2015年职称英语材新增文章理工A补全短文 第十三篇 Affectionate Androids.docVIP

第十三篇 Affectionate AndroidsComputers are now powerful enough to allow the age of humanoid robots to dawn1. And it won’t be long before we will see realistic cyber companions, complete with skin, dexterity, and intelligence. They will be programmed to tend to your every need.Will we ever want to marry robots? Artificial intelligence researcher David Levy has published a book claiming human-robot relationships will become popular in the next few decades. ____1____Will humans really be able to form deep emotional attachments to machines? It will, in fact, be relatively easy to form these strong attachments because the human mind loves to anthropomorphize: to give human attributes to other creatures—even objects.For example, researchers in San Diego recently put a small humanoid robot in with a toddler playgroup for several months. ____2____ The children ended up treating it as a fellow toddler. When it lay down because its batteries were flat，the kids even covered it with a blanket.In a few decades, when humanoid robots with plastic skin look and feel very real, will people want to form relationships with them? What if the bots could hold a conversation? And be programmed to be the perfect companions—soul mates, even? ____3____ And like those toddlers in the experiment, they will be very accepting of them.The next question, then, is whether there is anything wrong with having an emotional relationship with a machine. Even today there are people who form deep attachments to their pets and use them as substitutes for friends or even children. Few consider that unethical.____4____ For those who always seem to end up marrying the wrong man or woman, a robotic Mr. or Ms. Right could be mighty tempting. As the father of artificial intelligence, Marvin Minsky, put it when asked about the ethics of lonely older people forming close relationships with robots: “If a robot had all the virtues of a person and was smarter and more understanding, why would the elderly bother t