来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2021年5月29日
本文适合作为完型填空的选文
When a powerful new technology comes around, people often split into two camps: those captivated by its benefits and those worried by the trouble it could unleash. This has happened with everything from knitting machines in the 16th century to artificial intelligence today.
当一项强大的新技术出现时，人们通常会分成两大阵营：一个是被它的好处所吸引，另一个是担心它可能带来的麻烦。从16世纪的针织机到今天的人工智能，这一切都发生了。
It is, of course, a false dichotomy. As physicist and artificial intelligence researcher Max Tegmark put it: “Are you the kind of person who thinks fire can kill people or the sort of person who thinks that fire can keep people warm in the winter? Both things are true, obviously.”
当然，这是错误的二分法。正如物理学家和人工智能研究人员马克斯·泰格马克所说：“你是认为火能致人死亡的那种人，还是认为火能在冬天让人暖和的那种人？显然，这两件事都是真的。”
We are about to see this play out once again in the context of a technology that may come to define how we communicate in the 21st century: the quantum internet. It might seem like there is nothing wrong with the internet as we know it. Alas, not so. Quantum computers will eventually crack the encryption protocols that keep our web traffic secure, from bank transactions to private messages. This “cryptocalypse” could be only a few years away.
我们即将在量子互联网技术的背景下再次看到这一幕。这项技术可能会定义我们在21世纪的沟通方式。就我们所知，互联网似乎没有什么问题。可事实并不是这样。从银行交易到私人消息，量子计算机最终将破解保证网络流量安全的加密协议。这一“加密启示”可能只有几年的时间了。
Quantum communications offer an unhackable alternative. One of their key features is that their fundamental units of information, quantum bits, are very delicate. If anyone tries to read an encoded message, they will inevitably leave signs of having done so. This unhackable world isn’t as far away as you might think, we are already surprisingly good at making the infrastructure we will need to build it.
量子通信提供了一个不可破解的替代方案。它们的一个关键特征是，它们的基本信息单位——量子比特——非常敏感。如果有人试图阅读编码信息，将不可避免地留下这样做的痕迹。这个不可入侵的世界并不像你想象的那么遥远，我们已经惊人地擅长于建造我们需要的基础设施。
But as so often happens with tech advances, the unhackable privacy will cut both ways. The quantum internet will keep our credit card details secure, but it also means that people who want to talk in secret for nefarious purposes – whether it is terrorism or cybercrime – will have that option.
但正如科技进步经常发生的那样，不可侵犯的隐私将有利有弊。量子互联网将保护我们的信用卡信息安全，但这也意味着那些出于邪恶目的想要秘密交谈的人——无论是恐怖主义还是网络犯罪——将多了一个选择。
Democratic leaders have an abysmal record on policing our digital privacy. That needs to change. The quantum internet is coming, and when it arrives, it will make the privacy debate doubly tricky and unavoidable. As Tegmark put it: “The interesting question isn’t to argue for or against fire, it is to figure out how you can manage fire wisely.”
民主国家领导人在保护我们的数字隐私方面有着糟糕的记录。这种情况需要改变。量子互联网即将到来，当它到来时，将使隐私辩论变得更加棘手和不可避免。正如泰格马克所言：“有趣的问题不是支持或反对火，而是找出如何明智地管理火的方法。”