TED英語演講：你第一次意識到自己會死是什麼時候

哲學家史蒂芬·凱夫以一個黑暗但又引人注目的問題作為開頭：你在什麼時候第一次意識到自己會死亡的?更有意思的是：為什麼人們總是在抗拒死亡的必然性?在這個精彩的演說中，凱夫探索了4種-橫跨各個文明之間-為的是能處理我們對死亡的恐懼。下面是小編為大家收集關於TED英語演講：你第一次意識到自己會死是什麼時候，歡迎借鑑參考。

演說題目：The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death

演說者：Stephen Cave

演講稿

I have a question: Who here remembers when they first realized they were going to die?

我要問大家一件事：在座的各位誰還記得當自己第一次意識到，自己有一天會死去時那一刻的感受?

I do. I was a young boy, and my grandfather had just died, and I remember a few days later lying in bed at night trying to make sense of what had happened. What did it mean that he was dead? Where had he gone?It was like a hole in reality had opened up and swallowed him. But then the really shocking question occurred to me: If he could die, could it happen to me too?

我還記得，那時我還是個小男孩，我的祖父剛剛過世了，記得幾天後的一個夜晚，我躺在床上，是這回想之前所發生的一切，去世到底意味著什麼?他去哪了?有點像現實中有個洞開啟，把他吞了。但那時對我而言，有個震撼的問題是：如果他會死去，同樣的事也會發生在我身上嗎?

Could that hole in reality open up and swallow me? Would it open up beneath my bed and swallow me as I slept? Well, at some point, all children become aware of death. It can happen in different ways, of course, and usually comes in stages. Our idea of death develops as we grow older.

現實中真有個洞開啟並把我吞下嗎?它會在我的床底下開啟，並在我睡著的時候把我吞下嗎?嗯，某種程度而言，所有的孩子開始意識到死亡。當然，它會以不同的方式發生，並且通常會在某個階段到來。隨著我們年齡的增長，我們對死亡的觀念逐漸形成。

And if you reach back into the dark corners of your memory, you might remember something like what I felt when my grandfather died and when I realized it could happen to me too, that sense that behind all of this the void is waiting.

並且如果你回想起，你記憶中的最黑暗的角落時，你或許會想起和我感受相同的的一些事情，在我祖父去世的時侯我意識到，同樣事情也會發生在我身上，背後所有這一切的感受，是空虛的等待。

And this development in childhood reflects the development of our species. Just as there was a point in your development as a child when your sense of self and of time became sophisticated enough for you to realize you were mortal, so at some point in the evolution of our species, some early human's sense of self and of time became sophisticated enough for them to become the first human to realize, "I'm going to die."

在童年時代的這種發展，反應了人類的發展。就像你生命中的某一時刻，還是小孩的時候，對自我和時間的認知，變得十分複雜，你意識到你難逃一死，所有在人類進化的某個時刻，前人對自我和時間的認知，開始變得複雜，然後成為第一批意識到，“我終將會死去。”的人們。

This is, if you like, our curse. It's the price we pay for being so damn clever. We have to live in the knowledge that the worst thing that can possibly happen one day surely will, the end of all our projects, our hopes, our dreams, of our individual world. We each live in the shadow of a personal apocalypse.

如果你能接受，這是我們的詛咒。那是我們對料知死亡所付出的代價。我們不得不生活在，最壞的的事情將會發生的狀態下，這一天當然會來，終結我們所有的計劃，我們的希望，夢想，也會帶走我們的一片天。我們每個人生活在自己的，末日陰影下。

And that's frightening. It's terrifying. And so we look for a way out. And in my case, as I was about five years old, this meant asking my mum. Now when I first started asking what happens when we die, the grown-ups around me at the time answered with a typical English mix of awkwardness and half-hearted Christianity,and the phrase I heard most often was that granddad was now "up there looking down on us," and if I should die too, which wouldn't happen of course, then I too would go up there, which made death sound a lot like an existential elevator.

那時很嚇人，很恐怖的。所以我們試圖尋找一個出路。以我為例，在我5歲左右的時候，我去問我的媽媽。現在當我開始問到，我們死亡時會發生什麼，我周圍的大人們那個時候，會帶著尷尬的，基督教的經典語句來回答我，我最常聽到的詞是，祖父現在，”在天上看著我們“，並且如果我也死去，當然現在不會發生，那時我也會到天上去，讓死亡聽起來像，一部存在的升降電梯。

Now this didn't sound very plausible. I used to watch a children's news program at the time, and this was the era of space exploration. There were always rockets going up into the sky, up into space, going up there. But none of the astronauts when they came back ever mentioned having met my granddad or any other dead people. But I was scared, and the idea of taking the existential elevator to see my granddad sounded a lot better than being swallowed by the void while I slept. And so I believed it anyway, even though it didn't make much sense.

