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AnilSeth_2017-_你的大脑如何幻想出你意识到的现实_
Just over a year ago, for the third time in my life, I ceased to exist. 一年多前, 我于人生中第三次不复存在。
ceased:v.停止(cease的过去式及过去分词形式);中止;中断;
I was having a small operation, and my brain was filling with anesthetic . 当时我正接受一个小手术, 而我的脑中充满了麻醉药剂。
anesthetic:adj.麻醉的;感觉缺失的;n.麻醉剂,麻药;
I remember a sense of detachment and falling apart and a coldness . 我还记得当时感觉抽离、崩溃、 和冰冷。
detachment:n.分离,拆开;超然;分遣;分遣队; coldness:n.寒冷;冷淡;
And then I was back, drowsy and disoriented , but definitely there. 随后我恢复意识,昏沉又迷惘, 但我绝对在那里。
drowsy:adj.昏昏欲睡的;沉寂的;催眠的; disoriented:adj.无判断力的; v.使迷失方向; (disorient的过去时和过去分词) definitely:adv.清楚地,当然;明确地,肯定地;
Now, when you wake from a deep sleep, you might feel confused about the time or anxious about oversleeping, but there's always a basic sense of time having passed, of a continuity between then and now. 当你从深睡中醒来, 你可能对时间感到困惑, 或是对睡过头感到焦虑, 但基本上都会意识到时间流逝、 以及彼时与此时之间的连续性。
confused:adj.困惑的; v.使糊涂; (confuse的过去分词和过去式) continuity:n.连续性;一连串;分镜头剧本;
Coming round from anesthesia is very different. 麻醉过后恢复意识则截然不同。
anesthesia:n.麻醉;麻木(等于anaesthesia);
I could have been under for five minutes, five hours, five years or even 50 years. 也许我失去意识五分钟、五小时、 五年、甚至五十年。
I simply wasn't there. 我就是不在那里,
It was total oblivion . 完全处于无意识的状态。
oblivion:n.遗忘;湮没;赦免;
Anesthesia -- it's a modern kind of magic. 麻醉是种现代的魔法。
It turns people into objects, and then, we hope, back again into people. 它把人变成物品, 接着,但愿由物品再变回人。
And in this process is one of the greatest remaining mysteries in science and philosophy . 这个过程中 有着科学与哲学中 未解的最大谜题之一。
process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的; philosophy:n.哲学;哲理;人生观;
How does consciousness happen? 意识是如何发生的?
consciousness:n.意识;知觉;觉悟;感觉;
Somehow , within each of our brains, the combined activity of many billions of neurons, each one a tiny biological machine, is generating a conscious experience. 在我们每个人的脑中 有数十亿个神经元联手动作, 而每个神经元都是个小小生物机器, 它们联合产出意识经验。
Somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地; biological:adj.生物学的;生物的;与生命过程有关的;加酶的;n.[药]生物制品; generating:v.产生;引起;(generate的现在分词)
And not just any conscious experience -- your conscious experience right here and right now. 不仅仅是任何意识经验, 而是你在此时此地的意识经验。
How does this happen? 这是如何发生的？
Answering this question is so important because consciousness for each of us is all there is. 回答这个问题极为重要, 因为意识是我们每个人的一切,
Without it there's no world, there's no self, there's nothing at all. 没有意识,就没有世界, 没有自我, 什么都没有。
And when we suffer, we suffer consciously whether it's through mental illness or pain. 当我们受苦时,是有意识地受苦, 不管原因是心理疾病或是疼痛。
consciously:adv.自觉地;有意识地; mental:adj.精神的;脑力的;疯的;n.精神病患者;
And if we can experience joy and suffering, what about other animals? 且如果我们能体验喜悦及苦难, 其他的动物呢？
Might they be conscious, too? 牠们也有意识吗？
Do they also have a sense of self? 也能感受到自我吗？
And as computers get faster and smarter, maybe there will come a point, maybe not too far away, when my iPhone develops a sense of its own existence. 随着电脑越来越快、越聪明, 也许将来某个时候,也许不用太久, 我的 iPhone 就会发展出 对自身存在的感知。
I actually think the prospects for a conscious AI are pretty remote . 其实我认为,让人工智慧 具有意识的愿景很遥远。
prospects:n.可能性; v.探矿; (prospect的第三人称单数和复数) remote:adj.偏远的;偏僻的;遥远的;久远的;
And I think this because my research is telling me that consciousness has less to do with pure intelligence and more to do with our nature as living and breathing organisms . 因为我的研究告诉我, 意识与单纯智慧不太相关, 而与我们是活着、会呼吸的有机体 这个天性比较有关。
