TED2012
Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do
Joshua Foer： 每个人都能掌握的记忆技巧
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有人能在很短时间内背下上千个数字，或是记下一叠或更多牌的顺序。 科技栏作家Joshua Foer 给您详细讲解这种记忆方法 —— 他称其为"记忆宫殿" —— 并向您证明他的重点是: 任何人都可以拥有绝佳的记忆里，包括他自己。
Joshua Foer - Writer
Joshua Foer is a science writer who 'accidentally' won the U.S. Memory Championship. Full bio
Joshua Foer is a science writer who 'accidentally' won the U.S. Memory Championship. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.
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请大家跟我一起闭上眼睛
00:20
Imagine yourself standing
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想象一下 你站在
00:23
outside the front door of your home.
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自己家门口的外面
00:27
I'd like you to notice the color of the door,
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请留心一下门的颜色
00:30
the material that it's made out of.
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以及门的材质
00:34
Now visualize a pack of overweight nudists on bicycles.
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现在请想象一群超重的裸骑者
00:41
They are competing in a naked bicycle race,
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正在进行一场裸体自行车赛
00:44
and they are headed straight for your front door.
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向你的前门直冲而来
00:48
I need you to actually see this.
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尽量让画面想象得栩栩如生近在眼前
00:50
They are pedaling really hard, they're sweaty,
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他们都在奋力地踩脚踏板 汗流浃背
00:53
they're bouncing around a lot.
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路面非常颠簸
00:56
And they crash straight into the front door of your home.
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然后径直撞进了你家前门
01:00
Bicycles fly everywhere, wheels roll past you,
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自行车四下飞散 车轮从你身旁滚过
01:04
spokes end up in awkward places.
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辐条扎进了各种尴尬角落
01:07
Step over the threshold of your door
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跨过门槛
01:11
into your foyer, your hallway, whatever's on the other side,
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进到门厅 走廊 和门里的其他地方
01:13
and appreciate the quality of the light.
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室内光线柔和舒适
01:17
The light is shining down on Cookie Monster.
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光线洒在甜饼怪物身上
01:23
Cookie Monster is waving at you
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他坐在一匹棕色骏马的马背上
01:26
from his perch on top of a tan horse.
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正向你招手
01:29
It's a talking horse.
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这匹马会说话
01:31
You can practically feel his blue fur tickling your nose.
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你可以感觉到他的蓝色鬃毛让你鼻子发痒
01:35
You can smell the oatmeal raisin cookie that he's about to shovel into his mouth.
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你可以闻到他正要扔进嘴里的葡萄燕麦曲奇的香气
01:40
Walk past him. Walk past him into your living room.
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绕过他 绕过他走进客厅
01:43
In your living room, in full imaginative broadband,
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站在客厅里 把你的想象力调到最大档
01:46
picture Britney Spears.
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想象小甜甜布兰妮
01:49
She is scantily clad, she's dancing on your coffee table,
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她衣着暴露 在你咖啡桌上跳舞
01:55
and she's singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time."
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并唱着"Hit Me Baby One More Time"
01:57
And then follow me into your kitchen.
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接下来 跟着我走进你的厨房
02:00
In your kitchen, the floor has been paved over with a yellow brick road
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厨房的地面被一道黄砖路覆盖
02:04
and out of your oven are coming towards you
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依次钻出你的烤箱向你走来的是
02:08
Dorothy, the Tin Man,
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《绿野仙踪》里的多萝西 铁皮人
02:10
the Scarecrow and the Lion from "The Wizard of Oz,"
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稻草人 和狮子
02:13
hand-in-hand skipping straight towards you.
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他们手挽着手 蹦蹦跳跳地向你走来
02:15
Okay. Open your eyes.
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好了 睁开眼睛吧
02:20
I want to tell you about a very bizarre contest
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我要给你们讲一个每年春天在纽约
02:23
that is held every spring in New York City.
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都会举办的奇异竞赛
02:26
It's called the United States Memory Championship.
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叫做全美记忆冠军赛
02:30
And I had gone to cover this contest a few years back
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几年前我作为一名科技类记者
02:33
as a science journalist
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去报道这项竞赛
02:35
expecting, I guess, that this was going to be
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心里想着 大概那儿得像
02:37
like the Superbowl of savants.
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怪才的"超级碗冠军赛"一样热闹吧
02:40
This was a bunch of guys and a few ladies,
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一大堆男人和屈指可数的女性
02:44
widely varying in both age and hygienic upkeep.
