The day will come when renewable energy such as wind solar, geothermal replace fossil fuels as the major source of world energy. 1, most analysts insist that this day will not arrive for many decades to come—certainly well past the middle of the 2. Systems of fossil fuels have already been firmly 3, and it is too costly or impractical to replace the existing systems with renewables. But there are good reasons to believe that the transition to renewables will come much faster than previously thought.

It is 4 surprising that many experts say we will see a relatively slow transition from fossil fuels to renewables, given what is known about previous energy changes of this sort. "Energy transitions take a long time," observed Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba in Scientific American. It took more than 50 years for coal to replace wood as the world's leading5 of energy and another 50 years for oil to replace coal; the change from fossil fuels to renewables, he argued, is not likely to come any faster.

Under ordinary circumstances, Smil's forecast would no doubt prove 6.

But these are not ordinary times. Growing 7over climate change is leading to increasingly strict controls on CO, and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while the development in renewables technology is lowering their price and speeding their 8

There are, of course, many 9in the effective control of carbon emissions, as demonstrated by coal companies to block the introduction of new rules by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Nevertheless, it is impossible to 10_the progress being made at the local and international levels to promote the use of renewables. The European Union, for example,I s well on the way to achieving a 20% reduction in GHG emissions in the next decade, 11a 20% increase in the use of renewable energy.

The transition to renewables will be faster due to dramatic improvements in the pricing and12 of such systems. As a result of the steady increases in the efficiency of wind and solar systems, together with the savings achieved through large-scale manufacture, the price of renewables is 13 globally. With prices dropping this fast, solar energy is now proving14with fossil fuels for generating electricity in many areas.

The change from fossil fuels to renewable energy will not come overnight, and it will not 15many setbacks. Nevertheless, renewables are likely to replace fossil fuels as the main source of electrical power well before mid-century.

Every morning at 7: 30, Sun Kai grabs his briefcase and dashes to his local subway station in the Chinese capital. Most days, the 36-year-old accountant have to wait for four or five trains to passhe can squeeze into a carriage and begin his one-and-a-half-hour journey to the office.

Sun used to spend two hours driving to work each morning, but the congestion gave himheadache." The traffic conditions during rush hour are so unpredictablel decided 1 had to switch to the subway so l could get to work on time. " he tells Sixth Tone.

In Beijing, the country's most congested city, countless people like Sun face a transportation nightmare each morning. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in the world's most populous nation,  the rising volume of cars-coupled with slow road construction in city centers spells traffic chaos for many urban residents.

But experts think they've found the answer to China's traffic problem: artificial intelligence (AI), could change how we drive and how cities monitor vehicles on the road.

In the future, commuters will use AI-operated cars that can connect to the internet and navigation their own, (allow) drivers to keep their hands off the steering wheel and eyes off the road. Around 90 percent of accidents(cause) by human error, but driverless cars won't break traffic rules, get tired, or drive drunk—and if something does go wrong, they can react 10 times (fast). Roads will be equipped with sensors that collect data and "talk" to many a vehicle, which  (give) commuters real-time traffic updates. "AI can provide a faster, stronger solution to the problem than the human brain," says Huang Wei,  heads the transportation planning and design department at Beijing Urban Planning and Design Institute." AI can certainly play an important role in easing up traffic jams. "

Recently, voting machines have been on the receiving end of controversy. And yet people's aversion of machines is nothing new. Some 500 years ago, printing was being demonized as a satanic device. Today's equivalent—artificial intelligence—is routinely criticized as a source of unemployment and bias.

But is every bit of anger justified?

lmagine a car that swerves to avoid a falling tree, and in doing so runs over a pedestrian. Do people judge this action differently if they believe it was the action of a self-driving car as opposed to that of a human?

Over 6,000 Americans were asked to react to scenarios just like this one. Half of the subjects saw only scenarios involving human actions, while the other half evaluated only scenarios involving the actions of machines. This allowed us to explore when and why people judge humans and machines differently.

In the aforementioned car accident people judge the action of the self-driving car as more harmful and immoral, even though the action performed by the human was exactly the same.

Our results showed that machines got the short end of the stick. People rated the action of the machine as significantly more harmful and less moral.

But there are cases in which people rate machines higher than humans, albeit only slightly. These are moral scenarios involving violations of fairness and loyalty, which are also perceived to be highly intentional when performed by a human.

Consider a robot versus a human, both writing lyrics for a record label. Imagine an investigation discovers these lyrics plagiarize the work from lesser-known artists. When we presented people with this scenario, we found that they judged the action of the human as more harmful and less moral than that of the machine.

We obtained similar results for other scenarios involving fairness, such as biased human resource screenings and university admission systems.

We are shifting from an era of imposing norms on machine behavior to one of discovering laws which do not tell us how machines should behave, but how we judge them. And the first rule is powerful and simple: people judge humans by their intentions and machines by their outcomes.

Fear of technological progress is as old as technology itself, especially when it comes to its effect on employment. That is exactly what we are now seeing with automation, which is being described as a threat to the well-being of human beings.

