Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth | TED

翻译人员: Danyang Luo 校对人员: Huazhe Xie

Just over a year ago,

就在一年之前，

for the third time in my life, I ceased to exist.

我陷入了人生的第三次休克。

I was having a small operation, and my brain was filling with anesthetic.

当时我正经历一个小手术， 我的大脑里满是麻醉剂。

I remember a sense of detachment and falling apart

我记得，我感到了超脱与分离，

and a coldness.

还有寒冷的感觉。

And then I was back, drowsy and disoriented,

随后我苏醒了， 昏昏欲睡，毫无方向感，

but definitely there.

但确乎是活过来了。

Now, when you wake from a deep sleep,

当你从深睡中醒来时，

you might feel confused about the time or anxious about oversleeping,

你会分不清时间， 还可能会担忧睡过了头，

but there's always a basic sense of time having passed,

但至少能感到时间的流逝，

of a continuity between then and now.

可以感到过去到现在是连续的。

Coming round from anesthesia is very different.

然而从麻醉中苏醒是非常不同的。

I could have been under for five minutes, five hours,

我可能已经昏睡了5分钟，5小时，

five years or even 50 years.

5年，甚至50年。

I simply wasn't there.

我感觉不到自己的存在。

It was total oblivion.

是完全麻木无感的。

Anesthesia -- it's a modern kind of magic.

麻醉剂—— 是现代的一种魔法，

It turns people into objects,

它把人变成物体，

and then, we hope, back again into people.

然后我们希望之后还能变回常人。

And in this process

在这个过程中，

is one of the greatest remaining mysteries in science and philosophy.

蕴含着一个科学与哲学的未解之谜。

How does consciousness happen?

意识是如何形成的？

Somehow, within each of our brains,

在每个人的大脑中，

the combined activity of many billions of neurons,

有数十亿的神经元以某种方式联合作用，

each one a tiny biological machine,

每个小小的神经元都是生物机器，

is generating a conscious experience.

它们创造了每一段意识体验。

而且这并不是任意的意识体验，

And not just any conscious experience --

your conscious experience right here and right now.

而恰好是你此时此地的意识体验。

How does this happen?

这是如何发生的？

Answering this question is so important

这个问题的答案很重要，

because consciousness for each of us is all there is.

因为我们每个人都有意识，

Without it there's no world,

没有意识，就没有世界，

there's no self,

没有自我，

there's nothing at all.

没有一切。

And when we suffer, we suffer consciously

当我们经受苦难时， 也是有意识地经历着，

whether it's through mental illness or pain.

无论是心理还是身体上的痛苦。

And if we can experience joy and suffering,

如果我们可以感到快乐和痛苦，

what about other animals?

其它的动物呢？

Might they be conscious, too?

它们是否也有意识？

Do they also have a sense of self?

是否也有自我的认知？

And as computers get faster and smarter,

而且现在电脑的运转越来越迅速， 越来越智能，

maybe there will come a point, maybe not too far away,

也许突然之间， 也许就在不久的将来，

when my iPhone develops a sense of its own existence.

我的 iPhone 会意识到它自己的存在。

I actually think the prospects for a conscious AI are pretty remote.

事实上，我认为 距离有意识的人工智能出现还是很遥远的。

And I think this because my research is telling me

因为我的研究告诉我，

that consciousness has less to do with pure intelligence

意识不单单是智力的表现，

and more to do with our nature as living and breathing organisms.

而是更多的有关于我们的本性， 作为活着、能呼吸的有机体。

Consciousness and intelligence are very different things.

意识和智力差别是很大的。

就算你不聪明你也会感到痛苦， 但前提是你得活着。

You don't have to be smart to suffer, but you probably do have to be alive.

In the story I'm going to tell you,

在接下来我要讲给你们的故事中，

our conscious experiences of the world around us,

我们对周围世界的意识体验，

and of ourselves within it,

以及我们自己的存在，

are kinds of controlled hallucinations

都是被控制的错觉，

that happen with, through and because of our living bodies.

都源自我们的生命体。

Now, you might have heard that we know nothing

你可能听说过，

我们对大脑和身体如何产生意识一无所知。

about how the brain and body give rise to consciousness.

Some people even say it's beyond the reach of science altogether.

甚至有人认为这已超过了科学的范畴。

But in fact,

但事实上，

the last 25 years have seen an explosion of scientific work in this area.

