Does this mean they are able to communicate information faster than English speakers?

這是否代表他們比說英語的人能夠更快速傳達訊息？

One reason why Spanish sounds so fast is because more syllables are spoken per minute than in English.

西班牙語聽起來很快的其中一個原因是因為西班牙語一分鐘內所傳達的音節比英文還多。

However, analysis has shown that each Spanish syllable conveys less information than each English syllable, so the information per minute is almost identical.

然而，分析指出，每一個西班牙語音節所傳遞的資訊比每一個英語音節所傳遞的資訊還少，因此兩者在一分鐘內傳遞的資訊量是差不多的。

But what about written language?

但書寫的語言呢？

The square format of Chinese characters appears to fit better into our central visual field than the longer, slimmer words of English.

中文字方正的字形似乎比更加細長的英文字更融入我們的中央視野。

This led linguists to suspect that Chinese would be read faster than English.

這讓語言學家們懷疑閱讀中文的速度比閱讀英文快。

But experiments show that English readers can perceive seven to eight letters at once, compared to just 2.6 characters for Chinese.

但實驗指出和中文的 2.6 個字相比，英文讀者一次可以看七到八個字母。

However, those Chinese characters are denser in meaning than the English letters and so both languages have basically an identical reading rate of 380 words equivalent per minute.

然而，那些中文字比英文字母涵蓋的意義多，所以兩者基本上有一樣的每分鐘 380 字的閱讀速度。

This suggests that what limits the speed of our communication is not language but our cognitive ability to process information.

這個發現指出限制我們溝通速度的不是語言，而是我們處理資訊的認知能力。

But how can you really quantify information?

但你到底該如何計算資訊量？

Well the smallest amount of information you can have is the answer to a yes/no question, like have you seen the movie Frozen?

事實上，你可以涵蓋最少資訊量的是回答一個對或不對的問題，像是你有看過電影冰雪奇緣嗎？

Yes. Yes or no, heads or tails, we can represent this single outcomes with a one or a zero.

有。有或沒有，正面或反面，我們可以用一個 1 或是一個 0 來代表這樣的一個結果。

One binary digit, it's one bit of information.

一個二進位數字是一位元的資訊。

A roll of the dice has six possible outcomes, so three bits of information are required to cover all the options.

擲一次骰子有六種可能的結果，所以需要三位元的資訊來涵蓋所有的選擇。

To uniquely represent all 26 letters of the English alphabet requires five bits of information.

完整的呈現全部 26 個英文字母需要五個位元的資訊量。

But if you include lower case, punctuations, specially characters and number, that takes the total number of symbols to 95.

但如果你把小寫、標點符號、特殊符號和數字都算進去，記號的總數將達到 95。

So you actually need seven bits of information to encode all these symbols.

所以你實際上需要七位元的資訊量來為這些記號編碼。

That was first done in 1963 as the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, or ASCII for short.

第一次完成這件事的是在1963年的美國資訊交換標準碼協會，或是簡稱 ASCII。

Now as the next closest power of two, computers adopted eight bits as the fundamental unit of computation, and they called it the bite, where they intentionally replaced the i with a y, so that it couldn't accidentally be confused with a bit.

現在最接近這兩個的能量，電腦採納八位元為電腦運算的基本單位，而他們稱它為位元組，他們故意把 i 寫成 y，所以就不會不小心和一個位元混淆。

So how much information does it take to make you?

所以需要多少資訊量來創造你呢？

Well, your entire genetic code is contained in the sequence of four molecules, represented by the letters T, A, G, and C in your DNA.

事實上，你完整的基因碼包含在 DNA 中用字母 T, A, G 和 C 四個分子的排序中。

Each of these four options can be encoded by two bits of information.

這四個選項中的每一個都可以用兩位元的資訊編碼。

And multiplying by the six billion letters of genetic code in your genome, and dividing by eight bits per byte, that yields 1.5 GB of information.

而用你基因組中的六十億個基因碼加乘，再用每一個位元組除以八位元的計算方式，可以得到 1.5 GB 的資訊量。

So you could fit your entire genetic code on a single DVD with room to spare.

所以你用一片光碟就可以紀錄你完整的基因碼，而且還有剩餘的空間。

Now your body has an estimated 40 trillion cells in it and each one contains a full copy of your DNA.

現在你的身體裡估計有四十兆個細胞，而且每一個細胞皆含有一個完整的你的 DNA。

So you actually contain sixty zettabytes of information. That's sixty followed by 21 zeroes.

