Just over a year ago,
就在一年前
for the third time in my life, I ceased to exist.
这辈子第三次 我不复存在
I was having a small operation, and my brain was filling with anesthetic.
当时我正在做一个小手术 我的大脑打了麻醉
I remember a sense of detachment and falling apart
我记得一种分崩离析的感觉
and a coldness.
然后一阵寒冷
And then I was back, drowsy and disoriented,
然后我回来了 昏昏沉沉 晕头转向
but definitely there.
但确实在那里
Now, when you wake from a deep sleep,
现在 当你从沉睡中醒来
you might feel confused about the time or anxious about oversleeping,
你可能对时间感到困惑 或对睡过头感到焦虑
but there’s always a basic sense of time having passed,
总有一种时间流失的感觉
of a continuity between then and now.
过去和现在之间的连续性
Coming round from anesthesia is very different.
从麻醉中苏醒过来是很不一样的
I could have been under for five minutes, five hours,
我可能会躺五分钟 五小时
five years or even 50 years.
五年 甚至五十年
I simply wasn’t there.
我简直不在那里了
It was total oblivion.
这完全是昏迷
Anesthesia — it’s a modern kind of magic.
麻醉 是一种现代魔法
It turns people into objects,
它把人变成物体
and then, we hope, back again into people.
然后 我们希望 再变回人
And in this process
这个过程
is one of the greatest remaining mysteries in science and philosophy.
是科学和哲学中最大的未解之谜之一
How does consciousness happen?
意识是如何发生的
Somehow, within each of our brains,
不知为何 在我们每个人的大脑中
the combined activity of many billions of neurons,
数十亿神经元的联合活动
each one a tiny biological machine,
每一个微小的生物机器
is generating a conscious experience.
正在产生一种意识体验
And not just any conscious experience —
而不仅仅是任何有意识的体验
your conscious experience right here and right now.
是你此时此刻的意识体验
How does this happen?
它是如何发生的
Answering this question is so important
回答这个问题十分重要
because consciousness for each of us is all there is.
因为对我们每个人来说 意识就是一切
Without it there’s no world,
没有它就没有世界
there’s no self,
没有自我
there’s nothing at all.
没有任何东西
And when we suffer, we suffer consciously
我们感受到痛苦时是有意识地
whether it’s through mental illness or pain.
无论精神疾病还是肉体疼痛导致的
And if we can experience joy and suffering,
若我们能经历快乐与痛苦
what about other animals?
那其他动物呢
Might they be conscious, too?
它们可能也有意识吗
Do they also have a sense of self?
它们也有自我意识吗
And as computers get faster and smarter,
随着计算机变得更快更智能
maybe there will come a point, maybe not too far away,
也许会有那么一天 也许不会太远
when my iPhone develops a sense of its own existence.
当我的苹果手机有了自己的存在感时
I actually think the prospects for a conscious AI are pretty remote.
事实上我认为有意识的人工智能的前景非常遥远
And I think this because my research is telling me
我想这是因为我的研究告诉我
that consciousness has less to do with pure intelligence
意识与纯粹的智力关系不大
and more to do with our nature as living and breathing organisms.
更多地与我们作为有生命和呼吸的有机体的天性有关
Consciousness and intelligence are very different things.
意识与智力是截然不同的东西
You don’t have to be smart to suffer, but you probably do have to be alive.
你不一定要聪明才能受苦 但你可能必须活着
In the story I’m going to tell you,
在我接下来要讲的故事中
our conscious experiences of the world around us,
我们对周围世界的意识体验
and of ourselves within it,
以及其中的我们自己
are kinds of controlled hallucinations
是种受控制的幻觉
that happen with, through and because of our living bodies.
这一切都是通过我们活着的身体发生的
Now, you might have heard that we know nothing
现在 你可能听说我们一无所知
about how the brain and body give rise to consciousness.
关于大脑和身体是如何产生意识的
Some people even say it’s beyond the reach of science altogether.
有些人甚至说这完全超出科学所达范畴
But in fact,
但事实上
the last 25 years have seen an explosion of scientific work in this area.
在过去的25年里 这一领域的科学工作出现了爆炸式的增长
If you come to my lab at the University of Sussex,
如果你来我在苏塞克斯大学的实验室
you’ll find scientists from all different disciplines
你会发现来自各个学科的科学家
and sometimes even philosophers.
