虛擬現實技術向科幻小說借些靈感

　　Tech companies have spent years developing better,cheaper devices to immerse people in digital worlds. Yet they are still figuring out how to makevirtual reality the kind of technology that people cannot live without.

　　多年來，科技公司一向致力於開辟更好、更便宜的裝備，以便讓人們沉醉在數字天下中。但它們仍然不清晰，怎樣讓假造實際成為那種人們離了就沒法生存的技巧。

　　So for inspiration, they are turning to science fiction.

　　這些公司正在乞助於科幻小說，追求靈感。

　　At Oculus, a leading virtual reality company, a copy of the popular sci-fi novel “Ready PlayerOne” is handed out to new hires. Magic Leap, a secretive augmented reality start-up, has hiredscience fiction and fantasy writers. The name of Microsoft’s HoloLens headset is a salute tothe holodeck, a simulation room from “Star Trek.”

　　在領先的假造實際公司Oculus，新入職職員會收到一本頗受迎接的科幻小說《一級玩家》(Ready PlayerOne)。秘密的加強實際始創公司Magic Leap已聘任了科幻小說和理想作品的作者。微軟(Microsoft)的HoloLens頭顯裝備的名字，恰是向《星際迷航》(Star Trek)中的模仿房間全息船面(holodeck)的致敬。

　　“Like many other people working in the tech space, I’m not a creative person,” said PalmerLuckey, 23, a co-founder of Oculus, which was bought by Facebook for $2 billion in 2014. “It’snice that science fiction exists because these are really creative people figuring out what theultimate use of any technology might be. They come up with a lot of incredible ideas.”

　　“和科技業的其他許多從業者同樣，我不是一個有創意的人，”23歲的帕爾默·勒基(Palmer Luckey)說。他是2014年被Facebook用20億美元收購的Oculus的結合開創人。“有科幻小說存在是件功德，由於它們的作者真的頗有發明力，他們會想出任何技巧大概會有的最終用處。他們想出了許多難以想象的創意。”

　　Those ideas are especially relevant now, as some of the biggest technology companies arenearing a major push of a new generation of virtual reality products. In the next few months,virtual reality headsets from Oculus, Sony and HTC go on sale. Venture capital money is pouringinto the industry.

　　那些創意如今特別主要，由於一些最大的科技公司行將鼎力推介新一代假造實際產物。接下來的幾個月裏，Oculus、索尼(Sony) 和宏達國際電子(HTC)的假造實際頭顯將紛紜上市。風投資金正在湧入這個行業。

　　But how people will interact with the imaginary worlds remains largely unknown territory.And that is where science fiction comes in. Science fiction is shaping the language companiesare using to market the technology, influencing the types of experiences made for the headsetsand even defining long-term goals for developers.

　　但總的來講，人們將若何與假造天下互動還是一個未知範疇。而這恰是科幻小說的用武之地。科幻小說正影響著科技公司用來傾銷相幹技巧的用語。它們還影響著為耳機計劃的感受範例，乃至決議著開辟職員的歷久目的。

　　“Science fiction, in simplest terms, sets you free,” said Ralph Osterhout, chief executive of theOsterhout Design Group, which builds augmented reality glasses.

　　“簡略說來，科幻小說能讓你自由，”臨盆加強實際眼鏡的公司奧斯特豪特計劃團體(Osterhout DesignGroup)首席履行官拉爾夫·奧斯特豪特(Ralph Osterhout)說。

　　Perhaps no fictional work resonates more throughout the industry these days than “ReadyPlayer One,” written by Ernest Cline and now being made into a movie by Steven Spielberg.

　　現在，大概沒有哪部科幻作品能比《一級玩家》在全部行業引發更多共識。由歐內斯特·克萊因(Ernest Cline)所著的《一級玩家》如今正在被史蒂文·斯皮爾伯格(Steven Spielberg)改編成片子。

　　Much of the action in the book takes place inside the Oasis, a global virtual reality network.Characters in the network attend school, socialize and take part in a high-stakes treasurehunt. Through virtual reality, they can inhabit the perspectives of actors in classic movies.

　　書中的大批運動都產生在一個叫綠洲(Oasis)的環球假造收集裏。這個收集裏的腳色會上學、交際、加入高危害的尋寶運動。經由過程假造實際，他們可以或許位於經典影片裏演員所處的那些景觀中。

　　The book was published in 2011, around the time Mr. Luckey began building an early prototypeof the Oculus headset. Mr. Luckey said he appreciated Mr. Cline’s portrayals of characterscontrolling their avatars through full-body suits rather than plugging “Matrix”-style cables intotheir brains.