現在聽起來不在是那麼的真實可信。那時候我通常會看兒童的新聞節目，那時是個太空探索的時代。經常會有火箭衝向藍天，進入太空。但是沒有一個從太空歸來的航天員，提及我見到了我的祖父，或其它死去的人。但那時我很害怕，乘坐可能存在的升降電梯，去見我的祖父，相比在我睡夢中巨大的空間吞噬，的想法更容易接受。所以我就相信了，儘管它沒有任何意義。

And this thought process that I went through as a child, and have been through many times since, including as a grown-up, is a product of what psychologists call a bias.

Now a bias is a way in which we systematically get things wrong, ways in which we miscalculate, misjudge, distort reality, or see what we want to see, and the bias I'm talking about works like this: Confront someone with the fact that they are going to die and they will believe just about any story that tells them it isn't true and they can, instead, live forever, even if it means taking the existential elevator.

我小時候就有這種思考模式，從那時候起發生過很多次，長大後也是，這被心理學家稱之為，偏誤。(偏見與誤解)，偏誤有自己的流程，讓我們按照錯誤的方式思考事物，計算錯誤，判斷錯誤，扭曲現實，或者只看到了我們想看到的東西。我這裡說的偏誤，是這麼回事：某些人面對，他們終將會死去的現實，他們只會相信，告訴他們的任何故事都不會是真的，他們可以永久的活著，即便乘坐可能存在的升降電梯。

Now we can see this as the biggest bias of all. It has been demonstrated in over 400 empirical studies. Now these studies are ingenious, but they're simple. They work like this. You take two groups of people who are similar in all relevant respects, and you remind one group that they're going to die but not the other, then you compare their behavior. So you're observing how it biases behavior when people become aware of their mortality.

現在我們可以將這個視為最大的偏誤。它已經被400多項，實證研究證明。這些研究設計的很精巧，但非常簡單。它們像這樣工作。你找兩組，各個方面都很相似的人，並且提醒一組人他們即將死去，而不告訴另一群人，然後比較他們的行為。你會觀察到，當人們開始意識到他們大限將至，偏誤行為是如何產生的。

And every time, you get the same result:People who are made aware of their mortality are more willing to believe stories that tell them they can escape death and live forever. So here's an example: One recent study took two groups of agnostics, that is people who are undecided in their religious beliefs. Now, one group was asked to think about being dead.

並且你每次都能得到相同的結論：意識到會死亡的人，更願意相信那些，告訴他們能夠擺脫死亡，並能長生不老的故事。因此有下面這個例子：找兩組不可知論者，這些人沒有固定，的宗教信仰。現在，其中一組被要求思考死亡。

The other group was asked to think about being lonely. They were then asked again about their religious beliefs. Those who had been asked to think about being dead were afterwards twice as likely to express faithin God and Jesus. Twice as likely. Even though the before they were all equally agnostic. But put the fear of death in them, and they run to Jesus.

而另一種則被要求思考，孤獨。他們再次被問到他們的宗教信仰。那些被要求死亡的那組人，有兩倍的可能性來表達，對上帝和耶穌的信仰。兩倍的可能性。即使他們之前是同樣的不可知論者。但對死亡的恐懼擺在他們面前，他們會向耶穌靠攏。

Now, this shows that reminding people of death biases them to believe, regardless of the evidence, and it works not just for religion, but for any kind of belief system that promises immortality in some form, whether it's becoming famous or having children or even nationalism, which promises you can live on as part of a greater whole. This is a bias that has shaped the course of human history.

這表明向人們提醒死亡，會讓他們忽視證據，使他們對所相信的事物產生偏誤，他不僅僅影響到宗教，如果沒有所有以，許諾在某種形式下永生的任何信仰制度，無論是否有名，或有孩子，甚至帶民族主義形式，承諾你能成為偉大的整體中的一員生活下去。這樣的偏誤塑造了，人類的歷史。

Now, the theory behind this bias in the over 400 studies is called terror management theory, and the idea is simple. It's just this. We develop our worldviews, that is, the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it, in order to help us manage the terror of death. And these immortality stories have thousands of different manifestations, but I believe that behind the apparent diversity there are actually just four basic forms that these immortality stories can take.