有时甚至有哲学家
All of us together trying to understand how consciousness happens
我们所有人一起试图理解意识是如何发生的
and what happens when it goes wrong.
以及当它出错时会发生什么
And the strategy is very simple.
这个策略非常简单
I’d like you to think about consciousness
我想让你们思考一下意识
in the way that we’ve come to think about life.
就像我们思考生活的方式一样
At one time, people thought the property of being alive
曾几何时 人们认为活着的性质
could not be explained by physics and chemistry —
不能用物理和化学来解释
that life had to be more than just mechanism.
生命不仅仅是机械
But people no longer think that.
但人们不再这么想了
As biologists got on with the job
当生物学家们进行工作
of explaining the properties of living systems
解释生命系统的特性
in terms of physics and chemistry —
依据物理与化学
things like metabolism, reproduction, homeostasis —
比如新陈代谢 繁殖 体内平衡
the basic mystery of what life is started to fade away,
生命开始消失的基本奥秘
and people didn’t propose any more magical solutions,
人们没有提出任何更神奇的解决方案
like a force of life or an élan vital.
像生命的力量或生命冲动
So as with life, so with consciousness.
正如生命一样 意识亦如此
Once we start explaining its properties
一旦我们开始解释其特性
in terms of things happening inside brains and bodies,
就大脑和身体内部发生的事情而言
the apparently insoluble mystery of what consciousness is
意识是什么这一显然无法解答的谜
should start to fade away.
应该开始消失
At least that’s the plan.
至少计划是这样的
So let’s get started.
让我们开始吧
What are the properties of consciousness?
意识的性质是什么
What should a science of consciousness try to explain?
意识科学应该试图解释什么
Well, for today I’d just like to think of consciousness in two different ways.
今天我想从两种不同的角度来思考意识
There are experiences of the world around us,
我们周围的世界有各种体验
full of sights, sounds and smells,
充满了视觉 声音和气味
there’s multisensory, panoramic, 3D, fully immersive inner movie.
有多感官 全景 3D 完全沉浸式的内部电影
And then there’s conscious self.
然后是有意识的自我
The specific experience of being you or being me.
作为你或作为我的具体经历
The lead character in this inner movie,
这部内心电影的主角
and probably the aspect of consciousness we all cling to most tightly.
也可能是我们都紧紧抓住的意识方面
Let’s start with experiences of the world around us,
让我们从我们周围世界的体验开始
and with the important idea of the brain as a prediction engine.
并以大脑作为预测引擎的重要思想
Imagine being a brain.
想象你是大脑
You’re locked inside a bony skull,
你被头骨锁住
trying to figure what’s out there in the world.
想弄清楚外面的世界
There’s no lights inside the skull. There’s no sound either.
头骨里没有光 也没有声音
All you’ve got to go on is streams of electrical impulses
你所需要的只是电脉冲流
which are only indirectly related to things in the world,
它们只与世界上的事物间接相关
whatever they may be.
不管它们是什么
So perception — figuring out what’s there —
所以感知 弄清楚那里有什么
has to be a process of informed guesswork
必须是一个知情猜测的过程
in which the brain combines these sensory signals
大脑将这些感觉信号结合起来
with its prior expectations or beliefs about the way the world is
与其对世界的预期或信念
to form its best guess of what caused those signals.
来猜测是什么引起了这些信号
The brain doesn’t hear sound or see light.
大脑听不到声音也看不到光
What we perceive is its best guess of what’s out there in the world.
我们所感知的是它对这个世界的最佳猜测
Let me give you a couple of examples of all this.
让我给你们举几个例子
You might have seen this illusion before,
你以前可能见过这种错觉
but I’d like you to think about it in a new way.
但我希望你能从一个新的角度来思考它
If you look at those two patches, A and B,
如果你看这两个补丁 A和B
they should look to you to be very different shades of gray, right?
它们在你看来应该是非常不同的灰色阴影 对吧
But they are in fact exactly the same shade.
但它们实际上是完全相同的阴影
And I can illustrate this.
我可以说明这一点
If I put up a second version of the image here
如果我在这里放第二个版本的图像
and join the two patches with a gray-colored bar,
用一条灰色的条形线把两个补丁连接起来
you can see there’s no difference.
