2020年经济学人 空战--虚拟小牛(3)

This matters not only in the context of immediate¹ military success. Many people worry about handing too much autonomy to weapons of war—particularly when civilian² casualties are possible. International humanitarian³ law requires that any civilian harm caused by an attack be no more than proportionate to the military advantage hoped for. An AI, which would be hard to imbue⁴ with relevant strategic and political knowledge, might not be able to judge for itself whether an attack was permitted.

这不仅关系到军事上的直接胜利。许多人担心给予战争武器太多自主权，尤其是在可能造成平民伤亡的情况下。国际人道主义法要求，由攻击造成的任何平民伤害必须与期望获得的军事优势成比例。人工智能很难被灌输相关的战略和政治知识，它可能无法自己判断攻击是否被允许。

Of course, a human being could pilot an uncrewed plane remotely, says Mr Colosimo. But he doubts that communications links will ever be sufficiently⁵ dependable, given the "contested and congested electromagnetic environment". In some cases, losing communications is no big deal; a plane can fly home. In others, it is an unacceptable risk. For instance, FCAS aircraft intended for France's air force will carry that country's air-to-surface nuclear missiles.

当然，人类可以远程驾驶无人驾驶飞机，科洛西莫表示。但是，考虑到“竞争激烈的、拥挤的电磁环境”，他担忧通信是否足够可靠。在某些情况下，失去联络并不是什么大问题，飞机可以飞回家。但在其他情况下，这是一项无法接受的风险。比如，为法国空军设计的FCAS飞机将携带该国的空对地核导弹。

The priority for now, therefore, is what armed forces call "manned-unmanned teaming". In this, a pilot hands off some tasks to a computer while managing others. Today's pilots no longer need to point their radars⁶ in the right direction manually, for instance. But they are still forced to accelerate or turn to alter the chances of the success of a shot, says Colonel Javorsek. Those, he says, "are tasks that are very well suited to hand over".

所以，目前的首要任务是军队所称的“人工-无人机组合”。在这种情况下，飞行员在将一些任务交给计算机的同时管理其他任务。例如，现在的飞行员无需再手动调整雷达的方向。但贾沃塞克上校表示，他们仍要被迫加速或转向来改变一次射击成功的机会。他说，这些“都是非常适合移交的任务”。

One example of such a handover comes from Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace⁷ giant. It is developing a missileavoidance system that can tell which aircraft in a formation of several planes is the target of a particular missile attack, and what evasive actions are needed. This is something that currently requires the interpretation⁸ by a human being of several different displays of data.

美国航空航天巨头洛克希德·马丁公司就是这种“任务移交”的一个例子。该公司正在研发一种导弹规避系统，该系统能够识别由数架飞机组成的编队中哪架飞机是特定导弹攻击的目标以及需要采取何种规避行动。目前这需要人类对几种不同的数据显示进行解释。

Another example is ground-collision avoidance. In 2018 a team led by the American air force, and including Lockheed Martin, won the Collier Trophy⁹, an award for the greatest achievement in aeronautics¹⁰ in America, for its Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, which takes control of a plane if it is about to plough into the terrain¹¹. Such accidents, which can happen if a pilot experiencing severe g-forces passes out, account for three-quarters of the deaths of F-16 pilots. So far, the system has saved the lives of ten such pilots.

另外一个例子是避免地面碰撞。2018年，由美国空军(包括洛克希德·马丁公司(Lockheed Martin)在内的一个团队凭借其自动地面避碰系统赢得了科利尔奖(美国航空领域最伟大成就奖)，该系统可以在飞机即将撞上地面时控制飞机。这类事故占F-16战斗机飞行员死亡人数的四分之三。目前为止该系统已经挽救了10名这样的飞行员的生命。

1 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

2 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

3 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

4 imbue   

v.灌输(某种强烈的情感或意见)，感染

参考例句：

• He managed to imbue his employees with team spirit.他成功激发起雇员的团队精神。
• Kass is trying to imbue physics into simulated worlds.凯斯想要尝试的就是把物理学引入模拟世界。

5 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

6 radars   

n.雷达( radar的名词复数 )；雷达装置

参考例句：

• Servos for large radars and launchers are either electro-hydraulic or all-electric. 大型雷达和发射装置的伺服系统，不是电动-液压式的，就是全电动式的。 来自辞典例句
• Range-velocity simultaneous pull-off is one of effective measures for countering PD radars. 距离-速度同步拖引干扰是对抗PD雷达的有效方法。 来自互联网

7 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

8 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

9 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

10 aeronautics   

n.航空术，航空学

参考例句：

• National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
• He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。

11 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。