1. Read the text and give a title to it.// give it a title

• What point does the author make about the future development of computers?

• Is the author optimistic or pessimistic about the future of human beings?

* * *

Computers and telecommunications are already giving us access to large amounts of information. This is increasing our brainpower, just as steam engines increased our muscle power. As computers become more powerful they will grow more intelligent. There seems no reason why machines should not become more intelligent than people in the future. Computers will start to design and build other computers. They will then be able to evolve, just as life evolves. There will then be two forms of "life". Many thousands of years in the future there might be competition for power between computers and life. Which will win?

Well, computers certainly have many advantages over life. They can:

• process large amounts of information quickly

• be switched off for years, then start to work perfectly when they are switched back on (very handy for travelling over stellar distances)

• be made very small, and control tiny machines

• work together in networks to solve big problems

Furthermore, electronics is much simpler than life's chemistry and does not need liquid water. Unlike animals, which rely on plants to turn sunlight into chemical energy, semiconductors (the material that computers are made from) can turn sunlight directly into electricity. When you compare computers to people the advantages are even more obvious.

Computers do not have the instincts to fight, which people seem to have.

It takes only a few seconds to load a program into a computer but years to educate a human. When computers get out of date their information can be passed to new computers, but when people get old and die all their knowledge is lost.

For all these reasons I believe computers will be more successful and important than life many thousands of years in the future. I expect computers, not people, to colonize the other planets and explore the Galaxy. Life will be left behind on Earth, as a treasured relic of where computers came from.

However it is possible that computers and life might merge to make a new, even more powerful form of intelligent being.

(Adapted from: http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/futucomp.html)

Discuss

• What do you think are the advantages for humans of merging with computers?

• What other technological challenges do you think the world will face in the 21^st century? Which do you consider most promising/devastating for humans?

Writing

Write a questionnaire to find out what your fellow students think about the life style, education, transport, travel and scientific achievements in the nearest or distant future. Make use of the various forms for expressing future.

Speaking

1. Interview three of your fellow students. Ask for their predictions and comment on them like this:

Example:

A: Do you think that in the future computers will replace teachers?

B: Yes, I do.

C: So do I. / Do you? I don’t think they will.

2. Sum up their opinions. Are your fellow students optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

Get Real

1. Go online or search popular science magazines to find information on the future developments in your field of science. Choose to speak about three most probable innovations and present your findings to the whole class.

(TB) How many people in your class have come with the similar future trends?

Discuss your criteria for choosing what to speak about.

Reading

Study help A plot synopsis is a brief description of the contents of a book or film.

You are going to read a plot synopsis of the sci-fi episode entitled “The New Breed”.

1. What scientific advances and their future consequences do you think this episode might be about? Discuss as a class.

2. Read and check your predictions. (хорошо бы на киношной пленке)