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So the question is, what is invisible?
所以問題是,有哪些東西是看不見的?
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There is more of it than you think, actually.
答案比你想的還要多。
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Everything, I would say. Everything that matters
我會說,所有東西,所有重要的東西
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except every thing and except matter.
除了所有的,也除了東西。
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We can see matter. But we can't see what's the matter.
我們可以看到東西,但我們看不見的這些東西實質到底是甚麼。
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As in this cryptic sentence I found in The Guardian recently:
就像我最近在《衛報》看到的一句晦澀的句子。
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"The marriage suffered a setback in 1965,
「這段婚姻在1965年遭遇了重挫,
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when the husband was killed by the wife."
那年妻子殺害了丈夫。」
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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There's a world of invisibility there, isn't there?
這其間可真有許多不可告人的秘密,不是嗎?
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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So, we can see the stars and the planets,
所以我們可以看到天空的許多星星
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but we can't see what holds them apart
但我們看不到是什麼使他們分離
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or what draws them together.
也看不到是什麼使他們聚集的。
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With matter, as with people, we see only the skin of things.
對於物質,就如對於人們,我們只能看到表面
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We can't see into the engine room.
無法深入核心。
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We can't see what makes people tick, at least not without difficulty.
我們看不到人們做事的動機,至少不能輕鬆的就判斷而知 。
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And the closer we look at anything, the more it disappears.
而我們觀察的越仔細,真相就越看不清楚。
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In fact, if you look really closely at stuff,
事實上,如果你真的足夠靠近去觀察事物
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if you look at the basic substructure of matter,
如果你觀察物質的基本構造
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there isn't anything there.
那裡什麼都沒有
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Electrons disappear in a kind of fuzz,
電子消失成一陣模糊的波動,
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and there is only energy. And you can't see energy.
只剩下能量,而我們看不到能量
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So everything that matters, that's important, is invisible.
因此對於任何事物來說,重要的是"看不見"的東西
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One slightly silly thing that's invisible
還有一個比較可笑的東西,關於"看不見"的
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is this story, which is invisible to you.
這個故事,現在對你們來說還是"看不見"的
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And I'm now going to make it visible to you in your minds.
但我即將讓它現形在你們腦海之中。
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It's about an M.P. called Geoffrey Dickens.
有一位前國會議員,傑佛瑞狄更斯(Geoffrey Dickens)
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The late Geoffrey Dickens, M.P. was attending a fete in his constituency.
正在他的選區參加一個宴會
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Wherever he went, at every stall he stopped he was closely followed
不管他走到哪裡,在他停下來的每一個地方他都被一個
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by a devoted smiling woman of indescribable ugliness.
狂熱且奇醜而微笑的婦女緊緊跟隨者。
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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Try as he might, he couldn't get away from her.
僅管他努力嘗試,還是始終無法擺脫她。
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A few days later he received a letter from a constituent
幾天以後他收到了一位選民的來信,
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saying how much she admired him,
傾述她的仰慕之情,
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had met him at a fete and asking for a signed photograph.
回顧宴會的一面之緣以及索求一張簽名的照片。
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After her name, written in brackets was the apt description, horse face.
在她的名字後面,括號內寫著一個恰如其分的描述詞:馬臉。
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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"I've misjudged this women," thought Mr. Dickens.
"我錯怪這位女士了"狄更斯議員想到
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"Not only is she aware of her physical repulsiveness,
"她不僅僅認知到自己的外表令人厭惡,
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she turns it to her advantage.
她還將其加以利用。
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A photo is not enough."
一張照片是不夠的。
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So he went out and bought a plastic frame to put the photograph in.
於是他出去買了一個塑膠像框將照片放入其中。
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And on the photograph, he wrote with a flourish,
而且在照片上他大筆一揮寫上
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"To Horse Face, with love from Geoffrey Dickens, M.P."
"致馬臉,您親愛的議員-傑佛瑞狄更斯"
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After it had been sent off, his secretary said to him,
當照片寄出去以後,他的秘書跟他說:
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"Did you get that letter from the woman at the fete?
"你收到那個宴會上的女人的來信了嘛?
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I wrote Horse Face on her, so you'd remember who she was."
我在上面寫上了'馬臉',以便使您能記得她"
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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I bet he thought he wished he was invisible, don't you?
我想他寧可自己是隱藏起來,不是嘛?
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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So, one of the interesting things about invisibility
所以"看不見"的一個有趣的特點是
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is that things that we can't see
我們無法看見的東西
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we also can't understand.
