双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第9章:退隐山林(97)
日期:2020-03-08 17:39

(单词翻译:单击)

A young scientist, A.E. Glennie, spent time at Manchester on this work.

年轻的科学家A·E·格莱尼,在曼彻斯特负责这项工作。

He would sometimes chat with Alan about mathematical methods, though it went no further than talk in general terms.

他有时会和图灵聊天,讨论数学问题,但都是浅尝辄止。

Once, however, Alick Glennie found himself collared by Alan, when he wanted a 'mediocre player' on whom to try out his current chess playing program.

不过有一次,格莱尼被图灵拦住,图灵要找一个人,试验他的国际象棋程序。

They went back to Alan's room for three hours in the afternoon Alan had all the rules written out on bits of paper, and found himself very torn between executing the moves that his algorithm demanded, and doing what was obviously a better move.

他们来到图灵的房间,花了3个多小时。图灵把所有的规则都写在纸上,然后他自己代替计算机,根据他的算法,计算应该怎么走。

There were long silences while he totted up the scores and chose the best minimax ploy, hoots and growls when he could see it missing chances.

他会长时间沉默,来进行局面评估,以及选择最大值最小化的策略,当他发现自己落了下风,他就会冷笑,或者咆哮。

It was ironic that, despite all the developments of the past ten years, he was little closer to actually trying out serious chess playing on a machine—the existing computers had neither speed nor space for the problem.

讽刺的是,在过去十年中,计算机有了那么大的发展,但他还是无法实现一台真正的象棋机,因为现有的计算机的速度和存储空间,都无法达到要求。

Alick Glennie sometimes thought of Alan as Caliban, with his dark moods, sometimes gleeful, sometimes sulky, appearing in the laboratory on a somewhat random basis. He could be absurdly naive, as when bursting with laughter at a punning name that Glennie made up for an output routine: RITE.

格莱尼觉得,图灵有时就像一个半兽人,他的内心非常黑暗而阴郁,他会无缘无故地放声大笑,也会无缘无故地暴跳如雷,这几乎是随机的。

To Cicely Popplewell he was a terrible boss, but on the other hand, there was no question of having to be polite or deferent to him—it was impossible.

赛斯丽·波普韦尔也觉得,图灵是个很可怕的老板,但是反过来说,你永远不会在他面前失礼,因为他对这些完全不在意。

He was regarded as a local authority on mathematical methods; those who wanted a suggestion would just have to ask him straight out, and if they could keep his interest and patience, they might get a valuable hint.

他被人们视为数学方面的权威,如果想得到他的帮助,可以开门见山地提问,只要能够抓住他的兴趣和耐心,就一定能得到很有价值的想法。

Alick Glennie was rather surprised by his knowledge of hydrodynamics.

格莱尼对图灵在流体方面的知识感到很惊奇。

All the same, he was no world-standard mathematician, and it was often more amazing to the professional mathematician what he did not know, than what he did.

但尽管如此,图灵并不是世界级的数学家,而且对他来说,相比于他已经知道的东西,他更喜欢那些他不知道的东西。

He never approached the von Neumann status or breadth of knowledge; indeed he had read very little mathematics since 1938.

他从不追求冯·诺伊曼的高级职位或知识渊博的形象,事实上从1938年以后,图灵已经很少阅读数学文献了。

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