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从小孩儿到老人 有些还不怎么注意个人卫生
02:48
(Laughter)
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(大笑)
02:51
They were memorizing hundreds of random numbers,
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有的奋力在只看一次的情况下
02:55
looking at them just once.
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记下上百个任意列出的数字
02:56
They were memorizing the names of dozens and dozens and dozens of strangers.
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有的在努力记住成群的陌生人的名字
03:01
They were memorizing entire poems in just a few minutes.
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有的想在几分钟内努力背下整篇诗歌
03:04
They were competing to see who could memorize
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还有的在比赛谁能以最快速度
03:06
the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards the fastest.
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记下一整副打乱的牌的顺序
03:10
I was like, this is unbelievable.
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我当时觉得 这太不可思议了
03:12
These people must be freaks of nature.
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这些人肯定天赋异禀
03:15
And I started talking to a few of the competitors.
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所以我开始采访参赛者
03:19
This is a guy called Ed Cook
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这位叫Ed Cook
03:20
who had come over from England
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是从英格兰来的
03:22
where he had one of the best trained memories.
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他在那儿接受了最好的记忆训练
03:24
And I said to him, "Ed, when did you realize
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我问他 "Ed 你是什么时候开始意识到
03:27
that you were a savant?"
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自己是记忆天才的?"
03:30
And Ed was like, "I'm not a savant.
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Ed答道 “我并不是什么专家
03:33
In fact, I have just an average memory.
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其实 我的记忆力很一般
03:35
Everybody who competes in this contest
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来参赛的每一个人
03:37
will tell you that they have just an average memory.
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都会告诉你他们的记忆力只是一般水平
03:40
We've all trained ourselves
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我们都在训练自己后才能
03:42
to perform these utterly miraculous feats of memory
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完成这些奇迹般的记忆游戏
03:46
using a set of ancient techniques,
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我们运用了一系列古老的技巧
03:48
techniques invented 2,500 years ago in Greece,
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这些技巧是希腊人在两千五百年前发明的
03:52
the same techniques that Cicero had used
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西塞罗正是用了这些技巧
03:55
to memorize his speeches,
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来记忆他的演讲稿的
03:57
that medieval scholars had used to memorize entire books."
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中世纪学者用这种技巧来背诵正本书籍的内容"
04:01
And I was like, "Whoa. How come I never heard of this before?"
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我惊讶不已 "哇噻 怎么我从来没听说过呢?"
04:05
And we were standing outside the competition hall,
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我们站在竞技大厅外
04:08
and Ed, who is a wonderful, brilliant,
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聪明过人 令人惊叹
04:11
but somewhat eccentric English guy,
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而又稍有些古怪的英国人Ed
04:14
says to me, "Josh, you're an American journalist.
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对我说 "Josh 你是个美国记者
04:19
Do you know Britney Spears?"
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你知道小甜甜布兰妮吧?”
04:21
I'm like, "What? No. Why?"
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我茫然不解 "什么? 当然 为什么要问这个?"
04:26
"Because I really want to teach Britney Spears
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“因为我真的很想在
04:29
how to memorize the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards
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美国国家电台上教会布兰妮
04:31
on U.S. national television.
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怎样记住一整副打乱的牌的顺序
04:34
It will prove to the world that anybody can do this."
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就能证明这是人人都可以做到的了"
04:37
(Laughter)
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(哄笑)
04:41
I was like, "Well I'm not Britney Spears,
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我说 "虽然我不是布兰妮
04:45
but maybe you could teach me.
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但你也可以教教我呀
04:48
I mean, you've got to start somewhere, right?"
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总得找个人开教嘛 不是吗?"
04:50
And that was the beginning of a very strange journey for me.
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接着 一段非常奇特的历程在我面前展开了序幕
04:54
I ended up spending the better part of the next year
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结果 第二年的大部分时间
04:57
not only training my memory,
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我都花在了训练自己的记忆力
04:59
but also investigating it,
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同时调查研究记忆上
05:01
trying to understand how it works,
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我想尝试理解产生记忆的原理
05:03
why it sometimes doesn't work
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为何有时会记了又忘
05:05
and what its potential might be.
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及其它到底隐藏着什么样的潜力
05:07
I met a host of really interesting people.
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途中我遇到了很多有趣的人
05:10
This is a guy called E.P.
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其中一个叫E.P.
