日本研究機構欲打破禁忌開啓軍事研究

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?

一個能在“包剪錘”遊戲上橫掃人類挑戰者的機械手臂，令東京大學(Tokyo university)陷入二戰以來最大的道德困境之一：日本學者應解除70年的禁令，利用這類技術來研發武器嗎？

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.

東京大學內部的這場辯論將引發全日本的共鳴。眼下日本民衆不滿的呼聲漸漸高漲，他們認爲首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)企圖改寫日本憲法，破壞近70年的和平主義。

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.

在有些人看來，機械手臂能夠萬無一失地贏得一個簡單的兒童遊戲，只是一項新穎且無害的科學突破。但其他人則想到這項技術可以應用到反導系統，武裝戰鬥機器人或避彈無人機。

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年來，東京大學一直禁止校內科研人員從事有可能用於軍事目的的研究，日本其他學術機構大都秉持這一原則。據日本防務省官員表示，結果導致日本的軍事產業一直無法得益於全世界最多產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.

安倍政府已經解除了日本禁止軍事出口的慣例，並重新解釋了和平憲法，現在正推動廢除這一學術禁忌。

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”.

中國在該地區加強自己軍事力量的不斷努力，加上日益上升的對美國防禦保護傘前景的憂慮，讓日本各大學爭論他們的學者可以參與軍事相關項目，只要最終目的是“安全與和平”。

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.

這加大了機械手臂的發明人、東京大學教授石川正俊(Masatoshi Ishikawa)，以及其他日本學者改變立場的壓力。雖然東京大學在該問題上仍猶豫不決，但石川教授的突破性研究讓這場辯論變得更加清晰。

“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.

石川教授表示：“每次我參加國際會議時，總是不斷有軍工製造商或政府代表想跟我討論我的機械手臂，以及它能做什麼。”

“There are certainly people within Tokyo university who would like the rules to change, but I am not one of them.”

“當然，東京大學內部也不乏有人想改變原來的規則，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.

在機械手臂的例子上，其軍事潛力顯而易見。這個裝置之所以每次都能贏得遊戲是因爲它作弊了，它結合了全球最快的成像傳感器和機械運動，它能看到對手做出的動作，然後在人眼來不及注意之前，指示機械手臂做出致勝動作。

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.

財政誘因也很明顯。日本各大學的國家撥款正逐步下降，在過去一年半時間裏，日本政府通過推出多個項目，用財政激勵吸引科學家和工程師參與軍事有關的項目。

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，日本防務省公開邀請研究人員加入其內部的軍事研究項目，迄今已收到109份申請，其中58份來自大學，22份來自公共研究機構，這些機構以前都曾發誓遠離軍事研究。

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”.

日本海洋研究開發機構(Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology)是申請機構之一。該機構之所以能提出申請，是因爲它重新解釋了自己運營的創建原則，允許其從事“以和平與福利爲目的”的研究，以完成“有利於國家安全的活動”。