Lessening Effect of Robots on the Human Work Force

Technology activists are appealing to tech companies and their leaders to build a future in which the effect of machinery on humans is lessened.
科技活动人士呼吁科技公司及其领导人打造一个机器对人类影响减少的未来。
Some workers have long feared that machines are coming to take away their jobs.
一些工人长期担心机器将会取代他们的工作。

Robots now are doing more work than ever before. Lasers being used to cut cloth at factories, while drone aircraft water crops.
机器人现在从事的工作超过了以往任何时候。激光器被用在工厂切割布料，而无人机被用于给作物浇水。

Tim O'Reilly heads O'Reilly Media, a technology advisory service. He says it is important for people and machines to work together. He says most computer software depends on human beings to keep it operating and current.
蒂姆·奥莱利是奥莱利传媒这家技术咨询服务公司的负责人。他说，人类和机器共事非常重要。他说，大多数计算机软件依赖人类维持其运行和更新。

"It's so important that we have to think about not using technology to replace people -- but to augment them, to do something that was previously impossible," O'Reilly said.
他说，“我们必须考虑不使用技术来取代人类，而是要强化技术来完成以前不可能完成的事情，这一点非常重要。”

He spoke last week at conference in Ho Chi Minh City. The meeting was a project of the Asia and Pacific Internet Association and APNIC – the Asia-Pacific registry for internet domain names.
他上周在胡志明市的会议上作了发言。这次会议是亚太互联网协会和负责亚太地区域名注册的亚太网络信息中心的一项研究项目。

With more skills, people can work with machines, O'Reilly noted. For example, the ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber use software designed to help human drivers. Most large airplanes are now flown by computers. But passengers will likely always want a human pilot on the plane.
奥莱利表示，有了更多技能，人类就能和机器共事。例如，汽车共乘公司Lyft和Uber采用了旨在帮助人类驾驶员的软件。大多数大型飞机目前由计算机控制飞行，但是乘客可能总是希望飞机上有一位人类飞行员。

Jonathan Brewer is a trainer at the Network Startup Resource Center, a non-profit group based at the University of Oregon. He believes the next step in technology should improve on the one before it.
乔纳森·布鲁尔是网络初创资源中心的一名培训师，这是俄勒冈大学的一家非营利性组织。他认为技术的下一步应该是改进上一代技术。

Speaking at the conference, he noted that when factories began to be built in large numbers, many people were left with undrinkable water and unbreathable air.
他在会议上指出，当开始大量修建工厂时，给人们留下了不可饮用的水源和无法呼吸的空气（指污染）。

Today, Brewer said, technology experts must consider how their inventions can help people. He noted how sensors can warn people an hour before a mudslide takes place. There are other "life-saving devices that cost very, very little money." He added there is not much reason to have machines do difficult work if people are not able to use and enjoy the results of their labor.
布鲁尔表示，如今的技术专家必须考虑他们的发明能够如何帮助人们。他指出了传感器如何在泥石流发生前一个小时向人们预警。还有很多花费不多的救生设备。他补充说，如果人们无法利用和享受他们劳动的成果，就没有太多理由让机器从事困难的工作。

O'Reilly said the world needs people. He told the conference's delegates that "all of you, in some sense, are inside the internet. (If) you go away, it stops working. It's not like a piece of software in (the) PC era where if you had a copy of Microsoft Windows running on your personal computer, it would keep running without the original programmers. Almost all of the software we depend on today is a service that depends on the work of people like you."
奥莱利表示，世界需要人类。他告诉会议代表，“在某种意义上，我们所有人都在互联网内。如果我们离开，它就会停止运行。这不像是PC时代的一个软件，如果你在个人电脑上安装了微软视窗系统的副本，它不需要原始程序就能维持运行。今天我们依赖的几乎所有软件都是一种服务，它依赖于我们人类的工作。”

While some experts believe robots will help in the future, others are worried. In 2015 the consulting service McKinsey & Company said machines will someday perform 45 percent of the jobs humans now do.
虽然一些专家认为机器人在未来会有帮助，但是其他人都很担心。2015年，麦肯锡咨询服务公司表示，某天机器将会从事目前人类所从事的45%的工作。

That may be why many technology experts support the idea of universal guaranteed earnings. Under the plan, a small monthly payment would be made to each person, even if they do not work.
这可能是为何很多技术专家支持共同保障收益的理念。根据该方案，每人都将获得少量的月收入，即使他们不工作。

Brewer hopes that people and machines will continue to cooperate. He said there is technology that tells city workers when street lights need to be repaired or when trash cans are full. That means the workers do not need to examine the lights or cans, as many now do. But he said when the technology tells when repairs are needed or containers must be emptied, humans must still provide the service.
布鲁尔希望人类和机器继续合作。他说，有一种技术可以在路灯需要修理，或是垃圾桶已满时告诉市政工人。这意味着工人不需要像现在这样检查路灯或垃圾桶。但他表示，当这种技术告知需要修理路灯或清理垃圾桶时，人类仍然必须提供这项服务。

Many delegates at the conference support technology and the changes it will bring. But many are also starting to think about its effect on humans and how to help people live in a world where machines do so much work.
很多与会代表支持技术及其将会带来的变化。但是很多人也开始考虑它对人类的影响，以及人类如何在一个机器干了这么多工作的世界里生存。