The new era of innovation 创新的新时代Why a dawn of technological optimism is breaking为什么技术乐观主义的曙光将至The 2010s were marked by pessimism about innovation. That is giving way to hope2010年代的特点是对创新的悲观，这正在被希望所代替
give way to: 为…所替代、给……让路
Jan 16th 2021 |
FOR MUCH of the past decade the pace of innovation underwhelmed many people—especially those miserable economists. Productivity growth was lacklustre and the most popular new inventions, the smartphone and social media, did not seem to help much. Their malign side-effects, such as the creation of powerful monopolies and the pollution of the public square, became painfully apparent. Promising technologies stalled, including self-driving cars, making Silicon Valley’s evangelists look naive. Security hawks warned that authoritarian China was racing past the West and some gloomy folk warned that the world was finally running out of useful ideas.
underwhelm：未给……留下好印象、令……失望
lacklustre：无光泽的、无生气的
malign：有害的、邪恶的
public square：公共广场
stall：拖延（以赢得时间）、暂缓
evangelist：福音传道者，这里是指“推崇有前景的技术的人”
race past: 超过……
run out of: 用完
在过去十年的大部分时间里，创新的速度让很多人失望，尤其是对于那些悲观的经济学家来说。生产率增长乏力，最受欢迎的新发明——智能手机和社交媒体——似乎也没起多大作用。它们的负面影响，如导致强有力的垄断和信息公共广场的污染，是显而易见，让人头疼的。包括自动驾驶汽车在内的有前景的技术停滞不前，让硅谷的推崇者们看起来很天真。强调安全的鹰派人士警告说，强权中国正在超越西方，一些悲观人士警告说，世界有用的想法已经耗尽了。Today a dawn of technological optimism is breaking. The speed at which covid-19 vaccines have been produced has made scientists household names. Prominent breakthroughs, a tech investment boom and the adoption of digital technologies during the pandemic are combining to raise hopes of a new era of progress: optimists giddily predict a “roaring Twenties”. Just as the pessimism of the 2010s was overdone—the decade saw many advances, such as in cancer treatment—so predictions of technological Utopia are overblown. But there is a realistic possibility of a new era of innovation that could lift living standards, especially if governments help new technologies to flourish.