你可以看到没有区别
It’s exactly the same shade of gray.
它是完全相同的灰色阴影
And if you still don’t believe me,
如果你还是不相信我
I’ll bring the bar across and join them up.
我把这个条形线带过去 把它们连起来
It’s a single colored block of gray, there’s no difference at all.
它是一个单一颜色的灰色块 没有什么区别
This isn’t any kind of magic trick.
这不是什么魔术
It’s the same shade of gray,
都是一样的灰色
but take it away again, and it looks different.
但再把它拿走 它看起来就不一样了
So what’s happening here
那么这里发生了什么
is that the brain is using its prior expectations
是大脑在使用它的预先预期吗
built deeply into the circuits of the visual cortex
深入到视觉皮层的回路中
that a cast shadow dims the appearance of a surface,
投下的阴影使表面暗淡
so that we see B as lighter than it really is.
所以我们看B比实际亮
Here’s one more example,
这里还有一个例子
which shows just how quickly the brain can use new predictions
表明了大脑使用新预测的速度有多快
to change what we consciously experience.
来改变我们有意识的体验
Have a listen to this.
来听听这个
(Distorted voice)
（扭曲的声音）
Sounded strange, right?
听起来奇怪 对吧
Have a listen again and see if you can get anything.
再听一遍 看是否能听出些什么
(Distorted voice)
（扭曲的声音）
Still strange.
还是奇怪
Now listen to this.
现在听听这个
(Recording) Anil Seth: I think Brexit is a really terrible idea.
(录音)Anil Seth:我认为脱欧是非常糟糕的主意
(Laughter)
（笑声）
Which I do.
这是我的声音
So you heard some words there, right?
你们听到了一些词 是吧
Now listen to the first sound again. I’m just going to replay it.
现在再第一遍的声音 我现在重放一遍
(Distorted voice)
（扭曲的声音）
Yeah? So you can now hear words there.
是吧 现在你们可以听到这里的单词了
Once more for luck.
再一次碰运气
(Distorted voice)
（扭曲的声音）
OK, so what’s going on here?
好 这是怎么回事
The remarkable thing is the sensory information coming into the brain
值得注意的是感官信息进入大脑
hasn’t changed at all.
根本没有改变
All that’s changed is your brain’s best guess
改变的只是你大脑的猜测
of the causes of that sensory information.
产生感官信息的原因
And that changes what you consciously hear.
这会改变你有意识地听到的内容
All this puts the brain basis of perception
所有这些都是大脑感知的基础
in a bit of a different light.
从另一个角度看
Instead of perception depending largely on signals coming into the brain
而不是主要依赖于进入大脑的信号
from the outside world,
从外面的世界
it depends as much, if not more,
这取决于 如果不是更多
on perceptual predictions flowing in the opposite direction.
在知觉预测的相反方向
We don’t just passively perceive the world,
我们不只是被动地感知世界
we actively generate it.
我们积极地产生它
The world we experience comes as much,
我们感知到的世界
if not more,from the inside out
来自内在的意识
as from the outside in.
并不比外在的输入少
Let me give you one more example of perception
我再举一个关于感知的例子
as this active, constructive process.
作为这个积极的 建设性的过程
Here we’ve combined immersive virtual reality with image processing
在这里 我们将沉浸式虚拟现实与图像处理结合起来
to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions
来模拟过于强烈的感知预测的影响
on experience.
从体验上
In this panoramic video, we’ve transformed the world —
在这段全景视频中 我们改变了世界
which is in this case Sussex campus —
这里是苏塞克斯校区
into a psychedelic playground.
变成一个迷幻的场所
We’ve processed the footage using an algorithm based on Google’s Deep Dream
我们用基于谷歌的深梦的算法处理了这段录像
to simulate the effects of overly strong perceptual predictions.
来模拟过于强烈的感知预测的影响
In this case, to see dogs.
在这个案例中 去观察狗
And you can see this is a very strange thing.
能看出这非常奇怪
When perceptual predictions are too strong,
当感知预测过于强烈
as they are here,
就像它们现在这种
the result looks very much like the kinds of hallucinations
看起来非常像不同形态的幻觉
people might report in altered states,
人们可能以变异的形态出现
or perhaps even in psychosis.
