TED演講:大腦是如何做出道德判斷?

TED演講:大腦是如何做出道德判斷?

Today I‘m going to talk to you about the problem of other minds。 And the problem I’m going to talk about is not the familiar one from philosophy, which is, “How can we know whether other people have minds?” That is, maybe you have a mind, and everyone else is just a really convincing robot。 So that‘s a problem in philosophy, but for today’s purposes I‘m going to assume that many people in this audience have a mind, and that I don’t have to worry about this。

今天我要和大家談的是有關於人的觀念 接下來我要講的內容 不是我們所熟悉的哲學的問題 比如“我們根本不知道 其它人是否真的有思想” 也就是說,也學你是有思想的 但對其它人實際上不過就一機器人 這類問題都是哲學的問題 但為了今天的演講,我會假設 這裡的聽眾都有自己的思想, 所以我就不用擔心“是否有觀念”這個命題

There is a second problem that is maybe even more familiar to us as parents and teachers and spouses and novelists, which is, “Why is it so hard to know what somebody else wants or believes?” Or perhaps, more relevantly, “Why is it so hard to change what somebody else wants or believes?”

第二個問題是 是像我們這些作為父母,老師,已婚之人還有小說家 經常碰到 “為什麼去了解 別人的企圖或者想法如此之難?“ 也許更貼切的說法是 “為什麼去改變他人的企圖和信仰如此難?”

I think novelists put this best。 Like Philip Roth, who said, “And yet, what are we to do about this terribly significant business of other people? So ill equipped are we all, to envision one another‘s interior workings and invisible aims。” So as a teacher and as a spouse, this is, of course, a problem I confront every day。 But as a scientist, I’m interested in a different problem of other minds, and that is the one I‘m going to introduce to you today。 And that problem is, “How is it so easy to know other minds?”

我覺得小說家們最能描述這個問題 正如菲利普·羅斯所說 我們究竟對別人做了什麼 恐怖的事? 那就是我們所有人在沒有能力的情況下 的去預想他人的內心想法 還有那些無法看見的目的” 當然,作為一名教師,而且還是一名一個已婚人士 我每天也同樣遭遇類似的問題 但是作為一名科學家,我對其它的不同於這些的觀點更有興趣 這也是我今天將要給大家介紹的內容 這個問題就是 “怎麼才能簡單的去知道別人的想法?”

So to start with an illustration, you need almost no information, one snapshot of a stranger, to guess what this woman is thinking, or what this man is。 And put another way, the crux of the problem is the machine that we use for thinking about other minds, our brain, is made up of pieces, brain cells, that we share with all other animals, with monkeys and mice and even sea slugs。 And yet, you put them together in a particular network, and what you get is the capacity to write Romeo and Juliet。 Or to say, as Alan Greenspan did, “I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant。” (Laughter)

我們以這張圖片開始 你幾乎不需要額外資訊 第一眼看見這個陌生人 就能猜到這個女人在想什麼 或者這個男人呢 換一種說法,這問題的糾結在於 我們是用什麼樣的機制去思考別人的想法, 我們的大腦,是由各種成千上萬的腦細胞所組成 這點和其它動物,如猴子 老鼠,甚至於軟體動物都是一樣 然而,當你把它們以某種特殊的網路組合在一起的時候 你就擁有書寫《羅密歐與朱麗葉》這樣的能力 或者說,像格林斯潘做過的一樣 “我知道你認為自己已經能理解我說過的話 但是我不確定你是否真的聽明白我說的內容 它是不是我要表達的意思” (笑)

So, the job of my field of cognitive neuroscience is to stand with these ideas, one in each hand。 And to try to understand how you can put together simple units, simple messages over space and time, in a network, and get this amazing human capacity to think about minds。 So I‘m going to tell you three things about this today。 Obviously the whole project here is huge。 And I’m going to tell you just our first few steps about the discovery of a special brain region for thinking about other people‘s thoughts。 Some observations on the slow development of this system as we learn how to do this difficult job。 And then finally, to show that some of the differences between people, in how we judge others, can be explained by differences in this brain system。

