How do you know you’re not dreaming? - Daniel Gregory

翻译人员: Lesley Xu 校对人员: Grace Man

You’re a butterfly, fluttering around pursuing a butterfly’s whims.

你是一只蝴蝶， 像蝴蝶追求梦想似地四处飞舞。

Then you wake up.

然后你醒了。

But how do you know you’re not dreaming now?

但你怎么知道你已从梦中醒来？

The answer might seem obvious,

答案似乎很明显，

but it’s actually very difficult to explain how, definitively,

但其实，要确切地解释 “你自己知道你已经醒来了”

you know you’re awake.

是件非常困难的事。

So difficult, in fact, that it has puzzled philosophers since ancient times.

事实上，这个难题 自古以来就困扰着许多哲学家。

In the butterfly scenario,

以刚才蝴蝶的例子来说，

the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi surfaced a mystifying possibility:

中国古代的哲学家庄子 提出了一个谜团般的可能性

if we can dream of being an entirely different creature,

昔者庄周梦为胡蝶，

who's to say we're not actually

不知周之梦为胡蝶与,

a different creature dreaming of being human?

胡蝶之梦为周与？

Bizarre things happen in dreams:

离奇的事情常发生在梦里：

you fly, or conjure an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet out of thin air,

你飞起来了， 或者无中生出一顿点心自助餐，

or get chased by witches through the halls of your elementary school,

或者在小学的门厅被女巫追逐，

which suddenly looks a lot like Paris.

小学的门厅突然变成了巴黎。

But the strange things that happen in dreams don’t seem strange at the time.

但是发生在梦里的离奇的事情 在当时看来并不离奇。

So how do you know you’re not in a dream right now

所以， 怎么才能得知自己在不在做一个

that will seem very strange after you wake up?

醒来后会觉得十分奇怪的梦？

Well, it is possible to notice

在做梦的时候，有可能会注意到

the strangeness of a dream while you’re dreaming.

那个梦的奇怪的地方。

Lucid dreamers know they’re dreaming.

清醒的人做梦的时候 知道自己在做梦。

By definition, if you were having a lucid dream, you would know it.

确切来说，若你在做一个清醒的梦， 你自己是会明白这一点的。

But all that proves is that you’re not having a lucid dream—

但是这也证明 你如果不在做一个清醒的梦——

it doesn’t prove you’re awake.

它不会证明你醒着。

There has to be a surefire test—

有一个可靠的实验——

something that never— or only— happens when you’re awake,

一些从来不在——或仅仅在—— 你清醒的时候发生的事情，

something that never— or only— happens in a dream.

一些从不——或仅仅—— 在梦中发生。

Wake up. No, that isn’t it—

醒醒。 不，这不代表——

you can wake up in a dream.

你可以在梦中醒来。

Pinch yourself. If it hurts, aren’t you really awake?

掐自己一把。 如果痛，你真的醒来了吗？

Try to read or write something.

试着读或者写一些事情。

Run around the room.

绕着房间跑一圈。

Does your pace seem normal or suspiciously slow?

你的脚步是不是看起来正常 或者诡异得慢？

Suspiciously fast?

诡异得快？

Can’t tell? Try to remember the last time you ran.

不确定？ 试着记起上一次的跑步的时候。

Actually, that brings us to an even better test

事实上，这带给我们一个更好的

from the 17th century French philosopher René Descartes.

来自 17 世纪法国哲学家 勒内·笛卡尔(René Descartes)的实验

He pointed out that in our memories, dreams are disconnected—

他指出在我们的记忆中， 梦是不连续的——

the events of a dream don’t fit in to the chain of events

梦中的事件不予我们现实中的

in our waking lives.

事件链相连。

This seems rock solid, doesn't it?

这看起来很令人信服，不是吗？

You couldn’t possibly have swum with dolphins in a nameless pink sea

你或许不能在圣诞节与除夕夜之间

between Christmas and New Year’s Eve

和海豚在无名的粉色海洋里游泳

because you didn’t leave Kansas and you have the receipts to prove it.

因为你不能离开堪萨斯 并且你有收据来证明。

Well, one of Descartes’ contemporaries,

笛卡尔的同代人之一

the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, had something to say about that:

英国哲学家托马斯·霍布斯 (Thomas Hobbes)对此有话说：

what if Descartes was performing his test in a dream?

如果笛卡尔是在梦中做的实验呢？

What if we ask an expert?

如果我们咨询一名专家呢？

A neuroscientist can measure the activity in different parts of your brain

一位神经科学家可以测量 你大脑中不同组成的活动

and tell you whether you’re awake or sleeping.

然后告诉你你是醒来了还是在睡觉。

But that just brings us back to the idea that any test you might use

但是让我们回到那个 你在睡觉时能用的所有测试

to prove you’re awake could take place in a dream.

都能证明你醒着的想法。

So far, no one has found a convincing response to this.

至今，没有人能够为此找到 一个令人信服的答案。

But let’s be real: there’s a whole lot more detail in our waking experience

但是现实点：我们在醒的时候 能够经历比做梦时

than in dreams.

更多的细节。

We go to sleep and wake up again day after day for many years,

我们每天睡着，然后醒来， 重复许多年，

and each new day is full of countless people, places, things, experiences.

然后每个新的一天都充满了数不完的 人、地点、东西、经验。

Even our memories, which capture just a fraction of this experience,

甚至在我们的， 只抓取了一部分经验的记忆中，

contain an almost incomprehensibly vast amount of detail:

包括了难以理解的不计其数的细节：

we can recall a line from a favorite book decades later,

我们可以在数十年后 回想起最喜欢的书的一行字，

remember the musty smell of its pages

回想起书页间发霉的味道，

and the taste of the lemonade we drank while reading it,

以及看书时喝的柠檬汽水的味道，

remember a dream we had about it and tell someone all this.

回想起一个做过的梦然后告诉别人。

Isn't it ridiculous to suggest a dream could ever simulate this richness?

指出一个梦永远无法模拟它的丰富性 难道不是很可笑吗？

Well, as the Persian philosopher al-Ghazali pointed out,

就像波斯哲学家 安萨里(al-Ghazali)提出的，

in the same way we think we are now awake having woken from dreams,

同一道理中我们觉得我们现在醒了， 从梦中醒来了，

it is possible that we might wake from our current state

有可能我们从现在的状态中

into another state of even greater wakefulness.

醒到了另外一个更加清醒的状态。

Which would mean we’re really in a kind of dream-state

这也说明 我们确实在觉得自己醒来的时候

when we think we’re awake.

处在一个梦中的境界。

What philosophers really want to know is what justifies our belief

哲学家们真正想要知道的是 如何证明

that we’re awake.

我们醒着。

We all want to believe things because we have reasons for them,

我们都倾向于相信 有依据的事情，

not just because they seem right.

不仅仅是因为它们听起来是正确的。

Sometimes, the biggest challenge is to show why we should believe something

有时候，最大的挑战是证明 为什么我们应该相信

that seems completely obvious to us all.

一件对所有人来说 显而易见的事情。