TEDGlobal 2009
John Lloyd: An inventory of the invisible
John Lloyd 概述“看不见”的含义
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大自然的神秘和人类敏捷的智慧在这十分钟妙趣横生的演讲中相得益彰。喜剧演员，作家和电视记者John Lloyd为我们剖析了几样“看不见的东西”的实质。
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
So the question is, what is invisible?
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那么，问题是：什么是“看不见”？
00:17
There is more of it than you think, actually.
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实际上这并不是想象中的那么简单。
00:20
Everything, I would say. Everything that matters
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我认为是每一件重要的事物
00:23
except every thing and except matter.
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除了每一件事，也除了重要。
00:29
We can see matter. But we can't see what's the matter.
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我们可以看见事物，但是我们不能认识它们的实质。
00:33
As in this cryptic sentence I found in The Guardian recently:
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最近我在《卫报》上发现了一个隐晦的句子。
00:38
"The marriage suffered a setback in 1965,
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“1965年这段婚姻经历了挫折
00:41
when the husband was killed by the wife."
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那年妻子杀死了丈夫。”
00:44
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
00:47
There's a world of invisibility there, isn't there?
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这其中有许多不可告人的秘密，是吧？
00:49
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
00:51
So, we can see the stars and the planets,
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我们可以看见满天星光和星球
00:53
but we can't see what holds them apart
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但是我们不能看出是什么使它们相互分开
00:56
or what draws them together.
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或者什么使它们聚在一起。
00:58
With matter, as with people, we see only the skin of things.
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看事物，就像看人一样，我们只看到表面的东西。
01:01
We can't see into the engine room.
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我们不能深入洞察。
01:03
We can't see what makes people tick, at least not without difficulty.
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我们不能看到是什么支配着人的一举一动，至少不是一件轻松的事。
01:06
And the closer we look at anything, the more it disappears.
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我们观察得越仔细，真相就越不明朗。
01:10
In fact, if you look really closely at stuff,
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实际上，如果你真的足够近的观察事物，
01:12
if you look at the basic substructure of matter,
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如果你探究物质的基本构造，
01:14
there isn't anything there.
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你将一无所获。
01:16
Electrons disappear in a kind of fuzz,
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电子如微小的绒毛一般消失，
01:18
and there is only energy. And you can't see energy.
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只剩下能量。我们是看不见能量的。
01:23
So everything that matters, that's important, is invisible.
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因此对于任何事物来说，重要的是“看不见”的东西。
01:26
One slightly silly thing that's invisible
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这是一个有点滑稽的、关于“看不见”的
01:29
is this story, which is invisible to you.
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故事，对你们而言是“看不见”的。
01:31
And I'm now going to make it visible to you in your minds.
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我现在将让它在你们的头脑中显现出来。
01:34
It's about an M.P. called Geoffrey Dickens.
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这个故事的主人公是一个叫Geoffrey Dickens的国会议员。
01:38
The late Geoffrey Dickens, M.P. was attending a fete in his constituency.
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前议员Geoffrey Dickens正在他的选区参加一个宴会。
01:41
Wherever he went, at every stall he stopped he was closely followed
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不管他走到哪里，在他停下来的每一处他都被一个
01:44
by a devoted smiling woman of indescribable ugliness.
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狂热且奇丑无比的微笑妇女紧紧跟随者。
01:47
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
01:49
Try as he might, he couldn't get away from her.
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尽管他努力尝试，还是始终无法摆脱她。
01:51
A few days later he received a letter from a constituent
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几天以后他收到了一个选民的来信，
01:53
saying how much she admired him,
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尽诉她的仰慕之情，
01:55
had met him at a fete and asking for a signed photograph.
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回顾宴会的一面之缘以及索求一张签名的照片。
01:58
After her name, written in brackets was the apt description, horse face.
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在她的名字后面，括号内写着一个恰如其分的描述词：马脸。
02:03
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
02:04
"I've misjudged this women," thought Mr. Dickens.
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“我错怪了这位女士。”Dicken先生想到。
02:06
"Not only is she aware of her physical repulsiveness,
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“她不仅仅认识到自己的外表令人厌恶，
02:09
she turns it to her advantage.
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她还将其加以利用。
02:11
A photo is not enough."
