As We May Think

As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare.

作为科学研究与发展局（OSRD）主任，Vannevar Bush 博士协调了约六千名美国顶尖科学家，把科学应用于战争。

In this significant article he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased.

在这篇重要的文章里，他为战事停息之后的科学家指出了一个值得为之努力的方向。

He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge.

他呼吁，科学家们届时应转向一项浩大的任务：让我们那座令人眼花缭乱的知识库变得更易取用。

For many years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind.

多年来，发明延伸的一直是人的体力，而非心智之力。

Trip hammers that multiply the fists, microscopes that sharpen the eye, and engines of destruction and detection are new results, but not the end results, of modern science.

把拳头放大千百倍的汽锤、让视力变得锐利的显微镜、以及种种破坏与侦测的机器——这些都是现代科学的新成果，却不是它的终极成果。

Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages.

Bush 博士说，如今我们手边已经有了这样一些工具：只要开发得当，就能让人接触并驾驭世代累积下来的知识。

The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work.

把这些和平用途的工具臻于完善，应当成为科学家走出战时工作后的首要目标。

Like Emerson's famous address of 1837 on "The American Scholar," this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge. — The Editor

正如 Emerson（爱默生）1837 年那篇著名的演讲《美国学者》，Bush 博士这篇文章呼唤的，是思考者与人类全部知识之间一种全新的关系。——编者

This has not been a scientist's war; it has been a war in which all have had a part.

这不是一场科学家的战争；这是一场人人都有份参与的战争。

The scientists, burying their old professional competition in the demand of a common cause, have shared greatly and learned much.

为了共同的事业，科学家们把昔日的同行竞争埋到一旁，彼此倾囊相授，也学到了很多。

It has been exhilarating to work in effective partnership.

这种富有成效的协作令人振奋。

Now, for many, this appears to be approaching an end. What are the scientists to do next?

如今对许多人来说，这一切似乎正接近尾声。科学家们接下来该做什么？

For the biologists, and particularly for the medical scientists, there can be little indecision, for their war work has hardly required them to leave the old paths.

对生物学家、尤其是医学科学家而言，几乎没什么可犹豫的，因为他们的战时工作几乎不需要离开原有的老路。

Many indeed have been able to carry on their war research in their familiar peacetime laboratories. Their objectives remain much the same.

事实上，许多人能在自己熟悉的和平时期实验室里继续战时研究。他们的目标也大体未变。

It is the physicists who have been thrown most violently off stride, who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments.

被打乱节奏最厉害的是物理学家：他们离开学术研究，去制造一些古怪的破坏性装置，不得不为那些始料未及的任务发明新方法。

They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy.

在那些让我们得以击退敌人的装置上，他们尽了自己的一份力。

They have worked in combined effort with the physicists of our allies. They have felt within themselves the stir of achievement. They have been part of a great team.

他们与盟国的物理学家并肩协作，内心涌动着成就感，成为了一支伟大团队的一员。

Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best.

如今，随着和平临近，人们不禁要问：他们到哪里去寻找配得上自己全力以赴的目标？

Of what lasting benefit has been man's use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence?

人类运用科学、以及运用研究催生出的种种新工具，究竟带来了哪些持久的好处？

First, they have increased his control of his material environment.

首先，它们增强了人对物质环境的掌控。

They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence.

它们改善了人的食物、衣着、居所；提升了他的安全感，让他部分地挣脱了仅求生存的桎梏。

They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life.

它们让人对自身的生理过程了解更多，于是他逐步摆脱疾病，寿命也随之延长。

They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.

它们正在揭示人的生理功能与心理功能之间的相互作用，带来改善心理健康的希望。

Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

科学提供了个体之间最迅捷的沟通；它为思想留下记录，并让人能够调取、摘录这些记录——于是知识得以演进、延续，跨越的是整个种族的生命，而非某一个人的生命。

There is a growing mountain of research.

研究正堆成一座越长越高的山。

But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends.

但越来越多的迹象表明，随着专业化不断延伸，我们今天正深陷其中、动弹不得。

The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers — conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear.

成千上万同行的发现与结论令研究者目不暇接——这些结论一经问世，他连抽时间弄懂都做不到，更别说记住了。

Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.

然而专业化对进步又越来越不可或缺，于是跨学科沟通的努力，相应地只能停在表面。

Professionally our methods of transmitting and reviewing the results of research are generations old and by now are totally inadequate for their purpose.

就专业层面而言，我们传播与评议研究成果的方法已是几代人之前的老办法，到今天早已完全无法胜任。

If the aggregate time spent in writing scholarly works and in reading them could be evaluated, the ratio between these amounts of time might well be startling.

如果能把撰写学术著作的总时间和阅读它们的总时间分别算出来，两者之比恐怕会令人吃惊。

Those who conscientiously attempt to keep abreast of current thought, even in restricted fields, by close and continuous reading might well shy away from an examination calculated to show how much of the previous month's efforts could be produced on call.

那些靠着密集而持续的阅读、力图跟上当前思潮的人——哪怕只在很窄的领域——恐怕都不敢接受这样一场考试：测一测上个月读过的东西，此刻能凭记忆复述出多少。

Mendel's concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it; and this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential.

Mendel（孟德尔）的遗传定律曾被世界埋没整整一代人，只因他的论文没能送到那少数几个能读懂并加以发扬的人手里；而这类悲剧，眼下无疑正在我们身边不断重演——真正重要的成果，淹没在大量无关紧要之物之中。

The difficulty seems to be, not so much that we publish unduly in view of the extent and variety of present-day interests, but rather that publication has been extended far beyond our present ability to make real use of the record.

问题似乎不在于：相对于当今兴趣之广博多样，我们发表得过多；而在于：发表的规模，早已远远超出我们如今真正利用这些记录的能力。

The summation of human experience is being expanded at a prodigious rate, and the means we use for threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships.

人类经验的总和正以惊人的速度膨胀，而我们穿过由此形成的迷宫、找到此刻最关键那一条的手段，却还和方帆船的年代别无二致。

But there are signs of a change as new and powerful instrumentalities come into use.

但随着一批崭新而强大的工具投入使用，变化的征兆已经出现。

Photocells capable of seeing things in a physical sense, advanced photography which can record what is seen or even what is not, thermionic tubes capable of controlling potent forces under the guidance of less power than a mosquito uses to vibrate his wings, cathode ray tubes rendering visible an occurrence so brief that by comparison a microsecond is a long time, relay combinations which will carry out involved sequences of movements more reliably than any human operator and thousand of times as fast — there are plenty of mechanical aids with which to effect a transformation in scientific records.

能在物理意义上"看见"东西的光电管；能记录所见、甚至记录看不见之物的先进摄影术；只需比蚊子振翅还小的功率就能驾驭巨大力量的电子管；能让短暂到"微秒相比之下都算漫长"的瞬间变得可见的阴极射线管；能比任何人工操作员都更可靠、快上千倍地执行复杂动作序列的继电器组合——可用来彻底改造科学记录的机械助手，已经有了一大批。

Two centuries ago Leibnitz invented a calculating machine which embodied most of the essential features of recent keyboard devices, but it could not then come into use.

两个世纪前，Leibnitz（莱布尼茨）发明了一台计算机器，它已具备晚近键盘式装置的大多数核心特征，可在当时却无法投入使用。

The economics of the situation were against it: the labor involved in constructing it, before the days of mass production, exceeded the labor to be saved by its use, since all it could accomplish could be duplicated by sufficient use of pencil and paper.

经济账算不过来：在尚无量产的年代，造它所耗的人力，超过了用它所能省下的人力——因为它能做的一切，靠纸笔多算几遍也能照样完成。

Moreover, it would have been subject to frequent breakdown, so that it could not have been depended upon; for at that time and long after, complexity and unreliability were synonymous.

何况它还会频繁出故障，根本靠不住；因为在那时、乃至此后很长一段时间里，"复杂"和"不可靠"几乎是同义词。

Babbage, even with remarkably generous support for his time, could not produce his great arithmetical machine.

Babbage（巴贝奇）尽管得到了以那个时代而言极为慷慨的资助，也没能造出他那台伟大的运算机器。

His idea was sound enough, but construction and maintenance costs were then too heavy.

他的构想本身相当扎实，只是当时的制造与维护成本太过沉重。

Had a Pharaoh been given detailed and explicit designs of an automobile, and had he understood them completely, it would have taxed the resources of his kingdom to have fashioned the thousands of parts for a single car, and that car would have broken down on the first trip to Giza.

