新科学家精读：无人驾驶汽车让你选择事故中的幸存者

　　Would you ride in a car that was prepared to kill you? An “ethical knob” could let the owners of self-driving cars choose their vehicle’s ethical setting. You could set the car to sacrifice you for the survival of others, or even to always sacrifice others to save you.The dilemma of how self-driving cars should tackle moral decisions is one of the major problems facing manufacturers. When humans drive cars, instinct governs our reaction to danger. When fatal crashes occur, it is usually clear who is responsible.But if cars are to drive themselves, they cannot rely on instinct, they must rely on code. And when the worst happens, will it be the software engineers, the manufacturers or the car owner who is ultimately responsible?People’s attitudes to the issue are also complicated. A 2015 study found that most people think a driverless car should be utilitarian, taking actions to minimize the amount of overall harm, which might mean sacrificing its own passengers in certain situations. But while people agreed to this in principle, they also said they would never get in a car that was prepared to kill them.

　　Word & Expression

　　1. ethicaladj. 伦理的、道德的

　　The president must have the highest ethical standards. 总统必须具备最高的道德水准。

　　moral

　　ethical issues

　　伦理议题，伦理问题（ethical issue复数）

　　ethical culture

　　（美）伦理教化；伦理修养运动

　　ethical education 伦理教育

　　ethical value 伦理价值；道德价值adj. 凭处方出售的adj. 合乎某种职业（或团体）的道德标准（或规矩）的n. [常用复数]凭医生处方出售的药品，处方药

　　prescription medicine，prescription drugs

　　2. knobn. 旋钮

　　Think of it as a volume knob, for example, that can’t be turned any further. 例如我们可以认为它是一个音量调节旋钮，现在它已经无法再进行调节了。

　　adjusting knob 调节旋钮

　　control knob 控制旋钮；调节柄n. 把手

　　He twisted the knob of the door and went inside. 他转动门把手，然后走了进去。

　　door knob 门把手；门把捏手

　　with knobs on [俚语]尤其突出地，更加

　　handle，nodevi. 鼓起，突出vt. 使有球形突出物

　　3. sacrificevt. 牺牲；献祭；亏本出售

　　She sacrificed family life to her career. 她为了她的事业牺牲了家庭生活。

　　immolate，martyrvi. 献祭；奉献

　　offer，devote ton. 牺牲；祭品；供奉

　　Women’ s self-sacrifice have positive aspect for human. 女性的自我牺牲对于人类有积极的意义。

　　offering，victimization

　　human sacrifice 人祭；活人献祭

　　at the sacrifice of 以牺牲…为代价

　　4. survivaln. 幸存，残存；幸存者，残存物

　　If cancers are spotted (vt. 认出) early there's a high chance of survival. 如果癌症早被发现，存活的机率就高。

　　leavings

　　survival of the fittest 适者生存

　　not only about survival 不仅仅是为了生存

　　survival rate 存活率

　　5. dilemman. 困境；进退两难；两刀论法

　　Ignoring the reform of property (n. 财产，所有权) right system places state-owned commercial banks in a dilemma. 忽视产权制度改革使得国有商业银行依然处于困境之中。

　　in a dilemma 进退两难，左右为难

　　prisoner's dilemma

　　囚徒困境，囚徒困境悖论

　　l difficulty，corner，fix，predicament

　　6. tacklevt. 处理；抓住；固定；与…交涉

　　China must tackle corruption (n. 腐败), first of all, from the start with institutional innovation and strengthen the rights of supervision. 我国要治理腐败首先要从制度创新入手，加强权利监督。

　　grasp，root，cope withn. 滑车；装备；用具；扭倒

　　equipment，tool，arm，setup

　　fishing tackle 渔具；钓鱼用具

　　block and tackle 滑车组；滑轮组vi. 扭倒；拦截抢球

　　7. instinctn. 本能，直觉；天性

　　Why not start with us as individuals, using our instinct as intelligence instead of the mind. 为什么不让我们从个体出发，将我门的直觉代替思维作为智力？

　　intuition，natural ability

　　by instinct 出于本能

　　instinct for 有…的天分；生来就

　　on instinct 本能，凭直觉adj. 充满着的

　　8. fataladj. 致命的；重大的；毁灭性的；命中注定的

　　This short-sighted policy led to fatal results. 这个目光短浅的政策导致了致命的后果。

　　important，significant，great，fell，kill

　　fatal accident 死亡事故

　　fatal disease 绝症；不治之症

　　fatal error 致命错误，不可恢复的错误

　　9. ultimatelyadv. 最后；根本；基本上

　　Ultimately, I suspect both of these suggestions will eventually be realized. 最后，我怀疑这两项建议是否都将最终得以实现。