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一张照片是不够的。”
02:13
So he went out and bought a plastic frame to put the photograph in.
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于是他出去买了一个塑料像框将照片放入其中。
02:16
And on the photograph, he wrote with a flourish,
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而且在照片上，他大笔一挥：
02:18
"To Horse Face, with love from Geoffrey Dickens, M.P."
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“致马脸，你亲爱的Geoffrey Dickens议员。”
02:23
After it had been sent off, his secretary said to him,
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当照片寄出去以后，他的秘书跟他说：
02:25
"Did you get that letter from the woman at the fete?
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“你收到那个宴会上的女人的来信了吗？
02:27
I wrote Horse Face on her, so you'd remember who she was."
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我在上面写上了‘马脸’，以便能使你记起她。”
02:31
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
02:37
I bet he thought he wished he was invisible, don't you?
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我想他一定宁可自己是看不见的，是吧？
02:39
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
02:41
So, one of the interesting things about invisibility
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因此，关于“不可见”的一个很有趣的事情是
02:43
is that things that we can't see
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我们不能看见的东西
02:45
we also can't understand.
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我们也不能理解。
02:47
Gravity is one thing that we can't see
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重力就是一个我们看不见的东西，
02:49
and which we don't understand.
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对于它我们也不理解。
02:51
It's the least understood of all the four fundamental forces,
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在四种基本力中它是最神秘的，
02:53
and the weakest.
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也是最弱的。
02:55
And nobody really knows what it is or why it's there.
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也没有人知道它是什么，为何存在。
02:57
For what it's worth, Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest scientist who ever lived,
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姑且不论真假，艾萨克·牛顿爵士，史上最伟大的科学家，
03:00
he thought Jesus came to Earth specifically to operate the levers of gravity.
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他认为耶稣降临仅仅是为了操纵重力的杠杆。
03:05
That's what he thought he was there for.
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他认为这就是耶稣的使命。
03:07
So, bright guy, could be wrong on that one, I don't know.
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所以，再聪明的人，在那里也可能出错，（反正）我不知道。
03:10
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
03:12
Consciousness. I see all your faces.
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意识。我看得见你们的脸。
03:14
I have no idea what any of you are thinking. Isn't that amazing?
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我不知道你们中的任何一个人在想什么，这难道不令人惊讶吗？
03:17
Isn't that incredible that we can't read each other's minds?
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我们不能阅读他人的想法，这难道不是很不可思议吗？
03:20
But we can touch each other, taste each other perhaps, if we get close enough.
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但是我们可以相互触摸，也可能相互亲热，如果我们足够亲密。
03:24
But we can't read each other's minds. I find that quite astonishing.
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但是我们不能知道对方在想什么。我觉得这很让人惊讶。
03:27
In the Sufi faith, this great Middle Eastern religion,
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在中东的宗教派别苏菲派的信仰中——
03:31
which some claim is the route of all religions,
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有些人认为苏菲派是一切宗教的根源，
03:33
Sufi masters are all telepaths, so they say.
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据说，苏菲长老都懂读心术
03:38
But their main exercise of telepathy
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但是他们使用心灵感应的主要目的
03:40
is to send out powerful signals to the rest of us that it doesn't exist.
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就是向外界传达这样一个强有力的信号：它不存在。
03:45
So that's why we don't think it exists,
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所以也就不难理解为什么我们不相信读心术的存在，
03:47
the Sufi masters working on us.
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是苏菲长老们对我们干的好事。
03:50
In the question of consciousness
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谈到意识
03:52
and artificial intelligence,
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和人工智能。
03:54
artificial intelligence has really, like the study of consciousness,
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人工智能的研究如同对于意识的研究一样，
03:56
gotten nowhere. We have no idea how consciousness works.
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毫无进展。我们完全不知道意识是如何运作的。
03:59
With artificial intelligence, not only have they not created artificial intelligence,
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使用人工智能技术不仅没有创造出人工智能，
04:03
they haven't yet created artificial stupidity.
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也没有创造出“人工愚蠢”。
04:06
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
04:11
The laws of physics: invisible, eternal, omnipresent, all-powerful.
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物理学的定理：不可见，永恒，无处不在，全部都拥有强大的力量。
04:15
Remind you of anyone?
