Why are robots so often drawn to the dark side? In The Terminator movies, the robots hunt people down2. In The Matrix3 and its sequels4, they enslave us. Why can’t humans and robots just get along?
Daniel Wilson and his friends used to wonder about the same thing.“I just thought. What if I took these things seriously?” says Wilson, who is a graduate of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. So he wrote a book, How to Survive a Robot Uprising, in which he used evil robots as examples of how robots work and what robots might be capable of someday. “It’s fun to think about what you would do if the Terminator was chasing you,” he says.
Road Warriors
The first robots that might chase people probably won’t look like the Terminator. They’ll look like cars instead.
Robots have no standard look or definition, says Wilson. He prefers the sense-think-act model to explain what robots are. “A robot is any machine that can sense the environment, make some kind of decision, and then act in the real world,” he told Current Science. A robot could look like a car, provided it could perceive5 the world and then act on those perceptions.
Last year, a driverless Volkswagen Touareg SUV6 won a 212-kilometer (132-mile) race through the Nevada desert. Built by scientists and engineers at Stanford University, the VW was equipped with sensors and an artificial intelligence7(AI) system to help it drive over hills, through tunnels, and away from cliffs.
Artificial intelligence is a computer program that mimics8 decision-making functions of the brain.
Robot cars, which researchers call unmanned9 ground vehicles(UGVs), might someday do the driving for us, says Wilson. But what if a UGV were also equipped with a hatred for humans? UGVs can operate without rest, so you might not be able to outrun10 one, even in another vehicle. How could you defend yourself?
Your best bet11, says Wilson, would be to look for unfamiliar territory. If a robot doesn’t have a map of an area loaded into its AI, it will waste precious time assessing the obstacles in its path. The Stanford car bot took almost seven hours to run its race. Any time that you can buy is time to find a hiding place.
Bug Bots
Not all robots would be easy to hide from, however, especially swarm12 robots. Swarm robots are groups of independent robots that collaborate13 like bees in a hive to achieve a task. If hundreds of tiny robots were chasing you, they could investigate every nook and cranny14. So there might be no such thing as a hiding place.
Swarm robots might be useful one day for simple but large jobs, such as harvesting crops or making detailed maps, says Wilson.
“I have a friend who is working on a six-legged cockroach15 robot,”Wilson says.
Cockroaches are a good model because they can scamper16 quickly over uneven ground. They step with three legs at a time, a stable form of motion that is called an alternating tripod gait17. It allows the bugs and any robots that copy them to scoot18 quickly where less nimble19 runners would trip20.
If you’re beset21 by a clan22 of clockwork23 cockroaches, what should you do? Don’t bother hiding. “A thousand robots can afford to leave no stone unturned24,” Wilson says. Run instead, and don’t waste time fighting individual robots. Losing one or two robots makes no difference to the swarm.
Man or Machine?
Though hard to hide from, a robot swarm would still be easy to identify. But what if the robot were an android25—perfectly person-shaped, like the Terminator?
Androids that are bipedal26 (able to walk on two legs) already exist and some can even dance. Future androids will have to do much more.“We’ve basically reshaped the planet to suit the human form,” says Wilson. People have paved over rough ground, built steps for climbing, and put handles on things.“Robots are going to have to look like humans to use the tools we have.”
Androids could be especially helpful doing work that’s extremely dangerous. The U.S. space agency has created an android called Robonaut that might someday repair spacecraft in orbit around Earth.
Though androids can now dance, they are not nimble enough to climb, crawl, and scamper like a real human. Such acts throw today’s androids off balance. To escape an android uprising, try climbing fences and crawling under parked cars, says Wilson.
Robot Rumble27
What exactly could turn a robot to the dark side?
Wilson says a“free will” AI computer program might enable a robot to think for itself and plan evil deeds.
But AI technology is not nearly sophisticated28 enough to result in a robot that can actually do that, he adds.
“What’s much more likely is a malfunction29,” he says, a C-3PO30 that has gone on the fritz31 and spun32 out of control.
“But that’s not as much fun,” Wilson jokes.“It’s much better when it’s humans versus robots.”
