ted英文演講稿（通用3篇）
1. ted英文演講稿 篇一
On what we think we know?
我們以為自己知道的
I'm going to try and explain why it is that perhaps we don't understand as much as we think we do. I'd like to begin with four questions. This is not some sort of cultural thing for the time of year. That's an in-joke, by the way.
我會試著解釋為何 我們知道的東西很可能并沒有我們自以為知道的多 我想從四個問題開始,不是那種今年流行的文化問題 對了，剛剛那句是個圈內笑話
But these four questions, actually, are ones that people who even know quite a lot about science find quite hard. And they're questions that I've asked of science television producers, of audiences of science educators -- so that's science teachers -- and also of seven-year-olds, and I find that the seven-year-olds do marginally better than the other audiences, which is somewhat surprising.
不過這四個問題，事實上 即使是很懂科學的人也會覺得很難應答 我拿這些問題去問科學節目制片人 問那些有科學教育背景的觀眾 也問教科學的老師還有七歲孩童 我發現七歲孩童答得比其他人好 這是有些令人驚訝
So the first question, and you might want to write this down, either on a bit of paper, physically, or a virtual piece of paper in your head. And, for viewers at home, you can try this as well.
第一個問題，我建議你把問題記下來 抄在紙上，或想像中的紙上 坐在電腦前的你也可以試著作答.
A little seed weighs next to nothing and a tree weighs a lot, right? I think we agree on that. Where does the tree get the stuff that makes up this chair, right? Where does all this stuff come from?
種籽很輕，而大樹很重，是嗎?我想我們都同意吧，大樹用來制成椅子的東西是從哪來的? 對吧?這些東西都是怎么來的?
(Knocks)
(敲椅聲)
And your next question is, can you light a little torch-bulb with a battery, a bulb and one piece of wire? And would you be able to, kind of, draw a -- you don't have to draw the diagram, but would you be able to draw the diagram, if you had to do it? Or would you just say, that's actually not possible?
問題二，你能否點亮一個小燈泡 只用1個電池、1個燈泡、和1條電線? 那你能畫出上述問題的圖解嗎?不用真的畫 但如果需要的話， 你能畫出來嗎? 還是你會說 這個不可能?
The third question is, why is it hotter in summer than in winter? I think we can probably agree that it is hotter in summer than in winter, but why? And finally, would you be able to -- and you can sort of scribble it, if you like -- scribble a plan diagram of the solar system, showing the shape of the planets' orbits? Would you be able to do that? And if you can, just scribble a pattern.
第三個問題，為什么夏天比冬天熱? 大家應該都同意夏天比冬天還熱 但為何如此?最后，你能不能 簡單的勾勒出 太陽系的平面圖... 呈現出行星軌道運行的形狀 你可以畫得出來嗎? 你畫得出來的話，就把形狀畫出來
OK. Now, children get their ideas not from teachers, as teachers often think, but actually from common sense, from experience of the world around them, from all the things that go on between them and their peers, and their carers, and their parents, and all of that. Experience. And one of the great experts in this field, of course, was, bless him, Cardinal Wolsey. Be very careful what you get into people's heads because it's virtually impossible to shift it afterwards, right?
好，孩童對事物的概念不是老師教的 老師時常這么以為，但實際上概念來自于常理 來自于孩童對周遭世界的體驗 來自于他們跟同伴彼此交流 還有跟保姆、父母親、所有人交流的經驗 這個領域中的一個專家，對了，愿他安息 就是渥西主教，他說要你將東西放進其他人的鬧袋里的時候要小心 因為那些東西幾乎不會再改變，對吧?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I'm not quite sure how he died, actually. Was he beheaded in the end, or hung?
我不太清楚他的死因，真的 他最后上了斷頭臺?還是被吊死?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Now, those questions, which, of course, you've got right, and you haven't been conferring, and so on. And I -- you know, normally, I would pick people out and humiliate, but maybe not in this instance.
現在回到那四個問題，大家都知道是什么問題了 你們彼此之間也沒有討論答案 我平時習慣點人站起來回答讓他丟臉 不過這次就不點了
A little seed weighs a lot and, basically, all this stuff, 99 percent of this stuff, came out of the air. Now, I guarantee that about 85 percent of you, or maybe it's fewer at TED, will have said it comes out of the ground. And some people, probably two of you, will come up and argue with me afterwards, and say that actually, it comes out of the ground. Now, if that was true, we'd have trucks going round the country, filling people's gardens in with soil, it'd be a fantastic business. But, actually, we don't do that. The mass of this comes out of the air. Now, I passed all my biology exams in Britain. I passed them really well, but I still came out of school thinking that that stuff came out of the ground.
種籽可以很重，基本上所有的這些 99%都來自于空氣 我相信有85%的人，或許在你們TED會比較少 會說木材來自于大地，而有些人 也許你們中的一兩位， 可能結束后會來找我爭論 說木材其實是來自于大地 若是如此，那我們就會有讓卡車跑來跑去 把人們的花園都填上土，那會是很棒的生意。 不過實際上我們不會那么做 因為木材的材料大部分其實是從空氣中來的 我在英國念書時考生物每考必過 我的成績很好，但畢業后 還是以為木材來自于大地
Second one: can you light a little torch-bulb with a battery bulb and one piece of wire? Yes, you can, and I'll show you in a second how to do that. Now, I have some rather bad news, which is that I had a piece of video that I was about to show you, which unfortunately -- the sound doesn't work in this room, so I'm going to describe to you, in true "Monty Python" fashion, what happens in the video. And in the video, a group of researchers go to MIT on graduation day. We chose MIT because, obviously, that's a very long way away from here, and you wouldn't mind too much, but it sort of works the same way in Britain and in the West Coast of the USA. And we asked them these questions, and we asked those questions of science graduates, and they couldn't answer them. And so, there's a whole lot of people saying, "I'd be very surprised if you told me that this came out of the air. That's very surprising to me." And those are science graduates. And we intercut it with, "We are the premier science university in the world," because of British-like hubris.
你能用一枚電池和一根電線點亮燈泡嗎? 是，你可以，我會示范怎么做。 不過，現在有個壞消息 本來有個影片要給大家看 可惜在這邊聲音放不出來 所以我就口頭描述一下的，用巨蟒劇團的表演方式， 影片內容是這樣的，在影片里有一群研究員 在畢業典禮那天去麻省理工學院 為什么是麻省理工呢?因為它離這里很遠 大家也就不會太介意 不過場景設在英國結果也差不多 或是設在美國西岸 我們問了麻省理工的畢業生這四個問題 這些理工科畢業生也答不出來 而且還有很多學生表示 “我很驚訝你說木材是從空氣中來的 ”這真的讓我很吃驚“，那些理工的畢業生這么說 我們用”我們是全球第一的理工大學“來作影片的結尾。 因為英國人很傲慢
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And when we gave graduate engineers that question, they said it couldn't be done. And when we gave them a battery, and a piece of wire, and a bulb, and said, "Can you do it?" They couldn't do it. Right? And that's no different from Imperial College in London, by the way, it's not some sort of anti-American thing going on.
