Blindness Isn't a Tragic Binary — It's a Rich Spectrum | Andrew Leland | TED

翻译人员: Yanyan Hong 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

(Audio description) A white man with glasses sits at a marble table

（音频描述）一个戴着眼镜的白人 坐在一盘切成薄片的梨

next to a plate of sliced pears.

旁边的大理石桌旁。

Hi, I'm Andrew Leland.

你好，我是安德鲁·利兰德 （Andrew Leland），

I'm blind.

我失明了。

And this is a TED Talk about blindness,

这是一个关于失明的 TED 演讲，

which is confusing for me and for you

你我可能都感到困惑，

because just by watching me right now, you can probably tell I'm not blind.

因为当你看着我， 你可能会觉得我不是盲人。

For example, I can tell that on this plate right here,

例如，我可以看出，在这盘子里，

there are five slices of pear arranged in a smiley face.

有五片梨摆成一张笑脸。

Or that that --

或者那个——

(AD) A framed photo hangs on the wall behind him.

（AD）他身后的墙上 挂着一张带框的照片。

AL: Is a photograph of a very sad hippo.

AL：是一张非常悲伤的河马的照片。

So you might be wondering, if I can see all that,

所以你可能想知道， 如果我能看出所有这些，

why am I talking about blindness?

我为什么要谈论失明？

OK, so I'm going blind.

好吧，我将要面对失明，

I don't know exactly when.

虽然我不知道确切的时间。

As a teenager, I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, or RP,

十几岁的时候，我被诊断出 患有色素性视网膜炎，简称 RP，

which is a degenerative retinal condition.

这是一种视网膜退行性疾病。

In my teens and early 20s,

在我十几岁和 20 多岁的时候，

I only noticed it at night.

我只在晚上才有所察觉。

Then in my early 30s, my peripheral vision started to deteriorate.

然后在我 30 多岁的时候， 我的周边视力开始恶化。

Right now I have central vision,

现在我有中心视野，

but I'm seeing the world through a pretty narrow porthole.

但我正在通过一个非常狭窄的舷窗看世界。

So even though I can see these pears and that hippo, I'm legally blind.

所以尽管我能看见这些梨和那只河马， 但我从法律上讲还是失明的。

I have severe tunnel vision,

我有严重的隧道视力，

but it doesn't look like a tunnel

但它看起来不像隧道，

because your brain adapts really quickly to whatever you see.

因为你的大脑会 很快适应你所看到的一切。

Like if the frame of the movie you're watching

就像你正在看的电影画面，

starts to shrink to a much smaller size, at first you'll be annoyed.

开始缩小到更小的尺寸一样， 起初你会感到恼人，

"This sucks," you might say to yourself,

“太糟糕了，” 你可能会对自己说，

"I don't like watching this movie on this tiny screen."

“我不喜欢在这块小屏幕上 看这部电影。”

Then your complaints will soften and disappear,

然后，你会减少抱怨，直到视而不见，

and your brain will adapt to the new normal.

你的大脑就会适应新常态。

Like the first time you watch a movie on your cell phone,

就像你第一次在手机上看电影一样，

it will be annoyingly small at first, and then you just get used to it.

一开始它会很小，然后你就习惯了。

So every time I lose another chunk of vision,

因此，每当我进一步减弱视力时，

at first I feel super extra blind,

起初我都会感到非常“失明”，

sometimes scared or claustrophobic.

有时是害怕或幽闭恐惧症，

My world is shrinking.

我的世界正在萎缩。

But then a week will go by, I get used to it,

但是过了一周，我已经习惯了，

I don't feel so blind anymore.

我已经不觉得那么盲目了。

This experience of super gradual vision loss has given me time

这种超级渐进的、 视力丧失的经历让我有时间

to think about what blindness is,

思考什么是失明，

which might seem like an obvious question.

这似乎是一个显而易见的问题。

Blindness is the absence of sight,

失明是视力的缺失，

but it's actually more complicated than that.

但实际上比这更复杂。

Trying to define blindness can start to feel paradoxical.

试图定义失明 可能会开始让人感到矛盾。

There's a paradox that's useful in thinking about blindness.

在思考失明问题时，有一种悖论很有用，

It's called the paradox of the heap.

这叫做“堆的悖论”。

Let's say you have a heap of something, like sand or marbles or goji berries.

假设你有一堆东西， 比如沙子、弹珠或者枸杞。

Now imagine I take a single little goji berry off of the heap.

现在想象一下 我从堆里拿走一粒小枸杞，

Is it still a heap?

还是一堆吗？

OK, what if I remove a second tiny little goji berry from the heap?

好吧，如果我从堆里取出 第二粒小枸杞会怎么样？

Obviously that is still a heap also.

显然，这也是一大堆东西。

But, the ancient Greek philosopher wondered,

但是，古希腊哲学家想知道，

at what point is it no longer a heap?

哪一刻它才不再是一堆了？

How many goji berries do I have to remove?

我必须拿走多少枸杞？

Is it still a heap when there's only ten left?

只剩下十粒的时候还是一堆吗？

Five?

五粒？

Vision works this way too.

视觉也是同理。

How much vision do I need to lose

我需要失去多少视力

before I can legitimately call myself blind?

才能合法地称自己为盲人？

I saw this photo online the other day.

前几天我在网上看到了这张照片。

(AD) In the photo, a Black woman holds a white cane

（AD）在照片中， 一名黑人妇女拿着一根白手杖，

and looks at a cell phone.

看着手机。

AL: The image circulated with a caption,

AL：这张照片流传的配文：

"If you can see what's wrong, say 'I see it.'"

“如果你能看出问题所在， 那就说‘我看见了。’”

Can you see what's wrong with this photo?

