Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now

184,427 views ・ 2011-01-11

TED


请双击下面的英文字幕来播放视频。

翻译人员: Jenny Yang 校对人员: Angelia King
00:15
I would like to tell you all
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我想告诉你们大家
00:17
that you are all actually cyborgs,
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你们其实都是半机器人,
00:21
but not the cyborgs that you think.
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不是你们想象的那种半机器人。
00:23
You're not RoboCop, and you're not Terminator,
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你们不是机器战警, 也不是魔鬼终结者,
00:26
but you're cyborgs every time you look at a computer screen
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但是你每次看着电脑屏幕
00:28
or use one of your cell phone devices.
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或者使用手机时你就是个半机器人。
00:31
So what's a good definition for cyborg?
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所以什么是半机器人的定义呢?
00:33
Well, traditional definition is "an organism
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传统的定义是一个生物体
00:35
to which exogenous components have been added
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“为了适应环境而被
00:37
for the purpose of adapting to new environments."
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加入外源成分。”
00:39
That came from a 1960 paper on space travel,
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这是从1960年一篇太空旅行的文章中摘录的。
00:42
because, if you think about it, space is pretty awkward.
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因为你想, 空间是很可怕的;
00:44
People aren't supposed to be there.
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人类本不会去那里。
00:46
But humans are curious, and they like to add things to their bodies
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但是人类很好奇, 他们很可能会给他们身体里加东西
00:49
so they can go to the Alps one day
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所以他们有一天可以去阿尔卑斯山
00:51
and then become a fish in the sea the next.
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然后另一天又变成海里的一条鱼。
00:53
So let's look at the concept of traditional anthropology.
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所以让我们看看传统的人类学观点。
00:56
Somebody goes to another country,
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有人到另一个国家
00:58
says, "How fascinating these people are, how interesting their tools are,
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说:“这些人多么神奇啊, 他们的工具是多么有趣
01:01
how curious their culture is."
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他们的文化是多么奇特啊!”
01:03
And then they write a paper, and maybe a few other anthropologists read it,
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然后他们写文章, 也许有少数几个其他人类学家读了,
01:06
and we think it's very exotic.
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我们觉得它特别有异国情调。
01:08
Well, what's happening
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而正在发生的是
01:11
is that we've suddenly found a new species.
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我们突然发现了一个新的物种。
01:14
I, as a cyborg anthropologist, have suddenly said,
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我作为一个半机器人的人类学家, 突然说:
01:16
"Oh, wow. Now suddenly we're a new form of Homo sapiens,
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“噢, 我们突然就成了一种新新人类。
01:19
and look at these fascinating cultures,
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过来看看这些魅力十足的文化。
01:21
and look at these curious rituals
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过来看看这令人好奇的仪式
01:23
that everybody's doing around this technology.
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每个人都环绕着技术行事。
01:25
They're clicking on things and staring at screens."
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他们点击着东西, 关注着荧屏。”
01:28
Now there's a reason why I study this,
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我之所以研究这个
01:30
versus traditional anthropology.
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而不是传统的人类学是有原因的。
01:32
And the reason is that tool use,
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因为工具的使用
01:34
in the beginning -- for thousands and thousands of years,
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从一开始, 经历了成千上万年,
01:37
everything has been a physical modification of self.
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一切都是对人类的一种自身改造。
01:40
It has helped us to extend our physical selves,
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它帮助我们超越我们自身的体能,
01:42
go faster, hit things harder,
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让我们走得更远, 敲打起来更有力,
01:44
and there's been a limit on that.
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而这些方面也是有限的。
01:46
But now what we're looking at is not an extension of the physical self,
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但是现在我们看到的不是人类自身体能的延伸,
01:49
but an extension of the mental self,
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而是心智的延伸。
01:51
and because of that, we're able to travel faster,
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因此,我们可以更快地旅行
01:53
communicate differently.
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用不同的方式交流。
01:55
And the other thing that happens
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另一件正在发生的事情是
01:57
is that we're all carrying around little Mary Poppins technology.
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我们都挟带着小Mary Poppins的魔法技术。
02:00
We can put anything we want into it, and it doesn't get heavier,
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我们可以把任何东西都装进去, 而它却不会变重,
02:03
and then we can take anything out.
