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KenJennings_2013X-_沃森，“危险”游戏和我_过气的“百事通”_
In two weeks time, that's the ninth anniversary of the day I first stepped out onto that hallowed Jeopardy set. 再过两个星期,就是我第一次上电视 玩‘危险’ 游戏的九周年纪念。
hallowed:adj.神圣的,神圣化的; Jeopardy:n.危险;(被告处于被判罪或受处罚的)危险境地;
I mean, nine years is a long time. 九年是个很漫长的时间。
And given Jeopardy's average demographics , 鉴于‘危险’观众的平均年龄,
demographics:n.人口统计资料;
I think what that means is most of the people who saw me on that show are now dead. 我想这意味着 大多数在那个节目上看到我的人现在已经死了。
(Laughter) （笑声）
But not all, a few are still alive. 但并不是所有的观众都过世了,还有人健在。
Occasionally I still get recognized at the mall or whatever. 偶尔仍然有人 在商场或其它地方认出我。
Occasionally:adv.偶尔;有时候;偶然; recognized:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;(recognize的过去分词和过去式)
And when I do, it's as a bit of a know-it-all . 他们仍记得我是‘万事通’。
know-it-all:adj.自称无所不知的;n.假装博学多闻的人(等于knowall);
I think that ship has sailed, it's too late for me. 我认为木已成舟,为时已晚。
For better or for worse, that's what I'm going to be known as, as the guy who knew a lot of weird stuff . 不管我喜欢不喜欢,我就这么被定型了 永远是那个知道很多稀奇古怪事情的家伙。
weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神; stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
And I can't complain about this. 我对此并无怨言。
complain:v.投诉;发牢骚;诉说;
I feel like that was always sort of my destiny , although I had for many years been pretty deeply in the trivia closet . 我觉得那好似始终都是我的命运 尽管多年来我一直沉迷在掌握百科知识。
destiny:n.命运,定数,天命; trivia:n.琐事; closet:n.贮藏室;壁橱adj.隐藏(身份等)的;v.把…关在房间里;
If nothing else, you realize very quickly as a teenager, it is not a hit with girls to know Captain Kirk's middle name . 别的不说,作为一名少年,你很快就意识到 知道科克船长的中名,并不能吸引女孩们的眼球。
middle name:n.中名(名和姓之间的名字);
(Laughter) （笑声）
And as a result , I was sort of the deeply closeted kind of know-it-all for many years. 也因此,有很多年,我一直是活在自己世界里的‘万事通’。
as a result:结果; closeted:adj.私下密谈的;v.私下密谈(closet的过去式和过去分词);
But if you go further back, if you look at it, it's all there. 但是,如果倒转时光,你就会发现,其实线索都在
I was the kind of kid who was always bugging Mom and Dad with whatever great fact I had just read about -- 我小时候就总是缠着妈妈爸爸 打听任何我那时刚刚读到任何信息— —
bugging:v.装窃听器;窃听;使恼怒;(bug的现在分词)
Haley's comet or giant squids or the size of the world's biggest pumpkin pie or whatever it was. 哈雷彗星或巨型鱿鱼 或是世界上最大的南瓜饼,不管什么事儿。
comet:n.[天]彗星; giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 squids:n.鱿鱼(squid的复数); pumpkin:n.南瓜;(口)夜郎自大的蠢货;(俚)重要人物;
I now have a 10-year-old of my own who's exactly the same. 我现在有个 10 多岁的孩子, 和我像极了。
And I know how deeply annoying it is, so karma does work. 现在我知道被人无休止地追问是多么讨厌的事儿,真是报应。
annoying:adj.烦人的;使生气的;使烦恼的;v.使生气;打扰;骚扰;(annoy的现在分词) karma:n.因果报应,因缘;
(Laughter) （笑声）
And I loved game shows, fascinated with game shows. 我喜欢游戏节目,迷上了游戏节目。
I remember crying on my first day of kindergarten back in 1979 because it had just hit me, as badly as I wanted to go to school, that I was also going to miss Hollywood Squares and Family Feud . 我记得,在 1979 年, 上幼儿园的第一天,我大哭 因为我意识到,虽然我喜欢上学, 但也会错过‘好莱坞广场’和‘家庭宿怨’两个游戏节目。
kindergarten:n.幼儿园; Feud:n.不和;争执;封地;v.长期不和;长期争斗;
I was going to miss my game shows. 我会错过我的游戏节目。
And later, in the mid-'80s, when Jeopardy came back on the air , 后来,在八十年代中期, ‘危险游戏’又重新开播,
on the air:在广播,广播中;
I remember running home from school every day to watch the show. 我记得每天从学校跑回家观看。
It was my favorite show, even before it paid for my house. 早在我用这个节目支付的报酬购买房子之前,它就是我最喜欢的电视游戏节目。
And we lived overseas , we lived in South Korea where my dad was working, where there was only one English language TV channel. 再说,当时,我们在海外居住,在韩国,我爸爸工作的地方, 那里只有一个英语电视频道。
overseas:adv.在海外,海外;adj.海外的,国外的;