我們拿第二個問題去問碩士畢業的工程師們 他們說這不可能做得到 我們拿了電池、電線、和燈泡 問他們”你能做到嗎?“，他們沒辦法，是吧? 順道一提，倫敦的帝國學院的情況估計也差不多如此 我們不是在做什么反美的事
As if. Now, the reason this matters is we pay lots and lots of money for teaching people -- we might as well get it right. And there are also some societal reasons why we might want people to understand what it is that's happening in photosynthesis. For example, one half of the carbon equation is how much we emit, and the other half of the carbon equation, as I'm very conscious as a trustee of Kew, is how much things soak up, and they soak up carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
雖然聽來頗像。問題的關鍵是我們花了很多錢 來教育大眾，我們應該正確地來做這件事。 其中也有一些社會因素 讓我們想使大眾了解光合作用如何運作 例如，有一半的碳儲量是人類排放的 而另一半碳儲量 我相當關切，身為皇家植物園的受托管理人
That's what plants actually do for a living. And, for any Finnish people in the audience, this is a Finnish pun: we are, both literally and metaphorically, skating on thin ice if we don't understand that kind of thing.Now, here's how you do the battery and the bulb. It's so easy, isn't it? Of course, you all knew that. But if you haven't played with a battery and a bulb, if you've only seen a circuit diagram, you might not be able to do that, and that's one of the problems.
是植物吸收多少二氧化碳 植物就是以此維生的 如果在場有芬蘭人，這是芬蘭話的雙關語 我們無論在實際上或隱喻上，都是如履薄冰 要是我們不明白那些事 電池和燈泡只要這要做就行 很簡單，不是嗎?你們都懂了 但要是你沒有親手碰過電池和燈泡 如果你只看過電路圖 你可能就做不出來，這是個麻煩
So, why is it hotter in summer than in winter? We learn, as children, that you get closer to something that's hot, and it burns you. It's a very powerful bit of learning, and it happens pretty early on. By extension, we think to ourselves, "Why it's hotter in summer than in winter must be because we're closer to the Sun." I promise you that most of you will have got that. Oh, you're all shaking your heads, but only a few of you are shaking your heads very firmly.
那么，為何夏天比冬天熱? 我們從小就知道，離熱的東西太近 你就被燙到，這真很有效的教育方法 很小的時候大家就學到了 延伸這個論點，我們覺得夏天比冬天熱 一定是因為我們離太陽比較近 我相信大多人都懂了 哦，大家都在搖頭 不過只有幾個人搖得很堅定
Other ones are kind of going like this. All right. It's hotter in summer than in winter because the rays from the Sun are spread out more, right, because of the tilt of the Earth. And if you think the tilt is tilting us closer, no, it isn't. The Sun is 93 million miles away, and we're tilting like this, right? It makes no odds. In fact, in the Northern Hemisphere, we're further from the Sun in summer, as it happens, but it makes no odds, the difference.
其他人只是這樣子搖而已，好吧 夏天比冬天熱是因為太陽的輻射線 傳播得比較多，地球傾斜的關系 如果你以為是朝太陽的方向傾斜，那就錯了 太陽離地球1億5千萬公里，地球傾斜角度大略如此 傾斜不是差別所在，在北半球 夏天時我們離太陽更遠 跟傾斜沒有關系
OK, now, the scribble of the diagram of the solar system. If you believe, as most of you probably do, that it's hotter in summer than in winter because we're closer to the Sun, you must have drawn an ellipse. Right? That would explain it, right? Except, in your -- you're nodding -- now, in your ellipse, have you thought, "Well, what happens during the night?"
好，問題四是畫出太陽系的平面圖 如果大家相信，大多數可能都相信 夏天比冬天熱是因為地球離太陽較近 大家應該都畫了橢圓形 對吧?這就能解釋了吧? 除非，你點頭了，你畫了個橢圓形 你有想過，「夜晚又是怎么回事」?
Between Australia and here, right, they've got summer and we've got winter, and what -- does the Earth kind of rush towards the Sun at night, and then rush back again? I mean, it's a very strange thing going on, and we hold these two models in our head, of what's right and what isn't right, and we do that, as human beings, in all sorts of fields.
澳洲和美國這邊，澳洲是夏天 這邊是冬天，難道說 地球在晚上會沖向太陽 然后再沖回來?這實在很奇怪 我們腦中有兩種思考模式，對的和錯的 身為人類，我們在很多領域都這樣思考
So, here's Copernicus' view of what the solar system looked like as a plan. That's pretty much what you should have on your piece of paper. Right? And this is NASA's view. They're stunningly similar. I hope you notice the coincidence here.
左邊是哥白尼畫的太陽系平面圖 跟你們紙上畫的差不多，對吧 右邊是NASA的版本，兩張圖非常相似 我希望大家注意其中的巧合 要是你知道人們有錯誤觀念
What would you do if you knew that people had this misconception, right, in their heads, of elliptical orbits caused by our experiences as children? What sort of diagram would you show them of the solar system, to show that it's not really like that? You'd show them something like this, wouldn't you? It's a plan, looking down from above. But, no, look what I found in the textbooks. That's what you show people, right?
你會怎么做 在他們腦中，楕圓形的軌道 是他們兒時經驗教的嗎? 你會給他們看什么樣的太陽系示意圖? 證明太陽系不是他們想的那樣 你會給他們看這種圖嗎? 這是俯瞰的平面圖 可是并非如此，瞧瞧我在教科書里找到的 你會給他們看這種圖對吧?
These are from textbooks, from websites, educational websites -- and almost anything you pick up is like that. And the reason it's like that is because it's dead boring to have a load of concentric circles, whereas that's much more exciting, to look at something at that angle, isn't it? Right?
出自教科書 出自教育網站 你找得到的幾乎都是這種圖 會以這種視角呈現是因為 只有一堆同心圓太死板無趣 從這種視角看太陽系比較新鮮刺激 不是嗎?
And by doing it at that angle, if you've got that misconception in your head, then that two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional thing will be ellipses. So you've -- it's crap, isn't it really? As we say.
因為弄成這種視角 如果你腦中有了這種誤解 用二度空間來呈現三度空間就會變成橢圓形 這真是糟糕，可不是嗎?
So, these mental models -- we look for evidence that reinforces our models. We do this, of course, with matters of race, and politics, and everything else, and we do it in science as well. So we look, just look -- and scientists do it, constantly -- we look for evidence that reinforces our models, and some folks are just all too able and willing to provide the evidence that reinforces the models.
因此，我們尋求證據來增強我們的心智模式 我們用這種方式處理種族、政治、所有事 當然也用這種方式處理科學，我們只觀看 是科學家在這么做，我們不斷尋求證據 來增強我們的心智模式，有些人很有辦法 也樂意提供證據來增強那些模式
So, being I'm in the United States, I'll have a dig at the Europeans. These are examples of what I would say is bad practice in science teaching centers.
所以我現在人在美國，就會說歐洲人的壞話 這些圖片都是我認為不良的科學教育
These pictures are from La Villette in France and the welcome wing of the Science Museum in London. And, if you look at the, kind of the way these things are constructed, there's a lot of mediation by glass, and it's very blue, and kind of professional -- in that way that, you know, Woody Allen comes up from under the sheets in that scene in "Annie Hall," and said, "God, that's so professional." And that you don't -- there's no passion in it, and it's not hands on, right, and, you know, pun intended.
類似教學中心，這些圖取自法國維葉特科博館 以及倫敦科博館的迎賓翼展示區 你看看這些東西建成的模樣 有很多玻璃隔板，藍光色調，弄得很專業似的 那種方式，就像是伍迪艾倫從床單里冒出來 在《安妮霍爾》戲中的那一幕 他說“老天，這真是太專業了” 這其中沒有熱情，沒有動手參與，是嗎 這是個雙關，不過也有好的教學方法
Whereas good interpretation -- I'll use an example from nearby -- is San Francisco Exploratorium, where all the things that -- the demonstrations, and so on, are made out of everyday objects that children can understand, it's very hands-on, and they can engage with, and experiment with. And I know that if the graduates at MIT and in the Imperial College in London had had the battery and the wire and the bit of stuff, and you know, been able to do it, they would have learned how it actually works, rather than thinking that they follow circuit diagrams and can't do it. So good interpretation is more about things that are bodged and stuffed and of my world, right? And things that -- where there isn't an extra barrier of a piece of glass or machined titanium, and it all looks fantastic, OK?