intelligence:n.智力;智慧;才智;(尤指关于敌国的)情报; organisms:n.[生物]生物体(organism的复数);[生物]有机体;
Consciousness and intelligence are very different things. 意识与智慧是非常不同的。
You don't have to be smart to suffer, but you probably do have to be alive. 即使不聪明也会受苦, 但大概得要活着才会受苦。
In the story I'm going to tell you, our conscious experiences of the world around us, and of ourselves within it, are kinds of controlled hallucinations that happen with, through and because of our living bodies. 在我即将要告诉各位的故事中, 我们对于周遭世界、 及我们身在其中的意识经验, 是种被控制的幻觉, 因为我们活着及透过身体发生幻觉。
hallucinations:n.幻视,幻听;幻觉;幻象;(hallucination的复数)
Now, you might have heard that we know nothing about how the brain and body give rise to consciousness. 或许你听过, 我们对于头脑和身体 如何形成意识一无所知。
give rise to:使发生,引起;
Some people even say it's beyond the reach of science altogether. 甚至有些人说 这已超出科学能及的范围。
But in fact, the last 25 years have seen an explosion of scientific work in this area. 但事实上, 过去 25 年中这领域 出现了大量的科学研究。
explosion:n.爆炸;爆发;激增; scientific:adj.科学的,系统的;
If you come to my lab at the University of Sussex, you'll find scientists from all different disciplines and sometimes even philosophers . 如果你来到我位于 萨塞克斯大学的实验室, 会看到来自各学门的科学家, 甚至有时会有哲学家。
disciplines:n.[管理]纪律(discipline的复数); v.训导; philosophers:n.哲学家(philosopher的复数);
All of us together trying to understand how consciousness happens and what happens when it goes wrong. 我们所有人联手 试图了解意识是如何发生的, 以及如果出了错会发生什么事。
And the strategy is very simple. 策略十分简单。
strategy:n.策略;行动计划;部署;战略;
I'd like you to think about consciousness in the way that we've come to think about life. 我想请各位 用我们思考人生的方式来思考意识。
in the way:妨碍;挡道;
At one time , people thought the property of being alive could not be explained by physics and chemistry -- that life had to be more than just mechanism . 人们曾以为 无法用物理和化学 来解释活着的特性, 认为生命必然不只是机制。
At one time:曾经,一度;同时; mechanism:n.机制;原理,途径;进程;机械装置;技巧;
But people no longer think that. 但现在人们不再那么想了。
As biologists got on with the job of explaining the properties of living systems in terms of physics and chemistry -- things like metabolism , reproduction , homeostasis -- 生物学家 继续用物理和化学来解释 生命系统的特性── 像是心陈代谢、繁殖、体内平衡──
biologists:n.生物学家(biologist的复数); metabolism:n.[生理]新陈代谢; reproduction:n.繁殖,生殖;复制;复制品; homeostasis:n.[生理]体内平衡;[自]内稳态;
the basic mystery of what life is started to fade away , and people didn't propose any more magical solutions, like a force of life or an élan vital . 关于生命的基本谜题已渐渐消逝, 人们不再提出魔术般的解答, 像是生命之力或生命冲力。
fade away:逐渐消失; propose:v.建议;提议;求婚;打算; vital:adj.至关重要的;生死攸关的;有活力的;
So as with life, so with consciousness. 所以,意识就跟生命的状况很像。
Once we start explaining its properties in terms of things happening inside brains and bodies, the apparently insoluble mystery of what consciousness is should start to fade away. 一旦我们开始解释意识的特性, 用的是头脑和身体中发生的状况, 「意识到底是什么」 这个明显的无解谜题 应该就会渐渐消逝了。
apparently:adv.显然地;似乎,表面上; insoluble:adj.不能解决的;[化学]不能溶解的;难以解释的;
At least that's the plan. 至少计画是这样的。
So let's get started. 所以,我们开始吧。
What are the properties of consciousness? 意识的特性是什么？
What should a science of consciousness try to explain? 意识科学应该试图解释什么？
Well, for today I'd just like to think of consciousness in two different ways. 今天我想要用两种方式来思考意识,
There are experiences of the world around us, full of sights, sounds and smells, there's multisensory, panoramic , 3D, fully immersive inner movie. 有关我们周遭世界的经验, 充满了景象、声音、味道, 像是多种感官、全景式、
panoramic:adj.[摄]全景的; immersive:n.沉浸式;沉浸感;增加沉浸感; inner:n.内部;射中接近靶心部分的一发;adj.里面的;向内的;内部的;接近中心的;