我工作的研究領域是認知神經科學 就是研究每一個人的 這些想法 然後嘗試如何能把它們歸到一起 簡單的單元,簡單的資訊,不受到時間和空間的限制 具有這些就可以擁有人類思考的能力 我下來要和大家主要談三個方面的事情 很明顯,這樣的一個研究專案非常龐大 我只談到的只是我們最初的幾個研究階段 有關於發現 大腦中用於思考的區域 另外一些是觀察這個機制是如何慢慢發展起來 因為我們要明白如何去完成這份困難的任務 最後一個是,展現下人與人之間的差別 我們如何去給他人下結論 透過腦系統可以解釋這之前的差異

So first, the first thing I want to tell you is that there is a brain region in the human brain, in your brains, whose job it is to think about other people’s thoughts。 This is a picture of it。 It‘s called the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction。 It’s above and behind your right ear。 And this is the brain region you used when you saw the pictures I showed you, or when you read Romeo and Juliet or when you tried to understand Alan Greenspan。 And you don‘t use it for solving any other kinds of logical problems。 So this brain region is called the Right TPJ。 And this picture shows the average activation in a group of what we call typical human adults。 They’re MIT undergraduates。 (Laughter)

那麼首先,第一個和大家講述的是 在人類的大腦中有一個區域 這個區域的任務就是去思考別人是如何思考的 這裡是一張關於它的圖片 我們稱它為右顳頂聯合 它大概就在你右耳的後上方 這張圖片就是我們所使用的大腦區域 當你在讀《羅密歐和朱麗葉》時 又或當你試著去理解格林斯潘時候就用到它 但你不會使用它來解決任何邏輯推理的問題 我們稱這塊腦區域為 RTPJ 這張圖片顯示了典型成人的 RTPJ的平均水平 這種水平就是是麻省理工的大學生水平。( 笑 )

The second thing I want to say about this brain system is that although we human adults are really good at understanding other minds, we weren‘t always that way。 It takes children a long time to break into the system。 I’m going to show you a little bit of that long, extended process。 The first thing I‘m going to show you is a change between age three and five, as kids learn to understand that somebody else can have beliefs that are different from their own。 So I’m going to show you a five-year-old who is getting a standard kind of puzzle that we call the false belief task。 Rebecca Saxe (Video): This is the first pirate。 His name is Ivan。 And you know what pirates really like? Child: What? RS: Pirates really like cheese sandwiches。Child: Cheese? I love cheese!

第二個我要談的是這個腦系統 儘管我們成人的腦系統 很擅長去理解他人的想法 但也不是絕對的 對於小孩而言需要很長的一段時間才能構建這個系統 我會給大家看下這個有點緩慢的、需要外部協助發展的過程 第一個演示的是3歲的孩子與5歲孩子的變化差異 因為孩子。學會去理解 別人可以有完全不同於自己的想法 先看下一個5歲大的 他面臨一個標準的。困惑 我們把這個困惑稱為“錯誤信念任務” 。影片:這是第一個海盜,名字叫做艾凡 你知道海盜最喜歡什麼嗎?海盜最喜歡乳酪三明治 。 乳酪?我愛吃乳酪

RS: Yeah。 So Ivan has this cheese sandwich, and he says, “Yum yum yum yum yum! I really love cheese sandwiches。” And Ivan puts his sandwich over here, on top of the pirate chest。 And Ivan says, “You know what? I need a drink with my lunch。” And so Ivan goes to get a drink。 And while Ivan is away the wind comes, and it blows the sandwich down onto the grass。 And now, here comes the other pirate。 This pirate is called Joshua。 And Joshua also really loves cheese sandwiches。 So Joshua has a cheese sandwich and he says, “Yum yum yum yum yum! I love cheese sandwiches。” And he puts his cheese sandwich over here on top of the pirate chest。

對的!那麼艾凡有這個乳酪三明治 然後他說著“嗯 嗯 嗯 嗯 嗯 嗯! 我最愛乳酪三明治“ 然後艾凡把他的三明治放在這裡,一個海盜箱的上面 然後艾凡又說“你知道不, 我要為午餐去弄點喝的” 然後艾凡離開去取酒 當艾凡離開的時候 一陣風掛來 把三明治吹到了草地上 這時候,又來了另外一個海盜 這個海盜叫做約書亞 當然約書亞也一樣很喜歡乳酪三明治 約書亞也有一個乳酪三明治,然後他說 “嗯 嗯 嗯 嗯!我愛乳酪三明治” 接著他把他的乳酪三明治放到了這個海盜箱的上面

