Rats and other animals o be highly attuo social signals from others so they identify friends to cooperate with and eo avoid.To find out if this extends to non-living beings, Laleh Quinn at the Uy of California, San Diego, and her colleagues tested whether rats detect social signals from robotic rats.
老鼠等动物必须要对同类发出的社交信号高度敏感，这样它们才能分辨哪些是可以合作的朋友，哪些是应该避开的敌人。为弄清这一敏感性在面对非生命体时是否仍适用，加州大学圣地亚哥分校的拉蕾·奎因及其同事进行了一项试验，观察老鼠是否能够感知机器鼠发出的社交信号。
They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat—one social and one asocial—for four days.The robot rats were quite minimalist, resembling a kier version of a puter mouse with wheels to move around and colourful markings.
研究人员让8只成年鼠与2只不同类型的机器鼠——一只爱社交，一只不合群一共处一室4天。这两只机器鼠外形相当简约抽象，就像矮胖版的电脑鼠标，靠轮子四处移动，带有鲜艳的标记。
During the experiment, the social robot rat followed the living rats around, pyed with the same toys, and opened cage doors to let trapped rats escape. Meanwhile, the asocial robot simply moved forwards and backwards and side to side.
在试验过程中，社交机器鼠跟随生物鼠们四处走动，玩同样的玩具，还会打开笼门让被困老鼠逃脱。在此期间，非社交机器鼠则只是前后、左右来回移动。
, the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release them by pressing a lever.Across 18 trials each, the living rats were 52 per t more likely on average to set the social robot free than the asocial ohis suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine social being, says Quinn. The rats may have bonded more with the social robot because it dispyed behaviors like unal expl and pying. This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed it earlier, and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped, she says .
接下来，研究人员将机器鼠关进笼子，并给老鼠一个按下控制杆解救机器鼠的机会。在对每只(生物鼠)各18次的试验中，生物鼠解救社交机器鼠的几率比解救非社交机器鼠的几率平均高出52%。这表明老鼠将社交机器鼠看作了真正的社交生物。它们可能因先前社交机器鼠表现出集体探险及游戏等行为而与其建立了更强的情感纽带。奎因称，这可能会使老鼠们更清楚记起自己之前曾经解救过机器鼠，并希望自己受困时能得到它相应的回报。
“Rats have been shown to engage in multiple forms of reciprocal help and cooperation, including what is referred to as direct reciprocity where a rat will help another rat that has previously helped them,” says Quinn.
“已有研究表明，老鼠会进行多种形式的互助及合作，其中包括被称为‘直接互惠’的行为，即老鼠会帮助之前曾帮助过自己的另一只老鼠。”奎因说道。
The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its minimal design.The robot was the same size as a regur rat but resembled a simple pstic box on wheels. “ We’d assumed we’d have to give it a moving head and tail, facial features, and put a st on it to make it smell like a real rat, but that wasn’t necessary,”says Ja Wiles at the Uy of Queensnd in Australia, who helped with the research.
出人意料的是，这只社交机器鼠设计如此简陋，老鼠却仍愿意与它交朋友。机器鼠虽与普通老鼠大小相当，外形却像一个带轮子的简易塑料盒。“我们原以为必须给它加上活动的头和尾巴，面部特征和以假乱真的老鼠气味才行，但结果证明没有必要。”澳大利亚昆士兰大学的珍妮特·怀尔斯说道，她协助了此项研究。
The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues, evehey e from basic robots. says Wiles. Simirly, childreo treat robots as if they are fellow beings, evehey dispy only simple social signals. “We humao be fasated by robots, and it turns out other animals are too,” says Wiles.
