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”游戏上拿下人类挑战者的机械手臂，令其东京大学(Tokyo university)陷于二战以来仅次于的道德困境之一：日本学者不应中止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起仅有日本的回响。眼下日本民众反感的呼声慢慢加剧，他们指出副首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)企图重写日本宪法，毁坏近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. 在有些人显然，机械手臂需要万无一失地夺得一个非常简单的儿童游戏，只是一项精致且有害的科学突破。但其他人则想起这项技术可以应用于到反导系统，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，东京大学仍然禁令校内科研人员专门从事有可能用作军事目的的研究，日本其他学术机构大都秉承这一原则。据日本防务省官员回应，结果造成日本的军事产业仍然无法归功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. 安倍政府早已中止了日本禁令军事出口的惯例，并新的说明了和平宪法，现在于是以推展废止这一学术迷信。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”. 中国在该地区强化自己军事力量的大大希望，再加日益下降的对美国防卫保护伞前景的担忧，让日本各大学争辩他们的学者可以参予军事涉及项目，只要最后目的是“安全性与和平”。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. 这增大了机械手臂的发明人、东京大学教授石川正俊(Masatoshi Ishikawa)，以及其他日本学者转变立场的压力。

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显得更为明晰。“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. 石川教授回应：“每次我参与国际会议时，总是大大有军工制造商或政府代表想要跟我辩论我的机械手臂，以及它能做到什么。” “There are certainly people within Tokyo university who would like the rules to change, but I am not one of them.” “当然，东京大学内部也少有有人想要转变原本的规则，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夺得游戏是因为它作弊了，它融合了全球最慢的光学传感器和机械运动，它能看见输掉作出的动作，然后在人眼马上留意之前，命令机械手臂作出制胜动作。

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. 财政诱因也很显著。日本各大学的国家经费于是以逐步上升，在过去一年半时间里，日本政府通过发售多个项目，用财政鼓舞更有科学家和工程师参予军事有关的项目。

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，日本防务省公开发表邀研究人员重新加入其内部的军事研究项目，迄今已接到109份申请人，其中58份来自大学，22份来自公共研究机构，这些机构以前都曾誓言靠近军事研究。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”. 日本海洋研究研发机构(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)是申请人机构之一。该机构之所以能提出申请，是因为它新的说明了自己运营的创立原则，容许其专门从事“以和平与福利为目的”的研究，以已完成“不利于国家安全性的活动”。

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