【正文】 not hang him the day after the last court dissipates his last hope? Why torture him as not even cannibals would torture their victims? 他到底為什么要等呢？為什么不在終審法院使他的希望破滅后的第二天處決他呢？為什么要用連食人族都不會用的手段折磨他呢？ Lesson 13 1 A wellknown scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. 一位著名的科學家 (有人說是羅索貝特朗 )曾經做過一次關于天文學的演講。他描述了地球是如何圍繞太陽運轉的，以及太陽是如何進而圍繞大量星群 的中心運轉的，這些星群即所謂的銀河系。 2 According to a number of early cosmologies and the Jewish/Christian/Muslim tradition, the universe started at a finite, and not very distant, time in the past. 依據一些早期的宇宙論的觀點和猶太 /基督 /穆斯林教派傳統(tǒng)的觀點，宇宙起源于一個特定的，并且不太遙遠的過去時間。 3 When most people believed in an essentially static and unchanging universe, the question of whether or not it had a beginning was really one of metaphysics or theology. One could account for what was observed equally well on the theory that the universe had existed forever or on the theory that it was set in motion at some finite time in such a manner as to look as though it had existed forever. 在多數(shù)人都認為宇宙基本上是靜態(tài)的而且是不變的情況下，探討宇宙是否有一個起源確實是一個屬于玄學或神學范疇的問題。人們可以用兩種不同的理論解釋他們所觀察到的事物。一種理論是宇宙永存；而另外一種理論是宇宙在某一個有限的時間以一種特定的方式被啟動，而這種方式又使得宇宙 看上去曾經永遠存在。 4 In order to talk about the nature of the universe and to discuss questions such as whether it has a beginning or an end, you have to the clear about what a scientific theory is. 為丁探討宇宙的本質以及關于宇宙是否有始終等問題，你必須清楚什么是科學理論。 5 A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements. It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations. 一個好的理論應滿足兩個要求。 一是它必須能夠基于一個只有少量的任意元素的模型來準確地描述大量的人們所觀察到的現(xiàn)象。二是它還必須能夠對人們未來所能觀察到的現(xiàn)象的結果加以明確的預測。 6 It turns out to be very difficult to devise a theory to describe the universe all in one go. Instead, we break the problem up into bits and invent a number of partial theories. 事實 上，要想設計出一個能夠描述宇宙現(xiàn)象的理論是十分困難的。取而代之的是，我們可以把問題分割開來，進而發(fā)明一些局部理論。 Lesson 14 1 Take another look at those cables: They snake into the back of the puter and then out again, terminating in a cap on the monkey’s head, where they receive signals from hundreds of electrodes buried in its brain. The monkey is directing the robot with its thoughts. 再看看那些電纜。電纜彎彎曲曲地進入計算機后蓋，然后又出來，最后到達獼猴頭上的帽子里。電纜從埋在獼猴大腦里的數(shù)百個電極接收信號，獼猴用思維向機器手臂發(fā)出指令。 2 For decades scientists have pondered, speculated on, and poorpoohed the possibility of a direct interface between a brain and a machineonly in the late 1990s did scientists start learning enough about the brain and signalprocessing to offer glimmers of hope that this sciencefiction vision could bee reality. 幾十年來，科學家就一直在思索、推測大腦和機器直接聯(lián)系的可能性， 但都認為這不切實際。只是到了 20 世紀 90 年代末，科學家才開始充分地了解大腦與信號處理的有關知識，從而出現(xiàn)了使科幻小說的幻象變成現(xiàn)實的希望的曙光。 3 The notion of decoding the brain’s mands can seem, on the face of it, to be pure hubris. How could any puter eavesdrop on all the goingon that take place in there every moment of ordinary life? 解碼大腦指令的想法乍看起來可能像是十足的狂妄自大。計算機怎么能竊聽日常生活每時每刻發(fā)生在大腦甩的全部活動呢？ 4 But most researchers assumed that each type of movement was governed by a specific handful of the brain’s billions of neuronsthe need to monitor the whole brain in order to find those few would make the successful decoding a practical impossibility. 但是，大多數(shù)研究人員認為，每種類型的運動都是靠大腦幾十億神經元中一些少數(shù)特定的神經元來控制的 為了找到那些少數(shù)神經元而需要監(jiān)測整個大腦則會使成功的解碼變?yōu)閷嶋H辦不到的事。 5 Thus everything that was known at the time suggested that brainmachine interfaces were a fool’s errand. Everything, it turned out, was wrong. 因此，那時知道的一切表明，使腦 機聯(lián)系是徒勞無益之舉。結果證明，那一切都是錯誤的。 Lesson16 1 藝術家們喜歡棕櫚樹生長的形狀以及那面對花園與大海的旅館的明亮色彩。 Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. 2 雨水在礫石路上聚集成了 一個個小水坑。在雨中，海浪涌上海灘，卷起一條長長的浪花線，然后退下去，又涌上來，又卷起一條長長的浪花線。 Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped down the beach to e up and break again in a long line in the rain. 3 就在他們的窗外一只小貓蹲在一張綠色的滴著雨水的桌子下面。它盡量地縮著身子 以免被雨水淋濕。 Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so pact that she would not be dripped on. 4 她喜歡旅館老板非常認真地聽取顧客意見的方式。她喜歡他那威嚴的樣子。 She liked the deadly serious way he received any plaints. She liked his dignity. 5 女孩的心被輕輕地觸動了。旅館老板對她的態(tài)度使她感到自己既柔弱又非常重要。在一瞬間她感覺自己好像是最要的人物了。 Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important… She had a momentary fee ling of being of supreme importance.