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然后我们又可以把任何东西都从里面取出来。
02:05
What does the inside of your computer actually look like?
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你计算机里面到底有什么?
02:07
Well, if you print it out, it looks like a thousand pounds of material
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如果你把所有信息印出来,这就好比
02:10
that you're carrying around all the time.
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你会不断地接受上千磅重的信息材料。
02:12
And if you actually lose that information,
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而如果你真失去了这些信息,
02:15
it means that you suddenly have this loss in your mind,
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这意味着你心里感觉失去了它,
02:18
that you suddenly feel like something's missing,
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你会突然感到少了什么,
02:21
except you aren't able to see it, so it feels like a very strange emotion.
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只是你看不见, 你有一种非常奇怪的感觉。
02:24
The other thing that happens is that you have a second self.
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另一件发生的事情是你拥有了第二个自我。
02:27
Whether you like it or not, you're starting to show up online,
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无论你是否喜欢, 你开始在网上出现,
02:29
and people are interacting with your second self
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当你不在那里的时候, 人们跟你网上的
02:31
when you're not there.
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第二自我交流。
02:33
And so you have to be careful
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所以你得小心
02:35
about leaving your front lawn open,
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别把朋友圈的第一道防线都开放,
02:37
which is basically your Facebook wall,
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也就是你脸书的墙头,
02:39
so that people don't write on it in the middle of the night --
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别让人家半夜里随便在上面涂写
02:41
because it's very much the equivalent.
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因为它的效果跟现实生活是几乎等同的。
02:43
And suddenly we have to start to maintain our second self.
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所以突然我们要维护我们的第二自我。
02:46
You have to present yourself in digital life
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你要在电子生活里展示自己
02:48
in a similar way that you would in your analog life.
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跟你在现实生活中要做的差不多。
02:51
So, in the same way that you wake up, take a shower and get dressed,
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跟你醒来, 冲淋浴,穿衣服一样,
02:54
you have to learn to do that for your digital self.
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你要学习怎样在你的电子生活中做这些事。
02:56
And the problem is that a lot of people now,
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问题是现在很多人
02:58
especially adolescents,
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特别是青少年
03:00
have to go through two adolescences.
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要经历两个青春期。
03:02
They have to go through their primary one, that's already awkward,
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他们要经历他们主要的那个,那已经是很不容易了,
03:05
and then they go through their second self's adolescence,
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他们还要经历他们的第二自我的青春期。
03:07
and that's even more awkward
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那更难
03:09
because there's an actual history
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因为在这个实实在在的网络历史中
03:12
of what they've gone through online.
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他们的网络经历都被记录。
03:14
And anybody coming in new to technology
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现在每个新接触技术的人
03:16
is an adolescent online right now,
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在网上都算是网络青少年。
03:18
and so it's very awkward,
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所以这是很尴尬的
03:20
and it's very difficult for them to do those things.
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让他们做这些事情很难。
03:23
So when I was little, my dad would sit me down at night and he would say,
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所以当我还小的时候,晚上我爸爸会让我坐下对我说,
03:25
"I'm going to teach you about time and space in the future."
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“我来教你未来的时间和空间问题。”
03:27
And I said, "Great."
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我说:“好。”
03:29
And he said one day, "What's the shortest distance between two points?"
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有一天他说:“两点间的最短的距离是什么?”
03:31
And I said, "Well, that's a straight line. You told me that yesterday."
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我说:“是直线,这个你昨天已经告诉我了。
03:34
I thought I was very clever.
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我觉得自己很聪明。”
03:36
He said, "No, no, no. Here's a better way."
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他说:“不是,不是, 这儿有一个更好的办法。”
03:39
He took a piece of paper,
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他拿了一张纸,
03:41
drew A and B on one side and the other
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在一面画了A在另一面画了B
03:43
and folded them together so where A and B touched.
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然后把纸头折叠起来,让A和B碰在一起。
03:46
And he said, "That is the shortest distance between two points."
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然后他说:“这是两点间最短的距离。”
03:49
And I said, "Dad, dad, dad, how do you do that?"
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我说:“爸爸,爸爸,你怎么做到的?”