　　eventually，finally，basically，lastly，either

　　ultimately failed

　　最终失败；最终未成功；最终还失败

　　ultimately bounded 终究有界；最终有界

　　ultimately real 终极实在

　　10. complicatedadj. 难懂的，复杂的

　　The wide application of electronic computers in science and technology will free man from the labour of complicated measurement and computation. 电子计算机在科学技术方面广泛的应用将使人们从复杂的计量和计算中摆脱出来。

　　involved，detailed，sophisticated，elusive

　　complicated structure 复式构造

　　complicated fault 复杂断层

　　be complicated by 并发

　　注意：比较级more complicated，最高级most complicated

　　11. utilitarianadj. 功利的；功利主义的；实利的

　　Efficiency, therefore, can never serve as a utilitarian touchstone (n. 试金石；（检验）标准) for law or for public policy. 因此，效率绝不能作为法律或公共政策的功利主义标准。n. 功利主义者

　　One of the greatest utilitarians was Claude Helvetius. 最伟大的功利主义者之一是克劳德·爱尔维修。

　　12. take actions采取行动；动手

　　So, while countries can take actions today, they need to be flexible for the future, as well. 所以，各国在今天采取行动的同时，他们也需要对未来保持灵活性。

　　start work提出诉讼，对…起诉，控告开始起作用

　　13. minimizevt. 使缩到最小；成极小；求最小值

　　One advantage of doing so is that it should minimize any growth collapse (n. 倒塌；失败；衰竭). 这么做的一个好处是，它应该能够最小化任何增长崩溃。

　　14. certainadj. 某一

　　By certain signs we may presage (v. 预感；预言) of heats and rains. 根据某些迹象，我们可以预告酷热和下雨。

　　some

　　a certain extent 一定程度上

　　a certain degree 到某种程度adj. 必然的；确信；无疑的；有把握的

　　Cautious decision makers in campus are easier disturbed by framing and certain factors. 保守型大学生比冒险型更容易受到框架方式和确定性因素的干扰。

　　inevitable，necessary，automatic，secure

　　make certain of 把…了解清楚；弄明白

　　for certain 肯定地；确凿地pron. 某些；某几个

　　“We wanted to explore what would happen if the control and the responsibility for a car’s actions were given back to the driver,” says Guiseppe Contissa at the University of Bologna in Italy, who along with his colleagues has come up with a solution.The team has designed a dial that will switch a car’s setting along a spectrum ranging from “full altruist” to “full egoist”, with the middle setting being impartial. They think their ethical knob would work not only for self-driving cars, but for all areas of industry that are becoming increasingly autonomous.“The dial will switch a driverless car’s setting from full altruist to full egotist”“The knob tells an autonomous car the value that the driver gives to his or her life relative to the lives of others,” says Contissa. “The car would use this information to calculate the actions it will execute, taking into account the probability that the passengers or other parties suffer harm as a consequence of the car’s decision.”

　　Word & Expression

　　1. along with连同…一起；与…一道；随同…一起

　　Take the letters along with the newspapers. 把信连同报纸一起带去。沿（顺）着

　　The crowd moved along with them. 人群追随他们移动。

　　2. come up with提出；想出

　　We weren't able to come up with any new suggestions. 我们提不出任何新建议。

　　Introduce，present，prefer，put in，bring forward赶上；接近，走近

　　I came up with them as they were rounding the corner. 他们正在拐弯时，我赶上了他们。

　　注意：sth come up，意思是某事被想出，无被动

　　sb come up with sth，意思是某人想出某事，可被动

　　3. switchvthttps://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/vi. 转换

　　In half an hour, they'd switched the tags on every cable. 半个小时内，他们换了每根电缆的标签。

　　switch on 接通，开启

　　switch off （用开关）关掉；切断（电源）vthttps://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/vi. 抽打；换防n. 开关；转换

　　Diddle (v. 快速摇动) the switch see if the light comes on. 上下快速拨动电灯开关看看是否来电了。

　　control switch 控制开关

　　power switch 电源开关

　　light switch 灯开关；照明开关n. 开关；转换；鞭子

　　4. spectrumn. 范围

　　She'd seen his moods range across the emotional spectrum. 她见过他在各种情感间的情绪变化。

　　extent，boundary，region，territory，arean. 光谱；频谱

　　Spectrum sensing is a primary task in cognitive (adj. 认知的，认识的) radio. 在认知无线电中，频谱感知是认知无线电的首要任务。