05:11
He's an amnesic who had, very possibly,
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他患有健忘症 他的记忆力
05:14
the very worst memory in the world.
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恐怕是世界上最差的了
05:17
His memory was so bad
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他的记忆能力差到
05:18
that he didn't even remember he had a memory problem,
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甚至记不得自己有健忘症
05:21
which is amazing.
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真的很神奇
05:23
And he was this incredibly tragic figure,
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虽然他是个悲剧角色
05:25
but he was a window into the extent
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但通过他 我们能了解到
05:27
to which our memories make us who we are.
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记忆在何种程度上塑造了我们的人格
05:31
The other end of the spectrum: I met this guy.
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情况的另一个极端是 我遇到了这样一个人
05:34
This is Kim Peek.
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他叫Kim Peek
05:35
He was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie "Rain Man."
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他是Dustin Hoffman在电影《雨人》里的角色的原型
05:39
We spent an afternoon together
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我和他花了一下午
05:41
in the Salt Lake City Public Library memorizing phone books,
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在盐湖城公共图书馆里背电话簿
05:45
which was scintillating.
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让我大开眼界
05:48
(Laughter)
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(大笑)
05:51
And I went back and I read a whole host of memory treatises,
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回家后 我读了许多关于记忆的论文
05:55
treatises written 2,000-plus years ago
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写于两千多年前的论文
05:58
in Latin in Antiquity
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用拉丁文写的 从古代
06:00
and then later in the Middle Ages.
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一直到后来中世纪期间
06:03
And I learned a whole bunch of really interesting stuff.
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我学到很多很有意思的事儿
06:05
One of the really interesting things that I learned
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其中一个就是
06:08
is that once upon a time,
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曾经
06:11
this idea of having a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory
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训练 规束 培养记忆力的这种概念
06:17
was not nearly so alien as it would seem to us to be today.
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完全不像如今那样陌生
06:22
Once upon a time, people invested in their memories,
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曾几何时 人们寄希望于自己的记忆
06:26
in laboriously furnishing their minds.
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能不遗余力地装饰自己的心灵
06:31
Over the last few millenia
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近几千年来
06:34
we've invented a series of technologies --
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人类发明了一系列技术
06:36
from the alphabet to the scroll
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从字母表到卷轴
06:39
to the codex, the printing press, photography,
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到法典 印刷机 摄影技术
06:41
the computer, the smartphone --
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电脑 智能手机
06:43
that have made it progressively easier and easier
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让我们能越来越轻松地
06:46
for us to externalize our memories,
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外化记忆能力
06:49
for us to essentially outsource
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让我们从根本上
06:51
this fundamental human capacity.
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把这种基础的人类能力拱手让出
06:54
These technologies have made our modern world possible,
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这些技术让现代生活变为可能
06:58
but they've also changed us.
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但同时也改变了我们
07:00
They've changed us culturally,
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不仅在文化上
07:02
and I would argue that they've changed us cognitively.
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我觉得也在认知上
07:05
Having little need to remember anymore,
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不再需要费劲去记忆
07:08
it sometimes seems like we've forgotten how.
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有时会觉得我们已经忘了如何去记忆
07:11
One of the last places on Earth
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在这片地球上已经很少有地方
07:13
where you still find people passionate about this idea
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能让你觉得人们仍热衷于
07:16
of a trained, disciplined, cultivated memory
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训练 规束 培养记忆力了
07:19
is at this totally singular memory contest.
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那非同寻常的记忆大赛算是一个
07:22
It's actually not that singular,
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其实它也没有那么非同寻常
07:23
there are contests held all over the world.
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世界各地都开始举办这样的竞赛
07:25
And I was fascinated, I wanted to know how do these guys do it.
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我对此深深着迷 想要知道这些人是怎么做到的
07:29
A few years back a group of researchers at University College London
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几年前 伦敦大学学院的一组研究人员
07:34
brought a bunch of memory champions into the lab.
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请来一批记忆大赛的冠军接受研究
07:37
They wanted to know:
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他们想要弄明白
07:38
Do these guys have brains
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这些人的大脑
07:40
that are somehow structurally, anatomically different from the rest of ours?
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是否跟我们其他人在解剖学上的结构不一样?
07:44
The answer was no.
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答案是否定的
07:47
Are they smarter than the rest of us?
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那他们比我们都聪明吗?
