Unit 2 Visions of the Future

 

Lead In

1. “An optimist is someone who thinks the future is uncertain” Do you agree with the statement? Why?/Why not? Are you optimistic about

the future? Why?/Why not?

2. Take turns to read the statements about the future. Do you agree with them? If not, what do you think will happen?

 

 

 

 

 

	We’ll crack the genetic code and doctors will be able to replace damaged DNA with healthy genes.

 

 

 

 

 

Reading

1. Read the excerpts from the popular science articles and match them with the

headlines below.

1. Imagine you’re looking for romance at a party full of strangers. You’re nervous. Who are these people? How do you strike a conversation? Fortunately, you’re wired for social success: You’ve got a gizmo* that beams energy at microchips in everyone’s name tag. The chips beam back name, occupation, hobbies, obsessions, phobias, favorite movie, and availability for a date this Friday night – whatever. Dating made simple. This hasn’t quite happened in real life. But the world is already undergoing a revolution involving REID – radio frequency identification…
2. Imagine an army of tiny robots, each no bigger than a bacterium, swimming through your bloodstream. One platoon* takes continuous readings of blood pressure in different parts of your body; another monitors cholesterol; still others measure blood sugar, hormone levels and immune system activity… If the nanotech experts are right, a call to a family doctor a few decades from now could be a high-tech variation on an old cliché: «Take two teaspoons of diagnostic sensors, and call me in the morning.”
------------------------ gizmo – штуковина, вещица (о механизмах)
3. Soon teams of up to 40 robots could be employed as border security guards and outside airports. The patrolling robots will use Wi-Fi to share what they see, sniff and hear. They may even be able to triangulate* the exact position of an intruder, or the source of plume of smoke from an explosion, something no single robot could do. The ideal is swarms* of robots that need no central control. And McLurkins’s robots have proved the principle that, equipped with the right algorithms, swarms of hardware can have autonomous control. Last year, for instance…
---------------------- platoon – зд есь взвод, отряд
4. … Self-heating hats and glow-in the-dark sweatshirts might correctly be labeled as ‘smart’, but how about a shirt that ‘knows’ whether you are free to take a cell phone call or retrieve information from a 1000 page safety manual displayed on your inside pocket? Such items, termed ‘intelligent’ clothing to distinguish them from their lower-tech cousins, have proved…
------------------ triangulate – дать трехмерное изображение swarm – здесь стая, толпа

A) Wearable Intelligence

B) The Radio Age

C) Robot Army Will Think For Itself

D) And Will They Go Inside Us?

Discuss

Ø Which technologies of the future that you have read about sound most interesting? Why?

Ø What other innovations do you expect to see in your daily life in the future? Why?

Ø What challenges do you think will the 21st century bring?

 

Focus on the language

1. Check if you know the meaning of the phrases below. Give their equivalents in your native language.

Example: glow-in the-dark sweatshirts – sweatshirts that glow in the dark

- рубашка, светящаяся в темноте

 

· radio frequency identification	· diagnostic sensors
· a 1000 page safety manual	· lower-tech cousins
· blood pressure	· blood sugar
· self-heating hats	· patrolling robots
· hormone levels and immune system activity	· a high-tech variation
· autonomous control

 

2. Read the sentence from the text paying attention to the words: another and other(s). Which words do they refer to?

§ One platoon takes continuous readings of blood pressure in different parts of your body; another monitors cholesterol; still others measure blood sugar, hormone levels and immune system activity…

Another, other(s) and the other(s)   Another + singular countable noun § to mean ‘ one more’ e.g. Could I have another book on this subject. § to mean ‘ alternative/besides this’ e.g. The scientists have started another experiment.   The other + singular noun § to mean ‘part of the set’ e.g. Hold the beaker in one hand and the pipette in the other. The other + plural noun § to mean ‘the rest of the set’ e.g. She promised to bring the other books on AI development next week.   Other + singular noun § to mean ‘different from the item/person already mentioned’. e.g. Ask me some other time, when I’m not so busy. Other + plural noun § to mean ‘more of the set/additional/some more’ e.g. What are his other inventions? § When other is used without a noun, it has –sin the plural. e.g. His favourite subjects were Maths, Physics, Computer Science and others. (other subjects) § Another way of substituting for the noun is to use other+ one or ones e.g. This chemical is poisonous. Other ones are poisonous too.

 

3. Fill in the gaps in the sentences with another, other or others. Put the where necessary.

a) Be careful, this chemical is poisonous. ____________ are poisonous too.

b) This book has a page missing. Please give me ____________.

c) Some metals are magnetic and ___________ aren’t.

d) I’m not surprised he’s got a sore throat – he was eating one ice-cream after _________.

e) There’s no __________ work available at the moment.

f) Would anyone like __________ piece of cake?

g) Are you planning to take __________ trip to Himalayas?

h) __________ Internet sites on the subject of the project work were not reliable enough.

i) You shouldn’t expect ___________ to do your work for you.

 

4. The sentences below are all about the future. With a partner decide which

rule goes with which sentence.

§ I definitely don’t believe people will ever live in giant space stations in order to solve the problem of overpopulation.

§ People will be living in giant space stations in order to solve the problem of overpopulation.

§ By the year 2050 people will have built several giant space stations in order to solve the problem of overpopulation.

§ We are about to start building a giant space station in order to solve the problem of overpopulation.

§ In 2010 we are going to start building a giant space station in order to solve the problem of overpopulation.

