Fast-food restaurants are using robots
主题语境：人与社会——科学与技术
语篇导读：美国快餐店开始雇佣机器人来缓解用工荒难题。
?????? American restaurants are employing robots to make up for a lack of fast-food workers. Businesses around the world are increasingly turning to reduce running costs — and fast-food restaurants are acting as pioneers of the robot revolution.
Last year, we saw Flippy, the burger-flipping (翻转汉堡包的) robot, work in a Californian burger restaurant. And now US burger chain Wendy’s has begun using self-cleaning ovens (烤箱) in some stores, according to?The Wall Street Journal.
Meaty restaurant chain Arby’s also uses smart ovens, which can cook roast beef and then switch to a?“holding”?mode (模式). This means employees can cook food for the next day the night before, rather than arrive at 7 am to start roasting.
It’s an unsurprising response to a lack of fast-food workers.
“I’ve never seen the labor (劳动力) market this tight,”?said Scotty Murphy, Chief Operating Officer for Dunkin’ Donuts.?“We spend a lot of time training people and a month later they walk out the door.”
The US food and drink industry had 844,000 unfilled positions in April last year — a record high.
??? Dunkin’ Donuts has already automated some processes — like producing labels for food, and measuring the quality of coffee.
“I don’t have to be always worried about other smaller tasks that were tiresome,” said Alexandra Guajardo, the leader at a Dunkin’ Donuts store in California. “I can focus on other things that need my attention in the restaurant.”
?????? A study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said food preparation faced the highest probability of automation among 88 industries.
“In this market, employees will leave if they have one bad day,” Patrick Sugrue, Chief Executive Officer of Saladworks said. “If that happens, having this technology in place makes it easier to deal with.”
From:?http://www.foxnews.com
Robots in?Japan?give the disabled a chance to work
主题语境：人与社会——科学与技术
语篇导读：?由于身体原因无法外出工作怎么办？智能机器人来帮忙！
“Welcome to our Avatar Cafe,” said a real woman’s voice, coming from a robot. This was the Avatar Cafe “DAWN ver.β,” which was open from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7 last year in Tokyo, and the robots were being operated by people with serious physical disabilities (缺陷) working from their homes or elsewhere.
Called OriHime-D, the cafe robots are different from AI robots. They are controlled remotely by people using a mouse or their eyes to operate a computer or other equipment. The robots have cameras that “see” their surroundings, and the operators can move them around and serve drinks.
Operators can talk with customers through the microphone and speaker in the robots and take their orders.
Ten people with serious disabilities took turns operating the robots. They received hourly pay for their work. One of them, 36-year-old Saeko Murai, said excitedly, “I worked at a company in the past, but this was my first job in 10 years. I really felt like I was working at a cafe. I enjoyed the conversations I had with many customers, and it was an encouraging experience for me.”
The robots were developed by Kentaro Yoshifuji, the CEO of Ory Lab Inc.
“I want people with disabilities to know that they can work even if they can’t move their body or go outside,” Yoshifuji said. “At the same time, I want everyone to know that there are many people who want to work even though they can’t move. If they have a chance to get a job, it gives them confidence as they are needed.”
The cafe opened as a pilot (试验性的) project. Each day was almost fully booked, and more than 900 customers visited and communicated with people who have disabilities through the robots.
The organizers plan to improve the robots and open the cafe often to support job creation for people with disabilities.