07:50
They gave them a bunch of cognitive tests,
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他们给研究对象实施了一系列认知测试
07:52
and the answer was not really.
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依旧得出了否定结论
07:54
There was however one really interesting and telling difference
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但对比受控制的比对目标的大脑
07:58
between the brains of the memory champions
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记忆大赛冠军们的大脑
08:00
and the control subjects that they were comparing them to.
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确实有一处很有趣的不同 很说明问题
08:02
When they put these guys in an fMRI machine,
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这些人被送去做功能磁共振
08:05
scanned their brains
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扫描大脑时
08:07
while they were memorizing numbers and people's faces and pictures of snowflakes,
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当他们在记忆数字或人脸或雪花图案时
08:12
they found that the memory champions
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研究人员发现记忆大赛冠军们
08:14
were lighting up different parts of the brain
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的大脑激活的区域
08:17
than everyone else.
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跟普通人不太一样
08:19
Of note, they were using, or they seemed to be using,
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值得注意的是 他们看来是在用
08:22
a part of the brain that's involved in spatial memory and navigation.
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脑中在空间记忆和导航时会用到的部分
08:26
Why? And is there something the rest of us can learn from this?
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为什么? 我们可以从中得出什么样的结论呢?
08:32
The sport of competitive memorizing
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竞争性记忆的较量
08:37
is driven by a kind of arms race
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被一种类似军事比赛的方式推向了白热化
08:39
where every year somebody comes up
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每年都会有人
08:43
with a new way to remember more stuff more quickly,
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带着更有效的记忆方法现身赛场
08:45
and then the rest of the field has to play catchup.
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而其他人就必须迎头赶上
08:47
This is my friend Ben Pridmore,
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这是我的朋友Ben Pridmore
08:49
three-time world memory champion.
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赢得过三次国际记忆大赛冠军
08:51
On his desk in front of him
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在他的台前
08:52
are 36 shuffled packs of playing cards
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有三十六副打乱顺序的牌
08:56
that he is about to try to memorize in one hour,
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他要在一个小时内记下全部
08:59
using a technique that he invented and he alone has mastered.
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用的是一种他自己发明的 也只有他会的技巧
09:03
He used a similar technique
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用与此类似的方法
09:05
to memorize the precise order
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他曾一字不差地背下了
09:08
of 4,140 random binary digits
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4140个任意排列的二进制数
09:13
in half an hour.
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只用了半个小时
09:16
Yeah.
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很牛吧
09:18
And while there are a whole host of ways
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参赛者在这些竞赛中
09:22
of remembering stuff in these competitions,
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运用过很多不同的记忆方法
09:25
everything, all of the techniques that are being used,
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各式各样 被运用到的所有技巧
09:28
ultimately come down to a concept
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最终都能归化为一个概念
09:31
that psychologists refer to as elaborative encoding.
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心理学家称之为"精细编码"
09:35
And it's well illustrated by a nifty paradox
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这个概念能用一则幽默的悖论完美诠释
09:37
known as the Baker/baker paradox,
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叫做Baker/baker悖论
09:39
which goes like this:
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简单说来就是
09:41
If I tell two people to remember the same word,
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假设我让两个人去记同一个词
09:44
if I say to you,
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我跟你说
09:45
"Remember that there is a guy named Baker."
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"记住有个人叫Baker"
09:49
That's his name.
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Baker是人名
09:50
And I say to you, "Remember that there is a guy who is a baker."
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我又来告诉你 "记住有个人是面包师(baker)"
09:56
And I come back to you at some point later on,
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过了一段时间我又回来找到你们
09:59
and I say, "Do you remember that word
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问 "还记得我之前
10:03
that I told you a while back?
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叫你们记住的那个词吗?"
10:04
Do you remember what it was?"
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”还记得是什么词吗?“
10:06
The person who was told his name is Baker
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被告知人名是Baker的人
10:09
is less likely to remember the same word
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记住这个词的可能性远不如
10:11
than the person was told his job is that he is a baker.
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被告知职业是面包师的那个人
10:15
Same word, different amount of remembering; that's weird.
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同样的词 导致不同的记忆程度
10:18
What's going on here?
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到底是为什么呢
10:20
Well the name Baker doesn't actually mean anything to you.
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是因为 人名Baker没有任何特殊含义
10:25
It is entirely untethered
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没法跟你脑海里
10:27
from all of the other memories floating around in your skull.