我們也無法理解
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Gravity is one thing that we can't see
重力就是一個我們看不見的東西
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and which we don't understand.
我們也無法理解它
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It's the least understood of all the four fundamental forces,
在四種基本力中它是最神秘的,
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and the weakest.
也是最弱的力
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And nobody really knows what it is or why it's there.
沒有人知道它是甚麼,為何存在
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For what it's worth, Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest scientist who ever lived,
姑且不論真假,艾薩克牛頓爵士,史上最偉大的科學家,
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he thought Jesus came to Earth specifically to operate the levers of gravity.
他認為耶穌的降臨就僅僅是為了操縱重力這個槓桿
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That's what he thought he was there for.
他認為這就是耶穌的使命。
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So, bright guy, could be wrong on that one, I don't know.
所以再聰明的人,在那裡也可能出錯,我不知道。
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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Consciousness. I see all your faces.
意識。我可以看見您的臉。
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I have no idea what any of you are thinking. Isn't that amazing?
但我卻不知道您們任何一人在想甚麼。這難道不令人驚訝嗎?
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Isn't that incredible that we can't read each other's minds?
我們不能閱讀他人的想法,這難到不是很不可思議嗎?
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But we can touch each other, taste each other perhaps, if we get close enough.
但是我們可以互相觸摸,如果我們夠親密的話,我們也可能相互的親熱
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But we can't read each other's minds. I find that quite astonishing.
但是我們不能知道對方在想甚麼。我覺得這很讓人驚訝。
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In the Sufi faith, this great Middle Eastern religion,
在中東的宗教蘇菲教派的信仰當中-
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which some claim is the route of all religions,
有些人認為蘇菲教派是一切宗教的根源,
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Sufi masters are all telepaths, so they say.
據說,蘇菲長老都懂讀心術
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But their main exercise of telepathy
但是他們使用心靈感應的主要目的
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is to send out powerful signals to the rest of us that it doesn't exist.
就是向外界傳達這樣的一個強而有力的訊號:它不存在
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So that's why we don't think it exists,
所以也就不難理解為甚麼我們不相信讀心術的存在,
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the Sufi masters working on us.
這是蘇菲長老們對我們所作的好事
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In the question of consciousness
談到意識
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and artificial intelligence,
和人工智能
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artificial intelligence has really, like the study of consciousness,
人工智能的研究如同對於意識的研究一樣,
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gotten nowhere. We have no idea how consciousness works.
毫無進展。我們完全不知道意識是如何運作的。
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With artificial intelligence, not only have they not created artificial intelligence,
使用人工智能技術不僅沒有創造出人工智慧,
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they haven't yet created artificial stupidity.
也沒有創造出"人工愚蠢"
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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The laws of physics: invisible, eternal, omnipresent, all-powerful.
物理學的定理:不可見、永恆、全能、無所不在,全部都擁有強大的力量
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Remind you of anyone?
這讓你們想起什麼了嗎?
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Interesting. I'm, as you can guess,
很有趣。就如你們所想,
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not a materialist, I'm an immaterialist.
我不是一個唯物論者,我是個非唯物主義者
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And I've found a very useful new word, ignostic. Okay?
而我找到了一個很有用的新字,忽視主義者(ignostic)
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I'm an ignostic.
我就是一位忽視主義者。
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I refuse to be drawn on the question of whether God exists,
我拒絕被捲入上帝是否存在的問題中,
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until somebody properly defines the terms.
除非有人恰當的定義這個名詞。
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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Another thing we can't see is the human genome.
另一個我們無法看見的是人類基因
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And this is increasingly peculiar,
而且還越來越怪異
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because about 20 years ago, when they started delving into the genome,
因為大約20年前,當人們開始探索基因圖譜時
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they thought it would probably contain around 100,000 genes.
當時他們預估人類的基因組大概會在十萬個左右
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Geneticists will know this, but every year since,
遺傳學家對這個比較熟悉,但是從那以後的每一年
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it's been revised downwards.
這個數字不斷往下修正
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We now think there are likely to be only just over 20,000
我們現在相信人類基因組
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genes in the human genome.
大約只有將近兩萬個基因而已了
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This is extraordinary. Because rice -- get this --
這真是奇特,因為稻米,聽好了
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rice is known to have 38 thousand genes.
稻米是有三萬八千個基因的
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Potatoes, potatoes have 48 chromosomes. Do you know that?
馬鈴薯擁有與48個染色體,你知道嗎?
