【思考】如果社交距离成为法律会怎么样

What If Social-Distancing Became Law? 

中英文文稿：

Are you already tired of social distancing?

你已经厌倦保持社交距离了吗？

Have you had enough of trying to explain video chats to your grandma? 

你有努力向奶奶解释视频聊天是怎么回事吗？

Or pretending that you're going to use this free time to get super jacked? 

或是假装你要利用这段空闲时间来锻炼托举？

Sorry to break it to you, but with increasing populations and climate change pandemics are likely to become more frequent, which means that this kind of social distancing might become the new norm. 

很抱歉打断你的计划，但随着人口的增加和气候的变化大流行病可能会变得越来越频繁，这意味着保持社交距离或会成为新的常规。

How could prolonged social distancing be bad for your health? 

长时间保持社交距离怎么会对你的健康有害呢？

What controversial methods could be implemented to keep people apart? 

有什么争议性方法可以用来隔离人们？

And what sort of punishment could you face if you didn't comply? 

如果不服从的话，你将面临怎样的处罚？

This is What If and here is what happened if social distancing became law. 

这里是What If，如果社交距离成为法律会怎么样。

Staying away from other people might not sound too bad to some of you.

对某些人来说远离别人可能没有那么糟糕。

But over time, it can have some pretty negative effects on your health. 

但随着时间的推移，它会对健康产生一些相当负面的影响。

Not only can it increase your risk of depression, but it can also lead to heart disease, dementia, and death. 

保持社交距离不仅会增加人们罹患抑郁症的风险，而且还会导致心脏病、痴呆症和死亡。

The good news is that a lot of these negative effects can be reduced through social contact with others. 

好消息是许多的这些负面影响可以通过与他人的社会接触来减少。

No, this doesn't mean secretly meeting up with people. 

这种社会接触并不意味着与人私下会面。

It means embracing all the forms of digital communication we have at our fingertips. 

而是意味着拥抱我们指尖所有形式的数字通信。

If connecting digitally becomes our new normal, how would this affect the way we form and maintain relationships? 

如果数字连接成为我们的新常态，这将如何影响我们建立和维护关系的方式？

The internet allows us to stay in touch with, and see the faces of loved ones that we can't meet up with in person. 

互联网让我们得以保持联系，看到我们不能亲自见到的亲人的脸。

If social distancing became law, these sorts of online interactions would be important to our physical and mental health. 

如果保持社交距离成为法律，这种在线互动将对我们的身心健康至关重要。

For example, during stressful times like these, our heartbeat slows down when we have a friend with us. 

例如当下这样充满压力的特殊时期，有了朋友的陪伴，我们的心跳就会减慢。

But even with all the communication apps out there, technology can't replace face-to-face interactions. 

但即使拥有所有的通信应用程序，技术也无法取代面对面的互动。

It's not as easy to understand nonverbal behavior such as body language, facial expressions, and gestures during electronic meetings. 

在网络会议中，会不太容易去理解如肢体语言、面部表情和手势等非语言行为。

Plus, maintaining existing relationships online might be easy, but what about establishing brand new ones? 在线维护现有关系可能很容易，但又应如何去建立全新的关系呢？

Like romantic ones? 

比如恋爱关系？

Dating while social distancing might sound impossible, but it just means you'd have to put the physical stuff on hold, until you think they're worth getting quarantined for, that is. 

在保持社交距离的时候约会听起来不太现实，但这只意味着暂缓身体接触，直到你认为他们这样被隔离是值得的。

This might slow down the pace of dating, which has been accelerated through the use of dating apps. 

约会应用程序的使用加速了约会的速度，而社交距离可能会再次减慢约会速度。

Now you'll be forced to take your time with potential partners, and have the patience to get to know each other on a deeper level. 

现在你将被迫与潜在的发展对象相处，并需要耐心地在更深的层次上了解对方。

Maybe this would result in a more meaningful relationship, if you're ever allowed to leave the house again. 

如果我们能再次走出家门，也许这会成为一段更有意义的恋爱关系。

But enough about you. 

关于我们自身已经说的够多了。

Let's head outside and see what effects mandatory social distancing would have on the rest of the world. 

让我们一起去看看强制性保持社会距离会对世界其他地方产生什么影响。

For one thing, some countries would impose fines and even prison time for people breaking social distancing. 

一方面，有些国家会对打破社交距离的人处以罚款甚至监禁。

During the 2020 pandemic, people in Nova Scotia, Canada could be fined up to $1,000 per day for being in gatherings of more than five people. 

在2020年大流行病期间，加拿大新斯科舍省的人会因为参加五人以上的集会被处以每天1000美元的罚款。

Because of rules like this, companies would have to get creative with their operations, especially businesses like restaurants and gyms. 

困于这样的规则，企业必须在经营方式，上更有创意，特别是餐馆和健身房。

Restaurants could transform into primarily drive-through and delivery businesses, but gyms would probably have a bigger struggle trying to survive. 

餐馆可以转变为以免下车服务和外卖业务为主，但健身房可能会面临更严峻的生存斗争。

Sure, they could offer online workouts, but that wouldn't replicate the equipment and resources that their physical locations once offered. 

当然，它们可以提供在线锻炼服务，但这不能复制其实体店面曾经提供的设备和资源。

Instead, people might start to get their physical activity through more solitary activities like hiking and surfing. 

相反，人们可能会开始尝试更多诸如徒步旅行和冲浪这样的独立活动来进行体育锻炼。

But there would have to be strict regulations on how many people could be at a specific spot at the same time. 

但必须严格管控同一时间内某个特定活动点的人数。

On the bright side, with all these new regulations to enforce, a lot of new jobs will be created. 

好的一方面是，随着所有这些新规定的执行，将会创造许多新的就业机会。

It would start with guards being employed to make sure people keep their distance, but in the long term these new jobs could come from developing new technology to track everyone. 

例如雇佣警卫以确保人们保持距离，但从长远来看，这些新的工作岗位可能出自于开发跟踪每个人的新技术。

And that's where this whole thing takes a real dystopian turn. 

这就是整件事真正反乌托邦的转折。

Governments could use facial recognition technology to make sure that you and everyone else sticks to the rules. 

政府可以使用面部识别技术来确保所有人遵守规则。

Cell phones could even be used to set off a blaring alarm every time you got within 1 meter (3 ft) of another person. 

每当处在别人的1米（3英尺）范围内，手机就会发出警报。

Eventually, you could see our society divided into different shifts, to keep large amounts of people from gathering at once. 

最终可以预见我们的社会将分成不同的班制，以防止人群同时聚集。

Just like shift work, a "shift society" would mean that only people from certain parts of the city would be allowed to enter specific places during set hours, or on specific days. 

就像轮班工作一样，"轮班社会"意味着只有来自城市某些地区的人才能在设定的时间或特殊的日子进入特定的地方。

Some people might work at the office on Monday and Wednesday, and others on Tuesday and Thursday. 

有些人星期一和星期三在办公室工作，有些人可能星期二和星期四在办公室工作。

With all this isolation, people would start to develop agorophobia. 

因为这所有的隔离，人们会开始产生恐惧。

This is essentially a fear of other people, and of leaving your home. 

这本质，上是对他人的恐惧，也是对离开家门的恐惧。

Maybe this could lead to the construction of virtual reality worlds, where everything is simulated. 

也许这会导致虚拟现实世界的构建，在那里一切皆为虚拟。

These worlds could be so realistic that you'd lose sight of what's real and what's pretend. 

这些世界是如此的栩栩如生，以至于难以辨别虚实。

But that's a story for another What If. 

但这是另一个有关What If的故事。