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零碎繁杂的记忆产生任何联系
10:31
But the common noun baker,
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但是面包师(baker)作为一个常用名词
10:33
we know bakers.
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我们都知道面包师是什么
10:34
Bakers wear funny white hats.
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面包师带着搞笑的白帽子
10:37
Bakers have flour on their hands.
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他们手上沾满了面粉
10:38
Bakers smell good when they come home from work.
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他们下班回到家带着扑鼻的烤面包香
10:40
Maybe we even know a baker.
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甚至可能有些人有朋友就是面包师
10:42
And when we first hear that word,
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我们初次听到这个词时
10:44
we start putting these associational hooks into it
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马上就会产生各种各样的联想
10:47
that make it easier to fish it back out at some later date.
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这使我们能在一段时间后还能回忆起来
10:51
The entire art of what is going on
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其实 要理解记忆竞赛中的
10:54
in these memory contests
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一切奥妙
10:56
and the entire art of remembering stuff better in everyday life
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或在日常生活中改善记忆力的秘诀
10:59
is figuring out ways to transform capital B Bakers
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仅仅在于想办法把Baker中的大写B
11:03
into lower-case B bakers --
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变为面包师(baker)中的小写b
11:05
to take information that is lacking in context,
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把没有前因后果
11:08
in significance, in meaning
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2306
没有重要性 没有涵义的信息
11:11
and transform it in some way
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用某种方法转化为
11:12
so that it becomes meaningful
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有意义的内容
11:14
in the light of all the other things that you have in your mind.
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跟脑海里的其他记忆串联起来
11:19
One of the more elaborate techniques for doing this
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这种精确记忆的技巧
11:23
dates back 2,500 years to Ancient Greece.
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3919
在两千五百年前的古希腊就已出现
11:27
It came to be known as the memory palace.
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1978
后来将其称为记忆宫殿
11:29
The story behind its creation goes like this:
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发明这种技巧的过程如下
11:32
There was a poet called Simonides
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有个叫做Simonides的诗人
11:35
who was attending a banquet.
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1906
他要去参加一个晚宴
11:37
He was actually the hired entertainment,
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其实他算是被请去做表演嘉宾的
11:39
because back then if you wanted to throw a really slamming party,
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因为在那个年代 炫酷派对的标准
11:42
you didn't hire a D.J., you hired a poet.
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不是请D.J.来打碟 而是要请诗人来颂诗
11:46
And he stands up, delivers his poem from memory, walks out the door,
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他站起来 背出了他的全篇诗作 然后潇洒离去
11:50
and at the moment he does, the banquet hall collapses,
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他刚走出门口 晚宴大厅就塌了
11:56
kills everybody inside.
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砸死了里面所有的人
11:58
It doesn't just kill everybody,
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不仅全体死亡
12:01
it mangles the bodies beyond all recognition.
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所有的死者都被砸得面目全非
12:05
Nobody can say who was inside,
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没人说得清死者都有些谁
12:07
nobody can say where they were sitting.
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没人说得清谁坐在哪儿
12:10
The bodies can't be properly buried.
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导致死者的尸体没法得到合适的殉葬安置
12:12
It's one tragedy compounding another.
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这又加重了整件事的悲剧色彩
12:16
Simonides, standing outside,
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Simonides站在外面
12:19
the sole survivor amid the wreckage,
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作为废墟中的唯一幸存者
12:21
closes his eyes and has this realization,
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闭上眼睛 猛然意识到
12:25
which is that in his mind's eye,
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在他的脑海中
12:27
he can see where each of the guests at the banquet had been sitting.
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他眼前出现了所有宾客所坐的位置
12:32
And he takes the relatives by the hand
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他就牵着亲属们的手
12:35
and guides them each to their loved ones amid the wreckage.
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穿过废墟 把他们带到了亲人身边
12:39
What Simonides figured out at that moment
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Simonides当时猛然醒悟的事
12:42
is something that I think we all kind of intuitively know,
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大概我们大家也都猜到了
12:45
which is that, as bad as we are
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其实是 不管我们
12:48
at remembering names and phone numbers
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有多不善于记住姓名 电话号码
12:51
and word-for-word instructions from our colleagues,
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或是同事的每句指令
12:53
we have really exceptional visual and spatial memories.
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我们都拥有异常敏锐的视觉或空间记忆能力
12:59
If I asked you to recount the first 10 words
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3596
要是我让你们逐字逐句地重述
13:03
of the story that I just told you about Simonides,
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我刚才讲的Simonides故事的前十个字
13:05
chances are you would have a tough time with it.
