Findings coming from a new report by the Pew Research Center of Washington D. C. show that Americans are worried about new technology. They are concerned that machines, including robots, will take over work now done by humans.

About 75 percent of Americans questioned by Pew said automation (自动化) will increase income inequality between the rich and the middle class and the poor. And 64 percent of people expect automation to be so common in America that people will face difficulty finding things to do with their lives.

Some of the concerns about technology come from a distrust about whether machines will always make the right decision. Many Americans believe humans have better judgment in dealing with complex matters. One example is selecting a person for a job. Three quarters of Americans said they would not want to apply for a job that uses a computer program to choose the most qualified person.

Most Americans want the government to limit automation. For example, 87 percent support a requirement that all driverless vehicles have a human in the driver’s seat, who can take control when needed. And 85 percent want to limit machines to mostly doing jobs that are dangerous or unhealthy for humans. And only 25 percent expect more jobs to come from automation. Pew said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, spoke last May to graduating seniors from Harvard University in Massachusetts. His talk centered on the uncertain future facing young people. “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks,” Zuckerberg told the graduates.

Zuckerberg said young people will have to find projects that will bring both jobs and direct benefits to the people of the world. He said in his speech that 300, 000 people worked to put a man on the moon, and millions of people built the Hoover Dam as well as other great projects over the last 100 years.

Pindar Van Arman is a painter, but he’s also a software designer. He has built some machines and worked on a DARPA challenge team in California to build a self-driving car. His latest project? A robot painter, BitPaintr.

BitPaintr is Van Arman’s fifth robot in 10 years. Earlier versions included devices that produced simpler paintings with algorithms (算法). But the idea for BitPaintr is simple: A user just uploads a picture, and it can paint totally on its own and develop its own style.

Although his friends joke that he has invented a really expensive, slow, bad painter, Van Arman says teaching a machine how to be creative has helped him get to the bottom of what creativity is — and appreciate it.

“When you’re trying to teach a machine to do something that’s easy for humans, it really makes you sit back and see what humans are doing,” he says.

So what is creativity, then, if a robot with a paintbrush can be — or appear to be — just as creative as a human with a paintbrush?

Mark Riedl, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing, says it depends on how you define creativity. “There is creativity and Creativity,” Riedl says. “Being ‘creative’ usually has something to do with the little things that we do hundreds of times in our daily lives. They could be creative, but usually aren’t. To be ‘Creative’ is to have an imagination that will have a huge impact on a social level — the Picassos and the Mozarts of the world; the people who have produced something that’s taken on this additional level of meaning.”

Riedl admits what robots create is far from human-level quality art, but he sees robots entering the creative process as a positive thing.

“We want the computers to keep up with us,” he says. “And thanks to researchers like Van Arman, it seems like they will, although they will not replace us, but to help us to be more creative.”

Too much sitting is bad for you!

Most of us are guilty of excess sitting. We sit at school, at our computers and in front of the TV, moving only to change from one seat to another. Some studies suggest that people who sit all day reduce their life expectancy by around two years compared to those who are more active.【小题1】 It is clear that constant sitting at home, at school and in the workplace is harmful to health.

A school in Minnesota decided to experiment with a new ‘standing classroom’ design. They removed the standard desks and replaced them with high tables. These new tables are at chest level and have a swinging footrest. 【小题2】The students appear to be more attentive, more alert and able to concentrate better. At the beginning of the experiment, there were no chairs, but the school has now added some high chairs because not all of the students wanted to stand all day.

【小题3】 Results show that their time is now divided fairly equally between when they stand, when they walk around the classroom and when they sit, with each of the three activities accounting for about one third of their time.

Other schools are now calculating the costs and benefits of using standing desks. Many are keen to improve their students’ results, and they carefully consider all their performance and attendance data before making a final decision. Parents also need to be consulted as they may have doubts about the effect of these changes on their children. Some schools even organise after-school events where parents, students and teachers can experience a lesson in the newstyle standing classroom.【小题4】 A classroom with traditional desks and chairs costs less than half that of a ‘standing classroom’.

Dr Khan is unsure how much teenagers can change. He believes that, at that age, they have firmly established habits and they don’t want to do things differently. 【小题5】He adds that a mix of standing desks and traditional seating ensures that all students can work in the way that suits them.