If you ask evolutionary biologists when did humans become humans,
如果你问进化生物学家人类何时成为了人类，
some of them will say that, well, at some point we started standing on our feet,
有些人认为是在某个我们开始直立起来的时候，
became biped and became the masters of our environment.
我们成为两足动物和环境的主人。
Others will say that because our brain started growing much bigger,
也有人认为是大脑开始变大的时候，
that we were able to have much more complex cognitive processes.
我们因而有了更复杂的认知过程；
And others might argue that it's because we developed language that allowed us to evolve as a species.
还有其他人争辩人类物种能进化是因为语言的开发。
Interestingly, those three phenomena are all connected.
有趣的是，这三种现象相互关联。
We are not sure how or in which order,
我们不确定到底如何或以何种顺序，
but they are all linked with the change of shape of a little bone in the back of your neck that changed the angle between our head and our body.
但都与脖子后面那块小骨头的形状变化有关，它改变了我们头部和身体间的角度。
That means we were able to stand upright but also for our brain to evolve in the back
这意味着我们能够直立，大脑能够在后面进化，
and for our voice box to grow from seven centimeters for primates to 11 and up to 17 centimetres for humans.
而且我们的喉头能从灵长类动物的7公分增长到人类的11至17公分。
And this is called the descent of the larynx. And the larynx is the site of your voice.
这被称为喉头的下降。喉头是你发声的部位。
When baby humans are born today, their larynx is not descended yet.
现今的婴儿出生时，喉头还没下降。
That only happens at about three months old.
下降发生在三个月大左右。
So, metaphorically, each of us here has relived the evolution of our whole species.
因此隐喻地说，我们这里的每一个人都已重温整个人类物种的进化过程。
And talking about babies, when you were starting to develop in your mother's womb,
谈到婴儿，当你在母亲的子宫里开始发育，
the first sensation that you had coming from the outside world, at only three weeks old,
你从外界得到的第一感觉--当你只有三个星期大，
when you were about the size of a shrimp, were through the tactile sensation coming from the vibrations of your mother's voice.
大约一只虾的大小，是通过触觉感受到你母亲的声音震动。
So, as we can see, the human voice is quite meaningful and important at the level of the species, at the level of the society
因此，正如我们所见，人类的声音在物种层面和社会层面上非常有意义和非常重要。
this is how we communicate and create bonds, and at the personal and interpersonal levels
我们用声音来沟通和连结，我们在个人和人际层面上，
with our voice, we share much more than words and data, we share basically who we are.
用声音比用文字或数据分享得更多，我们基本上分享我们是谁。
And our voice is indistinguishable from how other people see us.
别人对我们的看法离不开我们的声音。
It is a mask that we wear in society. But our relationship with our own voice is far from obvious.
这是我们在社会上戴的面具。但我们与自己声音间的关系不明显。
We rarely use our voice for ourselves; we use it as a gift to give to others.
我们很少用自己的声音，而是把它送给别人。
It is how we touch each other. It's a dialectical grooming.
声音是我们彼此接触的方式，是一种辩证。
But what do we think about our own voice?
我们对自己的声音有什么看法？
So please raise your hand if you don't like the sound of your voice when you hear it on a recording machine.
如果你不喜欢自己留在录音机上的声音，请举手。
Yeah, thank you, indeed, most people report not liking the sound of their voice recording.
好，谢谢，的确大多数人不喜欢他们录的声音。
So what does that mean? Let's try to understand that in the next 10 minutes.
那么这意味着什么？让我们试着在接下来的10分钟内了解这一点。
I'm a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, part of the Opera of the Future group,
我是麻省理工学院媒体实验室的研究员，是未来歌剧团队的一员，
and my research focuses on the relationship people have with their own voice and with the voices of others.
我研究的重点在于人与自己的声音、与别人的声音间的关系。
I study what we can learn from listening to voices,
我研究能从聆听各种领域，
from the various fields, from neurology to biology, cognitive sciences, linguistics.