目前，在這偏誤背後，有超過400多項研究，被稱之為恐懼管理理論，這個理論很簡單，我們發展出我們的世界觀。即我們告訴自己一個，關於時間和我們所在地方的故事，以便幫助我們管理，對死亡的恐懼。而這些永生的故事，有上千種不同的表現形式，但我相信在這些多樣化的面目下，實際只有四種基本形式，是這些永生故事都有的。

And we can see them repeating themselves throughout history, just with slight variations to reflect the vocabulary of the day. Now I'm going to briefly introduce these four basic forms of immortality story, and I want to try to give you some sense of the way in which they're retold by each culture or generation using the vocabulary of their day.

並且我們能發現他們，在歷史中不斷重複，僅僅只有細微的差異，用來反應當時的語言。下面我會簡要介紹這四種，永生故事的基本形式，並且我希望讓你們知道，在各個文化，或在不同時代中，使用當時的語言傳播的方式。

Now, the first story is the simplest. We want to avoid death, and the dream of doing that in this body in this world forever is the first and simplest kind of immortality story, and it might at first sound implausible, but actually, almost every culture in human history has had some myth or legend of an elixir of life or a fountain of youth or something that promises to keep us going forever.

第一個故事是最簡單的。我們想要逃避死亡，並且夢想著這身軀，能永久留存在世上，是第一個最簡單的永生故事，一開始聽起來有些難以置信，但事實上，在人類歷史上的每一種文化，都流傳著一些神話或傳說，關於長生藥或者不老泉，或者能讓我們一直，活下去的東西。

Ancient Egypt had such myths, ancient Babylon, ancient India. Throughout European history, we find them in the work of the alchemists, and of course we still believe this today, only we tell this story using the vocabulary of science. So 100 years ago,hormones had just been discovered, and people hoped that hormone treatments were going to cure aging and disease, and now instead we set our hopes on stem cells, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.

古埃及有這種傳說，古巴比倫，古印度。縱觀這個歐洲歷史，在鍊金術師的工作中可以發現它，直到今天我們依舊相信它，只不過我們使用科學的語言，來講這個故事。所以120xx年前，荷爾蒙被發現了，人們希望荷爾蒙治療，能使我們永葆青春和治癒疾病，現在我們則是希望幹細胞，基因工程，和奈米技術。

But the idea that science can cure death is just one more chapter in the story of the magical elixir, a story that is as old as civilization. But betting everything on the idea of finding the elixir and staying alive forever is a risky strategy. When we look back through history at all those who have sought an elixir in the past, the one thing they now have in common is that they're all dead.

但科學能夠治癒死亡的觀點，只是神奇的靈丹妙藥故事的，又一個章節，和古文明一樣古老的故事。但把所有的賭注都壓在尋找靈丹妙藥，和長生不老上面，這樣風險未免太大。當我們回顧整個歷史，所有那些在過去尋找靈丹妙藥的人，都有個共通點，是他們都難逃一死。

So we need a backup plan, and exactly this kind of plan B is what the second kind of immortality story offers,and that's resurrection. And it stays with the idea that I am this body, I am this physical organism. It accepts that I'm going to have to die but says, despite that, I can rise up and I can live again. In other words, I can do what Jesus did. Jesus died, he was three days in the [tomb], and then he rose up and lived again.

所以我們需要個備用方案，精確講叫B方案，也就是第二類永生的故事，那就是復活。概念是我有這個身軀，是一個有機體。我是會死去的，但不論這些，我可以再次活過來的。換句話說，我能和耶穌一樣。耶穌死後，有三天在[墓裡]，然後又活過來了。

And the idea that we can all be resurrected to live again is orthodox believe, not just for Christians but also Jews and Muslims. But our desire to believe this story is so deeply embedded that we are reinventing it again for the scientific age, for example, with the idea of cryonics. That's the idea that when you die, you can have yourself frozen, and then, at some point when technology has advanced enough, you can be thawed out and repaired and revived and so resurrected.

能夠復活的這個概念，不單源於東正教，也屬於猶太教和穆斯林的。但我們渴望去相信這個故事，是深植在我們的內心，而到了科學時代，我們又重新將它提了出來，比如，人體冷凍。意思是當你死後，你可以把自己冷凍起來，然後，直到有一天，科技，高度發達的時候，你可以把自己解凍和修復，然後復活。

And so some people believe an omnipotent god will resurrect them to live again, and other people believe an omnipotent scientist will do it.

並且有些人相信萬能的神，會人他們重新活過來，還有人則相信萬能的科學。

But for others, the whole idea of resurrection, of climbing out of the grave, it's just too much like a bad zombie movie. They find the body too messy, too unreliable to guarantee eternal life, and so they set their hopes on the third, more spiritual immortality story, the idea that we can leave our body behind and live on as a soul.

