【英语时差8,16】读心术（下）

If, somehow, brains could read other brains directly, there would indeed be a very strong evolutionary¹ advantage to it. In Asimov’s example, even a simple version of mind-reading, such as a chicken being able to sense an approaching fox’s brain as it thinks “food, food, food,” would be a huge advantage! Animals of any species that could do rudimentary mind-reading should survive much better than ones that couldn’t, and should pass on their mind-reading gene² quite effectively. Do you see the problem? The fact that there is a debate at all over whether mind-reading exists suggests that it doesn’t. If it were a real phenomenon, versions of it should be widespread, the way normal vision is. We would expect it to be everywhere . . . not just in a few “special” people with nothing up their sleeves.

1 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

2 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。