　　spectrum analysis 光谱分析；分光分析

　　frequency spectrum 频谱；频率谱

　　5. range from从 ... 到 ... 变动；从 ... 到 ... 范围

　　The jobs range from advertising sales to engineering. 工作范围从广告销售到工程师。

　　rangen. 范围；幅度

　　This design method is developed for the range of filter (n. 滤波器；[化工] 过滤器；筛选；滤光器) parameters (n. 参数；系数；参量). 据此方法即可确定滤波器参数取值范围。

　　extent，boundary，region，scope，spectrum，territory，area

　　a wide range of 大范围的；许多各种不同的

　　a range of 一系列；一些；一套vi. （在...内）变动；平行，列为一行；延伸；漫游；射程达到

　　...offering merchandise ranging from the everyday to the esoteric (adj. 秘传的；限于圈内人的；难懂的). …出售的商品包括日常用品到少数人使用的特别物品。

　　reach，parallel withvt. 漫游；放牧；使并列；归类于；来回走动

　　6. altruistn. 爱他主义者；利他主义者

　　Laugh all you want, but their objectives are actually quite altruist: bringing sanitation (n. [医] 环境卫生；卫生设备；下水道设施) and clean water to the 2.5 billion people around the world who still need it. 你尽管笑吧，但他们的愿望却是非常无私的：将援助和清洁水源带给世界上25亿仍需要它们的人们。

　　7. egoistn. 自我主义者；利己主义者

　　John is such an egoist that he only cares about himself. 约翰是个自私的人，他只关心他自己。

　　individualist

　　8. impartialadj. 公平的，公正的；不偏不倚的

　　Interests of the measure set a certain standard to the judge, there is conducive (adj. 有益的；有助于…的) to achieve a fair and impartial. 利益衡量给法官设定了一定的标准，有利于实现公平公正。

　　judicial，fair，just，equitable

　　9. autonomousadj. 自主的；自发的

　　He treated us as autonomous individuals who had to learn to make up our own minds about issues. 他视我们为独立个体，必须学会自主处理问题。

　　initiative，spontaneousadj. 自治的

　　They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province. 他们自豪地宣布自己是新自治省的一部分。

　　autonomous region 自治区

　　autonomous system 自治系统；独立系统

　　10. relative to涉及；相对于

　　How many test cases do I have for those requirements relative to other areas? 相对于其他领域，我们针对那些需求所拥有的测试用例有多少？

　　reference，involved in

　　11. executevt. 实行；执行

　　We are going to execute our campaign (n. 运动；活动；战役) plan to the letter. 我们将严格执行我们的竞选方案。

　　perform，implement，enforce

　　execute plan 执行计划vt. 处死

　　He said nobody had been executed as a direct result of the events. 他说没有人作为这几起事件的直接后果被处死。

　　12. take into account考虑；重视

　　But if you're working in a high security environment you need to take into account all of the possibilities discussed in this article. 但是，如果您工作在一个对安全性要求很高的环境中，那么您需要考虑本文所讨论的各种可能性。

　　look at，think about，think of体谅

　　13. probabilityn. 可能性；机率

　　If you've owned property for several years, the probability is that values have increased. 如果你已拥有财产几年了，很可能价值已经增涨了。

　　possibility，feasibility，potential，maybe，chance

　　probability distribution 概率分布

　　probability theory 概率论

　　14. as a consequence of因此；由于…的结果

　　As a consequence of this, the valuation (n. 评价，估价；计算) of assets (n. 资产；优点；有用的东西；有利条件；财产；有价值的人或物) such as bonds (n. 债券) and equities (n. 普通股；抵押资产的净值) should come under pressure. 这样趋势的结果是，像债券和股票之类的资产价值将面临相当大的压力。

　　in consequence，with the result that

　　But there are issues with the idea. “If people have too much control over the relative risks the car takes, we could have a ‘tragedy of the commons’ type scenario, in which everyone chooses the maximal self-protective mode,” says Edmond Awad of the MIT Media Lab, lead researcher on the Moral Machine project there.A different problem could arise if people are unwilling to take on moral responsibility. If everybody were to choose the impartial option, for example, the ethical knob will not help with the existing dilemma.“It is too early to decide whether this would be a good solution,” says Awad. But he welcomes a new idea in an otherwise thorny and unresolved debate.This issue goes beyond self-driving cars, and will soon become a concern for all areas of industry that are becoming increasingly autonomous, shifting the moral responsibility onto machines.