在过去的25年里，在这一领域里的 科学研究取得了重大突破。

If you come to my lab at the University of Sussex,

如果你来到我在苏塞克斯大学的实验室，

you'll find scientists from all different disciplines

你会发现来自不同学科的科学家们，

甚至哲学家们，

and sometimes even philosophers.

All of us together trying to understand how consciousness happens

都在试着弄明白意识是如何形成的，

and what happens when it goes wrong.

还有当它出错时会发生什么。

And the strategy is very simple.

其实我们的办法非常简单。

I'd like you to think about consciousness

我希望你们思考意识

in the way that we've come to think about life.

就像我们思考生命一样。

At one time, people thought the property of being alive

人们曾一度认为生命

could not be explained by physics and chemistry --

不能完全被物理和化学原理所解释，

that life had to be more than just mechanism.

也就是说人们认为生命不仅仅是机制。

But people no longer think that.

但现在人们不再这样想了。

As biologists got on with the job

随着生物学家的研究推进，

of explaining the properties of living systems

用物理、化学原理解释

in terms of physics and chemistry --

生物系统的特性

things like metabolism, reproduction, homeostasis --

像是新陈代谢，繁衍后代，体内平衡这些——

the basic mystery of what life is started to fade away,

生命的神秘感渐渐消退，

and people didn't propose any more magical solutions,

人们也不再给出神奇的解释，

like a force of life or an élan vital.

比如这是生命的力量，生命的热忱之类的。

So as with life, so with consciousness.

所以意识其实和生命一样。

Once we start explaining its properties

一旦我们试着解释它的特性，

in terms of things happening inside brains and bodies,

就大脑和身体内部发生的事情而言，

the apparently insoluble mystery of what consciousness is

什么是意识的不解之谜

should start to fade away.

就会变得了无生趣。

我们计划就是这样的。

At least that's the plan.

So let's get started.

那么咱们开始。

What are the properties of consciousness?

意识的特性是什么？

What should a science of consciousness try to explain?

意识科学需要解释什么？

Well, for today I'd just like to think of consciousness in two different ways.

那么今天，我想把意识分为两类讨论。

There are experiences of the world around us,

一类是我们对于外界的认知，

full of sights, sounds and smells,

包括影像、声音、气味，

there's multisensory, panoramic, 3D, fully immersive inner movie.

这是多感官的、全景的、 3D的、身临其境的内心电影。

And then there's conscious self.

第二类就是意识本身了。

The specific experience of being you or being me.

也就是成为你或我的明确的体验。

The lead character in this inner movie,

是这部电影的主角，

and probably the aspect of consciousness we all cling to most tightly.

也可能就是我们所执着的意识层面。

Let's start with experiences of the world around us,

让我们从体验周围的世界开始讲起，

and with the important idea of the brain as a prediction engine.

从认识到大脑是一个预测引擎开始。

Imagine being a brain.

想象你就是大脑。

You're locked inside a bony skull,

你被禁锢在头颅里，

trying to figure what's out there in the world.

尝试了解外面的世界有什么。

There's no lights inside the skull. There's no sound either.

头颅里没有光，也没有声音。

All you've got to go on is streams of electrical impulses

你所能感到的只有脉冲电流，

which are only indirectly related to things in the world,

这是你与外界事物的唯一的间接联系，

whatever they may be.

不管它们是什么。

So perception -- figuring out what's there --

所以说感知—— 或者说搞明白那是什么

has to be a process of informed guesswork

是一个“已知”的猜测过程。

in which the brain combines these sensory signals

大脑将这些感觉信号

with its prior expectations or beliefs about the way the world is

与之前对世界的预期或信念相结合

to form its best guess of what caused those signals.

做出是什么产生了这些信号的最佳猜想。

The brain doesn't hear sound or see light.

大脑是看不见也听不见的。

What we perceive is its best guess of what's out there in the world.

我们所感知到的是它对外界事物的最佳猜测。

Let me give you a couple of examples of all this.

我举些例子说明一下吧。

You might have seen this illusion before,

你之前可能有过这样的错觉，

but I'd like you to think about it in a new way.

但我希望你能重新思考一下。

If you look at those two patches, A and B,

当你看这两块区域时，A和B，

they should look to you to be very different shades of gray, right?

它们是深浅不同的灰色，对吧？

But they are in fact exactly the same shade.

但实际上它们颜色是一样的。

And I can illustrate this.

