TED2011
Daniel Tammet: Different ways of knowing
丹尼爾 塔門：用不同的方式看世界
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丹尼爾 塔門(Tammet)有語言，數字和視覺的"聯覺"症狀-這表示是文字，數字和顏色對他而言互錯交織在一起,形成一個新的認知方式去認識世界。"生於藍色星期三”的作者丹尼爾 塔門跟大家分享他的藝術天賦和他對文字的熱情,進一步也讓大家能一窺有學者症候群的他所擁有的動人內在世界。
Daniel Tammet - Linguist, educator
Daniel Tammet is the author of "Born on a Blue Day," about his life with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome. He runs the language-learning site Optimnem, and his new book is "Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind." Full bio
Daniel Tammet is the author of "Born on a Blue Day," about his life with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome. He runs the language-learning site Optimnem, and his new book is "Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind." Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I'm a savant,
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我有學者症候群(一種認知障礙)，
00:17
or more precisely,
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更確切地說
00:19
a high-functioning
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我是具超智商的
00:21
autistic savant.
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自閉症認知障礙者。
00:23
It's a rare condition.
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有學者症的人是很稀少的。
00:25
And rarer still when accompanied,
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而我的情況更是罕見,
00:28
as in my case,
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因為我還具有
00:30
by self-awareness
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自我認知和
00:32
and a mastery of language.
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能掌握語言的能力。
00:35
Very often when I meet someone
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常常當很多人與我初次相遇,
00:38
and they learn this about me,
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當他們知道我的行情時,
00:40
there's a certain kind of awkwardness.
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場面就會變得有些尷尬。
00:43
I can see it in their eyes.
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我從他們的眼神中可讀到
00:46
They want to ask me something.
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他們有問題要問我。
00:49
And in the end, quite often,
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通常到最後
00:51
the urge is stronger than they are
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他們不法再忍耐下去,
00:54
and they blurt it out:
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於是就會脫口而出的問到:
00:56
"If I give you my date of birth,
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"假如我告訴你-我的出生日期，
00:58
can you tell me what day of the week I was born on?"
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你能告訴我-我是星期幾出生的嗎？”
01:00
(Laughter)
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（笑）
01:03
Or they mention cube roots
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或者跟我討論數學立方根，
01:06
or ask me to recite a long number or long text.
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或要求我背誦很長的數字或文章。
01:10
I hope you'll forgive me
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我希望你們能原諒我，
01:12
if I don't perform
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如果我今天沒有表演
01:15
a kind of one-man savant show for you today.
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這種學者症獨角戲給你們欣賞。
01:19
I'm going to talk instead
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我將要談
01:22
about something
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的話題是比
01:24
far more interesting
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出生年月日
01:26
than dates of birth or cube roots --
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或立方根更有趣-
01:29
a little deeper
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帶你們更深入更接近我的內在世界;
01:31
and a lot closer, to my mind, than work.
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而不是只看我超智商的表面相。
01:34
I want to talk to you briefly
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我想和你們簡短的談談
01:36
about perception.
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什麼是認知。
01:39
When he was writing the plays and the short stories
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安東契訶夫是以他寫的戲劇和
01:42
that would make his name,
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短篇小說而聞名,
01:44
Anton Chekhov kept a notebook
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他總是在隨身
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in which he noted down
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攜帶的筆記本中
01:49
his observations
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記下所觀察到的
01:51
of the world around him --
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周遭世界-
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little details
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一些其他人
01:55
that other people seem to miss.
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似乎沒注意到的小細節。
01:58
Every time I read Chekhov
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每次當我讀到契訶夫的書,
02:01
and his unique vision of human life,
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與他的獨特眼光來品味人生，
02:05
I'm reminded of why I too
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就再次提醒我自己這也是
02:07
became a writer.
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為什麼我也成了一名作家的原因。
02:09
In my books,
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在我的書中，
02:11
I explore the nature of perception
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我探索認知的本質，
02:13
and how different kinds of perceiving
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經由各種不同類型的察覺
02:16
create different kinds of knowing
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進而創造不同的知識
02:18
and understanding.
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和理解。
02:23
Here are three questions
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我準備了三個問題
02:25
drawn from my work.