 

Present Simple and Present Progressive Future Simple and Future Progressive, and Future Perfect   § We use … to speak about future personal arrangements and fixed plans or firm intentions; we usually givethe time, date and place § We use…to say that something will be going on at a certain time in the future. § We use … to make predictions when you don’t have ‘present evidence’, to describe a decision made at the moment of speaking or to talk about hopes, beliefs, promises, guesses, etc. § We use … to say that something will have been completed by a certain time in the future. § We use … to talk about the future but mostly when we talk about timetables, routines and schedules.

 

5. Choose the correct form of the verb in brackets to complete the sentences.

a) Peter (is/is going to be) at a conference in Geneva next Friday.

b) Oh no! I've broken the container with poisonous substance. What (am I going to say / will I say)?

c) Jack (is having / will have) a dinner party next Saturday.

d) Ann (will be helping / will help) us to label the containers in the lab tomorrow afternoon.

e) By the time you arrive, I'll (have checked / be checking) the equipment for the experiment.

f) (I'll be studying / I'll have studied) at 9 tomorrow evening.

g) Look at the level of pressure on the monitor! It (is going to be / will be) well above the normal.

h) Save the data! It looks like the computer (is going to shut down/ will shut down).

i) I (will be using / will have been used) the microscope for two hours tomorrow.

j) By the time I’m 50 I (will have patented / will patent) a number of remarkable inventions!

 

Listening

1. Read and answer the questions in the chart below. Discuss your ideas as a class.

 

	You	Speaker 1	Speaker 2	Speaker 3
What will computers be like?		Computers will ____________; They will have _____________ fuzzy query input systems; ______________ ______________	They will become ____________, as piece of furniture, or ____________ ___________; ___________ ____________	___________ ___________ ___________
How will we communicate with computers?		_____________ _____________ bigger role ofVR	____________ ____________ ____________ ____________	___________ ___________ Common interface will support for all languages
Are we going to spend our whole time in Cyberspace?		_____________; _____________ ______________ ______________, and make it operate there	People will use the net more; will watch TV less	___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Will computers be intelligent?		They won’t resemble human intelligence	____________ ____________ ____________ ____________	Computers will become Thinkers by ___________ ___________ ____________

 

2. Check if you know the meaning of some terms commonly used in IT. Give their equivalents in your native language. Use the dictionary if necessary.

Example: voice recognition system - system that can respond to the words spoken by a human being - cистема распознавания голоса

· tactile response systems	· fuzzy query input systems
· tactile gloves	· neural-stimulus
· consciousness	· cyberspace navigation
· neural network	· eye-tracking movement headgear

 

3. Listen to some students’ opinions about the role of computers and related technologies in the future. Fill in the chart above.

 

Discuss

Ø Which of the opinions do you most agree with? Why?

Ø Who of the speakers do you disagree with? Why?

Ø How will the humans benefit from merging with computers?

Ø What other technological challenges do you think the world will face in the 21^st century? Which of them do you consider most promising/devastating for the humanity?

 

Writing

Write a questionnaire to find out what your fellow students think about the life style, education, transport, travel and scientific achievements in the nearest or distant future. Be sure to use the various forms for expressing future.

 

Speaking

1. Interview three of your fellow students. Ask for their predictions and comment on them like this:

 

 

2. Sum up their opinions. Are your fellow students optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

 

Get real

Search the Internet or popular science magazines to find information on the future developments in your field of science. Choose to speak about three most probable innovations and present your findings to whole class.

 

Reading

Study help A plot synopsis is a brief description of the contents of a book or film.

You are going to read a plot synopsis of the sci-fi episode entitled “ The New Breed ”.

1. What scientific advances and their consequences do you think this episode might be about? Discuss as a class.

2. Read and check your predictions.

“The New Breed” Introduction     Dr. Stephen Ledbetter makes a technological and medical breakthrough when he creates a type of tiny machines, known as nanobots, capable of curing any disease or imperfections in the human body.

Plot synopsis

Stephen's best friend Dr. Andy Groenig tells him that he wants to marry Stephen's sister, Judy. Overjoyed at the news, Stephen shows Andy the nanobots and explains what a remarkable breakthrough they are.

Later on Andy discovers that he has an inoperable cancer, and has approximately one year to live. In desperation he sneaks into Stephen's lab and injects himself with the nanobots. They quickly eliminate his disease.

Andy tells Stephen about the success of his machines. Stephen becomes concerned about the impact the nanobots may have on Andy's health — and about the possibility that he may go to prison for using an untested drug on another person. Stephen wants to deactivate the nanobots, but Andy tells him not to worry because he injected himself - so Stephen is not responsible. Andy convinces him to leave the nanobots alone.

The nanobots not only cure Andy's cancer, they improve his health in other

ways, including: removing a scar, improving his eyesight, and making him stronger and more energetic. In Stephen's lab, Andy puts his hand over a bunsen burner* causing a severe burn, but the nanobots repair the damaged skin in seconds.

Stephen starts a series of tests to find out exactly what the nanobots

are capable of. Andy is placed under water where he is unable to breathe, but the nanobots keep him alive. Things begin to go wrong when Andy wakes up the following day to find that the nanobots have responded to the tests by giving him gills*, allowing him to breathe underwater in the future. When Stephen learns this news, they both agree that the nanobots must be deactivated immediately. Stephen takes measure after measure to stop them, but he is never able to get rid of them.

The nanobots continue making "improvements" to Andy, including giving

him eyes in the back of his head, keen hearing and bones above his stomach.

Stephen is ultimately unable to deactivate the nanobots. In dispair Andy

Kills himself to keep his fiancée from seeing the monster he has become. Stephen burns his laboratory, destroying any remaining nanobots and his research. The episode ends with Andy's grieving fiancée having cut her finger on a shattered photograph of him. The wound heals immediately ….