假如有人给一位法老一份详尽明确的汽车图纸，而他也完全看懂了，那么单是打造一辆车所需的成千上万个零件，就会把他整个王国的资源榨干——而那辆车，多半第一趟开往吉萨就抛锚了。

Machines with interchangeable parts can now be constructed with great economy of effort.

如今，采用可互换零件的机器，已经能以极小的代价制造出来。

In spite of much complexity, they perform reliably.

尽管极其复杂，它们却运转可靠。

Witness the humble typewriter, or the movie camera, or the automobile.

看看不起眼的打字机，看看电影摄影机，看看汽车。

Electrical contacts have ceased to stick when thoroughly understood.

电触点一旦被彻底摸透，就不再粘连失灵。

Note the automatic telephone exchange, which has hundred of thousands of such contacts, and yet is reliable.

看看自动电话交换机：它有几十万个这样的触点，却照样可靠。

A spider web of metal, sealed in a thin glass container, a wire heated to brilliant glow, in short, the thermionic tube of radio sets, is made by the hundred million, tossed about in packages, plugged into sockets — and it works!

一张金属织成的蛛网，封进薄薄的玻璃壳里，一根被烧得炽亮的金属丝——总之，就是收音机里的那只电子管——如今以亿计地生产，在包装箱里被随意颠来倒去，往插座上一插——它就工作了！

Its gossamer parts, the precise location and alignment involved in its construction, would have occupied a master craftsman of the guild for months; now it is built for thirty cents.

它那些薄如蝉翼的部件，以及装配时所需的精确定位与对齐，要是放在行会里，够一位老师傅忙活好几个月；如今，三十美分就能造一只。

The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it.

世界已经迈入一个"复杂装置既廉价又高度可靠"的时代；而这，注定会催生出些什么。

A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted.

一份记录若要对科学有用，就必须能被不断扩充、能被保存，而最重要的是——必须能被查阅。

Today we make the record conventionally by writing and photography, followed by printing; but we also record on film, on wax disks, and on magnetic wires.

今天，我们通常靠书写和摄影、再加印刷来制作记录；但我们也用胶片、蜡盘和磁线来记录。

Even if utterly new recording procedures do not appear, these present ones are certainly in the process of modification and extension.

即便没有全新的记录方式出现，现有这些方式也必定正在被改良和扩展。

Certainly progress in photography is not going to stop. Faster material and lenses, more automatic cameras, finer-grained sensitive compounds to allow an extension of the minicamera idea, are all imminent.

摄影的进步显然不会止步。更快的感光材料与镜头、更自动化的相机、颗粒更细的感光化合物（好把微型相机的思路再往前推）——这些都近在眼前。

Let us project this trend ahead to a logical, if not inevitable, outcome. The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut.

让我们把这一趋势往前推到一个合乎逻辑、即便算不上必然的结局。未来的摄影迷，会在额头上戴一个比核桃略大的小疙瘩。

It takes pictures 3 millimeters square, later to be projected or enlarged, which after all involves only a factor of 10 beyond present practice.

它拍出 3 毫米见方的照片，日后再投影或放大——这相比当下的水平，也不过是再前进 10 倍而已。

The lens is of universal focus, down to any distance accommodated by the unaided eye, simply because it is of short focal length.

由于焦距很短，镜头是"全程对焦"的——肉眼能看清的任何距离，它都能拍清。

There is a built-in photocell on the walnut such as we now have on at least one camera, which automatically adjusts exposure for a wide range of illumination.

这颗"核桃"上内置一个光电管（就像如今至少已有一款相机所配的那样），能在很宽的光照范围内自动调节曝光。

There is film in the walnut for a hundred exposures, and the spring for operating its shutter and shifting its film is wound once for all when the film clip is inserted. It produces its result in full color.

"核桃"里装着够拍一百张的胶片；驱动快门、推进胶片的发条，在装入胶片夹时一次上满即可。它拍出的是全彩成像。

It may well be stereoscopic, and record with spaced glass eyes, for striking improvements in stereoscopic technique are just around the corner.

它很可能是立体的，用一对间隔开的玻璃"眼睛"来记录，因为立体技术的重大突破已经近在眼前。

The cord which trips its shutter may reach down a man's sleeve within easy reach of his fingers. A quick squeeze, and the picture is taken.

触发快门的那根线，可以顺着衣袖垂到手指轻松够得着的地方。手指一捏，照片就拍下了。

On a pair of ordinary glasses is a square of fine lines near the top of one lens, where it is out of the way of ordinary vision. When an object appears in that square, it is lined up for its picture.

在一副普通眼镜上，靠近一只镜片顶端、不挡日常视线的地方，刻着一个由细线围成的小方框。当某个物体落进那个方框，它就对准、可以拍了。

As the scientist of the future moves about the laboratory or the field, every time he looks at something worthy of the record, he trips the shutter and in it goes, without even an audible click.

未来的科学家在实验室或野外走动时，每当看到值得记录的东西，便按下快门，画面随即收入囊中——连一声快门响都听不到。

Is this all fantastic? The only fantastic thing about it is the idea of making as many pictures as would result from its use.

这一切是天方夜谭吗？其中唯一近乎天方夜谭的，是"用起来居然要拍这么多照片"这件事本身。

Will there be dry photography? It is already here in two forms.

会有"干式摄影"吗？它其实已经以两种形态出现了。

When Brady made his Civil War pictures, the plate had to be wet at the time of exposure. Now it has to be wet during development instead. In the future perhaps it need not be wetted at all.

当年 Brady（布雷迪）拍摄南北战争的照片时，底板必须在曝光时是湿的。如今则改成在显影时才需要打湿。而将来，也许根本无需打湿。

There have long been films impregnated with diazo dyes which form a picture without development, so that it is already there as soon as the camera has been operated.

早就有一种浸渍了重氮染料的胶片，无需显影便能成像——相机一按，画面就已经在那儿了。

An exposure to ammonia gas destroys the unexposed dye, and the picture can then be taken out into the light and examined.

用氨气一熏，未曝光的染料便被破坏掉，照片随后就能拿到光下查看。

The process is now slow, but someone may speed it up, and it has no grain difficulties such as now keep photographic researchers busy. Often it would be advantageous to be able to snap the camera and to look at the picture immediately.

这个过程现在还慢，但总会有人把它加快；而且它没有当下让摄影研究者头疼的颗粒度难题。能够按下相机、随即看到照片，往往大有好处。

Another process now in use is also slow, and more or less clumsy. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them, by reason of the chemical change thus produced in an iodine compound included in the paper.

如今在用的另一种工艺同样慢，而且多少有些笨拙。五十年来，人们一直在用一种浸渍处理过的纸：凡有电触点接触之处，纸就会变黑——因为这会令纸中所含的一种碘化合物发生化学变化。

They have been used to make records, for a pointer moving across them can leave a trail behind. If the electrical potential on the pointer is varied as it moves, the line becomes light or dark in accordance with the potential.

它们被用来制作记录：一根指针划过纸面，就能留下一道痕迹。若指针移动时电位随之变化，这道线条便会按电位高低而变浅或变深。

This scheme is now used in facsimile transmission. The pointer draws a set of closely spaced lines across the paper one after another.

这一原理如今用在传真传输上。指针在纸上一行接一行地画出一组密排的线条。

As it moves, its potential is varied in accordance with a varying current received over wires from a distant station, where these variations are produced by a photocell which is similarly scanning a picture.

指针移动时，其电位会随一股变化的电流而改变——这股电流经由导线，从远端的台站传来；在那一端，电位的变化由一个同样在逐行扫描图片的光电管产生。

At every instant the darkness of the line being drawn is made equal to the darkness of the point on the picture being observed by the photocell. Thus, when the whole picture has been covered, a replica appears at the receiving end.

每一瞬间，正在画出的线条的深浅，都被调到与光电管此刻所看到的那一点的深浅相等。于是，当整幅图被扫完，接收端便出现了一份复制品。

A scene itself can be just as well looked over line by line by the photocell in this way as can a photograph of the scene.

用这种方式，光电管既可以逐行扫一张照片，也同样可以逐行扫描实景本身。

This whole apparatus constitutes a camera, with the added feature, which can be dispensed with if desired, of making its picture at a distance. It is slow, and the picture is poor in detail.

整套装置就构成了一台相机，外加一个可有可无的特性：能在远处成像。它很慢，画面细节也差。

Still, it does give another process of dry photography, in which the picture is finished as soon as it is taken.