我舉一個例子，離這里很近，舊金山探索館 在那里所有的東西，展示品之類的 都是用孩子能懂的日常用品做成的 都可以動手玩，孩子們可以專心玩好好體驗 我知道麻省理工畢業生 以及倫敦帝國學院畢業生 手上有電池電線點亮燈泡的話 他們會明白其中的原理 而不是覺得他們照著電路圖來做是做不到的 好的教學方法不是 沉溺陶醉在自己世界里對吧? 那些東西也不該被隔著 用玻璃或是鈦制品隔開 看起來很漂亮就好，好嗎?
And the Exploratorium does that really, really well. And it's amateur, but amateur in the best sense, in other words, the root of the word being of love and passion.
舊金山探索館在這點做得非常好 看上去很業余，但業余得很對頭 也就是說，根本的出發點是出自愛和熱情
So, children are not empty vessels, OK?So, as "Monty Python" would have it, this is a bit Lord Privy Seal to say so, but this is -- children are not empty vessels.
所以，孩童不是空瓶子 用“巨蟒劇團”的說法 就是有點像英國掌璽大臣會說的 意思是說孩童不是空無一物的瓶子
They come with their own ideas and their own theories, and unless you work with those, then you won't be able to shift them, right?
他們生來就有自己的想法和理念 如果你沒從這些地方著手，就改變不了他們 對吧?
And I probably haven't shifted your ideas of how the world and universe operates, either. But this applies, equally, to matters of trying to sell new technology.
我大概沒有改變大家的想法 對于世界和宇宙到底如何運作 不過這些道理同樣可以用在推銷新科技上也
For example, we are, in Britain, we're trying to do a digital switchover of the whole population into digital technology [for television].
例如，在英國，我們試著把全部的電視 都換成新科技的數位電視
And it's one of the difficult things is that when people have preconceptions of how it all works, it's quite difficult to shift those.
有個難題是 人們對事物運作的方式一旦有了成見 就很難去改變
So we're not empty vessels; the mental models that we have as children persist into adulthood. Poor teaching actually does more harm than good.
我們不是空瓶子，我們保有心智模式 從幼年到成年一直都存在 不良的教學是弊多于利
In this country and in Britain, magnetism is understood better by children before they've been to school than afterwards, OK? Same for gravity, two concepts, so it's -- which is quite humbling, as a, you know, if you're a teacher, and you look before and after, that's quite worrying. They do worse in tests afterwards, after the teaching.
在美國和英國，在磁力知識上 孩童在就學前學得比較好 重力知識也一樣，兩個不同概念，這實在可悲 如果你是個老師，看見受教前和受教后的差別 實在令人憂心，學童在受教后考得更差
And we collude. We design tests, or at least in Britain, so that people pass them. Right? And governments do very well. They pat themselves on the back. OK?
我們都是共犯，我們設計測驗方式 至少在英國是這樣，好讓人們能通過考試 政府也幫了不少忙，他們推波助瀾 懂嗎?
We collude, and actually if you -- if someone had designed a test for me when I was doing my biology exams, to really understand, to see whether I'd understood more than just kind of putting starch and iodine together and seeing it go blue, and really understood that plants took their mass out of the air, then I might have done better at science. So the most important thing is to get people to articulate their models.
我們都是共犯 如果有人替我設計測驗 在我要考生物的時候 讓我能真正明白，明白我是否真的懂了 不是只在淀粉中加入碘液 看著反應呈現藍色 而且能真正明白植物是從空氣中茁壯的 我的科學可能就會學得比較好 所以，最重要的是要讓人們能表述清楚他們的模型
Your homework is -- you know, how does an aircraft's wing create lift? An obvious question, and you'll have an answer now in your heads. And the second question to that then is, ensure you've explained how it is that planes can fly upside down. Ah ha, right.
回家作業是，機翼是怎樣幫助飛機起飛的? 這問題很好懂，大家心中也有答案了 注意事項是 你要確保自己能解釋為何飛機頭向下的時候也能飛， 對吧
Second question is, why is the sea blue? All right? And you've all got an idea in your head of the answer. So, why is it blue on cloudy days? Ah, see.
問題二，海為何是藍色的? 大家心中應該都有答案了 那么，為什么陰天時海還是藍的?看吧 (笑聲) 我一直想在美國講這句話
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I've always wanted to say that in this country. (Laughter) Finally, my plea to you is to allow yourselves, and your children, and anyone you know, to kind of fiddle with stuff, because it's by fiddling with things that you, you know, you complement your other learning. It's not a replacement, it's just part of learning that's important. Thank you very much. Now -- oh, oh yeah, go on then, go on.
最后，我希望大家能讓自己，還有孩子 以及任何你認識的人，去動手接觸事物 因為親自接觸了事物，你知道的 你就補足了其他方面的學習不足，這不是替換 這只是學習中很重要的一部分 謝謝大家 那么，噢，沒關系，繼續吧
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
2. ted英文演講稿 篇二
What fear can teach us
恐懼可以教會我們什么
One day in 1819, 3,000 miles off the coast of Chile, in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean, 20 American sailors watched their ship flood with seawater.
1820xx年的某一天， 在距離智利海岸3000英里的地方， 有一個太平洋上的最偏遠的水域， 20名美國船員目睹了他們的船只進水的場面。
They'd been struck by a sperm whale, which had ripped a catastrophic hole in the ship's hull. As their ship began to sink beneath the swells, the men huddled together in three small whaleboats.
他們和一頭抹香鯨相撞，給船體撞了 一個毀滅性的大洞。 當船在巨浪中開始沉沒時， 人們在三條救生小艇中抱作一團。
These men were 10,000 miles from home, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest scrap of land. In their small boats, they carried only rudimentary navigational equipment and limited supplies of food and water.
這些人在離家10000萬英里的地方， 離最近的陸地也超過1000英里。 在他們的小艇中，他們只帶了 落后的導航設備 和有限的食物和飲水。
These were the men of the whaleship Essex, whose story would later inspire parts of "Moby Dick."
他們就是捕鯨船ESSEX上的人們， 后來的他們的故事成為《白鯨記》的一部分。
Even in today's world, their situation would be really dire, but think about how much worse it would have been then.
即使在當今的世界，碰上這種情況也夠杯具的，更不用說在當時的情況有多糟糕。
No one on land had any idea that anything had gone wrong. No search party was coming to look for these men. So most of us have never experienced a situation as frightening as the one in which these sailors found themselves, but we all know what it's like to be afraid.
岸上的人根本就還沒意識到出了什么問題。 沒有任何人來搜尋他們。 我們當中大部分人沒有經歷過 這些船員所處的可怕情景， 但我們都知道害怕是什么感覺。
We know how fear feels, but I'm not sure we spend enough time thinking about what our fears mean.
我們知道恐懼的感覺， 但是我不能肯定我們會花很多時間想過 我們的恐懼到底意味著什么。
As we grow up, we're often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates.
我們長大以后，我們總是會被鼓勵把恐懼 視為軟弱，需要像乳牙或輪滑鞋一樣 扔掉的幼稚的東西。
And I think it's no accident that we think this way. Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings are hard-wired to be optimists.
我想意外事故并非我們所想的那樣。 神經系統科學家已經知道人類 生來就是樂觀主義者。
So maybe that's why we think of fear, sometimes, as a danger in and of itself. "Don't worry," we like to say to one another. "Don't panic." In English, fear is something we conquer. It's something we fight.
