and that's that I'm a philosopher.

我想談談我的一個問題

(Laughter)

那就是：我是個哲學家

When I go to a party and people ask me what do I do

（眾笑）

and I say, "I'm a professor," their eyes glaze over.

派對上人家問我做什麼的

When I go to an academic cocktail party

我答我是教授，他們的眼睛立刻失神

and there are all the professors around, they ask me what field I'm in

我去參加學術酒會

and I say, "philosophy" -- their eyes glaze over.

周圍都是教授，他們問我的專業

(Laughter)

我答哲學，他們的眼睛立刻失神

When I go to a philosopher's party

（眾笑）

(Laughter)

我去哲學家的派對

and they ask me what I work on and I say, "consciousness,"

（眾笑）

their eyes don't glaze over -- their lips curl into a snarl.

他們問我研究什麼，我答意識

(Laughter)

他們的眼睛沒有失神，而是唇帶鄙夷

And I get hoots of derision and cackles and growls

（眾笑）

because they think, "That's impossible! You can't explain consciousness."

我得到的是訕笑和怪叫

The very chutzpah of somebody thinking

因為他們認為「這怎麼可能！意識是無法解釋的。」

that you could explain consciousness is just out of the question.

那些人傲慢地認為

My late, lamented friend Bob Nozick, a fine philosopher,

你根本不可能解釋意識

in one of his books, "Philosophical Explanations,"

我不久前過世的朋友羅伯特·諾齊克是一位優秀的哲學家

is commenting on the ethos of philosophy --

在他的《哲學性的解釋》一書中

the way philosophers go about their business.

評論了哲學的特質

And he says, you know, "Philosophers love rational argument."

即哲學家對待其專業的態度

And he says, "It seems as if the ideal argument

他說「哲學家喜歡理性的論述」

for most philosophers is you give your audience the premises

他又說「對多數的哲學家而言

and then you give them the inferences and the conclusion,

最佳的論述似乎是先為聽眾設定前提

and if they don't accept the conclusion, they die.

接下來是邏輯推演，然後得到結論

Their heads explode." The idea is to have an argument

他們不接受結論的話，他們就死定了

that is so powerful that it knocks out your opponents.

腦袋開花了。」重點是

But in fact that doesn't change people's minds at all.

論述要強得能把對手完全擊倒

It's very hard to change people's minds

但其實這根本改變不了別人的想法

about something like consciousness,

要改變別人對意識的想法

and I finally figured out the reason for that.

確實很難

The reason for that is that everybody's an expert on consciousness.

我終於找到為何如此的原因

We heard the other day that everybody's got a strong opinion about video games.

原因就是人人都是意識的專家

They all have an idea for a video game, even if they're not experts.

我們前些時候聽說人人對電玩都很有看法

But they don't consider themselves experts on video games;

儘管不是專家，大家都對電玩有點認識

they've just got strong opinions.

也不認為自己是電玩專家

I'm sure that people here who work on, say, climate change

卻都很有自己的看法

and global warming, or on the future of the Internet,

我敢說這裡研究氣候變遷、全球暖化

encounter people who have very strong opinions

或網際網路之未來的人都會遇到

about what's going to happen next.

對將會發生的事

But they probably don't think of these opinions as expertise.

都很有看法的人

They're just strongly held opinions.

但多半不會把那些當成專業意見

But with regard to consciousness, people seem to think,

那些只算是強烈的看法

each of us seems to think, "I am an expert.

但說到意識，大家都覺得

Simply by being conscious, I know all about this."

我們每個人都似乎認為「我就是專家

And so, you tell them your theory and they say,

因為我有意識，所以我清楚這個。」

"No, no, that's not the way consciousness is!

因此，你告訴他們你的理論

No, you've got it all wrong."

他們說：「不對

And they say this with an amazing confidence.

意識不是這樣，你全搞錯了。」

And so what I'm going to try to do today

他們還說得自信滿滿的

is to shake your confidence. Because I know the feeling --

那麼，我今天要來

I can feel it myself.

動搖你的信心－因為我知道那種感覺

I want to shake your confidence that you know your own innermost minds --

我自己也有那種感覺

that you are, yourselves, authoritative about your own consciousness.

我要動搖你自以為了解自己靈魂深處的信心

That's the order of the day here.

我要動搖你自以為能控制你自己的意識的信心

Now, this nice picture shows a thought-balloon, a thought-bubble.

這就是今天的主題

I think everybody understands what that means.

