TED演讲：互联网可能会崩溃,怎么办?(4)

 　　But the fact is, people are mostly focused on defending the computers on the Internet,  但事实上，人们主要着眼于联网电脑的保护，

　　and there's been surprisingly little attention to defending the Internet itself as a communications medium.  反而极少关注作为通讯介质的互联网本身的保护。

　　And I think we probably do need to pay some more attention to that, because it's actually kind of fragile¹.  我认为我们需要更多的关注这一点，因为互联网是脆弱的。

　　So actually, in the early days, back when it was the ARPANET,  事实上，在早期，在阿帕网年代，

　　there were actually times -- there was a particular time it failed completely because one single message processor actually got a bug² in it.  事实上确实有发生过——一次整个网络完全宕掉了一段时间的情况，原因是某个单一信息处理器有问题。

　　And the way the Internet works is the routers are basically exchanging information about how they can get messages to places,  互联网的工作方式是路由器交换的讯息，从根本上来说是关于它们如何将信息发送到指定的位置，

　　and this one processor, because of a broken card, decided³ it could actually get a message to some place in negative time.  因为一张坏卡，这个处理器认为它实际上可以在负时间内将信息送到某地方。

　　So, in other words, it claimed it could deliver a message before you sent it.  换句话说，它声称它可以在接收一条信息之前就发送。

　　So of course, the fastest way to get a message anywhere was to send it to this guy, who would send it back in time and get it there super early,  因此，显然，最快的接收任何地方信息的方式就是将信息发给这个处理器，他会及时地送回并且超早地送达，

　　so every message in the Internet started getting switched through this one node, and of course that clogged⁴ everything up.  因此互联网上的每条信息开始通过这个节点交换，理所当然的会堵塞。

　　Everything started breaking.  一切开始中断。

　　The interesting thing was, though, that the sysadmins were able to fix it,  尽管如此，有趣的是，系统管理员可以解决这个问题，

　　but they had to basically turn every single thing on the Internet off.  但是基本上他们必须关掉所有的互联网。

　　Now, of course you couldn't do that today.  当然现在不可能这样做。

　　I mean, everything off, it's like the service call you get from the cable company, except for the whole world. 我的意思是，关掉一切，有点像整个世界你只接得到有线电视公司打给你的服务电话。

1 fragile   

adj.易碎的，脆的，易损坏的，虚弱的，脆弱的

参考例句：

• The old lady was increasingly fragile after her operation.那位老太太手术后身体越来越虚弱。
• This glass disc looks very fragile.这个玻璃盘子看起来很容易碎。

2 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 clogged   

（使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞

参考例句：

• The narrow streets were clogged with traffic. 狭窄的街道上交通堵塞。
• The intake of gasoline was stopped by a clogged fuel line. 汽油的注入由于管道阻塞而停止了。