03:51
He said, "Well, you just bend time and space,
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他说:“你就这样把时间和空间弯曲了,
03:53
it takes an awful lot of energy,
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这需要花很大的能量,
03:55
and that's just how you do it."
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这就是你要做的。”
03:57
And I said, "I want to do that."
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我说:“我想要这样做。”
03:59
And he said, "Well, okay."
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他说:“好啊。”
04:01
And so, when I went to sleep for the next 10 or 20 years,
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于是, 之后的10,20年,我晚上去睡觉
04:04
I was thinking at night,
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总是想,
04:06
"I want to be the first person to create a wormhole,
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“我要成为创造虫洞-时光隧道的人
04:08
to make things accelerate faster.
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让事物加速。
04:10
And I want to make a time machine."
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我想做一个时间机器。”
04:12
I was always sending messages to my future self
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我总是用录音带给未来的我
04:14
using tape recorders.
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传递信息。
04:19
But then what I realized when I went to college
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但是当我进了大学后发现
04:21
is that technology doesn't just get adopted
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技术不是因为它有用,所以人们
04:23
because it works.
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才接纳它;
04:25
It gets adopted because people use it
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技术是在人们的应用过程中被接纳的
04:27
and it's made for humans.
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它是为人类的应用需求而产生的。
04:29
So I started studying anthropology.
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所以我开始学习人类学。
04:31
And when I was writing my thesis on cell phones,
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而当我在写关于手机的论文时,
04:33
I realized that everyone was carrying around wormholes in their pockets.
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我认识到每个人的口袋里都装着虫洞-时光隧道。
04:36
They weren't physically transporting themselves;
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这虫洞-时光隧道不是通过身体接触来传递信息,
04:38
they were mentally transporting themselves.
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它们其实是在心智上传递信息。
04:40
They would click on a button,
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人们按一下按钮,
04:42
and they would be connected as A to B immediately.
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人们就把A和B立刻联系起来了。
04:45
And I thought, "Oh, wow. I found it. This is great."
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我想:“噢, 哇, 我找到了, 这太棒了。”
04:47
So over time, time and space
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所以随着时间的推移, 时间和空间
04:49
have compressed because of this.
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都因此被压缩联系在一起。
04:51
You can stand on one side of the world,
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你可以站在世界的这一头低语,
04:53
whisper something and be heard on the other.
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而世界的另一端就能听到了。
04:55
One of the other ideas that comes around
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而我另外想到的是
04:57
is that you have a different type of time on every single device that you use.
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你用的每个设备都给你一个不同类型的时间。
05:00
Every single browser tab gives you a different type of time.
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每个网页都给你一个不同的时间轴。
05:03
And because of that, you start to dig around
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你因此而到处挖掘
05:05
for your external memories -- where did you leave them?
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你延伸的记忆, 你把它们存在哪里了呢?
05:07
So now we're all these paleontologists
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所以现在我们都成了古生物学家
05:09
that are digging for things that we've lost
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挖掘我们遗失了的东西
05:11
on our external brains that we're carrying around in our pockets.
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我们将我们延伸的外部大脑揣在口袋里。
05:14
And that incites a sort of panic architecture --
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这会促发某种恐慌。
05:16
"Oh no, where's this thing?"
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不行, 这东西到底存在哪里?
05:18
We're all "I Love Lucy" on a great assembly line of information,
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在信息爆炸前,我们都跟我爱露西电视里演的那样措手不及,
05:21
and we can't keep up.
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我们跟不上信息的脚步。
05:24
And so what happens is,
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因此
05:26
when we bring all that into the social space,
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我们把这些都带到社交空间,
05:28
we end up checking our phones all the time.
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结果我们每时每刻都在查看电话。
05:30
So we have this thing called ambient intimacy.
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所以我们把这个东西称为亲密环境。
05:32
It's not that we're always connected to everybody,
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我们不是跟每个人时刻都联系着,
05:34
but at anytime we can connect to anyone we want.
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但是我们在任何时候可以和任何人交流。
05:37
And if you were able to print out everybody in your cell phone,
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如果你可以把你手机上的人都打印出来,
05:39
the room would be very crowded.
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那个屋子一定十分拥挤。
05:41
These are the people that you have access to right now, in general --
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一般而言,这些就是你能联系到的人
05:44
all of these people, all of your friends and family that you can connect to.
