In an entirely natural world without any supernatural mysteries,
在一个没有任何超自然神迹的完全自然的世界中
you can explain the mind, the human mind, conciousness.
你可以解释思想 人类思想 意识
It's been my project for 50 years.
这是我研究了50年的课题 我意识到
And what I've come to realize is that the only way to do it right is you have to take evolution a lot more seriously
我开始意识到唯一能很好地研究这一课题的方式是你必须更加认真地看待演变
and really look hard at the question of how evolution could've gotten these wonderful projects up and running,
真正用心得看待演变进化是如何使得一些精彩的事物出现 并开始运转的
that have now lead to people like you and me
如何创造出像我们现在的人类的
and all the great artistic geniuses and scientific geniuses,
以及所有那些伟大的艺术天才以及科学专家
the real intelligent designers that now inhabit the planet
这些现存于这个星球的真正的智慧设计者
instead of the imaginary intelligent designer who never existed.
而不是那个从未存在过的想象出来的智慧设计者
For millennia, people had it in mind that all the wonderful things they saw in the world,
几千年来人们根深蒂固地认为 他们在这世上见到的一切美好事物
or all the beautiful design of the animals and plants and living things
所有动物 植物 各种生物的精妙设计
must be due to a fabulously intelligent designer, a creator.
必定是来自一位拥有惊人智慧的设计者 一个创世者
And so wasn't until Darwin came along and turned that upside down,
直到达尔文出现 推翻这一切
and realized that in principle, there could be a process
然后意识到 原则上 这可能有个过程
with no intelligence, no comprehension, no foresight, no purpose,
这里面没有智慧 没有理解 没有预知 没有目的
that would just inexorably grind out algorithmically
它只是不可抗拒地 演算式地机械生产出
better and batter and better designs of all sorts
越来越好 越来越好的 各种事物的设计
and create the living world where there would have been just lifeless matter before.
并创造出这个充满生机的世界 在此之前这里原本只有非生物存在
And this was a shocking idea to many people.
这对很多人来说是个令他们震惊的观点
Even to Darwin in some regards it was shocking.
即便是对达尔文本人 某些方面也是震惊的
But he was right. He had the essentials right.
但他是正确的 他的核心是正确的
And now, 150 years later, there's just no question about it. He was right.
在150年后的今天 再没有人怀疑这点 他是正确的
And we're filling in the details with a breathtaking pace.
并且我们以惊人的速度为这一理论填充着细节
So that was the first great inversion, a strange inversion of reasoning.
以上就是第一个伟大的倒置——一个“奇怪的推理倒置”
And it's much about it in recent years, by what I call Alan Turing's strange inversion of reasoning.
最近几年而我称之为“阿兰·图灵的奇怪推理倒置”出现了
When Turing came along, computers were people. That was a job.
在图灵的年代 “计算机”是人 那是一种工作
What do you do for a living? I'm a computer.
你做什么工作谋生？我是个“计算机”。
And these are human beings, typically they were math majors.
这些都是人类 尤其是数学专业的
And they were hired to compute various functions, tables, logarithms, celestial navigation tables, and so forth.
他们被雇佣来计算各种函数 表格 对数 天体导航表等等

What Turing realized was, you didn't have to be intelligent, you didn't have to comprehend, you could make a device,
图灵发现的是你不需要智慧 也不需要理解 你只需制造一套设备
which did all the things that the human computers were doing with all the intelligence and all the understanding laundered out of it,
这套设备不具备理解力 也不具备任何智慧 但是它能够跟人类一样计算上述的东西
except for the most minimal sort of mechanical quasi understanding.
它只是具有那些最基本的机械的“类理解”
All it had to do was to be able to tell a zero from a one, or a hole in a punch tape from no hole in a punch tape.
它只需要能分辨0和1 或者穿孔纸带上有没有一个孔
A very simple discriminator, put it together with the right logic,
它是一个非常简单的区分器 只是按正确的逻辑被组装了起来
and you have a Universal Turing Machine, which can compute anything computable.
你就得到了一个通用图灵机 它能够计算一切人类可计算的东西
And that was the birth of the computer.
这就是计算机的诞生
And the two strange inversions fit together beautifully.