這也許就是為什么我們認為有時候恐懼， 本身就是一種危險或帶來危險。 “不要愁。”我們總是對別人說。“不要慌”。 英語中，恐懼是我們需要征服的東西。 是我們必須對抗的東西，是我們必須克服的東西。
It's something we overcome. But what if we looked at fear in a fresh way? What if we thought of fear as an amazing act of the imagination, something that can be as profound and insightful as storytelling itself?
但是我們如果換個視角看恐懼會如何呢? 如果我們把恐懼當做是想象力的一個驚人成果， 是和我們講故事一樣 精妙而有見地的東西，又會如何呢?
It's easiest to see this link between fear and the imagination in young children, whose fears are often extraordinarily vivid.
在小孩子當中，我們最容易看到恐懼與想象之間的聯系， 他們的恐懼經常是超級生動的。
When I was a child, I lived in California, which is, you know, mostly a very nice place to live, but for me as a child, California could also be a little scary.
我小時候住在加利福尼亞， 你們都知道，是非常適合居住的位置， 但是對一個小孩來說，加利福尼亞也會有點嚇人。
I remember how frightening it was to see the chandelier that hung above our dining table swing back and forth during every minor earthquake, and I sometimes couldn't sleep at night, terrified that the Big One might strike while we were sleeping.
我記得每次小地震的時候 當我看到我們餐桌上的吊燈 晃來晃去的時候是多么的嚇人， 我經常會徹夜難眠，擔心大地震 會在我們睡覺的時候突然襲來。
And what we say about kids who have fears like that is that they have a vivid imagination. But at a certain point, most of us learn to leave these kinds of visions behind and grow up.
我們說小孩子感受到這種恐懼 是因為他們有生動的想象力。 但是在某個時候，我們大多數學會了 拋棄這種想法而變得成熟。
We learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed, and not every earthquake brings buildings down. But maybe it's no coincidence that some of our most creative minds fail to leave these kinds of fears behind as adults.
我們都知道床下沒有魔鬼， 也不是每個地震都會震垮房子。但是我們當中最有想象力的人們 并沒有因為成年而拋棄這種恐懼，這也許并不是巧合。
The same incredible imaginations that produced "The Origin of Species," "Jane Eyre" and "The Remembrance of Things Past," also generated intense worries that haunted the adult lives of Charles Darwin, Charlotte BrontĂŤ and Marcel Proust. So the question is, what can the rest of us learn about fear from visionaries and young children?
同樣不可思議的想象力創造了《物種起源》， 《簡·愛》和《追憶似水年華》， 也就是這種與生俱來的深深的擔憂一直纏繞著成年的 查爾斯·達爾文， 夏洛特·勃朗特和馬塞爾·普羅斯特。 問題就來了， 我們其他人如何能從這些 夢想家和小孩子身上學會恐懼?
Well let's return to the year 1819 for a moment, to the situation facing the crew of the whaleship Essex. Let's take a look at the fears that their imaginations were generating as they drifted in the middle of the Pacific.
讓我們暫時回到1820xx年， 回到ESSEX捕鯨船的水手們面對的情況。 讓我們看看他們漂流在太平洋中央時 他們的想象力給他們帶來的恐懼感覺。
Twenty-four hours had now passed since the capsizing of the ship. The time had come for the men to make a plan, but they had very few options.
船傾覆后已經過了24個小時。 這時人們制定了一個計劃， 但是其實他們沒什么太多的選擇。
In his fascinating account of the disaster, Nathaniel Philbrick wrote that these men were just about as far from land as it was possible to be anywhere on Earth.
在納撒尼爾·菲爾布里克(Nathaniel Philbrick)描述這場災難的 動人文章中，他寫到“這些人離陸地如此之遠， 似乎永遠都不可能到達地球上的任何一塊陸地。”
The men knew that the nearest islands they could reach were the Marquesas Islands, 1,200 miles away. But they'd heard some frightening rumors.
這些人知道離他們最近的島 是1200英里以外的馬克薩斯群島(Marquesas Islands)。 但是他們聽到了讓人恐怖的謠言。
They'd been told that these islands, and several others nearby, were populated by cannibals. So the men pictured coming ashore only to be murdered and eaten for dinner. Another possible destination was Hawaii, but given the season, the captain was afraid they'd be struck by severe storms.
他們聽說這些群島， 以及附近的一些島嶼上都住著食人族。 所以他們腦中都是上岸以后就會被殺掉 被人當做盤中餐的畫面。 另一個可行的目的地是夏威夷， 但是船長擔心 他們會被困在風暴當中。
Now the last option was the longest, and the most difficult: to sail 1,500 miles due south in hopes of reaching a certain band of winds that could eventually push them toward the coast of South America.
所以最后的選擇是到最遠，也是最艱險的地方： 往南走1500英里希望某股風 能最終把他們 吹到南美洲的海岸。
But they knew that the sheer length of this journey would stretch their supplies of food and water. To be eaten by cannibals, to be battered by storms, to starve to death before reaching land.
但是他們知道這個行程中一旦偏航 將會耗盡他們食物和飲水的供給。 被食人族吃掉，被風暴掀翻， 在登陸前餓死。
These were the fears that danced in the imaginations of these poor men, and as it turned out, the fear they chose to listen to would govern whether they lived or died.
這就是縈繞在這群可憐的人想象中的恐懼， 事實證明，他們選擇聽從的恐懼 將決定他們的生死。
Now we might just as easily call these fears by a different name. What if instead of calling them fears, we called them stories?
也許我們可以很容易的用別的名稱來稱呼這些恐懼。 我們不稱之為恐懼， 而是稱它們為故事如何?
Because that's really what fear is, if you think about it. It's a kind of unintentional storytelling that we are all born knowing how to do. And fears and storytelling have the same components.
如果你仔細想想，這是恐懼真正的意義。 這是一種與生俱來的， 無意識的講故事的能力。 恐懼和講故事有著同樣的構成。
They have the same architecture. Like all stories, fears have characters. In our fears, the characters are us. Fears also have plots. They have beginnings and middles and ends. You board the plane.
他們有同樣的結構。 如同所有的故事，恐懼中有角色。 在恐懼中，角色就是我們自己。 恐懼也有情節。他們有開頭，有中間，有結尾。 你登上飛機。
The plane takes off. The engine fails. Our fears also tend to contain imagery that can be every bit as vivid as what you might find in the pages of a novel. Picture a cannibal, human teeth sinking into human skin, human flesh roasting over a fire.
飛機起飛。結果引擎故障。 我們的恐懼會包括各種生動的想象， 不比你看到的任何一個小說遜色。 想象食人族，人類牙齒 咬在人類皮膚上， 人肉在火上烤。
Fears also have suspense. If I've done my job as a storyteller today, you should be wondering what happened to the men of the whaleship Essex. Our fears provoke in us a very similar form of suspense.
恐懼中也有懸念。 如果我今天像講故事一樣，留個懸念不說了， 你們也許會很想知道 ESSEX捕鯨船上，人們到底怎么樣了。 我們的恐懼用懸念一樣的方式刺激我們。
Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next?
就像一個很好的故事，我們的恐懼也如同一部好的文學作品一樣， 將我們的注意力集中在對我們生命至關重要的問題上： 后來發生了什么?
In other words, our fears make us think about the future. And humans, by the way, are the only creatures capable of thinking about the future in this way, of projecting ourselves forward in time, and this mental time travel is just one more thing that fears have in common with storytelling.
