How do schools of fish swim in harmony?
鱼群是怎样和谐共游的呢？
And how do the tiny cells in your brain give rise to the complex thoughts, memories, and consciousness that are you?
你大脑的微小细胞如何产生你的复杂思想，记忆和意识？
Oddly enough, those questions have the same general answer: emergence,
奇怪的是，一个答案能够回答这些问题：涌现，
or the spontaneous creation of sophisticated behaviors and functions from large groups of simple elements.
或是说一大群简单元素同时构建的复杂行为和功能。
Like many animals, fish stick together in groups,
和许多动物一样，鱼类成群行动，
but that's not just because they enjoy each other's company. It's a matter of survival.
不是因为人多热闹大，而是关乎生死。
Schools of fish exhibit complex swarming behaviors that help them evade hungry predators,
鱼群展示了能够帮助他们逃离饥饿的捕食者的复杂群集行为，
while a lone fish is quickly singled out as easy prey.
一个落单的鱼会很快被捕食。
So which brilliant fish leader is the one in charge?
所以是谁在指挥他们聪明的鱼领袖呢？
Actually, no one is, and everyone is. So what does that mean?
事实上，没人是，又所有人都是。所以，这到底是什么意思？
While the school of fish is elegantly twisting, turning, and dodging sharks in what looks like deliberate coordination,
当一群鱼优雅的旋转，扭转，躲避着鲨鱼，尽管看起来像是特意的编排，
each individual fish is actually just following two basic rules that have nothing to do with the shark:
每条鱼只是在遵循最基本的两个规则，这两条规则和鲨鱼无关。
one, stay close, but not too close to your neighbor, and two, keep swimmming.
规则一：靠近但别太靠近旁边的鱼，规则二：别停下。
As individuals, the fish are focused on the minutiae of these local interactions,
作为个体，这些鱼集中在这些局部互动上，
but if enough fish join the group, something remarkable happens.
但如果足够多的鱼加入了这个群体，非凡的事情就发生了。
The movement of individual fish is eclipsed by an entirely new entity:
个体鱼的行动被新的实体覆盖：
the school, which has its own unique set of behaviors.
自己有着一套独特行为的鱼群。
The school isn't controlled by any single fish.
鱼群不被任何一条鱼控制。
It simply emerges if you have enough fish following the right set of local rules.
只要有足够数量的遵循正确规矩的鱼聚在一起，鱼群就会出现。
It's like an accident that happens over and over again,
就像一个意外一次又一次地发生，
allowing fish all across the ocean to reliably avoid predation. And it's not just fish.
这样海洋所有的鱼都可以可靠地避开猎杀。而且，不光是鱼。
Emergence is a basic property of many complex systems of interacting elements.
涌现是许多交互元素的复杂系统的一个基本特征。
For example, the specific way in which millions of grains of sand collide and tumble over each other
打个比方，数以万计的沙粒撞击并轮来轮去的特殊的方式，
almost always produces the same basic pattern of ripples.
几乎总是会产生相同基本模式的涟漪。
And when moisture freezes in the atmosphere,
当潮湿的空气大气层冻住的时候，
the specific binding properties of water molecules reliably produce radiating lattices that form into beautiful snowflakes.
水分子特定的结合特点可靠地产生了辐射状框架，最终变成雪花。
What makes emergence so complex is that you can't understand it by simply taking it apart, like the engine of a car.
使涌现如此复杂的是，你不能通过简单的把它像汽车引擎一样拆开来理解它。
Taking things apart is a good first step to understanding a complex system.
把东西拆看是研究复杂系统的一个良好的开端。
But if you reduce a school of fish to individuals,
但是如果你把一群鱼减少到个体，
it loses the ability to evade predators, and there's nothing left to study.
它就失去了逃离捕食者的能力，也就没有什么可研究的了。
And if you reduce the brain to individual neurons,
如果你把大脑减少到独立的神经元，
you're left with something that is notoriously unreliable,
就只剩下一堆特别不可靠的东西了，
and nothing like how we think and behave, at least most of the time.