该发现表明老鼠对于社交信号非常敏感，即便这些信号来自简单的机器鼠。与之相似，儿童也往往将机器人视为同类，即便这些机器人只能发出简单的社交信号。“我们人类似乎被机器人深深吸引，事实证明其他动物也一样。”怀尔斯说道。
B
It is true that CEO pay has gone up—top ones may make 300 times the pay of typical workers on average, and sihe mid-1970s, CEO pay fe publicly traded Ameri corporations has, by varyiimates, gone up by about 500%. The typical CEO of a top Ameri corporation now makes about 18.9 million a year.
的确，首席执行官(CEO)的薪酬上涨了——平均来看，顶级 CEO的薪酬可能是普通员工薪酬的300倍，而且根据各种不同的估计，自上世纪70年代中期以来，美国大型上市公司的 CEO 薪酬上涨了约 500%。美国顶级公司的典型CEO现在每年能挣到约1890万美元。
The best model for uanding the growth of CEO pay is that of limited CEO talent in a world where business opportunities for the top firms are growing rapidly. The efforts of America’ s highest-earning 1% have been one of the more dynamic elements of the global ey. It’s not popur to say. but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really have upped their game retive to many other workers in the U.S. ey.
理解CEO薪酬上涨的最佳模型是，全球顶级公司的商业机会在迅速增长，而CEO人才紧缺。美国收入最高的1%人群的努力付出一直是全球经济的较强推动力之一。尽管这么说不太讨喜，但CEO薪酬涨幅如此之大的一个原因是，相对于美国经济中的许多其他工作者来说，CEO确实提升了工作表现。
Today’ s CEO, at least for major Ameri firms, must have many mere skills than simply being able to “run the pany.” ust have a good sense of financial markets and maybe even how the pany should trade ihey also need better public retions skills than their predecessors, as the costs of even a minor slipup be signifit. Then there’s the fact that rge Ameri panies are much mlobalized than ever before, with supply s spread across a rger number of tries. To lead in that system requires knowledge that is fairly mind-boggling. Plus, virtually all major Ameri panies are being tepanies, one way or another. Beyond this, major CEOs still have to do all the day-to-day work they have always done.
如今的CEO，至少对于美国的大公司来说，必须拥有更多技能，而不仅仅是会“经营公司”而已。CEO 必须对金融市场有良好的判断力，甚至可能要熟知公司应该如何在这些市场中从事交易。相比前任们，他们还需要更厉害的公关能力，因为即使是一个小小的失误，也可能代价惨重。而且，美国大公司的全球化程度空前，供应链遍布更多的国家。要在这样的体系中发挥领导作用，必须有相当惊人的知识才行。此外，几乎所有的美国大公司都在向科技公司转变，这些公司通常都要自主研发。除此之外，大CEO仍然要做他们一直在做的所有日常工作。
The ohat high CEO pay is mainly about ripping people off doesn’t expin history very well. By most measures, corporate governance has bee a lot tighter and morous sihe 1970s. Yet it is principally during this period of stroverhat CEO pay has been high and rising.That suggests it is in the broader corporate io recruit top didates for increasingly tough jobs.
人们普遍认为CEO的高薪很大程度上是对员工的剥削，但这并不能很好地解释历史。从大多数方面来看，公司治理自上世纪70年代以来大幅度收紧趋严。然而，CEO薪酬一直处于高位且持续上涨的趋势恰恰主要出现于强化治理的这段时期。这表明，招聘顶尖候选人从事日益艰难的工作符合公司的更广泛利益。
Furthermore, the highest CEO saries are paid to outside didates, not to the cozy insider picks, ann that high CEO pay is not some kind of depredation at the expense of the rest of the pany. And the stock market reacts positively when paie CEO pay to, say, stock prices, a sign that those practices build up corporate value not just for the CEO.
此外，最高的CEO薪资是付给外部候选人的，而非付给那些安逸的内部人选，这也表明CEO 高薪并不是某种以牺牲公司其他员工利益为代价的掠夺之举。当公司将CEO薪酬与股价等因素挂钩时，股市会做出积极反应，这表明这些举措逐步增加公司价值不仅仅是为了CEO。