換而言之，我們的恐懼讓我們想到未來。 另外，人來是唯一有能力 通過這種方式想到未來的生物， 就是預測時間推移后我們的狀況， 這種精神上的時間旅行是恐懼 與講故事的另一個共同點。
As a writer, I can tell you that a big part of writing fiction is learning to predict how one event in a story will affect all the other events, and fear works in that same way.
我是一個作家，我要告訴你們寫小說一個很重要的部分 就是學會預測故事中一件 事情如何影響另一件事情， 恐懼也是同樣這么做的。
In fear, just like in fiction, one thing always leads to another. When I was writing my first novel, "The Age Of Miracles," I spent months trying to figure out what would happen if the rotation of the Earth suddenly began to slow down. What would happen to our days?
恐懼中，如同小說一樣，一件事情總是導致另一件事情。 我寫我的第一部小說《奇跡時代》的時候， 我花了數月的時間想象如果地球旋轉突然變慢了之后 會發生什么。 我們的一天變得如何?
What would happen to our crops? What would happen to our minds? And then it was only later that I realized how very similar these questions were to the ones I used to ask myself as a child frightened in the night.
我們身體會怎樣? 我們的思想會有什么變化? 也就是在那之后，我意識到 我過去總是問自己的那些些問題 和孩子們在夜里害怕是多么的相像。
If an earthquake strikes tonight, I used to worry, what will happen to our house? What will happen to my family? And the answer to those questions always took the form of a story.
要是在過去，如果今晚發生地震，我會很擔心， 我的房子會怎么樣啊?家里人會怎樣啊? 這類問題的答案通常都會和故事一樣。
So if we think of our fears as more than just fears but as stories, we should think of ourselves as the authors of those stories. But just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves as the readers of our fears, and how we choose to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.
所以我們認為我們的恐懼不僅僅是恐懼 還是故事，我們應該把自己當作 這些故事的作者。 但是同樣重要的是，我們需要想象我們自己 是我們恐懼的解讀者，我們選擇如何 去解讀這些恐懼會對我們的生活產生深遠的影響。
Now, some of us naturally read our fears more closely than others. I read about a study recently of successful entrepreneurs, and the author found that these people shared a habit that he called "productive paranoia," which meant that these people, instead of dismissing their fears, these people read them closely, they studied them, and then they translated that fear into preparation and action.
現在，我們中有些人比其他人更自然的解讀自己的恐懼。 最近我看過一個關于成功的企業家的研究， 作者發現這些人都有個習慣 叫做“未雨綢繆“， 意思是，這些人，不回避自己的恐懼， 而是認真解讀并研究恐懼， 然后把恐懼轉換成準備和行動。
So that way, if their worst fears came true, their businesses were ready.
這樣，如果最壞的事情發生了， 他們的企業也有所準備。
And sometimes, of course, our worst fears do come true. That's one of the things that is so extraordinary about fear. Once in a while, our fears can predict the future.
當然，很多時候，最壞的事情確實發生了。 這是恐懼非凡的一面。 曾幾何時，我們的恐懼預測將來。
But we can't possibly prepare for all of the fears that our imaginations concoct. So how can we tell the difference between the fears worth listening to and all the others? I think the end of the story of the whaleship Essex offers an illuminating, if tragic, example.
但是我們不可能為我們想象力構建的所有 恐懼來做準備。 所以，如何區分值得聽從的恐懼 和不值得的呢? 我想捕鯨船ESSEX的故事結局 提供了一個有啟發性，同時又悲慘的例子。
After much deliberation, the men finally made a decision. Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead embarked on the longer and much more difficult route to South America.
經過數次權衡，他們最終做出了決定。 由于害怕食人族，他們決定放棄最近的群島 而是開始更長 更艱難的南美洲之旅。
After more than two months at sea, the men ran out of food as they knew they might, and they were still quite far from land. When the last of the survivors were finally picked up by two passing ships, less than half of the men were left alive, and some of them had resorted to their own form of cannibalism.
在海上呆了兩個多月后，他們 的食物如預料之中消耗殆盡， 而且他們仍然離陸地那么遠。 當最后的幸存者最終被過往船只救起時， 只有一小半的人還活著， 實際上他們中的一些人自己變成了食人族。
Herman Melville, who used this story as research for "Moby Dick," wrote years later, and from dry land, quote, "All the sufferings of these miserable men of the Essex might in all human probability have been avoided had they, immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti.
赫爾曼·梅爾維爾(Herman Melville)將這個故事作為 《白鯨記》的素材，在數年后寫到： ESSEX船上遇難者的悲慘結局 或許是可以通過人為的努力避免的， 如果他們當機立斷地離開沉船， 直奔塔西提群島。
But," as Melville put it, "they dreaded cannibals." So the question is, why did these men dread cannibals so much more than the extreme likelihood of starvation?
“但是”，梅爾維爾說道：“他們害怕食人族” 問題是，為什么這些人對于食人族的恐懼 超過了更有可能的饑餓威脅呢?
Why were they swayed by one story so much more than the other? Looked at from this angle, theirs becomes a story about reading. The novelist Vladimir Nabokov said that the best reader has a combination of two very different temperaments, the artistic and the scientific.
為什么他們會被一個故事 影響如此之大呢? 從另一個角度來看， 這是一個關于解讀的故事。 小說家弗拉基米爾·納博科夫(Vladimir Nabokov)說 最好的讀者能把兩種截然不同的性格結合起來， 一個是藝術氣質，一個是科學精神。
A good reader has an artist's passion, a willingness to get caught up in the story, but just as importantly, the readers also needs the coolness of judgment of a scientist, which acts to temper and complicate the reader's intuitive reactions to the story. As we've seen, the men of the Essex had no trouble with the artistic part.
好的讀者有藝術家的熱情， 愿意融入故事當中， 但是同樣重要的是，這些讀者還要 有科學家的冷靜判斷， 這能幫助他們穩定情緒并分析 其對故事的直覺反應。 我們可以看出來，ESSEX上的人在藝術部分一點問題都沒有。
They dreamed up a variety of horrifying scenarios. The problem was that they listened to the wrong story. Of all the narratives their fears wrote, they responded only to the most lurid, the most vivid, the one that was easiest for their imaginations to picture: cannibals.
他們夢想到一系列恐怖的場景。 問題在于他們聽從了一個錯誤的故事。 所有他們恐懼中 他們只對其中最聳人聽聞，最生動的故事， 也是他們想象中最早出現的場景： 食人族。
But perhaps if they'd been able to read their fears more like a scientist, with more coolness of judgment, they would have listened instead to the less violent but the more likely tale, the story of starvation, and headed for Tahiti, just as Melville's sad commentary suggests.
也許，如果他們能像科學家那樣 稍微冷靜一點解讀這個故事， 如果他們能聽從不太驚悚但是更可能發生的 半路餓死的故事，他們可能就會直奔塔西提群島， 如梅爾維爾充滿惋惜的評論所建議的那樣。
And maybe if we all tried to read our fears, we too would be less often swayed by the most salacious among them.
也許如果我們都試著解讀自己的恐懼， 我們就能少被 其中的一些幻象所迷惑。
Maybe then we'd spend less time worrying about serial killers and plane crashes, and more time concerned with the subtler and slower disasters we face: the silent buildup of plaque in our arteries, the gradual changes in our climate.
我們也就能少花一點時間在 為系列殺手或者飛機失事方面的擔憂， 而是更多的關心那些悄然而至 的災難： 動脈血小板的逐漸堆積， 氣候的逐漸變遷。
Just as the most nuanced stories in literature are often the richest, so too might our subtlest fears be the truest. Read in the right way, our fears are an amazing gift of the imagination, a kind of everyday clairvoyance, a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there's still time to influence how that future will play out.