And then there's conscious self. 另外还有自我意识。
The specific experience of being you or being me. 身为你或是身为我的特定经验。
specific:adj.特殊的,特定的;明确的;详细的;[药]具有特效的;n.特性;细节;特效药;
The lead character in this inner movie, and probably the aspect of consciousness we all cling to most tightly . 也就是这部内在电影的主角, 可能也是各个意识面向中 我们最紧抓不放的一面。
aspect:n.方面;层面;外观;方位; cling:v.依附;抓紧;紧抱;粘住;依恋; tightly:adv.紧紧地;坚固地;
Let's start with experiences of the world around us, and with the important idea of the brain as a prediction engine. 先从对我们周遭世界的经验开始, 先来谈谈一个重要想法: 头脑是预测引擎。
prediction:n.预报;预言;
Imagine being a brain. 想像你是个头脑。
You're locked inside a bony skull , trying to figure what's out there in the world. 你被关在头骨中, 试图知道外面世界有什么。
bony:adj.骨的;多骨的;瘦骨嶙峋的;似骨的; skull:n.头盖骨,脑壳;
There's no lights inside the skull. There's no sound either. 头骨内没有光,也没有声音。
All you've got to go on is streams of electrical impulses which are only indirectly related to things in the world, whatever they may be. 你只有电脉冲, 它们和世界中的事物只间接相关, 不论是什么。
electrical:adj.有关电的;电气科学的; impulses:n.[心理]冲动; v.推动(impulse的第三人称单数); indirectly:adv.间接地;不诚实;迂回地;
So perception -- figuring out what's there -- has to be a process of informed guesswork in which the brain combines these sensory signals with its prior expectations or beliefs about the way the world is to form its best guess of what caused those signals. 所以,感知──理解外面有什么── 一定是种根据资讯的猜测过程, 过程中头脑结合这些感官讯号, 连同先前对于世界的期待或信念, 来猜测最佳的讯号成因。
perception:n.感知;知觉;看法;洞察力; informed:adj.见多识广的; v.通知; (inform的过去分词和过去式) guesswork:n.猜测;臆测;凭猜测所作之工作; sensory:adj.感觉的;知觉的;传递感觉的; prior:adj.先前的; n.(小隐修院)院长; v.居先; expectations:n.预料;预期;期待;希望;指望;(expectation的复数)
The brain doesn't hear sound or see light. 头脑听不见声音也看不见光线。
What we perceive is its best guess of what's out there in the world. 我们所感知到的
perceive:v.注意到;意识到;将…理解为;认为;
Let me give you a couple of examples of all this. 让我为各位举几个例子。
You might have seen this illusion before, but I'd like you to think about it in a new way. 你们以前可能看过这个幻觉, 但我想请你们以新的方式思考。
illusion:n.幻觉,错觉;错误的观念或信仰;
If you look at those two patches , A and B, they should look to you to be very different shades of gray, right? 看着这两块方格,A 与 B, 看起来灰色的深浅应该不同,对吗？
patches:n.斑点;小块;补丁;眼罩;v.打补丁;缝补;修补;(patch的第三人称单数和复数) shades:n.阴凉处; v.给…遮挡(光线); (shade的第三人称单数和复数)
But they are in fact exactly the same shade. 但事实上,它们的灰阶相同。
And I can illustrate this. 我可以用图解。
illustrate:v.解释;加插图于;给(书等)做图表;表明…真实;
If I put up a second version of the image here and join the two patches with a gray-colored bar, you can see there's no difference. 若我放上这张图的第二个版本, 用灰色直条连结两块方格, 就能看出没有差别。
It's exactly the same shade of gray. 它们是同样的灰色。
And if you still don't believe me, 如果你们仍不相信我,
I'll bring the bar across and join them up. 我把直条移过来连接它们。
It's a single colored block of gray, there's no difference at all. 是单一的灰色,完全没有差别。
This isn't any kind of magic trick. 这不是魔术把戏。
It's the same shade of gray, but take it away again, and it looks different. 是同样深浅的灰色, 但拿走直条,看起来又不同了。
So what's happening here is that the brain is using its prior expectations built deeply into the circuits of the visual cortex that a cast shadow dims the appearance of a surface, so that we see B as lighter than it really is. 这里发生的是头脑用它先前 深植在视觉中枢的强烈信念, 认为阴影会使表面亮度黯淡下来, 所以我们以为 B 的灰色 比实际上的浅。
circuits:n.环行路线;电路;线路;巡回赛;v.巡回;周游;(circuit的第三人称单数和复数) visual:adj.视觉的,视力的;栩栩如生的; cortex:n.[解剖]皮质;树皮;果皮; dims:v.暗下来; adj.模糊不清的; n.傻子; (dim的第三人称单数) appearance:n.外貌;外观;外表;