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告訴您們我的世界,
02:27
Rather than try to figure them out,
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與其要你們試著去解答,
02:29
I'm going to ask you to consider for a moment
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我要你們考慮片刻,利用你們的
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the intuitions
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立即直覺
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and the gut instincts
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和本能的反應,
02:36
that are going through your head and your heart
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就是那種當一入眼簾後,通過你的頭跟心(身體)
02:38
as you look at them.
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之後的直覺來回答問題。
02:41
For example, the calculation:
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舉例來說,這個計算題,
02:44
can you feel where on the number line
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是否你可以大約推測出它
02:46
the solution is likely to fall?
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最可能的數字?
02:49
Or look at the foreign word and the sounds:
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或是看到這些外國語或聽到它的發音。
02:52
can you get a sense of the range of meanings
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你能感覺到它們所要表達出
02:54
that it's pointing you towards?
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的意義嗎?
02:57
And in terms of the line of poetry,
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在這首詩的章節中,
03:00
why does the poet use the word hare
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為什麼詩人用"野兔"
03:02
rather than rabbit?
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而不用"兔子"這個詞呢?
03:06
I'm asking you to do this
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我要求你們這樣做，
03:08
because I believe our personal perceptions, you see,
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是因為我認為我們個人對事務的認知
03:12
are at the heart
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是我們如何獲取
03:14
of how we acquire knowledge.
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知識的主要方式。
03:16
Aesthetic judgments,
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用對感觀上的感受(審美觀),
03:18
rather than abstract reasoning,
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取代依靠抽象推理，
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guide and shape the process
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引導和塑造的過程來
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by which we all come to know
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認識學習知識。然後
03:26
what we know.
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瞭解事務。
03:28
I'm an extreme example of this.
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而我個人就是一個極佳的例子。
03:31
My worlds of words and numbers
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在我的世界裡,文字和數字
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blur with color, emotion
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是混雜帶有顏色,有情感
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and personality.
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和個性的。
03:38
As Juan said,
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就像關(Juan)所說的
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it's the condition that scientists call synesthesia,
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是科學家們稱之的"聯覺"症狀,
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an unusual cross-talk
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也就是一種感覺和另一種感覺之間
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between the senses.
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不尋常的交際。
03:51
Here are the numbers one to 12
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這是數字1至12的圖，
03:53
as I see them --
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但我看它們是-
03:55
every number with its own shape and character.
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每一個數字有專屬的形狀和特色。
03:59
One is a flash of white light.
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1是閃爍的白光。
04:01
Six is a tiny and very sad black hole.
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6是一個憂傷微小的黑洞。
04:06
The sketches are in black and white here,
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呈現你們眼前的這圖只有黑色和白色，
04:09
but in my mind they have colors.
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但在我心中，他們有顏色。
04:11
Three is green.
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3是綠色。
04:13
Four is blue.
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4是藍色的。
04:15
Five is yellow.
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5是黃色的。
04:20
I paint as well.
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我也畫畫。
04:22
And here is one of my paintings.
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這是我的其中一個作品。
04:25
It's a multiplication of two prime numbers.
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顯示兩個質數的乘法。
04:29
Three-dimensional shapes
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呈三次空間的形狀,
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and the space they create in the middle
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而在兩個質數中間的空間中有
04:34
creates a new shape,
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另一個新的形狀，
04:36
the answer to the sum.
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也就是解答。
04:39
What about bigger numbers?
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那麼如果是較大的數字呢?
04:41
Well you can't get much bigger than Pi,
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沒有任何數字比Pi(π,圓周率)更無限，
04:45
the mathematical constant.
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π是數學常數。
04:47
It's an infinite number --
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是一個無限的數字-
04:49
literally goes on forever.
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理論上是永無止境的延伸。
04:51
In this painting that I made
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在此畫中我畫出的π是
04:53
of the first 20 decimals of Pi,
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直到小數點後的第20位為止，
04:57
I take the colors
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我用了許多色彩,
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and the emotions and the textures
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情緒和質感
05:02
and I pull them all together
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一同來顯現出一種
05:04
into a kind of rolling numerical landscape.
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滾動的數字景觀。
05:09
But it's not only numbers that I see in colors.
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對我而言,不是只有數字具有顏色。
05:12
Words too, for me,
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對我來說，字也一樣
05:14
have colors and emotions
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有顏色,情感
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and textures.
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和質感紋路.
05:18
And this is an opening phrase
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納博科夫知名小說
05:20
from the novel "Lolita."
