#132. If you could invent something new, what product would you develop?
The world today is moving at a faster and faster pace. An invention that would be exceptionally useful for the human race would be an intelligent humanoid robot.
On a daily basis, millions of people in China perform tasks which are exceedingly tedious, and are a tragic waste of the abilities of these people. Tasks such as house cleaning, street cleaning, some types of farming, some factory work, toll booths and a multitude of other jobs would be performed just as easily by a robot as by a man. In some cases, robots could potentially outperform man because they would not need to rest. They could perform these simple tasks at a rapid speed, and therefore would be a significant advantage in some manual labor jobs.
Other tasks that people perform are incredibly dangerous, and often cause life long injuries, or much worse as to kill people. If these types of jobs were performed by machines, there would be far fewer work-related injuries and deaths. A prime example is deep sea welding on oil platforms. Every year there are many deaths of workers who hold this dangerous position. In addition, because it is such a high-stress job, the worker's lives are often shortened because of inability to cope. As machines obviously do not feel emotional stress, they would perform hundreds of times better than men do in these types of situations.
Humanoid robots would also more efficiently perform complex jobs such as surgeries and manufacturing high-tech materials. For example, eye surgeries and brain surgeries require a very steady, careful hand, and an intensely varied knowledge of the human anatomy. A robot could be programmed to complete such surgeries flawlessly. Manufacturing high-tech materials is very complex, as it involves many intricate mathematical problems. A robot could be programmed to perform calculations in seconds that would take a man hours or days to perform.
Therefore, I think an intelligent humanoid robot would be incredibly beneficial to the human race, although many of the tasks it performs would need to be supervised by a person, and some tasks would be impossible to perform for a robot.
132. 如果你能发明一件新事物,你会发明什么?
当今世界正以越来越快的速度向前发展。智能人形机器人将是一个对人类格外有用的发明。
在中国,每天都有上百万的人从事着极其枯燥的工作,它们是对这些人才能的一种非常不幸的浪费。像收拾房间、清扫街道、某些形式的耕作、某些工厂的工作、收费站等许多工作,用机器人来做会和人类一样轻松。在有些情况下,机器人有可能完成得比人类更好,因为它们不需要休息。它们能够快速地完成这些简单的工作,因此在一些体力劳动的工作上将会有很明显的优势。
人们从事的有些工作是非常危险的,经常会导致终生的伤害,或者更糟的,会导致死亡。而这种工作要是由机器来完成的话,工伤和工伤致死将少得多。一个很典型的例子就是油井的深海焊接。每年死于这一危险职业的工人很多。另外,由于这种工作需要高度的精神紧张,所以工人经常会因为无力应付而寿命缩短。显而易见,机器感觉不到精神紧张,它们在这种情形下可以比人类好上千百倍地进行工作。
人形机器人还可以更加有效地完成像外科手术和制造高科技材料之类的复杂工作。比如,眼睛手术和脑部手术需要一只不颤抖而且谨慎的手,以及对人类解剖学有极其广泛的了解。一个机器人可以按程序准确无误地完成这样的手术。制造高科技材料是非常复杂的,因为它涉及到许多错综复杂的数学问题。机器人可以按照程序在数秒之内完成人类需要几个小时或是几天时间才能完成的计算。
- exceptionally [ikˈsepʃənəli]adv. 格外地,特别地
- incredibly [inˈkredəbli] adv. 非常
- weld [weld] v. 焊接
- intelligent [inˈtelədʒənt] adj. 智能的
- shorten [ˈʃɔ:tn] v. 缩短,使变短
- humanoid [ˈhju:məˌnɔid] adj. 人形的
- steady [ˈstedi] adj. 不颤抖的
- exceedingly [ikˈsi:diŋli] adv. 极其,非常
- anatomy [əˈnætəmi] n. 解剖学
- tedious [ˈti:diəs] adj. 枯燥的
- flawlessly [ˈflɔ:lisli] adv. 无误地
- tragic [ˈtrædʒik] adj. 不幸的,悲惨的
- intricate [ˈintrikit] adj. 错综复杂的
- toll booth 收费站
- supervise [ˈsu:pəvaiz] v. 监督
- outperform [autpəˈfɔ:m] v. 比…做得好