我能解释这一现象。

If I put up a second version of the image here

如果我再在这儿加上第二版图像

and join the two patches with a gray-colored bar,

用灰条连接这两块区域，

you can see there's no difference.

你会发现，它们毫无差别。

It's exactly the same shade of gray.

它们的灰度完全一样。

And if you still don't believe me,

如果你还不相信我，

I'll bring the bar across and join them up.

我把灰条移走 把它们重合在一起。

It's a single colored block of gray, there's no difference at all.

它们是一样的灰度， 完全相同。

This isn't any kind of magic trick.

这不是什么魔术。

It's the same shade of gray,

它们就是一样的灰度，

but take it away again, and it looks different.

但是去掉灰条， 它们看起来有不一样了。

So what's happening here

那么究竟发生了什么呢？

is that the brain is using its prior expectations

就是大脑用它先前的预期

built deeply into the circuits of the visual cortex

深入到视觉皮层的回路中

that a cast shadow dims the appearance of a surface,

使得一个投影看起来变暗了，

so that we see B as lighter than it really is.

所以我们看到的区域B比实际的颜色要亮。

Here's one more example,

还有一个例子，

which shows just how quickly the brain can use new predictions

证明大脑可以快速使用新的预测

to change what we consciously experience.

来改变我们的意识体验。

Have a listen to this.

请听这段声音。

(Distorted voice)

（扭曲的声音）

Sounded strange, right?

听起来很奇怪，对吧？

Have a listen again and see if you can get anything.

咱们再听一次 看你能不能听出点什么。

(Distorted voice)

（扭曲的声音）

Still strange.

还是很奇怪。

Now listen to this.

接下来，请听这个

(Recording) Anil Seth: I think Brexit is a really terrible idea.

（录音）Anil Seth: “我觉得英国脱欧真是个馊主意。”

（笑声 ）

(Laughter)

Which I do.

这是我的声音。

So you heard some words there, right?

你们听到了一些词，对吧？

Now listen to the first sound again. I'm just going to replay it.

现在再听一遍第一段声音。 我会重播一遍。

(Distorted voice)

（扭曲的声音）

Yeah? So you can now hear words there.

你可以听出一些单词了吧？

Once more for luck.

再试一次。

（扭曲的声音）

(Distorted voice)

OK, so what's going on here?

所以到底是怎么回事？

The remarkable thing is the sensory information coming into the brain

值得注意的是 进入大脑的感受信息

hasn't changed at all.

完全没有改变。

All that's changed is your brain's best guess

变了的，只是你脑中的猜测，

of the causes of that sensory information.

对感受信息的猜测。

And that changes what you consciously hear.

而这改变了你下意识所听到的东西。

All this puts the brain basis of perception

这些使大脑的感知基础

in a bit of a different light.

处于不同的亮度中。

Instead of perception depending largely on signals coming into the brain

感知并不单纯取决于

from the outside world,

外界传入脑中的信号，

it depends as much, if not more,

而是更多地取决于

on perceptual predictions flowing in the opposite direction.

反向流动的感知预测。

We don't just passively perceive the world,

我们并非被动地感受着世界，

we actively generate it.

相反，我们积极地创造着一切。

The world we experience comes as much, if not more,

我们对于世界的意识体验

from the inside out

既是由内而外的，

as from the outside in.

也是由外到内的。

Let me give you one more example of perception

我再举一个感知的例子，

as this active, constructive process.

这是一个积极的，有建设性的过程。

Here we've combined immersive virtual reality with image processing

我们将沉浸式虚拟现实与图像处理结合起来，

to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions

模拟我们体验中相当强烈的

on experience.

感知预测。

In this panoramic video, we've transformed the world --

在这段全景影像中， 我们重塑了世界——

which is in this case Sussex campus --

我们把苏塞克斯校园

into a psychedelic playground.

变为一个迷幻的游乐场。

We've processed the footage using an algorithm based on Google's Deep Dream

我们用谷歌的“深层梦想”的算法 处理了这段视频

to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions.

来模拟我们在 相当强烈的感知预测下的真实体验。

In this case, to see dogs.

在这种情况下，我们看到了狗狗。

And you can see this is a very strange thing.

你可以看到这些很奇怪。

When perceptual predictions are too strong,

当感知预测太过强烈，

as they are here,

正如这一案例中，

the result looks very much like the kinds of hallucinations

画面看起来就像是幻觉。

人们看起来像是变形的状态，

people might report in altered states,

or perhaps even in psychosis.