神经学、生物学、认知科学、语言学的声音学到什么。
In our group we create tools and experiences to help people gain a better applied understanding of their voice
我们小组创建工具和经验，帮助人们更理解、更会应用声音，
in order to reduce the biases, to become better listeners,
从而减少偏见，成为更好的听众，
to create more healthy relationships or just to understand themselves better.
创造更健康的关系，或是更了解自己。
And this really has to come with a holistic approach on the voice.
真的必须有全面的方法来处理声音。
Because, think about all the applications and implications that the voice may have, as we discover more about it.
因为当我们发现更多的声音内容时，试想所有它可能具有的应用和含义。
Your voice is a very complex phenomenon. It requires a synchronization of more than 100 muscles in your body.
你的声音是一个非常复杂的现象，需要你身体里超过100个肌肉同步动作。
And by listening to the voice, we can understand possible failures of what happens inside.
通过听声音，能了解可能失常的身体状况。
For example: listening to very specific types of turbulences and nonlinearity of the voice
例如：倾听特定类型的不稳定气流和非线性的语音，
can help predict very early stages of Parkinson's, just through a phone call.
有助于侦测非常早期的帕金森氏症。通过电话听就能做到。
Listening to the breathlessness of the voice can help detect heart disease.
聆听呼吸声能帮助检测心脏疾病。
And we also know that the changes of tempo inside individual words is a very good marker of depression.
我们还知道单词内部的节奏变化是个辨识抑郁症的好标志。
Your voice is also very linked with your hormone levels.
你的声音也与激素水平非常相关。
Third parties listening to female voices were able to very accurately place the speaker on their menstrual cycle.
聆听女人声音的第三方人士，能够非常准确地察觉发言者的月经周期。
Just with acoustic information. And now with technology listening to us all the time,
依靠声学的信息就够了。现在科技一直聆听着我们的声音，
Alexa from Amazon Echo might be able to predict if you're pregnant even before you know it.
亚马逊的Echo和Alexa或许可以预测怀孕，甚至在本人知道之前。
So think about -- think about the ethical implications of that.
请思考--请思考那个应用的道德问题。
Your voice is also very linked to how you create relationships.
你的声音也与如何建立关系很相关。
You have a different voice for every person you talk to.
你用不同的声音与每个人交谈。
If I take a little snippet of your voice and I analyze it,
如果我采取并分析一小段你的声音，
I can know whether you're talking to your mother, to your brother, your friend or your boss.
我能知道你说话的对象是母亲、兄弟、朋友或老板。
We can also use, as a predictor, the vocal posture.
我们还能用人声的姿势来预测。
Meaning, how you decide to place your voice when you talk to someone.
指的是你与人交谈时声音的位置。
And you vocal posture, when you talk to your spouse, can help predict not only if, but also when you will divorce.
你和配偶交谈时声音的姿势，不仅有助于预测你会不会离婚，还能预测你何时离婚。
So there is a lot to learn from listening to voices.
所以倾听声音能学到很多东西。
And I believe this has to start with understanding that we have more than one voice.
我相信这必须从理解我们拥有不止一个声音开始。
So, I'm going to talk about three voices that most of us posses, in a model of what I call the mask.
我将以称为“面具”的模型来谈论大多数人拥有的三种声音。
So when you look at the mask, what you see is a projection of a character.
当你看着面具，看到的是个角色的投影。
Let's call that your outward voice.
让我们称之为“外传声音”。
This is also the most classic way to think about the voice, it's a way of projecting yourself in the world.
这是最经典的声音思考方式，是一种投射自己的方式。
The mechanism for this projection is well understood.
这投射机制已被理解透彻。
Your lungs contract your diaphragm and that creates a self-sustained vibration of your vocal fold, that creates a sound.
你的肺收缩横隔膜，产生持续的声带振动而发出声音。
And then the way you open and close the cavities in you mouth, your vocal tract is going to transform the sound.
当你张嘴和闭嘴时，声道会改变声音。
So everyone has the same mechanism. But voices are quite unique.
