2023考研英語閱讀人與機器人的管理
I, robot-manager人與機器人的管理
Management thinkers need to ponder more abouthomo-robo relations 管理思想家需要考慮更多關于人與機器人的關系
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 . An American writer, IsaacAsimov, confronted them with their mostmemorable dilemmas. Hollywood turned them intosuperheroes and supervillains. When some film critics drew up lists of Hollywoods 50 greatestgood guys and 50 greatest baddies, the only character to appear on both lists was a robot, theTerminator.
機器人已經被認為是科幻的東西太久了以至于把他們看做管理事實的東西驚人地難。一為捷克劇作家KarelCapek在1920年給他們取了名字。一位美國作家以撒阿西莫夫讓他們面對他們最難忘的困境。好萊塢把他們變成了超級英雄和超級大壞蛋。當一些電影評論家寫出好萊塢50只最好的人和50只最壞的人的名單時，唯一一位同時出現在兩份名單上的角色是終結者。
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. Tomorrows 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.
現在管理思想家是時候趕上科幻作家的腳步了。自20世紀60年代起機器人已經在生產線上做雜活了。世界上已經有超過100百萬的工業機器人。現在機器人變得更聰明更廉價的比率也在增長：一個爆炸性的組合。機器人正在學著對他們周圍的世界作出回應。他們看東西的能力逐漸接近人類，他們攝取信息的容量以及對其作出反應。以后的機器人逐漸能夠從事精致與復雜的工作。代之把他們關進籠子以防與人類和機器對抗，機器人將會自由漫步。
Americas 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 mankinds5,000-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.
美國的武裝力量已經在這里開拓了一條路。他們現在有不下12000只機器人服務于他們的隊伍。智囊團布魯金斯學會的彼得辛格說，人類在戰爭上5000 年的壟斷正在被打破。最近增加到戰場的包括執行偵察任務的小昆蟲和嚇唬敵人的大狗。五角大樓正在研發強動力自動戰術機器人，一種通過吃任何在它周圍找到的生物質來補充能量的機器人。
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。誰通下水道或者吸收核廢料的功力能比這些非凡的機器要好?日本人在最近一次地震后的清理中用到的機器人驚人地少。他們說他們在錯誤的地方選擇了錯誤的機器人。但是他們已經在全球范圍內發布了關于機器人助理的聲援而且貌似馬上會投入更多的機器人。
As robots advance into the service industries theyare starting to look less like machines and more likeliving creatures. The Paro is shaped like a baby seal andresponds to attention. Hondas 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 listens to itspartner to try to improve its performance.
當機器人進入到服務產業時它們開始變得不像機器更像生物了。帕羅形似一只小海豹對命令做出反應。本田的機器人ASIMO具有人類特點還會走路，說話和回應命令。Roxxxy是美國制造的性愛機器人，可以設置以滿足各種喜好，還聽從它搭檔努力改善它的表現。
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 policiesstarting by questioning whether they should have departments devotedto purely human resources.
直到今天執行者們大部分忽略了機器人，把它們當做工程問題而不是管理問題。這不可能繼續：機器人這在變得很有力還無處不在。企業也許需要重新考慮它們的戰略通過這些另類的工人獲取利益。它們真的需要把產品交給中國去加工，例如，當他們有聰明的機器零工資不停地工作的時候?它們必然要重新考慮它們的人力資源政策，從是否他們應該有純粹的人力資源部門的問題開始。
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 Pentagons plans make all this a bit morecomplicated: many of its robots will be, in essence, killing machines.
第一個問題是如何管理機器人它們自己。阿西莫夫在1942年立下了一個基本規則：機器人不應該傷害人類。這條規則已經通過最近的技術改良被加強了：機器人現在對周圍的事物敏感得多，還可以遵照指示避免襲擊人類。但是五角大樓的計劃使得這一切變得更復雜：許多它的機器人本質上會變成殺人機器。
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: Capeks 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.
第二個問題是如何處理人與機器人之間人的一邊。勞動者們總是擔心新技術會帶走他們的生計，從最初唯恐失業而反對用機器人的生產者們對機械織布機的恐懼開始。當機器以人類的面孔出現時那種擔憂呈現出一個特別緊張的形式：卡佩克給機器人取名字的戲描述了一個他們原本帶來許多利益但是最終卻導致大量失業和不滿的世界。現在，在工作場所越來越多得人類機器人的到來，對于一個高失業率的時代，必然要激起一點反應。
I, robot-manager人與機器人的管理
Management thinkers need to ponder more abouthomo-robo relations 管理思想家需要考慮更多關于人與機器人的關系
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 . An American writer, IsaacAsimov, confronted them with their mostmemorable dilemmas. Hollywood turned them intosuperheroes and supervillains. When some film critics drew up lists of Hollywoods 50 greatestgood guys and 50 greatest baddies, the only character to appear on both lists was a robot, theTerminator.
