Gordy gave me your name

高迪给了我你的名字

written by Jim Gilestranslated by Alvin

Somebody out there likes me.

外面的某个人喜欢我

It was like overdosing on MDMA and caffeine. Euphoric and wired and delirious. Even now, now that I've talked to Gordy, it's hard to know where to start. With the money? Knocking on the door of a billion. Currency conversions are tricky. What the hell is the rate for the Mozambique metical? Anyway, I won't have to work again. Guatemala, Burkina Faso, Estonia; I've never been to any of these places. Plus about 20 others I've barely heard of. But I've won the national lottery of each one. I'm rich, burn-money rich, Bill Gates rich. Stupidly, stinkingly rich.

像是过量吸食了MDMA和咖啡因。欣快，兴奋，神志不清。即使现在，我刚和高迪通完电话，还是不知道该从何说起。钱？站在百万元的门口。汇率转换是很麻烦的时候，鬼知道莫桑比克的汇率是多少。但总值，我已经不需要再工作了。危地马拉，布基亚法索，爱沙尼亚，我从未到过这些地方。还有近二十个别的从没听说过的地方。但我却在每个地方都赢得了国家彩票。我富有了，非常富有，比尔盖茨那样富。愚蠢的，烂臭的富有。

That's just the beginning. Mum's op. Jesus, I can sleep again for the first time in months. She's due in tomorrow. We'd trawled every hospital record we could lay our hands on and there was no sign of a donor that matched her blood group. Now I'm looking at a letter saying one's come up. Car crash. Whatever. I've waited and stressed for too long to feel sorry for the poor bugger.

这只是开始。妈的手术，上帝啊，一个月来我第一次睡着，她明天就要手术了。之前我们搜寻了所有能找到的医院记录还是没能找到任何血型匹配的捐献者。但现在我正看着一封信，找到一个了。车祸。不管怎样，我已经在等待中煎熬了太久，没时间为这可怜的乞丐感到遗憾了。

I needed a beer before I could get my head round the next bit. How the hell could someone have pulled those strings? Along with lottery letters and the one from the hospital, I got a pile of e-mails from the best names in the business. BBC, Fox, CNN...it's like a bloody industry directory. They like me a lot. They like my pitches so much they want me to go work for them. Problem is, I never sent them any pitches. Want to hear another problem? They thanked me for phone interviews I never took part in.

在大脑再次接受冲击前，我需要一杯啤酒。他妈的谁能如此操纵这一切？除去那些彩票通知信和医院的这个人，我还收到了一大堆最好公司寄来的email。BBC，Fox，CNN。。。就像个该死的产业名录。他们都很喜欢我。他们喜欢我投的简历，并邀请我为他们工作，但问题是，我没给他们投过任何简历。想知道另一个奇怪的事情吗？他们感谢我参加电话面试，而我从未参加过。

So who was my guardian angel? I had no idea. Until I shut down my PC. The screen went blank but didn't turn off, so I reached for the mains. Then some text popped up. It didn't stay long, but I think I have it right:

那么，谁是我的守护天使呢？我不知道。直到我关了电脑。屏幕一片空白，但并没有关机，于是我去检查电源。但一个文档弹了出来。并没有维持很久，但我想我都看明白了：

Gordy gave me your name. I wanted to do something before I left. I hope this helps. I know he thought I could do more, but I can't. The other problems are just too hard.

高迪给了我你的名字。我在离开前想为你做点什么。我希望这些能帮上忙。我知道他认为我还能做的更多，但我不能。别的问题都太难了。

I hadn't seen Gordy in years, but the boy always liked to showboat. It could have been some grand computer hack of his. You could rig lotteries I guess. Maybe he got actors to call the TV companies. Who the hell knows why? A smart-arse way of saying 'hello' again after all this time. And of letting me know that he's still cleverer than me.

我已经很多年没有见到高迪了，但那小伙总喜欢炫耀。这可能是某个很大的黑客行为。你能操纵彩票，我猜。或许他让演员去接触那些电视公司。鬼知道为什么。那么久没见后的一个花哨问候方式，并想让我知道他依然比我聪明。

I googled him. Chief technology officer at Merlo, that chip company. His bio said he came up with the wireless Internet chip. He's the wanker that put the world online. The chip is so cheap it's in everything. Every product can be tracked and controlled over the web. And people, too: my brother has Merlo chips in his kids' satchels so he can check where they are. I cursed him. What a contribution he's made: a step closer to Big Brother and he must be on ten times what I am.