There was Armed Forces TV, and if you didn't speak Korean , that's what you were watching. 电视上有武装部队节目 如果你不会说韩语,那就是唯一看得懂的电视台。
Armed Forces:n.武装力量; Korean:n.朝鲜族;韩国人;朝鲜话;adj.朝鲜的;朝鲜族的;朝鲜话的;
So me and all my friends would run home every day and watch Jeopardy. 所以,我和我所有的朋友, 每天跑回家看‘危险’游戏。
I was always that kind of obsessed trivia kid. 我总是那种痴迷百科知识的孩子。
obsessed:v.使痴迷;使迷恋;使着迷;(obsess的过去式和过去分词)
I remember being able to play Trivial Pursuit against my parents back in the '80s and holding my own, back when that was a fad . 我记得,在八十年代,和父母玩儿‘琐细的追求’, 当时是很时髦的, 我水平不错,可以抗衡我父母。
Trivial:adj.不重要的,琐碎的;琐细的; Pursuit:n.追求;追赶;追捕;跟踪; fad:n.时尚;一时的爱好;一时流行的狂热;
There's a weird sense of mastery you get when you know some bit of boomer trivia that Mom and Dad don't know. 当你知道一些妈妈和爸爸不知道的冷僻事儿, 就会有种奇妙的优越感。
mastery:n.掌握;精通;优势;征服;统治权; boomer:n.生育高峰中出生的人;
You know some Beatles factoid that Dad didn't know. 当你知道一些爸爸都不知道的关于披头士的传闻,
Beatles:n.披头士合唱(摇滚乐队); factoid:n.仿真陈述(仅因出现在出版物上而被信以为真);adj.虚构的;似是而非的;
And you think, ah hah, knowledge really is power -- the right fact deployed at exactly the right place. 你会想,啊哈,知识就是力量 知识的力量就在于恰到好处地运用正确的知识。
deployed:v.部署(deploy的过去式);展开;
I never had a guidance counselor who thought this was a legitimate career path, that thought you could major in trivia or be a professional ex-game show contestant . 从来没有那个指导顾问告诉我 主修百科知识 或者是前专业游戏节目参赛者 可以当作正当的职业。
counselor:n.顾问;法律顾问;参事(等于counsellor); legitimate:adj.合法的;正当的;合理的;正统的;v.使合法;认为正当(等于legitimize); career:n.职业;事业;生涯;经历; professional:adj.专业的;职业的;职业性的;n.专业人员;职业运动员; contestant:n.竞争者;争辩者;
And so I sold out way too young. 我太年青,受人左右。
I didn't try to figure out what one does with that. 没有试图搞清楚如何发挥特长,
I studied computers because I heard that was the thing, and I became a computer programmer -- not an especially good one, not an especially happy one at the time when I was first on Jeopardy in 2004. 而是随大流,学了计算机, 当了计算机程序员,表现尚可, 虽然并不是特别突出。 2004年,第一次上电视游戏节目‘危险’那时的我对生活也不满意
especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分;
But that's what I was doing. 可是当时那就是我的职业
And it made it doubly ironic -- my computer background -- a few years later, I think 2009 or so, when I got another phone call from Jeopardy saying, "It's early days yet, but IBM tells us they want to build a supercomputer to beat you at Jeopardy. 我的电脑背景 是个双重讽刺。 几年后,我记得大概是2009年, ‘危险‘游戏节目组 给我打电话说, 现在为时尚早,但 IBM 告诉我们, 他们想要建造一台超级计算机,与你竞赛‘危险’游戏。
doubly:adv.双重地;加倍地;双摺地; ironic:adj.讽刺的;反话的; early days:初期;为时尚早;前期; supercomputer:n.[计]巨型计算机,超级计算机;
Are you up for this?" 你接受吗?
This was the first I'd heard of it. 这是我第一次听说人机竞赛。
And of course I said yes, for several reasons. 当然,我答应了。原因有几个,
One, because playing Jeopardy is a great time. 第一,因为我享受玩‘危险’。
It's fun. It's the most fun you can have with your pants on. 它充满乐趣。除了做爱,玩‘危险’是最令人开心的。
(Laughter) （笑声）
And I would do it for nothing. 我可以分文不收。
I don't think they know that luckily, but I would go back and play for Arby's coupons . 幸好,我想他们不知道, 可是麦当劳优惠券就足以让我去了。
coupons:n.优惠券;息票;[化工]取样片(coupon的复数);
I just love Jeopardy, and I always have. 我就是爱玩‘危险’,我一直都是这样。
And second of all, because I'm a nerdy guy and this seemed like the future. 还有因为我是个书呆子,而这看似是我的未来。
nerdy:adj.书呆子式的;n.令人厌烦的人;
People playing computers on game shows was the kind of thing I always imagined would happen in the future, and now I could be on the stage with it. 我一直认为 人机在电视游戏节目上对抗 是未来的趋势 而且现在,我真的可以和计算机玩游戏了, 在电视上,
on the stage:在舞台上;现阶段;当演员;
I was not going to say no. 我怎么能说不呢。
The third reason I said yes is because I was pretty confident that I was going to win. 第三个原因, 是因为,我很有信心自己会赢。
confident:adj.自信的;确信的;
I had taken some artificial intelligence classes. 我上过一些人工智能课。
artificial intelligence:n.人工智能;
I knew there were no computers that could do what you need to do to win on Jeopardy.
