I, robot-manager人與機(jī)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(guān)于人與機(jī)器人的關(guān)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(jī)器人已經(jīng)被認(rèn)為是科幻的東西太久了以至于把他們看做管理事實(shí)的東西驚人地難。一為捷克劇作家KarelCapek在1920年給他們?nèi)×嗣帧Ｒ晃幻绹?guó)作家以撒阿西莫夫讓他們面對(duì)他們最難忘的困境。好萊塢把他們變成了超級(jí)英雄和超級(jí)大壞蛋。當(dāng)一些電影評(píng)論家寫(xiě)出好萊塢50只最好的人和50只最壞的人的名單時(shí)，唯一一位同時(shí)出現(xiàn)在兩份名單上的角色是終結(jié)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(xiàn)在管理思想家是時(shí)候趕上科幻作家的腳步了。自20世紀(jì)60年代起機(jī)器人已經(jīng)在生產(chǎn)線(xiàn)上做雜活了。世界上已經(jīng)有超過(guò)100百萬(wàn)的工業(yè)機(jī)器人。現(xiàn)在機(jī)器人變得更聰明更廉價(jià)的比率也在增長(zhǎng)：一個(gè)爆炸性的組合。機(jī)器人正在學(xué)著對(duì)他們周?chē)氖澜缱鞒龌貞?yīng)。他們看東西的能力逐漸接近人類(lèi)，他們攝取信息的容量以及對(duì)其作出反應(yīng)。以后的機(jī)器人逐漸能夠從事精致與復(fù)雜的工作。代之把他們關(guān)進(jìn)籠子以防與人類(lèi)和機(jī)器對(duì)抗，機(jī)器人將會(huì)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(guó)的武裝力量已經(jīng)在這里開(kāi)拓了一條路。他們現(xiàn)在有不下12000只機(jī)器人服務(wù)于他們的隊(duì)伍。智囊團(tuán)布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)的彼得辛格說(shuō)，人類(lèi)在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)上5000 年的壟斷正在被打破。最近增加到戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)的包括執(zhí)行偵察任務(wù)的小昆蟲(chóng)和嚇唬敵人的大狗。五角大樓正在研發(fā)強(qiáng)動(dòng)力自動(dòng)戰(zhàn)術(shù)機(jī)器人，一種通過(guò)吃任何在它周?chē)业降纳镔|(zhì)來(lái)補(bǔ)充能量的機(jī)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(shuí)通下水道或者吸收核廢料的功力能比這些非凡的機(jī)器要好?日本人在最近一次地震后的清理中用到的機(jī)器人驚人地少。他們說(shuō)他們?cè)阱e(cuò)誤的地方選擇了錯(cuò)誤的機(jī)器人。但是他們已經(jīng)在全球范圍內(nèi)發(fā)布了關(guān)于機(jī)器人助理的聲援而且貌似馬上會(huì)投入更多的機(jī)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(dāng)機(jī)器人進(jìn)入到服務(wù)產(chǎn)業(yè)時(shí)它們開(kāi)始變得不像機(jī)器更像生物了。帕羅形似一只小海豹對(duì)命令做出反應(yīng)。本田的機(jī)器人ASIMO具有人類(lèi)特點(diǎn)還會(huì)走路，說(shuō)話(huà)和回應(yīng)命令。Roxxxy是美國(guó)制造的性愛(ài)機(jī)器人，可以設(shè)置以滿(mǎn)足各種喜好，還聽(tīng)從它搭檔努力改善它的表現(xiàn)。

　　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(zhí)行者們大部分忽略了機(jī)器人，把它們當(dāng)做工程問(wèn)題而不是管理問(wèn)題。這不可能繼續(xù)：機(jī)器人這在變得很有力還無(wú)處不在。企業(yè)也許需要重新考慮它們的戰(zhàn)略通過(guò)這些另類(lèi)的工人獲取利益。它們真的需要把產(chǎn)品交給中國(guó)去加工，例如，當(dāng)他們有聰明的機(jī)器零工資不停地工作的時(shí)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(yīng)該有純粹的人力資源部門(mén)的問(wèn)題開(kāi)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(gè)問(wèn)題是如何管理機(jī)器人它們自己。阿西莫夫在1942年立下了一個(gè)基本規(guī)則：機(jī)器人不應(yīng)該傷害人類(lèi)。這條規(guī)則已經(jīng)通過(guò)最近的技術(shù)改良被加強(qiáng)了：機(jī)器人現(xiàn)在對(duì)周?chē)氖挛锩舾械枚啵€可以遵照指示避免襲擊人類(lèi)。但是五角大樓的計(jì)劃使得這一切變得更復(fù)雜：許多它的機(jī)器人本質(zhì)上會(huì)變成殺人機(jī)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(gè)問(wèn)題是如何處理人與機(jī)器人之間人的一邊。勞動(dòng)者們總是擔(dān)心新技術(shù)會(huì)帶走他們的生計(jì)，從最初唯恐失業(yè)而反對(duì)用機(jī)器人的生產(chǎn)者們對(duì)機(jī)械織布機(jī)的恐懼開(kāi)始。當(dāng)機(jī)器以人類(lèi)的面孔出現(xiàn)時(shí)那種擔(dān)憂(yōu)呈現(xiàn)出一個(gè)特別緊張的形式：卡佩克給機(jī)器人取名字的戲描述了一個(gè)他們?cè)編?lái)許多利益但是最終卻導(dǎo)致大量失業(yè)和不滿(mǎn)的世界。現(xiàn)在，在工作場(chǎng)所越來(lái)越多得人類(lèi)機(jī)器人的到來(lái)，對(duì)于一個(gè)高失業(yè)率的時(shí)代，必然要激起一點(diǎn)反應(yīng)。

