National Geographic 2020年第09期.pdf

09.2020Meet the robots Will smart machines make our lives better?Basil Haydens Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,40%Alc./Vol.2020 Kentucky Springs Distilling Co.,Clermont,KY.BRING SOMETHING MORETO THETABLES E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0THE BIG IDEAHarming Nature Risks Our HealthA damaged planet cant shield us as well from diseases.Heres why.BY ENRIC SALADATA SHEET Flattening the Curve of Influenza in 1918That historic pandemic has lessons for today.BY RILEY D.CHAMPINE AND DIANA MARQUESLight in Odd PlacesTo explore the effects of artificial lighting in a natural environment,the photographer flew lighted drones above some of Earths most dramatic landscapes.PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY REUBEN WUP R O O FE X P L O R E15624CAPTUREDA Brain Circuitry Map Worth Buzzing About Detailed diagramming of a flys brain reveals millions of connections.BY THERESA MACHEMERDECODERShocking BehaviorMany fish use electricity to communicate and navigatebut some eels use it to hunt and defend themselves.BY DIANA MARQUES ALSOFossilized FootprintsThe Year of the PandaPeculiar Turtle TraitsC O N T E N T SF U R T H E ROn the CoverThis soft robotic handmade with pliable materials to give it a more delicate and dexterous gripwas developed in the Robotics and Biology Laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin,Germany.SPENCER LOWELLC O R O N A V I R U STOOL KIT Scrutinizing Viruses Handling some samples takes specific tools.BY TAMAS VITRAY,JR.F E A T U R E SThe Robots Are HereThe new kind of robot isnt like C-3PO of Star Wars fame.Its far from humanbut still smart,adept,and mobile.Its designed to“live”and work with people.And its migrating steadily into daily life,in jobs ranging from stocking warehouse shelves to arranging flowers.BY DAVID BERREBYPHOTOGRAPHS BY SPENCER LOWELL.P.40The Power of ProtectionAn ambitious project aims to preserve a third of the worlds oceans.BY KENNEDY WARNEPHOTOGRAPHS BY ENRIC SALA.P.112Waiting for GdaskSolidaritys hometown is still an inspiring place.BY VICTORIA POPEPHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ.P.130A Future Less FrozenIce loss is shaping the Great Lakes regions economy and culture.BY ALEJANDRA BORUNDAPHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY SACKA.P.74Nobodys FoolForget the dim-witted stereotype.Ostriches are shrewd survivors.BY RICHARD CONNIFFPHOTOGRAPHS BY KLAUS NIGGE.P.96PHOTO(OSTRICHES):XAVIER EICHAKER,BIOSPHOTOS E P T E M B E R|C O N T E N T S Trademarks owned by Socit des Produits Nestl S.A.,Vevey,Switzerland.OUR LATEST LITTERVENTIONS:NATURAL LITTERS THAT ACTUALLY WORK!WITH ODOR-FIGHTINGPLANT EXTRACTSWITH ODOR-ABSORBINGACTIVATED CHARCOALTHERES A TIDY CATS FOR THAT S E P T E M B E R|F R O M T H E E D I T O RMeet the Machines in Our FutureB Y S U S A N G O L D B E R G P H O T O G R A P H B Y S P E N C E R L O W E L LROBOTICSin society.He found a growing reliance on these intelligent devices.“Robots now deliver food in Milton Keynes,England,tote supplies in a Dal-las hospital,disinfect patients rooms in China and Europe,and wander parks in Singapore,nagging pedestri-ans to maintain social distance,”Ber-reby writes.He found robots digging holes to install wind turbines in Colo-rado,cutting lettuce in California,and even reciting religious texts in Japan.“Its an inevitable fact that we are going to have machines,artificial crea-tures,that will be a part of our daily life,”Carnegie Mellon University AI roboticist Manuela Veloso told Berreby.“When you start accepting robots around you,like a third species,along with pets and humans,you want to relate to them.”A third species?Thats a new idea indeed.But were not there yet.So far,Berreby reports,robots cant equal the human minds ability to do a lot of dif-ferent tasks,especially unexpected ones,and robots havent yet mastered common senseall skills required to be a magazine editor.But give it a few years.Until then,let me personally thank you for reading National Geographic.j HUMANKIND HAS A complicated rela-tionship with robots.On one hand,we appreciate how they can do dangerous,repetitive work so we dont have to.Robots dont need vacations or med-ical insurance.And in areas such as agriculture,where farmers cant find enough people to pick the produce,robots can shoulder(do they have shoulders?)some of those tasks.But polls show that the growing robotiza-tion of the planet makes us feel deeply uncomfortableand threatened.Pew Research Center surveys after 2017 found that more than 80 percent of Americans believed that by 2050,robots would do much of the work humans now doand about 75 percent believed that would make economic inequality worse.Across lines of race,age,and education,people who said automation has hurt workers outpaced those who said its helped workers by two to one.Of course,these surveys were taken before COVID-19,when replacing people with robots began to look like a highly practical answer to social dis-tancing,no masks required.For this months cover story,we sent David Berreby around the world to look at the present and future state of robots On this humanlike roboti