Here's one more example, which shows just how quickly the brain can use new predictions to change what we consciously experience. 还有一个例子 能展示头脑多么快速地用新的预测 来改变我们的意识经验。
predictions:n.预测,预言(prediction复数形式);
Have a listen to this. 听听这个。
(Distorted voice) （失真的声音）
Sounded strange, right? 听起来很怪,对吧？
Have a listen again and see if you can get anything. 再听一次,看你们能否听出什么。
(Distorted voice) （失真的声音）
Still strange. 仍然很怪。
Now listen to this. 现在听听这个。
(Recording) Anil Seth: I think Brexit is a really terrible idea. （录音）亚尼赛斯:我认为 英国脱欧是个很糟的点子。
Anil:n.靛蓝;木蓝属植物;[有化]缩苯胺; Brexit:英国退出欧盟;
(Laughter) （笑声）
Which I do. 我的确这样认为。
So you heard some words there, right? 你们听见了一些字吧？
Now listen to the first sound again. I'm just going to replay it. 现在重听第一段声音。重播。
(Distorted voice) （失真的声音）
Yeah? So you can now hear words there. 如何？现在你们可以听出一些字了。
Once more for luck. 再试一次运气。
(Distorted voice) （失真的声音）
OK, so what's going on here? 好,发生了什么事？
The remarkable thing is the sensory information coming into the brain hasn't changed at all. 不可思议的 是进入头脑的感官资讯一点也没变,
remarkable:adj.卓越的;非凡的;值得注意的;
All that's changed is your brain's best guess of the causes of that sensory information. 改变的只是你的头脑 对于感受到的资讯所做出的最佳推测,
And that changes what you consciously hear. 也就改变了你意识下听到了什么。
All this puts the brain basis of perception in a bit of a different light. 这一切让头脑的感知基础 变得有点不同。
Instead of perception depending largely on signals coming into the brain from the outside world, it depends as much, if not more, on perceptual predictions flowing in the opposite direction. 感知并非大部分依赖于 外在世界进入头脑的讯号, 而是同等、或是更多依赖于 方向完全相反的感知预测。
largely:adv.主要地;大部分;大量地; perceptual:adj.知觉的;感知的;有知觉的;
We don't just passively perceive the world, we actively generate it. 我们不只被动地感知这个世界, 也主动地使这个世界成像。
passively:adv.被动地;顺从地; generate:v.产生;引起;
The world we experience comes as much, if not more, from the inside out as from the outside in. 我们所经验的世界 或者更多来自由内而外。 或者更多来自由内而外。
Let me give you one more example of perception as this active, constructive process. 让我再举个例子 说明感知是个主动建构的过程。
constructive:adj.建设性的;推定的;构造上的;有助益的;
Here we've combined immersive virtual reality with image processing to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions on experience. 在这里我们结合身历其境的 虚拟实境和影像处理, 来模拟过度强大的感知预测 对经验会有什么影响。
virtual reality:n.(计算机创造的)虚拟现实; processing:v.加工;处理;审核;数据处理;v.列队行进;缓缓前进;(process的现在分词) simulate:vt.模仿;假装;冒充;adj.模仿的;假装的; overly:adv.过度地;极度地;
In this panoramic video, we've transformed the world -- which is in this case Sussex campus -- into a psychedelic playground. 在这支全景影片中, 我们转化这个世界── 这里是萨塞克斯校园── 为幻觉游乐场。
transformed:v.使改变形态;使改变外观(或性质);(transform的过去分词和过去式) campus:n.(大学)校园;大学,大学生活;校园内的草地; psychedelic:adj.引起幻觉的;n.迷幻剂;
We've processed the footage using an algorithm based on Google's Deep Dream to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions. 影片被用 Google 的 Deep Dream 演算法处理过, 来模拟过度强大的感知预测。
processed:v.加工,处理;审核;列队行进;(process的过去式和过去分词) footage:n.英尺长度;连续镜头;以尺计算长度;
In this case, to see dogs. 这例子是看狗。
And you can see this is a very strange thing. 你们可以看见这有多奇怪。
When perceptual predictions are too strong, as they are here, the result looks very much like the kinds of hallucinations people might report in altered states, or perhaps even in psychosis . 当感知预测太强大时, 就像这里这样, 结果看起来很像是幻觉, 像是人们在意识状态改变 或甚至精神错乱时看到的幻觉。
altered:adj.改变了的:v.(使)改变,更改,改动:(alter的过去分词和过去式) psychosis:n.精神病;精神错乱;
Now, think about this for a minute . 花点时间思考这一点。
for a minute:一会儿;