機器人已經被認為是科幻的東西太久了以至于把他們看做管理事實的東西驚人地難。一為捷克劇作家KarelCapek在1920年給他們取了名字。一位美國作家以撒阿西莫夫讓他們面對他們最難忘的困境。好萊塢把他們變成了超級英雄和超級大壞蛋。當一些電影評論家寫出好萊塢50只最好的人和50只最壞的人的名單時，唯一一位同時出現在兩份名單上的角色是終結者。
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. Tomorrows 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.
現在管理思想家是時候趕上科幻作家的腳步了。自20世紀60年代起機器人已經在生產線上做雜活了。世界上已經有超過100百萬的工業機器人。現在機器人變得更聰明更廉價的比率也在增長：一個爆炸性的組合。機器人正在學著對他們周圍的世界作出回應。他們看東西的能力逐漸接近人類，他們攝取信息的容量以及對其作出反應。以后的機器人逐漸能夠從事精致與復雜的工作。代之把他們關進籠子以防與人類和機器對抗，機器人將會自由漫步。
Americas 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 mankinds5,000-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.
美國的武裝力量已經在這里開拓了一條路。他們現在有不下12000只機器人服務于他們的隊伍。智囊團布魯金斯學會的彼得辛格說，人類在戰爭上5000 年的壟斷正在被打破。最近增加到戰場的包括執行偵察任務的小昆蟲和嚇唬敵人的大狗。五角大樓正在研發強動力自動戰術機器人，一種通過吃任何在它周圍找到的生物質來補充能量的機器人。
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。誰通下水道或者吸收核廢料的功力能比這些非凡的機器要好?日本人在最近一次地震后的清理中用到的機器人驚人地少。他們說他們在錯誤的地方選擇了錯誤的機器人。但是他們已經在全球范圍內發布了關于機器人助理的聲援而且貌似馬上會投入更多的機器人。
As robots advance into the service industries theyare starting to look less like machines and more likeliving creatures. The Paro is shaped like a baby seal andresponds to attention. Hondas 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 listens to itspartner to try to improve its performance.
當機器人進入到服務產業時它們開始變得不像機器更像生物了。帕羅形似一只小海豹對命令做出反應。本田的機器人ASIMO具有人類特點還會走路，說話和回應命令。Roxxxy是美國制造的性愛機器人，可以設置以滿足各種喜好，還聽從它搭檔努力改善它的表現。
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 policiesstarting by questioning whether they should have departments devotedto purely human resources.
直到今天執行者們大部分忽略了機器人，把它們當做工程問題而不是管理問題。這不可能繼續：機器人這在變得很有力還無處不在。企業也許需要重新考慮它們的戰略通過這些另類的工人獲取利益。它們真的需要把產品交給中國去加工，例如，當他們有聰明的機器零工資不停地工作的時候?它們必然要重新考慮它們的人力資源政策，從是否他們應該有純粹的人力資源部門的問題開始。
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 Pentagons plans make all this a bit morecomplicated: many of its robots will be, in essence, killing machines.
第一個問題是如何管理機器人它們自己。阿西莫夫在1942年立下了一個基本規則：機器人不應該傷害人類。這條規則已經通過最近的技術改良被加強了：機器人現在對周圍的事物敏感得多，還可以遵照指示避免襲擊人類。但是五角大樓的計劃使得這一切變得更復雜：許多它的機器人本質上會變成殺人機器。
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: Capeks 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.
第二個問題是如何處理人與機器人之間人的一邊。勞動者們總是擔心新技術會帶走他們的生計，從最初唯恐失業而反對用機器人的生產者們對機械織布機的恐懼開始。當機器以人類的面孔出現時那種擔憂呈現出一個特別緊張的形式：卡佩克給機器人取名字的戲描述了一個他們原本帶來許多利益但是最終卻導致大量失業和不滿的世界。現在，在工作場所越來越多得人類機器人的到來，對于一個高失業率的時代，必然要激起一點反應。
