An inventory of the invisible | John Lloyd

Translator: Klavdija Cernilogar Reviewer: Lenka Tušar

So the question is, what is invisible?

Vprašanje je torej, kaj je nevidno?

There is more of it than you think, actually.

Pravzaprav več, kot si mislite.

Everything, I would say. Everything that matters

Rekel bi, da vse. Vse stvari, ki so pomembne,

except every thing and except matter.

razen vseh stvari in razen snovi same.

We can see matter. But we can't see what's the matter.

Stvari lahko vidimo. Ne moremo pa videti, v čem je stvar.

As in this cryptic sentence I found in The Guardian recently:

Tako kot pri tem kodiranem sporočilu, ki sem ga pred kratkim našel v Guardianu:

"The marriage suffered a setback in 1965,

"Njun zakon je zašel v težave leta 1965,

when the husband was killed by the wife."

ko je žena ubila moža."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

There's a world of invisibility there, isn't there?

V tem je cel kup nevidnega, mar ne?

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So, we can see the stars and the planets,

Torej, lahko vidimo zvezde in planete,

but we can't see what holds them apart

ne vidimo pa, kaj jih drži narazen

or what draws them together.

ali kaj jih vleče skupaj.

With matter, as with people, we see only the skin of things.

Pri snovi, tako kot pri ljudeh, lahko vidimo samo ovojnico.

We can't see into the engine room.

Ne vidimo strojnice.

We can't see what makes people tick, at least not without difficulty.

Ne moremo videti, kaj poganja ljudi, vsaj ne brez težav.

And the closer we look at anything, the more it disappears.

In bolj od blizu ko gledamo, bolj stvari izginjajo.

In fact, if you look really closely at stuff,

Pravzaprav, če pogledate res od blizu,

if you look at the basic substructure of matter,

če hočete videti temeljno strukturo snovi,

there isn't anything there.

tam ni nič.

Electrons disappear in a kind of fuzz,

Elektroni izginejo v nekakšni megli,

and there is only energy. And you can't see energy.

ostane samo energija. Te pa ne morete videti.

So everything that matters, that's important, is invisible.

Vse, kar je torej pomembno, je nevidno.

One slightly silly thing that's invisible

Ena od malo smešnih nevidnih stvari

is this story, which is invisible to you.

je tale zgodba, ki je ne morete videti.

And I'm now going to make it visible to you in your minds.

Zdaj bom naredil tako, da jo boste lahko videli v mislih.

It's about an M.P. called Geoffrey Dickens.

Gre za preminulega poslanca Geoffreya Dickensa.

The late Geoffrey Dickens, M.P. was attending a fete in his constituency.

Dickens je sodeloval na zabavi v svojem volilnem okraju.

Wherever he went, at every stall he stopped he was closely followed

Kamorkoli je šel, pri katerikoli stojnici se je ustavil, mu je tesno sledila

by a devoted smiling woman of indescribable ugliness.

zvesta smehljajoča se ženska, ki je bila nepopisno grda.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Try as he might, he couldn't get away from her.

Nikakor ji ni mogel ubežati.

A few days later he received a letter from a constituent

Čez nekaj dni je od volivke prejel pismo,

saying how much she admired him,

v katerem je napisala, kako ga občuduje,

had met him at a fete and asking for a signed photograph.

da ga je srečala na zabavi in da ga prosi za podpisano fotografijo

After her name, written in brackets was the apt description, horse face.

V oklepaju poleg njenega imena je bil jasen opis: konjski obraz.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

"I've misjudged this women," thought Mr. Dickens.

"To žensko sem narobe ocenil," si je mislil Dickens.

"Not only is she aware of her physical repulsiveness,

"Ne samo da se zaveda svoje fizične odvratnosti,

she turns it to her advantage.

spremeni jo celo v svojo prednost.

A photo is not enough."

Fotografija ni dovolj."

So he went out and bought a plastic frame to put the photograph in.

Šel je in kupil plastičen okvir, v katerega je vstavil fotografijo.

And on the photograph, he wrote with a flourish,

Nanjo je vzneseno zapisal:

"To Horse Face, with love from Geoffrey Dickens, M.P."

"Za konjski obraz, z ljubeznijo, poslanec Geoffrey Dickens"

After it had been sent off, his secretary said to him,

Potem ko so fotografijo poslali, ga je tajnik vprašal,

"Did you get that letter from the woman at the fete?

"Ste dobili pismo tiste ženske z zabave?

I wrote Horse Face on her, so you'd remember who she was."

Nanj sem napisal 'konjski obraz', da bi se spomnili, kdo je bila."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

I bet he thought he wished he was invisible, don't you?

Stavit grem, da si je takrat želel biti neviden, kaj pravite?

