Robert Sapolsky: The biology of our best and worst selves
ロバート・サポルスキー: 最善の自己と最悪の自己の生物学
Robert Sapolsky is one of the leading neuroscientists in the world, studying stress in primates (including humans). Full bio
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spent the last few years
of our language trying to explain it is.
ということを考えてきました
explain some of the thinking behind it
皆さんの前で発表してくれます
something like this.
「アドルフ・ヒトラー
against humanity."
version of the fantasy ends
空想はここで終わり
once I allow myself.
or move or see or hear, just to feel,
視聴覚を奪って 感覚だけを残し
with something cancerous
膿疱におおわれる
is screaming in agony,
苦痛に悲鳴を上げる
feels like an eternity in hell.
地獄のように感じられる—
wicked soul in history.
様々な仕打ちを思い巡らすからです
in souls or evil,
存在するとは思っていません
登場人物だと思っています
I would like to see killed,
と思う人も何人かいますが
I was at a laser tag place,
サバイバルゲームをして
hiding in a corner shooting at people.
大いに楽しんだこともあります
confused human when it comes to violence.
暴力についての見方は一貫していません
have problems with violence.
暴力の問題を抱えています
airplanes as weapons,
飛行機を武器に使ったり
our champions of it.
being this miserably violent species,
暴力的な種であるだけでなく
altruistic, compassionate one.
思いやりのある種でもあります
of the biology of our best behaviors,
その間の曖昧な行動
ambiguously in between?
どう理解したらよいでしょうか?
the motoric aspects of the behavior.
運動的に理解してみましょう
tells your muscles
the meaning of the behavior,
理解することです
pulling a trigger is an appalling act;
恐ろしい行為になる場合もあれば
self-sacrificial.
なる場合もあります
one someone else's
自分の手を置くことが
なる場合もあれば
of our behaviors,
is you're not going to get anywhere
the brain region or the hormone
あるいは進化のメカニズムが
that explains everything.
ということです
has multiple levels of causality.
多層的な理由があるのです
行なわれ 人々が走り回り
in an agitated state --
あなたに向かって走って来ます
is frightened, threatening, angry --
怒っているのか 表情からは判然としない
that kind of looks like a handgun.
that thing in this person's hand
that caused this behavior?
生じたのか?」
one second before you pulled that trigger?
何が起こっていたか?」
of a brain region called the amygdala.
脳の領域について考える必要があります
central to violence, central to fear,
in your amygdala one second before?
どうだったか?」
we have to step back a little bit.
少しだけ遡る必要があります
seconds to minutes before
何が周囲で起こって
the sounds of the rioting,
a cell phone for a handgun
is not going to work as well,
to get to the amygdala in time
that's a gun there?"
脳の部位です
at hours to days before,
見てみましょう
the realm of hormones.
testosterone levels in your blood,
a face with a neutral expression
elevated levels of stress hormones,
ストレス・ホルモンの値が高いと
is going to be more active
will be more sluggish.
weeks to months before,
数か月前まで遡ると
can change in response to experience,
have been filled with stress and trauma,
トラウマを抱えていると
more excitable,
in that one second.
起こることに影響します
of the adolescent brain
until you're around 25.
ようやく成熟します
and experience sculpt your frontal cortex
働きかけて
as an adult in that critical moment.
求められる脳を 形成している時期です
to childhood and fetal life
that that could come in.
that your brain is being constructed,
experience during those times
epigenetic changes,
もたらすということです
certain genes, turning off others.
他の遺伝子を不活性化させます
of stress hormones through your mother,
ストレス・ホルモンに晒された場合
your amygdala in adulthood
後の成人期に扁桃体が
elevated stress hormone levels.
was a collection of genes.
過ぎなかった頃に戻ります
important to all of this,
determine anything,
決定するわけではありません
in different environments.
異なる働きをするからです
遺伝子多様体があります
to commit antisocial violence
非常に高くなります
you were abused as a child.
ある場合に限ってのことですが
影響を与え合っていて
before you pull that trigger
起こっていることには
of those gene-environment interactions.
