日本研究机构欲打破禁忌开启军事研究
A robotic hand — which can beat any human challenger at rock, paper, scissors — has thrust Tokyo university into one of its biggest ethical dilemmas since the second world war: should Japanese academics lift a 70-year ban and exploit such technology to build weapons?
一个能在“包剪锤”游戏上横扫人类挑战者的机械手臂，令东京大学(Tokyo university)陷入二战以来最大的道德困境之一：日本学者应解除70年的禁令，利用这类技术来研发武器吗？
The debate within Tokyo University is set to resonate across Japan as an increasingly vocal general public unhappy at what it sees as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s attempts to rewrite the country’s constitution and unravel nearly 70 years of pacifism.
东京大学内部的这场辩论将引发全日本的共鸣。眼下日本民众不满的呼声渐渐高涨，他们认为首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)企图改写日本宪法，破坏近70年的和平主义。
For some, the robot hand’s unerring ability to win a simple child’s game is an ingenious but harmless scientific breakthrough. Others envisage the technology being employed in anti-missile systems, armed battlefield droids and bullet-dodging drones.
在有些人看来，机械手臂能够万无一失地赢得一个简单的儿童游戏，只是一项新颖且无害的科学突破。但其他人则想到这项技术可以应用到反导系统，武装战斗机器人或避弹无人机。
Tokyo university, broadly joined by most other Japanese academic institutions, has for seven decades banned its staff from lines of research that could serve military purposes. The effect, according to Japanese defence ministry officials, has been to starve the country’s military of one of the most fertile engineering and scientific research bases in the world.
70年来，东京大学一直禁止校内科研人员从事有可能用于军事目的的研究，日本其他学术机构大都秉持这一原则。据日本防务省官员表示，结果导致日本的军事产业一直无法得益于全世界最多产的工程和科研基地之一。
The government of Mr Abe, which has already lifted Japan’s convention against military exports and reinterpreted the pacifist constitution, is now pushing to overturn the academic taboo.
安倍政府已经解除了日本禁止军事出口的惯例，并重新解释了和平宪法，现在正推动废除这一学术禁忌。
China’s relentless efforts to bolster is military presence in the region, along with rising concerns about the future of the US defence umbrella, have allowed universities to argue that their academics could engage in military-related projects if the ultimate purpose is “security and peace”.
中国在该地区加强自己军事力量的不断努力，加上日益上升的对美国防御保护伞前景的忧虑，让日本各大学争论他们的学者可以参与军事相关项目，只要最终目的是“安全与和平”。
This has increased the pressure on Masatoshi Ishikawa, the Tokyo university professor who invented the robot hand, and other Japanese academics to change their stance. While Tokyo university has continued to waver on the issue, Prof Ishikawa’s breakthrough has refined the debate.
这加大了机械手臂的发明人、东京大学教授石川正俊(Masatoshi Ishikawa)，以及其他日本学者改变立场的压力。虽然东京大学在该问题上仍犹豫不决，但石川教授的突破性研究让这场辩论变得更加清晰。
“Every time I attend an international conference, there’s a line of people representing military manufacturers or governments who want to talk about my robot hand and what it could be used for,” said Prof Ishikawa.
石川教授表示：“每次我参加国际会议时，总是不断有军工制造商或政府代表想跟我讨论我的机械手臂，以及它能做什么。”
“There are certainly people within Tokyo university who would like the rules to change, but I am not one of them.”
“当然，东京大学内部也不乏有人想改变原来的规则，但我不是其中之一。”
In the case of the robot hand, its military potential is clear. The device is able to win every time because it cheats. It combines the world’s fastest imaging sensors with the world’s fastest mechanical movement: it can see what move its opponent has made and instruct the hand to play one that beats it long before the human eye can register.
在机械手臂的例子上，其军事潜力显而易见。这个装置之所以每次都能赢得游戏是因为它作弊了，它结合了全球最快的成像传感器和机械运动，它能看到对手做出的动作，然后在人眼来不及注意之前，指示机械手臂做出致胜动作。
The financial inducements are also obvious. State funding for Japan’s universities is falling steadily and the government, via programmes launched over the past 18 months, has produced financial incentives for scientists and engineers to engage in military-related projects.
财政诱因也很明显。日本各大学的国家拨款正逐步下降，在过去一年半时间里，日本政府通过推出多个项目，用财政激励吸引科学家和工程师参与军事有关的项目。
Last year, Japan’s defence ministry issued an open invitation to researchers to join its in-house military research projects. It has received 109 applications: 58 from universities and 22 from public research institutions that had historically sworn themselves off military research.
去年，日本防务省公开邀请研究人员加入其内部的军事研究项目，迄今已收到109份申请，其中58份来自大学，22份来自公共研究机构，这些机构以前都曾发誓远离军事研究。
One of them, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, was able to apply after it reinterpreted its founding policy of operating to allow it to do research “for the purpose of peace and welfare” to encompass “activities contributing to national security”.
日本海洋研究开发机构(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)是申请机构之一。该机构之所以能提出申请，是因为它重新解释了自己运营的创建原则，允许其从事“以和平与福利为目的”的研究，以完成“有利于国家安全的活动”。
