269 Automatic

Do you think your life is quite automated? Is there anything that you can do which you think a robot might not be able to take over in the next 20 years? Will Knight is the senior editor at MIT Technology Review, which has been looking into the future of robotics and automation. One of the key places they have been looking at is China, which in many ways, is not only leading the way in terms of applying new robotic or automated technology into production lines, but is also putting huge resources into researching artificial intelligence. ShaoLan points out that our everyday lives seem to have more and more machines working for us, from phones to coffee machines, dishwashers to cars (all considered completely normal today) and they discuss what the future may well look like as technology moves forward at such a fast pace. This leads on to learning the Chinese word for “automatic” and also for many different objects that can be automatic!

The Chinese word for “automatic” or “automated” is 自動/自动. The first word 自 means “self” and the second character 動/动 means “to move.” When something moves itself then it is “automatic” 自動/自动. This word can be used in front of many other nouns to describe automatic objects!