Questões de Inglês - Pronomes | Pronouns para Concurso

          Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
     honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
     a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
     eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
 5    folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
     Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
     gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
     meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
     an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
 10    one.
          Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
     the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
     the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
     population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
 15    skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
     creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
     Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
     "Android science."
          Besides the justification for making robots
 20    anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
     environments with architectural features such as stairs,
     Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
     humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
     natural communication. "Appearance is very important
 25    to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
     says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
     media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
     our future is to interact naturally with people."
          Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
 30    aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
     computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
     for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
     Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
     Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
 35    to understand more about ourselves.
          To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
     Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
     cognitive science research can use the robot to study
     human perception, communication and other faculties.
 40    This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
     as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
     collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
     humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
     standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
 45    neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
     to implement processes that support it in the android."
          One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
     his artificial creations on real people. He began research
     four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
 50    casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
     mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
          Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
     people's comfort zones. Because the android's
     appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
 55    differences in motion and responses will make it seem
     strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
     overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
     natural way it moves.
          Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
 60    authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
     thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
     he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
     teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
     Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
 65    Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
     answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

Good Stuff? - A Consumption Manifesto:
The Top Ten Principles of Good Consumption
Consumption is one of life's great pleasures. Buying
things we desire, traveling to beautiful places, eating
delectable food: icing on the cake of life. But too often the
effects of our blissful consumption make for a sad story.
Giant cars exhaling dangerous exhaust, hog farms pumping
out harmful pollutants, toxic trash pestering poor
neighborhoods - none of this if there weren't something
to sell.
But there's no need to trade pleasure for guilt. With
thoughtfulness and commitment, consumption can be a force
for good. Through buying what we need, produced the way
we want, we can create the world we'd like to live in.
To that end and for the future, a Consumption Manifesto:
Principle One. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This brilliant triad
says it all. Reduce: Avoid buying what you don't need-
and when you do get that dishwasher/lawnmower/toilet,
spend the money up front for an efficient model. Re-use:
Buy used stuff, and wring the last drop of usefulness out of
most everything you own. Recycle: Do it, but know that
it's the last and least effective leg of the triad. (Ultimately,
recycling simply results in the manufacture of more things.)
Principle Two. Stay close to home. Work close to home
to shorten your commute; eat food grown nearby; support
local businesses; join local organizations. All of these will
improve the look, shape, smell, and feel of your community.
Principle Three. Internal combustion engines are polluting,
and their use should be minimized. Period.
Principle Four. Watch what you eat. Whenever possible,
avoid food grown with pesticides, in feedlots, or by
agribusiness. It's an easy way to use your dollars to vote
against the spread of toxins in our bodies, land, and water.
Principle Five. Private industries have very little incentive
to improve their environmental practices. Our consumption
choices must encourage and support good behavior; our
political choices must support government regulation.
Principle Six. Support thoughtful innovations in
manufacturing and production. Hint: Drilling for oil is no
longer an innovation.
Principle Seven. Prioritize. Think hardest when buying
large objects; don't drive yourself mad fretting over the small
ones. It's easy to be distracted by the paper bag puzzle,
but an energy-sucking refrigerator is much more worthy of
your attention. (Small electronics are an exception.)
Principle Eight. Vote. Political engagement enables the
spread of environmentally conscious policies. Without
public action, thoughtful individuals are swimming
upstream.
Principle Nine. Don't feel guilty. It only makes you sad.
Principle Ten. Enjoy what you have-the things that are
yours alone, and the things that belong to none of us. Both
are nice, but the latter are precious. Those things that we
cannot manufacture and should never own-water, air, birds,
trees-are the foundation of life's pleasures. Without them,
we're nothing. With us, there may be nothing left. It's our
choice.
Umbra Fisk, Grist Magazine.
Slightly adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1470
Access on June 1, 2007.