演讲题目：How to see past your own perspective and find truth

演讲简介：

我们在网络上读的越多，看的越多，就越难区分信息的真假。如同哲学家迈克尔·帕特里克·林奇所说："我们似乎知道得愈多，却懂得愈少。"在这场演讲中，他鼓励我们采取行动，戳破过滤事实的泡泡，并参与到撑起一切的现实世界里。



中英文字幕

So, imagine that you had your smartphone miniaturized and hooked up directly to your brain.

想像你把智能手机缩小到可以直接安装进你脑袋里，

If you had this sort of brain chip, you'd be able to upload and download to the internet at the speed of thought.

如果你有这样的大脑晶片，你就能在网上快速地下载和上传资料。

Accessing social media or Wikipedia would be a lot like -- well, from the inside at least -- like consulting your own memory.

当你在使用社群媒体或查询维基百科时，至少是从你脑内读取的，就像是在咨询你自己的记忆一样。

It would be as easy and as intimate as thinking.

跟你在思考时一样简单、直接。

But would it make it easier for you to know what's true?

但这样做，能让你更轻易地辨别出真相吗？

Just because a way of accessing information is faster it doesn't mean it's more reliable, of course,

虽然这个方法可以让你更快速地撷取信息，却不能代表这些信息 是更可靠的，当然，

and it doesn't mean that we would all interpret it the same way.

也不代表我们每个人的 解读都会一致，

And it doesn't mean that you would be any better at evaluating it.

更不代表，你比别人更会判断信息的重要性。

In fact, you might even be worse, because, you know, more data, less time for evaluation.

实际上，搞不好更糟糕，因为信息愈多，你判断的时间愈少。

Something like this is already happening to us right now.

这样的事情现在正在发生。

We already carry a world of information around in our pockets, but it seems as if the more information we share and access online,

全球的信息都唾手可得，但似乎我们在网上 接触、分享愈多的信息，

the more difficult it can be for us to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake.

就越难区分信息的真伪。

It's as if we know more but understand less.

我们变得知道越多，懂得却越少。

Now, it's a feature of modern life, I suppose, that large swaths of the public live in isolated information bubbles.

我想，这就是现代生活的其中一个特色吧，一堆人活在孤立的信息泡泡里。

We're polarized: not just over values, but over the facts.

我们不仅对价值观有不一样的认知，对事实的认知也是呈现对立的状况。

One reason for that is, the data analytics that drive the internet get us not just more information, but more of the information that we want.

原因就是主导网路的"数据分析"，不仅给了我们更多的信息，还超出了信息本身的范围。

Our online life is personalized;

人们的网络生活是定制的；

everything from the ads we read to the news that comes down our Facebook feed is tailored to satisfy our preferences.

我们所浏览的信息，广告，到脸书塞给我们的新闻，都是为了满足我们的个人喜好而经过修改的。

And so while we get more information, a lot of that information ends up reflecting ourselves as much as it does reality.

在我们获取更多资讯的同时，不少信息到最后会反映出我们自身，如同反映整个现实一样。

It ends up, I suppose, inflating our bubbles rather than bursting them.

我想，到最后这些泡泡不但刺不破， 反而越来越大。

And so maybe it's no surprise that we're in a situation, a paradoxical situation, of thinking that we know so much more,

说我们是活在一个似是而非的世界里， 一点也不令人讶异，我们懂这么多知识，

and yet not agreeing on what it is we know.

但到底懂什么，却看法不一。

So how are we going to solve this problem of knowledge polarization?

那么要如何解决知识对立的问题？

One obvious tactic is to try to fix our technology, to redesign our digital platforms, so as to make them less susceptible to polarization.

其中一个很明显的策略是，试着修复科技，重新设计我们的数字平台，以减少看法两极化的现象。

And I'm happy to report that many smart people at Google and Facebook are working on just that.

我很高兴向各位报告，谷歌和脸书里优秀的人才正朝此方向努力。

And these projects are vital.

这些研究项目相当重要。

I think that fixing technology is obviously really important, but I don't think technology alone, fixing it,

我认为修复科技显然至关重要，但我不认为光靠修复科技

is going to solve the problem of knowledge polarization.

就能解决知识对立的问题。

I don't think that because I don't think, at the end of the day, it is a technological problem.

我不这么认为，是因为到头来，终究不是科技的问题，

I think it's a human problem, having to do with how we think and what we value.