相互作用が反映されています
we've got to push even further back now,
さらに時間を何世紀も前に
何をしていたでしょう
they were nomadic pastoralists,
what's called a culture of honor
築き上げていたことでしょう
氏族間の抗争もあったでしょう
the values with which you were raised.
価値観に影響を及ぼします
about the evolution of genes.
語ることでもあるからです
for extremely low levels of aggression,
攻撃性が極端に低くなった種もあれば
in the opposite direction,
by every measure are humans,
漂っているのが人間です
barely defined species
支離滅裂な種 人間は
to go one way or the other.
可能性があります
a wondrous one,
素晴らしい行動であれ
what happened a second before
起こったあらゆることを
行動は 複雑だということです
real careful, real cautious
you know what causes a behavior,
you're judging harshly.
point about all of this
最も肝心な点は
can change in different circumstances.
異なる状況では変化し得るのです
the Sahara was a lush grassland.
緑豊かな草原でした
people in Europe were the Swedes,
スウェーデン人で
military does now.
examples of human change.
驚くべき変化が起こります
of slavery from the British Empire
中心的役割を果たしました
spent decades as a younger man
in the thing that he's most famous for,
ニュートンが作詞した讃美歌
on the morning of December 6, 1941,
1941年12月6日の朝
bombers to attack Pearl Harbor.
真珠湾に出撃する時の写真です
50 years later to the day
the attack on the ground.
アメリカ人男性と抱き合っています
of Pearl Harbor survivors
真珠湾攻撃の生存者達が集まった
for what he had done as a young man.
若い頃の自らの行為を謝罪したのです
could happen in just hours.
ほんの数時間のうちに起こることもあります
Christmas truce of 1914.
クリスマス休戦を考えてみてください
had negotiated a brief truce
兵士達に 陣地の中間地帯から
in between the trench lines.
遺体を運び
dig graves in the frozen ground,
凍てついた大地に墓穴を掘り
and exchanging gifts,
贈り物を交換し
they were playing soccer together
so they could meet after the war.
住所を交換したのです
until the officers had to arrive
to trying to kill each other."
a completely new category of "us,"
まったく新しい「私達」を作ったのです
無意味に命を落としていきます
those faceless powers behind the lines
自分達をチェスの駒みたいに扱うー
change can occur in seconds.
数秒で生じることもあります
in the Vietnam War
最も恐ろしい出来事はおそらく
village full of civilians
村民を虐殺しました
because the government denied it,
政府がそれを否定したからです
did nothing more than a slap on the wrist,
生ぬるい処罰しかしなかったからです
was not a singular event.
ほぼ間違いなく他にもあったからです
who stopped the My Lai Massacre.
彼がソンミ村の虐殺を止めた人物です
銃撃しているのを
his lifetime of conditioning
捨て去りました
and American soldiers
on his fellow Americans,
機関銃を向け
I will mow you down."
お前達を残らず撃ち殺す」と言いました
are no more special than any of us.
私達と同じです
is this inevitable cliche:
次の文句です
are destined to repeat it."
歴史を繰り返すことになる」
of extraordinary human change,
人間の歴史—
of what can transform us
私達を変容させる生物学的要因を
are destined not to be able
magnificent moments.
a new mental model about something,
何か新しいメンタルモデルを
Good luck with the book.
執筆をがんばってください
to come here in person one year.
お越し頂けることを願っています
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robert Sapolsky - Neuroscientist, primatologist, writerRobert Sapolsky is one of the leading neuroscientists in the world, studying stress in primates (including humans).
Why you should listen
We all have some measure of stress, and Robert Sapolsky explores its causes as well as its effects on our bodies (his lab was among the first to document the damage that stress can do to our hippocampus). In his research, he follows a population of wild baboons in Kenya, who experience stress very similarly to the way humans do. By measuring hormone levels and stress-related diseases in each primate, he determines their relative stress, looking for patterns in personality and social behavior that might contribute. These exercises have given Sapolsky amazing insight into all primate social behavior, including our own.
He has been called "one of the best scientist-writers of our time" by Oliver Sacks. Sapolsky has produced, in addition to numerous scientific papers, books for broader audiences, including A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Stress Disease and Coping, and The Trouble with Testosterone.
His latest book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, examines human behavior in search of an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do?
Robert Sapolsky | Speaker | TED.com