未来手机能否读懂你的心思

iOS8 has had about a month to learn your columnist’s habits. At present, the three words Apple thinks Johnson is mostly to use to start a text are “I”, “The” and “I’m”. If that sounds depressingly ego-centric, remember that “I” is the most common word in spoken English. Pressing “I” reveals the three words most likely to follow “I”: “love”, “don’t” and “just”. Johnson is apparently not as disagreeable as Mr Oswalt.
IOS8系统用了一个月时间学习笔者的习惯。现在苹果认为笔者在编辑文字时，开头最常用的三个单词是“我”，“这”，“我是”。尽管这种以自我为中心的感觉令人郁闷，但请记住“我”是英文口语中最常用的单词。在键盘上点击“我”会显示接下来最有可能用到的三个单词：“爱”，“不”，“仅仅”。笔者显然不像奥斯瓦尔特先生那般不友好。

What is striking, however, is that though the software can pick words that are likely to follow the previous word, the trick does not produce great phrases. Repeatedly pressing the middle of the three choices on my phone results in
令人惊奇的是，该软件能从先前出现过的预测结果中选词，但这种技巧无法产生令人满意的短语。在我键盘上重复重复点击第二个备选单词，结果产生下面的文本：

“The day I have a great way of the year and the other hand is the only thing that would have to go back and I don’t think that I have a great way of life and the day I have to go back and the other hand…”
我以一年中良好的方式度过了这一天（The day I have a great way of the year），另一方面（the other hand），这一天是我必须要回顾的（have to go back），我认为自己没有良好的生活方式（I have a great way of life），这一天是我必须要回顾的（have to go back），另一方面（the other hand）...

Curiously, sometimes the system repeats its own predictions (“and the other hand” occurs twice). But sometimes it doesn’t (“I have a great way of” is once followed by “the year”, and the second time followed by “of life”). And if I clear the whole mess and begin again, repeatedly tapping the same button gives me a different string. What is going on behind the scenes is unclear. (Apple did not respond to requests to clarify.)
令人惊奇的是，系统有时会重复之前的预测结果（“and the other hand”出现过两次）。但有时又不会重复（第一次出现的“I have a great way of”后面跟随的是“the year”，而第二次出现时后面跟随的是“of life”）。如果我删掉这些乱七八糟的文字重新编辑，然后同样重复点击第二个备选单词，产生的一连串单词会与上次不同。这究竟是怎么一回事我不得而知，苹果公司对于澄清此事的请求未作回应。

When this new predictive feature was announced, a few observers harrumphed: offering the next potential word allows a writer to skip the work of choosing words. Well, to choose just one word: nonsense. At the most, iOS8 will allow you to avoid typing some fairly long but frequent words. But it’s not ready to appease your boss, apologise to your spouse or do your homework for you. In 1965 Michael Frayn imagined automating journalism in his novel The Tin Men, automatically generating catchy headlines and composing predictable stories (like ones on the royal family) with a string of clichés. Fortunately, half a century later, we hacks must still be paid to string out clichés by hand.
当这种新潮的文字预测功能刚问世时，少数观察人士曾对此嗤之以鼻：预测下一个可能用到的单词会让写字的人越过选词过程。只能用一个词来形容：荒唐。IOS8系统最多就是让你不必重复写出冗长又经常使用的单词，但它没想代替你去安抚你的老板，向你的爱人道歉，或者帮你做作业。1965年，迈克尔·弗莱恩曾在他的小说《铁皮人》中畅想过新闻工作自动化的情景：自动产生朗朗上口的新闻标题；编写可预测的故事（比如皇室故事）；一连串的陈词滥调。幸运的是，半个世纪后的今天，我们这些拿工资的雇佣文人仍需亲手编写陈词滥调。