People don't realize how tough it is to write that kind of program that can read a Jeopardy clue in a natural language like English and understand all the double meanings, the puns , the red herrings , unpack the meaning of the clue. ‘危险’中的线索是用人类语言表述的, 比如英语, 它含有双关、 相似字、 隐语, 编写计算程序来解谜这样的线索 是十分艰难的。
clue:n.提示;迹象;(纵横填字谜、游戏或问题的)提示词语;v.提示;为…提供线索; natural language:n.自然语言(自然发展而成,并非人造); puns:n.双关语(pun的复数); herrings:鲱; unpack:vt.卸下…;解除…的负担;vi.打开包裹;
The kind of thing that a three- or four-year-old human, little kid could do, very hard for a computer. 三、四岁小孩子能做的事 对计算机来说是很难的。
And I thought, well this is going to be child's play. 所以,我以为我会赢的轻而易举。
Yes, I will come destroy the computer and defend my species . 是的,我会打败计算机,捍卫我的种群。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
(Laughter) （笑声）
But as the years went on, as IBM started throwing money and manpower and processor speed at this, 但随着岁月的流逝, IBM 开始投入大笔金钱、人力和高速芯片。
manpower:n.人力;人力资源;劳动力; processor:n.[计]处理器;处理程序;加工者;
I started to get occasional updates from them, and I started to get a little more worried. 他们偶尔给我一些最新动态, 我开始多一点担心。
updates:v.使现代化; n.现代化; (update的第三人称单数和复数)
I remember a journal article about this new question answering software that had a graph. 我记得有一篇杂志文章,专门讨论这台玩文字游戏的计算机,并附了一个图表,
journal:n.杂志;日记;日志;(用于报纸名)…报;
It was a scatter chart showing performance on Jeopardy, tens of thousands of dots representing Jeopardy champions up at the top with their performance plotted on number of -- 是一个散点图,绘制‘危险’参赛者的成绩 在图表的顶部,数以万计的圆点代表‘危险’冠军的成绩 他们的成绩是由- 我本想说是-答对问题的数目,
scatter:v.分散;驱散;散开;撒播;n.散落;三三两两; performance:n.性能;表现;业绩;表演; representing:v.代表;维护…的利益;等于;相当于;(represent的现在分词) plotted:v.密谋;暗中策划;标出;绘制(图表);(plot的过去分词和过去式)
I was going to say questions answered, but answers questioned, I guess, clues responded to -- versus the accuracy of those answers. 但我觉得应该是被“质疑”的答案, 反正就是将参赛者给予的答案— — 与那些答案的准确性来做衡量。
clues:n.(调查,研究等的)线索;迹象;(故事的)关键情节;(clue的复数) responded:v.回答,回应;作出反应;响应;反应灵敏;(respond的过去式和过去分词) versus:prep.对;与...相对;对抗; accuracy:n.[数]精确度,准确性;
So there's a certain performance level that the computer would need to get to. 所以,计算机性能必须要达到一定水平
And at first, it was very low. 刚开始时,它是非常低的。
There was no software that could compete at this kind of arena . 没有哪个软件可以在这样的舞台上竞争。
compete:v.竞争;对抗;参加比赛(或竞赛); arena:n.舞台;竞技场;
But then you see the line start to go up. 但是,后来那条线开始上升。
And it's getting very close to what they call the winner's cloud. 而它非常接近所谓的“优胜者区域
And I noticed in the upper right of the scatter chart some darker dots, some black dots, that were a different color. 我注意到在散点图的右上角 有一些较暗的点,一些黑点,那是另一种颜色。
upper:adj.上面的;内陆的;n.靴面;兴奋剂;
And thought, what are these? 我想,这是什么？
'"The black dots in the upper right represent 74-time Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings." 中右上角的黑点代表 74 次‘危险’冠军肯.詹宁斯 。
Ken:n.视野范围,见地,知识范围;
And I saw this line coming for me. 那条代表计算机的线,朝我而来。
And I realized, this is it. 我意识到,这下完了。
This is what it looks like when the future comes for you. 这看起来就像大限将近。
(Laughter) （笑声）
It's not the Terminator 's gun sight; it's a little line coming closer and closer to the thing you can do, the only thing that makes you special, the thing you're best at. 它不是终结者的瞄准器 ; 这是一条细线,逼近你的智力 你的特长,最擅长的事。
Terminator:n.终结者;终止子;明暗界限;
And when the game eventually happened about a year later, it was very different than the Jeopardy games I'd been used to. 最终,大约一年后,游戏开播。 它和以往‘危险’游戏非常不同。
eventually:adv.最后,终于; different than:不同于;
We were not playing in L.A. on the regular Jeopardy set. 通常我们在洛杉矶玩,
Watson does not travel. 但电脑沃森不能旅行。
Watson's actually huge. 实际上,沃森体积庞大。
It's thousands of processors , a terabyte of memory, trillions of bytes of memory. 它有数以千计的芯片,内存高达一兆兆字节, 数万亿字节的内存。
processors:n.加工机(或工人);处理器;处理机;(processor的复数) terabyte:n.太字节;兆兆位(量度信息单位); trillions:n.[数]万亿;adj.万亿的;num.[数]万亿; bytes:n.[计]字节;位元组,字节数(byte的复数);
We got to walk through his climate-controlled server room. 我们要走进有气候控制的服务器室。
climate-controlled:[气象学]气候控制;
The only other Jeopardy contestant to this day I've ever been inside. 直到今天 沃森是里面唯一一个‘危险’选手。
to this day:至今;
And so Watson does not travel. 所以,沃森不能旅行。
