Well, my cynical reaction to questions about consciousness is,

关于意识 我向来不屑的反应就是

"You tell me what it is, and I tell you if an elephant has it."

“你告诉我它是什么 然后我告诉你大象有没有”

And that usually shuts people up, because you will not be able to tell me what it is and how I should measure it.

这么说通常会让别人哑口无言 因为你根本无法告诉我意识是什么 我又该如何衡量它

That is not a good reaction, because I actually believe that animals have some level of consciousness.

这种反应很好 因为我真的相信动物在某种程度上是有意识的

So for example, the approach that I sometimes take is that

比如说 我有时候会采用的方法就是

there are certain things that we humans cannot do without consciousness.

如果没有意识 人类是完成不了某些事的

If we find these kind of actions also in other species, we must assume that they also involve consciousness.

所以如果我们发现其他物种也有这些行为 那就说明它们也有意识

So for example, you cannot plan a party for tomorrow for your friends

比如 如果你不下意识的思考你需要多少啤酒

without consciously thinking about how much beer you need,

想放哪种音乐 打算邀请哪些人

what kind of music you're going to play, who's going to be invited.

你就没法为朋友规划明天的派对

You have to consciously think about the event before you can plan it.

你必须得有意识地去思考这件事 才能对其进行规划

Now we have very good evidence that animals can plan.

有一个很好的例子能证明动物也会规划

We have lots of experiments now on it.

我们正在针对这一点做大量试验

And we have nature observations.

还在大自然中进行了观察

For example, chimpanzees will collect tools on one location and then walk for three miles.

比如 黑猩猩会在一个地方收集工具 然后走上三英里

And so then an hour later, they're going to use these tools to fish for termites or to open a beehive,

一小时后 它们会利用这些工具搜寻白蚁或打开蜂巢

meaning that they probably had been planning the action.

也就是说它们可能早就规划了这种行动

And we test that out in the laboratory.

我们在实验室里也验证了这一点

And we have evidence for planning in birds, for planning in apes.

我们还在鸟类和猿类身上找到了规划的证据

So if they can plan, and we plan consciously,

如果说它们会规划 而我们又是有意识地规划

it's very hard to imagine that they can do these same things that we do unconsciously.

那就很难说它们是在无意识地做人类会做的这些事了

I find that hard to imagine.

我不会相信那种说法

We have other things, like thinking back in time, thinking back to events that happened a year ago.

还有其他事例 比如 回忆过往 回忆一年前发生的某件事

Can you do that?

你能这样吗？

We have now ways of testing that it's called episodic memory in animals.

现在有多种方式可以验证这一点 它叫做动物的情景记忆

And animals have that capacity.

动物拥有这种能力

You cannot think back to a specific event in time, let's say your wedding or whatever it is,

若不是下意识地回忆 你不会想起某个具体的场景 比如你的婚礼之类的

you cannot think back to a specific event without consciously thinking about that.

也不会想起曾经发生的某件具体的事

And so there are certain things that animals do and that we have now evidence for that require in humans consciousness,

我们有证据证明 动物会做的某些事需要人类所说的意识

and I think that's a good indicator that the animals must also have that kind of consciousness.

我觉得这能很好地说明动物也拥有同样的意识