What we can learn from the world's first computer bug
我们能从世界上的第一个计算机漏洞中学到什么呢?
The world's first computer program was written by Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, in 1843.She was friends with Charles Babbage, who had been seized by the idea of building a mechanical computer to automate the process of creating the mathematical tables used in navigation. Babbage hoped his machine could automate away human shortcomings. To publicise his design and help him raise the money to build it, Lovelace published an academic paper explaining its workings, in which she included the first program. She thus became the first programmer in history.
1843年，英国数学家埃达.洛芙莱斯编写了世界上第一个计算机程序。她是查尔斯.巴贝奇的朋友。一直以来，这位巴贝奇都执着于一个念头:要制作一台机械式计算机，让航海数学用表的运算过程自动化。巴贝奇希望他的机器能够自动避免人为错误。洛芙莱斯为了宣传朋友的设计，并帮他筹集制作资金，于是发表了一篇学术论文详解这台机器的原理，其中就包括世界上的首个计算机程序。由此，她便成为了历史，上第一位程序员。
But something unusual happened when computer scientists recently translated her program to run it on a modern computer: it turned out to contain a bug. It seems most likely that the bug was a typo that occurred when the program was typeset for printing. But it's a reminder that software is a human creation that reflects the error-prone nature of its creators.
然而在最近，当计算机科学家们翻译了她的程序，,并在现代计算机上运行时，异常状况发生了:原来，这套程序中存在一个漏洞。这个漏洞很可能只是印刷排版过程中的一个打字失误。而这也是一种警示:计算机软件乃人类的创造，所以也会反映出其创造者易错的本质。
That is worth remembering today because, in the era of artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making, the idea of using machines to automate processes and overcome human failings has resurfaced. Software companies claim that using algorithms to do certain jobs, such as filtering job candidates, is fairer than having humans do it, because machines can't be biased or prejudiced in the way that humans can. But such systems are often based on historical data sets,which are intrinsically biased. Train your hiring algorithm to favour the kinds of employees who have done well in the past and it will favour white men.
在当下，这一点也同样值得，上心，因为在这个人工智能和算法决策的时代，企图以计算机自动化处理避免人为失误的观念已再度出现。软件公司纷纷声称，利用算法完成特定工作(如筛选求职者)比人工操作更公平公正，因为计算机不会像人一样带着有色眼镜。但其实，这些计算机系统往往是以历史数据集为基础，而究其本质，这些数据都是有所偏颇的。招聘算法一旦被设定为偏向那类在职表现优秀的员工，也就意味着它将更偏爱白人男性。
The lesson from Ada Lovelace's first program is that automating away human shortcomings is much harder than it looks, whether in 1843 or 2019.
我们能从埃达.洛芙莱斯的首个计算机程序学到的一课是:无论是在1843年或是2019年，想要用自动化来避免人为的缺陷都比表面看起来要困难得多。
