1.I do two things. I design mobile computers and I study brains.
我有两个专业，设计微型电脑和研究大脑
2.And today’s talk is about brains and, yay, somewhere I have a brain fan out there.
今天的演说是关于大脑的 嘿，我们听众里面好像有大脑研究的粉丝
3.(Laughter) I’m going to, if I can have my first slide up here, and you’ll see the title of my talk and my two affiliations.
（笑声） 请把我演说的首页播放 你们可以看到我演说的标题和我的两个专业资格
4.So what I’m going to talk about is why we don’t have a good brain theory, why it is important that we should develop one and what we can do about it.
我会先说为什么我们没有一个好的大脑理论 研究出一个大脑理论的重要性和怎么应用
5.And I’ll try to do all that in 20 minutes. I have two affiliations.
我会尝试在20分钟内完成。我有两个职业
6.Most of you know me from my Palm and Handspring days, but I also run a nonprofit scientific research institute called the Redwood Neuroscience Institute in Menlo Park,
你们可能认识我其中的职业和我的发明，Palm 和 Handspring 掌上电脑 但我还有一个非盈利的研究院 ： 位于 美国 Menlo Park的Redwood(红木)神经系统科学研究院
7.and we study theoretical neuroscience, and we study how the neocortex works.
在那里我们研究神经系统科学理论 和研究 新(大脑)皮层 是怎么运作的
8.I’m going to talk all about that.
我将会讲解有关的研究
9.I have one slide on my other life, the computer life, and that’s the slide here.
我有一页演说是关于我电脑方面的工作，这张就是
10.These are some of the products I’ve worked on over the last 20 years, starting back from the very original laptop to some of the first tablet computers
这些是我在近 20 年来设计过的电子产品 由最早的笔记本到第一台手写笔记本
11.and so on, and ending up most recently with the Treo, and we’re continuing to do this.
到最近的 微型笔记本 Treo 而我们会继续这方面的工作
12.And I’ve done this because I really believe that mobile computing is the future of personal computing, and I’m trying to make the world
我干这些是因为我深信移动计算技术 是个人计算系统的未来，而我会尝试通过这些工作
13.a little bit better by working on these things.
来造福人群
14.But this was, I have to admit, all an accident.
但我得承认这些都是巧合
15.I really didn’t want to do any of these products and very early in my career I decided I was not going to be in the computer industry.
我其实没有想过时间这些产品 而在我刚刚开始工作的时候我决定 我不会从事计算机行业
16.And before I tell you about that, I just have to tell you this one little picture of graffiti there I picked off the web the other day.
在说那个之前，让我先告诉你 我在网上找到这个小图片，
17.I was looking for a picture of graffiti, little text input language, and I found the website dedicated to teachers who want to make these,
我在网上找有关涂鸦的图片， 而发现这专为教师们而设的网站
18.you know, the script writing things across the top of their blackboard, and they had added graffiti to it, and I’m sorry about that.
他们教学中在黑板上写的， 而他们却把这涂鸦上了，真可惜，
19.(Laughter) So what happened was, when I was young and got out of engineering school, Cornell in ’79, I decided, I went to work for Intel.
（听众的笑声） 经过是这样的，我还年轻的时候，刚刚从Cornell 康奈尔大学工程学院毕业 是 1979 年， 我决定去 Intel 英特尔工作
20.I was in the computer industry, and three months into that, I fell in love with something else, and I said, “I made the wrong career choice here,”
我在从事计算机行业，3 个月后 我爱上另一个东西，我发现我选错了行业
21.and I fell in love with brains.
而我爱上了大脑
22.This is not a real brain. This is a picture of one, a line drawing.
这不是真的大脑， 这是一张大脑的图画
23.But I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I have one recollection, which was pretty strong in my mind.
但我不太记得是怎么发生的 但我还记得一段挺强烈的记忆
24.In September 1979, Scientific American came out with a single topic issue about the brain. And it was quite good.
1979 年 9 月，Scientific America(美国科学杂志)发表了 一本关于大脑研究的特刊
25.It was one of the best issues ever. And they talked about the neuron and development and disease and vision and all the things you might want to know about brains. It was really quite impressive.