You must come to it; you must make the pilgrimage . 你必须来见它 ;您必须来”朝拜“。
pilgrimage:n.漫游;朝圣之行;vi.朝拜;漫游;
So me and the other human player wound up at this secret IBM research lab in the middle of these snowy woods in Westchester County to play the computer. 所以我和其他人类玩家 集聚在这个秘密的 IBM 研究实验室 在威彻斯特县的雪域森林中 和电脑玩‘危险’游戏。
wound:n.创伤,伤口;v.使受伤;受伤,伤害; Westchester:n.韦斯切斯特(美国伊利诺伊州东北部城市); County:n.郡,县;
And we realized right away that the computer had a big home court advantage . 我们马上意识到 沃森有巨大的主场优势
right away:立刻; advantage:n.有利条件:优势:优点:
There was a big Watson logo in the middle of the stage. 在舞台中央,有一个大的沃森徽标。
logo:n.标志;
Like you're going to play the Chicago Bulls , and there's the thing in the middle of their court. 就好像你要和芝加哥公牛队比赛, 在他们的球场,会有一个公牛队的标志。
Bulls:n.公牛; (bull的复数)
And the crowd was full of IBM V.P.s and programmers cheering on their little darling, having poured millions of dollars into this hoping against hope that the humans screw up, and holding up "Go Watson" signs and just applauding like pageant moms every time their little darling got one right. 观众席上,坐满了 IBM 副总裁和程序员 给他们的小宝贝加油, 在投入数以百万计的美元后 他们希望人类输 他们高举 沃森加油 的标语, 就像选美妈妈一样,每次他们亲爱的小闺女答对一个问题,他们就鼓掌。
poured:v.使(液体)连续流出;倾倒;倒出;喷发;(pour的过去分词和过去式) screw:v.旋,拧;压榨;强迫;n.螺旋;螺丝钉;吝啬鬼; holding up:举起;阻挡;拦截(holdup的现在分词形式); applauding:v.鼓掌;称赞;赞许;赞赏(applaud的现在分词) pageant:n.盛会;游行;虚饰;露天表演;
I think guys had "W-A-T-S-O-N" written on their bellies in grease paint. 我看到男员工们用油脂漆在他们的肚子上写上 W-A-T-S-O-N（沃森） 的名字。
bellies:n.腹部; v.张满; (belly的第三人称单数和复数) grease:v.涂脂于;贿赂;n.油脂;贿赂;
If you can imagine computer programmers with the letters "W-A-T-S-O-N" written on their gut , it's an unpleasant sight. 想象一下,计算机程序员将 W-A-T-S-O-N（沃森） 写在肚皮上, 怪恶心的。
gut:n.勇气;肠道;内脏;v.损毁内部;取出…的内脏;adj.非理性的;本能的 unpleasant:adj.令人不快的;不舒服的;不客气的
But they were right. They were exactly right. 但,他们对了。他们完全正确。
I don't want to spoil it, if you still have this sitting on your DVR, but Watson won handily . 如果你还没看过这次比赛的录像,我不想扫兴, 但沃森赢得轻而易举。
spoil:v.破坏;糟蹋;毁掉;溺爱;娇惯;善待;n.赃物;战利品;掠夺物;弃土; handily:adv.方便地;敏捷地;灵巧地;
And I remember standing there behind the podium as I could hear that little insectoid thumb clicking. 我记得站在舞台的后面 当我听到那小昆虫机器人敲击蜂音器。
podium:n.乐队指挥台;矮墙;墩座墙; thumb:v.翻阅;以拇指拨弄;作搭车手势;笨拙地摆弄;n.拇指;
It had a robot thumb that was clicking on the buzzer . 机器人有一个拇指,可以敲击蜂鸣器。
buzzer:n.蜂鸣器;嗡嗡作声的东西;信号手;
And you could hear that little tick, tick, tick, tick. 你能听到嘀嗒、 嘀嗒、 嘀嗒、 嘀嗒。
And I remember thinking, this is it. 我记得当时在想,完了。
I felt obsolete . 我过时了。
obsolete:adj.废弃的;老式的;n.废词;陈腐的人;vt.淘汰;废弃;
I felt like a Detroit factory worker of the '80s seeing a robot that could now do his job on the assembly line . 我觉得自己像个八十年代底特律工厂的工人 眼睁睁看着生产线上的机器人代替他工作。
Detroit:n.底特律(美国一座城市); assembly line:na.装配线;
I felt like quiz show contestant was now the first job that had become obsolete under this new regime of thinking computers. 我觉得,在当下,知识测验节目参赛者也已经, 被这个具有思维能力的计算机淘汰了。
quiz:n.小测验;知识竞赛;v.盘问;查问;询问; regime:n.政权,政体;社会制度;管理体制;
And it hasn't been the last. 这样的事还会再重演。
If you watch the news, you'll see occasionally -- and I see this all the time -- that pharmacists now, there's a machine that can fill prescriptions automatically without actually needing a human pharmacist. 如果你看新闻,偶尔,你会看到— — 我是经常看到这样的新闻的 — — 比如药剂师,现在有一种机器,可以自动按处方配药 不需要药剂师的干预。
pharmacists:n.药剂师(pharmacist的复数); prescriptions:n.医药处方,[医]药方(prescription复数形式); automatically:adv.自动地;机械地;无意识地;adj.不经思索的;
And a lot of law firms are getting rid of paralegals because there's software that can sum up case laws and legal briefs and decisions. 很多的律师事务所律师解雇专职助手 因为软件可以总结案件、法律摘要和决定。
paralegals:n.律师助理;(paralegal的复数)
You don't need human assistants for that anymore. 他们不再需要人类助理了。
I read the other day about a program where you feed it a box score from a baseball or football game and it spits out a news article as if a human had watched the game and was commenting on it. 前几天,我读到一篇关于程序的报道,如果你给它输入 足球手或棒球员的个人成绩表, 它就能吐出一篇新闻文章,就好像它真看过比赛 然后像人一样的点评那场比赛。
the other day:不久前某一天;几天以前; box score:n.(棒球等运动的)得分记录表;