　　Word & Expression

　　1. tragedy of the commons公地悲剧

　　公地作为一项资源或财产有许多拥有者，他们中的每一个都有使用权，但没有权利阻止其他人使用，而每一个人都倾向于过度使用，从而造成资源的枯竭。

　　2. scenarion. 场景

　　But we may not be able to do this for every scenario. 但是我们不能每一种场景下都这么做。

　　scenario analysis

　　情境分析，情况分析；场景分析

　　scenario planning

　　情景规划；前景计划；情境企划

　　usage scenario 使用场景n. 方案；情节；剧本；设想

　　In this scenario, a user retrieves data from the database with no locks. 在此方案中，用户从数据库中检索数据而不加任何锁。

　　drama，action，plot

　　3. be unwilling to不愿意

　　Though China may be unwilling to give America more than a cautious poke (n. 戳；刺), it is a different story with Europe. 尽管中国对美国可能不愿意因为一次谨慎的试探而过火，在欧洲却是另外一回事。

　　be reluctant to，disincline

　　be unwilling to mention 不齿

　　be unwilling to move forward 退缩；踌躇不前

　　4. moral responsibility道德责任

　　Will it be defined by a "rugged individualism" or a belief that, as a collective (n. 集团；集合体；集合名词), we have a moral responsibility to each other? （美国特质）将由“严格个人主义”定义还是由信奉我们作为一个集体对彼此都负有道德责任的信仰来定义呢？

　　moraladj. 道德的；精神上的；品性端正的

　　She describes her own moral dilemma in making the film. 她描述了自己拍摄这部电影时面临的道德困境。

　　psychological，ethical

　　moral education 道德教育

　　moral character 品德

　　moral hazard 道德危机；由于投保人可能不可靠所冒的风险

　　moral standards 道德标准n. 道德；寓意

　　I think the moral of the story is let the buyer beware (vi. 当心，小心). 我想这个故事的寓意是提醒购买者当心。

　　overtone

　　5. too…to…太…而不能…

　　Because the pond is deep enough for an adult to wade into but too deep for a child to stand. 这个池塘不深，一个成年人足以趟过，然而小孩子却无法站立。

　　6. otherwiseadj. 另外的；其他方面的

　　another，elsewiseadv. 否则

　　I'm lucky that I'm interested in school work, otherwise I'd go crazy. 幸好我对学校作业还感兴趣，不然会疯的。

　　or otherwise 或相反；或其反面

　　and otherwise 等等

　　otherwise than 不像；除…外；与…不同

　　7. thornyadj. 痛苦的；令人苦恼的；棘手的

　　The American government, like every government, has its share of thorny problems. 美国政府就像每一个政府一样，也有棘手的问题。

　　painful，bitter，hurtadj. 多刺的

　　8. go beyond超出；胜过

　　The officer was charged with going beyond the law in his treatment of the citizens. 那位官员被指控在对待公民时有超出法律规定的权限。

　　have the advantage of，go one better

　　The dilemma of how self-driving cars should tackle moral decisions is one of the major problems facing manufacturers.

　　名词性从句名词性从句是在句子中起名词作用的句子。名词性从句的功能相当于名词词组，它在复合句中能担任主语、宾语、表语、同位语、介词宾语等，因此根据它在句中不同的语法功能，名词性从句又可分别称为主语从句、宾语从句、表语从句和同位语从句。主语从句，即在复杂句中充当主语成分的句子

　　What he wants to tell us is not clear. 他要跟我们说什么，还不清楚。名词从句用作宾语的从句叫宾语从句。引导宾语从句的关联词在句中可以作谓语动词或介词及非谓语动词的宾语。

　　He has told me that he will go to Shanghai tomorrow. 他已经告诉我他明天要去上海。在复合句中，位于系动词之后作表语的从句叫表语从句。

　　This is where our problem lies. 这就是我们的问题所在。同位语从句说明其前面的名词的具体内容，通常由that引导。

　　I had no idea that you were here．我不知道你在这儿。（that引导同位语从句，不能省略）

　　A 2015 study found that most people think a driverless car should be utilitarian, taking actions to minimize the amount of overall harm, which might mean sacrificing its own passengers in certain situations.

　　现在分词现在分词（又称-ing形式，现在进行式），是分词的一种，分词又分为现在分词和过去分词，它们都是非限定动词，现在分词在句子里面不能单独充当谓语，但能充当其它的一些成分（定语，表语，补语，状语），并且它们具有动词的性质，所以又是类动词的一种。

　　Searching along the deck, it had taken him some time to find a doctor.他沿着甲板找了好久才找到一名医生。

　　非限制性定语从句非限定性定语从句起补充说明作用，是先行词的附加说明，缺少也不会影响全句的理解，它与主句往往用逗号隔开。关系代词which在非限制性定语从句，中所指代和修饰的可以是主句中的名词、形容词、短语、其他从句或整个主句，在从句中作主语、动词宾语、介词宾语或表语。

　　These apple trees，which I planted three years ago，have not borne any fruit. 这些苹果树是我三年前栽的，还没有结过果实。

　　http://weixin.qq.com/r/IzjH38jEopXdrYy8920x (二维码自动识别)