看，這圖片有個思想框

That's supposed to exhibit the stream of consciousness.

我想大家都知道這是什麼

This is my favorite picture of consciousness that's ever been done.

這是用來表示意識流

It's a Saul Steinberg of course -- it was a New Yorker cover.

這是我最喜歡的一張圖片

And this fellow here is looking at the painting by Braque.

這是索爾•斯坦伯格的作品－紐約客的封面

That reminds him of the word baroque, barrack, bark, poodle,

這位朋友看著布拉克的畫作

Suzanne R. -- he's off to the races.

讓他想起巴洛克，再想到軍營、狗吠、貴婦犬、

There's a wonderful stream of consciousness here

蘇珊娜－就這樣一直想下去

and if you follow it along, you learn a lot about this man.

這是一串精彩的意識流

What I particularly like about this picture, too,

你一直看下去就會知道這個人的許多事

is that Steinberg has rendered the guy

這張圖還讓我特別喜歡的是

in this sort of pointillist style.

斯坦伯格描繪這個人時

Which reminds us, as Rod Brooks was saying yesterday:

用了點彩的畫法

what we are, what each of us is -- what you are, what I am --

讓人想到如同羅德•布洛斯昨天所說的：

is approximately 100 trillion little cellular robots.

我們每個人，無論你我都是

That's what we're made of.

大約100萬億個細胞所組成的

No other ingredients at all. We're just made of cells, about 100 trillion of them.

組成我們的就是細胞

Not a single one of those cells is conscious;

再沒有其他的材料，不過是細胞，大約100萬億個

not a single one of those cells knows who you are, or cares.

裡頭沒有一個有意識

Somehow, we have to explain

沒有任何一個細胞會知道或在乎你是誰

how when you put together teams, armies, battalions

我們似乎必須解釋

of hundreds of millions of little robotic unconscious cells --

這成億上兆自動機式無意識的細胞

not so different really from a bacterium, each one of them --

各個都跟細菌沒有什麼區別

the result is this. I mean, just look at it.

放在一起卻變成這樣

The content -- there's color, there's ideas, there's memories,

我是說，你看看這個

there's history. And somehow all that content of consciousness

看這些內容－有顏色、有想法、有回憶

is accomplished by the busy activity of those hoards of neurons.

也有歷史。這些意識的內容

How is that possible? Many people just think it isn't possible at all.

似乎都來自忙碌活動中的神經元－怎會如此？

They think, "No, there can't be any

許多人認為根本不可能

sort of naturalistic explanation of consciousness."

他們認為根本不會有

This is a lovely book by a friend of mine named Lee Siegel,

自然主義的方法可以解釋意識

who's a professor of religion, actually, at the University of Hawaii,

我的朋友里•希格爾寫了一本好書

and he's an expert magician, and an expert

他是夏威夷大學的宗教學教授

on the street magic of India, which is what this book is about,

他是魔術專家

"Net of Magic."

精通印度的街頭魔術，他的書就是寫這個

And there's a passage in it which I would love to share with you.

「魔術網」

It speaks so eloquently to the problem.

我想跟大家分享這一段話

"'I'm writing a book on magic,' I explain, and I'm asked, 'Real magic?'

他寫這個問題寫得太好了

By 'real magic,' people mean miracles,

他說：這是關於魔術的書，人家問我「真的魔術嗎？」

thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers.

所謂真的魔術，意思是奇蹟

'No,' I answer. 'Conjuring tricks, not real magic.'

幻術、超自然力量

'Real magic,' in other words, refers to the magic that is not real;

我說「不是，是障眼法，不是真的魔術」

while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic."

這麼說，真的魔術指的並不是真的魔術

(Laughter)

做得出的真魔術，其實並非真的魔術

Now, that's the way a lot of people feel about consciousness.

（眾笑）

(Laughter)

這就是許多人對意識的感覺

Real consciousness is not a bag of tricks.

（眾笑）

If you're going to explain this as a bag of tricks,

真的意識不是一堆把戲

then it's not real consciousness, whatever it is.

若把它解釋成一堆把戲

And, as Marvin said, and as other people have said,

那它是什麼都好，但不是真正的意識

"Consciousness is a bag of tricks."

像馬文還有其他人說

This means that a lot of people are just left completely dissatisfied

「意識是一堆把戲」

and incredulous when I attempt to explain consciousness.