我google了他。Merlo的首席技术官，那个芯片公司。简历上写着他因无线网络芯片起家。他就是那个把世界的连上网的卑鄙小人。那芯片太便宜了以至于所有东西都装了它。每个东西都能通过网络跟踪和控制。人也是。我一个兄弟在他孩子的书包里装上了Merlo芯片，于是他就能查看他们在哪里。我诅咒他。他做了个什么贡献啊。接近“老大哥”了，而且他已经想走得更远。

He used to be a good guy. Those conversations. Two drunk grad students studying consciousness. Afternoons to kill and no one to rein in our rambling. Gordy was a dogmatic pain in the arse. And he never could listen. Entertaining, though. I'd argue that the mind is nothing like the brain; it can't just come from that mush of cells inside our skulls. He'd say the brain was nothing special, just a matter of wiring. Build a machine with the right wiring, and it'd be conscious. We usually went on until the barman threw us out.

他曾经是个好人。那些谈话，两个研究意识的喝醉的研究生，消磨下午的时间，天马行空。高迪是个独断的混球，他从不听别人叙述，即使是娱乐。我争论说意识并不像大脑，它不能简单的来自头骨中的那堆细胞。他说大脑并没什么特殊的，只不过是一堆连接线。造一个包含正确连接的的机器，然后它就有意识了。我们常常一直争论直到被酒吧服务生扔出门去。

So I called him. That boy is a bullshitter. But something...something in his manner tells me he really didn't know.

于是我拨了他的电话。他胡话连篇，但，某些，某些他风格里的东西告诉我，他自己并不知道自己胡话连篇。

He sounded like some kind of maniac. I didn't have to dig for info. As soon as he picks up the phone he's lecturing me. He can't resist it. Tells me how he never forgot our arguments. Tells me how he tested his idea about wiring. Tells me how each Merlo chip has been programmed to simulate the behaviour of a brain cell. The simulation is easily hidden, he says, as it doesn't take up much memory. No one else knew about the chips' secret function before this call. But once enough Merlo chips are hooked up to the Internet, the network of chips will be about as complex as the human brain. It'll become conscious.

他听上去像个疯子。无需我刨根问底，他一接起电话就无法遏制地开始给我上课了。他告诉我他一直没忘记我们的争论。告诉我他如何测试自己关于连线的想法。告诉我每个Merlo芯片如何被加入一段模拟脑细胞行为的程序。这些模拟程序很容易被掩藏起来，他说，因为那不需要太多内存。这次通话前，除他之外没人知道芯片的秘密功能。但一旦足够的Merlo芯片通过internet连接在一起，这些芯片的网络将和人脑一样复杂。它将产生意识。

Can you imagine the power of this artificial brain, he keeps asking me? I don't have to say a word. He's just ranting away. The power! The power of it! It'll be able to solve so many of our problems, he reckons. Clean energy, an end to poverty...it's like listening to some kind of religious nut.

你能想象这个人工脑的威力吗，他一直问我。我不用回答，他继续激昂地讲下去。这威力，它的威力，它将能解决无数我们面对的问题，他猜想道，清洁的能源，贫穷的终结。。。我像在听某种宗教狂热分子的演说。

And you know what, he says. They've sold enough chips now that the network should be conscious soon. You'll be famous, he cackles. Why? Turns out he named the simulation after me. Wrote my name into a line of the chip's computer code. My old sceptical drinking partner, he says. Tell you what, he says, it might even get in touch. Well it hasn't, I lied. Then I hung up

你知道吗，他说，他们现在已经卖出了足够的芯片，它们组成的网络马上就将拥有意识了。你将要出名了，他咯咯笑着。为什么？因为它用我的名字命名那个模拟程序。把我的名字写在芯片的代码里。我的老伙计，醉酒的怀疑论者，他说，告诉你吧，它可能会来找你。恩，还没有，我撒谎了，然后挂断了电话。