Child: So, that one is his。 RS: That one is Joshua‘s。 That’s right。 Child: And then his went on the ground。 RS: That‘s exactly right。 Child: So he won’t know which one is his。 RS: Oh。 So now Joshua goes off to get a drink。 Ivan comes back and he says, ”I want my cheese sandwich。“ So which one do you think Ivan is going to take? Child: I think he is going to take that one。 RS: Yeah, you think he‘s going to take that one? All right。 Let’s see。 Oh yeah, you were right。 He took that one。

孩子:這個就是他的 。麗蓓卡。薩克斯:那個是約書亞。對極了! 孩子:接著他離開這裡 。麗蓓卡。薩克斯:完全正確 。孩子:那他不會知道哪個是他自己的 。麗蓓卡。薩克斯:喔,那現在約書亞離開去喝酒了 艾凡回來,他說“我要我的乳酪三明治。” 那你認為艾凡將會拿走哪一個呢? 孩子:我認為他會拿走那一個 麗蓓卡。薩克斯:耶,你認為他會拿走這個吧?對極了。我們看看 哦,你猜對了。他拿走了那個

So that‘s a five-year-old who clearly understands that other people can have false beliefs and what the consequences are for their actions。 Now I’m going to show you a three-year-old who got the same puzzle。 RS: And Ivan says, “I want my cheese sandwich。” Which sandwich is he going to take? Do you think he‘s going to take that one? Let’s see what happens。 Let‘s see what he does。 Here comes Ivan。 And he says, “I want my cheese sandwich。” And he takes this one。 Uh-oh。 Why did he take that one? Child: His was on the grass。

對於一個5歲大的孩子已經可以清晰的理解 別人可能會有誤解 那這種行為會有什麼影響呢? 現在我給你看下一個三歲大的孩子 他也碰到相同的問題 影片:麗蓓卡。薩克斯:艾凡說“我想要我的乳酪三明治” 他會拿那個走呢? 你認為他會拿走那個嗎?我們看下會有什麼發生 艾凡來啦。我們看看他會怎麼做。 他說“我要我的乳酪三明治” 接著他拿走了這一個 噢。他為什麼要拿那個啊? 他的掉在了草地上了

So the three-year-old does two things differently。 First, he predicts Ivan will take the sandwich that’s really his。 And second, when he sees Ivan taking the sandwich where he left his, where we would say he‘s taking that one because he thinks it’s his, the three-year-old comes up with another explanation: He‘s not taking his own sandwich because he doesn’t want it, because now it‘s dirty, on the ground。 So that’s why he‘s taking the other sandwich。 Now of course, development doesn’t end at five。 And we can see the continuation of this process of learning to think about other people‘s thoughts by upping the ante and asking children now, not for an action prediction, but for a moral judgment。 So first I’m going to show you the three-year-old again。

麗蓓卡。薩克斯:那麼三歲大的孩子做了兩件不同的事情 第一個是他認定艾凡會帶走那個 真正是他的三明治 第二,當他看到艾凡從他放置的地方拿走三明治 對於我們而言會認為艾凡會拿走那一個因為艾凡認為那個是他的 但是三歲大的孩子會有另外一種解釋 艾凡不帶走本屬於他三文治是他不想要 因為它現在已經掉在地上被搞髒了 所以這是為什他拿走另外的三明治 當然,智力的發展不是在5歲時候就結束了 我們可以看到隨著年齡增長, 去學習理解他人想法的 是一個連續的過程 接著我問小孩子們,不是關於海盜的做法 而是對道德的判斷 首先再給大家看下三歲大的孩子的情況

RS。: So is Ivan being mean and naughty for taking Joshua‘s sandwich? Child: Yeah。 RS: Should Ivan get in trouble for taking Joshua’s sandwich? Child: Yeah。 So it‘s maybe not surprising he thinks it was mean of Ivan to take Joshua’s sandwich, since he thinks Ivan only took Joshua‘s sandwich to avoid having to eat his own dirty sandwich。 But now I’m going to show you the five-year-old。 Remember the five-year-old completely understood why Ivan took Joshua‘s sandwich。

影片:艾凡是不是不應該拿走約書亞的三明治呢? 孩子:當然 。那艾凡拿走了約書亞的三明治會不會惹上麻煩? 孩子:當然。 麗蓓卡。薩克斯:因此不奇怪當艾凡拿走約書亞的三明治時候 他認為不應該 因為他認為艾凡拿走約書亞是為了 不想吃他那個已經弄髒的三明治 但現在我給大家看下5歲的孩子的情況 還記得5歲大的孩子完全能理解 艾凡為什麼拿走約書亞的三明治吧

