A toxic mix of mutual distrust and rising nationalism – with Taiwan the immediate flash point – has brought Sino-American relations to their lowest point in decades. While neither China nor the United States appears to want a military conflict, we asked PS commentators whether the two powers might nonetheless stumble into one.
纽约-在不太遥远的将来,从未碰过一本书的学生就能从高中毕业。 20年前,从没有使用过计算机的学生也可以从高中毕业。区区几十年里,计算机技术和因特网已经改变了信息、知识和教育的核心准则。
事实上,如今你的笔记本电脑硬盘上就可以存上比一家出售6万本不同书籍的书店更多的书籍。在互联网上的网页数量据说已超过5000亿页,这些信息用来印刷成每本500页重1磅的书籍,可足以装满10艘现代化航空母舰。
这种类比可以帮助我们想象出信息爆炸幅度之巨大,并证明随之引发的担忧是并不是空穴来风。搜索引擎是浏览这种如海洋般的信息量的唯一的机制,因此这些搜索引擎不应该被误认为仅是一个可有可无东西,一个随便玩玩的按钮,或仅是一种能找出最近的比萨饼店在哪里的工具。搜索引擎是知识、财富,是的,还有错误的信息的最强大的扩散中心。
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