From:?www.ndtv.com
【思考】?通过操控智能机器人远程上班的优势显而易见，那么这样做有什么隐藏的问题吗？
艾萨克·阿西莫夫
阿西莫夫是美籍俄裔犹太人，他于1920年1月2日出生在俄国的彼得格勒，3岁时举家迁往美国，5年后取得美国国籍。阿西莫夫的父亲在纽约布鲁克林区开有数家糖果连锁店，阿西莫夫则一边读书一边帮忙照料店铺。阿西莫夫的父亲保守刻板，对子女要求严格，禁止阿西莫夫看暴力色情之类的报刊书籍，于是阿西莫夫选择了科幻小说，并从9岁开始痴迷。
阿西莫夫从小喜欢读书，他六岁时父亲就在市立图书馆给他领了一张借书证，同时，也开始接收美国的正规教育。10岁起他就开始在父亲的糖果店里工作，养成了持续工作的习惯，这个习惯伴随他度过了一生。此后，他还做过打字员、助教、副教授，从1958年开始，阿西莫夫成为专业作家。
在阿西莫夫18岁那年，他将自己的处女作《宇宙瓶塞钻》投给著名科幻作家兼编辑坎贝尔主编的科幻杂志，但是坎贝尔认为这篇作品“作为短篇太长，作为长篇则太短”，而且他“不喜欢慢腾腾的开头，以及自杀的结局”。不过坎贝尔还是给了阿西莫夫以很大的鼓励。结果在1939年3月，阿西莫夫终于发表了自己的第一篇作品《逃离灶神星》。
就在这同一年，阿西莫夫获得了哥伦比亚学士学位，1941年他又获得文学硕士。二战中阿西莫夫曾入伍服役，战后于1948年获得博士学位，并进入大学教书。 阿西莫夫一生写有大量的科幻作品，其中最主要的有两大系列：“基地”系列和“机器人”系列。
“基地”系列为读者展示了一个浩瀚庞大的宇宙画卷。它的故事发生在遥远的未来，其时人类已遍布250万颗行星，人口达到1000亿 ，形成了一个真正的宇宙帝国。而这时一位社会心理学家却根据推算得出这样一个结论：帝国行将崩溃，人类社会将进入一个长达30000年的黑暗时期，所有的文明都将荡然无存；但是如果按照他的方法，通过建立基地的方法，则可以将人类文明的火种保留下来，并将黑暗时期缩短为1000年……
“机器人”系列中的短篇作品主要收集在《我，机器人》（同名电影由威尔·史密斯主演，亦翻作《机械公敌》）和《其余的机器人》等作品集当中，此外阿西莫夫有关机器人的科幻还有长篇推理侦探《钢窟》及《裸日》等。阿西莫夫利用自己提出的“机器人学三定律”，为机器人建立了一套行为规范和道德准则，从而演绎出一系列推理性和逻辑性极强的漂亮故事。
除上述两大系列之外，阿西莫夫还有许多脍炙人口的科幻作品，比如描写某文明星球数千年才出现一次星空的《黄昏》，描写“平行世界”中外星人的《众神自己》，以及他唯一涉及时间旅行的《永恒的末日》，……可谓不胜枚举，不一而足。
作为一名科学工作者，阿西莫夫不仅创作科幻小说，同时也写作科普作品，他的科普作品同样让人百读不厌。正如阿西莫夫逝世后一位评论家所说：“他的作品愉悦了数百万人，同时改变了他们对世界的看法。”由于他对科幻的卓越贡献，科幻界公认他为科幻三巨头之一（另外两位是阿瑟·克拉克和罗伯特·海因莱因）。
主要作品：
《苍穹微石》（1950）《星空暗流》（1952）《钢穴》（1953）《终结》（1955） 《赤裸的太阳》（1956）《基地三部曲》（1964）《我，机器人》《机器人的其他故事》
《基地》系列： “基地三部曲”（《基地》、《基地与帝国》、《第二基地》），“基地续集”（《基地边缘》（1982）《基地与地球》（1986）），“基地前传”（《基地序曲》（1988）、《基地在前进》）
《机器人》系列《黎明世界的机器人》（1984）《机器人与银河帝国》（1985）（1988）《赤裸的太阳》 《我，机器人》 《复仇女神》（1988）
「基地」、「机器人」等系列是艾西莫夫最脍炙人口的代表作。这些看似各自独立的故事，相互贯串起来，竟是一部俯仰两万年的长篇史诗！艾西莫夫特意将科幻场景巨幅拉大，在全银河的背景下架构他独有的科幻世界、借由银河帝国的兴亡史来讨论人性与政治、经济、军事等文明要素产生的互动影响。这种宏观视野使他的作品处处闪动着关怀人类未来的笔触，超越一般科幻作品的局限。
