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  3. As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life—food,

As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life—food,

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问题     As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life—food, shelter, clothes, and warmth. (46)Then we either raise our standard of living above the necessary for comfort and happiness or leave it at this level and work shorter hours. Mankind has probably chosen the latter alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment. And the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely of the routine operations of the home such as washing the clothes or washing up.
    (47)By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to meet the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard operations, when so switched by the housewife. (48)It will be a machine having no more emotions than a car, but having a memory for instructions and a limited degree of instructed or built-in adaptability according to the positions in which it finds various types of objects. It will operate other more specialized machines, for example, the vacuum cleaner or clothes-washing machine.
    There are no problems in the production of such a domestic robot to which we do not have already the glimmering of a solution. When I have discussed this kind of device with housewives, some 90 percent of them have the immediate reaction, "How soon can I buy one?" The other 10 percent have the reaction, "I would be terrified to have it moving about my house". (49)But when one explains to them that it could be switched off or unplugged or stopped without the slightest difficulty, or made to go and put itself away in a cupboard at any time, they quickly realize that it is a highly desirable object.  (50)Now it is generally recognized that there is no greater pleasure than to go to bed in the evening and know that the washing up is being done downstairs after one is asleep. Most families are now delighted, no doubt, to have a robot slave doing all the downstairs housework after they were in bed at night.
Notes: glimmering 迹象。
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答案于是，我们在已经达到舒适和幸福所必需的生活水准后，是继续再往上提高呢，还是停留在这种水平上，而去缩短工作时间?人类很可能选择了后者。
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