| [00:00.00] |
From VOA Learning English, |
| [00:02.30] |
this is the Technology Report. |
| [00:05.48] |
Britain's Queen Elizabeth |
| [00:07.72] |
presented her first ever Prize for Engineering, |
| [00:11.26] |
doing a ceremony in late June at Buckingham Palace. |
| [00:15.64] |
Some hope the new award |
| [00:17.78] |
will become the engineering equivalent of |
| [00:20.52] |
the Nobel Prize for scientific achievement. |
| [00:24.15] |
The award includes a prize of one million British pounds, |
| [00:28.73] |
or about $1.5 million. |
| [00:32.68] |
It was presented to five men who invented the Internet |
| [00:37.10] |
and developed the ways one third of the world's population uses it. |
| [00:41.98] |
Americans Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, |
| [00:46.11] |
and Frenchman Louis Pouzin invented the Internet's basic protocols. |
| [00:51.44] |
They shared the award with Britain's Tim Berners-Lee, |
| [00:55.42] |
who created the Worldwide Web and American Marc Andreesen, |
| [01:00.95] |
who invented the first web browsing software. |
| [01:05.18] |
The morning after they received the award, |
| [01:08.37] |
three of the winners spoke to hundreds of students from London schools. |
| [01:13.34] |
Robert Kahn said the Internet is so much a part of people's lives, |
| [01:18.98] |
they don't really think about it. |
| [01:21.42] |
"To me, it's all about the protocols for making things work together |
| [01:25.20] |
- to link together networks, computers, application programs |
| [01:29.34] |
- which a lot of people didn't think was a particularly good idea |
| [01:32.52] |
when we first started out on it. |
| [01:33.77] |
But it's turned out to be pretty impactful worldwide." |
| [01:37.30] |
Many of the students carry devices much more powerful |
| [01:40.29] |
than the computers the men used to develop the Internet. |
| [01:45.07] |
They were joined by students in Swaziland |
| [01:47.71] |
who took part in the event by way of the Internet. |
| [01:51.54] |
Vinton Cerf, partner with Robert Kahn |
| [01:55.13] |
in developing the TCP/IP protocol |
| [01:59.02] |
that makes Internet traffic possible. |
| [02:01.86] |
He is now a vice president of Google. |
| [02:05.24] |
"The significance is not the winning. |
| [02:07.38] |
The significance is the existence of the prize at all, |
| [02:10.32] |
especially with Her Majesty's name attached to it. |
| [02:13.00] |
It elevates engineering to the same level of visibility |
| [02:17.34] |
and recognition as the Nobel Prizes." |
| [02:18.98] |
Both men say their satisfaction comes from the wide use of the Internet |
| [02:24.31] |
and the fact that their basic technical architecture |
| [02:28.34] |
is still a main part of it. |
| [02:31.18] |
But they noted the privacy and security issues the Internet has created, |
| [02:37.32] |
these issues raised concern most recently with news |
| [02:42.29] |
about U.S. government surveillance programs designed to fight terrorism. |
| [02:47.28] |
(Cerf:) "We are still in the middle of |
| [02:48.97] |
this rapid evolution of the Internet and its applications. |
| [02:53.40] |
And we are going to have to learn, as a society, |
| [02:55.64] |
which things are acceptable and which things are not, |
| [02:58.48] |
what we should prohibit, |
| [02:59.92] |
and what things we should punish people for doing." |
| [03:02.26] |
(Kahn:) "Those are not tensions that are just easily resolved |
| [03:06.55] |
- check the box and proceed this way or that way. |
| [03:09.69] |
They require constant attention, especially in democratic societies." |
| [03:14.11] |
Robert Kahn says technologies have always had "plusses and minuses," |
| [03:20.59] |
he says the Internet is no different. |
| [03:24.24] |
But he also says that even after 40 years, |
| [03:28.87] |
there is no foreseeable end to the demand |
| [03:32.70] |
for the technology that he and his co-winners developed. |
| [03:37.39] |
And that's the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. |