或者可能甚至是精神病
Now, think about this for a minute.
现在 想一会儿
If hallucination is a kind of uncontrolled perception,
如果幻觉是种无法控制的意识
then perception right here and right now is also a kind of hallucination,
意识此时此刻又是一种幻觉
but a controlled hallucination
一种可控的幻觉
in which the brain’s predictions are being reined in
在这个过程中 大脑的预测受到了限制
by sensory information from the world.
通过来自世界的感官信息
In fact, we’re all hallucinating all the time,
事实上 我们一直都在产生幻觉
including right now.
包括现在
It’s just that when we agree about our hallucinations,
只是当我们对幻觉的看法一致时
we call that reality.
我称之为现实
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now I’m going to tell you that your experience of being a self,
现在我来告诉你 你们作为自我的经历
the specific experience of being you,
这种特定属于你自己的体验
is also a controlled hallucination generated by the brain.
也是一种产生于大脑的可控幻觉
This seems a very strange idea, right?
这听起来是一种十分奇怪的想法 对吧
Yes, visual illusions might deceive my eyes,
是的 视觉幻象可能欺骗我们的双眼
but how could I be deceived about what it means to be me?
但我能怎样欺骗成为自我呢
For most of us,
对于我们大多数
the experience of being a person
成为一个人的体验
is so familiar, so unified and so continuous
是如此相似 一致且持续
that it’s difficult not to take it for granted.
很难不认为这是理所当然的
But we shouldn’t take it for granted.
但我们不应该认为这是理所当然的
There are in fact many different ways we experience being a self.
事实上 我们经历自我的方式有很多种
There’s the experience of having a body
一种是拥有肉体的体验
and of being a body.
成为肉体
There are experiences of perceiving the world
一种是感知世界的体验
from a first person point of view.
从第一人称的角度来看
There are experiences of intending to do things
一种是打算做某事的体验
and of being the cause of things that happen in the world.
也是世界上发生的事情的原因
And there are experiences
还有一些体验
of being a continuous and distinctive person over time,
成为一个持续且独特的人
built from a rich set of memories and social interactions.
用一套丰富的回忆和社交活动建立
Many experiments show,
大量实验表明
and psychiatrists and neurologists know very well,
精神病学家和神经学家非常清楚
that these different ways in which we experience being a self
这些我们体验自我的不同方式
can all come apart.
都可以瓦解
What this means is the basic background experience
意味着基本的背景体验
of being a unified self is a rather fragile construction of the brain.
成为统一是大脑的一个相当脆弱的构造
Another experience, which just like all others,
另一种体验 和其他体验一样
requires explanation.
需要解释
So let’s return to the bodily self.
让我们回到肉体自我
How does the brain generate the experience of being a body
大脑怎样产生身体的体验
and of having a body?
并拥有身体
Well, just the same principles apply.
运用的同样原理
The brain makes its best guess
大脑做出最好的猜测
about what is and what is not part of its body.
关于什么是和什么不是它身体的一部分
And there’s a beautiful experiment in neuroscience to illustrate this.
神经科学中有一个很好的实验可以证明这一点
And unlike most neuroscience experiments,
不像大多数神经系统科学实验
this is one you can do at home.
这个可以在家做
All you need is one of these.
你只需要这个
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And a couple of paintbrushes.
和一对画笔
In the rubber hand illusion,
在这个橡胶手幻觉中
a person’s real hand is hidden from view,
人的真手隐藏在视线之外
and that fake rubber hand is placed in front of them.
而假橡胶手放在他们的面前
Then both hands are simultaneously stroked with a paintbrush
然后两只手同时被刷子扫过
while the person stares at the fake hand.
同时这个人盯着假手
Now, for most people, after a while,
现在 对大多数人来说 一段时间后
this leads to the very uncanny sensation
这导致非常离奇的感知
that the fake hand is in fact part of their body.
假手是身体的一部分
And the idea is that the congruence between seeing touch and feeling touch
视觉触摸和感受触摸之间的一致性
on an object that looks like hand and is roughly where a hand should be,
在一个看起来像手的物体上 并且大概是手的位置
is enough evidence for the brain to make its best guess
有足够的证据让大脑做出最好的猜测
that the fake hand is in fact part of the body.
