国際教養学部ＡＯ入試 supplement, autonomous weapons

Read the following transcript of a CNN report on autonomous weapons and answer the questions.

Should We Fear Killer Robots?  November 14, 2017

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/14/opinions/ai-killer-robots-opinion-scharre/index.html

(CNN)Physicist Stephen Hawking recently warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence and "powerful autonomous weapons." Autonomous technology is racing forward, but international discussions on managing the potential risks are already underway.

This week, nations enter the fourth year of international discussions at the United Nations on lethal autonomous weapons, or what some have called "killer robots." The UN talks are oriented on future weapons, but simple automated weapons to shoot down incoming missiles have been widely used for decades.

The same computer technology that powers self-driving cars could be used to power intelligent, autonomous weapons.

Recent advances in machine intelligence are enabling more advanced weapons that could hunt for targets on their own. Earlier this year, Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov announced it was developing a "fully automated combat module" based on neural networks that could allow a weapon to "identify targets and make decisions."

Whether or not Kalashnikov's claims are true, the underlying technology that will enable self-targeting machines is coming.

For the past several years, a consortium of nongovernmental organizations have called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons before they can be built. One of their concerns has been that robotic weapons could result in greater civilian casualties. Opponents of a ban have countered that autonomous weapons might be able to more precisely target the enemy and avoid civilians better than humans can, just as self-driving cars might someday make roads safer.

Machine image classifiers, using neural networks, have been able to beat humans at some benchmark image recognition tests. Machines also excel at situations requiring speed and precision.

The inevitable rise of the robocops

These advantages suggest that machines might be able to outperform humans in some situations in war, such as quickly determining whether a person is holding a weapon. Machines can also track human body movements and may even be able to catch potentially suspicious activity, such as a person reaching for what could be a concealed weapon, faster and more reliably than a human.

Machine intelligence currently has many weaknesses, however. Neural networks are vulnerable to a form of spoofing attack (sending false data) that can fool the network. Fake "fooling images" can be used to manipulate image classifying systems into believe one image is another, and with very high confidence.

Moreover, these fooling images can be secretly embedded inside regular images in a way that is undetectable to humans. Adversaries don't need to know the source code or training data a neural network uses in order to trick the network, making this a troubling vulnerability for real-world applications of these systems.

More generally, machine intelligence today is brittle and lacks the robustness and flexibility of human intelligence. Even some of the most impressive machine learning systems, such as DeepMind's AlphaGo, are only narrowly intelligent. While AlphaGo is far superior to humans at playing the ancient Chinese game Go, reportedly its performance drops off significantly when playing on a differently sized board than the standard 19x19 Go board it learned on.

The robot scabs are coming to take your jobs

The brittleness of machine intelligence is a problem in war, where "the enemy gets a vote" and can deliberately try to push machines beyond the bounds of their programming. Humans are able to flexibly adapt to novel situations, an important advantage on the battlefield.

Humans are also able to understand the moral consequences of war, which machines cannot even remotely approximate today. Many decisions in war do not have easy answers and require weighing competing values.

As an Army Ranger who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, I faced these situations myself. Machines cannot weigh the value of a human life. The vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul Selva, has repeatedly highlighted the importance of maintaining human responsibility over the use of force. In July of this year, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "I don't think it's reasonable for us to put robots in charge of whether or not we take a human life."

Questions

1.    What are autonomous weapons?

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

2.    What is concerned about them?

                                                                                               

                                                                                                

                                                                                               

                                                                                                

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

3.    Suppose you were an infantry soldier of a developed country. Do you think you would welcome the use of autonomous weapons in operations? Why or why not?

                                                                                               

                                                                                                

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

Answer Keys

1.    Autonomous weapons are highly-developed robots embedded with AI used for the purpose of killing enemies on the battlefield. They automatically choose targets and decide how to deal with them.

2.    The main concern is increase of the death toll of ordinary citizens by introduction of autonomous weapons. Although it is argued that they will be freer from mistakes and more efficient than humans, they have vulnerabilities inherent in machines. They are easily to be deceived and disrupted by undetectable images intended to confuse the system and planted among other regular images. Machines also lack flexibility. A slight change of specification or environment will lower the performance. Last but not least, they cannot deal with moral decisions. Preciousness of life is not their concern.

