我的手机，我的寄生虫

为了繁殖和传播，病毒和其他寄生物侵占更大的生物体，并篡夺资源。智能手机和其他小玩意也对人类做着同样的事。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

malign有害的[mə'laɪn]adj.

commandeer征用，强占[ˌkɒmən'dɪə(r)]

umbilici核心，脐[ˌʌmbɪ'laɪkaɪ]n.

phage噬菌体[feɪdʒ]

toxoplasmosis弓形虫病[ˌtɒksəʊplæzˈməʊsɪs]n.

My mobile, the parasite (634 words)

by Jonathan Guthrie, January 2, 2015 6:52 am

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking, says Jonathan Guthrie.

While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less malign epidemic is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology. The outbreak reached its height at Christmas, when gift-giving was predicted to take worldwide shipments of smartphones to a record 1.3bn units in 2014. The total will rise to 1.4bn in 2015, according to IDC, a market research firm.

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking. Viruses and other parasites commandeer larger organisms, usurping resources in order to multiply and spread. Smartphones and other gadgets do the same thing, feeding on ever-increasing amounts of human attention and electricity supplied via wire umbilici.

It is tempting to impute a “strategy” to both phages and phablets, neither of which is sentient. Instead, the process is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations, as experimented with by legions of product designers. This makes it all the more potent.

Stephen Hawking believes intelligent machines could take over from humans and wipe us out. He may be the world's greatest living physicist, but he has not been paying attention. Unintelligent machines have already co-opted humans to serve their interests. Exterminating us would be counterproductive from their point of view, if they had one.

Fans of Apple are unlikely to agree that iPads resemble biological viruses. Peter Balfe, a virologist at the University of Birmingham, is sceptical too. He thinks tablet computers are more like a parasite, such as the single-celled toxoplasma gondii. This completes its life cycle through transmission between cats and mice.

“Toxoplasmosis suppresses the fear response in infected mice,” says Dr Balfe, who explains that they become attracted to cat odours. “They go out ‘looking' for cats they can be eaten by. Mobile devices are our toxoplasmosis. They change the way we behave.”

Tech addiction occurs through actively-learnt responses, or “operant conditioning” as animal behaviourists call it. The scientific parallel here also involves a rodent, typically a rat, which occupies a special cage called a Skinner Box. The animal is rewarded with a food pellet for solving puzzles and punished with an electric shock when it fails.

Mobile devices do not “taste” disobedient owners – yet. They do however deliver rewards in measured doses, exploiting our hunger for recognition. We get a jolt of pleasure when we receive a personal email or see an opinion endorsed in a retweet.

Desk-bound PCs were fostering operant conditioning long before the advent of the smartphone. But the latter silicon chip-based quasi-life form feeds more successfully on the energies of the host organism because it accompanies them everywhere.

“Are we getting a positive boost of hormones when we endlessly look at our phone, seeking rewards?” asks David Shuker, an animal behaviourist at St Andrews university, sounding a little like a man withholding serious scientific endorsement from an idea that a journalist had in the shower. Research is needed, he says.

Tech tycoons would meanwhile argue that the proliferation of mobile devices is a tribute to the brilliance of their designs. This is precisely what people whose thought processes have been modified by an invasive pseudo-organism would believe.

Fortunately, mobile technology causes symptoms less severe than physiological diseases. There are even benefits to compensate sufferers for shortened attention spans and the caffeine overload triggered by visits to Starbucks for the free wifi. Most importantly, you can obtain the FT in places as remote as Alaska or Sidcup.

In this sense, a mobile device is closer to a symbiotic organism than a parasite. This would make it akin to an intestinal bacterium that helps a person to stay alive, rather than a virus that may kill you. The similarity between the iPhone and a gut micro-organism is one that Apple boss Tim Cook is unlikely to dwell on in his next sales pitch, though.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the author, what is the similarity between Ebola and the mobile personal technology?

A.They are both fatal.

B.They are both from Africa.

C.They are both widespread through populations.

D.Both of them can cause serious outcomes and make people in panic.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, which of the statements below is true?

A.Stephen Hawking believes intelligent devices may enslave humans.

B.Phages and phablets are sentient and smart with strategies.

C.Smartphones and other gadgets occupy the organisms of humans just as what viruses do.

D.The process of developing new devices is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations.

答案(2)

3.Why does Peter Balfe think tablets are more like parasites?

A.They are portable and able to be carried by the users everywhere.

B.Because they can change the behavior of the users.

C.Because they are transmitted between one another.

D.Because they are both acquired through ingress.

答案(3)

4.What is the attitude of the author towards the personal mobile devices?

A.Opponent.

B.Worried.

C.Frightened.

D.Neutral.

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：C.They are both widespread through populations.

解释：作者在第一段中以埃博拉病毒作比较，体现个人移动通信技术的广泛传播性，但并没有提及其特别有害或者会引起恐慌。

(2)答案：A.Stephen Hawking believes intelligent devices may enslave humans.

解释：作者在第四段中提到霍金曾经预言智能机器或将接替人类成为世界的主宰，并将我们赶尽杀绝。其它选项均为文章内容的错误转述。

(3)答案：B.Because they can change the behavior of the users.

解释：作者在文章中以猫鼠作比，提到了平板“像寄生虫改变老鼠的行为那样改变人类行为”。

(4)答案：D.Neutral.

解释：在文章最后，作者认为比起寄生虫，手机等移动设备与人的关系显得更像共生生物，与前面列举的问题相对也是存在一定好处的。所以整体态度应为中立。