2025年12月六级第3套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

The other day I had to log into a service I hadn't used before. Since I was a new user, the website decided that it needed to check I wasn't a robot and so set me a Captcha test to determine whether the user is a person or a machine.

前几天，我不得不登录一个以前从未使用过的服务。由于我是新用户，网站决定需要确认我不是机器人，因此给我设置了一个验证码测试，以确定用户是人还是机器。

I was presented with an image of a roadside scene over which was laid a grid. My "challenge" was to click on each cell in the grid that contained a traffic sign. I did so, a bit irritated. Then I was presented with another image and another grid — also with a request to identify road signs. Like a lamb, I complied, after which the website accepted my input.

我看到一张路边场景的图像，上面覆盖着一个网格。我的“挑战”是点击网格中包含交通标志的每个单元格。我这样做了，有点恼火。然后，我又看到另一张图像和另一个网格——同样要求识别路标。我像羔羊一样顺从了，之后网站接受了我的输入。

And then I realised what I had been doing was adding to a dataset for training the machine-learning software that guides self-driving cars. So, to gain access to an automated service that will benefit financially from my input, I first have to do some unpaid labour to help improve the performance of autonomous vehicles.

然后我意识到，我一直在做的事情是为训练引导自动驾驶汽车的机器学习软件添加数据集。因此，为了获得一个将从我的输入中获利的自动化服务，我首先必须做一些无偿劳动，以帮助提高自动驾驶车辆的性能。

Neat, eh? But note also the delicious additional irony that the Captcha is described as an "automated Turing test". The Turing test was conceived, you may recall, as a way of enabling humans to determine whether a machine could respond in such a way that one couldn't tell whether it was a human or a robot. So we have wandered into a world in which machines make us do tricks to prove that we are humans!

很巧妙，不是吗？但也要注意到另一个有趣的讽刺，即验证码被描述为“自动化图灵测试”。你可能记得，图灵测试被构想为一种方式，使人类能够确定机器是否能以一种无法分辨是人还是机器人的方式回应。因此，我们进入了一个机器让我们做戏法来证明自己是人类的世界！

The strangest aspect of this unparalleled shift is how under-discussed it has been. The metaphor of the boiling frog comes to mind. Have we become so subtly conditioned by digital technology that we don't see what's been happening to us? Have we been conditioned to accept a world governed by "smart" tech, trading convenience to the point where we become a bit like machines ourselves?

这一前所未有的转变最奇怪的方面是它被讨论得多么少。煮蛙的隐喻浮现在脑海中。我们是否被数字技术微妙地条件化，以至于看不到发生在我们身上的事情？我们是否被条件化接受一个由“智能”技术统治的世界，以至于为了便利而交易，最终我们变得有点像机器？

In a recent startling and thoughtful book, two scholars — Brett Frischmann, a law professor, and Evan Selinger, a philosopher — argue that the answer to that question is "yes".

在最近一本令人震惊且深思熟虑的书中，两位学者——法学教授布雷特·弗里希曼和哲学家埃文·塞林格——认为这个问题的答案是“是”。

And they're right. There's nothing technophobic about that. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us. Technology is supposed to provide tools that serve human ends. But, as the machine-learning Captcha demonstrates, a significant proportion of digital tech now sees (and uses) humans as means to ends that are not ours. In the process, they reduce us to the status of cheery rats running on treadmills designed by people who do not have our interests at heart. So back to the frog metaphor. Are we smart enough to jump out before it's too late? You don't even have to Google it to know the answer.

他们是对的。这绝非技术恐惧症。我们塑造工具，然后工具塑造我们。技术本应提供服务于人类目的的工具。但是，正如机器学习验证码所展示的，数字技术的很大一部分现在将人类视为实现非我们目的的手段。在这个过程中，他们把我们降低到快乐老鼠在跑步机上奔跑的状态，这些跑步机由不关心我们利益的人设计。所以回到青蛙的隐喻。我们是否足够聪明，在为时已晚之前跳出来？你甚至不需要谷歌来知道答案。