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让你们想起了什么？
04:17
Interesting. I'm, as you can guess,
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这很有趣。正如你们所想，
04:19
not a materialist, I'm an immaterialist.
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我不是一个唯物主义者，我是一个非唯物主义者。
04:21
And I've found a very useful new word, ignostic. Okay?
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我发现了一个非常有用的新词：“忽视主义者”(ignostic)
04:24
I'm an ignostic.
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我就是一个“忽视主义者”。
04:26
I refuse to be drawn on the question of whether God exists,
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我不会为上帝是否存在这样的问题而纠缠不休，
04:29
until somebody properly defines the terms.
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直到有人把“上帝”准确的定义。
04:32
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
04:35
Another thing we can't see is the human genome.
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另外一个我们看不见的东西是人类基因图谱。
04:38
And this is increasingly peculiar,
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而且它变的越来越奇怪。
04:41
because about 20 years ago, when they started delving into the genome,
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因为20年前，当人们着手探究基因图谱时，
04:46
they thought it would probably contain around 100,000 genes.
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当时预计人类基因组会包含大概10万个基因。
04:49
Geneticists will know this, but every year since,
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遗传学者对这个比较熟悉，但是从那以后每年，
04:51
it's been revised downwards.
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人们都在降低预估的基因数量。
04:53
We now think there are likely to be only just over 20,000
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我们现在认为可能只有差不多2万种基因
04:56
genes in the human genome.
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存在于人类的基因组中。
04:58
This is extraordinary. Because rice -- get this --
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这很离奇。就拿稻谷来说，
05:01
rice is known to have 38 thousand genes.
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稻谷拥有3万8千种基因。
05:05
Potatoes, potatoes have 48 chromosomes. Do you know that?
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马铃薯拥有48对染色体。你们知道吗？
05:10
Two more than people,
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比人类染色体数多2个
05:12
and the same as a gorilla.
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大猩猩也是一样的数目
05:14
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
05:16
You can't see these things, but they are very strange.
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你看不见这些东西。但是它们确实存在，很奇怪。
05:19
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
05:21
The stars by day. I always think that's fascinating.
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白天的星星。我总是认为它令人着迷。
05:24
The universe disappears.
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好像宇宙消失了一般。
05:26
The more light there is, the less you can see.
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光线越强，你能看到的反而越少。
05:29
Time, nobody can see time.
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时间，没有人可以看见时间。
05:31
I don't know if you know this. Modern physics,
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我不知道你们是否了解。
05:33
there is a big movement in modern physics
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现代物理学的一个重大突破
05:35
to decide that time doesn't really exist,
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就是确定了时间是不存在的。
05:37
because it's too inconvenient for the figures.
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因为它很难转换到数字模型中。
05:40
It's much easier if it's not really there.
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所以干脆不存在，这样就省事多了。
05:42
You can't see the future, obviously.
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显然，你不能看见未来。
05:44
And you can't see the past, except in your memory.
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你也无法看见过去，除了在你的记忆中。
05:47
One of the interesting things about the past is
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你尤其不能看见的
05:49
you particularly can't see. My son asked me this the other day,
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关于过去的一个有意思的事情是，我儿子一天问我，
05:52
he said, "Dad, can you remember what I was like when I was two?"
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他说，“爸爸，你能记得我两岁时候的样子吗？”
05:54
And I said, "Yes." And he said, "Why can't I?"
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我说：“可以啊。”他说：“为什么我不行呢？”
05:57
Isn't that extraordinary? You cannot remember
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这难道不奇怪吗？你记不得
05:59
what happened to you earlier than the age of two or three,
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你两三岁之前的事情。
06:02
which is great news for psychoanalysts,
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不过对于心理分析学家这却是一个好消息。
06:04
because otherwise they'd be out of a job.
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因为否则的话它们就要失业了。
06:06
Because that's where all the stuff happens
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因为所有的事情都是那段时间发生的
06:09
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
06:11
that makes you who you are.
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使得你变成了今天这样。
06:14
Another thing you can't see is the grid on which we hang.
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另一个不可见的东西是我们依赖的网格。
06:17
This is fascinating. You probably know, some of you,
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这很有趣。你们中的某些人也许知道，
06:20
that cells are continually renewed. You can see it in skin and this kind of stuff.
