2014年考研英语二阅读 Text 3 原文翻译及答案解析

The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution, but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries. And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle. Certain jobs have gone away for good, outmoded by machines. Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we cannot immediately foresee.

人与机器的对立概念至少和工业革命一样古老，但这种现象往往在经济衰退和脆弱复苏期间感受最为明显。然而，认为我们现在只是在经历繁荣与萧条周期的痛苦一面是错误的。某些工作已经永远消失，被机器所淘汰。由于技术对吞噬人类工作有着如此无法满足的胃口，这种现象将继续以我们无法立即预见的方式重塑我们的经济。

When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology, jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened. This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who both hail from MIT's Center for Digital Business.

当技术的价格和性能迅速改善时，那些曾被认为免疫于自动化的工作突然变得受到威胁。这一论点通过埃里克·布林约尔松和安德鲁·麦卡菲合著的《与机器赛跑》一书的成功而引起了广泛关注，两人都来自麻省理工学院数字经济中心。

This is a powerful argument, and a scary one. And yet, John Hagel, author of The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place.

这是一个有力的论点，也是一个可怕的论点。然而，《拉动力》等书的作者约翰·哈格尔表示，布林约尔松和麦卡菲忽略了这些工作首先如此容易受到技术影响的原因。

Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to be "tightly scripted" and "highly standardized" ones that leave no room for "individual initiative or creativity". In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings. That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers, Hagel says.

哈格尔说，在美国，我们设计的工作往往是“严格脚本化”和“高度标准化”的，没有给“个人主动性或创造力”留下空间。简而言之，这些是机器能比人类做得好得多的工作类型。哈格尔说，这就是我们如何在美国工人背后贴上巨大靶子的方式。

It's time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says. In our rapidly changing economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exercise their imagination "to respond to unexpected events". That is not something machines are good at. They are designed to perform very predictable activities.

哈格尔说，现在是重新发明工作执行方式的时候了，因为我们仍然依赖于非常20世纪的工作观念。在我们快速变化的经济中，我们比以往任何时候都更需要在工作场所中能主动行动并运用想象力“应对意外事件”的人。这不是机器所擅长的。它们被设计来执行非常可预测的活动。

As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book. We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine. In other words, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it. So then the problem is not really about technology, but rather, "how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?"

正如哈格尔指出的，布林约尔松和麦卡菲确实在他们的书中提到了这一点。我们需要将与机器赛跑重新定义为与机器合作。换句话说，我们需要关注机器如何增强人类劳动而不是取代它。那么，问题实际上不在于技术，而在于“我们如何创新我们的制度和工作实践？”

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