3.    I would have mixed feelings about introduction of .autonomous weapons into battle grounds if I were an infantry soldier of a developed country. If killer robots are deployed in the front lines instead of humans, the cases of injury and death in the troop of my country will go down. Misidentification and friendly fire may become rare. Yet replacing human soldiers with machines in the work of shooting down humans in ground warfare will change the nature of battles. It starts the automatization of sweeping operation. These machines are usually used not against developed countries but over so-called terrorist groups in poor countries. Their use is technically manhunt by machines. I wonder if it is morally permissible. Also, there is no standard in actual operations. If a slight anomaly can make the machine not only useless but also dangerous, the rate of collateral damage will be high.

Pre-TOEFL Writing, Today to prepare food has become easier. Is this good or bad for people’s lives? - revised -

Writing Topic

Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

今では食事は準備しやすくなりました。この変化は人々の生活の仕方を改善してきたでしょうか？答えを支持するために具体的な理由と例を使ってください。

☆Let’s Think 考えてみよう

That food has become easier to prepare means it has become faster and less troublesome thanks to the technological advancement such as the electrification of cooking tools, invention of instant food, and development of ready-to-eat food industry, food has become easier to prepare. In general, development of technology has both good points and bad points. Therefore, this change may not have improved all aspects of the way people live. 食事が準備しやすくなったとは調理器具の電化やインスタント食品の発明、出来合い食品産業の発達の様な技術の進歩のおかげで調理が速くなりあまり面倒でなくなったということを意味する。一般的に技術の発達は利点と欠点両方がある。従ってこの変化は人々の生活の全ての面を改善したわけではないかもしれない。

☆Hints for Points 要点の為のヒント

Good points 利点

1.    shorter cooking time, saves time, helps make time to do other things

より短い調理時間、時間の節約、他の事をする時間を作る役に立つ

2.     reduce stress related to cooking

調理関連のストレスを減らす

Bad points 欠点

1.    loss of skills, loss of tradition

技術の喪失、伝統の喪失

2.    less conversation between family members

家族間の会話の減少

3.    fewer chances to develop creativity

創造性を発達させる機会の減少

4.    lower dietary life: less tasty, less enjoyable in texture, not fresh, unhealthy, contain a lot of chemicals such as additives and preservatives

食生活の低下： あまりおいしくない、食感があまりよくない、新鮮でない、不健康、添加物や保存料の様な化学物質を多く含む

☆Sample Essay Structures エッセイ構造例

Sample 1 例 1

【Introduction = Outline】Less time to prepare food means more time to improve life.

【good point 1】Reduction of cooking time lead to higher production.  e.g. rice cooker

【good point 2】Release from manual labor leads to higher mental activity.  e.g. social reform by housewives

【counterargument-treatment】Some might deplore decline of food culture. However, those interested in cooking are even more enthusiastic about improving their eating experience.   e.g. cook books

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】Efficiency is fundamentally helpful in improving life.

【導入＝概要】食事の準備の短縮は生活改善の時間増加を意味する。

【利点 1】調理時間の削減により生産性が上がる  例 炊飯器

【利点 2】肉体労働からの解放が高度な精神活動につながる。 例 主婦による社会改革

【反論処理】食文化の衰退を嘆く人もいるが料理に興味のある人は食生活の改善にもっと熱心にさえなっている。 例 料理本

【結論＝まとめ】効率は生活改善に基本的に役立つ。

Sample 2 例 2

【Introduction】On the one hand, food becoming easy to prepare is good for our lives, but on the other hand, it may be bad for it.

【Positive effects】Shorter cooking time reduces stress and increases free time.

【Negative effects】Many food products are bad for the health.

【Conclusion】Technology applied to cooking improves our lives in general although we have to watch our health because of it.