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应该没几个人会记得
13:07
But I would wager
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2314
但我敢打赌
13:10
that if I asked you to recall
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2683
如果我让你们现在回想下
13:12
who is sitting on top of a talking tan horse
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4556
在你的门厅里 坐在会讲话的棕色骏马上的
13:17
in your foyer right now,
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1998
是谁
13:19
you would be able to see that.
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你们就明白我刚才说的意思了
13:21
The idea behind the memory palace
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记忆宫殿的原理
13:24
is to create this imagined edifice in your mind's eye
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就是在你的脑海里建立一栋想象大厦
13:29
and populate it with images
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并让你想记住的东西
13:30
of the things that you want to remember --
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2208
的影像充满其中
13:32
the crazier, weirder, more bizarre,
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3329
越是疯狂 古怪 奇诡
13:36
funnier, raunchier, stinkier the image is,
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3600
荒诞搞笑 乱七八糟 招人厌恶的影像
13:39
the more unforgettable it's likely to be.
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就越容易记住
13:42
This is advice that goes back 2,000-plus years
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这个建议来自于两千多年前
13:45
to the earliest Latin memory treatises.
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拉丁最早的记忆学者
13:48
So how does this work?
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那么 这种说法的原理到底是什么呢
13:50
Let's say that you've been invited
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假设你被邀请
13:52
to TED center stage to give a speech
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站上TED的中心讲台演讲
13:56
and you want to do it from memory,
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2534
而你想脱稿完成
13:59
and you want to do it the way that Cicero would have done it
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如西塞罗在两千年前在TEDx罗马上的演讲一般
14:04
if he had been invited to TEDxRome 2,000 years ago.
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他就会这么霸气走一回 而你也想这样
14:08
What you might do
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你要做的就是
14:11
is picture yourself at the front door of your house.
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想象自己站在自家门前
14:16
And you'd come up with some sort
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然后凭空想象出
14:18
of an absolutely crazy, ridiculous, unforgettable image
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一段完全荒诞疯狂难忘的景象
14:21
to remind you that the first thing you want to talk about
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用来提示你上台要提的第一件事
14:24
is this totally bizarre contest.
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就是这场诡异的裸骑大赛
14:27
And then you'd go inside your house,
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2833
然后你走进房子里
14:30
and you would see an image of Cookie Monster
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2852
想到甜饼怪物
14:33
on top of Mister Ed.
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1887
坐在Ed先生背上的样子
14:35
And that would remind you
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1269
这个景象会提醒你
14:36
that you would want to then introduce your friend Ed Cook.
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要介绍你的朋友Ed Cook
14:39
And then you'd see an image of Britney Spears
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然后你脑海里出现了小甜甜布兰妮的样子
14:42
to remind you of this funny anecdote you want to tell.
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你就会想起要讲那个关于布兰妮的小故事
14:45
And you go into your kitchen,
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然后你走进厨房
14:46
and the fourth topic you were going to talk about
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1845
你要说到的第四个话题是
14:48
was this strange journey that you went on for a year,
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2938
你花了一整年走过的奇妙历程
14:51
and you have some friends to help you remember that.
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通过绿野仙踪就可以联想得到
14:56
This is how Roman orators memorized their speeches --
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4219
这就是罗马演说家背诵演讲稿的秘诀
15:00
not word-for-word, which is just going to screw you up,
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3394
并非一字不差 逐字背诵只会平添麻烦
15:04
but topic-for-topic.
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2412
而是记住一个个主题
15:06
In fact, the phrase "topic sentence,"
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2907
其实 短语"主题句"
15:09
that comes from the Greek word "topos,"
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就来源于希腊词"topos"
15:12
which means "place."
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意思是"地点"
15:14
That's a vestige
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1567
这是古时候
15:16
of when people used to think about oratory and rhetoric
301
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2320
人们谈到演讲或是修辞时
15:18
in these sorts of spatial terms.
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2238
会用到的空间术语
15:20
The phrase "in the first place,"
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1937
短语 "第一"
15:22
that's like in the first place of your memory palace.
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就意味着你的记忆宫殿的第一层
15:25
I thought this was just fascinating,
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1980
这简直太有意思了
15:27
and I got really into it.
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1900
我对这起了很大的兴趣
15:29
And I went to a few more of these memory contests.