如同文學中最精妙的故事通常是最豐富的故事， 我們最細微的恐懼才是最真實的恐懼。 用正確的方法的解讀，我們的恐懼就是我們想象力 賜給我們的禮物，借此一雙慧眼， 讓我們能管窺未來 甚至影響未來。
Properly read, our fears can offer us something as precious as our favorite works of literature: a little wisdom, a bit of insight and a version of that most elusive thing -- the truth. Thank you.
如果能得到正確的解讀，我們的恐懼能 和我們最喜歡的文學作品一樣給我們珍貴的東西： 一點點智慧，一點點洞悉 以及對最玄妙東西—— 真相的詮釋。 謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
3. ted英文演講稿 篇三
犯錯的價值
每個人都會避免犯錯，但或許避免犯錯本身就是一種錯誤?請看以下這篇“犯錯家“凱瑟琳舒爾茨告訴我們，或許我們不只該承認錯誤，更應該大力擁抱人性中“我錯故我在“的本質。
So it's 1995, I'm in college, and a friend and I go on a road trip from Providence, Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon.
當時是95年 我在上大學 我和一個朋友開車去玩 從羅得島的普羅旺斯區出發 到奧勒岡州的波特蘭市
And you know, we're young and unemployed, so we do the whole thing on back roads through state parks and national forests -- basically the longest route we can possibly take.
我們年輕、無業 ，于是整個旅程都在鄉間小道 經過州立公園 和國家保護森林 我們盡可能繞著最長的路徑
And somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, I turn to my friend and I ask her a question that's been bothering me for 2,000 miles.
在南達科塔州之中某處 我轉向我的朋友 問她一個 兩千英里路途上 一直煩惱我的問題
"What's up with the Chinese character I keep seeing by the side of the road?"
"路邊那個一直出現的中文字到底是什么?"
My friend looks at me totally blankly.
我的朋友露出疑惑的神情
There's actually a gentleman in the front row who's doing a perfect imitation of her look.
正如現在坐在第一排的這三位男士 所露出的神情一樣
(Laughter) And I'm like, "You know, all the signs we keep seeing with the Chinese character on them."
(笑聲) 我說"你知道的 我們一直看到的那個路牌 寫著中文的那個啊"
She just stares at me for a few moments, and then she cracks up, because she figures out what I'm talking about.
她瞪著我的臉一陣子 突然笑開了 因為她總算知道我所指為何
And what I'm talking about is this.
我說的是這個
(Laughter) Right, the famous Chinese character for picnic area.
(笑聲) 沒錯，這就是代表野餐區的那個中文字
(Laughter) I've spent the last five years of my life thinking about situations exactly like this -- why we sometimes misunderstand the signs around us,
(笑聲) 過去的五年 我一直在思考 剛剛我所描述的狀況 為什么我們會對身邊的征兆 產生誤解
and how we behave when that happens, and what all of this can tell us about human nature.
當誤解發生時我們作何反應 以及這一切所告訴我們的人性
In other words, as you heard Chris say, I've spent the last five years thinking about being wrong.
換句話說，就像 Chris 剛才說的 過去五年的時間 我都在思考錯誤的價值
This might strike you as a strange career move, but it actually has one great advantage: no job competition.
你可能覺得這是個奇異的專業 但有一項好處是不容置疑的： 沒有競爭者。
(Laughter) In fact, most of us do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong, or at least to avoid thinking about the possibility that we ourselves are wrong.
(笑聲) 事實上，我們大部分的人 都盡力不思考錯誤的價值 或至少避免想到我們有可能犯錯。
We get it in the abstract.
我們都知道這個模糊的概念。
We all know everybody in this room makes mistakes.
我們都知道這里的每個人都曾經犯錯
The human species, in general, is fallible -- okay fine.
人類本來就會犯錯 - 沒問題
But when it comes down to me right now, to all the beliefs I hold, here in the present tense, suddenly all of this abstract appreciation of fallibility goes out the window -- and I can't actually think of anything I'm wrong about.
一旦這個想法臨到我們自身 我們現在所有的 所有的信念 對人類可能犯錯的抽象概念隨即被我們拋棄 我無法想到我有哪里出錯
And the thing is, the present tense is where we live.
但是，我們活在現在
We go to meetings in the present tense; we go on family vacations in the present tense; we go to the polls and vote in the present tense.
我們開會，去家庭旅游 去投票 全都是現在式
So effectively, we all kind of wind up traveling through life, trapped in this little bubble of feeling very right about everything.
我們就像現在一個小泡泡里 經歷人生 感覺自己總是對的
I think this is a problem.
我認為這是個問題
I think it's a problem for each of us as individuals, in our personal and professional lives, and I think it's a problem for all of us collectively as a culture.
我認為這是每個人私人生活 和職業生活中的問題 我認為我們身為群體，這也造成了文化問題
So what I want to do today is, first of all, talk about why we get stuck inside this feeling of being right.
于是，我今天想做的是 先談談為甚么我們會 陷在這種自以為是的心態中
And second, why it's such a problem.
第二是為甚么這是個問題
And finally, I want to convince you that it is possible to step outside of that feeling, and that, if you can do so, it is the single greatest
最后我想說服大家 克服這種感覺 是可能的 而且一旦你做到了 這將成為你道德上
moral, intellectual and creative leap you can make.
智性上和創意上最大的進步
So why do we get stuck in this feeling of being right?
為甚么我們會陷在 這種自以為是的心態中?
One reason actually has to do with a feeling of being wrong.
事實上這和犯錯的感覺有關
So let me ask you guys something -- or actually, let me ask you guys something, because you're right here: How does it feel -- emotionally --
我想問問你們 讓我問問臺上的你們 當你意識到自己犯錯了
how does it feel to be wrong?
你感覺如何?
Dreadful. Thumbs down.
糟透了。很差勁。
Embarrassing. Okay, wonderful, good.
難堪。很好，是的。
Dreadful, thumbs down, embarrassing -- thank you, these are great answers, but they're answers to a different question.
很糟糕，很差勁，很難堪。 謝謝你們提供這些答案 但這些答案沒有回答我的問題
You guys are answering the question: How does it feel to realize you're wrong?
你們回答的問題是： 當你意識到你犯錯的時候，你的感覺如何?
(Laughter) Realizing you're wrong can feel like all of that and a lot of other things, right?
(笑聲) 意識到你犯錯了就會有剛剛所說的這些感覺，不是嗎?
I mean it can be devastating, it can be revelatory, it can actually be quite funny, like my stupid Chinese character mistake.
令人沮喪，暴露了一些真實 有時候甚至有些好笑 像我誤以為路牌是中文字
But just being wrong doesn't feel like anything.
但犯錯本身 事實上毫無感覺
I'll give you an analogy.
讓我給你一個例子
Do you remember that Loony Tunes cartoon where there's this pathetic coyote who's always chasing and never catching a roadrunner?
你記得卡通里 那個總是在追逐 卻從未抓到獵物的土狼嗎?
In pretty much every episode of this cartoon, there's a moment where the coyote is chasing the roadrunner and the roadrunner runs off a cliff,
幾乎在每一集里 牠的獵物 - 一只走鵑鳥 都會跳下懸崖
which is fine, he's a bird, he can fly.
反正牠是鳥，牠可以飛
But the thing is, the coyote runs off the cliff right after him.
但土狼也會跟著牠一起跳崖
And what's funny -- at least if you're six years old -- is that the coyote's totally fine too.
