雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(91)
But what was the intelligence for?
What was the goal towards which the technicians and managers were now working?
技術人員和管理人員的目標是什麼呢？There was a vacuum at the centre in 1947, as the convictions of the 1930s and the enforced unity of the war, evaporated away.
1947年中期，這裏出現了一個真空。
The great opponent in the chess game had been beaten, and no one had yet taken his place.
戰爭結束了，那個強大的對手被打敗了，而新的對手卻還沒有出現。By speaking of the mind in terms of puzzle-solving intelligence, of finding efficient means for undiscussed ends, Alan Turing superficially epitomised the technocratic outlook of 1947 social management. But it was only on the surface. For he had no interest in applying computers or related 'Wellsian developments' to the problems of society.
在談到機器智能時，圖靈提到遠程終端，還有社會管理的新模式，但這些都只是停留在表面，圖靈對這些並不感興趣。He had wisely put examples of the usefulness of the computer into his report, to get it paid for.
他在ACE報告中舉出這些例子，只不過是爲了得到政府的資助。But his picture of the imagined installation simply copied what he had seen in operation at Bletchley.
圖靈腦中設想的工作場景，就是複製布萊切利的一切。He knew it could be done, but had little interest in it nor indeed the ability to organise this side of it himself.
他知道那是什麼樣的，但他甚至對那也沒有興趣，他對一切關於組織和管理的事情都沒有興趣。His whole enterprise was still motivated by a fascination with knowledge itself, in this case with an understanding of the magic of the human mind.
圖靈的一切動力，都來自知識本身的魅力，他要探索人類大腦的奧祕。He was not a Babbage, with an interest in the more efficient division of labour.
他不是巴貝奇，他對生產效率這種事情沒有興趣，His interest in the ACE had little to do with the 'mechanization, rationalization, modernization' that Orwell foresaw, although the computer might be funded for this purpose.
他對所謂的"機械化、實際化、現代化"也沒有興趣，雖然ACE是爲這個目標而存在的。It was much closer to an undiminished wonder at 'the glory and beauty of Nature', and an almost erotic longing to encompass it.
圖靈的真正興趣在於探險，在於對自然本質的渴望。Indeed his letter to W.R. Ashby had stated baldly that
在他寫給阿什比的信中，有這樣一句話：In working on the ACE I am more interested in the possibility of producing models of the action of the brain than in the practical applications to computing.
關於ACE項目，我感興趣的是探索模擬大腦的可能性，而不是計算機的實踐應用。