And obviously these new technologies can't do as clever or creative a job as the humans they're replacing, but they're faster, and crucially , they're much, much cheaper. 很明显,这些新技术与被取代的人类比起来 它们不能做创造性的工作,也没有人类聪明 但它们速度更快,至关重要的是,它们非常、非常便宜。
technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数); creative:adj.创造性的; crucially:adv.关键地;至关重要地;
So it makes me wonder what the economic effects of this might be. 所以,这使得我很好奇:这些技术的究竟如何影响经济。
economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的;
I've read economists saying that, as a result of these new technologies, we'll enter a new golden age of leisure when we'll all have time for the things we really love because all these onerous tasks will be taken over by Watson and his digital brethren . 我听经济学家说过,这些新的技术, 会给我们带来一个新的休闲黄金时代, 我们都有时间来做我们真正感兴趣的事情 因为这些麻烦的任务都将由像沃森一样的计算机来接管。
golden age:n.鼎盛时期; leisure:n.休闲;闲暇;空闲;adj.闲暇的; onerous:adj.繁重的;麻烦的;负有义务的;负有法律责任的; digital:adj.数字的;手指的;n.数字;键; brethren:n.<旧>兄弟们,同胞;(旧)同党,会友;
I've heard other people say quite the opposite, that this is yet another tier of the middle class that's having the thing they can do taken away from them by a new technology and that this is actually something ominous , something that we should worry about. 其他人的意见正好相反, 正是一帮中产阶层 他们能做的事正被新的技术夺走 这是很不幸的, 我们应该为此担忧。
tier:n.层,排;行,列;等级;vt.使层叠;vi.成递升徘列; middle class:adj.中产阶级的;中层社会的; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; ominous:adj.预兆的;不吉利的;
I'm not an economist myself. 我本人不是经济学家。
All I know is how it felt to be the guy put out of work. 但我知道,失去工作的感受。
And it was friggin' demoralizing . It was terrible. 那是沉重的精神打击,十分可怕。
demoralizing:adj.令人士气低落的; v.使泄气; (demoralize的现在分词)
Here's the one thing that I was ever good at, and all it took was IBM pouring tens of millions of dollars and its smartest people and thousands of processors working in parallel and they could do the same thing. 玩‘危险’是我最擅长的, 但是, 如果 IBM 注入数以千万计的美元, 雇用其最聪明的人, 使用成千上万的处理器, 那么,他们就可以将我取而代之。
pouring:v.倾倒;倾泻;连续流出;倒出;喷发;(pour的现在分词) parallel:adj.平行的; v.与…相似; n.极其相似的人(或情况、事件等);
They could do it a little bit faster and a little better on national TV, and "I'm sorry, Ken. We don't need you anymore." ‘沃森’可以在全国电视上做得更快一点、更 好一点, IBM就会对我说, 很抱歉,肯,我们不需要你了“。
And it made me think, what does this mean, if we're going to be able to start outsourcing , not just lower unimportant brain functions. 我开始思考,如果我们开始外包、 不仅仅只是低级的思维功能 这意味着什么。
outsourcing:n.外包;外购;外部采办; unimportant:adj.不重要的;琐碎的;
I'm sure many of you remember a distant time when we had to know phone numbers, when we knew our friends' phone numbers. 我肯定你们很多人还记得,很久以前, 我们必须记忆电话号码,在脑子里记住朋友们的电话号码。
distant:adj.遥远的;远处的;久远的;
And suddenly there was a machine that did that, and now we don't need to remember that anymore. 突然间,发明了一种机器, 代我们记忆电话号码, 现在,我们不需要再记得这些了。
I have read that there's now actually evidence that the hippocampus , the part of our brain that handles spacial relationships, physically shrinks and atrophies in people who use tools like GPS, because we're not exercising our sense of direction anymore. 我读到证据证明 使用导向工具（如 GPS）的人, 他们的海马体-处理空间关系的那一部分大脑组织, 会萎缩退化。 使用工具如GPS的人 因为我们不再使用我们的方向感,
evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明; hippocampus:n.[解剖][脊椎]海马;马头鱼尾怪兽(神话中的一个形象); spacial:adj.空间的;存在于空间的;占地位的; shrinks:v.缩水,收缩,缩小;n.精神病学家;心理学家;(shrink的第三人称单数和复数) atrophies:n.萎缩,萎缩症;发育停止;vi.萎缩;虚脱;
We're just obeying a little talking voice on our dashboard . 而只是,被动的服从那个会说话的仪器指挥。
obeying:v.服从;遵守;顺从;(obey的现在分词) dashboard:n.汽车等的仪表板;马车等前部的挡泥板;
And as a result, a part of our brain that's supposed to do that kind of stuff gets smaller and dumber . 结果,负责方向感的大脑组织 缩小、变笨。
supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式) dumber:哑的(dumb的比较级);愚蠢的;不能说话的;
And it made me think, what happens when computers are now better at knowing and remembering stuff than we are? 我在想,如果我们完全依赖计算机来记忆和思维, 那将是怎样的情景？
Is all of our brain going to start to shrink and atrophy like that? 整个大脑都会萎缩退化吗？
atrophy:n.萎缩,萎缩症;发育停止;vi.萎缩;虚脱;
Are we as a culture going to start to value knowledge less? 我们的文化会看轻知识的价值吗？
As somebody who has always believed in the importance of the stuff that we know, this was a terrifying idea to me. 这种可能的趋势令人恐惧, 因为我一直重视知识的力量。