你能看出这张照片有什么问题吗？

The answer that the people sharing the photo had

分享照片的人的答案是，

is that the woman can't be blind.

那个女人不可能失明。

If she is, why is she looking at her phone?

如果是的话，她为什么要看手机？

Blind people don't look at things.

盲人不看东西。

The caption wants you to remember: blind people don’t see.

配文想让你记住： 盲人看不见。

And if she can see,

而且，如果她能看见，

what's she doing with that long white cane

她为什么还要用那根向全世界

that signals to the world that she's blind?

昭告她是失明人士的白色长拐杖？

Maybe she's trying to get sympathy that she doesn't deserve

也许她想得到她不配得到的同情，

or trying to trick us somehow.

或者想以某种方式欺骗我们。

So how blind you have to be to be blind?

那么，你必须有多盲才能算失明？

How much vision do you have to remove from the heap of sight

在视力变成失明之前，

before it becomes blindness?

你必须从视力堆中移除多少视力？

People love binaries, especially people on the internet,

人们喜欢非黑即白， 尤其是互联网上的人，

which is a place that's not always very friendly to ambiguity.

这个地方对模棱两可的事物 并不总是很友好。

This photo was shared more than 33,000 times,

这张照片被分享了超过三万三千次，

and I think it went viral exactly because of its ambiguity.

我认为它之所以风靡一时， 正是因为它的模棱两可。

It illuminates a weird, paradoxical truth about blindness.

它阐明了一个关于失明的 奇怪而矛盾的真相，

Blind people can see.

盲人能看见。

I don't mean this in the way that people mean it

我的意思不是人们谈论 丹尼尔·基什（Daniel Kish）时的意思。

when they talk about Daniel Kish.

Kish makes clicking sounds with his mouth

基什用嘴发出咔嗒声，

that he uses to navigate his environment the way a bat uses sonar.

他用嘴巴像蝙蝠使用声纳 一样在环境中导航。

Brain scans show that when Kish navigates his environment this way,

脑部扫描显示，当基什 使用 DIY 声纳，以这种方式

using his DIY sonar, his visual cortex lights up.

探索环境时， 他的视觉皮层会亮起来。

That's amazing.

太神奇了。

But the point I'm making is much simpler.

但是我要说的要简单得多。

On the one hand, blindness is a binary.

一方面，失明是二元的，

You're either blind or you're not.

你要么失明，要么不失明。

But on the other hand, blindness is a spectrum.

但另一方面，失明是一个频谱。

There are different degrees of blindness and different styles.

失明程度不同，风格也不同。

Some people have the inverse of what I've got.

有些人的情况与我所面临的恰恰相反。

They only see through their peripheral vision with nothing in the center.

他们只能透视周围的视野， 中间没有任何东西。

Other blind people see the world

其他盲人看待这个世界，

as though their glasses have been smeared with Vaseline

好像他们的眼镜被凡士林涂抹了，

or their head's been wrapped several times in saran wrap

或者他们的头被莎兰包裹了好几次，

or like they're looking through a thick, broken fishbowl.

或者他们正在透过 一个又厚又破的鱼缸看。

Only very few blind people see nothing at all, total darkness.

只有极少数盲人 什么也看不见，完全黑暗。

As I lose my sight,

当我失明时，

I experienced this degeneration the way you might expect:

我如你可以预见的那样 经历了这种退化：

as a loss.

失落。

In the meantime,

同时，

I feel privileged to still be able to see things like sunsets or tree frogs

我很荣幸 还能在 Instagram 上看到日落、树蛙

or celebrity breakfasts on Instagram.

或名人早餐之类的东西。

There's another paradox lurking around here.

这里还潜伏着另一个矛盾。

If blindness is a spectrum,

如果失明是一种光谱，

could it also include somebody who's not actually blind?

它包括实际上并非盲人的人吗？

The paradox works the other way.

这个悖论反过来也说得通。

How much sight do you have to add before someone's no longer blind?

你的视力要变得有多好 才能不再被当作盲人？

At a certain point, we do have to agree that someone's not blind,

在某个时候，我们不得不 同意某人不是盲人，

even if they don't see very well.

即使他们看不太清楚。

I do think it's important to reserve blindness for people

我确实认为，应该将失明的定义

留给那些没有机会矫正视力、 需要辅助技术来做

who don't have the luxury of correcting their vision,

who need assistive technology to do things like read print or walk around.

诸如阅读书报 或四处走动之类的事情的人。

On the other hand, separating out blindness like this

另一方面，像这样区分失明者，

can lead people to view the blind as strange or mysterious or off-putting.

会导致人们认为盲人 奇怪、神秘或令人反感。

And that can lead to fear and sometimes damaging misconceptions and stereotypes,

这可能会导致恐惧， 有时还会导致误解和刻板印象，

like the idea that blind people are psychic,

比如将盲人视为通灵者的观念，

which some people actually believe,

有些人真的相信这一点，

or that they have super hearing.

或者他们有超强的听力。

(AD) Words appear: Superpowers for the blind.

（AD）显示的单词：赋予盲人的超能力。

The brain rewires itself to boost the remaining senses.

大脑的自我重塑 使其他感官更加灵敏。

AL: Or more destructively,

AL：更具破坏性的后果是

that they can't go to a normal school

他们无法上普通学校、

or hold a normal job or travel on their own.

从事正常工作或独自旅行。

So the next time you see a blind person do something

因此，下次你看到盲人也会做一些

that you think only a sighted person should do,

你原以为只有视力正常的人 能做的事情时，

like making eye contact with you or watching a movie,

比如和你进行眼神交流、看电影，

or standing at a bus stop checking their phone,

或者站在公交车站查看他们的手机，

remember, it might be possible to see even if you're blind.

请记住，失明或许也能看得见。