但不管怎样，它确实提供了干式摄影的另一条路子——照片一拍下就已完成。

It would be a brave man who could predict that such a process will always remain clumsy, slow, and faulty in detail.

谁要是断言这种工艺将永远笨拙、缓慢、细节粗劣，那可真是胆大。

Television equipment today transmits sixteen reasonably good images a second, and it involves only two essential differences from the process described above.

今天的电视设备每秒能传输十六幅相当不错的图像，而它与上述过程相比，本质上只有两点不同。

For one, the record is made by a moving beam of electrons rather than a moving pointer, for the reason that an electron beam can sweep across the picture very rapidly indeed.

其一，作记录的是一束移动的电子，而非移动的指针——原因在于电子束扫过画面的速度实在快得多。

The other difference involves merely the use of a screen which glows momentarily when the electrons hit, rather than a chemically treated paper or film which is permanently altered.

其二，无非是改用一块在电子击中时短暂发光的屏幕，而不是那种被永久改变的化学处理纸或胶片。

This speed is necessary in television, for motion pictures rather than stills are the object.

这种速度在电视里是必需的，因为它要的是活动影像，而非静止照片。

Use chemically treated film in place of the glowing screen, allow the apparatus to transmit one picture rather than a succession, and a rapid camera for dry photography results.

把发光屏幕换成化学处理过的胶片，让这套装置只传一幅图、而非连续多幅，一台用于干式摄影的高速相机就成了。

The treated film needs to be far faster in action than present examples, but it probably could be.

这种处理过的胶片，反应速度得远快于现有样品，但这大概是能做到的。

More serious is the objection that this scheme would involve putting the film inside a vacuum chamber, for electron beams behave normally only in such a rarefied environment.

更棘手的反对意见是：这个方案得把胶片放进真空腔里，因为电子束只有在如此稀薄的环境中才能正常工作。

This difficulty could be avoided by allowing the electron beam to play on one side of a partition, and by pressing the film against the other side, if this partition were such as to allow the electrons to go through perpendicular to its surface, and to prevent them from spreading out sideways.

这个困难可以这样绕开：让电子束打在一块隔板的一侧，把胶片贴紧隔板的另一侧——前提是这块隔板能让电子垂直穿过它的表面，又能阻止电子向两侧扩散。

Such partitions, in crude form, could certainly be constructed, and they will hardly hold up the general development.

这样的隔板，做出粗糙的版本肯定不成问题，它们也不至于拖住整体的发展。

Like dry photography, microphotography still has a long way to go. The basic scheme of reducing the size of the record, and examining it by projection rather than directly, has possibilities too great to be ignored.

和干式摄影一样，缩微摄影也还有很长的路要走。把记录缩小、再靠投影而非直接观看来查阅——这个基本思路的潜力大到不容忽视。

The combination of optical projection and photographic reduction is already producing some results in microfilm for scholarly purposes, and the potentialities are highly suggestive.

光学投影与照相缩小相结合，已经在面向学术的缩微胶片上做出了一些成果，其潜力极富启发性。

Today, with microfilm, reductions by a linear factor of 20 can be employed and still produce full clarity when the material is re-enlarged for examination.

如今用缩微胶片，可以做到线性缩小 20 倍，而当材料被重新放大查阅时，依然清晰如初。

The limits are set by the graininess of the film, the excellence of the optical system, and the efficiency of the light sources employed. All of these are rapidly improving.

极限取决于胶片的颗粒度、光学系统的优良程度，以及所用光源的效率。而这几项都在迅速进步。

Assume a linear ratio of 100 for future use. Consider film of the same thickness as paper, although thinner film will certainly be usable.

不妨设想未来采用 100 倍的线性缩小比。再设胶片与纸张同厚——尽管更薄的胶片肯定也用得上。

Even under these conditions there would be a total factor of 10,000 between the bulk of the ordinary record on books, and its microfilm replica.

即便在这样的条件下，普通书籍记录的体积，与其缩微胶片副本之间，也会相差整整一万倍。

The Encyclopoedia Britannica could be reduced to the volume of a matchbox. A library of a million volumes could be compressed into one end of a desk.

《大英百科全书》可以缩小到一只火柴盒那么大。一座藏书百万卷的图书馆，可以压进一张书桌的一端。

If the human race has produced since the invention of movable type a total record, in the form of magazines, newspapers, books, tracts, advertising blurbs, correspondence, having a volume corresponding to a billion books, the whole affair, assembled and compressed, could be lugged off in a moving van.

假如自活字印刷发明以来，人类以杂志、报纸、书籍、小册子、广告文案、信件等形式产出的全部记录，总量相当于十亿册书，那么把这一切汇拢、压缩之后，用一辆搬家货车就能拉走。

Mere compression, of course, is not enough; one needs not only to make and store a record but also to be able to consult it, and this aspect of the matter comes later.

当然，光是压缩还不够；人不仅要能制作、保存记录，还要能查阅它——而这一面，留待后文再谈。

Even the modern great library is not generally consulted; it is nibbled by a few.

即便是现代的大图书馆，也鲜有人真正查阅；它只被少数人零星地啃上几口。

Compression is important, however, when it comes to costs. The material for the microfilm Britannica would cost a nickel, and it could be mailed anywhere for a cent.

不过一旦谈到成本，压缩就很重要了。缩微版《大英百科》的材料只值五分钱，邮寄到任何地方也只要一分钱。

What would it cost to print a million copies? To print a sheet of newspaper, in a large edition, costs a small fraction of a cent.

而印一百万份要花多少钱？大批量印一张报纸，成本不过是一分钱的零头。

The entire material of the Britannica in reduced microfilm form would go on a sheet eight and one-half by eleven inches.

整部《大英百科》的内容，缩成缩微胶片后，能装进一张 8.5 × 11 英寸的纸面上。

Once it is available, with the photographic reproduction methods of the future, duplicates in large quantities could probably be turned out for a cent apiece beyond the cost of materials.

一旦母版做好，凭借未来的照相复制方法，大批量的副本除材料成本外，每份大概只需再加一分钱就能产出。

The preparation of the original copy? That introduces the next aspect of the subject.

那么，母版本身的制作呢？这就引出了本题的下一个方面。

To make the record, we now push a pencil or tap a typewriter. Then comes the process of digestion and correction, followed by an intricate process of typesetting, printing, and distribution.

如今要做记录，我们靠的是握笔书写或敲打字机。接着是消化、校订的过程，再往后是排版、印刷、分发这一整套繁复的工序。

To consider the first stage of the procedure, will the author of the future cease writing by hand or typewriter and talk directly to the record?

单看这套流程的第一步：未来的作者会不会不再用手写或打字，而是直接对着记录"说话"？

He does so indirectly, by talking to a stenographer or a wax cylinder; but the elements are all present if he wishes to have his talk directly produce a typed record. All he needs to do is to take advantage of existing mechanisms and to alter his language.

他其实已经在间接地这么做了——对着速记员或蜡筒口述；而要让口述直接产出打字稿，所需的要素也已一应俱全。他只需善用现成的装置，并改一改自己所用的语言。

At a recent World Fair a machine called a Voder was shown. A girl stroked its keys and it emitted recognizable speech.

在不久前的一届世界博览会上，展出了一台名为 Voder 的机器。一个姑娘按动它的键，它便发出可辨识的语音。

No human vocal cords entered in the procedure at any point; the keys simply combined some electrically produced vibrations and passed these on to a loud-speaker.

整个过程中没有任何人类声带参与；那些键不过是把若干电子产生的振动组合起来，再送进扬声器。

In the Bell Laboratories there is the converse of this machine, called a Vocoder. The loudspeaker is replaced by a microphone, which picks up sound. Speak to it, and the corresponding keys move.

在 Bell Laboratories（贝尔实验室），有一台与之相反的机器，叫 Vocoder。扬声器被换成了麦克风，用来拾取声音。对着它说话，相应的键就会动起来。

This may be one element of the postulated system.

这或许就是我们设想的那套系统中的一个要素。

The other element is found in the stenotype, that somewhat disconcerting device encountered usually at public meetings.

另一个要素，则见于速录机（stenotype）——就是常在公开会议上见到、多少让人有些不安的那种装置。

A girl strokes its keys languidly and looks about the room and sometimes at the speaker with a disquieting gaze.

一个姑娘懒洋洋地敲着键，目光在屋里四下打量，偶尔还用一种叫人发毛的眼神盯着发言者。

From it emerges a typed strip which records in a phonetically simplified language a record of what the speaker is supposed to have said.

