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计算机毕业设计外文翻译材料智能机器的新纪元
许多哲学家都认为创造性的智能是宇宙万物之中最伟大的推动力。利用这种力量，人类已经改造了这个星球的表面，并正到达外层空间进行新的远征。这些成就是靠机器才有可能取得的，人类设计了这些机器来增强支配宇宙的自然法则的作用。
在前几个世纪里所取得的伟大技术成就，主要集中在开发利用自然界的能量来改善我们的环境。人类行动和使用物品的能力有了神奇般的增长，这可看作主要是由于发展了各式各样的工具，从而使我们有限的肢体器官和感觉器官得以发挥更大作用的结果。
电子计算机是一种全新的机器而不是我们肢体器官的拓展。在某种意义上，它可以被看作是我们神经系统的附属部分。自动数据处理机可帮助我们记忆并组织外来的刺激，协调是我们有力量改造环境的工具，并更加深入的探索科学的基础。
但是引入计算机的意义远远超出了技术范围。这些及其正在合理组织社会活动方面起着越来越大的作用。一直在人数上可以同一个世界大国的武装部队相比的队伍，他们的日常工作，就是对美国的工业、专业与政府各组织产生的信息进行记录、处理与分析。这支文书工作者队伍，约有1500万人，他们既不制造或配给货品，也不提供服务，但却主要从事处理跟人类复杂文明中的这些生产活动有关的数据。
随着工业革命的到来，文书人员同直接生产人员的比例一直在不断的提高。计算机的发明，在很大程度上，就是由队更快捷、更经济而且效率更高的数据处理犯法的需要来推动的。虽然计算机主要是为了适应科学的需要而设计的，但是，商业及政府对数据处理方法的需求确实这种机器获得进一步发展的主要推动因素。钱币的销售量每年达到15亿只左右这个事实，也许正是尚待实现机械化的信息处理活动范围及其广泛的某种说明。
科学技术发展如此之快，一直现在看来，乘客在1931年乘坐F-10飞机从纽约飞到洛杉矶要花三天似乎已是令人难以置信的了。要是一个现代航空旅行者（她现在用不到六小时的时间就可完成这趟旅行），因为某种原因必须作这样长时间的飞行的话，他会感到这是一种不能容忍的苦难。但在大约五十年以前，乘坐篷车作同样的旅行却要花费上数月的时间，不但很劳累，而且要冒着极大的生命危险。数据处理技术得到了同样迅速的发展。当IBM604型电子计算打孔机在1974年宣布研制成功时，他曾经受到及其热烈的欢迎，被誉为能够完成高级计算伟业的“大脑”。这台机器具有50位的电子存储能力，正常输入速度为每分钟2100位。1953年，但是作者进入数据处理领域，得知电子计算机每秒钟可以完成数千次加法运算，曾大吃一惊。但是不到10年，听说有了每秒可执行25万次加法运算的计算机，却一点也不感到惊奇了。而且，运算速度升值更快的新设备就在眼前。输入输出速度也已从每秒数万字符的量级提高到每秒数十万字符的量级。电子存储器已从能储存数千个数的装置发展到能储存数亿个数的设备。能够记忆数十亿字符的元器件大概在几年内即可问世。
电子计算机能够下棋、翻译语言、证明数学定律，并能够完成像大选计票与预测这类受欢迎的业务，这些能力升值比他们运行的神奇速度还要更加激起人们的想象。这些计算机对于商业数据处理的重大意义同样激动人心。早期的电子计算机是用来进行科学计算和工程的。在这些领域中，他们有时可用几小时或几天时间，做完靠人力要几年甚至几个世纪才能完成的工作。到后来，当将其广泛应用于商业信息系统时，就像工资单、结算与库存管理等类会计业务动用上了计算机，而且效率大大提高了。迅速发展的管理科学要依靠计算机来迅速提供完整而可靠的信息。
能够存储极大量信息的高速数据处理机的出现，已使执行许多工业的、军事的与国家的功能的效率大大提高。具有重大意义的还有利用新的巨型计算设备可对许多技术领域中可能出现的科学与工程进步加以描绘。探索星际空间的事业在很大程度上依赖于计算机，不及在地面上是这样，作为空间飞行其自身装备的仪器装置也是如此。
商业数据处理的现状正好可同1934年是的航空状况相似。那时，利用DC-2柯蒂斯公司的神鹰号做联合飞行，乘客在21小时内飞跃了美国。未来的商业会计工作可能要依赖于电子设备而不再依赖于用纸笔来处理。将建立起巨型地区性计算装置，它与银行的结算间相类似。不断流进这些装置，并不停地从这些装置流出去的，将是从该地区数千个不同商业企业产生的信息。各个商业所在地都会安装廉价的小型终端设备，他们把现金出纳机、打字机、双向电视和电话等的功能结合在一起。在这些装置中，向销售单和采购但这些交易将通过电话线或微波送进远程计算机中。这些信息经过自动鉴别后，将按照合同进行处理。数据处理工作将包括数百万字符信息的储存，交易量的统计分析，把信息（比如账单）发送给其他商社，以及管理报告的编辑等。
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电子计算机的发展已被宣称为另一次工业革命的开端，其规模同蒸汽机的发明所导致的第一工业革命一样宏大。这些预言似乎正在成为现实。自动数据处理器决不是“大脑”。然而，在非创造性的作业中，他们却在速度、精度、信息存储量以及免除差错的能力等方面大大由于人脑。他们使用控制被的机器的设备，是用来组织经济信息和社会信息的设备，而且也是用来获取有关人类环境的新知识的设备。
附件2：外文原文
The Era of Intelligent Machines
Many philosophers have regarded creative intelligence as the greatest power in the universe. Through this force humanity has transformed the surface of this planet and is now reaching to outer space for further conquests. These achievements have been made possible by machines which man has devised to augment the working of the natural laws which govern the cosmos.
