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The ACE, as planned, would have at most 200,000 digits in store.
然而按照计划，ACE的存储容量顶多只有20万位。
He described the storage planned for the ACE as 'comparable with the memory capacity of a minnow'.
图灵把ACE的存储能力比喻成"一条鲦鱼的脑容量"。
But even so, he perceived the development of 'learning' programs as something that would be feasible within a short period: not merely a hypothetical possibility, but affecting current research in a practical way.
然而即便如此，他仍然相信，学习式编程在很短的时间内就将变成可能，这并不是个假想，而是一条非常具体的实践道路。
On 20 November 1946 he had replied to an enquiry from W. Ross Ashby, a neurologist eager to make progress with mechanical models of cerebral function, in the following terms:
1946年11月20日，图灵回信给W·罗斯·阿什比，这是一位神经学家，他十分急切地希望推动脑功能的机械模型的发展。图灵在信中如是写道：
The ace will be used, as you suggest, in the first instance in an entirely disciplined manner, similar to the action of the lower centres, although the reflexes will be extremely complicated.
正如你提到的，ACE先会以完全确定的方式运行，就像人类大脑的某些低级行为，尽管它们很复杂，但却具有确定的关系。
The disciplined action carries with it the disagreeable feature, which you mentioned, that it will be entirely uncritical when anything goes wrong.
这些行为不具有纠错性，如你所说，只要出现任何差错，它就不知道该怎么反馈。
It will also be necessarily devoid of anything that could be called originality.
这些行为也不具有任何所谓的创造性。
There is, however, no reason why the machine should always be used in such a manner: there is nothing in its construction which obliges us to do so.
然而，没有理由表明机器只能以这种方式工作，我们在建造的过程中，并没有把它限制在这里。
It would be quite possible for the machine to try out variations of behaviour and accept or reject them in the manner you describe and I have been hoping to make the machine do this.
机器同样有可能尝试行为的多样性，并按照你说的方式，接受或排斥某个行为的结果，这也是我希望机器能够做到的。
This is possible because, without altering the design of the machine itself, it can, in theory at any rate, be used as a model of any other machine, by making it remember a suitable set of instructions.
这是可以尝试的，不需要改变机器的设计，因为从理论上说，这种机器可以作为任何机器来使用，只要给它输入相应的指令表。
The ace is in fact, analogous to the 'universal machine' described in my paper on computable numbers.
ACE实际上与我在《可计算数》中描述的"通用机"很相似，
This theoretical possibility is attainable in practice, in all reasonable cases, at worst at the expense of operating slightly slower than a machine specially designed for the purpose in question.
这种理论上的可能性，在实践中也是同样可行的，通常情况下，最坏的代价也只是比专用设备稍微慢一点。
Thus, although the brain may in fact operate by changing its neuron circuits by the growth of axons and dendrites, we could nevertheless make a model, within the ace, in which this possibility was allowed for, but in which the actual construction of the ace did not alter, but only the remembered data, describing the mode of behaviour applicable at any time.
因此，虽然大脑的运行机制实际上是通过树突和轴突来改变神经回路，但是我们同样可以在ACE中模拟这个模型，并不需要改变ACE的硬件设备，只需要存储相关的数据，并描述这个模型在各种情况下的行为。
I feel that you would be well advised to take advantage of this principle, and do your experiments on the ace, instead of building a special machine.
我想你会接受这个原理，并在ACE上进行实验，而不是建造一种专用的机器。