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和你有联系的所有朋友, 家人
05:47
And so there are some psychological effects that happen with this.
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这也会随之带来一些心理影响。
05:50
One I'm really worried about
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其实我担心的一个是
05:52
is that people aren't taking time for mental reflection anymore,
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人们不再花时间停下来内心反省,
05:55
and that they aren't slowing down and stopping,
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人们不再放慢速度和停下来,
05:57
being around all those people in the room all the time
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人们时刻和屋里的所有的人在一起
05:59
that are trying to compete for their attention
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在同一时间界面
06:01
on the simultaneous time interfaces,
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要争取所有人的注意力
06:03
paleontology and panic architecture.
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仿佛我们生活在研究古生物学和面对恐慌的构架中。
06:05
They're not just sitting there.
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他们并不只是坐在那里。
06:07
And really, when you have no external input,
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真的, 当你没有外来影响时
06:10
that is a time when there is a creation of self,
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就保留了一段创造自我的时间
06:12
when you can do long-term planning,
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你可以用来制定长远的计划
06:14
when you can try and figure out who you really are.
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来试着发现你自己到底是什么样一个人。
06:17
And then, once you do that, you can figure out
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而一旦你这么做了,你就能弄清楚
06:19
how to present your second self in a legitimate way,
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怎样合理地展示你的第二自我
06:21
instead of just dealing with everything as it comes in --
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而不是等着每件事发生,然后临阵应付
06:23
and oh, I have to do this, and I have to do this, and I have to do this.
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噢,我得做这个, 做这个,做这个
06:26
And so this is very important.
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所以这是很重要的。
06:28
I'm really worried that, especially kids today,
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我很担心,特别是今天的孩子,
06:30
they're not going to be dealing with this down-time,
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他们没有这种停机休息时间,
06:33
that they have an instantaneous button-clicking culture,
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他们生活在不断点击的文化中,
06:35
and that everything comes to them,
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什么东西都向他们扑面而来,
06:37
and that they become very excited about it and very addicted to it.
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他们对此非常兴奋,也非常容易上瘾。
06:40
So if you think about it, the world hasn't stopped either.
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你想么, 世界也不会停下来。
06:43
It has its own external prosthetic devices,
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它自己也有自己外部修复设备,
06:45
and these devices are helping us all
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这些设备都在帮助我们
06:47
to communicate and interact with each other.
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互相沟通和互动交流。
06:49
But when you actually visualize it,
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如果你现在能看见这些
06:51
all the connections that we're doing right now --
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将我们联系在一起的链接,
06:53
this is an image of the mapping of the Internet --
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你看见的是一副英特网的地图。
06:56
it doesn't look technological.
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它上去并不是技术化的;
06:58
It actually looks very organic.
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它其实看上去是有机化的。
07:00
This is the first time in the entire history of humanity
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这是人类有史以来,我们第一次这样
07:03
that we've connected in this way.
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链接在一起。
07:06
And it's not that machines are taking over.
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这并不是指机器主宰了我们;
07:09
It's that they're helping us to be more human,
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它们只是帮助我们更加人性化,
07:11
helping us to connect with each other.
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帮助我们互相联系。
07:13
The most successful technology gets out of the way
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最成功的技术帮我们扫清障碍
07:16
and helps us live our lives.
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帮我们生活得更好。
07:18
And really,
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真的,
07:20
it ends up being more human than technology,
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最终机器使我们人类比起技术化来说,变得更人性化,
07:23
because we're co-creating each other all the time.
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因为我们一直互相合作共同创造。
07:25
And so this is the important point that I like to study:
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所以这是我想研究的一个要点:
07:28
that things are beautiful, that it's still a human connection --
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事物是美好的,这还是要归于人类之间的联系;
07:31
it's just done in a different way.
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只是用了不同的方法。
07:33
We're just increasing our humanness
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我们只是增强了我们人类的特性
07:35
and our ability to connect with each other, regardless of geography.
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以及我们不管地理位置的约束互相联系在一起的能力。
07:38
So that's why I study cyborg anthropology.
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这就是我研究半机器人类学的原因。
07:40
Thank you.
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谢谢。
07:42
(Applause)
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(掌声)
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