The Difference between Man and Computer

人与计算机的区别

What makes people different from computer programs? What is the missing element that our theories don't yet account for?

是什么使得人区别于计算机程序呢？我们的理论难以解释的缺失因素是什么？

The answer is simple: people read newspaper stories for a reason: to learn more about what they are interested in. Computers, on the other hand, don't.

答案很简单：人在报纸上阅读报道的原因是：了解更多他们感兴趣的东西。而计算机则不然。

In fact, computers don't even have interests; there is nothing in particular that they are trying to find out when they read.

事实上计算机甚至不存在兴趣；当他们阅读时，并没有特别想弄清楚的东西。

If a computer program is to be model of story understanding, it should also read for a "purpose".

如果一个计算机程序要成为理解故事的模型，它必须为一个“目的”而阅读。

Of course, people have several goals that do not make sense to computers.

当然，人们会有多个目标，而这些对于计算机却毫无意义。

One might read a restaurant guide in order to satisfy hunger or entertainment goals, or to find a good place to go for a business lunch.

为了满足饥饿感或娱乐目的，或者为了找个好地方吃商务午餐，人们可能会阅读餐馆指南。

Computers do not get hungry, and computers do not have business lunches.

而电脑不会挨饿，电脑也不会有商务午餐。

However, these physiological and social goals give rise to several intellectual or cognitive goals.

然而，这些生理和社会目标产生了一些智力或者认知目标。

A goal to satisfy hunger gives rise to goals to find information about the name of a restaurant which serves the desired type of food, how expensive the restaurant is, the location of the restaurant, etc.

充饥的目标产生了寻找提供所需食物类型的餐厅名称、价格、位置等信息的目标。

These are goals to acquire information or knowledge, what we are calling learning goals.

这些都是获取信息或知识的目标，我们称之为学习目标。

These goals can be held by computers too; a computer might "want" to find out the location of a restaurant, and rad a guide in order to do so in the same way as a person might.

这些目标也可以由计算机实现；计算机可能要“想要”找到一家餐馆的位置，并阅读一本指南，以便与人的做法相似。

While such a goal would not arise out of hunger in the case of the computer, it might well arise out of the goal to learn more about restaurants.

对于电脑来说，虽然这样的目标不会产生于饥饿，但很可能出于想了解更多餐厅这样的目标。