机器吐出一条打印纸带，用一种语音化简后的"语言"，记下发言者大致说过的话。

Later this strip is retyped into ordinary language, for in its nascent form it is intelligible only to the initiated.

这条纸带随后会被重新打成普通语言，因为它最初的形态只有内行才看得懂。

Combine these two elements, let the Vocoder run the stenotype, and the result is a machine which types when talked to.

把这两个要素合在一起，让 Vocoder 去驱动速录机，得到的就是一台"你对它说话，它就打字"的机器。

Our present languages are not especially adapted to this sort of mechanization, it is true.

不错，我们现有的语言并不特别适合这种机械化。

It is strange that the inventors of universal languages have not seized upon the idea of producing one which better fitted the technique for transmitting and recording speech.

奇怪的是，那些发明通用语言的人，竟没抓住这个念头——造一种更契合"传输与记录语音"这一技术的语言。

Mechanization may yet force the issue, especially in the scientific field; whereupon scientific jargon would become still less intelligible to the layman.

机械化也许终将逼出这个问题，尤其在科学领域；到那时，科学术语对外行而言会变得更加不知所云。

One can now picture a future investigator in his laboratory. His hands are free, and he is not anchored.

现在不妨想象一位未来的研究者待在他的实验室里。他双手自由，也不被固定在某处。

As he moves about and observes, he photographs and comments. Time is automatically recorded to tie the two records together.

他一边走动、一边观察，随手拍照、随口评述。时间被自动记录下来，好把照片和评述这两份记录绑在一起。

If he goes into the field, he may be connected by radio to his recorder. As he ponders over his notes in the evening, he again talks his comments into the record.

若他外出到野外，可以通过无线电与他的记录装置相连。到了晚上，他对着笔记沉思时，又把评注口述进记录里。

His typed record, as well as his photographs, may both be in miniature, so that he projects them for examination.

他的打字记录和照片都可以是缩微的，需要查看时再投影出来。

Much needs to occur, however, between the collection of data and observations, the extraction of parallel material from the existing record, and the final insertion of new material into the general body of the common record.

然而，从采集数据与观察、到从既有记录中调取相关材料、再到把新材料最终并入共同记录的主体——这中间，还有许多事要发生。

For mature thought there is no mechanical substitute. But creative thought and essentially repetitive thought are very different things. For the latter there are, and may be, powerful mechanical aids.

成熟的思考没有机械替代品。但创造性思维与本质上重复性的思维，是两回事。对于后者，已经有、而且还会有强大的机械助手。

Adding a column of figures is a repetitive thought process, and it was long ago properly relegated to the machine.

把一列数字加起来，是一种重复性的思维过程，它早就被理所当然地交给了机器。

True, the machine is sometimes controlled by the keyboard, and thought of a sort enters in reading the figures and poking the corresponding keys, but even this is avoidable.

的确，机器有时由键盘操控，读数字、按对应的键这中间也掺入了某种"思考"，但即便这一点也是可以省去的。

Machines have been made which will read typed figures by photocells and then depress the corresponding keys; these are combinations of photocells for scanning the type, electric circuits for sorting the consequent variations, and relay circuits for interpreting the result into the action of solenoids to pull the keys down.

已经有机器能用光电管读取打印出的数字、再去按下相应的键；它们是这样几部分的组合：用来扫描字符的光电管、用来对由此产生的信号变化进行分类的电路，以及把结果"翻译"成螺线管动作、从而把键拉下去的继电器电路。

All this complication is needed because of the clumsy way in which we have learned to write figures.

之所以需要这一整套复杂机关，全是因为我们书写数字的方式太笨拙。

If we recorded them positionally, simply by the configuration of a set of dots on a card, the automatic reading mechanism would become comparatively simple.

假如我们改用"位置编码"来记录数字——只凭一张卡片上一组点的排布——那么自动读取机构就会变得相对简单。

In fact, if the dots are holes, we have the punched-card machine long ago produced by Hollerith for the purposes of the census, and now used throughout business.

事实上，若把这些点换成孔，那就是 Hollerith（霍勒里斯）当年为人口普查制造、如今遍布各行各业的打孔卡机。

Some types of complex businesses could hardly operate without these machines.

有些复杂的生意，离了这些机器几乎就转不动。

Adding is only one operation. To perform arithmetical computation involves also subtraction, multiplication, and division, and in addition some method for temporary storage of results, removal from storage for further manipulation, and recording of final results by printing.

加法只是其中一种运算。要完成算术计算，还涉及减、乘、除，此外还得有某种办法来临时存放结果、再把它从存储中取出以作进一步处理，并把最终结果打印记录下来。

Machines for these purposes are now of two types: keyboard machines for accounting and the like, manually controlled for the insertion of data, and usually automatically controlled as far as the sequence of operations is concerned; and punched-card machines in which separate operations are usually delegated to a series of machines, and the cards then transferred bodily from one to another.

用于这些目的的机器，如今有两类：一类是用于会计等用途的键盘机器，录入数据靠人工，而运算顺序通常是自动控制的；另一类是打孔卡机器，其中各项运算通常分派给一系列机器，卡片再被整批地从一台转移到另一台。

Both forms are very useful; but as far as complex computations are concerned, both are still embryo.

两种形式都很有用；但就复杂计算而言，两者都还处于胚胎阶段。

Rapid electrical counting appeared soon after the physicists found it desirable to count cosmic rays.

快速电子计数，是在物理学家发现有必要对宇宙射线计数之后不久出现的。

For their own purposes the physicists promptly constructed thermionic-tube equipment capable of counting electrical impulses at the rate of 100,000 a second.

为了自己的研究，物理学家很快造出了电子管设备，能以每秒 10 万次的速率对电脉冲计数。

The advanced arithmetical machines of the future will be electrical in nature, and they will perform at 100 times present speeds, or more.

未来的高级运算机器在本质上将是电子的，运算速度会达到当前的 100 倍，甚至更高。

Moreover, they will be far more versatile than present commercial machines, so that they may readily be adapted for a wide variety of operations.

而且，它们会比现有的商用机器通用得多，因而能轻易适配到名目繁多的各种运算上。

They will be controlled by a control card or film, they will select their own data and manipulate it in accordance with the instructions thus inserted, they will perform complex arithmetical computations at exceedingly high speeds, and they will record results in such form as to be readily available for distribution or for later further manipulation.

它们将由一张控制卡或一卷控制胶片来操控；它们会自行挑选数据，并按这样录入的指令对其加以处理；它们会以极高的速度完成复杂的算术运算，并把结果记录成便于分发、或日后进一步处理的形式。

Such machines will have enormous appetites. One of them will take instructions and data from a roomful of girls armed with simple keyboard punches, and will deliver sheets of computed results every few minutes.

这类机器的"胃口"会大得惊人。其中一台，便能从满满一屋子、配着简易键盘打孔器的姑娘那里接收指令和数据，每隔几分钟就交出一沓算好的结果。

There will always be plenty of things to compute in the detailed affairs of millions of people doing complicated things.

数百万人在做着各种复杂事务，其中的种种细节，永远会有大量东西需要计算。

The repetitive processes of thought are not confined, however, to matters of arithmetic and statistics.

不过，重复性的思维过程并不只限于算术和统计这类事。

In fact, every time one combines and records facts in accordance with established logical processes, the creative aspect of thinking is concerned only with the selection of the data and the process to be employed, and the manipulation thereafter is repetitive in nature and hence a fit matter to be relegated to the machines.

事实上，每当一个人按既定的逻辑步骤去组合并记录事实时，思维中真正具有创造性的那一面，只关乎"选哪些数据、用什么步骤"；此后的种种推演本质上都是重复的，因而正适合交给机器。

Not so much has been done along these lines, beyond the bounds of arithmetic, as might be done, primarily because of the economics of the situation.

在算术之外的这些方向上，本可做的事其实没做多少，主要原因还是经济账。

The needs of business, and the extensive market obviously waiting, assured the advent of mass-produced arithmetical machines just as soon as production methods were sufficiently advanced.

商业的需求，加上明摆着在等待的广阔市场，使得量产的运算机器只要生产工艺一够成熟，就必然问世。

With machines for advanced analysis no such situation existed; for there was and is no extensive market; the users of advanced methods of manipulating data are a very small part of the population.

而用于高等分析的机器则没有这样的处境；因为过去和现在都不存在广阔的市场——会用高级方法处理数据的人，在人口中只占极小一部分。

There are, however, machines for solving differential equations — and functional and integral equations, for that matter. There are many special machines, such as the harmonic synthesizer which predicts the tides.