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"洛麗塔"的開場白。
05:22
And Nabokov was himself synesthetic.
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大量利用聯感詞(用某種感覺的字眼表達另一種感覺)。
05:26
And you can see here
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你可以看到,
05:28
how my perception of the sound L
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在這裡因我對 L發音的感覺
05:31
helps the alliteration
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有助於我瞭解
05:33
to jump right out.
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句中的字頭押韻，
05:36
Another example:
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另一例子:
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a little bit more mathematical.
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牽扯到一點數學。
05:40
And I wonder if some of you will notice
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我很好奇想知道是否在此有些人
05:42
the construction of the sentence
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會注意到"大亨小傳"
05:44
from "The Great Gatsby."
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中句法的結構?
05:48
There is a procession of syllables --
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一連串有組織的音節--
05:51
wheat, one;
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麥，1個音節;
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prairies, two;
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草原，2個音節;
05:55
lost Swede towns, three --
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失城記(消失的瑞典城鎮),3個音節-
05:58
one, two, three.
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1，2，3。
06:00
And this effect is very pleasant on the mind,
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很有節奏,讀起來心情非常愉快，
06:04
and it helps the sentence
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所以句子
06:06
to feel right.
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很通暢恰好。
06:09
Let's go back to the questions
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讓我們回到我
06:11
I posed you a moment ago.
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剛才提出的問題上。
06:14
64 multiplied by 75.
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64乘以75。
06:17
If some of you play chess,
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如果你下國際象棋，
06:20
you'll know that 64
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你就會知道，
06:22
is a square number,
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64是一個平方數，
06:25
and that's why chessboards,
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這就是為什麼棋盤，
06:27
eight by eight,
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八乘八，
06:29
have 64 squares.
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有64個方格。
06:32
So that gives us a form
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這給了我們一個
06:34
that we can picture, that we can perceive.
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們可以想像的模型，
06:37
What about 75?
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那75呢?
06:40
Well if 100,
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就用100來想像，
06:42
if we think of 100 as being like a square,
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如果我們認為100是廣場，
06:45
75 would look like this.
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75就是這樣的的大小。
06:48
So what we need to do now
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所以我們現在
06:50
is put those two pictures
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只要把那兩張照片
06:52
together in our mind --
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在我們的腦海中併在一起 -
06:54
something like this.
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像這樣。
06:57
64 becomes 6,400.
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64變為6400。
07:01
And in the right-hand corner,
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而在右下角，
07:05
you don't have to calculate anything.
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你不須要計算。
07:07
Four across, four up and down --
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4個格子,上下四個格子-
07:09
it's 16.
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所以是16。
07:12
So what the sum is actually asking you to do
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那麼真正須要計算的總和
07:14
is 16,
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是16，
07:16
16, 16.
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16，16(3個16)。
07:19
That's a lot easier
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很簡單吧!
07:21
than the way that the school taught you to do math, I'm sure.
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我相信比學校教的計算方法容易多了。
07:24
It's 16, 16, 16, 48,
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那16，16，16，48(3個16)，
07:26
4,800 --
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4800(48x100)
07:28
4,800,
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- 4800，
07:30
the answer to the sum.
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就是正確答案。
07:33
Easy when you know how.
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當你知道方法就很簡單!
07:35
(Laughter)
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（笑）
07:38
The second question was an Icelandic word.
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第二個問題是有關冰島文字。
07:41
I'm assuming there are not many people here
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我推測在座沒有多少人
07:44
who speak Icelandic.
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會說冰島話。
07:46
So let me narrow the choices down to two.
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因此，讓我縮小你們的選擇範圍到兩個。
07:51
Hnugginn:
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Hnugginn：
07:53
is it a happy word,
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這是一個表示高興的字，
07:55
or a sad word?
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或悲傷的字？
07:57
What do you say?
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你怎麼想？
08:00
Okay.
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好!
08:02
Some people say it's happy.
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有人說是快樂的字。
08:04
Most people, a majority of people,
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但很多人，大多數的人說是
08:06
say sad.
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悲傷的詞字。
08:08
And it actually means sad.
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它實際上意味著悲哀。
08:12
(Laughter)
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（笑）
08:15
Why do, statistically,
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在統計學上為什麼
08:18
a majority of people
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大多數人說這一個字
08:20
say that a word is sad, in this case,
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,在此例,是悲傷的意思,
08:22
heavy in other cases?
