Name: TEDx】讓我們來談談死亡｜斯蒂芬-卡夫｜TEDxBratislava (【TEDx】Let's talk about death | Stephen Cave | TEDxBratislava)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T05:51:39.000Z
Duration: 15 min 59 s

who here remembers when they first  realised they were going to die?

在座的，有誰還記得自己第一次 意識到會死去是在什麼時候？

I do. I was a young boy and  my Grandfather had just died.

我記得，在我很小的時候， 我的祖父去世了

lying in bed at night trying to make  sense of what had happened.

我在晚上躺在床上， 試圖搞清楚究竟發生了什麼

It was like a hole in reality  had opened up and swallowed him.

就好像現實中的一個 黑洞打開，吞噬了他

But then the really shocking question  occured to me,

接下來，我想到了一個 令我更加惶恐的問題

if he could die, could it happen to me to?

Could that hole in reality  open up and swallow me?

那個黑洞也會打開，吞噬掉我嗎？

Would it open up beneath my bed  and swallow me as I slept?

它會不會在我的床下打開， 在我睡覺的時候吞噬掉我？

Well, at some point all children  become aware of death.

孩子們都會在某個時期認識到死亡

It can happen in different ways, of course and usually comes in stages.

瞭解到死亡的過程各異，當然， 通常是一點一滴地積累起相關的知識

Our idea of death develops as we grow older,

隨著年齡的增長， 我們對死亡的理解逐漸發展

And if you reach back into  the dark corners of your memory,

如果你能重拾自己記憶中的黑暗角落

you might remember something  like what I felt when my grandfather died

你或許會回憶起，某些與 我祖父去世時相似的感覺

and when I realized it could happen to me too.

也就是發現死亡也會發生在我的身上

That sense that behind all of this, the void is waiting.

And this development in childhood reflects the development of our species.

兒童時期的心路歷程， 反映出人類思想的發展過程

Just as there was a point in your development as a child,

正如你在孩童時代有那麼一個時期

when you sense of self and of time  became sophisticated enough

你對自我和時間的理解達到一定的程度

So at some point  in the evolution of our species

some early humans' sense of self  and of time became sophisticated enough

早期的人類對自我和時間 的理解達到一定的程度

for them to become the first humans to realize: "I'm going to die".

他們首次意識到「我將會死去。」

也可以把它想成是我們的詛咒：

it's the price we pay  for being so damn clever.

這就是我們為變聰明所付出的代價

that the worst thing that can  possibly happen, one day surely will.

這件對人類來說或許是 最糟糕的事必將會發生

The end of all our projects, our hopes,  our dreams, of our individual world.

我們的一切計畫、希望、夢想 和個人世界全部都要結束

We each live in the shadow  of a personal apocalypse.

我們每個人都生活在個人的末日陰影之下

And that's frightening! It's terrifying,  and so we look for a way out.

這太可怕了，所以我們嘗試尋找出路

And in my case,  as I was about five years old,

Now when I first started asking,  "what happens when we die?",

當我第一次提出 「我們死去之後將會怎樣」的問題

the grown-ups around me at the time  answered with a typical English mix

周圍的大人都用一種標準的回答

of awkwardness and  half-hearted christianity.

混合著尷尬和敷衍了事的基督教信仰回答

And the phrase I heard most often  was that Grandad was now

And if I should die too,  which wouldn't happen of course,

如果我也死去，當然這不會發生

Which made death sound a lot like an existential elevator.

這讓死亡聽起來像是一個存在主義的電梯

I used to watch a children's  news programme at the time

and this was the era  of space exploration.

There were always rockets  going up into the sky,

But none of the astronauts when they came back

Or any other dead people.  But I was scared.

或者其他死去的人，但當時我很害怕

And the idea of taking  the existential elevator

搭乘存在主義電梯去見祖父的想法

聽起來比睡覺時被黑洞吞噬要好得多

than being swallowed  by the void while I slept.

因此我相信了，儘管這不合乎情理

And so I believed it anyway,  even though it didn't make much sense.

我在兒童時期經歷的這種思維過程

And this thought process that I went through as a child,

包括成年後多次經歷的思維過程

and have been through many times  since including as a grown-up,

是心理學家的所謂「偏見」造成的

is a product of what  psychologists call a 'bias'.

偏見，就是我們有系統 地錯誤理解事情的過程

Now a bias is a way in which  we systematically get things wrong,

ways in which we miscalculate,  misjudge, distort reality

And the bias I am talking about  works like this:

confront someone with the fact that  they are going to die

他們會願意相信任何 能否定這個現實的理論

and they will believe just about any story that tells them it isn't true

即使是存在主義電梯這樣的理論

Even if it means taking the existential elevator.

我們能將之視為迄今為止最大的偏見

Now, we can see this  as the biggest bias of all.

It has been demonstrated in over 400 empirical studies.

這些研究設計巧妙且很簡單， 研究的過程是這樣的

Now these studies are ingenious but they're simple, they work like this:

首先選擇各方面條件相似的兩組人

you take two groups of people who are similar in all relevant respects

告訴一組人，他們將會死去， 對另一組人不做這樣的表態

and you remind one group that  they're going to die but not the other;

你可以觀察到這個資訊 在多大程度上影響了

So you're observing how it biases behaviour

當人們意識到自己難逃一死時的行為

when people become aware  of their mortality.

每一次你都會得到相同的結果：

people who are made aware of their mortality

更願意相信那些 告訴他們可以逃避死亡

are more willing to believe stories  that tell then that they came escape death

這裡有個實例：最近一項研究 挑選了兩組不可知論者 (agnostics)

So here's an example: one recent study  took two groups of agnostics,

that is people who are undecided in their religious beliefs.

Now one group was asked to think about being dead,

the other group was asked to think about being lonely.

然後他們再次被要求 表明自己的宗教信仰

They were then again asked  about their religious beliefs:

those who had been asked  to think about being dead

信奉上帝和耶穌的人數 是實驗前的兩倍

were afterwards twice as likely to express faith in God and Jesus.

當然每個人的不可知論程度不完全一致

Even though before they were equally agnostic.

當給他們施加了死亡的恐怖之後， 便紛紛轉投耶穌的懷抱

But put the fear of death  in them and they run to Jesus.

這個實驗說明，讓人們意識到死亡 使他們傾向於信奉宗教

Now, this shows that reminding people of death biases them to believe,

And it works not just for religion  but for any kind of belief system

只要任何主張某種形式 永生的信仰皆如此

無論這些形式是出人頭地、 繁衍子嗣，甚至愛國主義

whether it's becoming famous, or having children, or even nationalism

只要是那些承諾給你可以在一個 更宏觀的環境中繼續生存的理論

which promises you can live on as part of a greater whole.

這種偏見影響了人類歷史的軌跡

This is a bias that has shaped the course of human history.

Now the theory behind this bias  in nearly 400 studies is called

恐懼管理理論，其內容很簡單：

terror management theory.  And the idea is simple, it's just this:

我們營造自己的世界觀， 這是我們講給自己聽的一個故事

we develop our world views, that is the stories we tell ourselves

有關整個世界，和我們對它的觀點

目的是説明我們應對死亡的恐懼

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TEDx】讓我們來談談死亡｜斯蒂芬-卡夫｜TEDxBratislava (【TEDx】Let's talk about death | Stephen Cave | TEDxBratislava)

sense

people

fear

vocabulary