演讲文本

Now think of the absurdity of this situation.
现在试想下这种奇怪的状况：
If 27 individuals from those 27 member states sat around table, speaking their 23 languages,
如果27个来自各个盟国的人围坐在桌边，说着23种语言
some very simple mathematics will tell you that you need an army of 253 translators to anticipate all the pairwise possibilities.
简单计算就可以知道，你需要一个253人的翻译队伍来保证配对说话的可能性
The European Union employs a permanent staff of about 2,500 translators.
欧盟雇了大约2500名永久编制的翻译
And in 2007 alone -- and I'm sure there are more recent figures --
仅2007年一年--当然应该有最新的数据可查--
something on the order of 1.3 million pages were translated into English alone.
仅是翻译成英文的文件就大约为一百三十万页

And so if language really is the solution to the crisis of visual theft,
如果语言真是观察性窃取的解决方法
if language really is the conduit of our cooperation,
如果语言真是我们合作的媒介
the technology that our species derived to promote the free flow and exchange of ideas,
是人类发明的用于促进思想无障碍流通和交换的技术
in our modern world, we confront a question.
那么在现代社会，我们碰上了难题
And that question is whether in this modern, globalized world
这就是在这个全球化的现代社会
we can really afford to have all these different languages.
我们是否承担得起使用如此多语言的代价
To put it this way, nature knows no other circumstance in which functionally equivalent traits coexist.
可以这样说，自然的法则是具有同等功能的特性是难以共存的
One of them always drives the other extinct.
其中的一个往往战胜其他的而存活下去
And we see this in the inexorable march towards standardization.
我们在向着标准化的大步前进中可以清楚地看到这一点
There are lots and lots of ways of measuring things --
在许多测量物体的方法中
weighing them and measuring their length -- but the metric system is winning.
包括称重和量长，公制计量制度赢了。

视频及简介

演讲简介：

生物学家马克·佩格尔与我们分享了一个关于人类如何发展复杂的语言系统的有趣理论。他认为，语言是一种社会技术，它帮助人类早期部落获得了一个强有力的新工具：合作。