那是该杂志中最好的一期。那特刊讨论脑细胞 的发展，疾病，视觉和其它 关于大脑的课题。真的是很棒的
26.And one might have the impression that we really knew a lot about brains.
你可能认为我们对大脑很了解
27.But the last article in that issue was written by Francis Crick of DNA fame.
特邗里最后有 Francis Crick 写有关 DNA 的文章
28.Today is, I think, the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA.
今天应该是发现 DNA 的 50 周年
29.And he wrote a story basically saying, well, this is all well and good, but you know what, we don’t know diddley squat about brains
他(Francis Crick)写了一段， 大概意思是， 我们基本上对大脑一点都不认识
30.and no one has a clue how these things work, so don’t believe what anyone tells you.
而没有人知道它怎么运作 所以别随便相信别人说的(以为我们很了了解大脑)
31.This is a quote from that article. He said, “What is conspicuously lacking,”
他在文章里提到 ”我们现在显著地缺少的是 。。。“
32.he’s a very proper British gentleman so, “What is conspicuously lacking is a broad framework of ideas in which to interpret these different approaches.”
他是一个很传统的英国绅士， ”现在显著地缺少的是， 一个可以融入对大脑已经的不同想法和不同解释方式的框架“
33.I thought the word framework was great.
我认为’框架‘这词用的很好
34.He didn’t say we didn’t even have a theory. He says, we don’t even know how to begin to think about it — we don’t even have a framework.
他甚至没有提到’理论‘，他说， 我们根本不知道怎么开始去想 我们连框架都没有
35.We are in the pre-paradigm days if you want to use Thomas Kuhn.
我们正处于 Thomas Kuhn 所说的规范前时期
36.And so I fell in love with this, and said look, we have all this knowledge about brains. How hard can it be?
后来我就爱上大脑研究了，我想， 我们有这么多关于大脑的知识，能有多难呢？
37.And this is something we can work on my lifetime. I felt I could make a difference, and so I tried to get out of the computer business, into the brain business.
后来这成为我毕生的工作， 我觉得我可以有所贡献， 我尝试离开计算机行业而专注大脑研究
38.First, I went to MIT, the AI lab was there, and I said, well, I want to build intelligent machines, too, but the way I want to do it is to study how brains work first.
首先我去了 MIT(麻省理工学院)的人工智能研究院， 我想，我也想设计和制作聪明的机器， 但我的想法是先研究大脑怎么运作
39.And they said, oh, you don’t need to do that.
而他们说，呃，你不需要这样做
40.We’re just going to program computers, that’s all we need to do.
我们只需要计算机编程
41.And I said, no, you really ought to study brains. They said, oh, you know, you’re wrong. And I said, no, you’re wrong, and I didn’t get in.
而我说，不，你应该先研究大脑。 他们说，呃，你知道吗， 你错了。而我说，不，你们错了，最后我没被取录
42.(Laughter) But I was a little disappointed — pretty young, but I went back again a few years later and this time was in California, and I went to Berkeley.
（笑声） 但我真的有点失望，那时候年轻，但我再尝试 几年后在加州的 Berkley(加州大学伯克利分校)
43.And I said, I’ll go in from the biological side.
这次我尝试去学习生物研究方面
44.So I got in — in the PhD program in Biophysics, and I was, all right, I’m studying brains now, and I said, well, I want to study theory.
我开始攻读生物物理博士课程 我在学习大脑了，而我想学理论
45.And they said, oh no, you can’t study theory about brains.
而他们说，不，你不可以学大脑的理论
46.That’s not something you do. You can’t get funded for that.
这是不可以的，你不会拿到研究经费
47.And as a graduate student, you can’t do that. So I said, oh my gosh.
而作为研究生，没有研究经费是不可以的。我的天
48.I was very depressed. I said, but I can make a difference in this field.
我很沮丧但我还坚信我可以在这一研究领域作出贡献
49.So what I did is I went back in the computer industry and said, well, I’ll have to work here for a while, do something.
最后我回到计算机行业 对自己说，我先工作，做些有意义的
50.That’s when I designed all those computer products.
