Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani

翻译人员: Jiawei Ni 校对人员: Tianyu Qiao

Look at your hand.

看看你的手，

How do you know it's really yours?

你怎么知道这就是你的手呢？

It seems obvious, unless you've experienced the rubber hand illusion.

答案看似明显，除非你有 体验过“橡胶手错觉”。

In this experiment, a dummy hand is placed in front of you

这个实验是放一只假手在你面前，

and your real hand is hidden behind a screen.

然后把你的真手藏在隔板后面。

Both are simultaneously stroked with a paint brush.

两边同时被刷子抚摸。

No matter how much you remind yourself the dummy hand isn't yours,

无论你如何提醒自己那只假手不是你的，

you eventually start to feel like it is,

你最终都会觉得它属于你，

and inevitably flinch when it's threatened with a knife.

所以当它快被刀子刺中时你一定会退缩。

That may just be a temporary trick, but it speaks to a larger truth:

可能这只是个暂时的伎俩， 但却证明了一个更大的事实：

our bodies, the physical, biological parts of us,

我们的身体在生理上属于我们，

and our minds, the thinking, conscious aspects,

和我们的思维，思考能力和意识

have a complicated, tangled relationship.

有着复杂而纠结的关系。

Which one primarily defines you or your self?

哪一个更能定义你呢？

Are you a physical body that only experiences thoughts and emotions

你是只有通过大脑内的生化相互作用

as a result of biochemical interactions in the brain?

才能感受到想法和情绪的身体吗？

That would be a body with a mind.

这是有着思维的身体。

Or is there some non-physical part of you that's pulling the strings

或是有一些非生理的部分在幕后操纵，

but could live outside of your biological body?

但这些部分在你的生物身体之外？

That would be a mind with a body.

这就是有着身体的思维。

That takes us to an old question

这让我们回归到一个古老的问题，

of whether the body and mind are two separate things.

究竟身体和思维是不是两样不同的东西？

In a famous thought experiment,

在一个著名的思想实验中，

16世纪的哲学家笛卡儿指出，

16th-century philosopher René Descartes pointed out

that even if all our physical sensations were just a hallucinatory dream,

即使我们所有的身体感觉都只是幻想，

our mind and thoughts would still be there.

我们的思维和想法依然存在。

That, for him, was the ultimate proof of our existence.

对他来说，这也是我们存在的最终证明。

And it led him to conclude that

由此，他总结出，

the conscious mind is something separate from the material body

意识是与构成我们身份核心

that forms the core of our identity.

的物质身体相分离的东西。

The notion of a non-physical consciousness

非生理意识的概念

echoes the belief of many religions in an immaterial soul

与许多宗教信奉非物质的灵魂，

for which the body is only a temporary shell.

认为身体只是一个临时躯壳的信仰相呼应。

If we accept this, another problem emerges.

但如果我们接受了这个概念， 另一个问题就出现了。

How can a non-physical mind have any interaction with the physical body?

非生理的思维如何 和生理上的身体互动？

If the mind has no shape, weight, or motion,

如果思维没有形， 重量或动作，

how can it move your muscles?

它如何使肌肉运动？

Or if we assume it can, why can your mind only move your body and not others?

假设它可以，为什么你的思维只能 控制你的而不能控制其他人的身体呢？

Some thinkers have found creative ways to get around this dilemma.

有些思想家找到了一些 有创意的方法来回答这个问题。

For example, the French priest and philosopher Nicolas Malebranche

比如，法国神父兼哲学家 尼古拉斯‧马勒伯朗士认为，

claimed that when we think about reaching for a fork,

当我们考虑伸手拿一个叉子时，

其实是神在移动我们的手。

it's actually god who moves our hand.

Another priest philosopher named George Berkeley

另一名叫乔治·贝克莱的神父及哲学家

concluded that the material world is an illusion,

总结出，物质世界只是一个幻像，

existing only as mental perceptions.

仅作为精神观念存在。

This question of mind versus body isn't just the domain of philosophers.

这个心灵与身体的问题 不仅存在于哲学领域。

With the development of psychology and neuroscience,

随着心理学和神经科学的发展，

scientists have weighed in, as well.