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Two more than people,
比人類多兩個
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and the same as a gorilla.
大猩猩也這樣
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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You can't see these things, but they are very strange.
你看不到這些東西。但他們確實存在,非常奇怪
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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The stars by day. I always think that's fascinating.
白天的星空,我總覺得它令人著迷
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The universe disappears.
整個宇宙好像都不見了。
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The more light there is, the less you can see.
光照越強,能看到的反而越少。
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Time, nobody can see time.
時間,沒人能看到時間
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I don't know if you know this. Modern physics,
我不知道你們有沒有聽過這個。現代物理,
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there is a big movement in modern physics
有一個重大的突破
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to decide that time doesn't really exist,
就是確定了時間並不存在
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because it's too inconvenient for the figures.
因為它很難轉換到數學模式之中
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It's much easier if it's not really there.
所以乾脆不存在,這樣就省事多了
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You can't see the future, obviously.
很顯然你看不到未來
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And you can't see the past, except in your memory.
而除了回憶之外你也看不到過去
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One of the interesting things about the past is
一個關於過去的有趣事情
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you particularly can't see. My son asked me this the other day,
是有一天我兒子問我,
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he said, "Dad, can you remember what I was like when I was two?"
他說"爸爸,你能記得我兩歲時候的樣子嗎?"
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And I said, "Yes." And he said, "Why can't I?"
我說:"可以阿"他說:"為甚麼我不行呢?"
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Isn't that extraordinary? You cannot remember
這難道不奇怪嗎?你記不得
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what happened to you earlier than the age of two or three,
你兩三歲之前的事情
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which is great news for psychoanalysts,
不過對於心理學家卻是一個好消息
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because otherwise they'd be out of a job.
不然的話他們就要失業了
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Because that's where all the stuff happens
因為所有的事情都是那段時間發生的
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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that makes you who you are.
使得你變成了今天這個樣子
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Another thing you can't see is the grid on which we hang.
另一個不可見的東西是我們依賴的架構
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This is fascinating. You probably know, some of you,
這很有趣。你們之中的某些人也許知道
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that cells are continually renewed. You can see it in skin and this kind of stuff.
細胞是不斷的更新的。你可以在皮膚和其他的外部器官上看到這種情況。
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Skin flakes off, hairs grow, nails, that kind of stuff.
皮膚脫落,頭髮生長,指甲等諸如此類。
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But every cell in your body is replaced at some point.
但是你身體裡的細胞在某一個時刻也會更新。
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Taste buds, every 10 days or so.
味蕾大概十天左右更新。
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Livers and internal organs sort of take a bit longer. A spine takes several years.
肝臟和其他的內部器官都可能護長一點。脊椎要幾年。
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But at the end of seven years, not one cell in your body
不過七年之後。你身體裡的每一個細胞
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remains from what was there seven years ago.
都和七年前不在一樣了
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The question is, who, then, are we?
那麼問題是我們是誰?
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What are we? What is this thing that we hang on,
我們是甚麼,我們一直依賴的這個東西是甚麼,
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that is actually us?
這真的是我們本身嗎?
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Okay. Atoms, you can't see them.
原子,我們都無法看見
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Nobody ever will. They're smaller than the wavelength of light.
沒人可以看見,它們比光的波長還要小
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Gas, you can't see that.
氣體也不可見
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Interesting. Somebody mentioned 1600 recently.
非常的有意思。最近有人提到了西元1600年
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Gas was invented in 1600
Gas(氣體)這個字在西元1600年
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by a Dutch chemist called Van Helmont.
被一位叫Van Helmont的荷蘭化學家所發明
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It's said to be the most successful ever invention
這被認為是有史以來個人發明的
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of a word by a known individual.
最成功的一個字。
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Quite good. He also invented a word called "blas,"
非常的不錯。他還發明了一個字叫blass,
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meaning astral radiation.
意即星的輻射
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Didn't catch on, unfortunately.
很遺憾的是這個字沒有能流行起來
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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But well done, him.
不過他還是做的很棒。
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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There is so many things that -- Light.
這樣的例子太多了-光
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You can't see light. When it's dark, in a vacuum,
你不能看見光。當黑暗之中,在真空裡
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if a person shines a beam of light straight across your eyes,
如果有人在你的眼前的正面發射出一道光,
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you won't see it. Slightly technical, some physicists will disagree with this.
你是不會看見的。這有一點誇張了,一些物理學家不會贊同這樣的觀點
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But it's odd that you can't see the beam of light,
不過奇怪的是你並不能看見這束光
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you can only see what it hits.
