Question

text-dependent questions
directions: for the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. part a: which of the following identifies the central idea of the text?

a. morality is a solely human trait that robots may never be able to fully understand or use to make decisions.
b. equipping robots with a sense of morality would allow them to be more useful in combat, however, this would also allow more independence than some people approve of.
c. equipping robots with a sense of right and wrong is an unwise decision, as humans have yet to master a knowledge of morality themselves.
d. equipping robots with morality is the best way to ensure that no matter how autonomous they become, they will never act unwisely.

1. part b: which detail from the text best supports the answer to part a?

a. “true to its title, called on governments to ban all autonomous weapons because it would ‘increase the risk of death or injury to civilians during armed conflict.’” (paragraph 10)
b. “it’s all in the interest of developing machines that won’t be a threat to humans, but rather an asset, particularly in the ugly chaos of war.” (paragraph 16)
c. “i believe that there is a potential for non - combatant casualties to be lessened by these intelligent robots, but we do have to be very careful about how they’re used and not just release them into the battlefield without appropriate concern.” (paragraph 17)
d. “we still confront situations for which we don’t have well - developed codes (e.g., in the case of assisted suicide) and need not look far into the past to find cases where our own codes were dubious, or worse (e.g., laws that permitted slavery and segregation).” (paragraph 19)

1. part a: what is the effect of the author’s reference to the terminator movies in paragraph 13?

a. it emphasizes the potential intelligence that robots are capable of.
b. it makes fun of the idea that robots could ever successfully be equipped with morality.
c. it shows how equipping robots with intelligence is a task that is doomed to fail.
d. it reinforces the idea that some robotic advances are only possible in fiction.

Explanation:

1. Para PART A, la idea central del texto es que la moralidad es un rasgo exclusivamente humano y los robots quizás nunca puedan comprenderla o usarla para tomar decisiones. Las otras opciones se centran en equipar robots con moralidad, que no es el foco principal.
2. Para PART B, la opción A refuerza la idea de que los robots con autonomía pueden ser peligrosos, lo cual apoya la idea de que la moralidad es algo que los robots no pueden manejar correctamente.
3. Para PART C, la referencia a las películas de The Terminator enfatiza la inteligencia potencial de los robots, mostrando que en la ficción se les otorga una gran capacidad de pensamiento.

Answer:

1. A. Moralidad es un rasgo exclusivamente humano y los robots quizás nunca puedan comprenderlo o usarlo para tomar decisiones.
2. A. "true because its title, called on governments to ban all autonomous weapons because to do so would 'increase the risk of death or injury to civilians during armed conflict.' (Paragraph 10)"
3. A. It emphasizes the potential intelligence that robots are capable of.