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So, one of the interesting things about invisibility

Torej, ena od zanimivih stvari o nevidnosti

is that things that we can't see

je, da stvari, ki jih ne vidimo,

we also can't understand.

tudi ne moremo razumeti.

Gravity is one thing that we can't see

Težnost je ena takih nevidnih

and which we don't understand.

in nerazumljivih stvari.

It's the least understood of all the four fundamental forces,

Od štirih temeljnih sil je najmanj razumljena

and the weakest.

in najšibkejša.

And nobody really knows what it is or why it's there.

Nihče pravzaprav ne ve, kaj je in zakaj obstaja.

For what it's worth, Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest scientist who ever lived,

Še celo Isaac Newton, največji znanstvenik vseh časov,

he thought Jesus came to Earth specifically to operate the levers of gravity.

je mislil, da je Jezus prišel na svet zato, da bi upravljal zakone težnosti.

That's what he thought he was there for.

To, je menil, je bila njegova vloga.

So, bright guy, could be wrong on that one, I don't know.

Pameten možak, ampak pri temle se je morda zmotil, kaj pa vem.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Consciousness. I see all your faces.

Zavest. Vidim vaše obraze.

I have no idea what any of you are thinking. Isn't that amazing?

Pojma nimam, o čem razmišljate. Ni to noro?

Isn't that incredible that we can't read each other's minds?

Ali ni neverjetno, da ne moremo brati misli drug drugega?

But we can touch each other, taste each other perhaps, if we get close enough.

Lahko se dotikamo, celo okušamo, če smo si dovolj blizu.

But we can't read each other's minds. I find that quite astonishing.

A ne moremo brati misli. To se mi zdi kar šokantno.

In the Sufi faith, this great Middle Eastern religion,

V sufizmu, tej veliki bližnjevzhodni religiji,

which some claim is the route of all religions,

za katero nekateri trdijo, da je vodilo vseh religij,

Sufi masters are all telepaths, so they say.

so vsi sufiji telepati, tako pravijo.

But their main exercise of telepathy

Ampak njihova glavna telepatska dejavnost

is to send out powerful signals to the rest of us that it doesn't exist.

je pošiljanje močnih signalov nam ostalim, da telepatija ne obstaja.

So that's why we don't think it exists,

Zato mislimo, da ne obstaja,

the Sufi masters working on us.

ker sufiji vplivajo na nas.

In the question of consciousness

Pri vprašanju zavesti

and artificial intelligence,

in umetne inteligence

artificial intelligence has really, like the study of consciousness,

z umetno inteligenco tako kot z raziskovanjem zavesti

gotten nowhere. We have no idea how consciousness works.

niso prišli nikamor. Pojma nimamo, kako zavest deluje.

With artificial intelligence, not only have they not created artificial intelligence,

In ne samo da niso ustvarili umetne inteligence,

they haven't yet created artificial stupidity.

ustvarili niso niti umetne neumnosti.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

The laws of physics: invisible, eternal, omnipresent, all-powerful.

Zakoni fizike: nevidna, večna, vseprisotna, vsemogočna.

Remind you of anyone?

Vas to na koga spominja?

Interesting. I'm, as you can guess,

Zanimivo. Kot lahko uganete,

not a materialist, I'm an immaterialist.

nisem materialist, ampak imaterialist.

And I've found a very useful new word, ignostic. Okay?

In iznašel sem uporabno novo besedo: ignostik. Prav?

I'm an ignostic.

Jaz sem ignostik.

I refuse to be drawn on the question of whether God exists,

Nočem se vpletati v razpravo o tem, ali bog obstaja,

until somebody properly defines the terms.

dokler nekdo ne bo pravilno opredelil pojmov.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Another thing we can't see is the human genome.

Še ena stvar, ki je ne moremo videti, je človeški genom.

And this is increasingly peculiar,

To je vse bolj čudna zadeva:

because about 20 years ago, when they started delving into the genome,

pred 20 leti, ko so genom začeli raziskovati,

they thought it would probably contain around 100,000 genes.

so mislili, da bo verjetno vseboval okoli 100,000 genov.

Geneticists will know this, but every year since,

Genetiki to že vedo, ampak odtlej so številko vsako leto

it's been revised downwards.

popravili navzdol.

We now think there are likely to be only just over 20,000

Zdaj menimo, da je v človeškem genomu verjetno

genes in the human genome.

le nekaj nad 20,000 genov.

This is extraordinary. Because rice -- get this --

To je nenavadno. Kajti riž - poslušajte tole -

rice is known to have 38 thousand genes.

riž ima 38,000 genov.

Potatoes, potatoes have 48 chromosomes. Do you know that?

Krompir ima 48 kromosomov. Ste to vedeli?

Two more than people,

Dva več kot človek

and the same as a gorilla.

in prav toliko kot gorila.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

You can't see these things, but they are very strange.

Teh stvari ne morete videti, so pa zelo čudne.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

The stars by day. I always think that's fascinating.