甚至像患有精神病一样。

Now, think about this for a minute.

让我们想一想。

If hallucination is a kind of uncontrolled perception,

如果幻觉是一种不可控的感知，

then perception right here and right now is also a kind of hallucination,

那么我们此时此刻的感知 也恰是一种幻觉，

but a controlled hallucination

但如果幻觉可控

in which the brain's predictions are being reined in

那么大脑的预测将由

by sensory information from the world.

从外界获取的感官信息所主宰。

In fact, we're all hallucinating all the time,

事实上， 我们一直都在幻想，

including right now.

包括现在。

It's just that when we agree about our hallucinations,

只是当我们认同我们的幻觉时，

we call that reality.

我们称之为现实。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Now I'm going to tell you that your experience of being a self,

接下来，我要告诉你们 作为自我的体验，

the specific experience of being you,

成为你自己的特定体验。

is also a controlled hallucination generated by the brain.

也是一种大脑产生的可控幻觉。

This seems a very strange idea, right?

这听起来很奇怪，对吧？

没错，视觉错觉可能会欺骗我们的眼睛，

Yes, visual illusions might deceive my eyes,

but how could I be deceived about what it means to be me?

但我怎么可能会能被自我存在的意义所骗呢？

For most of us,

对于大多数人而言

the experience of being a person

“作为人”的体验

is so familiar, so unified and so continuous

是如此的熟悉、统一、 并且从不间断，

that it's difficult not to take it for granted.

所以它也极易被忽视。

But we shouldn't take it for granted.

但我们不应视之为理所当然。

There are in fact many different ways we experience being a self.

有很多方式可以体验自我。

There's the experience of having a body

我们可以体验拥有一个身体

and of being a body.

掌控这个身体。

There are experiences of perceiving the world

我们可以体验以第一视角

from a first person point of view.

来认知这个世界。

There are experiences of intending to do things

我们可以体验试着去做某事

and of being the cause of things that happen in the world.

或是成为世上发生的事情的缘由。

And there are experiences

我们还可以体验

of being a continuous and distinctive person over time,

随着时间流逝， 基于丰富的记忆及社会相互作用

built from a rich set of memories and social interactions.

我们仍是一个与众不同的人。

Many experiments show,

许多实验表明，

and psychiatrists and neurologists know very well,

精神病学家和神经学家其实非常了解

that these different ways in which we experience being a self

我们体验自我的这些不同的方式

can all come apart.

是相互独立的。

What this means is the basic background experience

这意味着 对于大脑而言

of being a unified self is a rather fragile construction of the brain.

成为一个统一的自我的体验是很脆弱的。

Another experience, which just like all others,

另一个与之相似的体验

requires explanation.

需要进一步解释。

So let's return to the bodily self.

让我们先回到身体本身。

How does the brain generate the experience of being a body

大脑是如何产生成为一个身体的体验的？

and of having a body?

或者说拥有一个身体？

Well, just the same principles apply.

之前的原理同样适用。

The brain makes its best guess

大脑做出了它的最佳推测，

about what is and what is not part of its body.

关于哪一部分属于身体，哪一部分不属于。

And there's a beautiful experiment in neuroscience to illustrate this.

神经科学里有一个很棒的实验 可以说明这一点。

And unlike most neuroscience experiments,

与大多数神经科学试验不同，

this is one you can do at home.

这一试验你在家里就可以进行。

All you need is one of these.

你只需要这个。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And a couple of paintbrushes.

再准备一些画笔。

In the rubber hand illusion,

我们将测试者的一只真手遮盖起来，

a person's real hand is hidden from view,

取而代之的是这只橡胶手，

and that fake rubber hand is placed in front of them.

将橡胶手放在人们面前。

Then both hands are simultaneously stroked with a paintbrush

让人们注视着假手

while the person stares at the fake hand.

然后用画笔同时轻触两只手。

Now, for most people, after a while,

对大多数人来说，只需很短的时间，

this leads to the very uncanny sensation

就会有不可思议的感觉，

that the fake hand is in fact part of their body.

你会感到假手成为了身体的一部分。

And the idea is that the congruence between seeing touch and feeling touch

视觉触摸和感知触摸叠合在了一起

on an object that looks like hand and is roughly where a hand should be,

看起来就像是假手所在的地方大致就是手的位置，

is enough evidence for the brain to make its best guess

这足以让大脑做出它的最佳推测

that the fake hand is in fact part of the body.