terrifying:adj.令人恐惧的;骇人的;极大的;v.使害怕,使恐怖;(terrify的现在分词)
The more I thought about it, I realized, no, it's still important. 我越是深思熟虑,越是意识到, 不！知识仍然很重要。
The things we know are still important. 我们的知识,仍然很重要。
I came to believe there were two advantages that those of us who have these things in our head have over somebody who says, "Oh, yeah. I can Google that. Hold on a second." 我相信, 比起那些只会说 “噢,等等。我用谷歌搜一下 的人, 脑子里有知识的人,至少有两个优点。
advantages:n.有利条件; v.有利于; Google:谷歌;谷歌搜索引擎;
There's an advantage of volume , and there's an advantage of time. 一个是信息量的优势,一个是时间的优势。
volume:n.体积;容积;音量;响度;一册;合订本
The advantage of volume, first, just has to do with the complexity of the world nowadays. 首先是信息量的优势。 现今的世界十分复杂,
complexity:n.复杂性;难以理解的局势
There's so much information out there. 因而信息量也大。
Being a Renaissance man or woman, that's something that was only possible in the Renaissance. 我们不能和文艺复兴时代的男女相比, 那是一个特殊的时代,不可再现。
Renaissance man:n.文艺复兴人;
Now it's really not possible to be reasonably educated on every field of human endeavor . 在当今的时代,实在是不可能 掌握所有领域的知识。
reasonably:adv.合理地;相当地;适度地; endeavor:n.v.努力;尽力;试图;
There's just too much. 那太强人所难了。
They say that the scope of human information is now doubling every 18 months or so, the sum total of human information. 据说,人类信息的范围, 人类信息的总和, 差不多每 18 个月翻一倍。
scope:n.能力; v.仔细看;
That means between now and late 2014, we will generate as much information, in terms of gigabytes , as all of humanity has in all the previous millenia put together . 这意味着,如用千兆字节来计算, 从现在到 2014年底所生成的信息量, 将等同于人类所有之前产生的信息量的总和。
generate:v.产生;引起; gigabytes:n.千兆字节(gigabyte的复数);十亿位元组; humanity:n.人类;人道;仁慈;人文学科; previous:adj.以前的;早先的;过早的;adv.在先;在…以前; put together:..放在一起;组合;装配;
It's doubling every 18 months now. 而且,人类的总信息量,每隔18个月增加一倍。
This is terrifying because a lot of the big decisions we make require the mastery of lots of different kinds of facts. 这是很可怕的, 因为很多重大决定的抉择, 需要掌握的很多不同种类的資訊。
A decision like where do I go to school? What should I major in? 比如,我去哪所学校上学？我应该主修哪个方向？
Who do I vote for? 我投票给哪个候选人？
Do I take this job or that one? 我选择这份或那份工作？
These are the decisions that require correct judgments about many different kinds of facts. 我们需要了解多种大量的資訊, 才能做出正确的判断。
judgments:判断;
If we have those facts at our mental fingertips , we're going to be able to make informed decisions. 如果我们的大脑里有这些知识, 我们就能够作出精明的決定。
mental:adj.精神的;脑力的;疯的;n.精神病患者; fingertips:n.指尖;(fingertip的复数) informed:adj.见多识广的; v.通知; (inform的过去分词和过去式)
If, on the other hand , we need to look them all up, we may be in trouble. 另一方面,假如,我们需要查看搜寻这些信息, 我们可能会有麻烦。
on the other hand:另一方面;
According to a National Geographic survey I just saw, somewhere along the lines of 80 percent of the people who vote in a U.S. presidential election about issues like foreign policy cannot find Iraq or Afghanistan on a map. 国家地理最近的一项调查显示 在美国总统选举中, 以外交政策为主要考量的投票人中,大约80%的人, 不能在地图上指出伊拉克或阿富汗。
According to:根据,据说; Geographic:adj.地理的;地理学的; survey:n.调查;测量;审视;纵览;vt.调查;勘测;俯瞰;vi.测量土地; presidential:adj.总统的;首长的;统辖的; issues:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;(issue的第三人称单数和复数) policy:n.政策,方针;保险单; Afghanistan:n.阿富汗(国家名称,位于亚洲);
If you can't do that first step, are you really going to look up the other thousand facts you're going to need to know to master your knowledge of U.S. foreign policy? 如果你连这点常识都没有, 你真的会去查询几千条其它信息, 来充实美国外交政策方面的知识吗？
Quite probably not. 我想,你是不会的。
At some point you're just going to be like, "You know what? There's too much to know. Screw it." 有一天,你会说, 算了吧！太多了,去它的吧！ 。
And you'll make a less informed decision. 你会做出不明智的决定。
The other issue is the advantage of time that you have if you have all these things at your fingertips. 另外,如果你对这些事情廖若指掌, 你就有时间的优势。
I always think of the story of a little girl named Tilly Smith. 我常想到,一个叫蒂莉史密斯的小女孩的故事。
She was a 10-year-old girl from Surrey, England on vacation with her parents a few years ago in Phuket, Thailand . 她来自英国萨里郡,10 岁, 几年前,她与父母去泰国普吉岛度假。
Thailand:n.泰国(东南亚国家名);
She runs up to them on the beach one morning and says, "Mom, Dad, we've got to get off the beach." 一个早晨,在海滩上,她跑向父母, 并说, 妈妈,爸爸,我们得离开海滩.
