But Tom, 50, was playing it at his desk in Los Angeles one evening in the silence of a nearly empty office building. Actually, he only appeared to be alone. His glowing computer screen showed a game already in progress with several habitual partners: "Blue Whale," a man from Germany; Russ from Ohio; and Freddy, a Chinese-American who lives in Minnesota. Tom played effortlessly as we talked.
而在洛杉矶的一个夜晚，50岁的汤姆一个人坐在办公桌旁，在寂静、空荡荡的办公大楼里玩起了麻将。表面上他只是一个人在玩麻将。可实际上他那闪亮着的计算机屏幕表明他在与几个老牌友对弈：德国人“蓝鲸”、俄亥俄州的卢斯、明尼苏达州的美籍华人弗雷迪。我们一边谈着话，汤姆一边轻松地玩着。
"I've learned about 11 different styles of mahjong," he told me with that detached friendliness of those whose true connection is with machines. "There are a couple of different ways of playing it in America. We usually play Chinese mahjong."
“我已会11种不同的麻将玩法。”汤姆对我很友善，像那些心思连在计算机上的其他人一样，有点心不在焉。他对我说：“美国的玩法不少，可我们一般玩中式的。”
I watched the little tiles, like cards, bounce around the screen. As Tom played, he and his partners conversed by typing short comments to each other.
小小麻将牌像扑克一样在屏幕上弹来弹去。汤姆用文字方式与牌友简短地评论着牌局。
Does he ever play with real people? "Oh yeah," Tom replied. "Once a week at the office in the evening, and Thursday at lunch." A new name appeared on the screen. "There's Fred's mother. Can't be, they're in Vegas. Oh, it must be his sister. TJ's online too, she's the one from Wales—a real night owl. She's getting married soon, and she lived with her fiance, and sometimes he gets up and says‘Get off that damn computer!’"
他面对面地打过麻将吗？他回答：“打过。一周一次，晚上在办公室打，周四中午打。”这时，屏幕上跳出一个新名字。“弗雷迪的母亲。不可能，他们在维加斯。噢！一定是他姐姐。TJ也在线，她是威尔士人，真正的夜猫子。她快结婚了，现在和未婚夫住在一起。有时她未婚夫会起床对她说：‘从那个该死的电脑上下来！’”
Tom played on into the night. At least it was night where I was. He , an American playing a Chinese game with people in Germany, Wales, Ohio, and Minnesota, was up in the cybersphere far above the level of time zones. It is a realm populated by individuals he's never met who may be more real to him than the people who live next door.
汤姆一直玩到深夜——至少我这儿是深夜。他游走在超越时区的网络世界：一个美国人却同时与德国人、威尔士人、俄亥俄人和明尼苏达人一起玩中国游戏。对他来说，这是一个人们从未谋面，但却比隔壁的邻居更加盘实的网络世界。