不过，求解微分方程的机器是有的——说起来，求解泛函方程和积分方程的机器也有。还有许多专用机器，比如用来预报潮汐的谐波合成器。

There will be many more, appearing certainly first in the hands of the scientist and in small numbers.

日后还会有更多，而它们必定先是少量地出现在科学家手中。

If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of arithmetic, we should not get far in our understanding of the physical world.

倘若科学推理只限于算术那点逻辑步骤，我们对物质世界的理解就走不了多远。

One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.

那无异于想单靠概率论的数学，就把扑克这门游戏吃透。

The abacus, with its beads strung on parallel wires, led the Arabs to positional numeration and the concept of zero many centuries before the rest of the world; and it was a useful tool — so useful that it still exists.

算盘——一颗颗算珠串在平行的杆上——比世界其余地方早了好几个世纪，就把阿拉伯人引向了位置计数法和"零"的概念；它是件有用的工具，有用到今天依然存在。

It is a far cry from the abacus to the modern keyboard accounting machine. It will be an equal step to the arithmetical machine of the future.

从算盘到现代的键盘式记账机，是一大跨越。而从它再到未来的运算机器，又将是同样大的一步。

But even this new machine will not take the scientist where he needs to go.

但即便是这台新机器，也送不到科学家真正想去的地方。

Relief must be secured from laborious detailed manipulation of higher mathematics as well, if the users of it are to free their brains for something more than repetitive detailed transformations in accordance with established rules.

高等数学里那些繁琐而细碎的推演，同样必须设法卸下；唯其如此，使用它的人才能腾出脑力，去做比"按既定规则做重复而细碎的变换"更有价值的事。

A mathematician is not a man who can readily manipulate figures; often he cannot.

数学家并不是那种能熟练摆弄数字的人；很多时候他根本不行。

He is not even a man who can readily perform the transformation of equations by the use of calculus.

他甚至也不是那种能熟练运用微积分去变换方程的人。

He is primarily an individual who is skilled in the use of symbolic logic on a high plane, and especially he is a man of intuitive judgment in the choice of the manipulative processes he employs.

他首先是一个能在很高层面上娴熟运用符号逻辑的人；尤其，他是一个在"选用哪种推演方法"上具有直觉判断力的人。

All else he should be able to turn over to his mechanism, just as confidently as he turns over the propelling of his car to the intricate mechanism under the hood.

其余一切，他都应当能放心交给自己的机器——就像他把汽车的驱动放心交给引擎盖下那套精巧机构一样。

Only then will mathematics be practically effective in bringing the growing knowledge of atomistics to the useful solution of the advanced problems of chemistry, metallurgy, and biology.

唯有到那时，数学才能切实发挥作用，把日益增长的原子论知识，转化为对化学、冶金学和生物学中那些高深难题的有用解答。

For this reason there will come more machines to handle advanced mathematics for the scientist.

正因如此，将会有更多机器问世，替科学家处理高等数学。

Some of them will be sufficiently bizarre to suit the most fastidious connoisseur of the present artifacts of civilization.

其中有些会古怪到这般地步：哪怕是对当今文明造物最挑剔的鉴赏家，也能让他大开眼界、称心如意。

The scientist, however, is not the only person who manipulates data and examines the world about him by the use of logical processes, although he sometimes preserves this appearance by adopting into the fold anyone who becomes logical, much in the manner in which a British labor leader is elevated to knighthood.

然而，科学家并不是唯一一个靠逻辑步骤来处理数据、审视周遭世界的人——尽管他有时会维持这副"独此一家"的姿态：凡是变得讲逻辑的人，就把他收编进来，就像英国的工会领袖被擢升为骑士那样。

Whenever logical processes of thought are employed — that is, whenever thought for a time runs along an accepted groove — there is an opportunity for the machine.

凡是动用了逻辑思维步骤的地方——也就是说，凡是思考在一段时间里沿着一条公认的轨道运行——机器就有了用武之地。

Formal logic used to be a keen instrument in the hands of the teacher in his trying of students' souls.

形式逻辑曾是老师手中的一把利器，用来拷问学生的心智。

It is readily possible to construct a machine which will manipulate premises in accordance with formal logic, simply by the clever use of relay circuits.

只要巧妙地运用继电器电路，就完全能造出一台按形式逻辑来处理前提的机器。

Put a set of premises into such a device and turn the crank, and it will readily pass out conclusion after conclusion, all in accordance with logical law, and with no more slips than would be expected of a keyboard adding machine.

把一组前提输进这样一台装置，摇动曲柄，它便会顺畅地一个接一个吐出结论，全都合乎逻辑法则，出错之少不亚于一台键盘加法机。

Logic can become enormously difficult, and it would undoubtedly be well to produce more assurance in its use.

逻辑可以变得极其艰深，要是能让人用起它来更有把握，那无疑是件好事。

The machines for higher analysis have usually been equation solvers. Ideas are beginning to appear for equation transformers, which will rearrange the relationship expressed by an equation in accordance with strict and rather advanced logic.

用于高等分析的机器，向来多是"方程求解器"。如今，"方程变换器"的构想开始冒头——它能按严格而相当高级的逻辑，把一个方程所表达的关系重新排布。

Progress is inhibited by the exceedingly crude way in which mathematicians express their relationships.

进展之所以受阻，是因为数学家表达各种关系的方式极其粗陋。

They employ a symbolism which grew like Topsy and has little consistency; a strange fact in that most logical field.

他们所用的那套符号体系，是像 Topsy 那样"自个儿野蛮长大"的，几乎谈不上一致性——这在最讲逻辑的领域里，倒是件怪事。

A new symbolism, probably positional, must apparently precede the reduction of mathematical transformations to machine processes.

看来，要把数学变换归约成机器流程，必先有一套新符号体系——多半是位置式的。

Then, on beyond the strict logic of the mathematician, lies the application of logic in everyday affairs.

再往前，越过数学家那种严格的逻辑，便是逻辑在日常事务中的应用。

We may some day click off arguments on a machine with the same assurance that we now enter sales on a cash register. But the machine of logic will not look like a cash register, even a streamlined model.

也许有一天，我们会在机器上"哒哒"地敲出一条条论证，就像今天在收银机上录入一笔笔销售那样有把握。但这台逻辑机器不会长得像收银机——哪怕是流线型的款式也不会。

So much for the manipulation of ideas and their insertion into the record.

关于思想的处理、以及如何把它们存入记录，就说这么多。

Thus far we seem to be worse off than before — for we can enormously extend the record; yet even in its present bulk we can hardly consult it.

到目前为止，我们的处境似乎反而比从前更糟——因为我们能把记录扩充到极大；可即便以它现有的体量，我们都几乎无从查阅。

This is a much larger matter than merely the extraction of data for the purposes of scientific research; it involves the entire process by which man profits by his inheritance of acquired knowledge.

这件事远不止"为科研而提取数据"那么局限；它牵涉的，是人类从自己继承下来的既有知识中获益的整个过程。

The prime action of use is selection, and here we are halting indeed.

使用知识的首要动作是"选取"，而恰恰在这一步，我们步履维艰。

There may be millions of fine thoughts, and the account of the experience on which they are based, all encased within stone walls of acceptable architectural form; but if the scholar can get at only one a week by diligent search, his syntheses are not likely to keep up with the current scene.

也许有数以百万计的精妙思想，连同支撑它们的经验记述，统统封存在外形体面的石墙之内；可如果学者勤奋检索，一周也只能取出其中一条，那他的融会贯通就别想跟上时代了。

Selection, in this broad sense, is a stone adze in the hands of a cabinetmaker.

就这层宽泛的意义而言，今日的"选取"手段，无异于细木匠手里攥着一把石斧。

Yet, in a narrow sense and in other areas, something has already been done mechanically on selection.

不过，在较窄的意义上、在另一些领域，机器化的选取已经做出了一些名堂。

The personnel officer of a factory drops a stack of a few thousand employee cards into a selecting machine, sets a code in accordance with an established convention, and produces in a short time a list of all employees who live in Trenton and know Spanish.

一家工厂的人事主管，把几千张员工卡片整摞投进一台选取机，按既定约定设好一个编码，片刻之间就得到一份名单——列出所有住在 Trenton 又会西班牙语的员工。

Even such devices are much too slow when it comes, for example, to matching a set of fingerprints with one of five millions on file.

可即便是这类装置，碰上诸如"把一组指纹与档案中五百万枚之一相匹配"这样的活儿，也还是太慢了。

Selection devices of this sort will soon be speeded up from their present rate of reviewing data at a few hundred a minute. By the use of photocells and microfilm they will survey items at the rate of thousands a second, and will print out duplicates of those selected.