on the beach:adj.在海滩上;失业的;潦倒的;退休的;
And they say, "What do you mean? We just got here." 他们说, 什么意思？我们刚刚到这里 。
And she said, "In Mr. Kearney's geography class last month, he told us that when the tide goes out abruptly out to sea and you see the waves churning way out there, that's the sign of a tsunami , and you need to clear the beach." 她说, 上个月,在地理课上,卡尼先生提过, 如果有不正常的退潮, 而且波涛剧烈翻腾, 这是海啸的标志,应该尽快离开海滩。
tide:n.潮汐; v.顺应潮水航行; abruptly:adv.突然地;唐突地; churning:n.搅乳;一次提制的奶油;v.搅拌(churn的现在分词); tsunami:n.海啸;
What would you do if your 10-year-old daughter came up to you with this? 如果你10 岁的女儿跟你说这个,你会怎样？
What would you do if:如果…你会怎么做？;
Her parents thought about it, and they finally , to their credit, decided to believe her. 她的父母想了想, 最后,她的父母决定相信她,他们真不错。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
They told the lifeguard , they went back to the hotel, and the lifeguard cleared over 100 people off the beach, luckily, because that was the day of the Boxing Day tsunami, the day after Christmas, 2004, that killed thousands of people in Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean. 他们告知了救生员,并回到了酒店, 幸运的是,救生员将海滩上的 100 多人清场, 那天就发生了节礼日海啸。 2004年圣诞节后的第一天, 东南亚和印度洋周边,成千上万的人遇难。
lifeguard:n.救生员;警卫;vt.护卫,保护;vi.当救生员; Boxing Day:n.节礼日(圣诞节后的第一个工作日,英国和其他一些国家定为假日); Ocean.:海洋
But not on that beach, not on Mai Khao Beach, because this little girl had remembered one fact from her geography teacher a month before. 但迈考海滩幸免, 因为这个小女孩,想起了一个月前从地理老师那里学来的知识,
Now when facts come in handy like that -- 当知识派上用场的时候--
handy:adj.便利的;手边的,就近的;容易取得的;敏捷的;
I love that story because it shows you the power of one fact, one remembered fact in exactly the right place at the right time -- normally something that's easier to see on game shows than in real life. 我喜欢这个故事,因为它显示了知识的力量, 活学活用,恰当其时, 通常在游戏节目上比在现实生活中更容易看到这样的例子。
at the right time:在适当时候; normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地;
But in this case it happened in real life. 但在这个故事里,它发生在现实生活中。
And it happens in real life all the time. 这样的例子在现实生活中时常发生。
It's not always a tsunami, often it's a social situation. 它并不总是一场海啸,通常是社交场合。
It's a meeting or job interview or first date or some relationship that gets lubricated because two people realize they share some common piece of knowledge. 可能是一个会议、工作面试或第一次约会, 两人意识到他们分享一些共同的信息, 人际关系因而开始升温。
interview:n.接见,采访;面试,面谈;v.采访;接见;对…进行面谈; lubricated:adj.润滑的; v.给…注润滑油;
You say where you're from, and I say, "Oh, yeah." 你说你从哪儿来,或你的母校,或你的工作,
Or your alma mater or your job, and I know just a little something about it, enough to get the ball rolling . 我说, 噢,是的 。 可能我知道只是些支离破碎的信息, 当这足够让我们的谈话进行下去。
alma mater:母校;校歌; the ball rolling:开始著手某事;
People love that shared connection that gets created when somebody knows something about you. 当对方知道一点儿关于你的情况, 你更容易和他建立关系。
It's like they took the time to get to know you before you even met. 就好像你们还未见过面他就花了时间先认识你
That's often the advantage of time. 这往往是时间的优势。
And it's not effective if you say, "Well, hold on. 依靠计算机就不会有这种效果。假如你说,“好,等一等,
effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象;
You're from Fargo , North Dakota . Let me see what comes up. 你来自北达科塔州的法戈,让我查查有什么相关资讯。
Fargo:n.法戈(美国北达科他州东南部城市); Dakota:n.达科他(美国过去一地区名,现分为南,北达科他州);adj.达科他人的;
Oh, yeah. Roger Maris was from Fargo." 哦,是的。罗杰 ? 马里斯也来自法戈。
Roger:n.罗杰;[男名]男子名;int.明白;v.与某人性交;
That doesn't work. That's just annoying. 这不起作用,只能令人生厌。
(Laughter) （笑声）
The great 18th-century British theologian and thinker, friend of Dr. Johnson, 伟大的18世纪英国神学家和思想家,也是约翰逊博士的朋友
theologian:n.神学者;空头理论家;
Samuel Parr once said, "It's always better to know a thing than not to know it." 塞缪尔 · 帕尔曾经说过, 知道一件事总比不知道强 。
Parr:n.幼鲑;
And if I have lived my life by any kind of creed , it's probably that. 如果我有任何生活信条的话,就应该是这个。
creed:n.信条,教义;
I have always believed that the things we know -- that knowledge is an absolute good, that the things we have learned and carry with us in our heads are what make us who we are, as individuals and as a species. 我一直相信我们所知道的知识 — — 知识绝对是好事, 我们已经学到的知识,记忆在我们的头脑里的知识, 造就我们个人, 这是人类之所以为万物之灵。
individuals:n.[经]个人;[生物]个体(individual的复数);
I don't know if I want to live in a world where knowledge is obsolete. 我不知道我是否想要生活在一个知识没有价值的世界。
I don't want to live in a world where cultural literacy has been replaced by these little bubbles of specialty , so that none of us know about the common associations that used to bind our civilizations together. 我不想生活在 一个文化素养被专精知识所取代的的世界, 一个没有共享的知识的世界, 没有那些将人类联系在一起的文明。
cultural:adj.与文化有关的;文化的;与艺术、文学、音乐等有关的; literacy:n.读写能力;精通文学; bubbles:n.泡; v.起泡; (bubble的第三人称单数和复数) specialty:n.专业,专长;特产;特性;招牌菜;adj.特色的;专门的;独立的; associations:n.协会,[遗]关联(association复数);关联分析,协会组织; bind:v.结合;装订;有约束力;过紧;n.捆绑;困境;讨厌的事情;植物的藤蔓; civilizations:n.文明(civilization的复数形式);