就是那时候我设计了你们认识的一系列的微型电子产品
51.(Laughter) And I said, I want to do this for four years, make some money, like I was having a family, and I would mature a bit, and maybe the business of neuroscience would mature a bit.
（笑声） 我计划干四年，挣点钱， 组织自己的家庭，我可能会成熟点 也可能那时候神经系统科学也会成熟一点了
52.Well, it took longer than four years. It’s been about 16 years.
结果干了比四年长多了，已经大概十六年
53.But I’m doing it now, and I’m going to tell you about it.
但我终于做到了，而我现在告诉你们
54.So why should we have a good brain theory?
那为什么我们需要有一个好的大脑理论呢？
55.Well, there’s lots of reasons people do science.
嗯， 科学研究有很多目的
56.One is — the most basic one — is people like to know things.
其中比较简单的是，我们喜欢了解各种的事物
57.We’re curious, and we just go out and get knowledge, you know?
我们好奇，而我们渴求知识
58.Why do we study ants? Well, it’s interesting.
我们为什么研究蚂蚁？因为这个有趣
59.Maybe we’ll learn something really useful about it, but it’s interesting and fascinating.
可能我们从中会学到一些很有用的知识，但本质上这研究很有趣
60.But sometimes, a science has some other attributes which makes it really, really interesting.
有时候，科学有其他本质 令它很有趣
61.Sometimes a science will tell something about ourselves, it’ll tell us who we are.
有时候科学会告诉我们一些关于我们自己的， 告诉我们，我们到底是什么
62.Rarely, you know, evolution did this and Copernicus did this, where we have a new understanding of who we are.
这很罕有的，例如，进化论，哥白尼(Copernicus) 都让我们对自身有新一层的理解
63.And after all, we are our brains. My brain is talking to your brain.
毕竟，我们就是我们的大脑。我的大脑正在跟你们的大脑沟通
64.Our bodies are hanging along for the ride, but my brain is talking to your brain.
我们的身体只是随行的部分，但我的大脑正在跟你们的大脑沟通
65.And if we want to understand who we are and how we feel and perceive, we really understand what brains are.
如果我们想了解我们是什么和我们怎么去感受和察觉 我们就先要明白大脑是什么
66.Another thing is sometimes science leads to really big societal benefits and technologies, or businesses, or whatever, that come out of it. And this is one, too,
又有时候科学会 让我们有新的科技和为社会带来很大好处 甚至商业，和其它。 而大脑科学研究也会有这些好处
67.because when we understand how brains work, we’re going to be able to build intelligent machines, and I think that’s actually a good thing on the whole,
因为如果我们明白了大脑怎么运作，我们就可以 制作有智能的机器，而这总体来说是好的
68.and it’s going to have tremendous benefits to society just like a fundamental technology.
而且对社会带来好处 就好像很基本的科技一样
69.So why don’t we have a good theory of brains?
那为什么我们没有一个好的大脑理论？
70.And people have been working on it for 100 years.
虽然人们已经研究了大概100多年了
71.Well, let’s first take a look at what normal science looks like.
我们先看看一般的科学研究是怎么进行的
72.This is normal science.
这是一般的科学
73.Normal science is a nice balance between theory and experimentalists.
一般的科学是平衡于理论和实验的
74.And so the theorist guys say, well, I think this is what’s going on, and the experimentalist says, no, you’re wrong.
比方说，理论家先认为是这样的， 而实验家说，不，你错了
75.And it goes back and forth, you know?
反复的验证，你们明白吗？
76.This works in physics. This works in geology. But if this is normal science, what does neuroscience looks like? This is what neuroscience looks like.
物理学是这样研究的，地质学也是这样研究的，但这是一般的科学 那神经系统科学研究又怎样进行呢？我们看看
77.We have this mountain of data, which is anatomy, physiology and behavior.
我们有巨多的数据，包括：解剖学的，生理学的和行为学的
78.You can’t imagine how much detail we know about brains.
你们很难想象我们已经有多少数据
79.There were 28,000 people who went to the neuroscience conference this year, and every one of them is doing research in brains.
今年的神经系统科学研讨会我们有 28000 个专家参与 而每一个都在研究大脑
80.A lot of data. But there’s no theory. There’s a little, wimpy box on top there.