那很好笑 如果你是個六歲兒童 土狼也很好
He just keeps running -- right up until the moment that he looks down and realizes that he's in mid-air.
牠就這么繼續跑 直到牠往下看 發現自己漫步在空中
That's when he falls.
這時候他才會往下掉
When we're wrong about something -- not when we realize it, but before that -- we're like that coyote after he's gone off the cliff and before he looks down.
在我們犯錯時 在我們意識到我們犯錯時 我們就像那只土狼 還沒意識到自己奔出懸崖
You know, we're already wrong, we're already in trouble, but we feel like we're on solid ground.
我們已經錯了 已經惹上麻煩了 但仍然感覺像走在地上
So I should actually correct something I said a moment ago.
我應該改變我之前的說法
It does feel like something to be wrong; it feels like being right.
犯錯的感覺就和 正確的感覺一樣
(Laughter) So this is one reason, a structural reason, why we get stuck inside this feeling of rightness.
(笑聲) 事實上我們這種自以為對的感受 是有構造性的原因的
I call this error blindness.
我稱之為錯誤盲點
Most of the time, we don't have any kind of internal cue to let us know that we're wrong about something, until it's too late.
大部份的時間里 我們身體里沒有任何機制 提醒我們錯了 直到木已成舟
But there's a second reason that we get stuck inside this feeling as well -- and this one is cultural.
但還有第二個理由 文化性的理由
Think back for a moment to elementary school.
回想小學時代
You're sitting there in class, and your teacher is handing back quiz papers, and one of them looks like this.
你坐在課堂里 你的老師發回小考考卷 像這樣的小考考卷
This is not mine, by the way.
雖然這張不是我的
(Laughter) So there you are in grade school, and you know exactly what to think about the kid who got this paper.
(笑聲) 你從小學時代 就知道該對拿這張考卷的同學 下甚么評語
It's the dumb kid, the troublemaker, the one who never does his homework.
笨蛋，搗蛋鬼 從不做功課的壞學生
So by the time you are nine years old, you've already learned, first of all, that people who get stuff wrong are lazy, irresponsible dimwits --
你不過才九歲 你已經懂得，首先 那些犯錯的人 都是懶惰、不負責任的傻瓜
and second of all, that the way to succeed in life is to never make any mistakes.
第二 想要在人生中成功 就不要犯錯
We learn these really bad lessons really well.
我們很早就得到這些錯誤訊息
And a lot of us -- and I suspect, especially a lot of us in this room -- deal with them by just becoming perfect little A students,
而我們 尤其是這個大廳里的許多人 都因此成為好學生 拿全A
perfectionists, over-achievers.
完美主義、永不滿意
Right, Mr. CFO, astrophysicist, ultra-marathoner?
不是嗎? 財務長、天體物理學家、超級馬拉松先生們?
(Laughter) You're all CFO, astrophysicists, ultra-marathoners, it turns out.
(笑聲) 結果是你們全成了財務長、天體物理學家、跑超級馬拉松
Okay, so fine.
那很好
Except that then we freak out at the possibility that we've gotten something wrong.
但一旦我們發現有可能犯錯 就開始手足無措
Because according to this, getting something wrong means there's something wrong with us.
因為依照規定 犯錯 代表我們一定也有甚么不對勁
So we just insist that we're right, because it makes us feel smart and responsible and virtuous and safe.
于是我們堅持己見 因為那讓我們感覺聰明、得體 安全和可靠
So let me tell you a story.
讓我告訴你們一個故事
A couple of years ago, a woman comes into Beth Israel Deaconess medical center for a surgery.
幾年前 一個女人到 Beth Israel Deaconess 診所做手術
Beth Israel's in Boston.
Beth Israel 在波士頓
It's the teaching hospital for Harvard -- one of the best hospitals in the country.
是哈佛大學的教學附屬醫院 全國數一數二的醫療中心
So this woman comes in and she's taken into the operating room.
這個女人被送進開刀房
She's anesthetized, the surgeon does his thing -- stitches her back up, sends her out to the recovery room.
麻醉，外科醫生做完手術 縫合，將她送進恢復室
Everything seems to have gone fine.
一切看上去都很好
And she wakes up, and she looks down at herself, and she says, "Why is the wrong side of my body in bandages?"
她醒來，往自己身上一看 說“為甚么我的左腿綁著繃帶?”
Well the wrong side of her body is in bandages because the surgeon has performed a major operation on her left leg instead of her right one.
她應該接受治療的是右腿 但為他做手術的外科醫生 卻把刀開在左腿
When the vice president for health care quality at Beth Israel spoke about this incident, he said something very interesting.
當副院長出來為醫院的醫療質量 和這次意外做出解釋時 他說了句很有趣的話
He said, "For whatever reason, the surgeon simply felt that he was on the correct side of the patient."
他說“無論如何 這位外科醫生感覺 他開下的刀是在正確的一側”
(Laughter) The point of this story is that trusting too much in the feeling of being on the correct side of anything can be very dangerous.
(笑聲) 故事的重點是 相信自己的判斷力 相信自己站在對的一邊 是非常危險的
This internal sense of rightness that we all experience so often is not a reliable guide to what is actually going on in the external world.
我們心中時常感覺到的 理直氣壯的感覺 在真實世界中 并不是個可靠的向導。
And when we act like it is, and we stop entertaining the possibility that we could be wrong, well that's when we end up doing things
當我們依此行事 不再思考我們是否犯錯 我們就有可能
88.like dumping 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, or torpedoing the global economy.
把兩百灣加侖的石油倒進墨西哥灣 或是顛覆世界經濟
So this is a huge practical problem.
這是個很實際的問題
But it's also a huge social problem.
這也是個很大的社會問題
Think for a moment about what it means to feel right.
“感覺對”究竟是什么意思
It means that you think that your beliefs just perfectly reflect reality.
這代表著你認為你的信念 和真實是一致的
And when you feel that way, you've got a problem to solve, which is, how are you going to explain all of those people who disagree with you?
當你有這種感覺的時候 你的問題就大了 因為如果你是對的 為甚么還有人和你持不同意見?
It turns out, most of us explain those people the same way, by resorting to a series of unfortunate assumptions.
于是我們往往用同一種 思考方式去解釋這些異議
The first thing we usually do when someone disagrees with us is we just assume they're ignorant.
第一是當他人不同意我們的說法 我們便覺得他們無知
They don't have access to the same information that we do, and when we generously share that information with them, they're going to see the light and come on over to our team.
他們不像我們懂得這么多 當我們慷慨地和他們分享我們的知識 他們便會理解，并加入我們的行列
When that doesn't work, when it turns out those people have all the same facts that we do and they still disagree with us, then we move on to a second assumption,
如果不是這樣 如果這些人和我們獲得的信息一樣多 卻仍然不認同我們 我們便有了下一個定論
which is that they're idiots.
那就是他們是白癡
(Laughter) They have all the right pieces of the puzzle, and they are too moronic to put them together correctly.
(笑聲) 他們已經有了所有的信息 卻笨到無法拼湊出正確的圖像
And when that doesn't work, when it turns out that people who disagree with us have all the same facts we do and are actually pretty smart,
一旦第二個定論也不成立 當這些反對我們的人 和我們有一樣的信息 又聰明
then we move on to a third assumption: they know the truth, and they are deliberately distorting it for their own malevolent purposes.
我們便有了第三個結論 他們知道事實是甚么 但卻為了自己的好處 故意曲解真實。
So this is a catastrophe.
這真是個大災難
This attachment to our own rightness keeps us from preventing mistakes when we absolutely need to and causes us to treat each other terribly.