【導入】食事の準備が楽になったことは一方では生活にとって良いが一方では悪いかもしれない。

【肯定的な影響】調理時間の短縮はストレスを減らし自由時間を増やす。

【否定的な影響】多くの食品が健康に悪い。

【結論】調理に適用された技術は一般的には生活を改善する。そのせいで健康に気を付けなくてはならないけれども。

Sample 3 例3

【Introduction】Whether food having become easier to prepare than before improves people’s lives or not has different answers depending on what aspect of life you see. In general, it is doubtful whether it has improved our lives, especially in terms of quality.

【Effects on dietary life】We can enjoy many kinds of food. On the other hand, processed food makes us less sensitive to subtle differences of taste. They are also addictive.  e.g. very sweet or salty food with a lot of fat in it

【Effects on our daily life】We rarely cook together with our family, even though this provides an opportunity to have a good communication with our family. Also, we have lost sense of seasonal change because almost all kinds of foods are available year round. e.g. People do not make traditional food such as ohagi cakes for ancestors any more or few families pound mochi, rice cakes for New Year’s feast, together these days. 

【Effects on our social life】We can spend more time for other activities than cooking such as working for a company or joining a club although most of us have become busier than before because of increased workload assigned for the extra time saved by the technology. In addition, communication in cooking time is lost.

【Conclusion】In most aspects of our lives, technological improvement of cooking is a mixed blessing. In my impression, simplified cooking has somewhat lowered the quality of our life by making it gross because diet makes up a significant part of life.

【導入】食べ物が以前より準備しやすくなったことが生活を改善するかどうかは生活のどの面を見るかによって異なる答えになる。一般的には生活を改善したかどうかは疑わしい。特に質の面では。

【食生活への影響】いろいろな食べ物を楽しめる。一方で加工食品によって味の微妙な違いに鈍感になる。また中毒になる。 例 脂肪分の覆い非常に甘いか塩辛い食品

【日常生活への影響】めったに家族と一緒に料理をしない。一緒に料理をするのは家族と良いコミュニケーションをとる機会を提供してくれるのに。また、一年中ほとんど全ての種類の食べ物が手に入るので季節感を失ってしまった。 例 もはやおはぎの様な伝統的料理を祖先のために作らないし、新年用の餅つきを一緒にする家族はほとんどいない。

【社会生活への影響】会社で働いたりクラブに入会したりするなど他の活動に時間を使うことができる。もっとも、私たちのほとんどは技術によって節約された余分な時間に割り当てられた増加した仕事量のせいで以前より忙しくなったのだが。加えて、調理時間のコミュニケーションが失われた。

【結論】生活のほとんどの面において、料理の技術改善は良くも悪くもある。私の印象では単純化された調理は、私たちの生活の質を雑にすることによって下げてしまった。なぜなら食事は生活の重要な部分を占めるからだ。

Your Sample Essay Structure

【Introduction = Outline】

【Point 1】

【Point 2】

【Point 3】

【Conclusion = Wrap-up】

☆Sample Paragraph Development  段落展開例

A      【Main Idea】Shorter cooking time reduces stress and increases free time.

【Supporting Details】For most people, preparing food is a routine that they want to spend as little time as possible on. Therefore, when it takes only a few minutes, instead of more than 30 minutes, to cook, they feel less stressed out. Also, they can use the extra time to do whatever they want to do such as working, studying, or bonding with others.

【Wrap-up】The easier food is to prepare, the less stress and waste of time we have.

【主張】調理時間短縮によりストレスが減少し自由時間が増加する。

【詳細】ほとんどの人にとって食事の準備はできるだけ時間をかけたくないきまり切った仕事だ。従って、30分以上の代わりに数分しか料理に時間がかからないとストレスがあまりかからない。また、その余分な時間を仕事や勉強、ひととのつながりづくりのようなしたいこと何にでも使うことができる。

【説明】食事の準備が簡単であればあるほどストレスと時間の無駄が少なくなる。

B      【Main Idea】Many food products are bad for the health.

【Supporting Details】During processing, they lose a lot of nutrients. Especially, they have fewer vitamins than fresh foods. Moreover, they contain chemicals to make them tastier and last long. Many of these chemicals are thought to be cause of diseases like cancer.

【Wrap-up】Food that is easy to prepare is unnatural and bad for life.