If hallucination is a kind of uncontrolled perception, then perception right here and right now is also a kind of hallucination, but a controlled hallucination 如果幻觉是种无法控制的感知, 那么此时此地的感知也是某种幻觉, 只是它是被控制的幻觉,
uncontrolled:adj.不受控制的;
in which the brain's predictions are being reigned in by sensory information from the world. 头脑的预测 被感受自外在世界的资讯所统御。
reigned:v.统治;当政;为王;成为最佳;盛行;(reign的过去分词和过去式)
In fact, we're all hallucinating all the time, including right now. 事实上,我们随时都在产生幻觉, 包括现在。
hallucinating:v.(由于生病、吸毒)幻听,幻视,产生幻觉;(hallucinate的现在分词)
It's just that when we agree about our hallucinations, we call that reality. 只是当我们对幻觉的看法一致时 就称之为现实。
(Laughter) （笑声）
Now I'm going to tell you that your experience of being a self, the specific experience of being you, is also a controlled hallucination generated by the brain. 现在我要告诉各位, 你们身为自我的经验, 身为「你」的特定经验, 也是头脑所产生的一种控制幻觉。
generated:v.产生;引起;(generate的过去式和过去分词)
This seems a very strange idea, right? 这似乎是个很奇怪的想法,是吧？
Yes, visual illusions might deceive my eyes, but how could I be deceived about what it means to be me? 的确,视觉假象 或许欺骗了我们的眼睛, 但我怎可能会被自我的意义骗了呢？
illusions:n.幻想;错觉;幻觉;幻影(illusion的复数) deceived:v.蒙骗;欺骗(自己);使人误信;误导;(deceive的过去分词和过去式)
For most of us, the experience of being a person is so familiar , so unified and so continuous that it's difficult not to take it for granted . 对大多数人而言, 身为一个人的经验 是很熟悉、很一致、很连续的, 所以很难不把它视为理所当然。
familiar:adj.熟悉的;常见的;亲近的;n.常客;密友; unified:adj.统一的;一致标准的;v.统一;使一致(unify的过去分词); continuous:adj.连续的,持续的;继续的;连绵不断的; take it for granted:认为理所当然;想当然;
But we shouldn't take it for granted. 但我们不该视它为理所当然。
There are in fact many different ways we experience being a self. 事实上,有许多方式可以 让我们体验身为自己。
There's the experience of having a body and of being a body. 一种是拥有身体和是个身体的体验;
There are experiences of perceiving the world from a first person point of view . 还有从第一人称的角度 来感知世界的体验;
perceiving:v.注意到;意识到;将…理解为;认为;(perceive的现在分词) point of view:观点;见地;立场;
There are experiences of intending to do things and of being the cause of things that happen in the world. 有打定主意要做某事, 要成为世上事物肇因的体验;
intending:adj.预期的;未来的;v.打算;计划;想要(intend的现在分词)
And there are experiences of being a continuous and distinctive person over time, built from a rich set of memories and social interactions . 有身为连续且独特个体的体验, 随着时间建立 丰富的记忆与社会互动。
distinctive:adj.独特的;特别的;有特色的; interactions:n.[计]交互,相互作用;相互交流;干扰;(interaction复数)
Many experiments show, and psychiatrists and neurologists know very well, that these different ways in which we experience being a self can all come apart. 许多经验显示, 且精神病学家与 神经病学家都很清楚, 我们体验身为自己的各种不同方式 都有可能会崩坏。
psychiatrists:n.精神病学家;精神科医生;(psychiatrist的复数) neurologists:n.神经病学家;神经科专门医师;
What this means is the basic background experience of being a unified self is a rather fragile construction of the brain. 这意味着,「统合的自我」 这种基本背景经验, 是由头脑建立起的脆弱产物。
fragile:adj.脆的;易碎的; construction:n.建设;建筑物;解释;造句;
Another experience, which just like all others, requires explanation. 另一个经验, 就和所有其他经验一样, 需要解释。
So let's return to the bodily self. 让我们先回到身体的自我。
bodily:adv.整体地;亲自地;以肉体形式;adj.身体的;肉体的;
How does the brain generate the experience of being a body and of having a body? 头脑如何产生是个身体以及拥有身体的经验？
Well, just the same principles apply . 适用同样的原则。
principles:n.原则;主义;本质;政策;(principle的复数) apply:v.申请;涂,敷;应用;适用;请求;
The brain makes its best guess about what is and what is not part of its body. 头脑如何做出最佳推测, 哪些是身体的一部份、而哪些不是。
And there's a beautiful experiment in neuroscience to illustrate this. 神经科学中有个很棒的实验 可以用来说明这一点。
neuroscience:n.神经系统科学(指神经病学,神经化学等);