假手是身体的一部分
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So you can measure all kinds of clever things.
所以你可以测量各种聪明的东西
You can measure skin conductance and startle responses,
你可以测量皮肤电导和惊吓反应
but there’s no need.
但没必要
It’s clear the guy in blue has assimilated the fake hand.
很明显那个穿蓝衣的家伙已经与假手同化
This means that even experiences of what our body is
这意味着即使我们身体是什么
is a kind of best guessing —
是一种最佳猜测
a kind of controlled hallucination by the brain.
一种由大脑控制的幻觉
There’s one more thing.
还有一件事
We don’t just experience our bodies as objects in the world from the outside,
我们不仅仅把我们的身体作为外部世界的物体来体验
we also experience them from within.
我们也从内部体验它们
We all experience the sense of being a body from the inside.
我们都从内部体验身体的感觉
And sensory signals coming from the inside of the body
以及来自身体内部的感觉信号
are continually telling the brain about the state of the internal organs,
不断地告诉大脑内部器官的状态
how the heart is doing, what the blood pressure is like,
心脏怎么样 血压怎么样
lots of things.
很多这样的事情
This kind of perception, which we call interoception,
这种感知 我们称之为内感觉
is rather overlooked.
被忽视了
But it’s critically important
但这是至关重要的
because perception and regulation of the internal state of the body —
因为对身体内部状态的感知和调节
well, that’s what keeps us alive.
这就是我们活着的原因
Here’s another version of the rubber hand illusion.
这是另一个版本的橡胶手错觉
This is from our lab at Sussex.
这是我们在苏塞克斯的实验室
And here, people see a virtual reality version of their hand,
在这里 人们看到他们的手的虚拟现实版本
which flashes red and black
闪烁着红色和黑色
either in time or out of time with their heartbeat.
随着他们的心跳同步或不同步
And when it’s flashing in time with their heartbeat,
当它与他们的心跳同步闪烁时
people have a stronger sense that it’s in fact part of their body.
人们有一种强烈的感觉 那就是它实际身体的一部分
So experiences of having a body are deeply grounded
所以拥有肉体的体验是根深蒂固的
in perceiving our bodies from within.
从内部感知我们的身体
There’s one last thing I want to draw your attention to,
还有最后一件事我想提请你们注意
which is that experiences of the body from the inside are very different
从内部对身体的体验是非常不同的
from experiences of the world around us.
从我们周围世界的体验中
When I look around me, the world seems full of objects —
当我环顾四周 世界似乎充满了物体
tables, chairs, rubber hands,
桌子 椅子 橡胶手
people, you lot —
很多人
even my own body in the world,
甚至是我自己的身体
I can perceive it as an object from the outside.
我可以从外部感知到它是一个物体
But my experiences of the body from within,
而对我身体内部的体验
they’re not like that at all.
他们根本不是那样的
I don’t perceive my kidneys here,
我感觉不到我的肾在这里
my liver here,
我的肝
my spleen …
我的脾脏
I don’t know where my spleen is,
我不知道脾脏在哪
but it’s somewhere.
但在某处
I don’t perceive my insides as objects.
我不把我的内脏当成物体
In fact, I don’t experience them much at all unless they go wrong.
事实上 除非它们出了问题 否则我根本没怎么体验过它们
And this is important, I think.
我认为这很重要
Perception of the internal state of the body
对身体内部状态的感知
isn’t about figuring out what’s there,
不是搞清楚那里有什么
it’s about control and regulation —
这是关于控制和管理
keeping the physiological variables within the tight bounds
把生理变量控制在严格的范围内
that are compatible with survival.
与生存相适应
When the brain uses predictions to figure out what’s there,
当大脑通过预测来弄清楚那里有什么时
we perceive objects as the causes of sensations.
我们视物体为感觉的起因
When the brain uses predictions to control and regulate things,
当大脑利用预测来控制和调节事物时
we experience how well or how badly that control is going.
我们可以体验控制进行的好坏
So our most basic experiences of being a self,
所以我们作为自我的最基本体验
of being an embodied organism,
作为一个具身的有机体
are deeply grounded in the biological mechanisms that keep us alive.