科学家也开始重视这个问题。

Many modern scientists reject the idea

很多现代科学家反对

that there's any distinction between the mind and body.

心灵和身体之间有区别的想法。

Neuroscience suggests that our bodies, along with their physical senses,

神经科学表明， 我们的身体以及身体的感觉

are deeply integrated with the activity in our brains

与我们大脑中的活动密切相关，

to form what we call consciousness.

从而形成我们所谓的意识。

From the day we're born,

从我们出生那天起，

our mental development is formed through our body's interaction

我们的心理发展便是通过

with the external world.

身体与外部世界互动而形成的。

Every sight, sound, and touch create new maps and representations in the brain

每一次视觉，听觉和触觉的接触 都会在大脑中创造出新的地图和代表物，

that eventually become responsible for regulating our experience of self.

最终使我们能调节自我体验。

And we have other senses, besides the typical five,

除了最典型的五感以外， 我们还有其他感觉，

such as the sense of balance

比如平衡感

and a sense of the relative location of our body parts.

以及对我们身体相对位置的感觉。

The rubber hand illusion, and similar virtual reality experiments,

橡胶手错觉和类似的虚拟现实实验显示，

show that our senses can easily mislead us in our judgment of self.

在对自我的判断中， 我们的感觉很容易误导我们。

They also suggest that our bodies and external sensations

这些实验也表明我们的身体和外在感觉

are inseparable from our subjective consciousness.

与我们的主观意识是分不开的。

If this is true, then perhaps Descartes' experiment was mistaken from the start.

如果这是真的，那么可能 笛卡儿的实验从一开始就是错误的。

After all, if we close our eyes in a silent room,

毕竟，如果在一个 安静的房间里闭上眼睛，

the feeling of having a body isn't something we can just imagine away.

我们并不能让心灵从躯体中脱离。

This question of mind and body becomes particularly interesting

心灵和身体的这个问题 在考虑到未来科技时

at a time when we're considering future technologies,

会变得特别有趣，

such as neural prosthetics and wearable robots

比如神经假肢和可穿戴机器人，

that could become extended parts of our bodies.

这类可以作为我们身体延展部分的东西。

Or the slightly more radical idea of mind uploading,

又或者更激进的，思想上传，

which dangles the possibility of immortal life without a body

也就是通过将人的意识转移到电脑中

by transferring a human consciousness into a computer.

创造出无需身体便能获得永生的可能。

If the body is deeply mapped in the brain,

如果身体深深映射在大脑中，

then by extending our sense of self to new wearable devices,

那么通过将自己的感觉 延展到新型的可穿戴设备，

our brains may eventually adapt to a restructured version

我们的大脑最终可能会用新的感官表现

with new sensory representations.

来适应这个重组的版本。

Or perhaps uploading our consciousness into a computer might not even be possible

也许将我们的意识上传到 电脑是不太可能的，

unless we can also simulate a body capable of delivering physical sensations.

除非我们还能模拟一个 能够传递生理感觉的身体。

The idea that our bodies are part of our consciousness and vice versa

身体是意识的一部分 和意识是身体的一部分

also isn't new.

的想法都不是什么新鲜事。

It's found extensively in Buddhist thought,

它们不单在佛教思想中广泛存在，

as well as the writings of philosophers from Heidegger to Aristotle.

从海德格尔到亚里士多德 等哲学家的著作中也能找到。

But for now, we're still left with the open question

但现在，我们仍有一个未解决的问题，

of what exactly our self is.

那就是自我究竟为何物？

Are we a mind equipped with a physical body as Descartes suggested?

我们是否像笛卡儿所说的 是个配备了身体的思维？

Or a complex organism that's gained consciousness

还是个通过数百万年的进化

over millions of years of evolution

而获得意识的复杂生物体?

thanks to a bigger brain and more neurons than our distant ancestors?

毕竟我们的大脑比远古祖先的 要大，也有更多的神经元，

Or something else entirely that no one's yet dreamt up?

或是其他完全没有人想到过的东西呢？