这类选取装置的速度，很快会从目前"每分钟审阅数百条"提上去。借助光电管和缩微胶片，它们将以每秒数千条的速率扫查条目，并把选中的那些打印出副本。

This process, however, is simple selection: it proceeds by examining in turn every one of a large set of items, and by picking out those which have certain specified characteristics.

然而这个过程只是"简单选取"：它的做法是，把一大堆条目逐一过一遍，挑出其中具备某些指定特征的那些。

There is another form of selection best illustrated by the automatic telephone exchange. You dial a number and the machine selects and connects just one of a million possible stations.

还有另一种选取形式，用自动电话交换机来说明最贴切。你拨一个号码，机器便从百万个可能的话机中，恰好选中并接通其中一台。

It does not run over them all. It pays attention only to a class given by a first digit, and so on; and thus proceeds rapidly and almost unerringly to the selected station.

它并不把所有话机挨个过一遍。它只关注第一位数字所划定的那一类，依此类推；于是迅速而几乎无误地直抵被选中的那台话机。

It requires a few seconds to make the selection, although the process could be speeded up if increased speed were economically warranted.

完成这次选取需要几秒钟，不过只要提速在经济上划算，这个过程是可以加快的。

If necessary, it could be made extremely fast by substituting thermionic-tube switching for mechanical switching, so that the full selection could be made in one-hundredth of a second.

必要时，把机械开关换成电子管开关，就能让它快到极致——整次选取在百分之一秒内完成。

No one would wish to spend the money necessary to make this change in the telephone system, but the general idea is applicable elsewhere.

谁也不愿为电话系统的这一改造去花那笔钱，但这个总体思路在别处用得上。

Take the prosaic problem of the great department store. Every time a charge sale is made, there are a number of things to be done.

就拿大百货公司里那个再平常不过的问题来说吧。每做成一笔赊账销售，都有好几件事要办。

The inventory needs to be revised, the salesman needs to be given credit for the sale, the general accounts need an entry, and, most important, the customer needs to be charged.

库存要更新，售货员要记上这笔业绩，总账要入一笔，而最要紧的——得把账记到顾客头上。

A central records device has been developed in which much of this work is done conveniently. The salesman places on a stand the customer's identification card, his own card, and the card taken from the article sold — all punched cards.

已经有一种中央记录装置被开发出来，让这些活儿大多能方便地完成。售货员把顾客的身份卡、他自己的卡、以及从所售商品上取下的卡——全是打孔卡——一并放到一个台座上。

When he pulls a lever, contacts are made through the holes, machinery at a central point makes the necessary computations and entries, and the proper receipt is printed for the salesman to pass to the customer.

他一拉手柄，电触点便穿过那些孔接通，中央处某台机器完成必要的计算与记账，并打印出相应的收据，交由售货员递给顾客。

But there may be ten thousand charge customers doing business with the store, and before the full operation can be completed someone has to select the right card and insert it at the central office.

但与这家店有往来的赊账顾客可能多达一万，而在整套操作完成之前，总得有人选出正确的那张卡，把它插进中央办公室。

Now rapid selection can slide just the proper card into position in an instant or two, and return it afterward.

如今，快速选取能在一两秒内把恰当的那张卡滑入定位，事后再送回原处。

Another difficulty occurs, however. Someone must read a total on the card, so that the machine can add its computed item to it.

然而又冒出另一个麻烦。总得有人读出卡上的一个累计金额，机器才能把它算出的这一笔加上去。

Conceivably the cards might be of the dry photography type I have described. Existing totals could then be read by photocell, and the new total entered by an electron beam.

不难设想，这些卡片可以采用我前面描述过的干式摄影类型。那样的话，已有的累计金额就能由光电管读出，新的累计金额则由电子束写入。

The cards may be in miniature, so that they occupy little space. They must move quickly. They need not be transferred far, but merely into position so that the photocell and recorder can operate on them.

卡片可以是缩微的，这样不占地方。它们必须移动得快。它们无需被搬运多远，只要送到位，让光电管和记录器能对它们进行操作即可。

Positional dots can enter the data. At the end of the month a machine can readily be made to read these and to print an ordinary bill.

数据可以用位置式的点来录入。到月底，很容易造一台机器把这些点读出来，打印成一张普通账单。

With tube selection, in which no mechanical parts are involved in the switches, little time need be occupied in bringing the correct card into use — a second should suffice for the entire operation.

采用电子管选取——开关里不含任何机械部件——把正确的卡片调出使用几乎不费时间，整套操作一秒钟就够了。

The whole record on the card may be made by magnetic dots on a steel sheet if desired, instead of dots to be observed optically, following the scheme by which Poulsen long ago put speech on a magnetic wire.

如果愿意，卡片上的整份记录也可以做成钢片上的磁点，而非靠光学观察的点——这沿用的，正是 Poulsen（波尔森）当年把语音录到磁线上的那套办法。

This method has the advantage of simplicity and ease of erasure. By using photography, however, one can arrange to project the record in enlarged form, and at a distance by using the process common in television equipment.

这种方法的好处是简单、又便于擦除。不过若改用摄影，则可以把记录投影成放大的样子，还能借助电视设备中常见的那套流程，在远处投影。

One can consider rapid selection of this form, and distant projection for other purposes. To be able to key one sheet of a million before an operator in a second or two, with the possibility of then adding notes thereto, is suggestive in many ways.

人们可以设想这种形式的快速选取，以及用于其他用途的远程投影。能在一两秒内，把百万张中的某一张调到操作员面前，还能随即在上面添加批注——这一点在很多方面都极富启发。

It might even be of use in libraries, but that is another story. At any rate, there are now some interesting combinations possible.

它甚至在图书馆里也可能派上用场，但那是另一个话题了。无论如何，如今已经有了一些有意思的组合方式。

One might, for example, speak to a microphone, in the manner described in connection with the speech-controlled typewriter, and thus make his selections. It would certainly beat the usual file clerk.

比如，人可以像前面讲语音控制打字机时所描述的那样，对着麦克风说话，从而完成他的选取。这肯定胜过寻常那位档案管理员。

The real heart of the matter of selection, however, goes deeper than a lag in the adoption of mechanisms by libraries, or a lack of development of devices for their use.

然而，选取这件事的真正症结，比"图书馆采用机械装置太慢"或"缺乏可用的设备"要深得多。

Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing.

我们在取用记录上的笨拙，很大程度上源于索引系统的"人为做作"。

When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass.

任何数据存档时，都按字母或数字归类，而要找到信息（如果找得到的话），就得一层子类、一层子类地往下追。

It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome.

除非另作副本，否则一条信息只能待在一个位置；你还得有一套规则来确定"走哪条路径才能找到它"，而这套规则很累赘。

Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path.

而且，找到一条之后，你还得先退出整个系统，再从一条新路径重新进入。

The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association.

人脑不是这样运作的。它靠联想来运作。

With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain.

一旦抓住一条信息，它便顺着脑细胞所承载的某张错综复杂的"路径网"，瞬间跳到由思想的联想所引出的下一条。

It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory.

当然，它还有别的特点：不常走的路径容易淡去，条目并非完全持久，记忆转瞬即逝。

Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.

然而它动作之快、路径之繁、脑中图景之精细，令人敬畏，超过自然界中其他一切。

Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it.

人无法指望用人工方式完全复制这一心智过程，但他当然应该能从中学到东西。

In minor ways he may even improve, for his records have relative permanency.

在一些小处，他甚至能更胜一筹，因为他的记录具有相对的持久性。

The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. Selection by association, rather than by indexing, may yet be mechanized.

不过，从这个类比中得出的第一个想法，关乎选取。"按联想"而非"按索引"来选取，或许终能机械化。

One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.

这样做，固然无望在"循联想路径"的速度与灵活上追平人脑；但在"从存储中重新唤出的条目有多持久、多清晰"这一点上，却应当能把人脑远远甩开。

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do.

设想一种供个人使用的未来装置，它是一种机械化的私人档案与图书馆。它得有个名字，随手起一个，就叫它"memex"吧。

A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

memex 是这样一种装置：个人在其中存放自己全部的书籍、记录与往来信件，而它经过机械化，能以极高的速度和灵活性供人查阅。它是对其记忆的一种放大了的、贴身的补充。

It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works.

它由一张书桌构成；虽说大概也能远程操作，但它首先是他伏案工作的那件家具。

On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk.

