从2100年公元的视角来看，1957年将毫无疑问地载入史册，成为人类从二维地理向三维地理进步的一年。
From the vantage point of 2100 A.D., the year 1957 will most certainly stand in history as the year of man’s progression from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional geography.
它也可能成为智力成就超越武器和国家财富作为国家政策工具的时间点。
It may well stand, also, as the point in time at which intellectual achievement forged ahead of weapons and national wealth as instruments of national policy. . . .
……我们不应犯错，仅仅把卫星看作某外国军事进步的象征。
We should not make the mistake of seeing in the satellite merely the symbol of a foreign Power’s military progress.
它当然代表了军事能力的重要进步。
It does, of course, represent important advances in military capability.
但无论科学与军事实力的通常相互作用如何，卫星象征着一种智力成就，这种成就可能在不久的将来成为国家政策最强大的单一工具。
But quite irrespective of the usual interaction of scientific and military strength, the satellite symbolizes an intellectual attainment that may dominate the period immediately ahead as the most powerful single instrument of national policy.
关键点不在于苏联卫星先于此前被视为世界科技领袖的美国卫星发射，而在于美国首次在最前沿的科学领域遇到具有挑战性的竞争对手。
The vital point is not so much that the Soviet satellite preceded that of the United States, heretofore credited as the leader of world technology; it is that the United States, for the first time, finds a challenging competitor in the most advanced scientific fields.
苏联卫星的成就向美国人展示了他们之前拒绝相信的事实：他们正处于智力领导权的竞争中，而此前他们甚至未意识到有如此竞争的存在，或另一个国家具备挑战其技术的能力。
The achievement of the Soviet satellite has demonstrated to Americans what they refused to believe before, that they are in a race for intellectual leadership when they hadn’t realized that there was a race, or even that another nation had the capability to challenge their technology.
在我们假设的技术领先自满中，我们把高水平的生活水平和物质繁荣与智识地位混为一谈。
In the complacency of our assumed technological lead, we have confused our high standards of living and material prosperity with intellectual stature.
这是一种奢侈且危险的错误。
It is an extravagant and dangerous mistake.