都深深植根于维持我们生存的生物机制中
And when we follow this idea all the way through,
当我们一直遵循这个想法时
we can start to see that all of our conscious experiences,
我们可以开始看到 我们所有的意识体验
since they all depend on the same mechanisms of predictive perception,
因为它们都依赖于相同的预测感知机制
all stem from this basic drive to stay alive.
这一切都源于求生的基本欲望
We experience the world and ourselves
我们体验世界和自我
with through and because of our living bodies.
因为我们活着的身体 来体验
Let me bring things together step-by-step.
让我一步一步地整理好
What we consciously see depends
我们有意识地看到什么取决于
on the brain’s best guess of what’s out there.
大脑对外面情况的最佳猜测
Our experienced world comes from the inside out,
我们的体验世界来自于由内而外
not just the outside in.
不只是从外到内
The rubber hand illusion shows that this applies to our experiences
橡胶手错觉表明这适用于我们的体验
of what is and what is not our body.
什么是我们的身体 什么不是我们的身体
And these self-related predictions depend critically on sensory signals
这些自我相关的预测很大程度上取决于感官信号
coming from deep inside the body.
来自身体深处
And finally,
最终
experiences of being an embodied self are more about control and regulation
成为具体化自我的体验更多的是关于控制和调节
than figuring out what’s there.
而不是弄清楚那里有什么
So our experiences of the world around us and ourselves within it —
所以我们对周围世界和我们自身的体验
well, they’re kinds of controlled hallucinations
它们是一种受控制的幻觉
that have been shaped over millions of years of evolution
它们是经过数百万年的进化形成的
to keep us alive in worlds full of danger and opportunity.
让我们在充满危险和机遇的世界中生存
We predict ourselves into existence.
我们预测自己的存在
Now, I leave you with three implications of all this.
现在 我给你们留下这一切的三个含义
First, just as we can misperceive the world,
首先 就像我们会误解世界一样
we can misperceive ourselves
我们可能会误解自己
when the mechanisms of prediction go wrong.
当预测机制出错时
Understanding this opens many new opportunities in psychiatry and neurology,
理解这一点 为精神病学和神经病学带来了许多新的机遇
because we can finally get at the mechanisms
因为我们终于能在构造中得到
rather than just treating the symptoms
而不仅仅是治疗症状
in conditions like depression and schizophrenia.
比如抑郁症和精神分裂症
Second:
第二
what it means to be me cannot be reduced to or uploaded to
这意味着我不能被简化或上传
a software program running on a robot,
一个在机器人上运行的软件程序
however smart or sophisticated.
无论多么聪明或复杂
We are biological, flesh-and-blood animals
我们是有血有肉的生物
whose conscious experiences are shaped at all levels
意识体验被塑造在各个层面
by the biological mechanisms that keep us alive.
通过维持我们生存的生物机制
Just making computers smarter is not going to make them sentient.
仅仅让电脑更智能并不能让它们有感知能力
Finally,
最后
our own individual inner universe,
我们自己的内心世界
our way of being conscious,
我们有意识的方式
is just one possible way of being conscious.
只是有意识的一种可能方式
And even human consciousness generally —
甚至是人类的意识
it’s just a tiny region in a vast space of possible consciousnesses.
它只是一个巨大的可能意识空间中的小区域
Our individual self and worlds are unique to each of us,
我们每个人的自我和世界都是独一无二的
but they’re all grounded in biological mechanisms
但它们都是基于生物机制
shared with many other living creatures.
与许多其他生物共享
Now, these are fundamental changes
这些都是根本性的改变
in how we understand ourselves,
关于我们如何理解自己
but I think they should be celebrated,
但我认为他们应该被庆祝
because as so often in science, from Copernicus —
因为在科学中 源于哥白尼
we’re not at the center of the universe —
我们不是在宇宙的中心
to Darwin —
对于达尔文
we’re related to all other creatures —
我们和所有其他生物都有关系
to the present day.
到目前
With a greater sense of understanding
有更强的理解力
comes a greater sense of wonder,
产生更大的奇迹
and a greater realization
和更大的觉悟
that we are part of and not apart from the rest of nature.
我们是自然的一部分 而不是与自然的其他部分分离
And …
然后
when the end of consciousness comes,
当意识终结的时候
there’s nothing to be afraid of.
没什么好害怕的
Nothing at all.
什么都没有
Thank you.
谢谢
(Applause)
(掌声)