雙語散文:海到無涯天作岸

The Sky Is the Limit1

IT的繁榮造就了一批科技大亨，他們免不了爲如何花錢犯愁。心情欠佳的時候，不妨往遠處、大處使勁想想……因爲點子和財富是可以相互兌換的。

Owning a yacht is passe2. For those in the information-technology industry lucky enough to have made a fortune during the boom years3, there is now a far sexier alternative: owning a rocket.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon4, is financing an attempt to build a low-cost reusable spacecraft that can carry people into space. John Carmack, the programming genius behind such computer games as "Doom" and "Quake"5, is paying for a similar venture. But most ambitious of all is Elon Musk, who founded two dotcoms6 and sold them for $307 million and $1.5 billion respectively. His goal is Mars.

Mr Musk's original plan was to launch a small unmanned probe7, that would have landed on Mars and sent back pictures of a few plants growing inside a sealed environment. By capitalising on the ensuing media coverage,8 he hoped to win support and money for America's space agency, NASA, to mount a manned mission to Mars. But he soon discovered that launching his probe would cost a minimum of $30 million, and that started him thinking.

Unlike computing, where costs have been driven steadily down and performance continuously increases, the rocket-launching business has made little progress since the 1960s. Despite several failed attempts by other firms, Musk sensed an opportunity, and set up a new firm, SpaceX, with the goal of building a low-cost launcher 9. The resulting machine, called Falcon10, is not technically complex. However, it combines a number of innovations, including the use of modern materials and a reusable first stage11, to reduce costs to a mere $6 million per launch -the first of which is due later this year.

SpaceX already has customers lined up for its first two commercial launches, which will carry satellites into orbit. Musk then hopes to proceed with his original plan, sending a small probe to Mars and campaigning12 for a government-backed manned mission. His eyes light up as he talks about humanity becoming a "multi-planetary species13". He cannot be faulted for failing to think big.14

Musk outlined his plans at a conference on technology that was held recently in San Diego. His presentation ended a day during which luminaries15 of the computer industry discussed the future of computing. In contrast to the heady days of the Internet boom, it is difficult to get excited about grid computing or identity management.16 Computers have become a commodity, sales are stagnating17, the industry is maturing, and there is talk of a "post-technology era" in which innovation takes a back seat to improvements in business processes and supply-chain management.18 None of which sounds terribly thrilling. Hence the interest in space.19

What better way to escape the malaise20 of the computer business than to jump into a rocket?

1. the sky is the limit: <口>沒有任何限制，一切都是可能的。在這裏也可以理解爲字面意思“太空是極限”。

2. passe(e)：<法>過時的，落後於時代的。

3. boom years：景氣的年份，此處指網絡泡沫的年代。1999年可稱作網絡公司泡沫膨脹之年，當時，許多新上市的公司在自己的名字後面加上，以示公司是同網絡有關的。這樣一來，不管這個公司是賺錢還是賠錢，股價都會被炒得“直衝雲霄”。然而自2000年4月納斯達克指數狂跌之後，網絡公司虛假繁榮的泡沫開始破滅。

4. Amazon：即亞馬遜網絡書店，由傑夫·貝佐斯於1995年7月創立。

5. Doom：“毀滅戰士"；Quake：“雷神之錘”。均爲電腦遊戲名。

6. dotcom：即公司，網絡泡沫時代涌現了一大批這類的創業公司。

7. unmanned probe：不載人的（宇宙）探測器。

8. 利用媒體（對這件事）的跟蹤報道。capitalise (on)：利用。

9. launcher：運載火箭。

10. Falcon：“獵鷹”火箭。

11. reusable：可再次使用的； first stage：（多級火箭的）第一級。

12. campaign：發起運動。

13. multi-planetary species：多行星種羣，指人類將來有一天能自由往返於宇宙的各個行星之間。

14. 沒人能因爲他的想法不夠大膽而怪他。實際上是說，他的想法真是再大膽不過了。fault：找……的缺點，挑剔

15. luminary：名人，才智出衆的人。

16. 與早先被網絡繁榮衝昏了頭腦的時代不同，現在已沒什麼人會因（計算機的）網格計算和身份識別技術而感到興奮了。

17. stagnate：蕭條。

18. 現在有一種“後技術時代”的提法，即技術創新要讓位於商業流程和供應鏈管理的改進。take a back seat：寧居後座，即讓別人佔先。

19. 這兩句話是說：當這兩者聽起來都無法再喚起人們極度的興奮時，（人類的）目光於是就轉向了太空。

20. malaise/m*#le!z/：不自在，抑鬱，（由於社會問題使人們產生的）模糊的不安意識。