SHANGHAI — The mind-reading headsets won’t read minds. The fire-detecting machine has been declared a safety hazard. The robot waiter can’t be trusted with the soup.上海——不读人点子的耳机什么都没有读出来。检测火灾的机器人已被宣告为安全隐患。机器人服务员末端汤让人不安心。China is ready for the future, even if the future hasn’t quite arrived.中国已为未来作好了打算，尽管未来仍未来临。

China has become a global technological force in just a few years. It is shaping the future of the internet. Its technology ambitions helped prompt the Trump administration to start a trade war. Hundreds of millions of people in China now use smartphones to shop online, pay their bills and invest their money, sometimes in ways more advanced than in the United States.短短几年里，中国已沦为全球技术主力，正在塑造成着互联网的未来。中国的技术野心是促成特朗普政府发动贸易战的其中一个原因。中国目前有数亿人用于智能手机在网上购物、缴纳账单、做到投资，其中一些方式要比美国更加先进设备。That has led many people in China to embrace technology full tilt, no matter how questionable. Robots wait on restaurant diners. Artificial intelligence marks up schoolwork. Facial recognition technology helps dole out everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken orders to toilet paper. China is in a competition with itself for the world record for dancing robots这促成许多中国人全面亲吻了技术，不管某些技术还多么不成熟期。

机器人在餐厅为就餐者服务。人工智能给学生的作业评分。

人脸识别技术在协助发给从肯德基餐到卫生纸的各种东西。中国正在一次又一次地超越自己刷新的唱歌机器人世界纪录。That embrace of tech for tech’s sake — and the sometimes dubious results it leads to — were on display at the Global Intelligence and World Business Summit, held last month in Shanghai, which several luminaries in Chinese tech and academia were supposed to kick off with their minds.这种为技术而拒绝接受技术——有时还包括拒绝接受它们带给的怀疑结果——上个月在上海举办的“2018全球智能+新的商业峰会”上有所展现出，峰会邀了中国技术界和学术界的几位名人，按照计划，他们将用意识来为峰会开幕。

Donning black headbands that looked like implements of electroshock therapy, the seven men and two women onstage were told to envision themselves pressing a button. The headbands would transmit their brain activity to the robotic hand sharing the stage, which would then push a button to officially start the conference.台上七男两女九个人戴着黑色头带，看起来看起来要做到电击化疗，他们被告诉用脑子想象按按钮的动作。他们戴着的头带不会把他们的大脑活动传送给曾与台上的机械手，然后，这个机械手不会按一个标志着会议月开始的按钮。A countdown began. A camera put the robotic hand onto a huge screen above the stage. The people onstage seemed to concentrate. And then, nothing happened. The hand remained motionless. The camera panned away.倒计时开始了。

摄像机将摄制的机械手投影到舞台上方一个极大的屏幕上。台上的人或许在聚精会神地想。接下来，什么都没有再次发生。

机械手毫无动静。摄像机改向了别的画面。A spokesman for Yiou, the tech consultant that hosted the event, declined to comment except for: .主办此次活动的技术咨询公司亿欧的发言人拒绝接受公开发表评论，只回应：（两个大笑大哭表情）。All of this embarrasses some people in the Chinese tech scene. They warn that the excess exuberance is one sign of a venture capital bubble, which may be about to burst. Rather than show China’s newfound tech might, they argue, spectacles like dancing robots and ineffective mind readers cover up the country’s lack of progress in other areas.这一切让中国技术界的一些人深感失望。

他们警告说道，技术市场的过度兴旺是风险投资泡沫的一个迹象，这个泡沫有可能即将幻灭。他们指出，机器人唱歌和不管用的读心技术之类的演出，并不是中国新的获得的技术威力的展出，而是掩饰了中国在其他领域缺少进展的事实。

Those deficiencies were made clear in April when the United States forbade American companies to sell chips, software and other technology to ZTE, a Chinese telecom company. ZTE was found to have violated American sanctions by selling products to Iran and North Korea. The ban brought the company to a virtual standstill.中国的短处在今年4月显露出毫无疑问，当时，由于找到中国电信公司中兴通讯(ZTE)违背了美国的制裁，向伊朗和朝鲜出售产品，美国政府命令禁令美国公司向其出售芯片、软件和其他技术。该禁令让中兴实质上转入了中断状态。Chinese people shouldn’t lose touch with reality, warned Liu Yadong, chief editor of the state-run Science and Technology Daily. In a recent speech, he said that China still lagged the United States in tech, and that those who argued otherwise ran the risk of “tricking leaders, fooling the public and even fooling themselves.”官方媒体《科技日报》总编辑刘亚东警告说道，中国人不应当漠视现实。刘亚东在最近的一篇演说中说道，中国在科学技术上仍领先于美国，那些不否认差距的人“忽悠了领导，忽悠了公众，甚至忽悠了自己”。