为什么机器人老是倾向邪恶一边？在《终结者》系列片中，机器人对人类穷追不舍。在《黑客帝国》及其续集中，它们奴役我们。为什么人类和机器人不能和平相处呢？
丹尼尔·威尔逊和他的朋友们也常常对此感到好奇。“我忍不住想，假如我认真对待这个问题会怎样呢？”现为卡耐基梅隆大学机器人技术学院研究生的威尔逊说。于是他写了一本叫《如何应对机器人暴动》的书，在书中他以邪恶机器人为例，说明机器人的工作原理和潜在的破坏性。“考虑当你被‘终结者’追杀时会怎么办是很有趣的事，”他说。
飞车勇士
有可能追杀人类的第一代机器人的模样大概不会像“终结者”，而是像汽车。
机器人没有标准的模样或定义，威尔逊说。他倾向于用“感知——思考——行动”的模式来解释什么是机器人。“机器人是指任何一种能够感知环境、做出某种决策、然后在现实世界采取行动的机器，”他对《科学前沿》杂志说。只要机器人能够感知世界并在此基础上采取行动，其模样像汽车也是可能的。
去年，一辆无人驾驶的大众途锐运动型多功能汽车在一次穿越内华达沙漠212公里（132英里）汽车拉力赛中斩获头名。这辆车由斯坦福大学的科学家和工程师建造，装备了传感器和人工智能系统，可以翻越山丘，穿行隧道，避开悬崖。
人工智能是一套模仿人类大脑决策功能的计算机程序。
威尔逊说，这种研究者称之为无人驾驶地面车辆（UGV）的机器人汽车将来也许可以替我们开车。但是，假如UGV也安装了对人类的仇恨怎么办？由于UGV能够一刻不停地运作，所以即使你驾驶另一辆汽车也可能超越不了它。你该如何保护自己呢？
你的最佳选择就是寻找陌生地域，威尔逊说。只要机器人的人工智能中没有加载某个地区的地图，它就会耗费宝贵的时间来评估路途上的障碍。斯坦福大学研制的那辆汽车机器人花了将近七个小时才跑完赛程。机器人的耽搁为你找个藏身之处赢得了时间。
仿昆虫机器人
然而，并不是所有机器人都容易躲避，特别是蜂群机器人。蜂群机器人是指一群独立的机器人，它们像蜂箱里的蜜蜂一样协作完成一项任务。假如成百上千个小机器人追赶你，它们就能够搜遍每一个角落，因而你就可能无处藏身了。
威尔逊说，蜂群机器人将来或许能用于完成一些简单而大型的工作，如收割庄稼或绘制详细的地图。
“我的一个好朋友正在研制一个有六条腿的蟑螂机器人，”威尔逊说。
蟑螂是一个很好的例子，因为它们能在崎岖不平的地面上快速爬行。它们每次移动三条腿，这是一种被称为交替式三脚步法的稳定运动形式。它使蟑螂或任何模仿它们的机器人能够在不太敏捷的人容易跌倒的地方疾走如飞。
如果你遭到一大群构造精密的蟑螂机器人围攻，你怎么办？别费心思躲藏了！“一千个机器人掘地三尺也要找到你，”威尔逊说。跑吧，别把时间浪费在与单个机器人的搏斗上，因为损失一两个对机器人大军来说是九牛一毛。
人还是机器？
尽管难以躲避，一大群机器人还是容易识别的。但是假如机器人与真人毫无二致，就跟“终结者”一样，又该怎么办呢？
双足人形机器人（有两只腿，可直立行走）已经存在，有的甚至还能跳舞。未来的人形机器人将具备更先进的功能。“我们已经重新塑造了地球，以适应人的构造，”威尔逊说。人们铺路以便行走，造阶梯以便攀登，做手柄以便握拿。“机器人也必将做成人的模样，以便使用我们现成的工具。”
人形机器人特别有助于完成极端危险的工作。美国太空总署已经造出了一种叫做机器宇航员的人形机器人，未来可能用于修理绕地球轨道运行的太空飞船。
虽然人形机器人现在能跳舞，但它们还不够敏捷到像真人一样攀缘、爬行和奔跑。这些动作会令目前的人形机器人失去平衡。要避开造反的人形机器人，不妨试着攀缘到栅栏上或爬到停放的汽车下面，威尔逊说。
机器人混战
到底什么能把机器人推向邪恶？
威尔逊说，一个具有“自由意志”的人工智能计算机程序也许能让机器人拥有自己的思想，并策划邪恶的行动。
但是他补充说，人工智能技术还远未达到能把这种机器人变为现实的先进程度。
“极有可能是运转失灵，”他说，就像一个发生故障、行为失控的C-3PO。
“可是那样就不怎么好玩了，”威尔逊说，"人与机器人大战则有趣得多。"
1. bot n. robot（机器人）
2. hunt down追捕直至捕获
3. Matrix 《黑客帝国》
4. sequel n. 续集，续片
5. perceive v. 感知，察觉
6. SUV=Sport Utility Vehicle运动型多功能汽车
7. artificial intelligence人工智能
8. mimic v. 模仿，模拟
9. unmanned adj. 无人驾驶的
10. outrun v. 比…跑得快，超过
11. bet [bet] n. 选择，计划
12. swarm n. 一大群
13. collaborate v. 协作，合作
14. every nook and cranny到处，每一个角落 nook [nuk] n. 凹角，隐蔽处
cranny n. 冷僻的角落
15. cockroach n. 蟑螂
16. scamper v. 奔跑，蹦跳
17. alternating tripod gait交替式三脚步法 gait [geit] n. 步态，步法
18. scoot v. 疾走，溜走
19. nimble adj. 敏捷的，灵敏的
20. trip [trip] v. 绊倒，跌倒
21. beset v. 围攻；困扰
22. clan n. 一大群，队
23. clockwork n. 精密机械，钟表机构
24. leave no stone unturned千方百计，不遗余力
25. android n. 人形机器人
26. bipedal adj. 双足动物的
27. rumble n. 混战，群架
28. sophisticated adj. 成熟的，完善的
29. malfunction n. 失灵，功能障碍
30. C-3PO 《星球大战》中的一个智能机器人
31. on the fritz 出故障的，坏掉了的
fritz [frits] v. 失常，发生故障
32. spin [spin] v. 旋转