Like a lot of science fiction fans, I read William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer not long after it came out in 1984 and, for decades, I had been wondering how he was able to imagine the future when the technologies he wrote about had barely been invented, until I eventually had an opportunity to interview him in the fall of 2020.

During the interview, I asked how he could see the future of the Internet in 1984, when no one other than a few geeks (极客) had heard of it and whether he had been to scientific talks.

“I have never read or listened to the tech leaders’ talks about new technologies,” he replied. “I would rather sit in a room full of either artists or criminals. Their talks would be more helpful with my writing.”

As a journalist who has reported on Silicon Valley (硅谷) for 15 years, I found his comment really convincing. I’ve sat through press conferences and interviews with many famous tech leaders—Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Marissa Mayer and many others. I never heard Zuckerberg predict fake (假的) news or Steve Jobs worry about iPhone addiction.

“These men are driven by an ideal of how much their technology will change people’s lives or by promises of a lot of money, or both. But one thing is clear: They usually avoid talking about what might happen when their inventions hit the real world,” Gibson explained. “On the other hand, artists are more about holding a mirror up to society and showing us how we behave with the new tools we are given, while criminals are in effect businessmen without brakes, who will look at whatever the latest technology is and think what they can do with it. Neither of them is bound by social conventions at all.”

Since the interview, I have decided to take a page out of William Gibson’s playbook and will go and find some artists or criminals and see what they are going to do with any new technology as soon as it appears in the news.

Being a relatively new technology, VR technology is clearly just beginning to take off. There are companies producing their own VR headsets, but they are still not as big as other products that are meant to entertain. Apart from the limited choices, one more thing that is worth noting about the current state of VR is the fact that content is limited, as well as applications. Most of the products available on the market today are aimed at gamers and mostly special for high-end buyers because of its expensive price.

Despite being full of potential, however, there are also some challenges that should be dealt with in order to ensure the success of VR. Among others, one of the most significant would be the need for powerful devices that would complement the headsets. For Oculus Rift, for instance, a powerful video card is needed for a computer, something you might not have at home, making the VR technology inapplicable.

In addition, there are also challenges when it comes to beauty. Today's VR headsets look almost entirely the same-they are huge and heavy and they look silly. Producers must find a way in order to make the design more beautiful.

Producers will also be challenged to make VR headsets more affordable so that more people will be able to purchase them. Most of the models currently available are just too expensive for average buyers.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the challenge is to find more applications. It is currently being centered on game paste applications. Producers are challenged to come up with creative ways in order to increase the usefulness of such a promising device.

In sum while it is undeniable that VR is big in today's time, there's a lot of room for improvement. There are limited choices when it comes to VR products available on the market, and for many, it is still a bit expensive. Others lack knowledge on how it works, which results in hesitation. There are also some problems that have yet to be solved and more opportunities to be uncovered. It would be safe to say that it is new, still in its infancy, but hopefully it is getting to the top.

People need to find out new foods because the world has so many mouths to feed. Now there are more than seven billion people on Earth, according to the United Nations. 【小题1】 Feeding all of these people means not only improving the way food is grown, but also finding new sources of foods. If nothing changes, within 35 years, the amount of food produced cannot feed the world’s population.

【小题2】 Scientists predict that rising temperatures will reduce the growth of important crops like wheat and corn. Low-income developing countries will be hit the hardest. When harvests fall, crops become more expensive. 【小题3】

All over the world, researchers are racing against the clock to find out the best ways to feed more people in the future world. 【小题4】 Two years ago, scientists showed the first hamburger made from meat grown in a lab, rather than taken from an animal body. Other researchers are developing plants that can manage to live even during high temperatures and in continuous dry weather. Still others are finding ways to change the genes (基因) of meat animals. 【小题5】 For example, researchers in South Korea and China have changed the genes in a type of pig to create an animal that becomes bigger and heavier.

A gloomy (令人沮丧的) forecast for the planet isn’t the only reason to study foods for the future. It’s a creative way to find people who can think in new ways about existing plants and animals—even insects.