Chapter 2

2

2

ALL IS QUIET IN FRANK EINSTEIN'S LABORATORY. The lightning storm has passed. Frank is asleep. The town of Midville is silent. The night is now clear. A beam of silver light from the almost-full moon shines down through the rusted windows and skylight. The moonlight glints off the SmartBot's toaster-head and the exposed SmartBot circuit brain lying on top of the pile of video-game controller, stopped watch, electric keyboard, hamburger grill, blender, model-airplane engine, stomach exercisers, aluminum flex duct hose, TV remote, magnets, batteries, locks, old steel file, stereo speakers, Shop-Vac, lamps, computer monitor, bicycle horn, webcam, glass dome, baby-buggy wheels, thermometers, fans, car GPS, collection of rock samples, big silver trash can, and broken talking HugMeMonkey! doll. Every bit of stone, metal,

在弗兰克·爱因斯坦的实验室里，一切都很安静。 雷雨已经过去了。 弗兰克睡着了。米德维尔镇一片寂静。 夜晚现在很晴朗。一束银色的光从近乎满月的月亮上射下来，穿过生锈的窗户和天窗。 月光照在智能机器人的烤面包机头上，露出的智能机器人电路大脑躺在一堆东西的上面，上面有视频游戏控制器、停了的手表、电子键盘、汉堡烤架、搅拌机、模型飞机引擎、胃锻炼器、铝制柔性水管、电视遥控器、磁铁、电池、锁、旧钢文件、立体声扬声器、商店真空、灯、电脑显示器、自行车喇叭、网络摄像头、玻璃圆顶、婴儿车轮子、温度计、风扇、汽车GPS、岩石样本收集、银色的大垃圾桶，破碎的会说话的大猴子！洋娃娃。 每一块石头，金属，

wood, and plastic matter remains still, as the faintest night breeze through the drafty garage door stirs the crumpled paper ball on Frank's workbench. The ball rolls one and a half revolutions and hits a coil of copper wire. The copper wire uncoils and brushes against the steel file. The file falls across the flint-rock sample. The steel striking flint creates a spark. The spark jumps to the center of the Frank-made SmartBot brain. The spark races along the thin computercircuit-memory-chip pathways. It doubles, triples, quadruples, and forms a network of interconnected sparks, looking an awful lot like a network of interconnected human brain cells.

木材和塑料制品仍然静止不动，最微弱的晚风吹进车库的通风门，搅动着弗兰克工作台上皱巴巴的纸球。 球转了1.5圈，碰到了一圈铜线。 铜线散开，擦在钢锉上。 锉刀落在燧石样品上。 打火石的钢产生火花。 火花跳到弗兰克制造的智能机器人大脑的中心。 火花沿着薄的计算机电路-存储芯片路径奔跑。 它翻倍、翻三倍、翻四倍，形成一个相互连接的火花网络，看起来非常像一个相互连接的人类脑细胞网络。

The interconnected web of sparks becomes... an idea. The interconnected web becomes... a plan. The webcam eye opens. It shutter-blinks and fires a wireless command to the headless robot body. The charge powers on the small LED lights, then speeds into the vacuum-cleaner body core. The charge multiplies, splits, and spreads through the robot body. One mechanical clamp-hand lies still on the workbench. Spark. The clamp opens. Spark. The clamp closes. Spark. The entire clamp-hand moves.

相互连接的火花网变成了…… 一个主意。互联的网络变得…… 一个计划。摄像头的眼睛打开了。 它眨眨眼睛，向无头机器人身体发出无线指令。 电荷点亮了小LED灯，然后加速进入真空吸尘器的核心。 电荷倍增，分裂，并在机器人体内扩散。 一个机械钳手仍然躺在工作台上。 火花。夹子打开了。火花。 夹子合上了。火花。整个钳手移动。

Intricate waves of power now surge and fill electrified pathways. The mechanical clamp-hand unscrews the back of a video-game power pack. The hand gathers the hard plastic Shop-Vac, the webcam, the glass dome. The moon disappears behind a passing cloud. In the pitch-dark laboratory, two mechanical hands gather and sort through the pile of junk parts and tools on the workbench. The hands turn screws, wind springs, adjust gears, bolt, hammer, and build. The hands

如今，错综复杂的电力浪潮汹涌澎湃，填满了电气化的道路。 机械钳手拧开一个电子游戏电源包的后盖。 这只手收集了硬塑料的Shop-Vac、网络摄像头和玻璃穹顶。 月亮消失在飘过的云后。 在漆黑的实验室里，两只机械手在工作台上收集和整理一堆垃圾零件和工具。 手转动螺丝、弹簧、调整齿轮、螺栓、锤子和建造。 手

rewire circuits, shape scrap, attach pieces, secure hoses, and finally pull a whole new robot head toward a newly rebuilt robot body. The cloud passes. The beam of moonlight shines down into the laboratory again. And now there is something new on Frank Einstein's workbench. Something that wasn't there earlier. Something that thinks. Something that learns. Something that is... alive.

重新布线，塑造碎片，连接零件，固定软管，最后把一个全新的机器人头拉到一个新重建的机器人身体上。 云过去了。月光又照进了实验室。 现在，弗兰克·爱因斯坦的工作台上有了新的东西。 一些之前没有的东西。 会思考的东西。会学习的东西。 某事是……活着。