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別的例子可能指強勢?
08:25
In my theory, language evolves in such a way
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我的理論是:語言的發展是
08:28
that sounds match,
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與聲音相襯的方式進行，
08:30
correspond with, the subjective,
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加上相對應的主觀感覺，
08:33
with the personal,
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及聽者個人的
08:35
intuitive experience
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直覺經驗
08:37
of the listener.
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來演化。
08:40
Let's have a look at the third question.
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讓我們來看第三個問題。
08:44
It's a line from a poem by John Keats.
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這是約翰濟慈詩中的一句。
08:47
Words, like numbers,
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文字就像數字一樣,
08:50
express fundamental relationships
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呈現對於目標,事件之間
08:53
between objects
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的根本互動關係,
08:55
and events and forces
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驅動組成
08:57
that constitute our world.
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我們的世界。
08:59
It stands to reason that we, existing in this world,
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這也為什麼生存在這世界的我們,
09:02
should in the course of our lives
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理所當然的會在此過程中
09:04
absorb intuitively those relationships.
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直覺地承接這些關係。
09:07
And poets, like other artists,
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詩人們，像其他的藝術家一樣，
09:10
play with those intuitive understandings.
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細細把玩著對直覺的理解。
09:13
In the case of hare,
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像這例子為什麼用野兔這詞，
09:16
it's an ambiguous sound in English.
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野兔在英語的用法有另一個含糊不清的意義。
09:18
It can also mean the fibers that grow from a head.
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也可指長在頭上的毫毛。
09:21
And if we think of that --
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那麼如果我們想像一下-
09:23
let me put the picture up --
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-讓我用圖像來告訴您們-
09:25
the fibers represent vulnerability.
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毫毛代表脆弱。
09:29
They yield to the slightest movement
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它們會被任何輕微的風吹草動
09:32
or motion or emotion.
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或情緒所影響。
09:35
So what you have is an atmosphere
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所以可以創造出
09:39
of vulnerability and tension.
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脆弱和緊張氣氛。
09:41
The hare itself, the animal --
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野兔本身-
09:43
not a cat, not a dog, a hare --
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不是貓，不是狗，而是野兔 -
09:46
why a hare?
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為什麼用野兔這個詞？
09:48
Because think of the picture --
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想像 這個情景的圖片
09:50
not the word, the picture.
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而不是字，想像圖片。
09:52
The overlong ears,
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過長的耳朵，
09:54
the overlarge feet,
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超大的腳，
09:56
helps us to picture, to feel intuitively,
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幫助我們去想像，直觀地去感受，
09:59
what it means to limp
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這意味著什麼:
10:02
and to tremble.
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跛腳，顫抖。
10:05
So in these few minutes,
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我希望在這幾分鐘裡
10:07
I hope I've been able to share
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我已經跟您們分享
10:09
a little bit of my vision of things
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一些些我視野中的世界,
10:12
and to show you
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並且讓你們知道
10:15
that words can have colors and emotions,
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文字有色彩和情感，
10:18
numbers, shapes and personalities.
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數字，形狀和個性。
10:21
The world is richer,
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這世界是比我們
10:23
vaster
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常以為的
10:25
than it too often seems to be.
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更富麗的，更遼闊的。
10:28
I hope that I've given you the desire
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我希望我已經挑起你們
10:31
to learn to see the world with new eyes.
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用新的眼光學習看世界的動機。
10:34
Thank you.
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謝謝。
10:36
(Applause)
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（鼓掌）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Daniel Tammet - Linguist, educatorDaniel Tammet is the author of "Born on a Blue Day," about his life with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome. He runs the language-learning site Optimnem, and his new book is "Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind."
Why you should listen
Daniel Tammet is a writer, linguist and educator. He is the creator of Optimnem, a website that has provided language learning instruction to thousands around the globe. His 2006 memoir Born on a Blue Day describes his life with high-functioning autistic savant syndrome; his new book, Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind, is a personal and scientific exploration of how the brain works and the differences and similarities between savant and non-savant minds.
Tammet set a European record on March 14, 2004, when he recited the mathematical constant pi (3.141...) to 22,514 decimal places from memory in a time of 5 hours, 9 minutes.
Daniel Tammet | Speaker | TED.com