而是人的问题，跟我们如何思考、 和重视的价值有关。

In order to solve it, I think we're going to need help.

为了解决问题， 我们需要各方的协助，

We're going to need help from psychology and political science.

需要心理学与政治科学的辅助。

But we're also going to need help, I think, from philosophy.

不过我认为， 我们也能从哲学当中获得帮助，

Because to solve the problem of knowledge polarization, we're going to need to reconnect with one fundamental, philosophical idea:

因为想要解决认知对立的问题，我们必须重新思考一个基本的哲学概念：

that we live in a common reality.

我们是活在同一个现实里的。

The idea of a common reality is like, I suppose, a lot of philosophical concepts: easy to state but mysteriously difficult to put into practice.

我觉得活在同一个现实的这个想法与众多哲学概念类似：说起来简单，但做起来却相当困难。

To really accept it, I think we need to do three things, each of which is a challenge right now.

要面对这样的现实，我们有三件事要做，目前，每一项都很有挑战性。

First, we need to believe in truth.

首先，我们需要相信真相。

You might have noticed that our culture is having something of a troubled relationship with that concept right now.

大家可能也注意到，我们的文化对于这样的概念似乎不太认同。

It seems as if we disagree so much that, as one political commentator put it not long ago, it's as if there are no facts anymore.

就像一位政治评论员不久前所说的，我们越是不认同对方，事实就越似不存在一样。

But that thought is actually an expression of a sort of seductive line of argument that's in the air.

但这种想法实际上只是一种充斥在我们身边、 引人注意的陈述方式而已。

It goes like this: we just can't step outside of our own perspectives; we can't step outside of our biases.

有点像是: 我们就是跳脱不出个人的观点，放不下个人的偏见。

Every time we try, we just get more information from our perspective.

我们每次试着这么做，只会从个人的观点 产生出更多的信息。

So, this line of thought goes, we might as well admit that objective truth is an illusion, or it doesn't matter,

所以，这样的想法就变成：我们干脆承认， 客观的事实只是假象，或者根本不重要，

because either we'll never know what it is, or it doesn't exist in the first place.

因为，要么我们无知，要么就是真相根本就不存在。

I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that our society is not particularly great at enhancing or encouraging that sort of humility.

我认为说我们的社会不擅于提高或鼓励这种谦卑，其实毫不夸张。

That's partly because, well, we tend to confuse arrogance and confidence.

部分原因是由于，我们分不清自大与自信，

And it's partly because, well, you know, arrogance is just easier.

有部分是因为，自大比自信来得容易。

It's just easier to think of yourself as knowing it all.

认为自己是万事通可简单多了，

It's just easier to think of yourself as having it all figured out.

认为自己能了解一切也简单多了。

But that's another example of the bad faith towards the truth that I've been talking about.

但这是我刚才提到对真相有错误信仰的另一个例子。

So the concept of a common reality, like a lot of philosophical concepts, can seem so obvious,

所以现实世界的概念与很多哲学概念雷同，看起来很显眼，

that we can look right past it and forget why it's important.

但我们却视而不见，并忘掉其重要性。

Democracies can't function if their citizens don't strive, at least some of the time, to inhabit a common space,

人民若不努力，民主就无法运作，至少有时候是这样，

a space where they can pass ideas back and forth when -- and especially when -- they disagree.

如果人民不努力在共有的时空里交流意见，尤其是，当大家想法不一致时。

But you can't strive to inhabit that space if you don't already accept that you live in the same reality.

但如果你还没接受，大家是处在同一个现实里，你就无法待在那个时空里。

To accept that, we've got to believe in truth, we've got to encourage more active ways of knowing.

想要接受的话， 我们就必须相信真相，我们必须鼓励更积极的求知方法，

And we've got to have the humility to realize that we're not the measure of all things.

我们同时也必须保持谦卑，才能认识到我们不是丈量万物的准则。

We may yet one day realize the vision of having the internet in our brains.

也许脑袋里配备网络的想法会有实现的一天。

But if we want that to be liberating and not terrifying, if we want it to expand our understanding and not just our passive knowing,

但如果我们想要解放思想，并无所惧地执行，如果我们想扩展视野，不只是被动地汲取知识，

we need to remember that our perspectives, as wondrous, as beautiful as they are, are just that -- perspectives on one reality.

我们就要记住，我们的观点是如此奇妙、美丽，只要我们认同——我们是活在同一个现实世界里。

Thank you.

谢谢各位！