很多的数据，但没有理论，可能有一点点，就像最上边的那小的可怜的箱子
81.And theory has not played a role in any sort of grand way in the neurosciences.
而在神经系统科学研究领域当中，理论从没有像它们在一般科学里的主导地位
82.And it’s a real shame. Now why has this come about?
这是很可惜的，为什么会这样呢？
83.If you ask neuroscientists, why is this the state of affair?
如果你问神经系统科学专家，为什么情况会这样？
84.They’ll first of all admit it. But if you ask them, they’ll say, well, there’s various reasons we don’t have a good brain theory.
他们会同意情况是这样，但如果你问为什么，他们会说 有很多原因导致我们没有一个好的大脑理论
85.Some people say, well, we don’t still have enough data, we need to get more information, there’s all these things we don’t know.
有些专家会说，我们还没有足够的数据 我们要拿更多的数据，我们还有很多不明白的
86.Well, I just told you there’s so much data coming out your ears.
嗯， 我刚刚告诉过你们了
87.We have so much information; we don’t know how to begin to organize it.
我们有太多的数据但不知道怎么去组织
88.What good is more going to do?
那就算有更多的数据又有何用？
89.Maybe we’ll be lucky and discover some magic thing, but I don’t think so.
可能我们会幸运的突然发现谜底，但我不认为会发生
90.This is actually a symptom of the fact that we just don’t have a theory.
种种证据都在说明我们根本没有一个好的理论
91.We don’t need more data — we need a good theory about it.
我们不需要更多的数据，我们只需要一个好的理论
92.Another one is sometimes people say, well, brains are so complex, it’ll take another 50 years.
另一些专家会说，大脑太复杂了 这研究会再花 50 年
93.I even think Chris said something like this yesterday.
我想 Chris 昨天也说过类似的话
94.I’m not sure what you said, Chris, but something like, well, it’s one of the most complicated things in the universe. That’s not true.
我不肯定 Chris 你所说的内容，但大概是， (大脑研究)是宇宙中最复杂的。我不认同
95.You’re more complicated than your brain. You’ve got a brain.
你们都比大脑复杂，你们都有大脑
96.And it’s also, although the brain looks very complicated, things look complicated until you understand them.
而且，大脑只是看似复杂， 所以事物在弄明白前都是复杂的
97.That’s always been the case. And so all we can say, well, my neocortex, which is the part of the brain I’m interested in, has 30 billion cells.
我们可以说， 新大脑皮层(neocortex)，大脑里面我们最感兴趣的部分，有 300 亿细胞
98.But, you know what? It’s very, very regular.
但你们知道吗，它(新大脑皮层）非常有规律
99.In fact, it looks like it’s the same thing repeated over and over and over again.
实际上，它就像同样的组织不停的重覆
100.It’s not as complex as it looks. That’s not the issue.
它不像想象中复杂，那不是问题
101.Some people say, brains can’t understand brains.
有些人说，大脑不能明白大脑
102.Very zen-like. Whoo. You know — (Laughter) It sounds good, but why? I mean, what’s the point?
很玄，喔 （笑声） 听起来挺好，但有什么用？
103.It’s just a bunch of cells. You understand your liver.
它只是一堆细胞，就好像你了解你的肝脏
104.It’s got a lot of cells in it too, right?
肝脏也是一堆细胞是吗
105.So, you know, I don’t think there’s anything to that.
所以，我不见得大脑有什么分别的
106.And finally, some people say, well, you know, I don’t feel like a bunch of cells, you know. I’m conscious.
还有一些人说 “我不认为自己只是一堆细胞，我是神志清醒的
107.I’ve got this experience, I’m in the world, you know.
我又很多经历，我处在一世界，明白不，
108.I can’t be just a bunch of cells. Well, you know, people used to believe there was a life force to be living, and we now know that’s really not true at all.
我不可能只是一堆细胞” 人们曾经相信有‘生命力’ 我们现在已经知道那根本不正确
109.And there’s really no evidence that says, well, other than people just have disbelief that cells can do what they do.
而且根本就没有证据证明，除了人类之外 只是不相信一堆细胞能做人能做的事
110.And so, if some people have fallen into the pit of metaphysical dualism, some really smart people, too, but we can reject all that.
