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Unit 14
To Err Is Human
Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error
by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $$379 into the
millions, appeals for
charitable
contributions are mailed over and over to people with
crazy-sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills,
utility
companies write that they
’
re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage
to
get
in
touch
with
someone
and
complain,
you
then
get
instantaneously
typed,
guilty
letters
from
the
same
computer,
saying,
”
Our
computer
was
in
error,
and
an
adjustment is being made in your account.
”
如今，
几乎每个人都经历过电脑出错带来的麻烦。银行通知的贷款余额忽然
从
379
美元飞涨至数百万美元；
呼吁给那些名 字听起来稀奇古怪的人进行慈善捐
助的信件三番五次地寄往你的地址；
部门商店发送错误的账单 ；
公共事业公司说
他们将要关闭供给，
诸如此类。
如果你打印了，
同 一台电脑出来的致歉信上写道：
“我们的电脑出现了错误，正在调整您的账目。
”
These
are
supposed
to
be
the
sheerest
,
blindest
accidents.
Mistakes
are
not
believed to be part of the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it
must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering,
tampering
, a button getting
stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is
infallible
.
这些意外事故 纯粹是无意识的过错。
人们认为，
出错不是一个性能良好的机
器的正常行为。如果出了 错，那一定是人为的错误，如指法错误，乱碰键盘，按
键失灵，按错了键。最佳正常工作状态下的电脑是 不会出差错的。
I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that
they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless
human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to
beat you at chess, and some of them have even programmed to write obscure verse.
They can do anything we can do, and more besides.
我想知道这会是真的么。
毕竟，电脑的本质是人脑的延伸，
在此之上大为提
升，
但仍具有人性的特点，
或 许说具有超人类的特征。
好的电脑可以足够清晰快
速地思考，
在下棋中打败你。
它们有些甚至可以被编程写朦胧诗。
它们能做任何
我们能做的事，更多的是我们做不了的。< br>
It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would
be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built
for the huge machines, and stand listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant
noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the
spools
gives them the look of
wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate,
choking
with information.
But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters.
电脑是否有它自己的意识还未可知，
也很难找到答案。
当你走进那 些现在建
来放巨大机器的大厅其中的一间，
站着听，
很容易把微弱遥远的声响想象成思 考
的声音，
转轴的转动让它们看起来像野兽转动它们的眼睛，
试图努力集中，
因为
信息而拥塞。但是真正的思考和做梦，又是另一回事。
On the other hand, the evidences of something like an unconscious, equivalent to
ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been
constructed with the same property of error,
spontaneous
, uncontrolled, and rich in
possibilities.
另 一方面，
每条信息里都有一种无意识的相当于我们人脑的东西存在的证据
随处可见。作为人脑延 伸的电脑，其构造同样具有出错的特性，自发的、不受控
制的，各种可能性都有。
Mistakes
are
at
the
very
base
of
human
thought,
embedded
there,
feeding
the
structure like root
nodules
. If we were not provided with the
knack
of being wrong,
we
could
never
get
anything
useful
done.
We
think
out
way
along
by
choosing
between
right
and
wrong
alternatives,
and
the
wrong
choices
have
to
be
made
as
frequently
as
the
right
ones.
We
get
along
in
life
this
way.
We
are
built
to
make
mistakes, coded for error.
出错是人类思维所固有的，
扎根于人脑之中，
像根瘤一样维持着脑组织。
假
如不从犯错中有所收获，
我 们也许无法做成任何有用的事。
我们考虑事情时需在
正误之间做出选择，
而且错误的选 择通常同正确的一样多。
我们的生活之路就是
这样，注定会犯错误，为错误编码。
We learn, as we say, by
“
trial and error.
”
Why do we always say that? Why not
“
trial and rightness
”
or
“
trial and triumph
”
? The old phrase puts it that way because
that is, in real life, the way it is done.
正如我们自己所说，我们通过“尝 试—出错”
。为什么我们总这样说呢？而
不是“尝试—正确”或者是“尝试—成功”？这句老话 之所以这么说是因为现实
生活就是这样。
A good laboratory, like a good bank or a corporation or government, has to run
like
a
computer.
Almost
everything
is
done
flawlessly
,
by
the
book,
and
all
the
numbers add up to the predicted sums. The days go by. And then, if it is a lucky day,
and a lucky laboratory, somebody makes a mistake: the wrong
buffer
, something in
one of the blanks,
a
decimal
misplaced in
reading
counts, the warm room
off by
a
degree and a half, a mouse out of his box, or just a misreading of the day
’
s
protocol
.
Whatever, when the results come in, something is obviously screwed up, and then the
action can begin.
好的实验室，
正如好的银 行或者政府，
必须像电脑一样运行。
几乎每件事都
得做到循规蹈矩、
完美无缺 ，
所有的数字累加起来需达到预计的数目。
十年如一
日。然而，在某个幸运的一天，一 个幸运的实验室，有个人犯了个错误：缓存器
坏了，一个空白表格被填写内容，读数中的小数点点错，温 室降温
1.5
度，鼠标
出了故障或者是当天的试验报告数据的错读。
无论什么 原因，
当结果出来时，
显
然有什么地方出毛病了，于是，新的探索行动便开始了。
The misreading is not the important error; it opens the way. The next step is the
crucial one. If the investigator can bring himself to say,
”
But even so, look at that!
”
then
the
new
finding,
whatever
it
is,
is
ready
for
snatching.
What
is
needed,
for
progress to be made, is the move based on the error.
数据错读并不是重大错误，
它打开了探索之门。
下一步至关重要。如果调研
者能意识到：
“及时错了，也要弄个明白。
”那么，就会有这样或那样新 的发现。
我们需要的就是在错误中汲取教训，以求进步。
Whenever new kinds of thinking are about to be accomplished, or new varieties
of
music,
there
has
to
be
an
argument
beforehand.
With
two
sides
debating
in
the
same mind,
haranguing
, there is an
amiable
understanding that one is right and the
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