【主張】多くの食品が健康に悪い。

【詳細】加工中に多くの栄養素を失う。特に新鮮な製品よりビタミンが少ない。その上さらに、味わいを増し長持ちさせるための化学物質を含んでいる。これらの化学物質の多くが癌のような病気の原因だと考えられている。

【結論】準備しやすい食品は不自然なので体に悪い。

☆Essay for Ideas and Expressions アイディアと表現のためのエッセイ

In a hit song in the 1970’s Japan, “Curry and Rice”, the singer, who is said to have been influenced by Bob Dylan, sang about his partner cooking a common Japanese dish called carry and rice, starting with the sound she makes as she chops vegetables, then depicting the good smell of the soup as the vegetables and meat boil, and finally mentioning their sweet disagreement on how spicy the dish should be. Inserted comment on their cat begging for a bite represents the increasing excitement of the poet waiting for his favorite dish to be ready. It took around 30 minutes, already owing to the boon of technology, to cook the dish at that time, but nowadays the same meal can be prepared before the song ends. Warm a ready-made curry and rice package with the microwave oven, and there you go. Eat! I wonder if we have lost a lot of our lives due to the change even though it has benefited us in some aspects.

1970年代の日本の流行歌「カレーライス」で、ボブディランに影響を受けていると言われた歌手は日本のありふれた料理であるカレーライスを連れ合いが料理するのを歌った。彼女が野菜を切る音で始まり、それから野菜と肉が煮える時の汁のいい匂いを描写し、最後に辛さについての彼らの甘い意見の相違に言及する。ひと口をねだる飼い猫のコメントの挿入が、大好物が出来上がるのを待つ詩人の次第に盛り上がる気持ちを表している。当時この料理をするのに（すでに技術の恩恵のおかげで）約30分かかったが、今では同じ食事はこの曲が終わるまでに出来上がってしまう。既成のカレーライスパックを電子レンジで温め、「はいどうぞ、食べて！」この変化のおかげで私たちは生活の多くを喪失したのではないだろうか。いくつかの点では利益はあったのだけれども。

It is true that technology has made cooking much easier than before and benefited us. Especially, electric appliances and many new food products have shortened the cooking time. They have freed housewives from the burden of preparation of meals. They used to cook all day long. There were no gas stoves, no rice-cookers, or no bottled dressing or sauce, not to speak of precut vegetables. Curry would take houses to make if you have to start with grinding spices and making fire. Thanks to technological advancement, today’s housewives can have some leisure time to do what they want to do. Not only housewives but everyone else does not have to be bothered by food-preparation and can focus on what they think is more important now.

技術が料理を以前よりも容易にして私たちに利益を与えたのは確かだ。特に電化製品と新しい食品は調理時間を短縮した。主婦たちを食事の準備から解放した。彼女たちは以前一日中料理をしていた。ガス台も炊飯器も瓶入りドレッシングやソースもなかったのだ。カット野菜は言わずもがなだ。カレーはスパイスをすりつぶして火をおこすことから始めたら作るのに何時間もかかるだろう。技術の進歩のおかげで現在の主婦はしたいことをする余暇を持つことができる。主婦だけでなく今では他の皆も食事の準備に煩わされなくて済み、より重要だと思うことに集中できる。

However, convenience and efficiency have another face, which causes decay of the core of a person’s life. If a human were a robot, fueling should be as easy and quick as possible, but as we are not machines, we need some time-taking process in eating to be fulfilled. Doctors’ advice to bite down your food 100 times to avoid gastrointestinal problems or obesity is not just for digestion but for the nerve-center satisfaction. The Japanese tea ceremony, sado, is a practice of appreciating each single process of making and drinking a bowl of tea. Perhaps we had better consider why this art became popular not during the aristocratic Heian Era but during the following period of civil wars, In the time when fight and death was common, the art that appreciates a trivial moment of life rather than efficiency fascinated warlords. Consumption of food is just a piece of life, but it is a significant part of life. In this point, the advancement of technology related to diet can mean the cause of degradation of life.