這也就是說，當我嘗試解說意識時

So this is the problem. So I have to

很多人完全不能滿意也不能相信

do a little bit of the sort of work

這就是我說的問題了。因此我嘗試

that a lot of you won't like,

做一點會讓很多人不高興的事

for the same reason that you don't like to see

就像大家不喜歡看到

a magic trick explained to you.

某個魔術把戲

How many of you here, if somebody -- some smart aleck --

被揭穿一樣

starts telling you how a particular magic trick is done,

你們這裡－如果有人自作聰明要解釋

you sort of want to block your ears and say, "No, no, I don't want to know!

某個魔術背後是怎樣弄的－

Don't take the thrill of it away. I'd rather be mystified.

有多少人會想按住耳朵說「我不想知道!

Don't tell me the answer."

別掃興，我寧可不知道

A lot of people feel that way about consciousness, I've discovered.

不要告訴我」

And I'm sorry if I impose some clarity, some understanding on you.

我發現很多人對「意識」就是這樣

You'd better leave now if you don't want to know some of these tricks.

抱歉，如果我說得太清楚、太明白

But I'm not going to explain it all to you.

而你不想知道這些把戲，最好現在就走

I'm going to do what philosophers do.

但我也不會全都解釋給你們聽

Here's how a philosopher explains the sawing-the-lady-in-half trick.

我會像哲學家那樣做

You know the sawing-the-lady-in-half trick?

哲學家會這樣解釋刀鋸美人的魔術

The philosopher says, "I'm going to explain to you how that's done.

大家都知道「刀鋸美人」吧？

You see, the magician doesn't really saw the lady in half."

哲學家會說「我來給你解釋這是怎麼做的

(Laughter)

其實魔術師並沒有真的把美人鋸成兩半

"He merely makes you think that he does."

（眾笑）

And you say, "Yes, and how does he do that?"

他只是讓你以為他真的做了

He says, "Oh, that's not my department, I'm sorry."

那你說「對，那他是怎麼做到的？」

(Laughter)

哲學家說「喔，對不起，這不干我們學系的事」

So now I'm going to illustrate how philosophers explain consciousness.

（眾笑）

But I'm going to try to also show you

我現在告訴各位哲學家怎麼解釋意識

that consciousness isn't quite as marvelous --

但我也會嘗試讓大家明白

your own consciousness isn't quite as wonderful --

意識並不那麼令人驚訝

as you may have thought it is.

你擁有的意識也不那麼奇妙

This is something, by the way, that Lee Siegel talks about in his book.

不像你原本可能以為的那樣

He marvels at how he'll do a magic show, and afterwards

順道說，里•席格爾在他的書裡也提到這點

people will swear they saw him do X, Y, and Z. He never did those things.

他的魔術令人驚嘆，後來觀眾也以為

He didn't even try to do those things.

他做了這個那個的，但其實他什麼都沒有做

People's memories inflate what they think they saw.

他甚至試都沒試過做那些事

And the same is true of consciousness.

人的記憶會把自以為看見的東西誇大

Now, let's see if this will work. All right. Let's just watch this.

意識的情況也是如此

Watch it carefully.

我們來看這個行不行。好，我們看看這個

I'm working with a young computer-animator documentarian

仔細看

named Nick Deamer, and this is a little demo that he's done for me,

我跟一位年青的電腦動畫製作人一起工作

part of a larger project some of you may be interested in.

他叫尼克•甸馬，這是他替我做的短片

We're looking for a backer.

這是個大計畫的一部分，你們有些人也許會有興趣

It's a feature-length documentary on consciousness.

我們在找贊助人

OK, now, you all saw what changed, right?

這是一部關於意識的紀錄長片

How many of you noticed that every one of those squares changed color?

好，大家都看到是什麼變了，是吧?

Every one. I'll just show you by running it again.

你們有幾位發現每個方形都變了顏色的？

Even when you know that they're all going to change color,

大家都發現了。那我再播放一次

it's very hard to notice. You have to really concentrate

儘管你知道方塊會變色

to pick up any of the changes at all.

還是很難注意到，確實要很專注

Now, this is an example -- one of many --

才能看到任何變化

of a phenomenon that's now being studied quite a bit.

這是目前相當熱門研究這種現象的

It's one that I predicted in the last page or two of my

許多例子中的一個

1991 book, "Consciousness Explained,"

這是我1991年出版的書「意識全解」

where I said if you did experiments of this sort,

最後一兩頁所預測的

you'd find that people were unable to pick up really large changes.