China isn’t the first country to get ahead of itself in tech. Japan at the height of its economic powers had robots that prepared sushi. More recently, Silicon Valley has gone gaga over more than a few pointless products, like Yo — the app that said only “yo” — and Juicero, the $700 juicer. Ultimately the exuberance could be a good thing for China, as useful products find their place and bad ones disappear when the boom matures.中国并不是第一个高估本国技术能力的国家。日本在其经济鼎盛时代曾发售过制作寿司的机器人。近年的硅谷也对一些毫无意义的产品著迷深感，比如只不会说道“Yo”的应用于Yo，还有售价700美元的榨汁机Juicero。不过，这种兴旺对中国来说，有可能最后是一件好事，因为在从快速增长到成熟期的过程中，简单的产品不会脱颖而出，怕的产品则不会消失。

And China has come a long way. What was an agrarian backwater 40 years ago is home to the world’s single largest group of internet users and some of its most valuable internet companies.中国已获得了相当大的变革。40年前，中国曾是一个以农业居多的领先国家，如今这里有全球独一无二的、仅次于的互联网用户群，以及一些全球最有价值的互联网公司。

Now it’s pushing ahead into emerging tech. In 2017, Chinese start-ups took up nearly half the dollars raised globally for artificial intelligence, according to CB Insights, a research firm that follows venture capital. By 2020, China is expected to account for more than 30 percent of worldwide spending on robotics, according to technology research firm IDC.现在，中国正在向新兴技术产业前进。据跟踪风险投资的研究公司CB Insights的数据，2017年，中国初创企业获得了全球人工智能方面集资的近一半。据专门从事技术研究的国际数据公司(IDC)的数据，预计到2020年，中国在机器人研发上的开支将占到全球的30%以上。Many in China see the country’s supremacy over the United States in tech as inevitable, and they are eager to get to that day.中国有不少人指出，该国在技术领域多达美国是不可避免的，他们迫不及待地期望着这个日子的来临。

“Chinese are much more willing to try something new just because it looks cool,” said Andy Tian, chief executive of Beijing-based Asia Innovations Group, which runs mobile apps. “It sounds superficial. It is superficial. But that’s the driver of progress in a lot of cases.”“中国人更加不愿尝试新的东西，只是因为这些东西看上去很棒，”总部设于北京的亚洲创意集团首席执行官田行智说道，该公司专门从事移动应用于业务。“这听得一起平庸，是表面的东西。但在许多情况下，这也在推展变革。

”The E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff could fill that bill. It is among several security robots that have shown up at train stations and airports around China in recent months. The E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff — which looks like the camera lens from the HAL 9000 computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey” mounted on a white trash tub — patrols the high-speed rail station in the central Chinese city Zhengzhou, tasked with using facial recognition to find and follow suspicious characters, as well as to measure air quality and detect fires.电子侦察机器人警员(E-Patrol Robotic Sheriff)有可能就是这样的例子。它是近几个月来经常出现在中国各地火车站和机场的保安机器人之一。电子侦察机器人警员的样子看上去看起来把影片《2001太空漫遊》(2001: A Space Odyssey)中的计算机HAL 9000的摄像机镜头加装在了一个白色垃圾箱上。

中国中部城市郑州的高铁火车站用过电子侦察机器人警员侦察，其任务还包括通过人脸识别找寻和追踪怀疑人员，以及测量空气质量和观测火灾。During a winter visit to the station, the robot was nowhere to be found. First, it had missed a fire, officials said. It also had a tendency to collect so many selfie-seeking fans that it became a safety hazard. A spokesman for the train station said it was getting an upgrade and would eventually return.记者冬天去这个火车站采访时没寻找这种机器人。官员说道，第一个原因是，这个机器人没能检测到一次火灾。第二，机器人警员更有了过于多想要与之自拍电影的人，以至于它本身已沦为安全隐患。

火车站的一位发言人说道，正在对机器人警员展开升级改建，它最后不会回去。Robots in particular have captured the Chinese imagination. A Beijing television station this year made a robot-dominated version of the country’s annual Lunar New Year television special. Robots and humans performed tai chi and comedy routines, and sang and danced.机器人特别是在让中国人心生憧憬。北京一家电视台今年制作了一个以机器人居多的春节联欢晚会。晚会上，机器人与人一起演出太极和喜剧小品，一起唱歌跳舞。

