雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(115)
Expanding upon the ideas he had publicly announced in February 1947, this time he identified some of the reasons why the concept of 'intelligent machinery' might be perceived by such as Darwin as a contradiction in terms:
(a) An unwillingness to admit the possibility that mankind can have any rivals in intellectual power.
（1）他們不情願承認人類智能存在競爭對手的可能性。This occurs as much amongst intellectual people as amongst others: they have more to lose.
不僅普通人會有這樣的想法，知識階層更會這樣想，因爲智力幾乎是他們的全部資本。
Those who admit the possibility all agree that its realisation would be very disagreeable.
即使是那些承認這種可能性的人，也都認爲，這種實現將會非常不愉快。The same situation arises in connection with the possibility of our being superseded by some other animal species.
有一種情況與此類似，那就是某些動物有可能比人類更加高等，雖然普遍認爲這是不可能的，This is almost as disagreeable and its theoretical possibility is indisputable.
但從理論上講，這是尚有討論餘地的。(b) A religious belief that any attempt to construct such machine is a sort of Promethean irreverence.
（2）宗教觀點認爲，試圖建造這類機器，是一種普羅米修斯式的大不敬行爲。These objections, he wrote, 'being purely emotional, do not really need to be refuted.'
對於這些觀點，圖靈寫道，這純粹是在鬧情緒，根本不值一駁，They were like Bernard Shaw's complaint against the first Charles Darwin, that his doctrines were 'discouraging'.
就像是蕭伯納反對進化論的理由：讓人不舒服。The point, however, was not to find comfort, but truth.
但是，圖靈可不是追求舒服，他要追求事實。He next moved to what he considered a less 'emotional', but still erroneous objection:
接下來，他提到了不鬧情緒、但同樣錯誤的觀點：(c) The very limited character of the machinery which has been used until recent times (e.g. up to 1940).
（3）在人類短暫的利用機器的歷史中（在1940年之前），This encouraged the belief that machinery was necessarily limited to extremely straightforward, possibly even to repetitive, jobs.
機器扮演的角色非常有限，這使人們認爲，機器只能完成那些指令明確的工作，甚至只能是重複性的工作。This attitude is very well expressed by Dorothy Sayers (The Mind of the Maker, p. 46) .. which imagines that God, having created his Universe, has now screwed the cap on His pen, put His feet on the mantelpiece and left the work to get on with itself.'
多羅西·塞耶斯的《上帝之心》（第46頁）恰當地展示了這種觀點："上帝創造完宇宙，便擰上鋼筆的蓋子，把腳搭在壁爐上，看着他的傑作自生自滅。"
