and yet I still felt compelled to be kind to it. 然而我仍然感到有必要对它仁慈些。

And that observation sparked a curiosity that I've spent the past decade pursuing. 这个观察引起了好奇心，让我花费了长达10年的时间去追寻。

Why did I comfort this robot? 为什么我会去安慰这个机器人？

And one of the things I discovered was that my treatment of this machine was more than just an awkward moment in my living room, 我发现我对待这个机器人的方式不仅是我起居室里一个尴尬时刻，

that in a world where we're increasingly integrating robots into our lives, 在这个世界里，我们正越来越多地将机器人融入到我们生活中，

an instinct like that might actually have consequences, because the first thing that I discovered is that it's not just me. 像这样的本能可能会产生一些后果，因为我发现的第一件事情是，这并非只是发生在我身上的个例。

In 2007, the Washington Post reported that the United States military was testing this robot that defused land mines. 2007年，《华盛顿邮报》报道称，美国军方正在测试拆除地雷的机器人。

And the way it worked was it was shaped like a stick insect and it would walk around a minefield on its legs, 它的形状就像一只竹节虫，用腿在雷区上行走，

and every time it stepped on a mine, one of the legs would blow up, and it would continue on the other legs to blow up more mines. 每次踩到地雷时，它的一条腿就会被炸掉，然后继续用其他腿去引爆更多的地雷。

And the colonel who was in charge of this testing exercise ends up calling it off, 负责这次测试的上校后来取消了这个测试，

because, he says, it's too inhumane to watch this damaged robot drag itself along the minefield. 因为他说，看着这个机器人拖着残破的身躯在雷区挣扎行走，实在太不人道了。

Now, what would cause a hardened military officer and someone like myself to have this response to robots? 那么，是什么导致了一个强硬的军官和像我这样的人对机器人有这种反应呢？