认为假手就是身体的一部分。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So you can measure all kinds of clever things.

你可能懂得很多原理，

You can measure skin conductance and startle responses,

包括皮肤传导，惊吓反应，

but there's no need.

但其实没什么必要。

It's clear the guy in blue has assimilated the fake hand.

显而易见身着蓝衣的测试者 真的将假手视为了自己身体的一部分。

This means that even experiences of what our body is

这意味着，即使是我们对自己身体的认知

is a kind of best guessing --

都只是一种最佳猜测——

a kind of controlled hallucination by the brain.

一种可控的大脑幻觉。

There's one more thing.

还有一点。

We don't just experience our bodies as objects in the world from the outside,

我们不只是单纯地从外界 认知我们的身体，

we also experience them from within.

我们也从本身来感受。

We all experience the sense of being a body from the inside.

我们都从本身去感知、体验过身体。

And sensory signals coming from the inside of the body

这些感觉信号都由身体自身产生，

are continually telling the brain about the state of the internal organs,

它们不断向大脑汇报 身体内器官的状况，

how the heart is doing, what the blood pressure is like,

比如心脏是如何跳动的 血压是怎样的，

lots of things.

等等。

This kind of perception, which we call interoception,

这一类型的感知 我们称之为“内感”，

is rather overlooked.

常常被我们忽视，

But it's critically important

但它们却异常重要。

because perception and regulation of the internal state of the body --

因为对于体内状况的感知和规律的了解

well, that's what keeps us alive.

是使我们活着的条件。

Here's another version of the rubber hand illusion.

还有另一种橡胶手错觉。

This is from our lab at Sussex.

这是我们苏塞克斯大学实验室的试验。

And here, people see a virtual reality version of their hand,

人们看着他们虚拟现实中的手，

which flashes red and back

闪烁着红色，

either in time or out of time with their heartbeat.

闪烁频率和心率一致或是不同。

And when it's flashing in time with their heartbeat,

当闪烁频率和心率一致时，

people have a stronger sense that it's in fact part of their body.

人们会强烈地感到这是他们身体的一部分。

So experiences of having a body are deeply grounded

所以当我们从内感知我们的身体时

in perceiving our bodies from within.

可以强烈地感到拥有一个身体。

There's one last thing I want to draw your attention to,

最后我想要你们注意，

which is that experiences of the body from the inside are very different

从内感知身体

远不同于从外感知

from experiences of the world around us.

When I look around me, the world seems full of objects --

当我看着周围的事物时， 这个世界充斥着各种各样的东西——

tables, chairs, rubber hands,

桌子，椅子，橡胶手，

people, you lot --

人们，在座的各位——

even my own body in the world,

甚至包括我自己的身体，

I can perceive it as an object from the outside.

我可以感知到它们是外界的一个物体。

But my experiences of the body from within,

但我的内在感知，

they're not like that at all.

却完全不同。

I don't perceive my kidneys here,

我没有在这儿感知到我的肾脏，

my liver here,

我在这儿的肝脏，

my spleen ...

我的脾脏

I don't know where my spleen is,

我也不知道我的脾脏在哪里，

but it's somewhere.

但它就在某处。

I don't perceive my insides as objects.

我不认为我的身体内部的东西是物体。

In fact, I don't experience them much at all unless they go wrong.

实际上，除非他们病了 我是不会感觉到它们存在的。

And this is important, I think.

我认为这很重要。

Perception of the internal state of the body

对于机体内部状况的认知

isn't about figuring out what's there,

并不是弄明白它们在哪儿，

it's about control and regulation --

而是控制和调节——

keeping the physiological variables within the tight bounds

将生理参数保持在

that are compatible with survival.

与生存相适应的范围内。

When the brain uses predictions to figure out what's there,

当大脑用预测判断那是什么的时候，

we perceive objects as the causes of sensations.

我们感觉物体就是感觉的起因。

When the brain uses predictions to control and regulate things,

当大脑用预测控制和调节事物时

we experience how well or how badly that control is going.

我们可以感知到控制的好与坏。

So our most basic experiences of being a self,

所以我们最基本的自我体验，

of being an embodied organism,

作为一个具体的有机体的体验，

are deeply grounded in the biological mechanisms that keep us alive.

