All the computers in the world couldn 8217;tfigure out the correct answer faster than any one parent could. But that 8217;sbecause computers haven 8217;t been programmed to figure that kind of thing out,3whereas brains have been trained by millions of years of evolution to be goodat figuring out what other brains around them are doing and why.
全世界所有的计算机都不能比任何一个家长更快地找出正确的答案，这是因为我们给计算机编程时并没有告诉计算机要怎么解决这种问题，3而我们的大脑则已经接受了上百万年进化的训练，对于猜出周围的人在干什么以及为什么要这么做很是在行。
So we could choose a task to give thehumans an advantage, but that 8217;s no fun; computers are limited by our ability toprogram them, so we 8217;ve got a built-in advantage.
我们可以选择一个人类具有优势的任务，但这又有什么意义呢？计算机受制于我们的编程能力，因而我们人类有天生的优势。
Instead, let 8217;s see how we compete on theirturf.
所以我们还是看看在计算机的地盘上比赛如何吧。
The complexity of microchips
微芯片的复杂度
Rather than making up a new task, we 8217;llsimply apply the same benchmark tests to humans that we do to computers. Theseusually consist of things like floating point math, saving and recallingnumbers, manipulating strings of letters, and basic logical calculations.
我们不用弄出一个新任务，只需让人类进行计算机上常用的基准测试就行。这种测试一般包括像浮点数计算、存储和回忆数字、调整字符串以及一些基本的逻辑运算这样的内容。
According to computer scientist HansMoravec, a human running through computer chip benchmark calculations by hand,using pencil and paper, can carry out the equivalent of one full instructionevery minute and a half.
根据计算机科学家汉斯•莫拉维克的说法，一个人如果用纸笔进行计算机上的芯片基准测试，那么他的速度为每1.5分钟执行一条完整指令。
By this measure, the processor in amidrange mobile phone could do calculations about 70 times faster than theentire world population. A new high-end desktop PC chip would increase thatratio to 1500.
这样算来，一部中端手机的处理器的计算能力将是全球人口加起来的运算能力的70倍左右，而一台高性能台式机的芯片则能将这个比值提高到1500。
So, what year did a single typical desktopcomputer surpass the combined processing power of humanity?
那么是从什么时候开始，一台普通的台式机的计算能力超过了所有人类的计算能力总和呢？
1994
1994年。
In 1992, the world population was 5.5 billionpeople, which means their combined computing power by our benchmark test wasabout 65 MIPS (million instructions per second).That same year, Intel releasedthe popular 486DX, which in its default configuration achieved about 55 or 60MIPS. By 1994, Intel 8217;s new Pentium chips were achieving benchmark scores in the70s and 80s, leaving humanity in the dust.You might argue that we 8217;re being alittle unfair to the computers. After all, these comparisons are one computeragainst all humans. How do all humans stack up against all computers?
1992年全世界总人口为55亿人，这意味着根据基准测试，人类的总计算能力约为65MIPS5。同年英特尔发布了风靡一时的486DX芯片，在默认配置下这块芯片每秒能够处理55～60MIPS。截至1994年，英特尔的新“奔腾”芯片的基准测试成绩达到了每秒70～80MIPS，已经把人类抛在了后头。你可能会说这种测试对计算机有一些不公平，毕竟现在是一台计算机和所有人类比，那么如果所有计算机和所有人类比会怎么样呢？