　　該書2011年出書。勒基恰是在該書出書先後開端開辟Oculus頭顯的初期樣品的。勒基說，他觀賞克萊因的描述，由於書中的人物是經由過程籠罩滿身的衣服，而不是在頭上插入《黑客帝國》(Matrix)裏那種線纜，來掌握代表本身的腳色的。

　　“One of the things I like about ‘Ready Player One’ is all of the depictions in the book are prettyfeasible,” Mr. Luckey said. “None of it is crazy, far-out tech.”

　　“我愛好《一級玩家》的一個處所是，書中全部的描述都相稱可行，”勒基說。“沒有一個處所說的是猖狂的，遙弗成及的技巧。”

　　Oculus gave out 3,000 copies of the book to attendees of an Oculus developer conference lastyear. For good measure, Oculus named the meeting rooms at its headquarters after famousfictional versions of virtual reality, including the holodeck, the Oasis and the Matrix, from themovie of the same name and, before that, William Gibson’s “Neuromancer.”

　　客歲，Oculus發了3000本《一級玩家》給出席Oculus開辟者集會的人。別的，Oculus還用著名科幻作品中的假造實際體系定名其總部的集會室，包含全息船面、綠洲和來自片子《黑客帝國》的母體，和更早的一部科幻小說——威廉·吉布森(William Gibson)的《神經周遊者》。

　　Mr. Cline said he wrote “Ready Player One” partly because he could not figure out why virtualreality had not taken off in the real world.

　　克萊因說，他之以是會寫《一級玩家》，有一部門緣故原由是想欠亨為何假造實際尚未在實際天下中風行起來。

　　“I think that was the same impulse that drove Palmer,” said Mr. Cline, who has visited Oculusseveral times to speak to employees. “Growing up with ‘Neuromancer’ and Max Headroom, ithad the same effect on me as a writer as it did on businesspeople.”

　　“我認為驅動帕爾默的也是這統一種力氣，”克萊因說。他曾屢次來Oculus，給這裏的員工做演講。“讀著《神經周遊者》和看著《超等麥克斯》(Max Headroom)長大，對我如許一個作家的影響，和對販子是同樣的。”

　　Techies do not need any encouragement from their employers to read or watch sciencefiction, long a pillar of geek culture. Throw a rock in Silicon Valley and you are likely to hit asoftware engineer who can cite how long it took the Millennium Falcon to make the Kessel Runin “Star Wars.” (Less than 12 parsecs, according to Han Solo, whose use of a term for distance— one parsec equals about 3.26 light-years — rather than time has been the subject of entirearticles.) The genre has influenced many corners of technology, from smartphones to roboticsto space exploration.

　　科技人士壓根不須要店主勉勵他們瀏覽科幻小說和看科幻片子，久長以來，他們一向是極客文化的中堅力氣。在矽谷，你隨意扔出一塊石子，都有大概砸中一個可以說出《星球大戰》裏的千年隼號(Millennium Falcon)用多長期跑完克賽爾航程(Kessel Run)的軟件工程師。(據漢·索羅[Han Solo]講，這個時光是不到12秒差距——一秒差距約相稱於3.26光年，他應用的是一個描寫間隔而非時光的辭匯，這個在曩昔曾是一些文章整篇評論辯論的主題。)科幻題材的作品對各個技巧範疇都發生了影響，不論是智妙手機、機械人，照樣太空摸索。

　　But there is something unique about the interplay between science fiction and virtual reality,a technology that is essentially an instrument for fooling people into believing they aresomeplace — and often someone — they are not. Virtual reality is a medium, like television orvideo games, that can borrow liberally from the virtual worlds experienced by fictionalcharacters.

　　但科幻作品與假造實際之間的互相影響，卻有一些奇特的地方。假造實際技巧本質上是一種欺哄人的手段，讓人誤認為本身置身其他某個處所，並且經常具備另外一個身份。假造實際是一個序言，就像電視或電子遊戲，可以從假造人物所處的假造天下中隨意率性借用各類元素。

　　Magic Leap, based in Dania Beach, Fla., and which counts Google as one of its big investors, hasgone even further than most companies by hiring three science fiction and fantasy writers onstaff. Its most famous sci-fi recruit is Neal Stephenson, who depicted the virtual world of theMetaverse in his seminal 1992 novel “Snow Crash.”

　　總部在佛羅裏達州達尼亞灘的Magic Leap試下的舉措，比大多半公司都更進一步，該公司雇傭了三名科幻和理想作家。這家公司的大型投資者中包含谷歌(Google)。該公司在科幻範疇最有名的雇用舉措便是雇下尼爾·斯蒂芬森(Neal Stephenson)，後者在1992年的出色小說《雪崩》(Snow Crash)中描寫了稱作“超元域”(Metaverse)的假造天下。

　　In an interview, Mr. Stephenson — whose title is chief futurist — declined to say what he wasworking on at Magic Leap, describing it as one of several “content projects” underway at thecompany.

