Hedy Lamarr: A Hollywood Star and Mother of Wi-Fi

Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria. By the time she was a teenager, she had decided to drop out of school and seek fame as an actress. She first appeared in a German film in 1930. She was attractive and talented enough to be in three more films in 1931, but it was her controversial film "Ecstasy" that brought her worldwide fame as an actress.

海蒂·拉瑪（Hedy Lamarr，1914年11月9日-2000年1月19日），出生于奧地利首都維也納，美國影視女演員、發(fā)明家。1931年，以《街上的錢》初登熒屏。1933年，在捷克斯洛伐克出演愛情影片《欲焰（Ecstasy）》，成為世界上首位全裸出鏡的演員。1941年，出演了[羅伯特·倫納德]執(zhí)導(dǎo)的歌舞影片《齊格菲女郎》；同年，借鑒了音樂家[喬治·安太爾]同步演奏鋼琴的原理發(fā)明了[跳頻技術(shù)]，為[CDMA]、[Wi-Fi]等技術(shù)奠定了基礎(chǔ) 。1942年，獲得美國頒發(fā)的“跳頻技術(shù)”專利 。

In 1937 she fled from her country and secretly moved to Hollywood, where she reinvented herself. She changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, with the nickname "The Most Beautiful Woman in Films". However, Lamarr defied the leading-lady stereotype by also pursuing an interest in mathematics and engineering. She soon took up inventing. Her earliest inventions included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink.

traffic stoplight 交通信號燈
carbonated drink 碳酸飲料

With the ongoing World War, Lamarr was inspired to contribute to the war effort. She designed a radio guidance system for torpedoes. With the help of composer George Antheil, whom she met in 1940, she discovered a way to break up signals and transmit them over different frequencies. Using a method similar to the way player pianos work, they designed a frequency-hopping system that would continually change the radio signals sent to a torpedo. While others, including Nikola Tesla, had explored similar ideas of frequency hopping, Lamarr and Antheil obtained a patent for their invention in 1942 for what would become known as Spread-spectrum technology.

torpedoes 魚雷
composer 作曲家
Spread-spectrum technology擴(kuò)展頻譜技術(shù)

Although the U.S. Navy did not adopt the technology during the war, it was used during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. For decades Lamarr's technology remained behind the scenes, but ultimately it led to the creation of today's spread-spectrum communication technology, such as Wi-Fi networks, mobile phones, GPS and Bluetooth technologies. Lamarr and Antheil eventually received several awards for their lifetime creative achievements that contributed so much to society. They were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, after her death in 2000.

behind the scenes 在幕后

The Challenge of AI

The Internet and smartphones have changed the world and how we relate to each other. Instead of meeting in person, we increasingly interface through handheld devices. In a sense, real people are being removed, replaced by technology and virtual friends. Some people even say that they prefer to confide in their virtual friends rather than their real friends!

confide vt. 吐露；委托 vi. 信賴；吐露秘密

Al, or artificial intelligence, is another technology that is highly disruptive. With Al, smartphones and other devices will have even more capabilities. They will be able to converse with us and tell us jokes. They may even become personal tutors, and replace our online human tutors. They will be able to do this because they will have access to our life histories.
They will know what kind of problems we have, our preferences, and any content we want to learn or practice. They will be able to adapt to our needs and be available at any time. And all this will be at less cost than using a human.
In fact, the substitution of Als for human labor has the potential to transform our world. Experts warn that smart machines may cause widespread unemployment. Many workers will become redundant, replaced by machines that can perform cognitive tasks better than people. An even greater danger is that they will develop personalities and become more interesting than people. Work is already underway to produce Al companions for lonely people.
Are these developments something to worry about or something to
welcome? How are they different than developments in the past,
such as the industrial revolution?Cars replaced horses; machines and industrial robots replaced factory workers.

underway 在進(jìn)行中

Since the shift to Al is inevitable, the challenge for policy makers will
be to help existing workers acquire new skills. Future generations must be prepared for a workplace populated by Als that will continue to develop and take on new tasks.
Are we up to the task?