「artifact」是什麼意思？在不同的情景下一般有哪些譯法？

01-03

這個詞也困擾過我。不過現在我大概算是理解了。

Artifact 的詞源是拉丁語 arte + factum，arte 是「藝術」或者「技能」的意思，factum 則是「做、造」的動名詞形式，artifact 的意思其實就是「用技藝製造（出來的東西）」，所以這個詞經常可以翻譯為「（手）工藝品」。但它的意義其實不限於此——我們日常所說的「（手）工藝品」一般是指英文的 handicraft，也就是「手製品」。一切手製品其實都是用技藝製造出來的，故而可以說一切 handicraft 都是 artifact，但反過來不行。

Artifact 一詞強調的物體屬性其實是非自然——一塊一萬年前的燧石不是 artifact，但一隻原始人使用的石斧就是了（此時不應將其翻譯為「手工藝品」而是「手工製品」，因為「工藝品」在中文裡面暗示這個東西帶有一定的藝術欣賞價值，但古人使用的工具並不是拿來當擺設的）。登月時看到月球上的隕石坑不是 artifact，但如果看到一塊表面光滑的六面體黑色方形石碑，那就得叫 artifact——即便它顯然不可能是（已知的）人類所造。哪怕某種東西是看不到摸不著的，但只要它不是自然形成，也可以算是 artifact，比如互聯網。這個意義通常很難翻譯，中文裡面沒有完全對等的概念，只能視乎語境稱為「人造物」或者「非自然產物」，如果「非自然」的屬性並不重要，那也可以簡單地叫做「製品」或者「產物」。

對了，有個同源的詞，artificial，一般翻譯為「人工的」，與「天然的」相對：Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity。

濤吳的解釋已經很好了，補充一段 Bruce Sterling《Shaping Things》裏的文章。他把人造物的歷史分爲 Artifacts、MACHINES、PRODUCTS、GIZMOS、SPIME 幾個階段，它們對應的使用者分別是獵人和農夫、顧客、消費者、終端用戶、和「信息牛仔」（wrangler）。我們目前正處在從 GIZMOS 階段到 SPIME 階段的過渡期。

上述五種東西都可以叫 artifact，但 Sterling 在本書中用的是 artifact 的狹義定義，如下：

So, by capital 『A』「Artifacts」 I mean simple artificial objects made by hand, used by hand, and powered by muscle. Artifacts are created one at time, locally, by rules of thumb and folklore rather than through any abstract understanding of the principles of mechanics. People within an infrastructure of Artifacts are 『Hunters and Farmers.

Bruce Sterling On Artifacts, Machines, Products, Gizmos and Spimes

換言之，狹義的 artifact 是手工製品，使用過程也完全手工。它運作的能量靠人類燃燒肌肉提供，一次只能做一件。生產過程不依賴物流系統。製作靠的是經驗，而不是對經驗的抽象歸納與理解。大致如此。

在本書的語境裏，artifact 就譯作「手工製品」應該沒有大問題。

遇到比較難翻譯的詞，我一般都會查閱陸谷孫老先生主編的《英漢大辭典》，雖然說不是沒有可商榷的地方，總是有相當的參考價值。

Artifact

1、人工製品，製造物（區別於天然物）；（代表特定文化或技術發展階段的）手工藝品

2、（現代工業）成批生產的東西

3、（質量低劣的）藝術品

4、（喻）（時代等的）典型產物（可指人或事物）

5、（生）矯作物

6、（醫）（腦動電流圖中）非源自腦中的電波，偽差，假象，人為現象

法律詞典多把這個詞翻譯成「人造物」，強調其非天然的屬性。

From Oxford Dictionaries :

1 an object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or historical interest:

2 something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure:

在軟體工程裡面：所有軟體開發過程中的有形產物都可以叫artifact

比如開發過程中，源代碼，文檔，編譯後的文件，可執行文件等等。

測試過程中，測試用例，測試文檔，測試結果等等

此概念可大可小，由所參與的軟體工程活動決定其範圍。

在不同的階段，不同的場景可能都不一樣

設計專業，常看到這個詞。

滑鼠之父Douglas Engelbart1962年發表的文章Augmenting the Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework，定義了人類能力可拓展的四個領域：Artifacts，Language，Methodology，Training.

Artifacts—physical objects designed to provide for human comfort, the manipulation of things or materials, and the manipulation of symbols.

From Designing Interactions/Bill Moggridge / MIT Press / 2006

這個直接在維基百科上搜搜一下就有啊。Artifact

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Look up artifact or artefact in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Artifact(s), or artefact(s), may refer to:

Contents [hide]

1 Objects
2 Errors
3 In popular culture
4 See also

[edit] Objects

Artifact (archaeology), an object formed by humans, particularly one of interest to archaeologists
Artifact (software development), one of many kinds of tangible byproducts produced during the development of software
Document artifact, an instantiation of a document

[clarification needed]
Social artifact, a product of individuals or groups (social beings) or of their social behavior
Virtual artifact, an object in a digital environment

[edit] Errors

Artifact (error), undesired alteration in data, introduced by a technique and/or technology
Compression artifact, when the data compression of an image, audio, or video is too complex, resulting in a loss of clarity
Digital artifact, any undesired alteration in data introduced during its digital processing
Iatrogenic artifact, a medical problem created by medical treatment
Visual artifact, anomalies during visual representation of digital graphics and imagery

[edit] In popular culture

Artefact (band), a black metal band from France
Artifact (Magic: The Gathering), a card type in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering
Artifacts (album), a tribal ambient music album by the American artist Steve Roach
Artifacts (film), a 2007 horror film
Artifacts (group), a hip-hop duo from New Jersey
The Artifact (Eureka), a fictional object appearing in the TV series Eureka

[edit] See also

Artifakt
All pages with titles containing "Artefact"
All pages with titles containing "Artifact"
Different spellings and connotations for artefact or artifact
Magic item, in fantasy, any object that has magical powers so powerful that it cannot be duplicated or destroyed by ordinary means。
這個在各行各業的翻譯我想只有請大家幫忙。集思廣益了。