深深扎根于维持我们生存的生物机制中。

And when we follow this idea all the way through,

当我们一路追寻个中原理，

we can start to see that all of our conscious experiences,

我们会发现 我们所有的意识体验，

since they all depend on the same mechanisms of predictive perception,

都依赖于相同的预测感知机制，

all stem from this basic drive to stay alive.

因为这一基本的驱动力 我们才能活着。

We experience the world and ourselves

通过活着，也正是因为活着

with, through and because of our living bodies.

我们才能感受世界和我们自己。

Let me bring things together step-by-step.

让我们一步一步来分析一下。

What we consciously see depends

我们有意识看到的东西

on the brain's best guess of what's out there.

是基于大脑对外界事物的最佳猜测。

Our experienced world comes from the inside out,

我们对世界的体验也会由内而外产生，

not just the outside in.

并不只是由外到内的。

The rubber hand illusion shows that this applies to our experiences

橡胶手错觉表明 这适用于我们对什么是

of what is and what is not our body.

以及什么不是我们自己身体的体验。

And these self-related predictions depend critically on sensory signals

这些与自我相关的预测主要依赖于

coming from deep inside the body.

来自身体深处的感官信号。

And finally,

最后，

experiences of being an embodied self are more about control and regulation

作为一个具体化的自我的体验 更多的是关于控制和调节，

than figuring out what's there.

而不是去弄清楚到底是什么。

So our experiences of the world around us and ourselves within it --

所以我们对外界事物及我们自己的感知，

well, they're kinds of controlled hallucinations

都是可控的幻觉，

that have been shaped over millions of years of evolution

数百万年的进化形成了这些幻觉，

to keep us alive in worlds full of danger and opportunity.

让我们能存活在这充满机遇和挑战的世界中。

We predict ourselves into existence.

我们推测我们是存在的。

Now, I leave you with three implications of all this.

现在我给大家三个启示。

First, just as we can misperceive the world,

第一，就像我们会误解世界一样，

we can misperceive ourselves

当预测机制出错时

when the mechanisms of prediction go wrong.

我们也会误解自我。

Understanding this opens many new opportunities in psychiatry and neurology,

了解这点会在精神病学和神经学方面 挖掘出更多新的发现，

because we can finally get at the mechanisms

因为我们终于可以深入其中的机制

rather than just treating the symptoms

而不仅仅局限于治疗

in conditions like depression and schizophrenia.

抑郁症和精神分裂症的症状。

Second:

第二：

what it means to be me cannot be reduced to or uploaded to

“成为自我”的意识

不能被上传到控制机器人的软件程序里，

a software program running on a robot,

however smart or sophisticated.

无论它多聪明，多精密也不行。

We are biological, flesh-and-blood animals

我们是有血有肉的生物体，

whose conscious experiences are shaped at all levels

我们的意识感知经由不同的层次塑造，

by the biological mechanisms that keep us alive.

我们凭借生物机制活着。

Just making computers smarter is not going to make them sentient.

即使电脑更加智能 它们也不会有知觉。

Finally,

最后，

our own individual inner universe,

我们内在的小宇宙，

our way of being conscious,

我们人类存在意识的方式，

只是存在意识的其中一种方式。

is just one possible way of being conscious.

And even human consciousness generally --

即使人们普遍都存在意识，

it's just a tiny region in a vast space of possible consciousnesses.

在有意识的广阔空间里， 它也只是一个很小的区域。

Our individual self and worlds are unique to each of us,

自我和世界对我们每个人而言都是独一无二的，

but they're all grounded in biological mechanisms

但它们都以生物机制为基础，

shared with many other living creatures.

所以同样也适用于其它生物体。

Now, these are fundamental changes

如今，我们对于“如何理解自我”

in how we understand ourselves,

有了根本性的改变，

but I think they should be celebrated,

我想这是值得庆祝的事情，

because as so often in science, from Copernicus --

因为科学界经常引用哥白尼的一句话：

we're not at the center of the universe --

我们不是宇宙的中心。

to Darwin --

达尔文也说过：

we're related to all other creatures --

万物皆相关，

to the present day.

直至今日。

With a greater sense of understanding

我们有更强的理解力，

comes a greater sense of wonder,

更大的惊奇感，

and a greater realization

更好的认知力，

that we are part of and not apart from the rest of nature.

我们知道我们属于自然界的一部分， 密不可分。

And ...

而且······

when the end of consciousness comes,

当我们失去意识时，

there's nothing to be afraid of.

也无需害怕些什么。

Nothing at all.

根本没什么。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）