　　I, robot-manager人與機(jī)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(guān)于人與機(jī)器人的關(guān)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(jī)器人已經(jīng)被認(rèn)為是科幻的東西太久了以至于把他們看做管理事實(shí)的東西驚人地難。一為捷克劇作家KarelCapek在1920年給他們?nèi)×嗣帧Ｒ晃幻绹?guó)作家以撒阿西莫夫讓他們面對(duì)他們最難忘的困境。好萊塢把他們變成了超級(jí)英雄和超級(jí)大壞蛋。當(dāng)一些電影評(píng)論家寫(xiě)出好萊塢50只最好的人和50只最壞的人的名單時(shí)，唯一一位同時(shí)出現(xiàn)在兩份名單上的角色是終結(jié)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(xiàn)在管理思想家是時(shí)候趕上科幻作家的腳步了。自20世紀(jì)60年代起機(jī)器人已經(jīng)在生產(chǎn)線(xiàn)上做雜活了。世界上已經(jīng)有超過(guò)100百萬(wàn)的工業(yè)機(jī)器人。現(xiàn)在機(jī)器人變得更聰明更廉價(jià)的比率也在增長(zhǎng)：一個(gè)爆炸性的組合。機(jī)器人正在學(xué)著對(duì)他們周?chē)氖澜缱鞒龌貞?yīng)。他們看東西的能力逐漸接近人類(lèi)，他們攝取信息的容量以及對(duì)其作出反應(yīng)。以后的機(jī)器人逐漸能夠從事精致與復(fù)雜的工作。代之把他們關(guān)進(jìn)籠子以防與人類(lèi)和機(jī)器對(duì)抗，機(jī)器人將會(huì)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(guó)的武裝力量已經(jīng)在這里開(kāi)拓了一條路。他們現(xiàn)在有不下12000只機(jī)器人服務(wù)于他們的隊(duì)伍。智囊團(tuán)布魯金斯學(xué)會(huì)的彼得辛格說(shuō)，人類(lèi)在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)上5000 年的壟斷正在被打破。最近增加到戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)的包括執(zhí)行偵察任務(wù)的小昆蟲(chóng)和嚇唬敵人的大狗。五角大樓正在研發(fā)強(qiáng)動(dòng)力自動(dòng)戰(zhàn)術(shù)機(jī)器人，一種通過(guò)吃任何在它周?chē)业降纳镔|(zhì)來(lái)補(bǔ)充能量的機(jī)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(shuí)通下水道或者吸收核廢料的功力能比這些非凡的機(jī)器要好?日本人在最近一次地震后的清理中用到的機(jī)器人驚人地少。他們說(shuō)他們?cè)阱e(cuò)誤的地方選擇了錯(cuò)誤的機(jī)器人。但是他們已經(jīng)在全球范圍內(nèi)發(fā)布了關(guān)于機(jī)器人助理的聲援而且貌似馬上會(huì)投入更多的機(jī)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(dāng)機(jī)器人進(jìn)入到服務(wù)產(chǎn)業(yè)時(shí)它們開(kāi)始變得不像機(jī)器更像生物了。帕羅形似一只小海豹對(duì)命令做出反應(yīng)。本田的機(jī)器人ASIMO具有人類(lèi)特點(diǎn)還會(huì)走路，說(shuō)話(huà)和回應(yīng)命令。Roxxxy是美國(guó)制造的性愛(ài)機(jī)器人，可以設(shè)置以滿(mǎn)足各種喜好，還聽(tīng)從它搭檔努力改善它的表現(xiàn)。

　　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(zhí)行者們大部分忽略了機(jī)器人，把它們當(dāng)做工程問(wèn)題而不是管理問(wèn)題。這不可能繼續(xù)：機(jī)器人這在變得很有力還無(wú)處不在。企業(yè)也許需要重新考慮它們的戰(zhàn)略通過(guò)這些另類(lèi)的工人獲取利益。它們真的需要把產(chǎn)品交給中國(guó)去加工，例如，當(dāng)他們有聰明的機(jī)器零工資不停地工作的時(shí)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(yīng)該有純粹的人力資源部門(mén)的問(wèn)題開(kāi)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(gè)問(wèn)題是如何管理機(jī)器人它們自己。阿西莫夫在1942年立下了一個(gè)基本規(guī)則：機(jī)器人不應(yīng)該傷害人類(lèi)。這條規(guī)則已經(jīng)通過(guò)最近的技術(shù)改良被加強(qiáng)了：機(jī)器人現(xiàn)在對(duì)周?chē)氖挛锩舾械枚啵€可以遵照指示避免襲擊人類(lèi)。但是五角大樓的計(jì)劃使得這一切變得更復(fù)雜：許多它的機(jī)器人本質(zhì)上會(huì)變成殺人機(jī)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(gè)問(wèn)題是如何處理人與機(jī)器人之間人的一邊。勞動(dòng)者們總是擔(dān)心新技術(shù)會(huì)帶走他們的生計(jì)，從最初唯恐失業(yè)而反對(duì)用機(jī)器人的生產(chǎn)者們對(duì)機(jī)械織布機(jī)的恐懼開(kāi)始。當(dāng)機(jī)器以人類(lèi)的面孔出現(xiàn)時(shí)那種擔(dān)憂(yōu)呈現(xiàn)出一個(gè)特別緊張的形式：卡佩克給機(jī)器人取名字的戲描述了一個(gè)他們?cè)編?lái)許多利益但是最終卻導(dǎo)致大量失業(yè)和不滿(mǎn)的世界。現(xiàn)在，在工作場(chǎng)所越來(lái)越多得人類(lèi)機(jī)器人的到來(lái)，對(duì)于一個(gè)高失業(yè)率的時(shí)代，必然要激起一點(diǎn)反應(yīng)。