有些人沉迷于形而上学唯物论 包括一些很聪明的人，但我们可以全否定
111.(Laughter) No, I’m going to tell you there’s something else, and it’s really fundamental, and this is what it is: there’s another reason why we don’t have a good brain theory,
（笑声） 不，我会告诉你们另外的 很基础很根本的 原因导致我们无法拥有一个好的大脑理论
112.and it’s because we have an intuitive, strongly-held, but incorrect assumption that has prevented us from seeing the answer.
因为我们有很根深蒂固 但错误的假设，这阻止了我们去寻找答案
113.There’s something we believe that just, it’s obvious, but it’s wrong.
我们相信这个明显的假设，但它是错的
114.Now, there’s a history of this in science and before I tell you what it is, I’m going to tell you a bit about the history of it in science.
这在科学研究中是有先例的，但在说那之前， 我先告诉你一些科学的历史
115.You look at some other scientific revolutions, and this case, I’m talking about the solar system, that’s Copernicus, Darwin’s evolution, and tectonic plates, that’s Wegener.
看看其它的科学革命 比方说哥白尼的天体运行学说 达尔文的进化论，和魏格纳的大陆漂移学说
116.They all have a lot in common with brain science.
它们跟大脑理论有很多共同点
117.First of all, they had a lot of unexplained data. A lot of it.
第一，很多无法解析的数据
118.But it got more manageable once they had a theory.
但有理论后就变的容易处理了
119.The best minds were stumped, really, really smart people.
那时候众多很聪明的学者都被困惑
120.We’re not smarter now than they were then.
我们并不比他们聪明，
121.It just turns out it’s really hard to think of things, but once you’ve thought of them, it’s kind of easy to understand it.
只是想出理论是很困难的， 但一想到了，就很容易明白
122.My daughters understood these three theories in their basic framework by the time they were in kindergarten.
我的女儿都明白那三个理论 的大概，在幼儿园的时候就明白
123.And now it’s not that hard, you know, here’s the apple, here’s the orange, you know, the Earth goes around, that kind of stuff.
所以并不是那么困难，像这有一苹果，这一橘子， 地球围着走，等等
124.Finally, another thing is the answer was there all along, but we kind of ignored it because of this obvious thing, and that’s the thing.
还有，答案早就存在 我们只是忽视了而已
125.It was an intuitive, strong-held belief that was wrong.
第二，有很根深蒂固但错的想法
126.In the case of the solar system, the idea that the Earth is spinning and the surface of the Earth is going like a thousand miles an hour,
天体运行学的比方，地球在自转 地球表面在以千多英里在移动，
127.and the Earth is going through the solar system about a million miles an hour.
同时地球在太阳系里的轨道以百万多英里运行
128.This is lunacy. We all know the Earth isn’t moving.
疯了吧，我们都知道地球不在动
129.Do you feel like you’re moving a thousand miles an hour?
你感觉到我们在以千多英里移动吗？
130.Of course not. You know, and someone who said, well, it was spinning around in space and is so huge, they would lock you up, and that’s what they did back then.
肯定没有，还有人说 它(地球)在太空里自转而它很大 会把你锁上，他们当时是这样想的
131.(Laughter) So it was intuitive and obvious. Now what about evolution?
（笑声） 这是显而易见的，我们再看看进化论
132.Evolution’s the same thing. We taught our kids, well, the Bible says, you know, God created all these species, cats are cats, dogs are dogs,
我们教孩子圣经里面说 上帝创造万物，猫是猫，狗是狗
133.people are people, plants are plants, they don’t change.
人是人，植物是植物，他们都不会变的
134.Noah put them on the Ark in that order, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, the fact is, if you believe in evolution, we all have a common ancestor,
诺亚(Noah) 把他们都放进方舟，等等 事实上，如果你相信进化论，我们都有共同的祖先，
135.and we all have a common ancestry with the plant in the lobby.
我们跟大厅里的植物也有共同的祖先
136.This is what evolution tells us. And, it’s true. It’s kind of unbelievable.
进化论是这样说的，而这是这真的，虽然有点难以置信，
暂无讨论，说说你的看法吧
