Remember all those Star Trek gadgetsyou wished you had because they looked so cool? Well， it turns out looking coolis about all they'd be good for.

　　还记得在《星际迷航（StarTrek）》里那些让你想要拥有的看起来酷毙了的小玩意儿吗？呃，实际上，他们也就是看起来酷，仅此而已。

　　Here's five inventions that willbe available some day ... even if nobody wants them.

　　这儿有五个在将来会得到应用的发明……尽管没有人想用它们。

　　No 5.Flying Cars

　　第五名：飞行的汽车

　　As seen in:Blade Runner， TheFifth Element， Back to the Future II， Futurama， The Jetsons ... it's actuallykind of difficult to list sci-fi that doesn't feature some variation of theflying car.

　　曾经出现在：《银翼杀手》，《第五元素》， 《回到未来II）》， 《飞出个未来》， 《杰森一家》 ...实际上，从某种程度上讲，很难能列出来一个单子，说科幻小说里没有出现飞行汽车的——不管什么样的飞行汽车。

　　Why we thought we wantedthem:

　　First， we don't mean some kind ofsissy half-plane， half-car hybrid that some people will try to tell you is aflying car. No， we mean real， float off the ground， how the crap is thathappening， Jetsons sort of flying cars. Admit it， when you were 7 years old，there were only two things you were sure of: Transformers fucking rule， and thefuture would be full of flying goddamn cars.

　　我们想要它的原因：

　　首先，有人会把那种不伦不类的又像飞机，又像汽车的混合动力车叫做飞行汽车。这儿说的不是那个，根本不是。我们说的是真正能离开地面漂在空中的那种——就是《杰森一家》里那种，那简直可以说是个垃圾玩意儿。你不能否认，当你七岁大的时候，，你只知道两件事：《变形金刚》里的倒霉准则，还有就是未来到处都会是飞着的破烂汽车。

　　Of course， once you learned todrive you wanted one even more. Every time you're stuck in traffic， you canpicture yourself flipping a switch and swooping into the sky， leaving thosehonking bastards behind. You'd fly straight to work， free as a bird.

　　当然，一旦你学会了开车，你会迫不及待地想要一辆飞行汽车。每次你被堵在路上的时候，你脑子里就会浮现出一个画面：你按了一个按钮，然后你的车就一下子飞上了天，把那些还在死命按喇叭的倒霉蛋儿们远远地甩在了后面。而你像一只自由的小鸟，直飞向单位。

　　Why we were wrong:

　　Well， guess what: They're notgonna let you do that. People just flying wherever they want would be a deathwarrant for every radio tower and power line in the country.

　　我们是笨笨：

　　那么，试想一下：他们不会让你那样做。人们飞着去他们想去的任何地方，这会让每个电台天线塔和国家的输电线处在一击致命的危险中。

　　No， you'd have to fly accordingto a wussified autopilot， along pre-set pathways. Air-roads， in other words.And， once everybody has a flying car ... well， have you ever been driving towork in a city at around， oh， eight or nine in the morning? If so， you'll knowexactly how bad traffic can get during rush hour. Now， imagine if there was notjust one layer of cars， but there was layer after layer of flying metal deathtraps over top and below you.

　　确定的是，你必须由着死板的自动驾驶按着预定的路线（或者说叫空中航线）飞。而且，要是所有人都开着飞车……你有没有在早在八九点钟开着车在城市里走过？要是走过，你就会清楚地知道在高峰期，路会堵得多厉害。现在想象一下，这个时候，空中一层一层飞着的可就不止是汽车了，而是飞在你上面和下面的一层层死亡陷阱。

　　That's not even the worst part.The many people who have tried to invent flying cars over are finding out thatevery single thing that's bad with cars (cost， safety， etc) is made worse whenyou try to make the thing fly.

　　那还不算最糟的。那些试图发明飞车的人慢慢发现：每个在汽车上本来就很不令人满意的因素（价格、安全性等等），当在让车飞起来的时候，变得更加糟糕了。

　　For instance， no matter what kindof engine they invent， a flying car will always burn more fuel than a regularcar， especially on short trips (you burn a bunch of gas trying to overcome thatgravity thing on takeoff).

　　比如，无论他们发明什么样的发动机，一辆飞车总会比普通汽车烧更多的燃料，短途的时候尤其明显（在起飞时，你必须烧掉很多汽油来克服重力）。

　　Even worse， even a minor crashwith another flying car could send both vehicles plummeting to the ground whileyou scream in terror. Imagine the poor guy on the ground， sitting there at a redlight， as a flaming five car pile-up is hurdling down towards him from the sky.If you're not scared yet， try to imagine what they're going to charge you ininsurance premiums as a result.

　　更糟的是，即使一次与飞车的轻微碰撞，都可能让两辆车直落地面，而你只能惊恐地在车里大叫。想像一下在地上的那位可怜的哥们儿，正等着红灯呢，就眼看着五辆燃着大火的车从天上向他砸过来。要是你还是没有被吓到，那就想一下，他们会怎么让你出血来给他们付保险费。

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