The great technological accomplishments of the last few centuries have centered largely about the harnessing of physical energy to control our environment. Our fabulously increased ability to move about and manipulate objects can be viewed mainly as the result of the development of tools for improving upon our unaided muscular and sensory apparatus.
The electronic computer is a radically new type of machine--not simply an extension of our limbs and our senses. It can be conceived, in a sense, as an appendage to our central nervous system. Automatic data processing machine assist us in remembering and organizing external stimuli, in coordinating the tools which give us power over our environment, and in probing more deeply into the foundations of the sciences.
But the import of computers is far more than technological. These machines are serving an ever-increasing function in the rational organization of social effort. An army comparable in size to the military forces of a major world power has as its daily mission the recording, processing, and analyzing of the information generated by American industrial, professional, and governmental organizations. This army of clerical workers, consisting of about 15 million people, does not manufacture or distribute goods or services, but is occupied mainly with the handling of the data related to these productive activities in our complex civilization.
With the advent of the industrial revolution, the ratio of clerical personnel to directly productive labor has been growing continually. The invention of calculating equipment has, to a large extent, been motivated by the need for faster, cheaper, more efficient methods of processing data. Although the automatic computer was devised mainly in response to scientific needs, the requirements of business and government data handling have been a major stimulant to the further development of this machinery. The fact that about 1.5 billion lead pencils are sold yearly is perhaps some indication of the enormous area of information-processing activities which have yet to be mechanized.
So fast is the pace of modern science and technology that it now seems incredible that in 1931 it took 3 days for a passenger to fly from New York to Los Angeles in the Fokker F-10.Should a modern air traveler, who can now make the trip in less than 6 hours, be subjected for some reason to such a long flight, he would feel this as an intolerable hardship. Yet, 50 or so years previously the same trip in a covered wagon took months of arduous toil under extreme physical danger.
The technology of data processing has advanced with similar rapidity. When the IBM Electronic Calculating Punch, type 604, was announced in 1974, it was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm as a "brain" capable of advanced computational feats. This machine had an electronic memory capacity of 50 digits, and had a normal input rate of 2100 digits per minute. In 1953, when the writer entered the data processing field, he was astounded to learn that electronic computers could perform several thousand additions per second. But within 10 years it was no surprise to hear of machines which could execute a quarter-million additions per second, and new equipment was in the offing which would he even faster. Input-output speeds, too, have increased from the order of tens of thousands of characters per second to hundreds of thousands, Electronic memories have grown from units which can store thousands of numbers to devices with capacities for storing hundreds of millions. Components retaining billions of characters will probably be available within several years.
The ability of electronic computers to play chess and checkers, translate languages, prove mathematical theorems, and perform such popular exploits as election tabulation and prediction has stirred the imagination even more than the fantastic speeds at which the machines operate. The significance of these machines for commercial data processing has been equally exciting. The early applications of electronic computers were for scientific and engineering calculations. Here they could sometimes accomplish, in a matter of hours or days, work which would take humans years or even centuries to complete. Later, when employed in a widespread way for business information systems, such accounting procedures as payroll, hilling, and inventory control could be carried out with greatly increased speed and efficiency. A rapidly growing science of management rests upon the use of computers for supplying fast, complete, and reliable information.
The advent of high-speed data processing machines capable of remembering vast quantities of information has enabled many industrial, military, and state functions to be executed with greatly increased productivity. Of major significance has also been the use of the immense new computational facilities in rendering possible scientific and engineering advances in many spheres of technology. The exploration of interstellar space relies heavily upon computers, both on the ground and as combination in the space vehicles themselves.
The present state of business data processing may well turn out to be comparable to the of the airlines in 1934 when, with a combination of the DC-2 and the Curtiss Condor, passengers crossed the United States in 21 hours. Future commercial accounting will probably rely on electronics instead of paper handling. Huge regional computational units, similar to bank clearing houses, will be established. In and out of these units, messages will flow continually from thousands of different business enterprises within the area. Every place of business will have small, inexpensive terminal devices combining the functions of cash registers, typewriters, two-way television, and telephones. From the units, transactions such as sales and purchase orders will be entered into the remote computer via telephone lines or microwaves. These messages will be identified automatically and processed according to contract. The data handling will include the storage of millions of characters of information, the statistical analysis of trans actions, the sending of messages (such as bills) to other firms, and compiling of management report.
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The develop of electronic computer has been heralded as the beginning of a second industrial revolution as tremendous in scope as that initiated by the invention of the steam engine. These predictions appear to be coming true. Automatic data processors are in no sense “brains”. However, in noncreative operations they are far superior to the human mind in speed, accuracy, information storage, and freedom from error. They are devices for controlling other machines, for organizing economic and social information, and for acquiring new knowledge of our environment.
