TED演讲:我们为什么会对机器人有感情(6)

 And this turned out to be a little more dramatic than we expected it to be, 这个结果比我们想的要更有戏剧性，

because none of the participants would even so much as strike these baby dinosaur¹ robots, 因为甚至没有一个参与者去攻击这些小恐龙机器人，

so we had to improvise² a little, and at some point, we said, 所以我们得临时凑合一下，在某个时候，我们说，

"OK, you can save your team's robot if you destroy another team's robot." “好吧，你可以保住你们队的机器人，但前提是把其它队的机器人毁掉。”

And even that didn't work. They couldn't do it. 即便这样也没用，他们不愿意去做。

So finally, we said, "We're going to destroy all of the robots unless someone takes a hatchet³ to one of them." 所以最后，我们说，“我们将要毁掉所有的机器人，除非有人拿短柄斧砍掉它们中的一个。”

And this guy stood up, and he took the hatchet, and the whole room winced⁴ as he brought the hatchet down on the robot's neck, 有个人站了起来，他拿起斧头，当他把斧头砍到机器人的脖子上时，整个房间的人都缩了回去，

and there was this half-joking, half-serious moment of silence in the room for this fallen robot. 房间中出现了一个为这个倒下的机器人半玩笑半严肃的沉默时刻。

So that was a really interesting experience. 那真是一个有趣的体验。

Now, it wasn't a controlled study, obviously, 它不是一个对照实验，显然不是，

but it did lead to some later research that I did at MIT with Palash Nandy and Cynthia Breazeal, 但这引发了我后来在麻省理工跟帕拉什·南迪和辛西娅·布雷西亚尔做的研究，

where we had people come into the lab and smash these HEXBUGs that move around in a really lifelike way, like insects. 我们让来到实验室的人们打碎这些像活生生的昆虫那样移动的遥控电子甲虫。

So instead of choosing something cute that people are drawn⁵ to, we chose something more basic, 与选择人们喜欢的可爱东西相比，我们选择了一些更基本的东西，

and what we found was that high-empathy people would hesitate more to hit the HEXBUGS. 我们发现富有同情心的人们在击碎这些机器昆虫时要更加犹豫。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

3 hatchet   

n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀

参考例句：

• I shall have to take a hatchet to that stump.我得用一把短柄斧来劈这树桩。
• Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.别用斧头拍打朋友额头上的苍蝇。

4 winced   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
• He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。