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

譯者: YUYI TONG 審譯者: Helen Chang

看看你的手

Look at your hand.

你如何知道這就是你的手呢？

How do you know it's really yours?

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

答案看似明顯， 除非你體驗過「假手錯覺」

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

這個實驗是放一隻假手在你面前

and your real hand is hidden behind a screen.

然後把你的真手藏在隔板後面

Both are simultaneously stroked with a paint brush.

兩邊同時被畫筆撫摸

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

無論你如何提醒自己那只是假手

you eventually start to feel like it is,

你最終都會覺得它就是你的手

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

所以當它快被刀子刺中時 你一定會退縮

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

可能這只是個暫時的伎倆， 但卻證明了一個更大的事實：

our bodies, the physical, biological parts of us,

我們的身體， 在生理上、生物上屬於我們

and our minds, the thinking, conscious aspects,

而我們的思惟、思考能力和意識

have a complicated, tangled relationship.

卻和我們有著複雜而糾結的關係

Which one primarily defines you or your self?

哪樣最能定義你和你的自我呢？

Are you a physical body that only experiences thoughts and emotions

你是只有通過大腦內的生化相互作用

as a result of biochemical interactions in the brain?

才能感受到想法和情緒的身體嗎？

That would be a body with a mind.

那是有思惟的身體

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後操縱

but could live outside of your biological body?

但這些部分在你的生物身體之外呢？

That would be a mind with a body.

那這就是有身體的思惟

That takes us to an old question

這讓我們回歸到一個老問題

of whether the body and mind are two separate things.

究竟身體和思惟是不是 兩樣分開的東西

在一個著名的思想實驗中

In a famous thought experiment,

16 世紀的哲學家勒內·笛卡兒指出

16th-century philosopher René Descartes pointed out

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

即使我們所有的身體感覺都只是幻想

our mind and thoughts would still be there.

我們的思惟和想法依然存在

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

對他來說，這也是我們 存在的最終證明

And it led him to conclude that

因此他總結出

the conscious mind is something separate from the material body

意識思惟和物質上的身體是分開的

that forms the core of our identity.

而且是我們身份的核心

The notion of a non-physical consciousness

非生理意識的概念

echoes the belief of many religions in an immaterial soul

與許多宗教信奉非物質的靈魂

for which the body is only a temporary shell.

且身體只是一個 臨時軀殼的信仰相呼應

If we accept this, another problem emerges.

但如果我們接受了這個概念， 就會出現另一個問題

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

非生理的思惟如何 和生理上的身體互動呢？

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

如果思惟沒有形狀、重量或動作

how can it move your muscles?

它如何使肌肉運動呢？

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

若它可以，為何你的思惟只能控制你 而不能控制其他人的身體呢？

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

有些思想家找到了一些 有創意的方法來解決這個困難

For example, the French priest and philosopher Nicolas Malebranche

比如，法國神父兼哲學家 尼古拉斯‧馬勒伯朗士

claimed that when we think about reaching for a fork,

聲稱當我們想伸手拿一個叉子時

it's actually god who moves our hand.

其實是神在移動我們的手

Another priest philosopher named George Berkeley

另一名叫 喬治·貝克萊的神父及哲學家

concluded that the material world is an illusion,

總結出物質世界只是一個幻像

existing only as mental perceptions.

僅作為精神觀念存在

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

這個心靈與身體的問題 不僅存在於哲學領域

With the development of psychology and neuroscience,

隨著心理學和神經科學的發展

scientists have weighed in, as well.

科學家也開始重視這個問題

Many modern scientists reject the idea

很多現代科學家反對

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

心靈和身體之間有區別的想法

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

神經科學表明， 我們的身體以及身體的感覺

are deeply integrated with the activity in our brains

與我們大腦中的活動密切相關

to form what we call consciousness.

從而形成我們所謂的意識

From the day we're born,

從我們出生那天起

our mental development is formed through our body's interaction

我們的心理發展便是通過

身體與外部世界互動而形成的

with the external world.

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

每一次視覺、聽覺和觸覺的接觸 都會在大腦中創造出新地圖和代表物

that eventually become responsible for regulating our experience of self.

最終使我們能調節自我經驗

And we have other senses, besides the typical five,

除了最典型的五感以外 我們還有其他感覺

such as the sense of balance

比如平衡感

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

以及對我們身體相對位置的感覺

The rubber hand illusion, and similar virtual reality experiments,

假手錯覺和類似的虛擬現實實驗顯示

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

在對自我的判斷中， 我們的感覺很容易誤導我們

They also suggest that our bodies and external sensations

這些實驗也顯示我們的身體 和外在的感覺

are inseparable from our subjective consciousness.

與我們的主觀意識是分不開的

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

如果這是真的，那可能笛卡兒的實驗 從一開始就是錯誤的

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

畢竟，如果在一個 安靜的房間裡閉上眼睛

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

擁有身體的感覺 並不是我們只用想像出來的

心靈和身體的這個問題

This question of mind and body becomes particularly interesting

在考慮到未來科技時會變得特別有趣

at a time when we're considering future technologies,

such as neural prosthetics and wearable robots

比如神經義肢和可穿戴機器人

that could become extended parts of our bodies.

這類可以作為我們身體 延展部分的東西

Or the slightly more radical idea of mind uploading,

又或者稍微更激進的思想上傳

which dangles the possibility of immortal life without a body

也就是通過將人的意識轉移到電腦中

by transferring a human consciousness into a computer.

創造出無需身體便能獲得永生的可能

If the body is deeply mapped in the brain,

如果身體深深映射在大腦中

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

那麼通過將自己的感覺 延展到新型的可穿戴設備

our brains may eventually adapt to a restructured version

我們的大腦最終可能 會用新的感官表現

with new sensory representations.

來適應這個重組的版本

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

也許將我們的意識 上傳到電腦根本不可能

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

除非我們還能模擬 一個能夠傳遞生理感覺的身體

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

身體是意識的一部分 和意識是身體的一部分

這些想法都不是什麼新鮮事

also isn't new.

It's found extensively in Buddhist thought,

不單在佛教思想中廣泛存在

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

從海德格爾到亞里士多德等 哲學家的著作中也能找到

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

但現在，我們仍有一個未解決的問題

of what exactly our self is.

那就是自我究竟為何物

我們是否像笛卡兒所說 是個配備了身體的思惟？

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

Or a complex organism that's gained consciousness

還是個通過數百萬年的進化

over millions of years of evolution

而獲得意識的複雜生物體

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

因此比我們遙遠的祖先 擁有更大的腦子和更多的神經元？

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

抑或是其他完全沒有人 想到過的東西呢？