“不需要武器、肉体暴力和身体约束的监视系统。那里只有一道凝视的目光。那是一道监察的目光，在它的重压之下，每个人最终都将使之彻底内在化到自己的心中，以至于自己成了自己的监视者，每个人于是就这样越过并针对自己行使着这种监视。”
——福科《规训与惩罚》
想在上班时候偷个懒？还是省省吧……
作者：CEYLAN YEGINSU
译者：张力文
校对：唐 萧
编辑：唐 萧
If Workers Slack Off, the Wristband Will Know. (And Amazon Has a Patent for It.)
如果员工在工作时懈怠了，他的手环将立刻发出警报（亚马逊为此还申请了专利）
本文选自
The New York Times
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LONDON — What if your employer made you wear a wristband that tracked your every move, and that even
nudge
d
you via vibrations when it judged that you were doing something wrong?
有一种手环可以追踪你的一举一动，当它认为你的行为出错时，它会震动以示提醒。如果你的老板让你带上一个这样的手环，会发生什么？
nudge
[nʌdʒ] v. to push something or someone gently, especially to push someone with your elbow to attract the person's attention 轻推
What if your supervisor could identify every time you paused to scratch or
fidget
, and for how long you took a bathroom break?
如果你工作时的每次抓痒和不安地挪动都被老板尽收眼底，甚至连你中途去厕所去了多久他都知道，又会发生什么？
fidget
[ˈfɪdʒət] v. to make continuous, small movements that annoy other people 坐立不安
What may sound like
dystopian
fiction could become a reality for Amazon warehouse workers around the world. The company has won two patents for such a wristband, though it was unclear if Amazon planned to actually manufacture the tracking device and have employees wear it.
这听起来像是反乌托邦式的科幻小说，但对于世界各地在亚马逊仓库工作的工人来说，这将成为现实。虽然我们尚不能确定亚马逊是否要将这种追踪设备投入生产并让员工佩戴，但它已为手环申请了两项专利。
dystopian
[dɪˈstəʊpiən] adj. (the idea of) a society in which people do not work well with each other and are not happy 反乌托邦的
The online retail giant, which plans to build a second headquarters and recently shortlisted 20 potential host cities for it, has also been known to experiment in-house with new technology before selling it worldwide.
在线零售商巨头亚马逊正计划设立第二个总部。最近它列出了一份建址候选名单，有20个城市入围。亚马逊还有着一个广为人知的特点——在新科技面世之前，它会先在公司内部试验。
Amazon, which rarely discloses information on its patents, could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.
由于亚马逊一贯鲜少透露与其专利相关的信息，我们难以在本周四迅速联系到它，也就无法得到它对此事的评价。
But the patent disclosure goes to the heart about a global debate about privacy and security. Amazon already has a reputation for a workplace culture that thrives on a hard-hitting management style, and has experimented with how far it can push white-collar workers in order to reach its delivery targets.
然而，此项专利的公开直击全球有关隐私和安全的辩论中心。亚马逊的职场文化一向以管理强硬著称。它还曾做过实验，检测为实现其物流指标，它最多能向白领施加多大压力。
Privacy advocates, however, note that a lot can go wrong even with everyday tracking technology. On Monday, the tech industry was jolted by the discovery that Strava, a fitness app that allows users to track their activities and compare their performance with other people running or cycling in the same places, had unwittingly highlighted the locations of United States military bases and the movements of their personnel in Iraq and Syria.
然而，隐私权的捍卫者们指出，即便是员工天天戴着追踪装置，还是会有很多地方出错。Strava是一款健身手机应用，在Strava上，用户可以追踪自己的活动，还可以对比自己与其他在同一地点跑步或骑车的用户的运动表现。由于这一特点，Strava无意间暴露了美国在伊拉克和叙利亚的军事基地及其士兵的行踪。此事于本周一被爆出，震惊了整个科技行业。
The patent applications, filed in 2016, were published in September, and Amazon won them this week, according to GeekWire, which reported the patents’ publication on Tuesday.
本周二，极客奇才（GeekWire）对这项专利的公布进行了报道。极客奇才称，亚马逊于2016年送交对该专利的申请，同年九月该专利公开，本周亚马逊赢得此专利。
In theory, Amazon’s proposed technology would emit ultrasonic sound pulses and radio transmissions to track where an employee’s hands were in relation to inventory bins, and provide “haptic feedback” to steer the worker toward the correct bin.
