TED演讲:编织我的梦(2)

（单词翻译）

Here's what I think today.

现在，我是这样想的。

Little girls don't know that they are not supposed to like computers. Little girls are amazing.

小女孩们并不知道自己被认为是不该喜欢电脑的。小女孩们很厉害。

They are really, really good at concentrating on things and being exact

她们非常非常擅长于集中注意力，做事精确，

and they ask amazing questions like, "What?" and "Why?" and "How?" and "What if?"

她们还会提出很多有意思的问题，比如 “什么？”，“为什么？”， “如何？”以及“如果？”

And they don't know that they are not supposed to like computers. It's the parents who do.

她们并不知道自己被看作不应该会喜欢电脑。是她们的父母会这样想。

It's us parents who feel like computer science is this esoteric, weird¹ science discipline that only belongs to the mystery makers².

我们的父母认为计算机科学是如此深奥晦涩又稀奇古怪的领域，专属于那些制造奥秘的人。

That it's almost as far removed from everyday life as, say, nuclear physics.

它和日常生活的距离之远，就像遥不可及的核物理一般。

And they are partly right about that.

他们的想法也有些道理。

There's a lot of syntax and controls and data structures and algorithms and practices, protocols³ and paradigms⁴ in programming.

编程中有那么多语法，控制项和数据结构，各种算法、实践以及协议和范式。

And we as a community, we've made computers smaller and smaller.

我们共同将电脑做得越来越小。

We've built layers and layers of abstraction on top of each other between the man and the machine

我们建立了层层叠叠的抽象概念，在人与机器之间，

to the point that we no longer have any idea how computers work or how to talk to them.

直到我们都不再了解电脑到底是如何工作的，以及应当如何与之沟通。

And we do teach our kids how the human body works, we teach them how the combustion⁵ engine functions

我们会教给我们的孩子人体是如何工作的，教给他们内燃机的工作原理，

and we even tell them that if you want to really be an astronaut you can become one.

我们甚至会告诉孩子，如果你真想要成为一名宇航员你会做到的。

But when the kid comes to us and asks, "So, what is a bubble sort algorithm?"

可当我们的孩子跑来问我们，“那么，什么是冒泡排序法？”

Or, "How does the computer know what happens when I press 'play,' how does it know which video to show?"

或者：“当我按下执行键，电脑怎么知道要做什么？”“它怎么知道放哪一个视频？”

Or, "Linda, is Internet a place?" We adults, we grow oddly silent.

又或者，“琳达，网络是一个地方吗？”我们成年人，会异常沉默。

"It's magic," some of us say. "It's too complicated," the others say.

有些人会说：“它有神奇的力量。”还有些人会说：“这太复杂了。”