しかし、便利さと効率は別の顔を持っており、この顔は生活の中心の崩壊を引き起こす。人間がロボットなら燃料補給はできるだけ容易で素早くあるべきだが、私たちは機械ではないので満たされるためには食べる時に時間のかかる過程が必要なのだ。胃腸の問題か肥満を防ぐために100回噛むようにという医者の助言は単に消化のためだけではなく中枢神経の満足のためだ。日本の茶道は一服のお茶をたてて飲む過程のひとつひとつを愛でる稽古だ。この芸術がなぜ貴族社会の平安時代ではなくそのあとの戦国時代に流行したのかをたぶん考えてみたほうが良いだろう。戦と死が当たり前の時代に効率ではなく生活の些細な瞬間を鑑賞する芸術が戦国武将たちを魅了したのだ。食べ物の消費は生活の単なるひとかけらだが生活の重要な一部なのだ。この点において食事に関する技術の進歩は生活の質の低下を意味する可能性がある。

We think we control technology to improve our lives but, as is often said, the fact is that technology controls us and make our lives miserable. We think that now that we can prepare food easily and quickly, we can have more free time and enjoy life, but actually we have more work to do than before and are getting worn out. Before, we used to eat the same kind of food almost every day. Now, because it is possible, we think we need to eat different dishes every day to enjoy life. It might have become an obsession. We make ourselves prepare a variety of good food every day because technology allows us to do it. This is, honestly, tiring. A farmer’s wife was not blamed for serving the same food every day 50 years ago and even a white-collar household having curry three days in a row was not unusual, which makes many of us envious, I suppose. Of course, it is fun to have many different eating experiences every day, but it makes us insensitive to changes. For example, feasts for seasonal events are not the feast anymore. As we eat delicious and rare food daily, due to development of technology, feast is not an annual treat anymore, and you order the feast from the store. Making feasts takes time and effort. Thus, it is regarded as a labor. It is not an entertainment in disguise of preparation for a celebration anymore. In this way, we are losing the substance of our food cultures. Above all, the joy of taking time to get dinner ready is lost.

私たちは生活を改善するために技術を管理していると思っているが、よく言われるように実は技術が私たちを管理し生活をみじめにしている。私たちは、もはや食事が簡単に素早く準備できるのでもっと自由時間が取れ人生を楽しめると思っているが実際は以前より多くの仕事が入っており、擦り切れていきつつある。以前はほぼ毎日同じようなものを食べていた。今では可能だから人生を楽しむために違うものを毎日食べる必要があると考える。強迫観念になってしまっているかもしれない。技術によって可能だから毎日様々なおいしい食事を無理して仕度する。これは正直なところ疲れる。50年前農家の妻は毎日同じ食事を出しても非難されなかった。ホワイトカラーの家庭でも3日連続カレーは珍しくなかった。私たちの多くがうらやましいと思うと推測する。もちろん様々な珍しい食の経験は楽しい。しかしそれにより変化に鈍感になる。例えば季節の催しのごちそうはもはやごちそうではない。技術の進歩のおかげでおいしい珍しい食べ物を日々食べているのでごちそうはもはや年一回の特別な楽しみではないのだ。そしてごちそうは店に注文する。ごちそう作りは手間暇がかかるのだ。だから労働とみなされる。もはや祝祭の準備を装った娯楽ではない。このようにして食文化が形骸化してゆく。とりわけ時間をかけて夕食を準備する喜びが失われてしまった。

The development of technology has done a lot of good to many aspects of our lives, but when it comes to preparing food, I doubt that it is good for our lives in general because it is making eating no more than consumption. To me, a quality life is in such a scene as he sings “Curry and Rice” with his guitar while she cooks the namesake, first cutting vegetables and then boiling them with meat with him repeating the song and smiling at her.

技術の進歩は私たちの生活の多くの面を改善してきたが食事の準備ということになると全体として私たちの生活をよくしてきたとは思えない。食べることをただの消費にしつつあるのだから。私にとって質の高い生活は、彼女がカレーライスを料理している間彼がギターで「カレーライス」を歌っているような場面の中にある。まず野菜を切って次に野菜を肉と一緒に煮る。彼は歌を繰り返し彼女に微笑みかけている。