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2748
后来我又去了更多记忆大赛
15:32
And I had this notion that I might write something longer
308
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2561
我开始萌发了要更详细描写
15:35
about this subculture of competitive memorizers.
309
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3293
这种竞技记忆文化的念头
15:38
But there was a problem.
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2027
但有一个问题
15:40
The problem was that a memory contest
311
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2748
问题是记忆大赛
15:43
is a pathologically boring event.
312
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3729
其实过程很无聊的
15:46
(Laughter)
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2606
(大笑)
15:49
Truly, it is like a bunch of people sitting around taking the SATs.
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4550
真的 就像一群人坐那儿高考一样
15:54
I mean, the most dramatic it gets
315
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1694
最最激动人心的时刻
15:55
is when somebody starts massaging their temples.
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1379
也不过就是有人揉了揉太阳穴
15:57
And I'm a journalist, I need something to write about.
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3038
我是个记者 总得有东西可写呀
16:00
I know that there's this incredible stuff happening in these people's minds,
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3777
我知道这些人脑子里肯定是惊涛骇浪
16:03
but I don't have access to it.
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但我作为外人无法得见
16:06
And I realized, if I was going to tell this story,
320
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2719
我意识到 若我真的想报道这事儿
16:08
I needed to walk in their shoes a little bit.
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一定得亲身体验才行
16:11
And so I started trying to spend 15 or 20 minutes
322
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3581
所以我开始尝试着每天早上坐下来看纽约时报前
16:15
every morning before I sat down with my New York Times
323
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2835
花上十五到二十分钟
16:17
just trying to remember something.
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2521
尝试记忆一些事
16:20
Maybe it was a poem.
325
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1669
背背小诗
16:22
Maybe it was names from an old yearbook
326
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2039
背背我在跳蚤市场买来的
16:24
that I bought at a flea market.
327
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2259
旧年鉴里的人名
16:26
And I found that this was shockingly fun.
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我惊奇地发现这其实非常带劲
16:31
I never would have expected that.
329
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要不去尝试根本想不到
16:34
It was fun because this is actually not about training your memory.
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有趣在于 其实目标并不是要通过训练提高记忆力
16:37
What you're doing is you're trying to get better and better and better
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3038
而是你在努力培养改善
16:40
at creating, at dreaming up,
332
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2429
创造力 想象力
16:42
these utterly ludicrous, raunchy, hilarious
333
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2894
在你的脑海里凭空造出
16:45
and hopefully unforgettable images in your mind's eye.
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那些完全滑稽荒诞胡乱 最好是难忘的影像
16:49
And I got pretty into it.
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1583
而它成为了我的乐趣
16:51
This is me wearing my standard competitive memorizer's training kit.
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这是我戴着标准竞赛记忆者训练套装的样子
16:58
It's a pair of earmuffs
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1966
它有一对耳塞
17:00
and a set of safety goggles that have been masked over
338
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3409
一副护目镜 镜面全部遮黑
17:03
except for two small pinholes,
339
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就留了两个小孔
17:06
because distraction is the competitive memorizer's greatest enemy.
340
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5326
因为竞技记忆者最大的敌人就是注意力分散
17:11
I ended up coming back to that same contest that I had covered a year earlier.
341
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5767
最后 我再次回到了一年前报道的那场竞赛场上
17:17
And I had this notion that I might enter it,
342
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2106
我一时冲动 也想报名参加
17:19
sort of as an experiment in participatory journalism.
343
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3302
就当做参与性新闻报道的实验了
17:22
It'd make, I thought, maybe a nice epilogue to all my research.
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4521
我当时想 到时能在前言里调侃一下自己也好
17:27
Problem was the experiment went haywire.
345
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3738
问题是 实验最后得到了意想不到的结果
17:30
I won the contest,
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2737
那场竞赛我赢了
17:33
which really wasn't supposed to happen.
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真是完全出乎我预料之外
17:36
(Applause)
348
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5849
(鼓掌)
17:42
Now it is nice
349
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1705
对我来说现在
17:44
to be able to memorize speeches
350
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2827
背演讲稿 电话号码 或是购物单
17:47
and phone numbers and shopping lists,
351
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3094
都是小菜一碟 倒是很不错
17:50
but it's actually kind of beside the point.
352
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但其实这些都不重要了
17:53
These are just tricks.
353
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这些都是小伎俩
17:55
They are tricks that work
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这些记忆伎俩之所以有效
17:57
because they're based on some pretty basic principles
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是因为它们依仗人类大脑运转的
18:00
about how our brains work.
