Arms control 军备控制 Taming terminators** **驯服终结者

    FOR THOUSANDS of years, weapons went where humans thrust, threw or propelled them. In the past century, they have grown cleverer: more able to duck and weave to their targets; more able to select which of many ships, tanks or aircraft to strike; and more able to wait for the right target to turn up. Increasingly, such weapons can be let loose on the battlefield with little or no supervision by humans.
    千万年来，武器按着人类刺，投或推的方向发出攻击。在过去的一百年里，武器已经变得更聪明，它们愈发能够在攻击过程中闪躲穿行，在众多船舰，坦克和飞机中选择攻击目标，以及等待攻击目标的现身。在战场上，这样的武器可能会越来越多地在少有或无人监督的情况下自由发挥。

    • thrust n.推力；刺；重点；强攻 v.插；插入；推挤；向某人刺去；强使接受 thrust at sb. 刺向某人，推向某人
    • throw vt.投；抛；掷；举行 vi.抛；投掷 n.投掷；冒险
    • increasingly adv.越来越多地；渐增地
    • battlefield n.战场；沙场
    • supervision n.监督，管理
    • duck the two men ducked into a block of flats and disappeared：两个男人躲进了一片公寓就不见了

    The world has not entered the age of the killer robot, at least not yet. Today’s autonomous weapons are mostly static systems to shoot down incoming threats in self-defence,
    or missiles fired into narrowly defined areas. Almost all still have humans “in the loop” (e.g., remotely pulling the trigger for a drone strike) or “on the loop” (i.e,. able to oversee and countermand an action). But tomorrow’s weapons will be able to travel farther from their human operators, move from one place to another and attack a wider range of targets with humans “out of the loop” . Will they make war even more horrible? Will they threaten civilisation itself? It is time for states to think harder about how to control them.
    世界还没有进入杀手机器人的时代，至少现在还没有。当今的自主武器大多是在自卫时击落来袭威胁物体的静态系统，或者攻击狭小指定区域的导弹。几乎所有的自主武器系统仍然有人员在“回路中”（比如远程控制无人机开火）或“在回路之上”（能够监控和撤销某个行动）。但未来的武器将能使用人员“在回路外”的系统，行进到；离人类操纵员更远之处，从一地移动到另一地，向更大范围的目标发起攻击。这样的武器会不会让战争变得恐怖？会不会威胁人类文明自身？各国是时候认真思考该如何控制自主武器了。

    • self-defence n.自卫；正当防卫
    • missiles fired 导弹发射
    • narrowly adv.仔细地；勉强地；狭隘地；严密地
    • oversee vt.监督；审查；俯瞰；偷看，无意中
    • countermand v.取消，撤销；宣布 n.取消；反对
    • civilisation n.文明