所以你實際上含有六十個 zettabytes 的資訊量。那是 60 後面加上 21個 0。

Just to put this in perspective, by the year 2020, all of the digital information in the world is estimated to be equal to forty zettabytes of information.

從這樣的角度觀察，到了 2020 年，所有世界上的數位資訊據估計將相當於 40 個 zettabytes 的資訊量。

You could store all of that on 100 grams of DNA.

你可以把那些全部儲存在一百克的 DNA 上。

That is less than you have inside your body.

那比你身體裡的還少。

But now consider this, you share 99.9% of your genetic information with everyone else on Earth, meaning that less than one part in a thousand is unique.

但現在想想這個，你和地球上的每一個人有百分之九十九點九的基因資訊相同，意思是只有一千中的一小部分是獨特的。

So the information that makes you you could be stored in less than a megabyte.

所以創造你成為你的資訊可以被儲存在一個比一個 megabyte 更小的空間裡。

You could put it on one of these, a floppy disk, in case you don't know what that is.

你可以把它放在這個裡面，一個軟磁碟，假使你不知道這是甚麼的話。

In contrast, video can contain a lot of information.

相較之下，影片可以涵蓋很多資訊。

To specify the colour of each of two million pixels thirty times a second for this entire video would require 100 gigabytes of information.

要明確說明這整個影片每秒三十次每一個兩百萬畫素其中的顏色，需要一百個 gigabytes 的資訊量。

But you can watch this video in HD on Youtube with just a thousand that amount.

但你可以只用一千個那個數量，在 YouTube 用高畫質觀看這個影片。

Now the reason you can send such a big video with such a small file size is because video, like Spanish, has a lot of parts that are redundant.

你可以用這麼小的檔案傳輸這麼大的影片是因為影片，如同西班牙語，有很多多餘的部分。

Hey Michael, you know what I've been thinking about?

嘿麥可，你知道我在想什麼嗎？

What have you been thinking about Derek?

你在想什麼呢，Derek？

Information. Go on.

資訊。繼續說。

It's a physical thing. It's embodied in actual objects.

它是一個實際存在的東西。它存在於實際的物體中。

How's that?

怎麼說？

We know like the words we say, they are actual vibrations in the air, right?

我們知道像是我們說的話，它們其實是空氣中的震動，對吧？

They're not just concepts. They are real physical things that you could measure and detect.

它們不只是概念。它們是你可以測量和感知的真實的物體。

That's true and they don't go away, they don't disappear even after they've, for instance, moved through the air. Right.

一點也沒錯，而且它們不會離開，它們甚至也不會在，像是從空氣中移動後消失。沒錯。

After we've said these words, they have actually interacted with everything around us.

在我們說完這些話後，它們實際上和我們週遭的所有事物產生互動。

So you're saying that technically, I could look at the world and if I knew enough about it and the position of its particles, I could trace back and extrapolate all the information that's ever occurred through them or at them?

所以你是指，嚴格來說，我可以單看這個世界，且如果我深知這個世界和組成這個世界的微粒的位置，我就可以追溯回去並推斷所有透過它們發生或是發生於它們身上的資訊嗎？

That's right.

沒錯。

You could in principle figure out exactly what we've said here, today. Woah.

原則上你可以確切地推算出我們今天在這裡說過的話。哇。

This episode of Veritasium was inspired by the book The Information by James Gleick.

這集 Veritasium 靈感來自詹姆斯·格雷克的資訊一書。

You can actually download this book for free by going to Audible.com/Veritasium or you can pick any other book of your choosing for a one month free trial.

你其實可以到 Audible.com/Veritasium 免費下載這本書，或是你可以隨意地挑一本其他的書免費試閱一個月。

Audible is a leading provider of audiobooks with over 150,000 titles in all areas of literature including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals.

Audible 是一個有著涵蓋各文類領域，像是小說、非小說和期刊超過十五萬冊的有聲書領導來源。

Now if you've already read The Information you may want to check out Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman.

如果你已經看過資訊這本書，那你可能會想看理查•費曼所著的別鬧了，費曼先生：科學頑童的故事。

It's my favourite book by a scientist. It is absolutely hilarious and you will thank you for downloading it.

這是我最喜歡的一本由科學家所寫的書。這本書真的很好笑，你會感謝自己有下載。

So go, check it out.

所以去看看吧！

I really wanna thank Audible for supporting me, and I want to thank you for watching.

我真的很想感謝 Audible 支持我，我也想感謝你的收看。