Zvezde podnevi. Vedno mislim, da je to fascinantno.

The universe disappears.

Vesolje izgine.

The more light there is, the less you can see.

Več ko je svetlobe, manj lahko vidimo.

Time, nobody can see time.

Nihče ne vidi časa.

I don't know if you know this. Modern physics,

Ne vem, ali ste vedeli. V moderni fiziki

there is a big movement in modern physics

obstaja veliko gibanje,

to decide that time doesn't really exist,

ki zahteva odločitev, da čas v resnici ne obstaja,

because it's too inconvenient for the figures.

ker se ne sklada s številkami.

It's much easier if it's not really there.

Veliko lažje je, če ga v resnici ni.

You can't see the future, obviously.

Očitno je, da ne morete videti prihodnosti.

And you can't see the past, except in your memory.

Preteklosti tudi ne, razen v spominu.

One of the interesting things about the past is

Ena od zanimivosti preteklosti je,

you particularly can't see. My son asked me this the other day,

da je vi sami še posebej ne vidite. Zadnjič me je sin vprašal:

he said, "Dad, can you remember what I was like when I was two?"

"Oči, se spomniš, kakšen sem bil, ko sem imel dve leti?"

And I said, "Yes." And he said, "Why can't I?"

Rekel sem: "Ja." Odvrnil je: "Zakaj se pa jaz ne morem?"

Isn't that extraordinary? You cannot remember

Ni to nenavadno? Ne morete se spomniti,

what happened to you earlier than the age of two or three,

kaj se vam je dogajalo pred starostjo dveh, treh let,

which is great news for psychoanalysts,

kar je krasna novica za psihoanalitike,

because otherwise they'd be out of a job.

drugače bi ostali brez posla.

Because that's where all the stuff happens

Kajti tam se zgodijo vse stvari,

(Laughter)

(smeh)

that makes you who you are.

zaradi katerih ste, kakršni ste.

Another thing you can't see is the grid on which we hang.

Še ena nevidna stvar je ogrodje, na katerem visimo.

This is fascinating. You probably know, some of you,

To je res zanimivo. Verjetno nekateri veste,

that cells are continually renewed. You can see it in skin and this kind of stuff.

da se celice stalno obnavljajo. To lahko vidite na koži in podobnem.

Skin flakes off, hairs grow, nails, that kind of stuff.

Koža se lušči, lasje rastejo, nohti, te stvari.

But every cell in your body is replaced at some point.

Ampak vsaka celica v telesu se na neki točki zamenja.

Taste buds, every 10 days or so.

Okušalne brbončice približno vsakih deset dni.

Livers and internal organs sort of take a bit longer. A spine takes several years.

Jetra in notranji organi potrebujejo malo več časa. Hrbtenica rabi nekaj let.

But at the end of seven years, not one cell in your body

Ampak po sedmih letih niti ena celica v vašem telesu

remains from what was there seven years ago.

ni več ista kot pred sedmimi leti.

The question is, who, then, are we?

Vprašanje torej je, kdo smo?

What are we? What is this thing that we hang on,

Kaj smo? Na čem visimo,

that is actually us?

kar nas naredi to, kar smo?

Okay. Atoms, you can't see them.

Prav. Atomi, teh ne morete videti.

Nobody ever will. They're smaller than the wavelength of light.

Nihče jih nikoli ne bo. Manjši od valovne dolžine svetlobe so.

Gas, you can't see that.

Ne morete videti plina.

Interesting. Somebody mentioned 1600 recently.

Zanimivo. Nekdo je nedavno omenil leto 1600.

Gas was invented in 1600

Takrat so izumili plin,

by a Dutch chemist called Van Helmont.

to je storil nizozemski kemik Van Helmont.

It's said to be the most successful ever invention

To je menda najuspešnejši izum besede,

of a word by a known individual.

ki ga je posameznik kdajkoli napravil.

Quite good. He also invented a word called "blas,"

Kar dobro. Izumil je tudi besedo "blas"

meaning astral radiation.

za astralno radiacijo.

Didn't catch on, unfortunately.

Se pa na žalost ni prijela.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

But well done, him.

No, vseeno, odlično je opravil.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

There is so many things that -- Light.

Toliko stvari je, ki... svetloba.

You can't see light. When it's dark, in a vacuum,

Ne morete videti svetlobe. Ko je temno, v vakuumu,

if a person shines a beam of light straight across your eyes,

če nekdo posveti žarek svetlobe naravnost čez vaše oči,

you won't see it. Slightly technical, some physicists will disagree with this.

je ne boste videli. To je malo tehnična stvar, nekateri fiziki se ne bodo strinjali.

But it's odd that you can't see the beam of light,

Ampak čudno je, da ne morete videti žarka svetlobe,

you can only see what it hits.

temveč samo tisto, kar žarek zadene.

