雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(28)
This vision of the ACE's function was also tied in with the imitation argument.
The ACE would never really be 'doing arithmetic', in the way that a human being would.
對於ACE來說，它永遠無法像人類一樣去"做算術"，它只是在"執行算術"。It would only be imitating arithmetic, in the sense that an input representing '67 + 45' could be made to guarantee an output representing '112'.
它只是在輸入一組人類用來表示"67+45"的脈衝時，相應地輸出一組表示"112"的脈衝，
But there were no 'numbers' inside the machine, only pulses.
機器內部沒有任何數，一切都是脈衝。The whole point of his development was that the operator of the ACE would be able to use a 'subsidiary table' like MULTIP, as if it were a single instruction to 'multiply'.
圖靈爲浮點數設計了像MULTIP這樣的子表，可以像一個簡單的"相乘"指令一樣使用，In actual fact, it would have the effect of much shunting and assembling of pulses inside the machine.
機器內部會對此進行很多複雜的脈衝操作，But that would not matter to the user, who could work as if the machine worked directly on 'floating-point numbers'.
但這全都與使用者無關，使用者可以認爲，機器就是在直接操作浮點數。As he wrote, 'We have only to think how this is to be done once, and then forget how it is done.'
如圖靈所說："我們只要知道它能做，不需要知道它怎樣做"。The same would apply if the machine were programmed to play chess: it would be used as if it were playing chess.
如果給機器編程，讓它下國際象棋，道理也是一樣的：你就當它會下棋一樣來使用它。At any stage it would only be outwardly imitating the effect of the brain. But then, who knew how the brain did it?
如此說來，這種機器只是在表面上模仿大腦。但如果要較這個真，那倒是要問一問了，誰知道真正的大腦是怎麼工作的？The only fair use of language, in Alan's view, was to apply the same standards, the standards of outward appearance, to the machine as to the brain.
圖靈認爲，無論對於機器，還是對於大腦，外在行爲就是標準，而語言的唯一作用，就是實施這種標準。如果機器能夠完全模仿大腦的外在表現，In practice, people said quite nonchalantly that it was 'doing arithmetic'; they should also say it was playing chess, learning, or thinking, if it could likewise imitate the function of the brain, quite regardless of what was 'really' happening inside.
那就沒有必要關心它的內部是怎麼做的，人們應該直接認爲，機器就是在做算術，就是在下棋，就是在學習，就是在思考。Even in his technical proposals, therefore, there lay a philosophical vision which was utterly beyond the ambition of building a machine to do large and difficult sums.
這些哲學想法，也被圖靈寫進了報告，這已經完全超越了建造計算機器這個目標，This did not help him to communicate with other people.
所以讓其他人感到異常困惑。