我說，如果你做這樣的實驗

If there's time at the end,

你會發現人們無法察覺真正的大變化

I'll show you the much more dramatic case.

如果最後還有時間

Now, how can it be that there are all those changes going on,

我讓大家看一個更極端的情況

and that we're not aware of them?

那麼，為什麼有那麼多變化

Well, earlier today, Jeff Hawkins mentioned the way your eye saccades,

我們卻注意不到？

the way your eye moves around three or four times a second.

哲夫•霍金斯今天稍早談過眼球的掃視

He didn't mention the speed. Your eye is constantly in motion,

他說我們的眼球一秒鐘移動三四次

moving around, looking at eyes, noses, elbows,

但他沒提速度，眼睛不斷移動就是

looking at interesting things in the world.

看著其他的眼睛、鼻子、手肘

And where your eye isn't looking,

看著世上有趣的事情

you're remarkably impoverished in your vision.

你的眼沒有看著的地方

That's because the foveal part of your eye,

你看得見的其實很少

which is the high-resolution part,

因為眼睛的視網膜中央窩

is only about the size of your thumbnail held at arms length.

負責高解析影像的部位

That's the detail part.

就像你伸直手範圍內的拇指那樣大小

It doesn't seem that way, does it?

那就是解析細微的部位

It doesn't seem that way, but that's the way it is.

想不到是這樣吧?

You're getting in a lot less information than you think.

想不到，但事實就是如此

Here's a completely different effect. This is a painting by Bellotto.

你得到的資訊比你所以為的少

It's in the museum in North Carolina.

以下是另一種效應，請看這幅貝洛托的畫作

Bellotto was a student of Canaletto's.

在北卡羅萊納州美術館展出

And I love paintings like that --

貝洛托是加納萊托的學生

the painting is actually about as big as it is right here.

我很喜歡這類作品

And I love Canalettos, because Canaletto has this fantastic detail,

它的大小就像你們看見那樣

and you can get right up

我也很喜歡加納萊托，他的畫著重細節

and see all the details on the painting.

你可以靠近

And I started across the hall in North Carolina,

看到畫裡的細節

because I thought it was probably a Canaletto,

我先是從畫廊的另一邊看到它

and would have all that in detail.

我以為它是加納萊托的畫作

And I noticed that on the bridge there, there's a lot of people --

會有許多細節

you can just barely see them walking across the bridge.

我發現橋上有很多人

And I thought as I got closer

你可以看見他們過橋

I would be able to see all the detail of most people,

我以為我走近

see their clothes, and so forth.

可以看到那些人的細節

And as I got closer and closer, I actually screamed.

他們的衣服和其他的東西

I yelled out because when I got closer,

我走近這幅畫，卻叫出來了

I found the detail wasn't there at all.

我叫了，因為我走近時

There were just little artfully placed blobs of paint.

發現那裡沒有什麼細節

And as I walked towards the picture,

只是一片片鋪陳亮麗的顏料

I was expecting detail that wasn't there.

我慢慢走上前

The artist had very cleverly suggested people and clothes

預期找到那些不存在的細節

and wagons and all sorts of things,

畫家巧妙地暗示那裡有人、衣服

and my brain had taken the suggestion.

還有車和其他的東西

You're familiar with a more recent technology, which is -- There,

而我的腦袋接受了這樣的暗示

you can get a better view of the blobs.

這裡有個新的技術，大家可能比較熟悉

See, when you get close

這樣色塊會比較容易看到

they're really just blobs of paint.

看到嗎？你走近了

You will have seen something like this -- this is the reverse effect.

看到的就只是一些色塊

I'll just give that to you one more time.

大家可能看過這個－恰恰相反的效應

Now, what does your brain do when it takes the suggestion?

我們再看一次

When an artful blob of paint or two, by an artist,

那麼，你的腦袋做了什麼來接受暗示呢？

suggests a person -- say, one of

當畫家添上一兩片的色塊

Marvin Minsky's little society of mind --

暗示出有一個人－比方像馬文·閔斯基

do they send little painters out to fill in all the details in your brain somewhere?

說的那個意識群體－

I don't think so. Not a chance. But then, how on Earth is it done?

畫裡是不是有小小的畫家跑到我們腦袋、填上細節呢?

Well, remember the philosopher's explanation of the lady?

我不認為如此，不可能。可是這怎發生的呢？

It's the same thing.

好，還記得哲學家如何解釋刀鋸美人嗎？