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Remember all those Star Trek gadgets you wished you had because they looked so cool? Well, it turns out looking cool is about all they'd be good for.
还记得在《星际迷航（Star Trek）》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 will be 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。
#5.Flying Cars
第五名：飞行的汽车
As seen in:
Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Back to the Future II, Futurama, The Jetsons ... it's actually kind of difficult to list sci-fi that doesn't feature some variation of the flying 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 wanted them:
First, we don't mean some kind of sissy half-plane, half-car hybrid that some people will try to tell you is a flying car. No, we mean real, float off the ground, how the crap is that happening, 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 the future 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 to drive you wanted one even more. Every time you're stuck in traffic, you can picture yourself flipping a switch and swooping into the sky, leaving those honking 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 not gonna let you do that. People just flying wherever they want would be a death warrant 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 according to 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 to work in a city at around, oh, eight or nine in the morning? If so, you'll know exactly how bad traffic can get during rush hour. Now, imagine if there was not just one layer of cars, but there was layer after layer of flying metal death traps 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 that every single thing that's bad with cars (cost, safety, etc) is made worse when you 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 kind of engine they invent, a flying car will always burn more fuel than a regular car, especially on short trips (you burn a bunch of gas trying to overcome that gravity 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 crash with another flying car could send both vehicles plummeting to the ground while you scream in terror. Imagine the poor guy on the ground, sitting there at a red light, 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 in insurance 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。
#4.Jet Packs
第四名：飞行背包
As seen in:
The Jetsons (again), The Rocketeer, James Bond used one in Thunderball, Boba Fett... too many to count. If you've never heard about and/or purchased a toy featuring a jet pack, you are from the 1800s.
曾经出现在：
《杰森一家》(又来了), 《火箭人》, 詹姆斯邦德在《雷霆万钧》里也用过一次, 星球大战里的Boba Fett... 数不胜数。要是你从来没有听说过它，或者没有买过一个带着飞行背包的玩具，那你肯定是从19世纪来的。
Why we thought we wanted them:
Because every single human wants the ability to fly, pretty much from birth. We're talking the ability to fly, not ride in a thing that flies.
我们想要它的原因：
因为每个人从生下来就都渴望能够飞翔。我们说的是具有飞翔的能力，而不是说坐在一个能飞的东西里。
Why we were wrong:
We're going to skip past the obvious point that the Rocketeer here would be left with charred stumps below the thigh, since that exhaust is coming out at around 2,000 degrees.
我们是笨笨：
我们先不说最明显的一点，即那个火箭人的大腿会被烤得像截烧焦的树桩，因为火箭的气流会以大约2000度的高温喷出来。
Modern jetpacks just use tanks of compressed gas that basically fart you into the air. If that sounds lame, you're right. The prototypes they have now let you fly a whole 30 seconds.
现在的飞行背包用的是装着压缩天然气的罐子，基本上只能把你“喷”离地面。如果那听起来很衰的话，正是如此。现在研究出来的原型机只能让你飞整整的30秒。
But let's assume they overcome all that and make one that actually works. All those safety issues we have with the flying cars? You've got all that, only without a car around you to protect your fragile body. The only possible method of saving your ass when you crash/fall asleep/run out of fuel is probably a parachute, which means you'd need extensive training on how to land without impaling yourself on a tree branch.
但是让我们假设一下，他们克服了所有困难，做出来一个有实际作用的飞行背包。那么，那些飞车带来的问题呢？对了，只有你身边一辆车都没有，才能真正保护你那脆弱的躯体。当你撞车、开车睡着或者是没有燃料的时候，唯一能救你的可能就是一顶降落伞。也就是说，你还得接受大量的训练，才能避免在落地的时候自己不被树枝插到。
The only alternative would have to be some kind of air bag that instantly inflates around you in an emergency, letting you bounce gently to safety while you involuntarily shout, "WHEEEE!!!" The problem with that, of course, is that we'd be intentionally crashing all the time just so they can do that happen.
这个时候除了拥有一种气囊，当危急时能在你四周迅速膨胀起来以外，别无它法。这种气囊能在你大声地喊“啊！！”的同时，让你优雅地在蹦跳中安全着陆。当然，这也有问题，因为要是想让它起作用，我们总是得故意地撞个什么东西。