这两个“奇怪倒置”能完美地结合在一起
What they show, and this is still strange to people, is what I call competence without comprehension.
他们展现出的事实对人们而言仍然很奇怪 我称之为“不需要理解的能力”
We tend to think the reason we send our children to university is
我们总是认为我们将孩子送到大学的目的是
so that they can acquire comprehension which we view as the source of competence.
使他们获取“理解” 我们将它视作“能力”的的来源
It's out of that will of comprehension that they acquire the competence as they do.
出于获得“理解”的愿望 他们就这样获得了“能力”
And we look down our noses at wrote learning and drill and practice
我们看不起书面学习 反复操练和实践练习
because that's…that's just competence, we want comprehension.
因为它们…它们只是“能力” 而我们想要的是“理解”
And what Turing and Darwin in a very similar way showed is, "No, that's just backwards."
而图灵和达尔文展示出的相似的观点正是 “不，一切正好相反”
Comprehension is an effect of multiple competences, not itself a source, an independent source of competence.
“理解”是复合“能力” 的结果体现而非它自己是来源 它不是“能力”的一个独立的来源
So that's the second strange inversion.
以上就是第二个“奇怪的倒置”
If we want to look at human minds we have to add another source of evolutionary power.
如果我们要研究人类思想 我们就得研究另一种演变力量的来源
And that's cultural evolution.
那就是文化演变
We don't get all our intelligence from our genes, in fact relatively little, all things considered.
我们的智慧并非都来自基因 通观全部 事实上还相对较少
And here's where Turing's ideas really come in handy because
这正是图灵的观点格外好用之处 因为
if you take Richard Dawkins's idea of the meme as a unit of cultural evolution,
假设你采用理查德·道金斯的观点 将文化基因视为文化演变的一种单元
and you take Turing's idea about a programmable computer, and you put them together,
你又采用图灵关于可编程计算机的观点 然后把它们结合起来
you get the idea of a meme as a thing made of information.
你就得到了“文化基因是一种由信息构成的东西”的观点
It's like an app which you download to your "necktop".
它就像是你下载到你的“颈上电脑”的一个应用
And it's, a brain filled with apps is a mind, is a human mind.
进而一个装满了“应用”的大脑就是人类思想了
And if you don't download all the apps you're not going to be able to think very well.
如果你不下载所有“应用” 那么你将无法好好思考
That's why no creature on the planet, however intelligent they are in some regards,
这就是为什么这个星球上没有哪种生物 无论它们某方面有多聪明
they can't hold a candle to us because they can't download the apps of culture
它们还没法递根蜡烛给我们 因为它们不能下载文化的“应用”
because they don't have, basically they don't have a language.
因为它们没有…… 最基本的 它们没有语言
And it's language, which is itself composed of memes, words or memes.
而文化其自身就是由“文化基因”组成 词语或文化基因
It's language that is the backbone of cultural evolution.
文化演变的脊梁骨正是语言
And what it permits is for cultural evolution to become ever less Darwinian, ever more intelligent.
它使得文化演变得以越来越不达尔文 而越来越智能
And now we're living in the age of intelligent design.
而我们如今正生活在智能时代
We have scientists and engineers and artists and musicians and composers,
我们有科学家 工程师 艺术家 音乐家 作曲家
all these wonderful designers of wonderful things, of poems, bridges, airplanes, theories…
他们是诗歌 桥梁 飞机 和理论等所有这些美好事物的缔造者
And they are intelligent designers.
他们都拥有智慧
But if you want to know how they manage to have that intelligence,
但如果你想知道他们如何达到这样的智慧
you have to go back and look at their brains.
你就得回过头去看他们的大脑
As ultimately like Turing's Turing Machines, they're composed of actually trillions of million parts, they're all just as stupid as posts.
简直像图灵制造出来的计算街一样 它们由兆亿个部件构成 每一个部件都像木桩子一样蠢
They don't understand a thing. They don't have to understand a thing.
这些部件什么都不懂 它们也什么都不需要懂
You put them together in the right way and you get comprehension, and eventually consciousness.
你将它们以正确的方式组装到一起 你就得到了“理解” 并最终得到“意识”