我們的自以為是 讓我們在最需要的時候 無法預防犯錯 更讓我們互相仇視
104.But to me, what's most baffling and most tragic about this is that it misses the whole point of being human.
對我來說 最大的悲劇是 它讓我們錯失了身為人的珍貴意義
It's like we want to imagine that our minds are just these perfectly translucent windows and we just gaze out of them and describe the world as it unfolds.
那就像是想象 我們的心靈之窗完全透明 我們向外觀看 描述在我們之前展開的世界
And we want everybody else to gaze out of the same window and see the exact same thing.
我們想要每個人和我們有一樣的窗子 對世界做出一樣的觀察
That is not true, and if it were, life would be incredibly boring.
那不是真的 如果是，人生將會多么無聊
The miracle of your mind isn't that you can see the world as it is.
心靈的神奇之處 不在你懂得這個世界是甚么樣子
It's that you can see the world as it isn't.
而是去理解那些你不懂的地方
We can remember the past, and we can think about the future, and we can imagine what it's like to be some other person in some other place.
我們記得過去 思考未來 我們想象 自己成為他人，在他方
And we all do this a little differently, which is why we can all look up at the same night sky and see this and also this and also this.
我們的想象都有些不同 于是當我們抬頭看同一個夜空 我們看到這個 這個 和這個
And yeah, it is also why we get things wrong.
這也是我們搞錯事情的原因
1,200 years before Descartes said his famous thing about "I think therefore I am,"
在笛卡兒說出那句有名的”我思故我在“ 的一千兩百年前
this guy, St. Augustine, sat down and wrote "Fallor ergo sum" -- "I err therefore I am."
圣奧古斯丁，坐下來 寫下"Fallor ergo sum" "我錯故我在"
Augustine understood that our capacity to screw up, it's not some kind of embarrassing defect in the human system, something we can eradicate or overcome.
奧古斯丁懂得 我們犯錯的能力 這并不是人性中 一個令人難堪的缺陷 不是我們可以克服或消滅的
It's totally fundamental to who we are.
這是我們的本質
Because, unlike God, we don't really know what's going on out there.
因為我們不是上帝 我們不知道我們之外究竟發生了甚么
And unlike all of the other animals, we are obsessed with trying to figure it out.
而不同于其它動物的是 我們都瘋狂地想找出解答
To me, this obsession is the source and root of all of our productivity and creativity.
對我來說 這種尋找的沖動 就是我們生產力和創造力的來源
Last year, for various reasons, I found myself listening to a lot of episodes of the Public Radio show This American Life.
因為一些緣故 去年我在廣播上 聽了很多集的"我們的美國人生"
And so I'm listening and I'm listening, and at some point, I start feeling like all the stories are about being wrong.
我聽著聽著 突然發現 這些故事全和犯錯有關
And my first thought was, "I've lost it.
我的第一個念頭是 “我完了
I've become the crazy wrongness lady.
我寫書寫瘋了
I just imagined it everywhere,"
四處都看到有關犯錯的幻覺”
which has happened.
說真的是這樣
But a couple of months later, I actually had a chance to interview Ira Glass, who's the host of the show.
但幾個月后 我訪問了那個廣播節目的主持人 Ira Glass
And I mentioned this to him, and he was like, "No actually, that's true.
我向他提到這件事 他回答我“事實上
In fact," he says, "as a staff, we joke that every single episode of our show has the same crypto-theme.
你是對的”他說 “我們這些工作人員總是 開玩笑說每集節目之中的 秘密主題都是一樣的
And the crypto-theme is: 'I thought this one thing was going to happen and something else happened instead.' And thing is," says Ira Glass, "we need this.
這個秘密主題就是 "我以為這件事會這樣發生 結果其它事情發生了" 他說"但是，這就是我們需要的
We need these moments of surprise and reversal and wrongness to make these stories work."
我們需要這些意外 這些顛倒和錯誤 這些故事才能成立。"
And for the rest of us, audience members, as listeners, as readers, we eat this stuff up.
而我們身為觀眾 聽眾、讀者 我們吸收這些故事
We love things like plot twists and red herrings and surprise endings.
我們喜歡故事轉折 令人驚訝的結局
When it comes to our stories, we love being wrong.
我們喜歡在故事里 看到犯錯
But, you know, our stories are like this because our lives are like this.
但，故事會這樣寫 是因為人生就是這樣
We think this one thing is going to happen and something else happens instead.
我們以為某些事情會這樣發生 發生的卻是其它事
George Bush thought he was going to invade Iraq, find a bunch of weapons of mass destruction, liberate the people and bring democracy to the Middle East.
小布什以為他入侵伊拉克 會找到大規模毀滅性武器 解放中東百姓，為他們帶來民主自由
And something else happened instead.
但卻不是這樣
And Hosni Mubarak thought he was going to be dictator of Egypt for the rest of his life, until he got too old or too sick and could pass the reigns of power onto his son.
穆巴拉克以為 他到死都會是埃及的獨裁者 一直到他年老或臥病 再把他的權力交給下一代
And something else happened instead.
但卻不是這樣
And maybe you thought you were going to grow up and marry your high school sweetheart and move back to your home town and raise a bunch of kids together.
或許你想過 你會長大、嫁給你的初戀情人 搬回老家，生一群孩子
And something else happened instead.
但卻不是這樣
And I have to tell you that I thought I was writing an incredibly nerdy book about a subject everybody hates for an audience that would never materialize.
我必須說 我以為我寫的是一本很冷僻的書 有關一個人人討厭的主題 為一些從不存在的讀者
And something else happened instead.
但卻不是這樣
(Laughter) I mean, this is life.
(笑聲) 我們的人生
For good and for ill, we generate these incredible stories about the world around us, and then the world turns around and astonishes us.
無論好壞 我們創造了啦 那包圍我們的世界 而世界轉過頭來，令我們大吃一驚
No offense, but this entire conference is an unbelievable monument to our capacity to get stuff wrong.
說真的，這整個會議 充斥著這樣難以置信的時刻 我們一次又一次地意識到自己的錯誤
We just spent and entire week talking about innovations and advancements and improvements, but you know why we need all of those innovations
我們花了整整一周 討論創新，進步 和改善 你知道我們為甚么需要這些創新
and advancements and improvements?
進步和改善嗎?
Because half the stuff that's the most mind-boggling and world altering -- TED 1998 -- eh.
因為其中有一半 來自最應該改變世界的 98年的TED 呃
(Laughter) Didn't really work out that way, did it.
(笑聲) 真是出人意料之外啊，不是嗎
(Laughter) Where's my jet pack, Chris?
(笑聲) 我的逃生火箭在哪，Chris?
(Laughter) (Applause) So here we are again.
(笑聲) (掌聲) 于是我們又在這里
And that's how it goes.
事情就是這樣
We come up with another idea.
我們重新想出其它點子
We tell another story.
我們有了新的故事
We hold another conference.
我們開了另一個會議
The theme of this one, as you guys have now heard seven million times, is the rediscovery of wonder.
這次的主題是 如果你還沒有聽到耳朵出油的話 是重新找到想象的力量
And to me, if you really want to rediscover wonder, you need to step outside of that tiny, terrified space of rightness and look around at each other
對我來說 如果你真的想重新找到想象的力量 你需要離開 那個小小的、自我感覺良好的小圈圈 看看彼此
and look out at the vastness and complexity and mystery of the universe and be able to say, "Wow, I don't know.
看看宇宙的 廣大無垠 復雜神秘 然后真正地說 “哇，我不知道
Maybe I'm wrong."
或許我錯了。”
Thank you.
謝謝各位
(Applause) Thank you guys.
(掌聲) 謝謝