和我们如果思考及行动完全不沾边，至少大部分时候是这样的。
Regardless, whatever you're thinking about right now isn't reliant on a single neuron lodged in the corner of your brain.
不管怎样，不管你现在在想什么，都不是你大脑某个角落的一个神经元在起作用。

Rather, the mind emerges from the collective activities of many, many neurons.
不如说，思想来源于许多许多神经元的集合活动。
There are billions of neurons in the human brain, and trillions of connections between all those neurons.
人体大脑中有上亿个神经元，这些神经元之间有数十亿的连接。
When you turn such a complicated system like that on, it could behave in all sorts of weird ways, but it doesn't.
当你打开这样一个复杂的系统时，他可以有各种稀奇古怪的表现，但是事实上并没有。
The neurons in our brain follow simple rules, just like the fish,
我们大脑里的脑细胞遵循简单的规则，就像鱼类，
so that as a group, their activity self-organizes into reliable patterns that let you do things like recognize faces,
所以以一个群体来说，他们的行动自组织成可靠的模式，让你可以干好多事，比如识别面部，
successfully repeat the same task over and over again,
一遍又一遍地成功重复同一个任务，
and keep all those silly little habits that everyone likes about you.
以及保持大家喜欢的你的那些傻傻的小习惯。
So, what are the simple rules when it comes to the brain?
所以，对于大脑来说，这些简单的规矩是什么呢？
The basic function of each neuron in the brain is to either excite or inhibit other neurons.
每个神经元的基本功能就是使其他的神经元或兴奋或抑制。
If you connect a few neurons together into a simple circuit, you can generate rhythmic patterns of activity,
如果你把几个神经元围成一个简单的线路，你可以引起韵律性的行为模式，
feedback loops that ramp up or shut down a signal, coincidence detectors, and disinhibition,
能够加强或者关掉一个信号的反馈循环，巧合探测器，以及反抑制，
where two inhibitory neurons can actually activate another neuron by removing inhibitory brakes.
也就是两个抑制性神经元可以通过去除抑制闸来启动另一个神经元。
As more and more neurons are connected, increasingly complex patterns of activity emerge from the network.
当越来越多的神经元被关联，更加复杂的行为模式便从这个网涌现。
Soon, so many neurons are interacting in so many different ways at once that the system becomes chaotic.
不久，这么多神经元同时用这么多不同的方式互相影响，系统便变得混乱。
The trajectory of the network's activity cannot be easily explained by the simple local circuits described earlier.
该网络的行为轨迹无法简单地用之前描述的简易局部线路来解释。
And yet, from this chaos, patterns can emerge, and then emerge again and again in a reproducible manner.
然而，模式从这混乱中涌现，然后一次又一次以可复写的方式涌现。
At some point, these emergent patterns of activity become sufficiently complex, and curious
在某一时刻，这些涌现的行为模式变得足够复杂和好奇，
to begin studying their own biological origins, not to mention emergence.
来开始研究它们自己的生物起源，更不必说涌现了。
And what we found in emergent phenomena at vastly different scales is that same remarkable characteristic as the fish displayed:
我们在广大的不同规模的“涌现”现象中所发现的是跟鱼群所表现的一样的非凡的特征：
That emergence doesn't require someone or something to be in charge.
“涌现”不需要某人或某物来指挥。
If the right rules are in place, and some basic conditions are met,
如果适当的位置有正确的规则，且达到一些基本条件，
a complex system will fall into the same habits over and over again, turning chaos into order.
一个复杂的系统将会一次又一次落入同样的规律，转混乱为秩序。
That's true in the molecular pandemonium that lets your cells function,
这是真的，在让你的细胞工作的分子混乱局面中，
the tangled thicket of neurons that produces your thoughts and identity,
缠结的神经元丛产生你的思想与身份，
your network of friends and family, all the way up to the structures and economies of our cities across the planet.
你的朋友圈和家庭，一直到全世界的城市的结构与经济。