It was something more abstract.
它是一种更抽象的东西，
And the operations were to be operations on symbols, rather than on things of any particular mass or chemical composition.
所有的操作，都在符号之间进行，没有任何有质量或者化学成分的东西。
Alan had to abstract this quality of being determined, and apply it to the manipulation of symbols.
因此，艾伦需要把这种机器的特点抽象出来，应用到对符号的操作中。
People had spoken, as Hardy did, of 'mechanical rules' for mathematics, of 'turning the handle' of a miraculous machine, but no one had actually sat down to design one. This was what he set out to do.
哈代所说的超自然机器的摇把，从没有人真正想要设计一个，而艾伦现在就要做这件事。
For although he was not really 'the very unsophisticated outsider' of whom Hardy spoke, he attacked the problem in a peculiarly naive way, undaunted by the immensity and complexity of mathematics.
尽管他并不是哈代说的“完全不懂数学的人“，但他现在确实在用非常天真的方法，在面对这个问题。
He started from nothing, and tried to envisage a machine that could tackle Hilbert's problem, that of deciding the provability of any mathematical assertion presented to it.
他从零开始，想要制造一台机器，来解决希尔伯特的问题，自动判断任意数学命题是否可以被证明。他似乎忘了数学是多么宏伟而复杂。
There were, of coure, machines in existence which manipulated symbols. The typewriter was one such.
能够操作符号的机器，当然是存在的，比如说打字机。
Alan had dreamt of inventing typewriters as a boy; Mrs Turing had a typewriter; and he could well have begun by asking himself what was meant by calling a typewriter 'mechanical'.
艾伦还是孩子的时候，就一直梦想着自己制造打字机。图灵夫人有一台打字机，所以他很早就开始思索，人们说打字机是机械的，这是什么意思。
It would mean that its response, to any particular action of the operator, was perfectly certain.
它的意思就是，对于操作者的任何操作，它的反应都是完全确定的，
One could describe in advance exactly how the machine would behave in any contingency.
人们可以准确地预测，在按下任何一个键后，这机器会有什么动作。
But there was more to be said even about a humble typewriter than that.
人们可以准确地预测，在按下任何一个键后，这机器会有什么动作。
The response would depend upon the current condition, or what Alan called the current configuration, of the machine.
即使是一个简易的打字机，它的反应也会取决于特定的情况，艾伦把这称为当前状态。
In particular, a typewriter would have an 'upper case' configuration and a 'lower case' configuration.
也就是说，打字机会有一个“大写状态”和“小写状态”，在不同的状态下，它会有不同的行为。
This was an idea which Alan put in a more general and abstract form.
艾伦抽象并推广了这个想法，
He would consider machines which at any time would be in one of a finite number of possible 'configurations'.
他想象一种机器，有有限种状态，在某一时刻，它处于其中一种状态。
Then if, as with the typewriter keyboard, there were only a finite number of things that could be done to the machine, a complete account of the behaviour of the machine could be given, once for all, in finite form.
然后，就像打字机的键盘一样，这台机器可以做有限种动作，这样一来，我们就可以规定这台机器在所有情况下的行为，因为这也将是有限的。