Companies and local officials often have good reason to show off their splashiest and silliest wares. China frequently takes a top-down approach to technology, with local governments rushing to follow plans that come down from on high. Gizmos with a bit of futuristic verve are often the best symbols of progress.企业和地方官员常常有很好的理由来夸耀他们最招摇、最荒谬的产品。中国常常靠自上而下的手段来推展技术发展，结果是地方政府意图已完成上面布置下来的计划。有点儿未来主义感的小玩意一般来说是变革的最差象征物。

Dancing robots, for example, became something of a fixture of company and government presentations last year. “They were everywhere,” said David Li, a co-founder of Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab, a government-supported platform that supports small hardware start-ups in Shenzhen. He estimated that he had seen 10 dancing robot shows in a single week.以唱歌机器人为事例，去年，唱歌机器人出了公司和政府成果展上的一个相同项目。“四处都可以看见它们，”深圳对外开放创意实验室的牵头创始人李大维说道，该实验室有来自政府的资金，专门反对深圳的小型硬件初创企业。

李大维估算他在一周里看见了10场机器人舞蹈演出。Alibaba, the Chinese online shopping giant, has also gotten into the act, though in a more sophisticated way. At one of its new Hema grocery stores in Shanghai, rolling robots take cooked food out onto a sort of runway that connects the kitchen to seating. A team of waiters standing nearby said a human hand was required for soup and steamed dishes, lest the robots inadvertently splash someone with hot liquid.中国在线购物巨头阿里巴巴也重新加入到这个行动中来，不过是以更加先进设备的方式。机器人在阿里巴巴在上海原设的盒马鲜生实体店里跑来跑去，把做到煮的食品放到一条将厨房与餐桌连接起来的传送带上。车站在传送带边上的一队服务员说道，汤和蒸的东西仍必须人来末端，以免机器人不小心把热液体淋到人的身上。

An Alibaba spokeswoman said in an email that the store was a prototype that sought to combine digitization with a unique consumer experience. “The system has driven significant traffic to the Hema store,” she added.阿里巴巴的一位发言人在一封电子邮件中说道，该店是一个谋求将数字化与独有的消费体验融合一起的雏形。“这个系统已给盒马店带给了极大的客流量，”该发言人补足说道。

Robot restaurants have been popping up across China. One in Shanghai’s Xujiahui district, Robot Magic Restaurant, cultivates a space-age, mini-golf ambience. Diners enter through a door on which animated fairies flap their wings. Inside, a robot with hearts for eyes charged its batteries in an ersatz cave rimmed by silver stalagmites tipped with glowing white lights. On the ceiling, fake stars twinkled.用于机器人的餐厅已在中国遍地开花。上海徐家汇的机器人魔力餐厅(Robot Magic Restaurant)流露出一种太空时代迷你高尔夫的氛围。

用餐者从表明扇着翅膀的仙女的动画门进去。餐厅里，一个宽着心形眼睛的机器人在一个人造山洞里给自己的电池电池，洞里八边形着银色的石笋，上面点缀着放白光的小灯。

天花板上闪烁着骗的星星。Waiters said their automated counterparts caused more work than they saved. The robots take trays of food out to customers, but are unable to lower them to the table. Real waiters stand back so photos and videos can be taken before shuffling in and serving food the old-fashioned way.服务员说道，机器人服务员给他们带给了更好、而不是较少的工作。

机器人能把敲食品的架上送往顾客面前，但无法将其减少放在餐桌上。真人服务员再行得躲藏得相比之下的，让就餐者给机器人拍照片、拍电影视频，然后再行踏上前来，用老方式上菜。

The robots also break down. Three times during an hour lunch, a waiter had to lean a robot on its side and take a blowtorch to the undercarriage to burn out food and trash caught in its axles. When asked whether he was worried that the robots would take his job, the waiter laughed.机器人还不会怕。在那里用午餐的一小时时间里，一名服务员有三次被迫把一个机器人敲推倒，用喷灯把卡在机器人身上各种轴承上的食物和垃圾烧毁。

当记者回答这名服务员，他否担忧机器人不会偷走他的工作时，服务员大笑了。Still, patrons were impressed.不过，机器人很让顾客敬佩。“I’ve just been to America, and I didn’t see many new things at all,” said Xie Aijuan, a retiree in her 50s. “I don’t think they have anything like robotic restaurants there.”“我才去过美国，但我在那儿几乎都没有看见过这么多的新鲜事，”50多岁的卸任人员谢爱娟说道。

“我想要他们认同没像这样的机器人餐厅。”“China is surpassing America,” agreed her dining companion, Zhuang Jiazheng. “Robots are coming. Tech is advancing. It’s all a matter of time.”“中国现在正在打破美国呢，”与她一起用餐的庄嘉征表示同意她的众说纷纭。

“机器人的时代立刻就要来了，科技都在发展，达成协议这些都只是时间问题罢了。

本文来源：81818威尼斯-www.jackietilston.com