TED演讲:我们的意识

 　　So I'm going to speak about a problem that I have and that's that I'm a philosopher. 让我从我的一个问题开始，那就是，我是一个哲学家。

　　When I go to a party and people ask me what do I do  当我参加派对时，人们问我，我是干什么的。

　　and I say, "I'm a professor," their eyes glaze¹ over.  我说，“我是个教授”，他们一下就失去了兴趣。

　　When I go to an academic cocktail² party  当我参加学术酒会时，

　　and there are all the professors around, they ask me what field I'm in  在场的都是教授，他们问我是做什么领域的。

　　and I say, "philosophy" -- their eyes glaze over.  我说，哲学--他们没了兴趣。

　　When I go to a philosopher's party  当我参加哲学派对时

　　and they ask me what I work on and I say, "consciousness,"  他们问我在研究什么，我说，意识，

　　their eyes don't glaze over -- their lips curl into a snarl³.  他们就不仅仅是失去兴趣了--他们的嘴巴都拧成一团了。

　　And I get hoots⁴ of derision and cackles and growls  我还引来了阵阵嘲笑以及嘀咕，

　　because they think, "That's impossible! You can't explain consciousness."  因为他们觉得，“那是不可能的！你没法解释意识。”

　　The very chutzpah of somebody thinking  这是太放肆大胆的想法

　　that you could explain consciousness is just out of the question.  意识是不可能被解释的

　　My late, lamented⁵ friend Bob Nozick, a fine philosopher,  我已故的，令人惋惜的朋友 Bob Nozick，一位极好的哲学家

　　in one of his books, "Philosophical⁶ Explanations,"  在他的著作《哲学解释》中

　　is commenting on the ethos of philosophy -- the way philosophers go about their business. 评论了哲学的精神--也就是哲学家行事的方法。

　　And he says, you know, "Philosophers love rational argument."  他说，你知道，“哲学家热爱合理的论点。”

　　And he says, "It seems as if the ideal argument for most philosophers is you give your audience the premises⁷ 他还说，“看起来好像对于多数哲学家，理想的论证是向观众提出前提，

　　and then you give them the inferences and the conclusion,  然后给出推理和结论，

　　and if they don't accept the conclusion, they die. Their heads explode." 如果听众不接受那个结论，他们就死了。他们脑子坏了。”

　　The idea is to have an argument that is so powerful that it knocks out your opponents. 这种想法是要有一个论点强到可以直接压倒对方。

　　But in fact that doesn't change people's minds at all.  但事实上这丝毫没有改变人们的想法。

　　It's very hard to change people's minds about something like consciousness, 人们的想法是非常难以改变的，特别是在类似意识这样的事情上，

　　and I finally figured out the reason for that.  后来我终于发现了原因所在。

　　The reason for that is that everybody's an expert on consciousness.  原因就是，每个人都是意识的专家。

　　We heard the other day that everybody's got a strong opinion about video games.  我们经常能听到人们对于电子游戏都有鲜明的个人观点

　　They all have an idea for a video game, even if they're not experts.  每个人都有自己对电子游戏的看法，尽管他们不是专家。

　　But they don't consider themselves experts on video games; they've just got strong opinions. 他们也没有把自己看做电子游戏专家，他们只是有着强烈的看法。

　　I'm sure that people here who work on, say, climate change and global warming, 我非常确定在座的各位中，从事，比如气候变化和全球变暖的，

　　or on the future of the Internet,  或者因特网的前景的，

　　encounter people who have very strong opinions about what's going to happen next. 就各自领域未来这一问题会遇到很多有鲜明观点的人。

　　But they probably don't think of these opinions as expertise⁸.  但是或许他们并没有把这些想法当作专业知识

　　They're just strongly held opinions.  他们仅仅是有着鲜明的观点。

　　But with regard to consciousness, people seem to think,  但是说到意识，人们似乎觉得

　　each of us seems to think, "I am an expert.  我们每个人好像都觉得，“我是个专家。

　　Simply by being conscious, I know all about this."  就因为我是有意识的，所以我对意识全知全解。”

　　And so, you tell them your theory and they say,  所以，当你告诉他们你的理论时，他们会说，

　　"No, no, that's not the way consciousness is! “不对，不对，意识不是那样的！

　　No, you've got it all wrong."  不对，你全搞错了。”

　　And they say this with an amazing confidence.  而且他们说的时候，还带着一种令人惊讶的自信。

　　And so what I'm going to try to do today is to shake your confidence. 而我今天想要做的就是要动摇你们的信心。

　　Because I know the feeling -- I can feel it myself. 因为我很清楚这种感觉——我自己就能感觉到。

　　I want to shake your confidence that you know your own innermost minds 我想要动摇你们对了解自身最深处想法的信心

　　that you are, yourselves, authoritative⁹ about your own consciousness.  那种你主宰了自己意识的信心。

　　That's the order of the day here.  这就是今天的议程。

1 glaze   

v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情

参考例句：

• Brush the glaze over the top and sides of the hot cake.在热蛋糕的顶上和周围刷上一层蛋浆。
• Tang three-color glaze horses are famous for their perfect design and realism.唐三彩上釉马以其造型精美和形态生动而著名。

2 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

3 snarl   

v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮

参考例句：

• At the seaside we could hear the snarl of the waves.在海边我们可以听见波涛的咆哮。
• The traffic was all in a snarl near the accident.事故发生处附近交通一片混乱。

4 hoots   

咄，啐

参考例句：

• His suggestion was greeted with hoots of laughter. 他的建议引起了阵阵嗤笑。
• The hoots came from the distance. 远处传来呜呜声。

5 lamented   

adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• her late lamented husband 她那令人怀念的已故的丈夫
• We lamented over our bad luck. 我们为自己的不幸而悲伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

7 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

8 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

9 authoritative   

adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的

参考例句：

• David speaks in an authoritative tone.大卫以命令的口吻说话。
• Her smile was warm but authoritative.她的笑容很和蔼，同时又透着威严。