Rapid advances in a new technology will soon transform science fiction into reality—meaning people will have driverless cars, small robots at their command and the ability to experience being in another place without leaving home, predicted Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the planet's largest cellphone trade show.

Introduction of books available online, Internet translation of languages and voice recognition for computers all happened much faster than anyone could foresee and that technological research into even more previously unheard of advances is progressing at a fast speed.

    "People who predict that holograms(全息图) and self-driving cars will become reality soon are absolutely right," Schmidt told thousands of attendees. Research underway will lead to situations where people can put themselves at events like a rock concert so that they can see, hear and even feel the event. And turn down the volume, if it's too loud.

    One attendee said she was scared that the possibility could be dehumanizing, but Schmidt replied by holding up his cellphone into the air. "It has an off button and it is here on the right," Schmidt said. "My point is that it is all about your control. If you don't like my version of a rock concert, I'm not forcing you to go. In the future, small robots could be used, so busy people can send them to events for video and voice transmissions when their presence isn't required," Schmidt said.

    Technology in the near future will redefine the relationship among people in the world. "Smarter resourceful citizens are going to demand a better deal for their new life," Schmidt said.

    What will man be like in the future—in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.

    Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is relatively a short period of time, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller .Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more ,and eventually we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head; in particular, the forehead will grow larger.

    Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses .But over a very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger.

    On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.

    But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in the course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.

    Perhaps all these give the impression that in the future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true .All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.

→, the teacher entered the office.(方式状语)