桌面上是几块倾斜的半透明屏幕，材料可以投影到上面，方便阅读。还有一个键盘，以及成组的按钮和杠杆。除此之外，它看上去和一张普通书桌没两样。

In one end is the stored material. The matter of bulk is well taken care of by improved microfilm.

桌子的一端是存放的材料。体量的问题，由改良后的缩微胶片妥善解决了。

Only a small part of the interior of the memex is devoted to storage, the rest to mechanism.

memex 内部只有一小部分用于存储，其余都给了机械机构。

Yet if the user inserted 5000 pages of material a day it would take him hundreds of years to fill the repository, so he can be profligate and enter material freely.

然而，就算使用者每天塞进 5000 页材料，也得花上几百年才能把这个库填满；所以他大可挥霍，尽管放手往里录。

Most of the memex contents are purchased on microfilm ready for insertion. Books of all sorts, pictures, current periodicals, newspapers, are thus obtained and dropped into place. Business correspondence takes the same path.

memex 里的内容，大多是以现成的缩微胶片买来、可直接插入的。各类书籍、图片、当期期刊、报纸，都这样获取、放入其位。商务信件也走同一条路。

And there is provision for direct entry. On the top of the memex is a transparent platen.

此外还备有直接录入的功能。memex 的桌面上有一块透明的压板。

On this are placed longhand notes, photographs, memoranda, all sort of things. When one is in place, the depression of a lever causes it to be photographed onto the next blank space in a section of the memex film, dry photography being employed.

手写笔记、照片、备忘录，各式各样的东西都摆到这块板上。摆好后，按下一根杠杆，它便被拍摄到 memex 胶片某一段的下一处空白上——用的正是干式摄影。

There is, of course, provision for consultation of the record by the usual scheme of indexing.

当然，也保留了按通常的索引方式来查阅记录的功能。

If the user wishes to consult a certain book, he taps its code on the keyboard, and the title page of the book promptly appears before him, projected onto one of his viewing positions.

使用者若想查阅某本书，便在键盘上敲入它的代码，书的扉页随即出现在他面前，投影到他的某个观看位上。

Frequently-used codes are mnemonic, so that he seldom consults his code book; but when he does, a single tap of a key projects it for his use.

常用的代码都是便于记忆的，所以他很少需要查代码本；真要查时，敲一下键，代码本就投影出来供他使用。

Moreover, he has supplemental levers. On deflecting one of these levers to the right he runs through the book before him, each page in turn being projected at a speed which just allows a recognizing glance at each.

此外，他还有几根辅助杠杆。把其中一根向右拨，他就能快速翻看面前这本书，每一页依次投出，速度恰好够他扫一眼认出内容。

If he deflects it further to the right, he steps through the book 10 pages at a time; still further at 100 pages at a time. Deflection to the left gives him the same control backwards.

向右拨得更多，他就以每次 10 页的步幅翻看；再多，就每次 100 页。向左拨，则是同样的控制、只是往回翻。

A special button transfers him immediately to the first page of the index. Any given book of his library can thus be called up and consulted with far greater facility than if it were taken from a shelf.

一个专用按钮能让他立刻跳到索引的第一页。这样一来，他书库里的任何一本书，被调出查阅都远比从书架上取下来方便得多。

As he has several projection positions, he can leave one item in position while he calls up another.

由于他有好几个投影位，他可以让一份材料停在原位，同时再调出另一份。

He can add marginal notes and comments, taking advantage of one possible type of dry photography, and it could even be arranged so that he can do this by a stylus scheme, such as is now employed in the telautograph seen in railroad waiting rooms, just as though he had the physical page before him.

他可以添加页边批注与评论，靠的是某一种可行的干式摄影；甚至还能这样安排：让他用一种触笔方式来写——就像如今火车站候车室里那种电传写字机（telautograph）所用的那样——仿佛实实在在的纸页就摆在他面前。

All this is conventional, except for the projection forward of present-day mechanisms and gadgetry. It affords an immediate step, however, to associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another.

这一切都还属常规，无非是把当今的机械与小装置往前外推了一步。然而，它随即就通向了"联想式索引"，其基本思想是这样一种机制：任何一条记录都能被随意设定，去即刻、自动地选中另一条。

This is the essential feature of the memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.

这正是 memex 的核心特性。把两条记录"系"在一起的这个过程，才是关键所在。

When the user is building a trail, he names it, inserts the name in his code book, and taps it out on his keyboard.

使用者在建一条路径（trail）时，先给它取个名字，把名字录入代码本，再在键盘上敲出来。

Before him are the two items to be joined, projected onto adjacent viewing positions.

他面前是要相连的两条记录，投影在相邻的两个观看位上。

At the bottom of each there are a number of blank code spaces, and a pointer is set to indicate one of these on each item. The user taps a single key, and the items are permanently joined.

每条记录的底部都有若干空白的代码格，一个指针被设定，分别指向各自的其中一格。使用者敲下一个键，这两条记录就被永久地连在了一起。

In each code space appears the code word. Out of view, but also in the code space, is inserted a set of dots for photocell viewing; and on each item these dots by their positions designate the index number of the other item.

每个代码格里都显现出那个代码词。在看不见处、但同样位于代码格中，还嵌入了一组供光电管读取的点；在每条记录上，这些点都凭其位置，标出了对方那条记录的索引号。

Thereafter, at any time, when one of these items is in view, the other can be instantly recalled merely by tapping a button below the corresponding code space.

此后任何时候，只要其中一条记录正在显示，按一下对应代码格下方的按钮，另一条就能即刻被调出。

Moreover, when numerous items have been thus joined together to form a trail, they can be reviewed in turn, rapidly or slowly, by deflecting a lever like that used for turning the pages of a book.

而且，当许多条记录就这样被串成一条路径后，拨动一根类似翻书页的杠杆，就能或快或慢地把它们依次浏览一遍。

It is exactly as though the physical items had been gathered together to form a new book. It is more than this, for any item can be joined into numerous trails.

这就好像把那些实体材料聚拢起来、装订成了一本新书。但它还不止于此，因为任何一条记录都可以被并入无数条路径。

The owner of the memex, let us say, is interested in the origin and properties of the bow and arrow.

就说 memex 的主人，对弓与箭的起源和特性感兴趣吧。

Specifically he is studying why the short Turkish bow was apparently superior to the English long bow in the skirmishes of the Crusades.

具体来说，他在研究：为什么在十字军东征的小规模交锋中，短小的土耳其弓显然胜过英格兰长弓。

He has dozens of possibly pertinent books and articles in his memex.

他的 memex 里存着几十本可能相关的书和文章。

First he runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the two together.

他先翻过一部百科全书，找到一篇有趣却失之简略的条目，就让它一直投着。接着，在一部史书里，他又找到另一条相关的内容，把这两者系在一起。

Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item.

就这样，他一路走下去，搭起一条由许多条目组成的路径。其间他偶尔插入自己的一段评论，或把它接进主路径，或用一条支路把它系到某一条具体记录上。

When it becomes evident that the elastic properties of available materials had a great deal to do with the bow, he branches off on a side trail which takes him through textbooks on elasticity and tables of physical constants.

当事情显然表明，可用材料的弹性特性与弓大有关系时，他便岔上一条支路，领着自己穿过若干弹性学教科书和物理常数表。

He inserts a page of longhand analysis of his own. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him.

他插入自己手写的一页分析。就这样，他在自己可调用的材料迷宫中，沿着兴趣修出了一条路径。

And his trails do not fade.

而他的路径不会褪色。

Several years later, his talk with a friend turns to the queer ways in which a people resist innovations, even of vital interest.

几年之后，他与一位朋友闲谈，话题转到了一个民族抵触革新的种种古怪方式上——哪怕那革新关乎切身利害。

He has an example, in the fact that the outranged Europeans still failed to adopt the Turkish bow. In fact he has a trail on it.

他手头就有个例子：被对方射程压制的欧洲人，竟仍然没有采用土耳其弓。事实上，他还为此存着一条路径。

A touch brings up the code book. Tapping a few keys projects the head of the trail. A lever runs through it at will, stopping at interesting items, going off on side excursions.

轻轻一碰，代码本就调了出来。敲几下键，路径的开头便投影而出。一根杠杆任意地把它通览一遍，在有意思的条目处停下，再岔到一些支路上转一转。

It is an interesting trail, pertinent to the discussion. So he sets a reproducer in action, photographs the whole trail out, and passes it to his friend for insertion in his own memex, there to be linked into the more general trail.

