It is only the shallowest mind that can suppose that all the advance of discovery brings us appreciably nearer to the solution of the riddles of the universe which have haunted man from the beginning …

只有最肤浅的脑子，才会认为那些新发现是先进的，认为我们离解开宇宙奥妙更进了一步……

Such was the miniature, fossilised Britain, where masters and servants still knew their places, and where the miners were disloyal to their school. And while the boys were playing at being servants, loading the milk churns on to the trains until the strike was broken by the masters of their country, the shallow mind of Alan Turing had arrived in their midst. It was a mind that had no interest in the problems of would-be landowners, empire-builders, or administrators of the white man's burden; they belonged to a system that had no interest in him.

这就是一个小型的顽固的英国，在这里，老大和小弟分得很清楚。在学校外面，男孩们充当小弟，把牛奶桶装到火车上，直到国家的老大们结束罢工。艾伦也在做这些事，但他的肤浅的脑子，对贵族、帝国建造者和白人政客面对的困难完全不关心，他对这套体制毫无兴趣。

The word 'system', indeed, was one which was a constant refrain, and the system operated almost independently of individual personalities. Westcott House, which Alan joined, had taken its first boarders only in 1920, and yet already existed as though the traditional prefects and 'fags' and beatings in the washroom were laws of nature. This was true even though the housemaster, Geoffrey O'Hanlon, had a mind of his own. Then a bachelor in his forties, and nicknamed (rather snobbishly) Teacher, he had extended the original house building with his own private fortune derived from Lancashire cotton. He personally did not believe in moulding the boys to a common form, and failed to instil the religion of 'footer' with quite the enthusiasm of the other housemasters. His house enjoyed in consequence a dim reputation for 'slackness'. He encouraged music and art, disliked bullying, and stopped the song-singing initiation soon after Alan arrived. A Catholic classicist, he was the nearest thing to a liberal government in the 'nation in miniature'. Yet the system prevailed, in all but details. One could conform, rebel, or withdraw – and Alan withdrew.

体制，这是一个经常被提到的词，但体制的运转，几乎是与个体无关的，它会无情地抹杀掉每个人的个性。艾伦所在的西科特学院，从1920年才开始接收寄宿生，但现在却已经形成了监督生，小弟，厕所里的狠打，和弱肉强食的自然法则。虽然院长乔弗雷.奥汉兰不愿承认，但这确实是事实。这个40岁的单身男人，靠着兰卡棉花赚来的私人财产，扩建了学院的房子。他不想把男孩们培养成流水线产品，也不像其他院长那么积极地给男孩们灌输信仰，他的学院也因此被冠上「散漫」的不良名声。他鼓励音乐和艺术，反对以强凌弱，在艾伦到来后不久，连唱歌仪式也取消了。作为一个崇尚兼容并包的古典主义者，他是这个小型国家里，最接近自由政府的人。这套体制，如果不考虑细节的话，可以说已经成为事实政体。你可以选择遵守，反对或者退出――艾伦选择了退出。