TED演讲:如何成为生化人并扩展人类潜能(1)（在线收听）

I'm an MIT professor, but I do not design buildings or computer systems.

我是麻省理工学院的教授，但我并不设计建筑或计算机系统。

Rather, I build body parts, bionic legs that augment human walking and running.

确切来说，我建造身体部位，增加人的行走和运行能力的仿生腿。

In 1982, I was in a mountain-climbing accident, and both of my legs had to be amputated due to tissue damage from frostbite.

在1982年的登山事故中，因为双腿组织冻伤，我双腿膝盖以下被迫截肢。

Here, you can see my legs: 24 sensors, six microprocessors and muscle-tendon-like actuators.

看，这就是我的双腿：有24个传感器，6个微处理器和像肌肉肌腱样的驱动器。

I'm basically a bunch of nuts and bolts from the knee down.

我的膝盖以下就是一堆螺栓螺母。

But with this advanced bionic technology, I can skip, dance and run. Thank you.

但是，借助这种先进的仿生技术，我可以跳跃、舞蹈和跑步。谢谢。

I'm a bionic man, but I'm not yet a cyborg.

我是一个仿生人，但还不是生化人。

When I think about moving my legs,

当我想移动双腿时，

neural signals from my central nervous system pass through my nerves and activate muscles within my residual limbs.

中枢神经系统会发出神经信号，通过神经进行传导，并激活我残余肢体的肌肉。

Artificial electrodes sense these signals,

人造电极感应到这些信号，

and small computers in the bionic limb decode my nerve pulses into my intended movement patterns.

仿生肢体内的小计算机对我的神经脉冲解码并进入预期的运动模式。

Stated simply, when I think about moving, that command is communicated to the synthetic part of my body.

简言之，当我想移动时，这个命令被传达到我身体的合成部分。

However, those computers can't input information into my nervous system.

然而，计算机却无法将信息输入到我的神经系统。

When I touch and move my synthetic limbs, I do not experience normal touch and movement sensations.

当我触摸和移动我的合成四肢时，我感受不到正常触摸和运动的感觉。

If I were a cyborg and could feel my legs via small computers inputting information into my nervous system,

如果我是生化人，而且能通过小电脑输入神经系统的信息而感觉到我腿的存在，

it would fundamentally change, I believe, my relationship to my synthetic body.

我相信，它将从根本上改变我与我的合成身体之间的关系。

Today, I can't feel my legs, and because of that, my legs are separate tools from my mind and my body.

现在，我无法感受到双腿的存在，正因为如此，我的双腿事实上只是独立于我身体和意志之外的工具而已。

They're not part of me.

它们根本不是我身体的一部分。

I believe that if I were a cyborg and could feel my legs, they would become part of me, part of self.

我相信，如果我是生化人且能感受到双腿的存在，它们会成为我身体的一部分、自我的一部分。