RS: Was Ivan being mean and naughty for taking Joshua’s sandwich? Child: Um, yeah。 And so, it is not until age seven that we get what looks more like an adult response。 RS: Should Ivan get in trouble for taking Joshua‘s sandwich? Child: No, because the wind should get in trouble。 He says the wind should get in trouble for switching the sandwiches。 (Laughter)

艾凡拿走約書亞的三明治是不是 拿走約書亞的三明治啊? 恩,當然 。同時,一直到7歲大的孩子 我們看到了類似於成人的反應 。影片:艾凡拿走了約書亞的三明治是否會惹麻煩啊? 孩子:不會,因為是風惹的 。他回答說風會惹上麻煩 因為它調換了三明治 (笑)

And now what we’ve started to do in my lab is to put children into the brain scanner and ask what‘s going on in their brain as they develop this ability to think about other people’s thoughts。 So the first thing is that in children we see this same brain region, the Right TPJ, being used while children are thinking about other people。 But it‘s not quite like the adult brain。

現在我們實驗室所做的 就是掃描這些孩子的大腦 然後問他們打算做什麼 因為他們開發這種能力去思考別人的想法 所以第一個我們我們發現在相同的大腦區域,即RTPJ區域 孩子們在思考別人時候使用到了它 但這又和成人的不太一樣

So whereas in the adults, as I told you, this brain region is almost completely specialized —— it does almost nothing else except for thinking about other people’s thoughts —— in children it‘s much less so, when they are age five to eight, the age range of the children I just showed you。 And actually if we even look at eight to 11-year-olds, getting into early adolescence, they still don’t have quite an adult-like brain region。 And so, what we can see is that over the course of childhood and even into adolescence, both the cognitive system, our mind‘s ability to think about other minds, and the brain system that supports it are continuing, slowly, to develop。

那麼成年人用那塊區域思考呢?正我之前說的 這片腦區域幾乎完全是思考專用的 它幾乎不做其他任何事情,除了思考別人的想法 對於5到8歲的孩子來說 這塊區域很少 這年齡段也就是剛剛給大家演示的孩子 事實上,如果我們看下11歲大的 也剛進入青春期的小孩 他們依然沒有類似於成人的腦區域 也就是說,我們能夠可以在整個幼年期看到這一過程 即使進入了青春期 對於兩個認知系統 一個我們去認知別人想法的能力 另一個是大腦的基本系統 都在持續的緩慢的發展

But of course, as you’re probably aware, even in adulthood, people differ from one another in how good they are at thinking of other minds, how often they do it and how accurately。 And so what we wanted to know was, could differences among adults in how they think about other people‘s thoughts be explained in terms of differences in this brain region? So, the first thing that we did is we gave adults a version of the pirate problem that we gave to the kids。 And I’m going to give that to you now。

當然,你也可能意識到 即使是在成年人階段 人與人之間是否能準確的判斷出他人的想法的區別 取決於是否經常使用 也取決於能夠達到多精確 那麼我們想要知道的是,能否在成年人中區分出 他們是如何思考別人的想法 也就能解釋出不同的大腦區域的關鍵 我們第一個做的事情就是拿出一個成人版的海盜問題 類似於我們給小孩們做的一樣 我現在就拿出來給大家

So Grace and her friend are on a tour of a chemical factory, and they take a break for coffee。 And Grace‘s friend asks for some sugar in her coffee。 Grace goes to make the coffee and finds by the coffee a pot containing a white powder, which is sugar。 But the powder is labeled “Deadly Poison,” so Grace thinks that the powder is a deadly poison。 And she puts it in her friend’s coffee。 And her friend drinks the coffee, and is fine。

葛瑞絲和她的朋友去化工廠參觀 然後她們中途去喝杯咖啡 而且葛瑞絲的朋友想要加些糖 葛瑞絲就離開去弄咖啡 並找到了一個裝滿咖啡的罐子 還包括一些白色的粉,這粉末就是糖 但是那個裝有粉末的標籤上卻寫著“劇毒” 所以葛瑞絲認為那些粉末就是一個劇毒物質 接著她把這東西放到了朋友的咖啡 朋友喝了這玩意後呢,一切正常

How many people think it was morally permissible for Grace to put the powder in the coffee? Okay。 Good。 (Laughter) So we ask people, how much should Grace be blamed in this case, which we call a failed attempt to harm?