And unlike most neuroscience experiments, this is one you can do at home. 和大部份神经科学实验不同, 这个实验你可以自己在家做。
All you need is one of these. 你只需要这个,
(Laughter) （笑声）
And a couple of paintbrushes . 和几支画笔。
paintbrushes:n.画笔(paintbrush的复数);
In the rubber hand illusion, a person's real hand is hidden from view, and that fake rubber hand is placed in front of them. 在橡胶手幻觉里, 这人看不见被遮住的一只真手, 橡胶假手被置于面前,
rubber:n.橡胶;橡皮;v.涂橡胶于…; fake:n.假货;骗子;假动作;v.捏造;假装…的样子;adj.伪造的;
Then both hands are simultaneously stroked with a paintbrush while the person stares at the fake hand. 接下来两只手同时被画笔刷摩挲, 当时这人凝视着假手。
simultaneously:adv.同时地; stroked:n.中风; vt.抚摸; vi.击球; stares:vi.凝视,盯着看;显眼;vt.凝视,盯着看;n.凝视;注视;
Now, for most people, after a while, this leads to the very uncanny sensation that the fake hand is in fact part of their body. 大多数人在短时间后 会产生一种很怪异的感受, 会觉得假手其实 是他们身体的一部份。
uncanny:adj.神秘的;离奇的;可怕的; sensation:n.感觉;轰动;感动;
And the idea is that the congruence between seeing touch and feeling touch on an object that looks like hand and is roughly where a hand should be, is enough evidence for the brain to make its best guess that the fake hand is in fact part of the body. 原理是,你同时看见与感觉 那个看起来像手、又位于 手该摆放位置的东西被触摸, 这种一致性足以 让头脑做出最佳猜测, 认为假手其实是身体的一部份。
congruence:n.一致;适合;[数]全等; roughly:adv.粗糙地;概略地; evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明;
(Laughter) （笑声）
So you can measure all kinds of clever things. 你可以测量各种聪明的东西。
You can measure skin conductance and startle responses , but there's no need. 你可以测量肤电传导、惊吓反应, 但没必要。
conductance:n.电导(率);(热)传导性; startle:v.使惊吓;使吓一跳;n.惊愕;惊恐;吃惊; responses:n.回答,答复;反应;响应;(response的复数)
It's clear the guy in blue has assimilated the fake hand. 很清楚可见,蓝衣男子 已经把假手给同化了。
assimilated:吸收;
This means that even experiences of what our body is is a kind of best guessing -- a kind of controlled hallucination by the brain. 这意味着,即使是对于 我们自身身体的经验, 也仅是一种最佳猜测, 一种头脑控制的幻觉。
There's one more thing. 还有一件事。
We don't just experience our bodies as objects in the world from the outside, we also experience them from within. 我们不只从外在体验 身体是世界里的一样物品, 也从内在去体验它。
We all experience the sense of being a body from the inside. 我们都曾由内体验身体的感觉。
And sensory signals coming from the inside of the body are continually telling the brain about the state of the internal organs , how the heart is doing, what the blood pressure is like, lots of things. 来自身体内部的感官讯号 持续告诉头脑内部器官的状态如何、 心脏目前如何、血压是怎样的、 还有很多别的。
continually:adv.不断地;频繁地; internal:n.内脏;本质;adj.内部的;里面的;体内的;(机构)内部的; organs:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴(organ的复数); blood pressure:n.[医]血压;
This kind of perception, which we call interoception , is rather overlooked . 这种感知,我们称为「内感受」, 往往被忽视,
interoception:n.内感受; overlooked:n.被忽视;v.忽视(overlook的过去式和过去分词形式);忽略;俯瞰;
But it's critically important because perception and regulation of the internal state of the body -- well, that's what keeps us alive. 但非常重要, 因为身体内部状态的感知和调节 是我们能活着的原因。
critically:adv.精密地;危急地;批评性地;用钻研眼光地; regulation:n.规则;法规;控制;规章制度;adj.规定的;必须穿戴的;必须使用的;
Here's another version of the rubber hand illusion. 这是橡胶手错觉的另一个版本。
This is from our lab at Sussex. 在我们萨塞克斯的实验室。
And here, people see a virtual reality version of their hand, which flashes red and back either in time or out of time with their heartbeat . 在这里,人们看见 自己虚拟实境版本的手, 闪着红色、黑色, 与心跳同拍或不同拍。
flashes:n.闪光灯;光芒;披峰;v.闪光;反射;(flash的第三人称单数和复数) heartbeat:n.心跳;情感;
And when it's flashing in time with their heartbeat, people have a stronger sense that it's in fact part of their body. 当闪现与心跳同拍时, 人们误认虚拟手 是身体一部份的感觉更强烈。
