雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(58)
Rather than forming new ties of friendship at the ν PL, he retained those of the war.
Donald Michie, now an undergraduate at Oxford, was one of these friends,
他的朋友唐納德·米奇現在從牛津畢業了。and a footnote on Alan's October 1946 letter to Jack Good, with comments on the draft of his book, noted cryptically that 'Donald has agreed to help and I have now got the necessary gadgets for the treasure.'
1946年10月，圖靈在給傑克·古德的信中提到："唐納德答應幫助我，而且我有了尋找銀錠的必要工具。"
(David Champernowne had meanwhile realised a healthy profit in his ingots, which had remained safely in his bank.)
（大衛·晨佩儂這時看到，他當年存在銀行裏的鋼錠，現在帶來了非常優厚的利潤。）There had been a previous attempt with Donald Michie, who was offered the choice of either a one-third share of the total proceeds or a payment of 5 pounds per expedition.
圖靈想讓唐納德·米奇幫助他尋找銀錠，他給了米奇兩個選擇，其一是把找到的銀錠分給他三分之一，其二是每次尋找付給他5英鎊工資。This was itself a nice example of the Turing theory of probability, which appealed to the odds that a perfectly rational person would be prepared to bet on an event.
這是圖靈概率論的一個很好的例子，懸殊的差額會讓人忍不住賭一把。As a perfectly rational man, Donald Michie opted for the latter choice.
但是作爲一個理智的人，米奇選擇了後者。The first real-life treasure hunt had been a failure, since when they went to the wood near Shenley where one bar was buried, Alan found that the landmarks had changed since 1940, and he could not locate the spot.
圖靈此生第一次真正的尋寶，最後以失敗告終了，他們來到紳利附近埋藏第一塊銀錠的樹林裏，但圖靈發現，路標已經在1940年被更換了，所以他沒法確定參照物。The point of the 'gadget' was that it was a metal detector which Alan had designed and built himself.
那個"必要工具"的底端，是圖靈親自設計並製造的一個金屬探測器。On the second trip, it functioned, though only to a depth of a few inches. It successfully located a great many pieces of metal under the surface of the wood, but not the silver bar.
在第二次挖寶時，它成功地在樹林裏探測到了很多金屬，但都不是銀錠。As for the second bar, he knew where that was, but they found that they were unable to apply the UNBURY routine when standing in the bed of the stream.
第二塊銀錠，圖靈知道埋在哪，但是當他站在湍流的河水中時，他意識到這塊銀錠永遠都找不到了。