你只能看到它擊中的地方
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I find that extraordinary, not to be able to see light,
我發現這是件很奇妙的事,不能直接看當光本身
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not to be able to see darkness.
也不能看見黑暗
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Electricity, you can't see that.
電,你看不見電
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Don't let anyone tell you they understand electricity.
別相信任何人跟你說的電是甚麼一回事
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They don't. Nobody knows what it is.
他們不懂,沒人知道是甚麼回事
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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You probably think the electrons in an electric wire
你以認為在你開燈的那個剎那,電子在電線中
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move instantaneously down a wire, don't you, at the speed of light
以光速瞬間流過整條電線,是嗎?
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when you turn the light on. They don't.
實際上並不是
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Electrons bumble down the wire,
電子在電現中笨拙的移動,
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about the speed of spreading honey, they say.
據說和蜂蜜的流動速度差不多
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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Galaxies, 100 billion of them estimated in the universe.
星系,估計有一千億個散布在我們宇宙中。
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100 billion. How many can we see? Five.
一千億,而我們能看到多少呢?五個
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Five out of the 100 billion galaxies, with the naked eye,
一千億個星系中,只有五個能用肉眼看見。
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and one of them is quite difficult to see unless you've got very good eyesight.
而其中一個還得有相當好的眼力才能看的到
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Radio waves. There's another thing.
無線電,這又是一項
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Heinrich Hertz, when he discovered radio waves in 1887,
海因里希·赫茲在1887年發現了無線電
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he called them radio waves because they radiated.
他之所以叫它們無線電是因為它們是幅射的
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And somebody said to him,
於是有人問他,
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"Well what's the point of these, Heinrich?
"那些又有甚麼意義呢,海因里希?
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What's the point of these radio waves that you've found?"
你發現的這些無線電波有甚麼意義呢?"
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And he said, "Well, I've no idea.
他說,"其實我也不知道
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But I guess somebody will find a use for them someday."
不過我想以後應該有人會發現它們的用處的"
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And that's what they do, radio. That's what they discovered.
這就是他們所做的,無線電,就就是他們所發現的
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Anyway, so the biggest thing
總而言之,對我們而言
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that's invisible to us is what we don't know.
最大的不可見事物就是我們不知道的
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It is incredible how little we know.
我們所知道的竟是那麼樣的少
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Thomas Edison once said,
愛迪生曾說,
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"We don't know one percent of one millionth
對於任何事項而言,
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about anything."
我們所知道的不過是其百分之一
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And I've come to the conclusion --
於是我下了個結論
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because you've asked this other question, "What's another thing you can't see?"
因為你們已經問了另外一個問題,"還有甚麼東西我們看不見"
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The point, most of us. What's the point?
意義對於我們大多數的人來說,這翻話到底有甚麼意義?
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
-
(Applause)
(掌聲)
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You can't see a point. It's by definition dimensionless,
你無法看到一個點,這是在定義上,一個點不佔任何空間,
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like an electron, oddly enough.
說來也怪,就像電子一樣
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But the point, what I've got it down to,
但是重點,當我們不斷探索時
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is there are only two questions really worth asking.
會發現最後只剩兩個問題值得一問
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"Why are we here?" and "What should we do about it while we are?
"我們為何存在?"和"我們存在這世界上是為了甚麼而來?"
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And to help you, I've got two things to leave you with, from two great philosophers,
為了幫助大家,我留下兩句話,來自兩位偉大的哲學家,
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perhaps two of the greatest philosopher thinkers of the 20th century,
也許是20世紀最偉大的兩個思想家
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one a mathematician and an engineer, and the other a poet.
一個是數學家也是工程師,另一個是一位詩人。
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The first is Ludwig Wittgenstein who said,
首先是Ludvig Vitgenštajn,他說
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"I don't know why we are here.
「我不知道我們為何存在,
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But I'm pretty sure it's not in order to enjoy ourselves."
但我很確定我們不是為了玩樂而存在。」
-
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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He was a cheerful bastard wasn't he?
他可真是個讓人愉快的傢伙是吧
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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And secondly and lastly, W.H. Auden,
第二個也是最後的,W.H. Auden
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one of my favorite poets, who said,
一個我最喜歡的詩人,他說
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"We are here on earth
「我們來到這世界
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to help others.
是為了幫助其他人。
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What the others are here for, I've no idea."
至於其他人為什麼在世界上,我毫無頭緒。」
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(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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(Applause)
(掌聲)