核心畫面

Think of one wire soldered inside a machine. Above it sit the instructions, the software, and those can be rewritten in a second by anyone with the right screen. The wire cannot. To move it you have to open the case, cut it and lay it again. Anything hard-wired lives on the wire layer, so arguing with it, updating it or deciding otherwise does no good at all. English then lifts that layer picture onto a person: a reaction that sits in the wiring and not in the instructions.

可以想成機器裡焊死的一條線。線的上面是程式,也就是指令那一層。程式想改,幾秒鐘就改好了。線不行,要改得把機器拆開、剪更多收起可以想成機器裡焊死的一條線。線的上面是程式,也就是指令那一層。程式想改,幾秒鐘就改好了。線不行,要改得把機器拆開、剪掉、重接。所以 hard-wired 說的是「在更底下那一層,動不了」。後來英文把這個分層的畫面整個蓋到人身上。有些反應就像那條線,不是靠下決心就能改掉的。

Two branches

機器裡:做在硬體那一層

這是畫面本身,也是另一個意思借用的來源。

adjective · C1

In computing, a part of a system that is hard-wired is built into the machine's physical parts, so it works the way those parts make it work and an ordinary user cannot change it with software.

硬體寫死的

人身上:天生帶著、改不掉

把人腦當成機器,把個性放到「線」那一層來看。這是比喻上的連結,不是對大腦的科學主張。

adjective · B2

If a way of thinking, feeling or behaving is hard-wired, it is treated as a natural part of a person's character that they are born with and cannot really change.

天生如此、改不掉的