissue that contains about 86 billion brain cells called neurons.By passing electricity or chemicals between them,neurons can send signals to each other.Most neuroscientists believe memory is stored as a network of neurons that form links with each other and all fire at the same time.
Each time a memory is recalled,the same network of neurons fires together.In fact,scientists have shown that if you stimulate certain parts of the brain with electricity,you can cause an individual to recall certain memories-for example,the smell of burnt toast.So to download a memory,we could simply track which neurons are activated when you're thinking about it.
And,as we explained in a previous video,scientists have already done this.By using computers to match these patterns of firing neurons with real images or scenes,we can already read people's minds to a limited degree.Many scientists believe it should one day be possible to create a kind of map of all the neurons in the brain and the connections between them:this map would be called a "connectome."
Both the United States and the European Union have launched major research programs with this goal specifically in mind,much like the organizations in Self/Less.This task will likely take decades,but once it's done,scientists should be able to build a computer model of the connectome,a kind of virtual brain that would be able to send signals between neurons through artificial synapses.
So if downloading memories is possible,what about uploading? That too is becoming a reality thanks to a technique called optogenetics.This involves injecting specific neurons with DNA from algae that causes them to produce a light-sensitive protein on their cell surface.When light is shone into the brain,it stimulates the protein and activates only those neurons that express it.
In this way,scientists can artificially activate groups of neurons assoc'''iated with particular memories.All this may sound pretty scary,and may make you think that a scenario like that found in Self/Less can't be far off.But there a few reasons to relax.Our brains are unbelievably complex,perhaps too complex to copy.The number of synapse connections is a thousand times bigger than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
On top of that,your brain is constantly remodeling itself,creating new connections and letting old ones expire.It's a reflection of who you are at this specific moment in time,and it took your entire lifetime to create.A copy of your mind would be just an imitation.And the second it started integreating new thoughts,memories and experiences,it would become someone else.
Which in a way helps us appreciate how unique we truly are.But with increasingly sophisticated technology.who knows what the future may hold!Perhaps a world like Self/Less isn't too far away.