TED演讲:达顿解释达尔文主义的美的理论(4)（在线收听）

The other great principle of evolution is sexual selection, and it operates very differently.

进化的另一大原则是性选择，它运作的方式则大相径庭。

The peacock's magnificent tail is the most famous example of this.

孔雀那华丽的尾巴就是最著名的例子。

It did not evolve for natural survival.

这不是为了自然生存而进化出来的。

In fact, it goes against natural survival.

实际上，这与自然生存相违背。

No, the peacock's tail results from the mating choices made by peahens.

不，孔雀的尾巴是雌孔雀交配选择的结果。

It's quite a familiar story. It's women who actually push history forward.

这是个大家耳熟能详的故事。实际上是女性推动了历史前进。

Darwin himself, by the way, had no doubts that the peacock's tail was beautiful in the eyes of the peahen.

顺便说一句，达尔文本人也毫不怀疑孔雀的尾巴在雌孔雀眼中是美丽的。

He actually used that word. Now, keeping these ideas firmly in mind,

他事实上用过“美”这个词。现在，把这些牢记在心，

we can say that the experience of beauty is one of the ways that evolution has of arousing and sustaining interest or fascination,

我们可以确定美的体验是进化用来激发和维持兴趣、魅力

even obsession, in order to encourage us toward making the most adaptive decisions for survival and reproduction.

甚至是痴迷的方式之一，是为了鼓励我们做出最有利于生存和繁衍的决策。

Beauty is nature's way of acting at a distance, so to speak.

可以说，美是自然用来间接运作的方式，

I mean, you can't expect to eat an adaptively beneficial landscape.

人们并不指望可以吃一个利于适应性的风景。

It would hardly do to eat your baby or your lover.

也不会想吃你的孩子或你的爱人。

So evolution's trick is to make them beautiful,

因此，进化的方式是让他们看起来赞，

to have them exert a kind of magnetism to give you the pleasure of simply looking at them.

让他们散发出一种吸引力，让你仅仅是看着他们就觉得超爽的。