这是一条有意思、又切合眼下讨论的路径。于是他启动一台复制装置，把整条路径拍印出来，递给朋友，让他插入自己的 memex，在那里再接进一条更宽泛的路径。

Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.

将会出现全新形态的百科全书——出厂时就织入了一张联想路径的网，可以直接放进 memex，并在其中加以扩充。

The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities.

律师指尖一触，便能调出他全部执业经验、以及同行友人与权威们经验中那些彼此关联的意见和判例。

The patent attorney has on call the millions of issued patents, with familiar trails to every point of his client's interest.

专利律师随时可调出数以百万计的已授权专利，并备有熟悉的路径，通向其委托人关切的每一处要点。

The physician, puzzled by his patient's reactions, strikes the trail established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs rapidly through analogous case histories, with side references to the classics for the pertinent anatomy and histology.

医生若被病人的反应难住，便接上当年研究一个类似病例时建立的路径，迅速浏览一遍相似的病史，再旁逸到经典文献，查阅相关的解剖学与组织学。

The chemist, struggling with the synthesis of an organic compound, has all the chemical literature before him in his laboratory, with trails following the analogies of compounds, and side trails to their physical and chemical behavior.

化学家苦攻一种有机化合物的合成时，全部化学文献就在他实验室里、摆在眼前；路径循着各化合物之间的类比延展，支路则通向它们的物理与化学性质。

The historian, with a vast chronological account of a people, parallels it with a skip trail which stops only at the salient items, and can follow at any time contemporary trails which lead him all over civilization at a particular epoch.

历史学家面对一部浩繁的民族编年史，便在旁配一条"跳读路径"，只在最关键的条目处停留；他随时还能顺着若干"同期路径"，把自己引向某一时代整个文明的方方面面。

There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.

于是出现了一种新职业——"拓径者"（trail blazers）：他们以在浩如烟海的共同记录中辟出一条条有用路径为乐。

The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected.

大师留给后人的遗产，便不仅是他为世界记录添上的那部分，对其门徒而言，更是那些成果赖以搭建起来的整套脚手架。

Thus science may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record of the race.

这样，科学便能为人类生产、保存、查阅本族记录的种种方式，提供切实的手段。

It might be striking to outline the instrumentalities of the future more spectacularly, rather than to stick closely to the methods and elements now known and undergoing rapid development, as has been done here.

把未来的种种工具勾勒得更壮观些，或许更能博人眼球；而不是像这里这样，紧扣那些已知、且正在飞速发展的方法与要素。

Technical difficulties of all sorts have been ignored, certainly, but also ignored are means as yet unknown which may come any day to accelerate technical progress as violently as did the advent of the thermionic tube.

各式各样的技术难题，这里固然都略去未谈；但同样被略去的，还有那些尚未可知的手段——它们随时可能问世，像当年电子管的出现那样，猛烈地加速技术进步。

In order that the picture may not be too commonplace, by reason of sticking to present-day patterns, it may be well to mention one such possibility, not to prophesy but merely to suggest, for prophecy based on extension of the known has substance, while prophecy founded on the unknown is only a doubly involved guess.

为免因死守当下的样式而把这幅图景画得太过平淡，不妨提一种这样的可能——不是为了预言，只是聊作启发；因为基于已知去外推的预言尚有几分实在，而建立在未知之上的预言，不过是层层叠叠的瞎猜罢了。

All our steps in creating or absorbing material of the record proceed through one of the senses — the tactile when we touch keys, the oral when we speak or listen, the visual when we read. Is it not possible that some day the path may be established more directly?

我们在创建或吸收记录材料时，每一步都要经由某种感官——按键时是触觉，说与听时是听觉，阅读时是视觉。难道就不可能有一天，这条通路被建立得更为直接吗？

We know that when the eye sees, all the consequent information is transmitted to the brain by means of electrical vibrations in the channel of the optic nerve.

我们知道，当眼睛看见时，由此产生的全部信息，都借由视神经通道中的电振动传到大脑。

This is an exact analogy with the electrical vibrations which occur in the cable of a television set: they convey the picture from the photocells which see it to the radio transmitter from which it is broadcast.

这与电视机线缆里发生的电振动如出一辙：那些振动把画面，从"看见"它的光电管，传到将它播送出去的无线电发射机。

We know further that if we can approach that cable with the proper instruments, we do not need to touch it; we can pick up those vibrations by electrical induction and thus discover and reproduce the scene which is being transmitted, just as a telephone wire may be tapped for its message.

我们还知道，只要用合适的仪器靠近那根线缆，根本无需触碰它；靠电磁感应就能拾取那些振动，从而探知并重现正在传输的画面——正如可以窃听一根电话线，截取其上的信息。

The impulses which flow in the arm nerves of a typist convey to her fingers the translated information which reaches her eye or ear, in order that the fingers may be caused to strike the proper keys.

打字员手臂神经里流动的脉冲，把抵达她眼睛或耳朵的信息，经转译后传给手指，好让手指去敲下正确的键。

Might not these currents be intercepted, either in the original form in which information is conveyed to the brain, or in the marvelously metamorphosed form in which they then proceed to the hand?

这些电流，难道不能被截取吗——无论是信息传向大脑时的原始形态，还是它们随后通往手部时那种奇妙变形后的形态？

By bone conduction we already introduce sounds into the nerve channels of the deaf in order that they may hear.

借助骨传导，我们如今已经能把声音送入聋人的神经通道，使他们得以听见。

Is it not possible that we may learn to introduce them without the present cumbersomeness of first transforming electrical vibrations to mechanical ones, which the human mechanism promptly transforms back to the electrical form?

难道我们就不可能学会更直接地把它们送进去，而省掉如今这道繁琐工序——先把电振动转成机械振动，人体机制旋即又把它转回电的形态？

With a couple of electrodes on the skull the encephalograph now produces pen-and-ink traces which bear some relation to the electrical phenomena going on in the brain itself.

如今，在颅骨上贴一对电极，脑电图仪就能画出钢笔墨水的曲线，这些曲线与大脑内部正在发生的电现象有某种关联。

True, the record is unintelligible, except as it points out certain gross misfunctioning of the cerebral mechanism; but who would now place bounds on where such a thing may lead?

诚然，除了能指出大脑机制某些严重的失常之外，这种记录还看不懂；但如今谁又敢给这样一件事划定它终将通向何处的边界呢？

In the outside world, all forms of intelligence, whether of sound or sight, have been reduced to the form of varying currents in an electric circuit in order that they may be transmitted.

在外部世界，一切形式的讯息，无论是声还是像，为了便于传输，都已被归约成电路中变化着的电流。

Inside the human frame exactly the same sort of process occurs. Must we always transform to mechanical movements in order to proceed from one electrical phenomenon to another?

在人体内部，发生的恰是同一类过程。难道我们就非得每次都转换成机械运动，才能从一种电现象过渡到另一种电现象吗？

It is a suggestive thought, but it hardly warrants prediction without losing touch with reality and immediateness.

这是个发人深思的念头，但要据此作出预言，便难免脱离现实与眼前，因此还不够格。

Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems.

想来，倘若人能更好地回顾自己晦暗的过往、更完整而客观地剖析当下的难题，他的精神境界理应因此提升。

He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his record more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory.

他建起的文明已如此复杂，以至于他必须更充分地把自己的记录机械化——唯其如此，才能把这场试验推向其合乎逻辑的结局，而不至于因过度透支有限的记忆，半途就深陷泥沼、动弹不得。

His excursion may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.

倘若他能重新获得"遗忘"的特权——把那些不必随手备着的纷繁事物搁下，又笃定一旦它们要紧、自己总能重新找回——那么他这趟旅程或许会愉快得多。

The applications of science have built man a well-supplied house, and are teaching him to live healthily therein. They have enabled him to throw masses of people against another with cruel weapons.

科学的种种应用，为人盖起了一座物资充裕的房子，并正教他在其中健康地生活。它们也使他得以用残酷的武器，驱使大批人去相互厮杀。

They may yet allow him truly to encompass the great record and to grow in the wisdom of race experience.

它们或许终将让他真正把那部伟大的记录尽收掌中，并在本族经验的智慧中不断成长。

He may perish in conflict before he learns to wield that record for his true good.

他也可能在学会驾驭那部记录、为自己谋取真正福祉之前，就先在冲突中灭亡。

Yet, in the application of science to the needs and desires of man, it would seem to be a singularly unfortunate stage at which to terminate the process, or to lose hope as to the outcome.

然而，就把科学应用于人的需求与渴望而言，眼下这个阶段，似乎是个格外不该就此止步、或对结局失去希望的时刻。