I find that extraordinary, not to be able to see light,

Zdi se mi nenavadno, da ne moremo videti svetlobe,

not to be able to see darkness.

ne moremo videti teme.

Electricity, you can't see that.

Elektrika, ne morete je videti.

Don't let anyone tell you they understand electricity.

Naj vam nihče ne trdi, da razume elektriko.

They don't. Nobody knows what it is.

Ne razumejo. Nihče ne ve, kaj to je.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

You probably think the electrons in an electric wire

Verjetno mislite, da elektroni po električni žici

move instantaneously down a wire, don't you, at the speed of light

neprenehoma potujejo s svetlobno hitrostjo,

when you turn the light on. They don't.

ko prižgete luč. Pa ni tako.

Electrons bumble down the wire,

Elektroni se spotikajo navzdol po žici

about the speed of spreading honey, they say.

s hitrostjo tekočega medu, pravijo.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Galaxies, 100 billion of them estimated in the universe.

Galaksije, ocenjujejo, da jih je v vesolju sto milijard.

100 billion. How many can we see? Five.

Sto milijard. Koliko jih vidimo? Pet.

Five out of the 100 billion galaxies, with the naked eye,

Ped od sto milijard galaksij, s prostim očesom,

and one of them is quite difficult to see unless you've got very good eyesight.

od tega je eno težko opaziti, če nimate izjemno ostrega vida.

Radio waves. There's another thing.

Radijski valovi. To je še ena stvar.

Heinrich Hertz, when he discovered radio waves in 1887,

Heinrich Hertz, ki jih je leta 1887 odkril,

he called them radio waves because they radiated.

jih je imenoval radijski valovi, ker so oddajali energijo.

And somebody said to him,

In nekdo ga je vprašal:

"Well what's the point of these, Heinrich?

"Hja, v čem je njihov smisel, Heinrich?

What's the point of these radio waves that you've found?"

V čem je smisel radijskih valov, ki si jih našel?"

And he said, "Well, I've no idea.

Hertz je odgovoril: "No, pojma nimam.

But I guess somebody will find a use for them someday."

A menda bo nekdo nekoč ugotovil, da so za kaj uporabni."

And that's what they do, radio. That's what they discovered.

In to počnejo, oddajajo, radio. To so iznašli.

Anyway, so the biggest thing

Kakorkoli že, največja stvari,

that's invisible to us is what we don't know.

ki je nevidna, je to, česar ne vemo.

It is incredible how little we know.

Neverjetno je, kako malo vemo.

Thomas Edison once said,

Thomas Edison je nekoč dejal:

"We don't know one percent of one millionth

"Ne vemo niti enega odstotka ene milijoninke

about anything."

o čemerkoli."

And I've come to the conclusion --

To nas pripelje do zaključka...

because you've asked this other question, "What's another thing you can't see?"

ker ste vprašali: "Česa še ne moremo videti?"

The point, most of us. What's the point?

Smisla, večina med nami. V čem je smisel?

(Laughter)

(smeh)

(Applause)

(aplavz)

You can't see a point. It's by definition dimensionless,

Ne morete videti točke. Po definiciji je brez dimenzij,

like an electron, oddly enough.

tako kot elektron, čudno, ne?

But the point, what I've got it down to,

Ampak smisel, kolikor razumem,

is there are only two questions really worth asking.

je v tem, da je res vredno postaviti samo dve vprašanji.

"Why are we here?" and "What should we do about it while we are?

"Zakaj smo tu?" in "Kaj naj s tem napravimo, dokler smo tu?"

And to help you, I've got two things to leave you with, from two great philosophers,

Za pomoč vam dajem dve misli dveh velikih filozofov,

perhaps two of the greatest philosopher thinkers of the 20th century,

morda dveh od najpomembnejših mislecev 20. stoletja,

one a mathematician and an engineer, and the other a poet.

enega matematika in inženirja in enega pesnika.

The first is Ludwig Wittgenstein who said,

Prvi je Ludwig Wittgenstein, ki je dejal:

"I don't know why we are here.

"Ne vem, čemu smo tu.

But I'm pretty sure it's not in order to enjoy ourselves."

Sem pa dokaj prepričan, da ne zato, da bi se imeli lepo."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

He was a cheerful bastard wasn't he?

Res je bil dobrovoljček, kaj?

(Laughter)

(smeh)

And secondly and lastly, W.H. Auden,

In drugi, zadnji, W. H. Auden,

one of my favorite poets, who said,

eden mojih najljubših pesnikov, ki je dejal:

"We are here on earth

"Na svetu smo,

to help others.

da bi pomagali drugim.

What the others are here for, I've no idea."

Čemu so na svetu drugi, pa nimam pojma."

(Laughter)

(smeh)

(Applause)

(aplavz)