在其整個職業生涯中，谷歌母公司Alphabet的執行董事長艾里克?施密特一直都在預測技術會給這個世界帶來什么樣的變化。作為公司的全球形象大使，即使在與世界領袖會面或發表演講期間，施密特也會滔滔不絕地講述他眼中那些最為重要的未來技術。

周一，施密特提到了六大顛覆性的技術或他所謂的“超前技術”。他表示，這些技術將有助于社會重要領域的進步。數千名參加梅肯研究院全球會議的投資者和商業高管齊聚洛杉磯的一個多功能廳，傾聽他的演講。

以下便是施密特所宣揚的超前技術（并非是Alphabet在其秘密谷歌X實驗室所研究的那些難以實現的技術）：

1)植物取代牲畜：施密特認為一場革命即將到來，即使用植物食材代替肉產品。他認為，通過種植、收獲植物來代替牲畜飼養可以減少溫室氣體排放，并應對氣候變化。特別是肉類行業、牲畜飼養廠商，它們釋放了大量的溫室氣體。

人們可以用植物蛋白取代肉類，而這種植物蛋白的開發也將降低發展中國家的食品成本。在那里，食物屬于稀缺資源。與交付一磅含有多種蛋白的植物相比，向百貨店交付一磅肉（涉及飼養、屠宰和運輸環節）是一個效率低下、成本高昂的流程。

施密特表示，在計算機和數據分析的幫助下，人們目前隨時都可以生產品質更好的源自植物的合成食品。技術能夠幫助研究人員和科學家發現最優良的植物和植物組合，并藉此打造出特定的口味，滿足特定的營養需求。

2) 用3D打印技術來建造建筑：施密特指出，不管是建造居住用還是商用建筑，建造建筑都是十分耗時、耗能的，同時也需要大量的資金。但是，由最新的計算和軟件技術催生的3D打印技術能夠降低建造成本和時間，也十分環保。這些3D打印建筑可以進行大規模生產或定制，然后在現場組裝，其效率要比在建筑用地上一磚一瓦地搭建房屋高得多。3D打印還有助于鼓勵人們使用可回收的材料。

3) 虛擬現實：很多技術行業觀察家一直都在關注由Facebook的Oculus等制造商推出的最新虛擬現實頭戴設備和游戲。但是施密特表示，虛擬現實最吸引人的用途很快便會出現在游戲和娛樂之外的領域。該技術帶來的“增強現實”效果能夠增進人們對周邊環境的了解，并在這一領域發揮至關重要的作用。同時，它也可以為汽車、職場或教育等環境增添視覺和音頻效果。

4) 醫療數據移動化：施密特指出，手機是用于檢測個人健康、搜集個人健康數據的絕佳設備。我們每周拿起手機的次數平均有1,500次，而此舉也讓手機成為了與我們身體最親近、聯系最緊密的設備。施密特說，手機的計算能力、網絡連接、相機和其他傳感器也讓其擁有了異常強大的功能，能夠通過醫療數據將病患和醫生連接起來。

5) 無人駕駛汽車：施密特與硅谷的很多人有著同樣的看法，即無人駕駛汽車是一個巨大的商機。但是他還認為，讓計算機來駕駛汽車將讓世界變得更加安全。

施密特說：“32,800人今年將在美國的馬路上喪命，只是我們目前還不知道死者的具體身份罷了。”施密特建議，全世界應就無人駕駛汽車設立一項全球性的超前計劃。他自己的公司也在開發這項技術。

6)利用技術完善教育：施密特表示，每個學生的學習方式都是不同的，這是眾所周知的事情。然而，計算機可以改變教育方式，并讓每個人獲得最高效和最有成效的教育。計算機技術可以輕松地監控學生的學習方式，然后針對每個人提出一套最為有效的教學方式。施密特說，我們需要打造更多的工具來幫助教師提升其教學效果，并讓教育變得更富成效。（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

校對：詹妮

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent, Alphabet, has spent his entire career predicting how technology can change the world. While traveling the globe as essentially the company’s global ambassador, meeting with world leaders and giving talks, he isn’t slowing down on espousing about what he says are the most important future technologies.

Schmidt laid out six game changing technologies, or moonshots, as he called them, that he says will improve important parts of society on Monday. Thousands of investors and business executives filled a ballroom in Los Angeles at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference to hear him speak.

Here are Schmidt’s tech moonshots (not to be mistaken with the moonshots that Alphabet GOOGL 0.90% is working on in its secretive Google X labs):

1) Nerds over cattle: Schmidt sees a revolution coming in using plants to replace meat. Replacing livestock with growing and harvesting plants could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, he argued. The meat industry, cattle producers, in particular, emit significant greenhouse gases.

The development of plant proteins that communities could use to replace meat would also lower the cost of foods in developing countries where food is sometimes scarce. Delivering a pound of meat to the grocery store (raising it, slaughtering it, shipping it) is a relatively inefficient and costly process compared with delivering a pound of many protein-based plants.

Schmidt said the world is now ready to better produce synthetic food from plants with the help of computers and data crunching. Technology can help researchers and scientists identify the best plants and plant combinations for creating certain tastes and meeting certain nutritional needs.

2) 3D printing for buildings: Constructing buildings, both residential and commercial, is time consuming, energy intensive, and costly, Schmidt points out. But 3D printing technology, spurred by the latest in computing and software, can create buildings that are lower cost, quicker to build, and better for the environment. These 3D printed buildings can be generated in an industrial and customizable way and assembled on site, which is far more efficient than building a house piece by piece on the plot of land where it’s going to reside. 3D printing can also encourage the use of recycled materials.

3) Virtual reality: Many tech industry watchers have been following the latest virtual reality headsets and games emerging from manufacturers like Facebook’s Oculus FB 0.84% . But Schmidt says the most compelling uses for virtual reality will soon emerge from outside of video games and entertainment. The technology will play a critical role in making society better informed by “augmenting reality,” or adding visual and audio cues in environments like cars, in the workplace or in education.

4) Medical data goes mobile: Cell phones are the perfect device for monitoring personal health and for collecting health data, says Schmidt. We touch our phones 1,500 times a week, making the devices one of the most intimate and connected to our bodies. The phone’s computing capacity, network connection, camera, and other sensors make it a surprisingly powerful device for connecting patients and doctors with medical data, said Schmidt.

5) Self-driving cars: Schmidt agrees with much of Silicon Valley that self-driving cars will present a huge business opportunity. But he also thinks that having computers drive our cars will make the world much safer.

“32,800 people will die this year on the roads in the U.S., we just don’t know who they are yet,” said Schmidt. The world should have a global moonshot program focused on self-driving cars, advocated Schmidt, whose own company is also working on the technology.

6) Fixing education using tech: Everybody knows that every student learns differently, said Schmidt. But computers can help change education so that it’s the most efficient and effective for everyone. Computing technology can easily monitor how students learn and then identify the most effective teaching methods for each one of them. We need to create more tools to help teachers augment their teaching and make education more effective, said Schmidt.