The field of cryptography will perhaps be the most rewarding.
密码技术也许是最实用的,可能也是最有回报的。
There is a remarkably close parallel between the problems of the physicist and those of the cryptographer.
这个问题对于物理学家来说,与对于密码学家来说,有很多一致之处,但也有所不同。
The system on which a message is enciphered corresponds to the laws of the universe, the intercepted messages to the evidence available, the keys for a day or a message to important constants which have to be determined.
对一条信息进行加密的过程,显然是遵循物理定律的,被拦截的信息会提供线索,而密钥则与日期或某些常数有关。
The correspondence is very close, but the subject matter of cryptography is very easily dealt with by discrete machinery, physics not so easily.
在这一点上是很有关系的,但用这种方法处理起来,却非常之困难,相比之下,如果采用离散机器来处理,则要容易得多。
There was more to Intelligent Machinery than this.
对于智能机器,这还没有说完。
One feature was that he laid down definitions of what was meant by 'machine', in such a way that it connected the 1936 Turing machine with the real world.
图灵还为"机器"做了一系列定义,这样就把1936年的图灵机与现实联系了起来。
He distinguished first:
他首先区别出:
'Discrete and 'Continuous' machinery.
"离散"机器和"连续"机器。
We may call a machine 'discrete' when it is natural to describe its possible states as a discrete set.
我们称一台机器是"离散的",当它所有的状态可以被自然地描述为一个离散的集合
...The states of 'continuous' machinery on the other hand form a continuous manifold.
……而"连续"机器的状态则是无穷而连续的
...All machinery can be regarded as continuous, but when it is possible to regard it as discrete it is usually best to do so.
……微观来看,所有的机器都是连续的,但是只要有可能将其视为离散的,我们就应当尽量把它视为离散的。