In recent years, robots are becoming more and more popular. Robots have many different shapes. Some look like humans, and others look like animals. They can do lots of things, such as helping with the housework, building cars and so on. They will even do more things in the future.

A scientist thinks robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. His name is Ray Kurzweil. He works for Google in the USA. He is a leading expert on artificial intelligence (AI). Mr. Kurzweil says computers will learn from experiences, just like us. (A) 他还说他们将会讲笑话和故事。His 2029 prediction is a lot sooner than many people thought. In 1999, many experts said it would take hundreds of years for computers to be very intelligent. Now it won’t be long before computer intelligence is one billion times more powerful than the human brain.

Mr. Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy. ( B) His thinking has stayed the same but everyone else has changed their thinking. He said his thoughts were not crazy any more. He said the rest of the world was changing its thought. He pointed to examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These make us think computers are intelligent. He said people changed because the public has seen things like voice-recognition technology, where you talk to a computer. He also said Google self-driving cars make people think about computer intelligence.

What will robots be like in the future? All of us don’t know. Computers and rockets didn’t seem possible more than 100 years ago. We believe that as long as we don’t give up, nothing is impossible.

In 2018, Science magazine asked some young scientists what schools should teach students. Most said students should spend less time on facts and have more space for creative activities. As the Internet grows more powerful, students can get knowledge easily. Why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads?

Civilizations (文明) develop through forgetting life skills that were once necessary. In the Agricultural (农业的) Age, a farmer could afford to forget hunting skills. When societies industrialized (工业化的), the knowledge of farming could be safe to forget. Nowadays, smart machines help us get most human knowledge. It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?

Researchers have realized several problems that may happen. For one, human beings have biases (偏见), and smart machines can increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process. In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers.

Another problem is how to get information. When there were no computers, people got knowledge from other people, or went to the library. But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can mislead us into thinking that the knowledge we found was part of what we knew. In a new civilization rich in machine intelligence, we can easily get information on the Internet. But depending on it too much suggests possibilities of being harmed easily.

We forget old ways in order to free up time and space for new skills. As long as the knowledge is stored somewhere in our networks, and can be found when we need them, perhaps they’re not really forgotten. Still, as time goes on, without doubt we will become strangers to future people.

Lego (乐高积木) is a children’s toy consisting of small plastic pieces that can be joined together to make models of different objects. It’s very popular with children. But these plastic pieces are harmful to the earth.

To prevent the harm, the Lego Group is now introducing earth-friendly pieces. The 85-year-old Danish toymaker said these Lego pieces such as leaves, bushes and trees were made completely from plant-based plastic. The first Lego pieces made from plant-based plastic will go on sale later this year, the company has announced. Then will start appearing in Lego box sets.

The Lego Group plants to use sustainable (可持续的) materials in all its toys by 2030. According to Tim Brook at Lego, the new sustainable Lego parts are made from polyethylene, a kind of soft plastic made from sugar cane (甘蔗).

“Lego products have always been about providing great play experiences and giving every child the chance to build their own world through the play. Children and parents won't find any difference in the quality (品质) or appearance of the new parts,” said Brooks. “As the Lego Group is working towards using sustainable things in its most toys, it will always pay attention to high quality and safety.”

The Lego Group’s purpose is to reach zero waste by 2030. They are trying to make the world a better place to live, and they are working hard to make great toys from healthier materials. By using eco-friendly materials, they can help create a world where humans and nature co-exist (共存) peacefully.