　　在一次采訪中，擔負“首席將來學家”職務的斯蒂芬森謝絕泄漏他在Magic Leap公司正在做些甚麽，只是說那是該公司舉行的多少項“內容項目”中的一個。

　　More broadly, Mr. Stephenson said science fiction books and movies are often useful withintech companies for rallying employees around a shared vision.

　　斯蒂芬森比擬寬泛地說，在科技公司裏，科幻小說和片子經常有助於用一個配合的願景凝集員工。

　　“My theory is that science fiction can actually have some value in that it gets everyone on thesame page without the kind of expensive and tedious process of PowerPoint,” he said. But theinfluence of the genre within tech companies is “surprising and mysterious to me as well,” headded.

　　“我的理論是，科幻小說現實上具備必定代價，由於它能讓全部人都有同等的懂得，而沒必要采取那種又花錢又死板的講許多PPT的進程，”他說。但這類文學題材在科技企業內部的影響力，他彌補道，“對我來講也是相稱讓人驚奇，相稱秘密的。”

　　There is a regular theme in science fiction that its fans in tech talk less about, though: thedystopian aspects of virtual reality. Addiction, disconnection from relationships in the real worldand alienation from the environment are often side effects in narratives about virtual reality.It’s hard to make that into a selling point for the technology.

　　然則科幻小說中一個經常湧現的主題，在科技企業的粉絲傍邊評論辯論得卻沒有那末多：假造實際技巧也有反烏托邦的特征。在關於假造實際的闡述中，經常談到的副感化有成癮、疏離實際天下中的人際幹系、與方圓情況相隔斷。企業很難把這些題目釀成相幹技巧的賣點。

　　“Entrepreneurs are optimistic and upbeat by nature, which is why I enjoy hanging around withthem,” Mr. Stephenson said. “They’ve got an admirable ability to completely ignore the moredystopian elements you’re talking about and see the cool stuff and positive potential of whereit might go.”

　　“創業者生成便是樂觀、向上的，以是我愛好和他們打交道，”斯蒂芬森說。“他們具備一種讓人愛慕的才能，可以完整疏忽你談的這些較為反烏托邦的元素，看到酷的器械和它將來走向的踴躍潛力。”

　　Of course, authors and moviemakers get to overlook details of their own — like the toughtechnological challenges that real tech companies face.

　　固然，作者和片子人本身也會疏忽一些細節，好比真實的科技企業須要面臨的艱難的技巧挑釁。

　　“You never have to reboot the damned thing” in sci-fi books, said Genevieve Bell, a culturalanthropologist who works at Intel and has written about the interplay between technologyand science fiction. “The mechanics are less interesting to most science fiction writers thanthe experience.”

　　在科幻小說裏“永久都不須要重啟誰人破玩藝兒，”吉納維芙·貝爾(Genevieve Bell)說。“對多半科幻作家來講，道理機制不如那種感受故意思。”貝爾是文化人類學家，曾在英特爾(Intel)事情，撰寫過關於科技與科幻互相影響的著作。

　　Sometimes science fiction plants seeds in the minds of inventors that take years to sprout.The holographic chess game that Chewbacca played on a tabletop aboard the Millennium Falconwas pretty far-out in the 1970s, when Jeri Ellsworth saw it in the original “Star Wars.” It tookseveral decades before technology caught up.

　　有時刻，科幻作品能在創造家腦筋裏植下種子，再經由許多年能力抽芽。1970年月，傑瑞·埃爾斯沃斯(JeriEllsworth)看到楚巴卡(Chewbacca)在千年隼號裏的桌子上玩的全息國際象棋，其時還認為相稱超前。過了幾十年後，技巧才跟上。

　　In 2013, Ms. Ellsworth’s start-up, CastAR, gave the first public demonstration of thecompany’s augmented reality glasses, which overlay digital imagery on the user’s view of thereal world.

　　在2013年，埃爾斯沃斯的創業公司CastAR初次公然展現了該公司的加強實際眼鏡，它能在用戶看到的實際天下之上籠罩一層數字圖象。

　　By now, the experience shown in the demonstration should come as no surprise — theglasses enabled the person wearing them to play a holographic chess game on a tabletop.

　　如今，展現中供給的感受應當不會讓人覺得驚奇——戴上眼鏡後，佩帶者就能夠在桌面上玩全息象棋遊戲了。

　　“It’s something I’ve been dreaming about my entire life,” Ms. Ellsworth said.

　　“這是我妄想了一生的工作，”埃爾斯沃斯說。