I don't want to be the last trivia know-it-all sitting on a mountain somewhere, reciting to himself the state capitals and the names of " Simpsons " episodes and the lyrics of Abba songs. 我不想成为最后的‘百事通’ 独坐在一座山上的某处, 背诵州首府城市名和 辛普森一家 的电视剧情节, 或是Abba曲的歌词。
reciting:v.背诵,吟诵,朗诵;列举;逐一讲述;(recite的现在分词) Simpsons:n.辛普森一家(电影名); episodes:n.一段经历;片段,插曲;一集;(episode的复数) lyrics:n.歌词;抒情诗(lyric的复数); Abba:n.神父;
I feel like our civilization works when this is a vast cultural heritage that we all share and that we know without having to outsource it to our devices , to our search engines and our smartphones . 我觉得要延续我们的文明,分享丰富的文化遗产, 只能依赖我们的智力, 而不是依靠计算机、搜索引擎和智能手机。
heritage:n.遗产;传统;继承物;继承权; outsource:vt.把…外包;vi.外包; devices:n.[机][计]设备;[机]装置;[电子]器件(device的复数); smartphones:智能手机(smartphone的复数);
In the movies, when computers like Watson start to think, things don't always end well. 在电影中,当像沃森一样的计算机开始思考时, 事情总是没有好下场。
Those movies are never about beautiful utopias . 这些电影总是讲恐怖故事,
utopias:n.乌托邦(书名);
It's always a terminator or a matrix or an astronaut getting sucked out an airlock in "2001." 要么是终结者、要么是黑客帝国、要么就是电影“2001”,宇航员被卡在闸门里 。
matrix:n.[数]矩阵;模型;[生物][地质]基质;母体;子宫;[地质]脉石; sucked:v.吸,吮;吸收;吞没;(suck的过去分词和过去式) airlock:n.气闸;气塞;
Things always go terribly wrong. 总之事情总会变得非常糟糕。
And I feel like we're sort of at the point now where we need to make that choice of what kind of future we want to be living in. 我感觉现在的情形和这差不多。 我们需要做出选择,我们想要什么样的未来。
This is a question of leadership, because it becomes a question of who leads the future. 这是一个关于领导的问题 因为问题就是让谁来领导我们的未来
On the one hand , we can choose between a new golden age where information is more universally available than it's ever been in human history, where we all have the answers to our questions at our fingertips. 一方面,我们可以选择一个新的黄金时代 信息随处可取, 前所未有的便利, 所有问题的答案都在我们的指掌。
On the one hand:一方面; universally:adv.普遍地;人人;到处;
And on the other hand, we have the potential to be living in some gloomy dystopia where the machines have taken over and we've all decided it's not important what we know anymore, 另一方面, 我们也有可能造就一个黑暗又混论的社会 机器主宰我们, 我们已经决定了解知识已经不重要
potential:n.潜能;可能性;[电]电势;adj.潜在的;可能的;势的; gloomy:adj.黑暗的;沮丧的;阴郁的; dystopia:n.反面假想国;
the knowledge isn't valuable because it's all out there in the cloud, and why would we ever bother learning anything new. 知识没有价值,因为都可在网络上查询, 我们没有必要学习任何新的东西。
valuable:adj.有价值的;贵重的;可估价的;n.贵重物品; bother:v.烦扰,打扰;使…不安;操心,麻烦;n.麻烦;烦恼;
Those are the two choices we have. I know which future I would rather be living in. 这是我们的两个选择。我知道我宁愿生活在哪一种未来。
would rather:宁愿,宁可;
And we can all make that choice. 我们都可以做这个选择
We make that choice by being curious and inquisitive people who like to learn, who don't just say, "Well, as soon as the bell has rung and the class is over, 好奇心强、好学的人们所选择的就是这种未来, 他们不会说, 哈,下课铃一响,课堂结束,
curious:adj.好奇的,有求知欲的;古怪的;爱挑剔的; inquisitive:adj.好奇的;好问的,爱打听的; as soon as:一…就; rung:n.横档,脚蹬横木;地位;v.给…打电话(ring的过去式和过去分词);
I don't have to learn anymore," 我就不需要再学习了,
or "Thank goodness I have my diploma . I'm done learning for a lifetime.
diploma:n.毕业证书,学位证书;公文,文书;奖状;vt.发给…毕业文凭;
I don't have to learn new things anymore." 我不需要再学习新的东西了 。
No, every day we should be striving to learn something new. 不,我们每一天都应当努力学习新的知识。
striving:n.努力;奋斗;v.努力;奋斗;力争;力求;(strive的现在分词)
We should have this unquenchable curiosity for the world around us. 对于这个的世界,我们应该抱有无尽的好奇心。
unquenchable:adj.止不住的;不能遏制的;不能熄灭的; curiosity:n.好奇,好奇心;珍品,古董,古玩;
That's where the people you see on Jeopardy come from. ‘危险’参赛选手都有这种特征。
These know-it-alls , they're Rainman-style savants sitting at home memorizing the phone book . 这些‘百事通’,他们不是像电影‘雨人’里面的学者一样, 坐在家里,死背电话簿。
know-it-alls:adj.自称无所不知的;n.假装博学多闻的人(等于knowall); savants:n.学者(savant的复数);专家; memorizing:n.记忆;熟记;v.熟记;纪念(memorize的现在分词); phone book:na.电话簿;
I've met a lot of them. 我见过很多选手。
For the most part , they are just normal folks who are universally interested in the world around them, curious about everything, thirsty for this knowledge about whatever subject. 在很多方面,他们和普通人没有不同, 但他们普遍兴趣广泛,好奇心强, 求知欲强。
For the most part:adv.在极大程度上,多半;
We can live in one of these two worlds. 我们有这两个世界可以选择。
We can live in a world where our brains, the things that we know, continue to be the thing that makes us special, or a world in which we've outsourced all of that to evil supercomputers from the future like Watson. 一个,我们的大脑,我们的知识, 使我们有别其他物种, 另一个,我们可以完全依赖邪恶的超级计算机,像沃森。
outsourced:v.交外办理;外购;(outsource的过去分词和过去式) evil:adj.邪恶的;不幸的;有害的;讨厌的;n.罪恶,邪恶;不幸; supercomputers:n.[计]巨型计算机,超级计算机;
Ladies and gentlemen, the choice is yours. 女士们先生们,选择是你的。
Thank you very much. 非常感谢。