2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：人与机器人的管理

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　I, robot-manager人与机器人的管理

　　Management thinkers need to ponder more abouthomo-robo relations 管理思想家需要考虑更多关于人与机器人的关系

　　ROBOTS have been the stuff of science fiction for solong that it is surprisingly hard to see them as thestuff of management fact. A Czech playwright,Karel Capek, gave them their name in 1920 (from theSlavonic word for “work”). An American writer, IsaacAsimov, confronted them with their mostmemorable dilemmas. Hollywood turned them intosuperheroes and supervillains. When some film critics drew up lists of Hollywood’s 50 greatestgood guys and 50 greatest baddies, the only character to appear on both lists was a robot, theTerminator.

　　机器人已经被认为是科幻的东西太久了以至于把他们看做管理事实的东西惊人地难。一为捷克剧作家KarelCapek在1920年给他们取了名字(来自斯拉夫语意为“工作”)。一位美国作家以撒·阿西莫夫让他们面对他们最难忘的困境。好莱坞把他们变成了超级英雄和超级大坏蛋。当一些电影评论家写出好莱坞50只最好的人和50只最坏的人的名单时，唯一一位同时出现在两份名单上的角色是终结者。

　　It is time for management thinkers to catch up with science-fiction writers. Robots have beendoing menial jobs on production lines since the 1960s. The world already has more than 1mindustrial robots. There is now an acceleration in the rates at which they are becoming bothcleverer and cheaper: an explosive combination. Robots are learning to interact with the worldaround them. Their ability to see things is getting ever closer to that of humans, as is theircapacity to ingest information and act on it. Tomorrow’s robots will increasingly take ondelicate, complex tasks. And instead of being imprisoned in cages to stop them colliding withpeople and machines, they will be free to wander.

　　现在管理思想家是时候赶上科幻作家的脚步了。自20世纪60年代起机器人已经在生产线上做杂活了。世界上已经有超过100百万的工业机器人。现在机器人变得更聪明更廉价的比率也在增长：一个爆炸性的组合。机器人正在学着对他们周围的世界作出回应。他们看东西的能力逐渐接近人类，他们摄取信息的容量以及对其作出反应。以后的机器人逐渐能够从事精致与复杂的工作。代之把他们关进笼子以防与人类和机器对抗，机器人将会自由漫步。

　　America’s armed forces have blazed a trail here. They now have no fewer than 12,000 robotsserving in their ranks. Peter Singer, of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, says mankind’s5,000-year monopoly on the fighting of war is breaking down. Recent additions to thebattlefield include tiny “insects” that perform reconnaissance missions and giant “dogs” toterrify foes. The Pentagon is also working on the EATR, a robot that fuels itself by eatingwhatever biomass it finds around it.

　　美国的武装力量已经在这里开拓了一条路。他们现在有不下12000只机器人服务于他们的队伍。智囊团布鲁金斯学会的彼得·辛格说，人类在战争上5000年的垄断正在被打破。最近增加到战场的包括执行侦察任务的小“昆虫”和吓唬敌人的大“狗”。五角大楼正在研发强动力自动战术机器人，一种通过吃任何在它周围找到的生物质来补充能量的机器人。

　　But the civilian world cannot be far behind. Who better to unclog sewers or suck up nuclearwaste than these remarkable machines? The Japanese have made surprisingly little use ofrobots to clear up after the recent earthquake, given their world leadership in this area. Theysay that they had the wrong sort of robots in the wrong places. But they have issued a globalcall for robotic assistance and are likely to put more robots to work shortly.

　　但是平民的世界不能落后。谁通下水道或者吸收核废料的功力能比这些非凡的机器要好?日本人在最近一次地震后的清理中用到的机器人惊人地少。他们说他们在错误的地方选择了错误的机器人。但是他们已经在全球范围内发布了关于机器人助理的声援而且貌似马上会投入更多的机器人。

　　As robots advance into the service industries theyare starting to look less like machines and more likeliving creatures. The Paro (made by AIST, a Japaneseresearch agency) is shaped like a baby seal andresponds to attention. Honda’s robot, ASIMO, ishumanoid and can walk, talk and respond tocommands. Roxxxy, an American-made “sex robot”,can be programmed to appeal to all preferences,and (unlike many a real-life spouse) listens to itspartner to try to improve its performance.

　　当机器人进入到服务产业时它们开始变得不像机器更像生物了。帕罗(日本产业技术研究院制作)形似一只小海豹对命令做出反应。本田的机器人ASIMO具有人类特点还会走路，说话和回应命令。Roxxxy是美国制造的“性爱机器人”，可以设置以满足各种喜好，还(不像真人配偶)听从它搭档努力改善它的表现。

　　Until now executives have largely ignored robots, regarding them as an engineering rather thana management problem. This cannot go on: robots are becoming too powerful and ubiquitous.Companies may need to rethink their strategies as they gain access to these new sorts ofworkers. Do they really need to outsource production to China, for example, when they haveclever machines that work ceaselessly without pay? They certainly need to rethink their human-resources policies—starting by questioning whether they should have departments devotedto purely human resources.

　　直到今天执行者们大部分忽略了机器人，把它们当做工程问题而不是管理问题。这不可能继续：机器人这在变得很有力还无处不在。企业也许需要重新考虑它们的战略通过这些另类的工人获取利益。它们真的需要把产品交给中国去加工，例如，当他们有聪明的机器零工资不停地工作的时候?它们必然要重新考虑它们的人力资源政策，从是否他们应该有纯粹的人力资源部门的问题开始。

　　The first issue is how to manage the robots themselves. Asimov laid down the basic rule in1942: no robot should harm a human. This rule has been reinforced by recent technologicalimprovements: robots are now much more sensitive to their surroundings and can beinstructed to avoid hitting people. But the Pentagon’s plans make all this a bit morecomplicated: many of its robots will be, in essence, killing machines.

　　第一个问题是如何管理机器人它们自己。阿西莫夫在1942年立下了一个基本规则：机器人不应该伤害人类。这条规则已经通过最近的技术改良被加强了：机器人现在对周围的事物敏感得多，还可以遵照指示避免袭击人类。但是五角大楼的计划使得这一切变得更复杂：许多它的机器人本质上会变成杀人机器。

　　A second question is how to manage the homo side of homo-robo relations. Workers havealways worried that new technologies will take away their livelihoods, ever since the originalLuddites’ fears about mechanised looms. That worry takes on a particularly intense form whenthe machines come with a human face: Capek’s play that gave robots their name depicted aworld in which they initially brought lots of benefits but eventually led to massunemployment and discontent. Now, the arrival of increasingly humanoid automatons inworkplaces, in an era of high unemployment, is bound to provoke a reaction.

　　第二个问题是如何处理人与机器人之间人的一边。劳动者们总是担心新技术会带走他们的生计，从最初唯恐失业而反对用机器人的生产者们对机械织布机的恐惧开始。当机器以人类的面孔出现时那种担忧呈现出一个特别紧张的形式：卡佩克给机器人取名字的戏描述了一个他们原本带来许多利益但是最终却导致大量失业和不满的世界。现在，在工作场所越来越多得人类机器人的到来，对于一个高失业率的时代，必然要激起一点反应。

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