有多少人認同 葛瑞絲把這粉末倒入咖啡在道德上是允許的呢? 好,很好!(笑) 對於這個案例中,我們問下有多少人認為葛瑞絲應該受到責備 我們把這種行為稱為故意傷害

And we can compare that to another case, where everything in the real world is the same。 The powder is still sugar, but what‘s different is what Grace thinks。 Now she thinks the powder is sugar。 And perhaps unsurprisingly, if Grace thinks the powder is sugar and puts it in her friend’s coffee, people say she deserves no blame at all。 Whereas if she thinks the powder was poison, even though it‘s really sugar, now people say she deserves a lot of blame, even though what happened in the real world was exactly the same。

我們可以拿它和其它例子比較 在現實世界中 如果粉末依然是糖,但要是葛瑞絲不是這麼認為呢? 現在 她認為這些粉末就是糖 也許毫無意外的,如果葛瑞絲認為粉末就是糖的話 並把他們放到朋友的咖啡裡面 大家都認為她不應該受到任何責備 但假如她認為粉末就是毒藥,儘管事實是真的糖 但大家就會認為她應該受到嚴厲的懲罰 哪怕現實中這結果完全一樣

And in fact, they say she deserves more blame in this case, the failed attempt to harm, than in another case, which we call an accident。 Where Grace thought the powder was sugar, because it was labeled “sugar” and by the coffee machine, but actually the powder was poison。 So even though when the powder was poison, the friend drank the coffee and died, people say Grace deserves less blame in that case, when she innocently thought it was sugar, than in the other case, where she thought it was poison and no harm occurred。

事實上他們認為她應該受到更多的懲罰 在這個案例中,企圖傷害的行為 不像上一個案例 我們換稱為“意外” 當葛瑞絲認為粉末是糖 因為咖啡機上的標籤就是糖 但實際上粉末就是毒藥 儘管粉末是毒藥 朋友喝了咖啡然後就掛掉 在這個案例中,大家會認為葛瑞絲應該少受些懲罰 但在上一個案例中,她認為是毒藥,但沒有危害發生糖 現在她完全的認為是糖 並且也沒有危害。

People, though, disagree a little bit about exactly how much blame Grace should get in the accident case。 Some people think she should deserve more blame, and other people less。 And what I’m going to show you is what happened when we look inside the brains of people while they‘re making that judgment。 So what I’m showing you, from left to right, is how much activity there was in this brain region, and from top to bottom, how much blame people said that Grace deserved。

葛瑞絲應該受到怎麼樣程度的懲罰 對於此大家意見不一 在這個事故的案例中 有人認為她應該受到更多的懲罰 而另一部分人認為應該少些 下來我給大家觀看下當我們做出決斷時候 我們大腦裡面的樣子 我要播放的是,從左到右 他們的活動究竟有多少 同時從上到下,人們認為 葛瑞絲應該受到懲罰

And what you can see is, on the left when there was very little activity in this brain region, people paid little attention to her innocent belief and said she deserved a lot of blame for the accident。 Whereas on the right, where there was a lot of activity, people paid a lot more attention to her innocent belief, and said she deserved a lot less blame for causing the accident。

你能看到,在左邊 的腦區域只有很小的一部分是活動的 人們只把一部分注意力放在無罪的想法 然後說她應該為這個事故受到更多的懲罰 不同的是,在右邊,腦區域活動非常多 人們把很多注意力放到了 葛瑞絲應該為這個事故 少程度些責任

So that‘s good, but of course what we’d rather is have a way to interfere with function in this brain region, and see if we could change people‘s moral judgment。 And we do have such a tool。 It’s called Trans-Cranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS。 This is a tool that lets us pass a magnetic pulse through somebody‘s skull, into a small region of their brain, and temporarily disorganize the function of the neurons in that region。

這雖然很好,但是當然 我們期望有某種介面 能夠呼叫到大腦的區域 然後看看是否能改變人們的道德觀判斷 我們實現了這樣一種工具 成為“顱磁刺激” 或者 TMS 這個工具能讓我們傳遞一個脈衝磁感應 以穿透頭骨抵達到他們的腦區域 臨時的擾亂這些區域的腦神經元 。