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细胞是不断的更新的。你可以在皮肤和其他的外部器官上看到这种情况。
06:23
Skin flakes off, hairs grow, nails, that kind of stuff.
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皮屑脱落，头发生长，指甲，诸如此类。
06:27
But every cell in your body is replaced at some point.
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但是你身体里的细胞在某一个时刻也会更新。
06:30
Taste buds, every 10 days or so.
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味蕾，大概十天左右（更新）。
06:32
Livers and internal organs sort of take a bit longer. A spine takes several years.
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肝脏和其他内部器官可能会长一点。脊椎要几年。
06:36
But at the end of seven years, not one cell in your body
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不过七年之后，你身体里的每一个细胞
06:40
remains from what was there seven years ago.
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都和七年前不再一样了。
06:43
The question is, who, then, are we?
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那么问题就是，我们是谁？
06:45
What are we? What is this thing that we hang on,
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我们是什么，我们一直依赖的这个东西是什么，
06:48
that is actually us?
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还真的是我们本身吗？
06:52
Okay. Atoms, you can't see them.
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原子，我们无法看见。
06:54
Nobody ever will. They're smaller than the wavelength of light.
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没人可以看见。它们比光的波长还要小
06:57
Gas, you can't see that.
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气体，也不可见。
06:59
Interesting. Somebody mentioned 1600 recently.
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有意思。有人最近提到了1600年。
07:01
Gas was invented in 1600
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Gas（气体）这个字在1600年
07:03
by a Dutch chemist called Van Helmont.
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被一个叫Van Helmont的荷兰化学家发明。
07:06
It's said to be the most successful ever invention
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这被认为是有史以来个人发明的
07:09
of a word by a known individual.
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最成功的一个字。
07:11
Quite good. He also invented a word called "blas,"
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非常不错。他还发明了一个字叫blass，
07:14
meaning astral radiation.
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意即星的辐射。
07:16
Didn't catch on, unfortunately.
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很遗憾，这个词没有流行起来。
07:18
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
07:20
But well done, him.
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不过他还是干的很棒。
07:22
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
07:23
There is so many things that -- Light.
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这样的例子太多了——光。
07:26
You can't see light. When it's dark, in a vacuum,
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你不能看见光。当黑暗的情况下，在真空中，
07:29
if a person shines a beam of light straight across your eyes,
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如果有人在你的眼前正方发射出一道光，
07:32
you won't see it. Slightly technical, some physicists will disagree with this.
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你是不会看见的。有一点专业了，一些物理学家不会赞同这个观点。
07:35
But it's odd that you can't see the beam of light,
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不过奇怪的是你不能看见这束光，
07:37
you can only see what it hits.
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你只能看到它击中的地方。
07:39
I find that extraordinary, not to be able to see light,
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我发现这个很奇妙，不能看见光，
07:41
not to be able to see darkness.
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不能看见黑暗。
07:43
Electricity, you can't see that.
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电，你看不见电。
07:45
Don't let anyone tell you they understand electricity.
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别相信任何人跟你说的电是怎么一回事
07:47
They don't. Nobody knows what it is.
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他们不懂。没人知道是怎么回事。
07:49
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
07:50
You probably think the electrons in an electric wire
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你也许认为在你开灯的刹那，电子在电线中
07:52
move instantaneously down a wire, don't you, at the speed of light
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以光速瞬间流过整条电线，是吗？
07:55
when you turn the light on. They don't.
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实际上不是。
07:57
Electrons bumble down the wire,
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电子在电线中笨拙的移动，
07:59
about the speed of spreading honey, they say.
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据说和蜂蜜的流动速度差不多。
08:02
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
08:04
Galaxies, 100 billion of them estimated in the universe.
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星系，在宇宙种估计有1000亿之多
08:07
100 billion. How many can we see? Five.
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1000亿。我们能看见几个？5个。
08:10
Five out of the 100 billion galaxies, with the naked eye,
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裸眼仅能观测1000亿中的5个。
08:13
and one of them is quite difficult to see unless you've got very good eyesight.
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而且如果你视力不好的话，有一个还很难看到。
08:17
Radio waves. There's another thing.
