9 Famous Geeks Who Changed the World 改變世界的九位著名極客

賽卡特·巴蘇　陳儉貞/譯

Much like a “guru”1 is a spiritual leader and teacher， a geek is a technology leader and teacher. Geeks introduce us to brave new worlds， with visions of the future. Many of the early pioneers of the internet illustrate that geeks often develop new ideas for the “love of the game，” without seeking fame or fortune.

正如“古魯”是宗教領袖和導師，極客是科技領域的引領者和導師，懷揣著對未來的憧憬，帶領人們進入美好的新世界。許多早期互聯網先驅的事跡表明，極客們創新理念往往是出于“對行業的熱愛”，而并非為了追名逐利。

The following geek list is of people whom you might not recognize if you bumped into them at the neighborhood mall. So no Steve Jobs， Bill Gates， Sergey Brin and Larry Page， or Mark Zuckerberg.

以下列舉的極客，假如你在社區商場偶遇他們，也不一定認得出來。這么說吧，本文介紹的杰出極客不包括史蒂夫·喬布斯、比爾·蓋茨、謝爾蓋·布林與拉里·佩奇，或者馬克·扎克伯格。

Alan Turing

艾倫·圖靈

Famous Geekiness： The Turing Machine in second place. His effect on the outcome of the Second World War in the first.

著名的極客成就：若論對第二次世界大戰結果的影響，圖靈本人于居首位，圖靈機位列第二。

The famous cipher breaker is regarded as the Father of Computer Science. He also made a lasting contribution to the ideas about artificial intelligence. The Turing Machine was the forefather of the modern computer algorithm. It is a hypothetical model that explains computational logic and can even be used to explain a CPU. Think of it as the simplest computer of its kind.

圖靈是著名的密碼破譯者，被稱為“計算機科學之父”，同時對人工智能概念產生了深遠的影響。作為現代計算機算法的鼻祖，圖靈機是一個能夠解釋計算機邏輯，甚至能解釋中央處理器原理的假設模型，可視作同類計算機中最簡單的一種。

Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf

鮑勃·卡恩和文特·瑟夫

Famous Geekiness： Proposed and gave form to the Internet we know today in a paper titled ‘A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection.

著名的極客成就：在題為“分組網絡互聯協議”的一篇論文中，提出了人們今天所知的因特網的構想和形態。

Considered to be the “Fathers of the Internet”， Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn thought of and created the TCP/IP suite of communication protocols that is the virtual backbone of the Internet. Transmission Control Protocol （TCP） and the Internet Protocol for the first time enabled a diverse range of computers and networks to ‘talk with one another， truly creating a global connection.

“因特網之父”文特·瑟夫和鮑勃·卡恩構想并創建的通信協議套件——傳輸控制協議/因特網協議——是因特網的虛擬主干網。傳輸控制協議和因特網協議使各類不同的計算機與網絡首次實現相互“交談”，真正創建了全球連接。

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

蒂姆·伯納斯-李爵士

Famous Geekiness： Invented the World Wide Web.

著名的極客成就：發明了萬維網。

While working at CERN2 he proposed the idea of hypertext that would allow researchers to share information across the Internet in the form of hypertext documents. What was meant to be a way for information interchange between scientists， became a global interconnected network， the Web we know today. Tim Berners-Lee also created the first browser， the first web editor， and the first website at CERN.

在歐洲核子研究中心工作時，蒂姆·伯納斯-李爵士提出了超文本的構想，使得研究人員能夠以超文本文檔的形式在因特網上共享信息。原本科學家們用來交流信息的一種方式成了一個全球互聯網絡，即人們今天熟知的萬維網。此外，蒂姆·伯納斯-李還在歐洲核子研究中心創建了第一個瀏覽器、第一個網站編輯器，以及第一個網站。

Interesting Fact： His father Conway Berners-Lee and mother Mary Lee Woods both worked on the development of Ferranti Mark 1， the worlds first commercial electronic computer.

軼聞趣事：蒂姆的父親康威·伯納斯-李和母親瑪麗·李·伍茲都參與了世界上第一臺商用電子計算機費蘭蒂1號的研發。

Ralph H. Baer

拉爾夫·H.貝爾

Famous Geekiness： Video games pioneer， considered to be the Father of Video Games for his contributions.

著名的極客成就：電子游戲先驅，因其貢獻被視作“電子游戲之父”。

Ralph H. Baer developed the Brown Box （later the Magnavox Odyssey）， the first home video game console. He also created the first light gun and brought in cartridges3 as part of console games. He almost single-handedly4 gave birth to what today is a multi-billion dollar industry.

拉爾夫·H.貝爾開發了第一款家用電子游戲機——“棕色盒子”（“米羅華奧德賽”的前身）。此外，他還研發了第一把光槍，把子彈射擊引入到主機游戲中，幾乎以一己之力創造了如今價值數十億美元的產業。

Interesting fact： Ralph H. Baer was a television engineer by profession and later also created the classic Simon5 for Mattel6.

軼聞趣事：拉爾夫·H.貝爾是一名專業的電視工程師，后來還為美泰公司設計了經典的西蒙游戲。

Ray Tomlinson

雷·湯姆林森

Famous Geekiness： Creator of email.