It cannot be denied that innovation including automation, disrupts existing industries and in turn the lives of individuals, families and communities. There is a long list of professions that no longer exist thanks to innovation, including elevator operators, telephone operators, and the list goes on. History, however, shows that we have more reason for optimism than for fear.

First, new technologies often lower costs while improving our overall quality of life. For example, robotic process automation (RPA) software is helping reduce administrative burdens by mimicking human actions and performing repetitive tasks, such as recording data. This automation is most needed in the US health care industry, where the excessive amount of time spent on administrative tasks is causing physician burnout and higher fees.

Second, new technologies often create jobs. The greater demand for new products increases demand for workers with the skills to develop, refine and use those goods. It's true that the rise of new products and industries make older ones obsolete, but the same advancements that eliminated typists and human calculators also gave millions the chance to be developers, programmers, database administrators and broadband engineers. As stated by economist Alex Tanbark, if technology didn't create any jobs," we would all be out of work because productivity has been increasing for two centuries".

And despite the alarmists, disruption doesn't necessarily translate into social turmoil. Studies show that there is usually a significant lag time between the development and adoption of a given technology—sometimes up to four decades—giving workers time to adjust, gain new proficiencies and find jobs in new industries. Meanwhile, families and communities with higher standards of living thanks to technology are able to help those transitioning in a much more personal and dignifying way than a government-based approach.

We should not fall into the trap of looking at a new innovation with the glass half-empty, envisioning a worst case scenario and failing to account for its net benefits. While automation and innovation can be difficult emotionally and affect people's livelihoods, top-down policies, such as universal basic incomes or technology bans, suppress the freedom that innovation and human creativity need to flourish. Before we give in to mass hysteria or institute government-led" solutions", let's remember the myriad ways that innovation has removed barriers.

Robots are anything but strangers in our life today. In industry and medicine, robots routinely build, break down and inspect things.

Like most robots, social robots use artificial intelligence to decide how to act on information received through cameras and other sensors. Their ability to respond in ways that seem lifelike has been informed by research into such issues as how perceptions form and how people can deduce others 'thoughts and feelings. Advances in Al have enabled designers to translate such psychological and neuroscientific insights into algorithms that allow robots to recognize voices, faces and emotions; interpret speech and gestures ;respond appropriately to complex verbal and nonverbal cues; make eye contact ; speak conversationally ; and adapt to people's needs by learning from feedback, rewards and criticisms.

A 47-inch humanoid called Pepper (from SoftBank Robotics), for instance, recognizes faces and basic human emotions and engages in conversations via a touch screen in its "chest. "About 15,000 Peppers worldwide perform such services as hotel check-ins, airport customer service, shopping assistance and fast-food checkout.

The PARO Therapeutic Robot (developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), which looks like a cuddly seal, is meant to stimulate and reduce stress for those with Alzheimer's disease and other patients in care facilities: it responds to its name by moving its head, and it cries for petting. Mabu (Catalia Health) engages patients, particularly the elderly, as a wellness aide, reminding them to take walks and medication and to call family members.

Worldwide sales of consumer robots reached an estimated $5. 6 billion in 2018, and the market is expected to grow to $19 billion by the end of 2025, with more than 65 million robots sold a year. _But a wave of robots is lining up to take the place of defunct robots, including BUDDY (Blue Frog Robotics), a big-eyed mobile device that plays games in addition to acting as a personal assistant and providing home automation and security.

Is Space Exploration a Waste of Money?

If asked if space exploration should continue, most Americans would give an immediate response either in favor of continuing or in favor of ending space exploration. A common response would be that space exploration is a waste of money. An average American, uneducated on the subject, might believe that the government is wasting billions of dollars on the research that has no value. Someone strange to the subject might say that a space shuttle goes up once in a while and that is about all that happens. Research is ongoing and continues when there are no shuttles being launched. This also costs the government money. Does the extreme cost of space exploration make sense?

One argument is that the government is wasting money on the research not being used on Earth. Actually, the money goes to workers and scientists that support National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions, and goes to major companies that play important roles in major sectors of the US economy. Boeing is a partner of NASA for aircraft, the same company that makes commercial aircraft for the airline industry.

Another benefit to continuing space exploration is the many technologies it provides. The artificial heart resulted from experiments on the space shuttle. The handheld Jaws of Life used to save victims from car accidents resulted from the system used to separate the space shuttle from its booster rockets. Insulation in homes that keeps them warm and energy efficient is based on the technology used to insulate the space shuttle.

There are direct benefits to the economy provided by NASA missions as well as those technologies. These advances are found in food, building materials, medical procedures and the vehicles we drive. While it can be proven that billions of dollars that could be used elsewhere is being spent on space exploration, the benefits it provides outweigh the terrible aspects. As a matter of fact, the money spent helps to improve the quality of our lives.

英语中有句话:"You are what you do. ", 谈谈你对此的理解，并用举例的方法来论证你的观点。