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All inhabitants of the globe are now neighbors. This worldwide neighborhood has been brought into being largely as a result of the modern scientific and technological revolutions. The world of today is vastly different from the world of just one hundred years ago. A century ago Thomas Edison had not yet invented the incandescent lamp to bring light to many dark places of the earth. The Wright brothers had not yet invented that fascinating mechanical bird that would spread its gigantic wings across the skies and soon dwarf distance and place time in the service of man. Einstein had not yet challenged an axiom and the theory of relativity had not yet been posited.
这个星球的所有居民现今已是邻居。这一世界范围内的邻里关系多半是现代科学和技术革命的产物。今天的世界已与一百年前的世界大不相同了。一个世纪以前，托马斯•爱迪生还没有发明给地球上很多黑暗的地方带来光明的白炽灯。莱特兄弟还没有发明那只为人类缩短距离、节省时间的展翅翱翔的神奇的机械鸟。爱因斯坦还没有对一条公理提出挑战，相对论的观点还没有提出。
Human beings, searching a century ago as now for better understanding, had no television, no radios, no telephones and no motion pictures through which to communicate. Medical science had not yet discovered the wonder drugs to end many dread plagues and diseases. One hundred years ago military men had not yet developed the terrifying weapons of warfare that we know today—not the bomber, an airborne fortress raining down death; nor napalm, that burner of all things and flesh in its path. A century ago there were no skyscraping buildings to kiss the stars and no gargantuan bridges to span the waters. Science had not yet peered into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space, nor had it penetrated oceanic depths. All these new inventions, these new ideas, these sometimes fascinating and sometimes frightening developments came later. Most of them have come within the past sixty years, sometimes with agonizing slowness, more characteristically with bewildering speed, but always with enormous significance for our future.
一个世纪以前，人类也和今天一样，在努力更好地了解这个世界，但那时他们还没有用来沟通的电视机、收音机、电话和电影。医学界还没有发现神奇的药物来结束可怕的瘟疫和疾病。一百年前，军队尚未开发出我们今天知道的那些可怕的战争武器——既没有轰炸机，这种雨点般倾泻死亡的空中堡垒；也没有凝固汽油弹，那种扔到哪里就把那里的一切都烧成灰烬的武器。一个世纪以前，还没有可以直入云霄与星星接吻的摩天大楼，也没有横跨江河湖海的大桥。科学还没有探索到难以测量的广袤的星际空间，也没有深入到海洋的最深处。所有的这些新发明、新思想和这些有时使人着迷、有时使人害怕的新研发成果都是后来才出现的。它们绝大多数都出现在过去的六十年内，有时来得很慢，人们要苦苦等待，更多的时候来得非常快，令人眼花缭乱，但总是极大地影响着我们的未来。