flashing:n.防雨板,盖片; v.闪光; (flash的现在分词)
So experiences of having a body are deeply grounded in perceiving our bodies from within. 所以,拥有身体的体验 深植在我们身体内在的感知。
There's one last thing I want to draw your attention to, which is that experiences of the body from the inside are very different from experiences of the world around us. 我要各位注意的最后一件事: 从内在体验身体 和从周遭世界体验大不相同。
When I look around me, the world seems full of objects -- tables, chairs, rubber hands, people, you lot -- even my own body in the world, 当我看周遭,世界似乎满是物品, 有桌子、椅子、橡胶手、 人们、你们所有人; 即使是我的身体,
I can perceive it as an object from the outside. 我也能从外在世界感受到它。
But my experiences of the body from within, they're not like that at all. 但我从内在对于身体的经验 完全不是那样的。
I don't perceive my kidneys here, my liver here, my spleen ... 我感受不到肾脏在这里、 肝在这里、 脾脏……
kidneys:n.[解剖]肾脏;转炉的附着物;肾形矿脉(kidney的复数); liver:n.肝;(动物供食用的)肝; spleen:n.脾脏;坏脾气;怒气;
I don't know where my spleen is, but it's somewhere. 我不知道我的脾脏在哪, 但在某处。
I don't perceive my insides as objects. 我并不把内在器官感知为物品。
In fact, I don't experience them much at all unless they go wrong. 事实上,我几乎感受不到它们, 除非它们出了问题。
And this is important, I think. 我认为这点很重要。
Perception of the internal state of the body isn't about figuring out what's there, it's about control and regulation -- keeping the physiological variables within the tight bounds that are compatible with survival . 对身体内在状态的感知 并不在于知道体内有什么, 而在于控制与调节, 让内在生理变数 维持在与生存相符合的 严密界限范围内。
physiological:adj.生理学的,生理的; variables:n.[数]变量; compatible:adj.兼容的;能共处的;可并立的; survival:n.幸存,残存;幸存者,残存物;
When the brain uses predictions to figure out what's there, we perceive objects as the causes of sensations . 当头脑用预测来揣摩那儿有什么时, 我们视物品的感知为知觉的成因。
sensations:n.感觉;轰动;感动;
When the brain uses predictions to control and regulate things, we experience how well or how badly that control is going. 当头脑用预测来控制和调节事物时, 我们则是经验到控制得多好或多糟。
regulate:v.调节;控制;
So our most basic experiences of being a self, of being an embodied organism, are deeply grounded in the biological mechanisms that keep us alive. 因此我们身为自己、 或身为有形有机体的最基本经验, 深植于让我们存活的生物机制上。
embodied:v.呈现(embody的过去式及过去分词形式);具体表达; mechanisms:n.机制;[机]机构(mechanism的复数);机械;[机]机构学;
And when we follow this idea all the way through, we can start to see that all of our conscious experiences, since they all depend on the same mechanisms of predictive perception, all stem from this basic drive to stay alive. 当我们顺着这个想法一路想下去, 就会开始了解我们所有的意识经验, 因为都仰赖着同样的预测感知机制, 全都源于同样要活下去的本能需求。
predictive:adj.预言性的;成为前兆的; stem:n.花草的茎或梗;高脚酒杯的脚;烟斗柄;词干;v.阻止;封堵;遏止;
We experience the world and ourselves with, through and because of our living bodies. 我们体验外在世界和我们自身, 靠的是我们活着的身体。
Let me bring things together step-by-step . 让我一步步总汇。
step-by-step:adj.按部就班的;
What we consciously see depends on the brain's best guess of what's out there. 我们有意识看见到的 是头脑对于那里有什么的最佳猜测。
Our experienced world comes from the inside out, not just the outside in. 我们也从内而外体验世界, 不仅从外而内。
The rubber hand illusion shows that this applies to our experiences of what is and what is not our body. 橡胶手的假象显示出这个理论 可用来判断什么是、 以及什么不是我们的身体。
applies:v.适用;申请;运用;专心;(apply的第三人称单数)
And these self-related predictions depend critically on sensory signals coming from deep inside the body. 这些与自我相关的预测 极为仰赖来自身体 内在深处的感官讯号。
And finally , experiences of being an embodied self are more about control and regulation than figuring out what's there. 最后, 身为有形体的自我体验, 和控制调节比较有关, 而非去揣测那里有什么。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