著名的極客成就：發明了電子郵件。

Just when Internet was coming into being via its predecessor， the ARPANET7 in 1971， Ray Tomlinson created something that in time made postmen worry about their future and us forget about the art of letter writing. The email had humble beginnings when it was sent from one machine to another that was next to it. Later other mail handling protocols were established and email rapidly evolved as a form of communication.

1971年，名為阿帕網的互聯網絡面世，它是因特網的前身。這個時候雷·湯姆林森又發明了電子郵件，電子郵件最終讓郵遞員們為自己的未來擔憂，也令我們遺忘了寫信的藝術。電子郵件起初并不起眼，只能從一臺機器發送到旁邊的另一臺機器。后來建立了其他的郵件處理協議，電子郵件一躍成為一種通信形式。

Interesting fact： The @ symbol was used by Ray Tomlinson to tell which user was at what computer in the building they were all in.

軼聞趣事：雷·湯姆林森用@符號來辨別一棟樓里不同計算機的用戶。

Dennis Ritchie

丹尼斯·里奇

Famous Geekiness： Created the “C” programming language and the UNIX operating system （with Ken Thompson）.

著名的極客成就：與肯·湯普森共同創建了C程序設計語言和UNIX操作系統。

The importance of C is that it can be used to code without worrying about the hardware platform. It is the core of many operating systems from Mac OS X to iOS and Android. Many hardware drivers are written in C. As the geeky saying goes， real men code in C.

C語言的重要性在于，它可以用于編寫代碼，而不用擔心硬件平臺的問題。C語言是蘋果電腦操作系統、蘋果移動設備操作系統和安卓系統等眾多操作系統的核心。許多硬件驅動程序都是用C語言編寫的。就像極客們所說的那樣，真正的男人用C語言寫代碼。

Interesting fact： Dennis Ritchie along with Brian Kernighan authored The C Programming Language， the most definitive book on the topic. They were the first to introduce the “Hello World” program which continues to be used as an example first program by everyone.

軼聞趣事：丹尼斯·里奇和布萊恩·克尼漢合著了C語言的權威性著作《C程序設計語言》。兩人首創的“你好，世界”程序一直是公認的初學者入門示例。

Jarkko Oikarinen

亞爾科·奧伊卡里寧

Famous Geekiness： Created the oldest multi-chat protocol in the world.

著名的極客成就：創建了世界上第一個多人聊天協議。

In 1988， Jarkko Oikarinen created the Internet Relay Chat （IRC）. IRC was the worlds first real-time chat protocol. It is still going strong with thousands of networks and IRC servers around the world. IRC clients are available for every operating system and todays IRC clients， unlike their text-only predecessors， also allow file sharing.

1988年，亞爾科·奧伊卡里寧創建了世界上第一個實時聊天協議——因特網中繼聊天（IRC）。IRC如今仍然活躍在全球成千上萬的網絡和IRC服務器中。它的客戶端適用于所有操作系統，且不同于早前的純文本版本，如今的IRC客戶端支持文件共享。

Bram Cohen

布拉姆·科恩

Famous Geekiness： Created BitTorrent.

著名的極客成就：創建了比特流。

You might have heard about BitTorrent but not about Bram Cohen. The American computer programmer wrote the peer-to-peer protocol which enables us to share files of any type simultaneously with other users around the world. He also programmed the BitTorrent client.

你可能知道比特流，但未必知道布拉姆·科恩。這位美國計算機程序員編寫了點對點協議，使我們能夠與世界各地的其他用戶同時共享任何類型的文件。他還開發了比特流客戶端程序。

Michael Hart

邁克爾·哈特

Famous Geekiness： Creator of the electronic book （eBook）.

著名的極客成就：發明了電子書。

Michael Hart is probably the least geeky person on this list， but his contribution is profound and could be more so as knowledge expands and spreads. Thanks to eBooks. He is also the founder of Project Gutenberg， the worlds first online public library that makes available books out of copyright （Public Domain9）.

邁克爾·哈特也許是這些極客中最不像極客的人，但他的貢獻影響深遠，并且隨著知識的擴展和傳播，影響可能更加深遠。這一切要歸功于電子書。邁克爾·哈特也是世界上第一個在線公共圖書館“古登堡計劃”的創始人，該計劃為讀者提供版權到期的書籍（公版書）。

Interesting fact： He typed in by hand the first 300+ books made available on Project Gutenberg.

軼聞趣事：邁克爾·哈特手工輸入了古登堡計劃最初的300多本書。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

How to Tell a Geek and a Nerd Apart

Geeks often wear T-shirts displaying their object of interest. Nerds may appear carelessly dressed.

Geeks， whether introverted or extroverted， can talk ad nauseum about their interests. Nerds prefer to spend time engaged in an activity or study rather than talking about it.

Geeks very likely keeps a collection， such as figurines， collector cards， video games. Nerds possibly has a messy home， since their focus will be on interests， not mundane tasks like cleaning.

Geeks are ideal candidates for employment that allows them to share their interests with others. Nerds want employment that requires a high level of specialized knowledge.