每个人的机制都相同，但声音很独特。
It's because very subtle differences in size, physiology, in hormone levels
这是因为体型、生理、激素水平上的细微差异，
are going to make very subtle differences in your outward voice.
会使你的外传声音产生非常微妙的差异。
And your brain is very good at picking up those subtle differences from other people's outward voices.
加上你的大脑非常善于从他人的外传声音攫取细微的差异。

In our lab, we are working on teaching machines to understand those subtle differences.
我们实验室正在教导机器理解这些细微的差异。
And we use deep learning to create a real-time speaker identification system
我们以深度学习建立实时的系统来辨识说话的人，
to help raise awareness on the use of the shared vocal space
有助于提高认知共享声音空间的使用，
so who talks and who never talks during meetings -- to increase group intelligence.
例如谁在会谈中发言和谁从不说话，以增加集体的智慧。
And one of the difficulties with that is that your voice is also not static.
困难之一是你的声音并不是静止的。
We already said that it changes with every person you talk to but it also changes generally throughout your life.
我们已经说过，它随着你交谈的对象而改变，也在你的一生中变化。
At the beginning and at the end of the journey, male and female voices are very similar.
在人生旅程的开始和结束时，男性和女性的声音非常相似。
It's very hard to distinguish the voice of a very young girl from the voice of a very young boy.
女幼童和男幼童的声音非常难以区分。
But in between, your voice becomes a marker of your fluid identity.
但在两者之间，你的声音成为你流畅身份的标志。
Generally, for male voices there's a big change at puberty.
一般来说，男性的声音在青春期有个很大的变化。
And then for female voices, there is a change at each pregnancy and a big change at menopause.
而女性的声音每次怀孕都会有变化，而更年期会发生巨大的变化。
So all of that is the voice other people hear when you talk.
这些全都是其他人听到的你的语音。
So why is it that we're so unfamiliar with it?
为什么我们不熟悉自己的声音呢？
Why is it that it's not the voice that we hear? So, let's think about it.
为什么那不是我们听到的声音？让我们试想一下。
When you wear a mask, you actually don't see the mask.
你戴着面具时实际上看不到面具。
And when you try to observe it, what you will see is inside of the mask. And that's your inward voice.
你试图观察它时会看到面具的里面，那就是你的“内传声音”。
So to understand why it's different, let's try to understand the mechanism of perception of this inward voice.
因此，要理解它为什么不同，试着去理解内传声音的感知机制。
Because your body has many ways of filtering it differently from the outward voice.
你的身体过滤内传声音的方法，很多与过滤外传声音的不同。
So to perceive this voice, it first has to travel to your ears.
被感知的声音先要抵达你的耳朵。
And your outward voice travels through the air while your inward voice travels through your bones.
外传的声音藉由空气传播，而内传的声音藉由骨头传播。
This is called bone conduction.
这被称为骨传导。
Because of this, your inward voice is going to sound in a lower register and also more musically harmonical than your outward voice.
正因为如此，内传的声音会处于较低的音域，比外传的声音更有共鸣。
Once it travels there, it has to access your inner ear.
一旦抵达，声音必须进入你的内耳。
And there's this other mechanism taking place here.
这里还有其他的机制发生。
It's a mechanical filter, it's a little partition that comes and protects your inner ear each time you produce a sound.
这是个机械过滤器，是一个小隔板，每当你发声时都会保护你的内耳。
So it also reduces what you hear.
所以也会减低你听到的音量。
And then there is a third filter, it's a biological filter.
还有第三个过滤器，是个生物过滤器。
Your cochlea -- it's a part of your inner ear that processes the sound -- is made out of living cells.
你的耳蜗--它是内耳处理声音的一部分--由活细胞组成。
And those living cells are going to trigger differently according to how often they hear the sound. It's a habituation effect.
根据听到声音的频率触发这些活细胞的频率，这是习惯效应。
So because of this, as your voice is the sound you hear the most in your life, you actually hear it less than other sounds.
