双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第8章:水银延时线(113)
日期:2019-07-17 14:51

(单词翻译:单击)

Everyone had been slow to adjust to the realities of the post-war period.
现在每个人都在放缓节奏,以适应战后的生活。
In expecting the Post Office to cooperate on the delay lines, Alan had been as unrealistic as any of the administrators.
在期待与邮政实验室合作开发延迟线时,图灵与那些领导一样异想天开。
And yet it was still extraordinary that as late as May 1948 there was no sign of any start being made on the construction of the control circuits.
另外,直到1948年5月,控制电路仍然连一点影子都没有搞出来。
This failure could not be laid at Alan's door: to see that plans were implemented was the job, and indeed the only raison d'être, of the administrators.
但这个失败不能归咎于图灵,这个计划的实施,是领导们的工作,而且几乎是领导们唯一的工作,是他们存在的唯一意义。
But perhaps Darwin never really wanted a computer, just as the Admiralty had not really wanted to know where German ships were.
可是,达尔文从来没有真正地想要造出一台计算机,正如海军从来没有真正地想要知道,德国的军舰在哪里。
The 'support' of Travis and the Ministry of Supply had not in fact made any difference to the bureaucratic inertia.
来自特拉维斯和军需部的"支持",没有对这种官僚主义产生任何影响。
Darwin and Womersley had played at being commissars while Alan remained the humbler worker and peasant.
达尔文与沃默斯利始终是主角,而图灵一直都是个打下手的。
If he had been given his head, the project might well have gone adrift.
实际上,即使图灵回来,继续付出全部智力,这个项目仍然可能会随风而散。
He probably underestimated the technical difficulty of running pulses at the rate of a million a second, and overestimated his own engineering knowledge.
他可能会高估自己的工程能力,从而低估微秒级脉冲的工艺难度。
He would have interfered in too much detail, annoying people who would not like being lectured on their own jobs.
他也可能会涉及太多的细节,而其他人并不希望自己的工作被指手划脚。
He would have had no idea of how to pull off a deal for the right equipment, how to flatter someone into doing the job the way he wanted, or how to play off one expert against another. He had no management skills.
他可能不知道怎样申请需要的设备,不知道如何奉承那些他需要的人。他也不懂得管理技巧。
But he was not given a chance to make a mess of it for himself, as was his right as the creative worker. And basically his approach was on the right lines, for in the end every successful computer project had to solve the problem of integrating 'mathematical' and 'engineering' skills, which was exactly what he longed to do.
不过,图灵并没有给自己机会来出这些丑,他的基本思想是正确的,他寻求"数学"与"工程"的协调配合,后来每一个成功的计算机项目,都做到了这一点。

分享到
重点单词
  • creativeadj. 创造性的
  • approachn. 接近; 途径,方法 v. 靠近,接近,动手处理
  • unrealisticadj. 不切实际的,不实在的
  • underestimatedvt. 低估;看轻 n. 低估
  • delayv. 耽搁,推迟,延误 n. 耽搁,推迟,延期
  • bureaucraticadj. 官僚的,繁文缛节的
  • supplyn. 补给,供给,供应,贮备 vt. 补给,供给,提供,
  • cooperatevi. 合作,协力
  • controln. 克制,控制,管制,操作装置 vt. 控制,掌管,支
  • extraordinaryadj. 非凡的,特别的,特派的