So I’m going to show you a demo of this。 First, I‘m going to show you that this is a magnetic pulse。 I’m going to show you what happens when you put a quarter on the machine。 When you hear clicks, we‘re turning the machine on。 So now I’m going to apply that same pulse to my brain, to the part of my brain that controls my hand。 So there is no physical force, just a magnetic pulse。 Woman (Video): Ready, Rebecca? RS: Yes。

下來給大家播放下這個東西的演示影片 第一個演示的是一個磁感脈衝 給大家看下當你放入1/4機器時候有什麼發生 當你聽到點選時候我們就把機器開啟 然後我接著把這個脈衝用到我的大腦 這部分腦區域控制我的手 這裡沒有物理上的強迫,僅僅是磁場的脈衝 。影片:女:準備好沒?好的

Okay, so it causes a small involuntary contraction in my hand by putting a magnetic pulse in my brain。 And we can use that same pulse, now applied to the RTPJ, to ask if we can change people‘s moral judgments。 So these are the judgments I showed you before, people’s normal moral judgments。 And then we can apply TMS to the RTPJ and ask how people‘s judgments change。 And the first thing is, people can still do this task overall。

好的。把這個磁感應脈衝放到我的大腦上 它稍微的引起了我的手下意識的反應 同時我們可以使用相同的脈衝 應用到RTPJ 去嘗試下我們是否能改變人們的道德判斷 正如之前我給你們看到的人們做的道德判斷 現在我把TMS應用到RTPJ上 然後迫使改變人們的觀念的判斷 結果第一個是,人們依然可以完全的做原來的判斷

So their judgments of the case when everything was fine remain the same。 They say she deserves no blame。 But in the case of a failed attempt to harm, where Grace thought that it was poison, although it was really sugar, people now say it was more okay, she deserves less blame for putting the powder in the coffee。

因此當一切是正常時候,對於這個案例 的判斷完全一致。他們認為她不應該受到懲罰 但在企圖傷害的案例中 也就是葛瑞絲認為是毒藥,儘管他真正是糖的時候 大家馬上就說很好,葛瑞絲 把這粉末放到了咖啡應該受些許懲罰

And in the case of the accident, where she thought that it was sugar, but it was really poison and so she caused a death, people say that it was less okay, she deserves more blame。 So what I’ve told you today is that people come, actually, especially well equipped to think about other people‘s thoughts。

而在那個事故的案例中,也就是葛瑞絲認為是糖 但實際卻是毒藥最後導致死亡時 更少的人同意,認為她應該受到更多的懲罰 那麼我今天要告訴大家的是 未來的人類,真正的擁有一個裝置 去思考其他人的想法。

We have a special brain system that lets us think about what other people are thinking。 This system takes a long time to develop, slowly throughout the course of childhood and into early adolescence。 And even in adulthood, differences in this brain region can explain differences among adults in how we think about and judge other people。

我們有這樣一個特殊的腦系統 可以使得我們去思考其他人的想法 這個系統需要漫長的時間去實現 遍及整個幼年時期也包括早期的青春期 而且即使在成人階段,在不同的腦區域 能夠解釋成人之間 如何去思考和判斷其他人想法的區別

But I want to give the last word back to the novelists, and to Philip Roth, who ended by saying, “The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway。 It’s getting them wrong that is living。 Getting them wrong and wrong and wrong, and then on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again。” Thank you。 (Applause)

我想在最後結束前引用前面提到的小說家 也就是菲利普·羅斯說過的話作為結束 “事實上,人們的權利不是 不顧現實是如何的 而是讓錯誤存在生活中 讓他們一錯再錯 並且小心謹慎 的讓錯誤發生” 謝謝 (笑)

Chris Anderson: So, I have a question。 When you start talking about using magnetic pulses to change people‘s moral judgments, that sounds alarming。 (Laughter) Please tell me that you’re not taking phone calls from the Pentagon, say。 RS: I‘m not。 I mean, they’re calling, but I‘m not taking the call。 (Laughter)

你們是從什麼時候開始討論用 磁場脈衝去改變人們的觀念的判斷呢? 這玩意聽起來嚇人 (笑) 告訴我你沒有收到過五角大樓的電話吧? 麗貝卡。薩克斯:這到沒有 我的意思是他們打過了,但我沒有去接 (笑)