因此，因为你生活中听到最多的声音是你自己的声音，你真的听到它的时候，比听到其他的声音少。
Finally, we have a fourth filter. It's a neurological filter.
最后，我们有第四个过滤器，是个神经过滤器。
Neurologists found out recently that when you open your mouth to create a sound, your own auditory cortex shuts down.
神经学家最近发现当你张嘴发声时，你自己的听觉皮层就会关闭。
So you hear your voice but your brain actually never listens to the sound of your voice.
所以你听到自己的声音，但你的脑并不真的聆听自己的声音。
Well, evolutionarily that might make sense,
从进化的角度来看，这可能有道理，
because we know cognitively what we are going to sound like so maybe we don't need to spend energy analyzing the signal.
因为我们认知自己听起来是什么样子，也许毋需花费精力去分析信号。
And this is called a corollary discharge and it happens for every motion that your body does.
这被称为“感知回馈”，发生在你身体的每一个动作上。
The exact definition of a corollary discharge is a copy of a motor command that is sent by the brain.
感知回馈的确切定义是由大脑发送的动作命令的副本。
This copy doesn't create any motion itself but instead is sent to other regions of the brain to inform them of the impending motion.
该副本本身不产生任何动作，而是发送到大脑的其他区域，通知他它们即将发生的动作。
And for the voice, this corollary discharge also has a different name. It is your inner voice.
这种感知回馈在声音上的名称不同，是你的“内在声音”。
So let's recapitulate. We have the mask, the outward voice,
让我们重述一下。我们有面具，外传的声音，
the inside of the mask, your inward voice, and then you have your inner voice.
面具里面是内传的声音，然后是内在的声音。
And I like to see this one as the puppeteer that holds the strings of the whole system.
我喜欢将这视为掌握整个系统弦乐的傀儡手。
Your inner voice is the one you hear when you read a text silently, when you rehearse for an important conversation.
当你为重要的会谈排练时，你默默地阅读文本时听到的是你内在的声音。
Sometimes is hard to turn it off, it's really hard to look at the text written in your native language,
有时很难把它关掉；看到用母语写的文本时，
without having this inner voice read it.
真的很难不用内在的声音去读它。
It's also the voice that refuse to stop singing the stupid song you have in your head.
这也是难以关掉你脑袋里反复播放着的愚蠢歌曲的原因。
And for some people it's actually impossible to control it.
实际上有一些人无法控制它。
And that's the case of schizophrenic patients, who have auditory hallucinations.
这就是患有幻听的精神分裂症患者的情况。
Who can't distinguish at all between voices coming from inside and outside their head.
他们无法区分脑内、脑外的声音。
So in our lab, we are also working on small devices
因此我们实验室正在研究小型设备，
to help those people make those distinctions and know if a voice is internal or external.
来帮助这些人分辨这些区别，弄清是内部还是外部的声音。
You can also think about the inner voice as the voice that speaks in your dream.
你也能把内在的声音想成梦中说话的声音。
This inner voice can take many forms. And in your dreams, you actually unleash the potential of this inner voice.
这种内在的声音能有多种形式。在梦中，你实际上释放了这种内在声音的潜力。
That's another work we are doing in our lab: trying to access this inner voice in dreams.
这是我们实验室的另一项工作：试图在梦中获得这种内在的声音。
So even if you can't always control it, the inner voice
即使内在的声音并不总是由你控制，
you can always engage with it through dialogue, through inner dialogues.
你能通过对话，通过内心的对话来与之对话。
And you can even see this inner voice as the missing link between thought and actions.
你甚至能将这种内在的声音看作是思想与行动之间缺失的联系。
So I hope I've left you with a better appreciation,
我希望我已经让你更赏识你所有的声音，
a new appreciation of all of your voices and the role it plays inside and outside of you
以及对声音在你内外发挥的作用有了新的认识，
as your voice is a very critical determinant of what makes you humans and of how you interact with the world. Thank you.
因为你的声音是让你成为人类的关键决定因素，让你与世界互动。谢谢。