Blurring lines of reality

　　真实的人类，还是机器人?

　　导读：在机器人技术日益成熟的几天，人与机器人的话题已不再新鲜，但是六月刚刚上映的科幻美剧《真实的人类》却依旧让我看出了新意……

　　The uncanny is no longer unimaginable.

　　神秘不再难以想象。

　　Science fiction series “Humans”, based off the ongoing Swedish series “Real Humans”, debuted last month on Channel 4 in the UK and AMC in the US.

　　改编自瑞典科幻剧“Real Humans”的美剧《真实的人类》已于上个月登陆英国第四频道与美国AMC电视台。

　　The series delves into a world where the line between machines and humans has been blurred, intentionally, in order to “make humans less like machines.”

　　为了让“人类更具人性”，该剧有意设定了一个人与机器日益相似的世界。

　　In suburban London, the Hawkins family buys a “synth”, next in line behind the iPhone as the must-have gadget. Synths were created to serve, and the family graces theirs with the name “Anita”.

　　住在伦敦郊外的霍金斯一家购买了一个像苹果手机一样人手必备的 “Synth”。Synth为服务(人类)而生，霍金斯一家则将他们的Synth命名为“安妮塔”。

　　Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill), the father in the family, purchases Anita (Gemma Chan) to lighten the household work and free up time to solve his marital problems with his wife Laura (Katherine Parkinson), a lawyer who often has limited contact with her husband and daughter while she’s away on business.

　　霍金斯家的父亲乔(汤姆?古德曼?希尔饰)购买“安妮塔”是为了减轻家务负担，让自己能腾出时间解决与妻子劳拉(凯瑟琳?帕金森饰)间的婚姻问题。劳拉是一名律师，她只要一出差就会忘记联络丈夫与女儿。

　　Laura, however, is deeply suspicious of Anita, and fears she is losing her status as the family’s matriarchto a robot. More unsettling, Laura notices signs of Anita acting a little more human than she should be, including an incident where she leaves the house and intently gazes at the moon.

　　但是，劳拉却对安妮塔满腹怀疑，担心它会让自己失去家中女主人的地位。令她更加不安的是，劳拉发现安妮塔竟然表现出了机器人不该有的人性。有一次，安妮塔走到屋外，出神地望着月亮。

　　It turns out Laura’s suspicions aren’t totally unfounded. In fact, some synths are becoming conscious, and they are on the run.

　　劳拉的怀疑并非空穴来风，事实上，一些synths已经有了意识，正在逃跑。

　　The series explores other consequences of obscured boundaries. One of the original synth engineers develops a father-son bond with his obsolete, malfunctioning synth, while a synth detective is unable to care for his injured wife as well as their own robot servant.

　　人机界限模糊所带来的其他影响在剧中也有所涉及。比如最初的synth工程师与他设计的一款已经不再工作的淘汰synth产生了父子情;另一个synth侦探却对自己受伤的妻子和机器人仆人漠不关心。

　　“Humans” takes a familiar idea and gives it a more urgent spin in light of our own growing dependence on technology. The concept feels more and more like it could leave the realm of science fiction and turn into something real.

　　这部剧所讲述的话题是我们所熟悉的，但它对人机关系做了更加夸张的阐释，看看我们自己对技术日益增长的依赖就知道了。这种人与机器关系的问题也许将不再只出现在科幻小说中，而变成现实。

　　The series doesn’t ask questions that haven’t already been asked (What is the line between robots and humans? Could they become more advanced than we are?), but it does so in a way that feels fresh for 2015. We’ll need to be asking them in the real world soon enough.

　　本剧并没有明确提出“人类与机器人之间的边界到底在哪里?”、“机器人文明会变得比人类文明更先进么?”这些被频繁提到的问题，但是它却以一种在2015年让人感到新鲜的方式触及到了这些问题。很快，我们就会在现实生活中提出这些问题。

编辑：张雨

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