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还有一个东西，无线电波。
08:19
Heinrich Hertz, when he discovered radio waves in 1887,
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海因里希·赫兹，他在1887年发现了无线电波，
08:22
he called them radio waves because they radiated.
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他之所以叫它们无线电波是因为它们是辐射的。
08:24
And somebody said to him,
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于是有人问他，
08:27
"Well what's the point of these, Heinrich?
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“那这些又有什么意义呢，海因里希？
08:29
What's the point of these radio waves that you've found?"
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你发现的这些无线电波有什么意义呢？”
08:32
And he said, "Well, I've no idea.
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他说，“其实，我也不知道。
08:34
But I guess somebody will find a use for them someday."
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不过我想以后应该会有人挖掘它们的用处吧。”
08:37
And that's what they do, radio. That's what they discovered.
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这就是他们所做的，无线电，这就是他们所发现的。
08:41
Anyway, so the biggest thing
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总而言之，对我们而言
08:44
that's invisible to us is what we don't know.
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最大的不可见的事物就是我们不知道的。
08:46
It is incredible how little we know.
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我们所知道的竟然是那么的少。
08:49
Thomas Edison once said,
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爱迪生曾说，
08:51
"We don't know one percent of one millionth
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对于任何事情而言，
08:53
about anything."
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我们所知道的不过其百万分之一
08:55
And I've come to the conclusion --
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于是我下了结论
08:58
because you've asked this other question, "What's another thing you can't see?"
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因为你们已经问了另外一个问题，“还有什么东西我们看不见”
09:01
The point, most of us. What's the point?
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意义,对于我们大多数人来说，这番话到底有什么意义？（暗指大多数人都看不出这番演讲的实际意义）
09:04
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
09:07
(Applause)
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（掌声）
09:08
You can't see a point. It's by definition dimensionless,
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你不能看见“点”。根据定义，它是无尺寸的，
09:11
like an electron, oddly enough.
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说来也怪，就像电子一样。
09:14
But the point, what I've got it down to,
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但是，我所讲说的意义在于，
09:17
is there are only two questions really worth asking.
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只有两个问题真的值得我们探究。
09:19
"Why are we here?" and "What should we do about it while we are?
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“我们为什么在这里？”和“当我们在这里时我们应该怎么办？”
09:24
And to help you, I've got two things to leave you with, from two great philosophers,
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为了帮助大家，我留下两句话，来自两个伟大的哲学家，
09:29
perhaps two of the greatest philosopher thinkers of the 20th century,
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也许是20世纪最伟大的两个思想者。
09:32
one a mathematician and an engineer, and the other a poet.
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一位是数学家和工程师，另一位是一位诗人。
09:35
The first is Ludwig Wittgenstein who said,
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第一位是Ludvig Vitgenštajn，他说，
09:39
"I don't know why we are here.
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“我不知道为什么我们会在这里。
09:41
But I'm pretty sure it's not in order to enjoy ourselves."
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但是我敢说我们可不是过来寻开心的。”
09:44
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
09:50
He was a cheerful bastard wasn't he?
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他是一个让人愉快的家伙是吧？
09:52
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
09:55
And secondly and lastly, W.H. Auden,
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最后一个，是W.H. Auden，
09:57
one of my favorite poets, who said,
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我最喜欢的诗人之一，他说，
09:59
"We are here on earth
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“我们来到世界上
10:02
to help others.
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以帮助他人。
10:04
What the others are here for, I've no idea."
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至于他人为何来到这个世界上，我不知道。”
10:07
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
10:09
(Applause)
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（掌声）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Lloyd - ProducerJohn Lloyd helps make some of the cleverest television in the UK.
Why you should listen
John Lloyd seems to have known every brilliant and funny person in Britain, and his collaborations are legendary. He's been a fixture on the BBC for four decades, producing such classic comedies as Blackadder, Spitting Image, the BBC's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and lately QI (short for "Quite Interesting"), hosted by Stephen Fry (read his Reddit AMA about it).
Lloyd has also written more than a dozen funny books -- including The Meaning of Liff, a collaboration with his friend Douglas Adams, which has been in print for 26 years.
John Lloyd | Speaker | TED.com