So our experiences of the world around us and ourselves within it -- well, they're kinds of controlled hallucinations that have been shaped over millions of years of evolution to keep us alive in worlds full of danger and opportunity. 所以我们对周遭世界、 以及我们身于其中的经验, 都是某种控制的幻觉, 是经过数百万年的演化所形成的, 为了让我们存活在这 充满危险与机会的世界上。
evolution:n.演变;进化;发展;渐进;
We predict ourselves into existence. 我们预测,故我们存在。
Now, I leave you with three implications of all this. 我要留给大家三项意涵。
implications:n.蕴涵式;暗指,暗示;含蓄,含意;卷入(implication的复数);
First, just as we can misperceive the world, we can misperceive ourselves when the mechanisms of prediction go wrong. 第一,如同我们可能错误感知世界, 我们也可能错误感知自我, 如果预测机制出错的话。
misperceive:vt.误解;看错;
Understanding this opens many new opportunities in psychiatry and neurology , because we can finally get at the mechanisms rather than just treating the symptoms in conditions like depression and schizophrenia . 了解这一点 开启了许多精神病学 和神经学的新契机, 因为我们终于能够处理机制, 而不只是治疗症状, 处理忧郁、精神分裂 这类疾病的机制。
psychiatry:n.精神病学;精神病治疗法; neurology:n.神经病学;神经学; treating:v.以…态度对待;把…看作;处理;讨论;(treat的现在分词) symptoms:n.症状;征候;征兆;(symptom的复数) depression:n.沮丧;洼地;不景气;忧愁; schizophrenia:n.[内科]精神分裂症;
Second: what it means to be me cannot be reduced to or uploaded to a software program running on a robot, however smart or sophisticated . 第二: 「身为我」的意义无法被缩减 或上传成为运作机器人的软体程式, 不论它多聪明或多复杂。
uploaded:vt.上传; sophisticated:adj.复杂的;老练的;见多识广的;水平高的;
We are biological, flesh-and-blood animals whose conscious experiences are shaped at all levels by the biological mechanisms that keep us alive. 我们是活生生、有血有肉的动物, 我们的意识经验 透由让我们活着的 层层生物机制而成形。
flesh-and-blood:adj.血肉般的;
Just making computers smarter is not going to make them sentient . 单单让电脑变得更聪明 无法使它们成为有情。
sentient:adj.有感情的;有感觉力的;意识到的;n.有知觉的人;
Finally, our own individual inner universe, our way of being conscious, is just one possible way of being conscious. 最后, 我们自身个别的内在宇宙, 我们具有意识的方式, 只是众多具有意识的可能方式之一。
individual:n.个人;有个性的人;adj.单独的;个别的;
And even human consciousness generally -- it's just a tiny region in a vast space of possible consciousnesses . 甚至人类意识一般来说 只占广大的可能意识空间中 非常小的一块。
generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地; region:n.地区;范围;部位; consciousnesses:n.意识;知觉;觉悟;感觉;
Our individual self and worlds are unique to each of us, but they're all grounded in biological mechanisms shared with many other living creatures . 我们个别的自我和世界 是我们各自独有的, 但它们都根源于 许多其他生物也具有的生物机制。
unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物; creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
Now, these are fundamental changes in how we understand ourselves, but I think they should be celebrated, because as so often in science, from Copernicus -- we're not at the center of the universe -- to Darwin -- we're related to all other creatures -- to the present day . 这些是我们如何 了解自身的根本改变。 但我认为它们应该要被赞颂, 但我认为它们应该要被赞颂, 因为在科学上, 我们并非宇宙的中心, 达尔文说过 我们与所有其他生物都相关联, 一直到现今。
fundamental:n.基础; adj.十分重大的; Copernicus:n.哥白尼(波兰天文学家); present day:adj.现代的;当今的;现在的;现时的;
With a greater sense of understanding comes a greater sense of wonder, and a greater realization that we are part of and not apart from the rest of nature. 有了更多的了解, 就会有更多的好奇心, 以及更多的领悟, 领悟到我们是自然的一部份, 并非排除在自然之外。
realization:n.实现;领悟;
And ... 并且,
when the end of consciousness comes, there's nothing to be afraid of. 当意识的终点到来时, 就什么都不用害怕了。
Nothing at all. 什么都不用怕。
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）