双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第8章:水银延时线(63)
日期:2019-05-14 19:24

(单词翻译:单击)

Now that the memory machine and the electronic brain were upon us, it seemed that we were really facing a new revolution;
如今,这样的存储器和电子大脑即将摆在我们面前,我们似乎真的在面临一场新的革命,
not an industrial one, but a revolution of the mind, and the responsibilities facing the scientists to-day were formidable and serious.
这不再是工业革命,而是思想革命,今天的科学家们,肩负着重大而庄严的使命。
'Let us see to it,' he concluded, 'that we not only insist on being allowed to shoulder it; but that when we have established our right, we can also prove our fitness.'
"让我们拭目以待吧,"他总结道,"我们坚定地担负起这样的重任,历史必将证明我们是正确的!"
In 1946 people still believed that the great war surplus of scientific and technical advance could be turned to good use,
1946年,人们仍然相信,战争中的过剩的科学技术现在有着很好的用途,
although Mountbatten's comments on 'responsibilities' reflected the fact that few had any idea of how this was going to be achieved.
尽管蒙巴顿所说的"使命"表明,几乎没有几个人知道到底该怎么做。
The ENIAC had been released from military secrecy months before, and Hartree had written about it in the scientific journal Nature,21 but it needed Mountbatten to make it 'news'.
ENIAC在几个月前就已经从军方解密了,哈特里在学术刊物《自然》中提到过它,但仍然需要蒙巴顿把它变成"新闻"。
He had taken his information from the NPL, and the inaccurate reference to chess-playing machines would suggest that he heard an excited Alan Turing talking about the future possibilities of the ACE.
蒙巴顿从国家物理实验室得到了这些消息,从他引用的不怎么准确的"下棋机器"可以看出,他肯定听到了图灵关于ACE的一些展望。
(There was, of course, no machine in existence that could play chess.)
(现有的机器没有能下棋的。)
Darwin and Hartree were embarrassed not only by Mountbatten getting the wrong ends of the technical sticks, but also by his perfectly correct assertion that the ACE would exercise 'hitherto human prerogatives of choice and judgment'.
达尔文和哈特里对于蒙巴顿的这场演讲感到十分尴尬,一是因为他犯了许多科学错误,二是因为他说ACE将会具有"人类的选择和决策能力"。
They did not like to criticise Mountbatten, but wrote22 to The Times complaining that its headline ELECTRONIC BRAIN had given a false impression.
他们并不想批评蒙巴顿,但还是给《时代》杂志写信,抱怨"电子大脑"这个说法会给公众造成误解。

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重点单词
  • militaryadj. 军事的 n. 军队
  • establishedadj. 已被确认的,确定的,建立的,制定的 动词est
  • judgmentn. 裁判,宣告,该判决书
  • surplusadj. 多余的,过剩的 n. 过剩,剩余物,盈余
  • hithertoadv. 到目前为止,迄今
  • shouldern. 肩膀,肩部 v. 扛,肩负,承担,(用肩)推挤
  • embarrassedadj. 尴尬的,局促不安的,拮据的
  • technicaladj. 技术的,工艺的
  • assertionn. 断言,主张
  • revolutionn. 革命,旋转,转数