雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第3章:思考什麼是思考(15)

As with public schools, there was a great deal about the ancient universities which had less to do with learning than with social status, with courses in geography and estate management for those of a less academic turn of mind. But the jolly raggings, debaggings and destruction of earnest students' rooms had ended with the Twenties. With the depression, the Thirties had begun, stringent and serious. And nothing could interfere with that precious freedom – a room of one's own. Cambridge rooms had double doors, and the convention was that the occupant who 'sported his oak' by locking the outer door was not at home. At last Alan could work, or think, or just be miserable – for he was far from happy – however and whenever he chose. His room could be as muddled and as untidy as he liked, so long as he made his peace with the college servants. He might be disturbed by Mrs Turing, who would scold him for the dangerous way he cooked breakfast on the gas ring. But these interruptions were very occasional, and after this first year, Alan saw his parents only on fleeting visits to Guildford. He had gained his independence, and was at last left alone.

正如公學一樣，有很多古老的大學，相比於在學術界的地位而言，它們在社會上的地位更重要。在這裏，沒有什麼能干涉寶貴的自由――私人房間。劍橋的房間有兩個門，按照傳統，外門如果關着，就說明主人不在。艾倫終於能夠工作和思考了，但他仍然感到抑鬱，他無論什麼時候都是這樣的。只要不把學院的工作人員搞翻臉，他就可以隨便把房間弄得多麼髒亂。每當圖靈夫人來看望他，都會責備他用小煤氣爐煮早餐是很危險的，但她並不經常來。第一年過後，艾倫就很少回格爾福特看望父母了。他獨立了，他終於獨立了。

But there were also the university lectures, which on the whole were of a high standard; the Cambridge tradition was to cover the entire mathematics course with lectures which were in effect definitive textbooks, by lecturers who were themselves world authorities. One of these was G.H. Hardy, the most distinguished British mathematician of his time, who returned in 1931 from Oxford to take up the Sadleirian Chair at Cambridge.

這裏還有一些講座，基本上都是最高標準的。按照劍橋的傳統，講座的內容涵蓋數學的所有課程，講座者都是各自領域的世界級權威。其中之一就是G.H.哈代，那個時代最卓越的數學家之一，1931年從牛津大學回到劍橋，擔任薩得萊恩講座教授。

Alan was now at the centre of scientific life, where there were people such as Hardy and Eddington who at school had been only names. Besides himself, there were eighty-five students who thus embarked upon the mathematics degree course, or 'Tripos' as Cambridge had it, in 1931. But these fell into two distinct groups: those who would offer Schedule A, and those who would sit for Schedule B as well. The former was the standard honours degree, taken like all Cambridge degrees in two Parts, Part I after one year, and Part II two years later. The Schedule B candidates would do the same, but in the final year they would also offer for examination an additional number – up to five or six – of more advanced courses. It was a cumbersome system, which was changed the following year, the Schedule B becoming 'Part III'. But for Alan Turing's year it meant neglecting study for Part I, which was something of a historical relic, hard questions on school mathematics, and instead beginning immediately on the Part II courses, leaving the third year free to study for the advanced Schedule B papers.

艾倫現在處於科學世界的中心，在這裏，像哈代和愛丁頓這樣的大師比比皆是。在1931年，除了艾倫之外，還有八十五位學生準備攻讀數學學位。他們分成兩個不同的組：A項目和B項目。A項目是標準學位，分兩個部分授予：一年後授予第一部分，兩年後再授予第二部分。B項目也要做同樣的事，但在最後一年，他們還有額外的幾門考試，包括五、六或更多門更高級的課程，相當於學位的第三部分。艾倫·圖靈相當於跳過了第一年的課程（這是歷史遺留問題），直接開始學習第二部分課程，並要用第三年來學習B項目的高級課程。

The scholars and exhibitioners would be expected to offer Schedule B, and Alan par excellence was among them, one of those who could feel themselves entering another country, in which social rank, money, and politics were insignificant, and in which the greatest figures, Gauss and Newton, had both been born farm boys. David Hilbert, the towering mathematical intellect of the previous thirty years, had put it thus:9 'Mathematics knows no races … for mathematics, the whole cultural world is a single country,' by which he meant no idle platitude, for he spoke as the leader of the German delegation at the 1928 international congress. The Germans had been excluded in 1924 and many refused to attend in 1928.

獲得獎學金的學生都希望參加B項目，艾倫也不例外。他感覺進入了另一個世界，在這裏，地位和貧富變得毫無意義，最偉大的人物高斯和牛頓，都是出身於農場。30年前，卓越的數學家大衛·希爾伯特說：數學沒有種族國界……對於數學家來說，整個文明世界都是同一個國家。這是他在1928年國際數學家大會上，代表德國數學家演講時說的，他這麼說是有原因的，因爲德國曾在1924年被該會議拒之門外。