The 21st century has witnessed an increased emphasis on the role of creativity in helping generate ideas that could completely transform life and the society as a whole. Therefore, there have emerged numerous ideas that could be categorised as “dangerous ideas”, where “dangerous ideas” refers to ideas that go beyond the acceptable norm, standards and/or status quo in society. One of the dangerous ideas in the field of science in the modern world is the control of the weather using laser rays, mainly to create rain. This idea, which is being experimented upon by Dr. Jerome Kasparian, involves the use of a high-powered laser to help stimulate the formation of rain clouds (Figure 1) (Miller 2016). The idea seeks to make it possible for a particular region to receive rain through artificial stimulation of cloud formation.
21世纪，人们越来越重视创造力在帮助产生能够彻底改变生活和整个社会的想法方面的作用。因此，出现了许多可以归类为“危险想法”的想法，“危险想法”是指超出可接受的规范、标准和/或社会现状的想法。现代世界科学领域的一个危险想法是利用激光控制天气，主要是制造降雨。Jerome Kasparian博士正在试验这一想法，其中包括使用高功率激光来帮助刺激雨云的形成（图1）（Miller 2016）。这一想法旨在通过人工刺激云层形成，使特定地区有可能获得降雨。
Figure 1: Using laser beam (in red) to generate water droplets cloud
使用激光束（红色）生成水滴云
There are a number of factors that make control of the weather a dangerous idea in the modern society. To begin with, this idea challenges the fact that from a normal perspective, the formation of clouds and rain is part of a natural process that is often referred to as the hydrological cycle (Allan et al. 534). Under this natural process, water is expected to evaporate into the atmosphere, condense into clouds and fall back on earth as rain (Figure 2). The process follows a particular pattern, and in most cases, specific seasons within a particular area. While this is the case, the control of cloud formation using laser rays challenges this natural process of cloud formation in the sense that rather than waiting for specific seasons or time of the year for a particular region to receive rain, such a region could receive rain at any time of the year irrespective of the season using the science of controlling the weather. Furthermore, the idea of control of the weather seems to defy the widely held argument that areas with a significant tree cover have a high likelihood of getting regular rain while areas without such cover are likely to get drier every year. “…forested regions generate large-scale flows in atmospheric water vapor” leading to high level of rainfall in such regions (Sheil and Murdiyarso 341).
在现代社会，有许多因素使得控制天气成为一种危险的想法。首先，这一观点挑战了这样一个事实，即从正常角度来看，云和雨的形成是一个自然过程的一部分，通常被称为水文循环（Allan等人，534）。在这个自然过程中，水会蒸发到大气中，凝结成云，然后以雨的形式落回地球（图2）。这个过程遵循一个特定的模式，在大多数情况下，特定地区内的特定季节。在这种情况下，利用激光射线控制云层形成挑战了云层形成的自然过程，即不是等待特定季节或一年中的某个特定时间某个特定区域降雨，利用控制天气的科学，这样一个地区在一年中的任何时候都可以降雨，而不管是什么季节。此外，控制天气的想法似乎违背了广泛持有的观点，即有大量树木覆盖的地区很可能有规律的降雨，而没有这种覆盖的地区可能每年都会变得更干燥。“……森林地区产生大规模的大气水蒸气流动”，导致这些地区降雨量较高（Sheil和Murdiyarso 341）。
Figure 2: Earth’s hydrological cycle 地球水文循环
Importantly, people might find it challenging because of the thought that there is no guarantee that a particular area has sufficient moisture in the atmosphere to form clouds. In this case, even if the idea was accepted as feasible, people will find it challenging to implement as a result of the fact that the formation of clouds in the atmosphere that result in rain depends on whether the atmosphere in the particular region needs to have humidity as well as condensation nuclei upon which the water molecules can condense and form clouds (Miller 2016). It is only after such condensation and formation of cloud that rain can occur in a particular place. Despite the challenges this idea poses, its successful implement would reduce people’s dependency on seasons to receive rain. As a result of this, people living in different parts can use this idea to stimulate rains throughout the year and as a result, create a platform for uninterrupted farming activities throughout the year. Furthermore, the idea could help areas that are currently characterised as arid and semi-arid to begin receiving rainfall, thus enabling people living in such areas to access water for human, plant and livestock use. This would help boost food security in such areas.
重要的是，人们可能会发现它具有挑战性，因为人们认为无法保证某个特定区域的大气中有足够的水分形成云。在这种情况下，即使这个想法被认为是可行的，人们会发现实施起来很有挑战性，因为大气中云的形成会导致降雨，这取决于特定区域的大气是否需要湿度以及水分子在其上凝结并形成云的凝结核（Miller 2016）。只有在这种凝结和云的形成之后，雨水才能在特定的地方出现。尽管这一想法带来了挑战，但它的成功实施将减少人们对雨季的依赖。因此，生活在不同地区的人们可以利用这一想法刺激全年降雨，从而为全年不间断的农业活动创造一个平台。此外，这一想法可以帮助目前以干旱和半干旱为特征的地区开始接受降雨，从而使生活在这些地区的人们能够获得供人类、植物和牲畜使用的水。这将有助于提高这些地区的粮食安全。