理论上来说，亚马逊提出的这个装置将通过发射超声波脉冲和无线电信号来追踪员工的手与库存箱的相对位置关系，并通过“触觉上的反馈”来指引工人走向正确的箱子。
The aim, Amazon says in the patent, is to streamline “time consuming” tasks, like responding to orders and packaging them for speedy delivery. With guidance from a wristband, workers could fill orders faster.
在专利中，亚马逊表示该装置旨在简化“耗费时间的”任务，如回应订单、打包加急快递。有了手环的指引，工人们能更快地完成订单。
Critics say such wristbands raise concerns about privacy and would add a new layer of surveillance to the workplace, and that the use of the devices could result in employees being treated more like robots than human beings.
有批评指出，这样的手环会引起人们对隐私的担忧，并给工作环境增添一层新的监控。此类设备的应用将意味着把员工当成机器人。
Current and former Amazon employees said the company already used similar tracking technology in its warehouses and said they would not be surprised if it put the patents into practice.
亚马逊的前员工和现员工均表示，公司早已在仓库里使用过类似的跟踪技术。他们还表示，如果亚马逊把这项专利付诸实践，他们并不会感到惊讶。
Max Crawford, a former Amazon warehouse worker in Britain, said in a phone interview, “After a year working on the floor, I felt like I had become a version of the robots I was working with.”
麦克思·克劳福德（Max Crawford）曾在英国亚马逊的仓库里工作。他在电话采访里说道：“在底层工作了一年后，我觉得自己和跟我一起工作的机器人没什么两样。“
He described having to process hundreds of items in an hour — a pace so extreme that one day, he said, he fell over from dizziness.
据克劳福德回忆，他要在一小时里处理数百个包裹。如此大的工作强度让他有一天晕倒了。
“There was no time to go to the loo,” he said, using the British slang for toilet. “You had to process the items in seconds and then move on. If you didn’t meet targets, you were fired.”
“你没有时间去厕所（loo），”在这里他用了一个英式俚语：“你需要在几秒内处理完一个包裹，然后继续去处理下一个。如果你没能完成指标，你就被解雇了。“
He worked back and forth at two Amazon warehouses for more than two years and then quit in 2015 because of health concerns, he said: “I got burned out.”
克劳福德前后在两家亚马逊仓库里工作了两年多。2015年，他因健康问题辞职：“我快累死了。”
Mr. Crawford agreed that the wristbands might save some time and labor, but he said the tracking was “
stalkerish
” and feared that workers might be unfairly scrutinized if their hands were found to be “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
克劳福德认为，手环将在一定程度上节省时间并降低工作量，但他指出，这种追踪是“跟踪性的”。他还担心，当雇主发现工人们的手“在错误的时间里出现在了错误的地方”时，那将意味着工人们可能是被不正当地审查了。
stalkerish
[stɔkəriʃ] adj. displaying stalker behaviour such as always been there or excessive calls or texts, facebook/twitter checking on someone 跟踪性的
“They want to turn people into machines,” he said. “The robotic technology isn’t
up to scratch
yet, so until it is, they will use human robots.”
他说：“他们想把人们变成机器。由于机器人技术尚未达标，所以在达标之前，他们将使用人类机器人。”
up to scratch
reaching an acceptable standard 达标
Many companies file patents for products that never see the light of day. And Amazon would not be the first employer to push boundaries in the search for a more efficient, speedy work force. Companies are increasingly introducing artificial intelligence into the workplace to help with productivity, and technology is often used to monitor employee whereabouts.
有些产品永远都不会被投产，但很多公司会为它们申请专利。亚马逊不是第一个为提高劳动生产率而降低底线的公司。为提高劳动生产率，越来越多的公司在工作场所中引入人工智能。科技常被用于监控并定位员工。
One company in London is developing artificial intelligence systems to flag unusual workplace behavior, while another used a messaging application to track its employees.
伦敦的一家公司正在研发一款能标记出非常规工作行为的人工智能系统，还有一家公司曾用通讯软件来追踪员工。
In Wisconsin, a technology company called Three Square Market offered employees an opportunity to have microchips implanted under their skin in order, it said, to be able to use its services seamlessly.
在威斯康星州，一家名为“三平方市场”（Three Square Market）的公司向员工提供了在皮肤里植入芯片的机会。该公司称，这能使员工便捷地使用公司的服务设施。
Initially, more than 50 out of 80 staff members at its headquarters in River Falls, Wis., volunteered.
很快，逾六成员工自愿在河瀑布的公司总部植入晶片。
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