在传统的弗洛伊德分析中，梦见断了一只手或是一根手指意味着对阉割的深层恐惧。这种理论能够解释亨利•布罗吉特的Business Insider公司员工对断指的恐惧吗？

    甚至在苹果（Apple）于上周二的iPhone发布会上展示最新的指纹识别系统之前，Business Insider的乔伊•雅诺就已经做出了恐怖假设：小偷会为了解锁Touch ID保护的iPhone 5S而砍下机主的手指。

    第二天，雅诺的同事吉姆•爱德华查阅了《科学美国人》（Scientific American）的往期杂志，咨询了医生（包括他自己的母亲），然后撰写了一篇专栏文章为读者出谋划策：这种情况下，丢失哪只手指或脚趾最不令人伤心。（答案是：不常使用的那只手的食指，或是踢足球时用不上的第四脚趾。）

    爱德华的这篇文章显得有些匪夷所思，因为断掉的手指能否解锁iPhone 5S这个问题现在已经有了答案——不能。

    雅诺引用网站CITEWorld的玛丽•布兰斯康的说法，在前一天撰文表示：“IPhone 5S的指纹识别要依靠人们手指皮肤下的活细胞层”。

    互联网新闻博客Mashable的阿达里奥•斯特兰奇周六在与加州的指纹传感器技术厂商Validity Sensors的专家谈话后，得出了同一结论。

    Validity的首席技术官塞巴斯蒂安•塔沃说：“采用（RF电容传感器）这项技术，（指纹）图像就必须采自活的手指。没有哪个生物学专家喜欢讨论断指和尸体，但我们最终还是接到了邀请，来打消顾客的恐惧，确保他们知道（砍下来的手指）解不了锁。”

    在这样的情况下，“打消恐惧”这个词难免令人遗憾。尤其是斯特兰奇刚刚才又一次提到：马来西亚的持刀暴徒为了发动抢来的梅赛德斯S系轿车，砍下了受害人的食指。

    最新消息：本话题已经在市场研究公司Investor Village网站的AAPL Sanity版引发了热烈的讨论。一名用户在周日打趣道，甚至包括安卓手机在内的一切手机都会受到影响。

    他写道：“如果你准备砍掉安卓手机用户的手指，他会马上告诉你密码的。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正     

    In traditional Freudian analysis, dreams of losing a hand or a finger signify a deeper fear of castration. Could that explain the obsession with amputated digits among the staff of Henry Blodget's Business Insider?

    Even before Apple (AAPL) unveiled its new fingerprint recognition system at last Tuesday's iPhone event, BI's Jay Yarow had raised the specter of a thief chopping off a finger to unlock an iPhone 5S protected by Touch ID.

    By the next morning, Yarow's colleague Jim Edwards had read a back issue of Scientific American, consulted a couple of doctors (including his mom) and posted a column advising readers which finger (or toe) in such a situation they would miss the least. (Answer: The index finger of your non-dominant hand or the fourth toe on the foot you don't kick a soccer ball with.)

    Edward's piece was especially bizarre because the question of whether a dead finger could unlock an iPhone 5S had already been answered.

    It can't.

    "The iPhone 5S's fingerprint reader relies on "the living layer of skin under the surface of your finger," Yarow had written the day before, quoting CITEWorld's Mary Branscombe.

    Mashable's Adario Strange reached the same conclusion Saturday after talking to an expert at Validity Sensors, a California-based provider of fingerprint sensor solutions.

    "The [RF capacitive sensor] technology is built in a way that the [fingerprint] image has to be taken from a live finger," says Sebastien Taveau, Validity's chief technology officer. "No one in biometrics wants to talk about cut fingers and dead bodies, but at the end of the day we are still asked to remove the fears of consumer and make sure that they understand that [a severed finger] will not work."

    "Remove the fears" is an unfortunate phrase in this context. Especially since Strange had just re-told the story a machete-weilding Malaysian gang that chopped off the index finger of a robbery victim in 2005 in order to restart his stolen Mercedes S-class car.

    UPDATE: The topic has already been thoroughly chewed over on Investor Village's AAPL Sanityboard, where one wag claimed Sunday that all phones -- even Androids -- are susceptible.

    "If you begin the process of cutting off an Android phone owners finger," he wrote, "he's going to tell you his password."