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一些基本原理
18:02
And you don't have to be building memory palaces
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并不用真的去建立记忆宫殿
18:06
or memorizing packs of playing cards
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或记下几副牌的顺序
18:08
to benefit from a little bit of insight
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你也完全可以从了解大脑运转原理中
18:10
about how your mind works.
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获得一些益处
18:12
We often talk about people with great memories
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我们总会议论记忆力很好的人
18:14
as though it were some sort of an innate gift,
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总觉得那些人是天赋异禀
18:16
but that is not the case.
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事实并不是这样
18:18
Great memories are learned.
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强大的记忆力是可以习得的
18:22
At the most basic level, we remember when we pay attention.
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从最根本的说起 专心致志就能记住
18:26
We remember when we are deeply engaged.
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全心投入时就能记住
18:29
We remember when we are able
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只要能想办法把信息和经历
18:30
to take a piece of information and experience
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转化为有意义的事
18:33
and figure out why it is meaningful to us,
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就能记住
18:35
why it is significant, why it's colorful,
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想它为何重要 为何多彩
18:38
when we're able to transform it in some way
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当我们能把它转化成为
18:40
that it makes sense
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有前因后果的事
18:42
in the light of all of the other things floating around in our minds,
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并跟我们脑海中繁杂琐碎的其他事产生联想时
18:44
when we're able to transform Bakers into bakers.
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当我们能把人名Baker转化为面包师baker时
18:49
The memory palace, these memory techniques,
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记忆宫殿 或是那些记忆技巧
18:52
they're just shortcuts.
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都只是捷径而已
18:54
In fact, they're not even really shortcuts.
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其实 说到底它们都不能算捷径
18:56
They work because they make you work.
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这方法有效是因为它迫使你思考
19:00
They force a kind of depth of processing,
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它迫使你往更深层次去想
19:04
a kind of mindfulness,
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让你更加专注
19:05
that most of us don't normally walk around exercising.
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大部分人平时并不会费力去训练这个
19:09
But there actually are no shortcuts.
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其实捷径并不存在
19:12
This is how stuff is made memorable.
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这一直就是我们能记住事物的原因
19:15
And I think if there's one thing that I want to leave you with,
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有一件事我希望你们能记住
19:19
it's what E.P.,
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就是E.P.
19:22
the amnesic who couldn't even remember that he had a memory problem,
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那个连自己患了健忘症都想不起来的人
19:26
left me with,
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让我深思
19:27
which is the notion
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得出了一个感想
19:29
that our lives are the sum of our memories.
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人生就是我们个人记忆的合集
19:34
How much are we willing to lose
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在短暂的人生里
19:40
from our already short lives
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你还愿意因为黑莓 iPhone
19:44
by losing ourselves in our Blackberries, our iPhones,
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丧失多少瞬间
19:51
by not paying attention to the human being across from us
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忽略对面坐着的人
19:54
who is talking with us,
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在跟我们交谈的人
19:56
by being so lazy that we're not willing
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变得越发懒惰 不愿意
19:58
to process deeply?
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深究任何事？
20:02
I learned firsthand
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通过亲身经历 我发现
20:04
that there are incredible memory capacities
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我们的身体里潜藏着
20:08
latent in all of us.
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不可思议的记忆能力
20:10
But if you want to live a memorable life,
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但若你想活得难忘
20:13
you have to be the kind of person
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就得做那种
20:15
who remembers to remember.
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记得时常记忆的人
20:18
Thank you.
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谢谢
20:20
(Applause)
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(鼓掌)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Foer - WriterJoshua Foer is a science writer who 'accidentally' won the U.S. Memory Championship.
Why you should listen
In 2005 science writer Joshua Foer went to cover the U.S. Memory Championship. A year later he was back -- as contestant. A year of mental training with Europe's top memorizer turned into a book, Moonwalking with Einstein, which is both a chronicle of his immersion in the memory culture and wonderfully accessible and informative introduction to the science of memory. Much more surprisingly, that year of training also turned into a first-place victory at the national competition in New York and the chance to represent the U.S. at the World Memory Championship. Foer's writing has appeared in National Geographic, Slate, the New York Times, and other publications. He is the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura, an online guide to the world’s wonders and curiosities, and is also the co-founder of the design competition Sukkah City.
Joshua Foer | Speaker | TED.com