CA: They really are calling? So then seriously, you must lie awake at night sometimes wondering where this work leads。 I mean, you’re clearly an incredible human being, but someone could take this knowledge and in some future not-torture chamber, do acts that people here might be worried about。

他們真的打了? 那我嚴肅的問你 你一定有段時間睡不著 不知道這個研究導致什麼結果 我指的是雖然我們完全相信你 但將來可能會有些人 利用這些知識 進行審問 這才是我們現場所有人所擔心的

RS: Yeah, we worry about this。 So, there‘s a couple of things to say about TMS。 One is that you can’t be TMSed without knowing it。 So it‘s not a surreptitious technology。 It’s quite hard, actually, to get those very small changes。 The changes I showed you are impressive to me because of what they tell us about the function of the brain, but they‘re small on the scale of the moral judgments that we actually make。

是的,我們也擔心這個 所以有很多關於TMS的需要說明下 第一個是你不能對不知情的人使用TMS 因為它不是一項暗中使用的技術 即使是很小的一些改變也是很難的 剛才給你看的那些變化也讓我挺難忘的 因為它告訴了我們大腦的功能是什麼 雖然我們用來做道德判但的腦區域很小 但我們就是用它來判斷的

And what we changed was not people’s moral judgments when they‘re deciding what to do, when they’re making action choices。 We changed their ability to judge other people‘s actions。 And so, I think of what I’m doing not so much as studying the defendant in a criminal trial, but studying the jury。 CA: Is your work going to lead to any recommendations in education, to perhaps bring up a generation of kids able to make fairer moral judgments?

而我們所能改變的不是人們 在做決定時候的道德觀念的判斷 也不是影響他們做選擇時候的決定 我們改變只是如何去思考別人時候的判斷 所以我認為我在做的不是 針對被告 而是針對陪審團 。你的研究工作是否會帶到 教育領域, 比如讓下一代的孩子做出更加公平的道德判斷呢?

RS: That‘s one of the idealistic hopes。 The whole research program here of studying the distinctive parts of the human brain is brand new。 Until recently, what we knew about the brain were the things that any other animal’s brain could do too, so we could study it in animal models。 We knew how brains see, and how they control the body and how they hear and sense。 And the whole project of understanding how brains do the uniquely human things —— learn language and abstract concepts, and thinking about other people‘s thoughts —— that’s brand new。 And we don‘t know yet what the implications will be of understanding it。

這是一個比較理想的結果 目前整個研究階段 是針對比較腦力發達的人,這是一個嶄新的領域 到目前為止我們所瞭解的大腦 在其它動物身上一樣可以適用 所以我們可以研究動物的模型 我們要知道大腦看到的是什麼,它是如何去控制身體的 還有他們所聽到的、感覺到的 整個專案需要搞明白的是 人類的大腦為什麼是如此特別,能夠 學習語言、學習抽象的概念 還能夠去思考其他人的想法,這就是一個新的領域 還有目前我們所不知道,如果研究出這些 將會有什麼影響

CA: So I’ve got one last question。 There is this thing called the hard problem of consciousness, that puzzles a lot of people。 The notion that you can understand why a brain works, perhaps。 But why does anyone have to feel anything? Why does it seem to require these beings who sense things for us to operate? You‘re a brilliant young neuroscientist。 I mean, what chances do you think there are that at some time in your career, someone, you or someone else, is going to come up with some paradigm shift in understanding what seems an impossible problem?

好的,那我再問我最後一個問題。那個被稱為 意識的難題 也難倒了很多人 正如你提到的,如果你能夠 搞懂大腦的工作原理 但為什麼人要感知所有的事情? 我們為什麼要去控制人類這些 感知行為呢? 你作為一個年輕有為的神經系統科學家 我的意思是,你認為在你的 研究生涯中的某刻 一些人,你或者其他的人 是否會帶來根本性的成果 能夠研究出這個看起來不肯能的難題

RS: I hope they do。 And I think they probably won’t。 CA: Why?RS: It‘s not called the hard problem of consciousness for nothing。 (Laughter) CA: That’s a great answer。 Rebecca Saxe, thank you very much。 That was fantastic。 (Applause)

我希望他們能做到。但我認為他們可能實現不了 。為什麼?那說的那個叫做意識的難題根本不存在 (笑) 真精彩的回答。 Rebecca Saxe謝謝你,非常的精彩 (掌聲)