但是對某些人，對復活的這個看法，從墳墓裡爬出來，太像一部擺爛的殭屍電影。他們發現自己的身軀腐朽，也不大可能復活，無法擁有永恆的生命，所有他們有第三型別的故事，更偏向於精神上的永生故事，就是我們能夠離開我們的身軀，但靈魂永久長存。

Now, the majority of people on Earth believe they have a soul, and the idea is central to many religions. But even though, in its current form, in its traditional form, the idea of the soul is still hugely popular, nonetheless we are again reinventing it for the digital age, for example with the idea that you can leave your body behind by uploading your mind, your essence, the real you, onto a computer, and so live on as an avatar in the ether.

目前，地球上絕大多數的人，認為他們是有靈魂的，這個觀念是許多宗教的核心，即便是這樣，在現有的形式下，在傳統的形式下，靈魂的觀念依舊受到了廣泛歡迎，在當今的數字化時代，再次提起它，比如，你可以離開你的身體，你的心智，你的本質，真正的你，上傳到了電腦中，以化身活在乙太的世界。

But of course there are skeptics who say if we look at the evidence of science, particularly neuroscience, it suggests that your mind, your essence, the real you, is very much dependent on a particular part of your body, that is, your brain. And such skeptics can find comfort in the fourth kind of immortality story, and that is legacy, the idea that you can live on through the echo you leave in the world, like the great Greek warrior Achilles, who sacrificed his life fighting at Troy so that he might win immortal fame.

但是當然，有人會懷疑說，如果我們察看科學的依據，特別是神經系統科學，提及你的心智，你的本質，真正的你，非常依賴你身體上一個特別的部分，也就是，你的大腦。這樣的懷疑者，有著第四型別的永生的故事，那就是遺傳的傳說。你可以長存在世，透過你遺留在世上的事物,，就像古希臘戰士阿基里斯，他在特洛伊的戰鬥中犧牲了自己的生命，使他贏得了不朽的名聲。

And the pursuit of fame is as widespread and popular now as it ever was, and in our digital age, it's even easier to achieve. You don't need to be a great warrior like Achilles or a great king or hero. All you need is an Internet connection and a funny cat. (Laughter)

追求這樣的名聲從古至今，都一樣流行，在當今的數字時代，它更容易實現。你不必要成為像阿基里斯這樣的勇士，或者一個偉大的國王或者英雄。你只要能上網和一隻有趣的貓。(笑)

But some people prefer to leave a more tangible, biological legacy -- children, for example. Or they like, they hope, to live on as part of some greater whole, a nation or a family or a tribe, their gene pool. But again, there are skeptics who doubt whether legacy really is immortality. Woody Allen, for example, who said, "I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen. I want to live on in my apartment."

但有些人希望留下後代----子孫。或是他們想要，希望，成為整個整體中的一部分活下去，一個名族，或者一個家庭或者一個部落，他們的基因庫。但有人會懷疑，這些遺產是否，真的能永久流傳下去。比如，伍迪，艾倫，曾說過，“我不想活在我同胞的心裡。我想活在我的公寓裡。“

So those are the four basic kinds of immortality stories, and I've tried to give just some sense of how they're retold by each generation with just slight variations to fit the fashions of the day. And the fact that they recur in this way, in such a similar form but in such different belief systems, suggests, I think, that we should be skeptical of the truth of any particular version of these stories.

所以那些都是四種，基本的永生的故事，我試著說明這些故事，如何一代一代流傳著，但也都大同小異，以迎合當今時代的潮流。事實上這些故事不停的被傳述，在不同的信仰中有著相似的形式，我覺得，我們應該對，所有這些故事的真實性要有所懷疑。

The fact that some people believe an omnipotent god will resurrect them to live again and others believe an omnipotent scientist will do itsuggests that neither are really believing this on the strength of the evidence. Rather, we believe these stories because we are biased to believe them, and we are biased to believe them because we are so afraid of death.

事實上有些人民相信，一個萬能的神能讓他們復活，還有一些人相信萬能的科學能使他們復活，這說明人們在確鑿的證據面前，並不相信永生這回事兒，我們相信這些故事，只是因為偏見，我們偏誤去相信這些故事，因為我們恐懼死亡。

So the question is, are we doomed to lead the one life we have in a way that is shaped by fear and denial, or can we overcome this bias? Well the Greek philosopher Epicurus thought we could. He argued that the fear of death is natural, but it is not rational. "Death," he said, "is nothing to us, because when we are here, death is not, and when death is here, we are gone."

所以問題是，是否我們的人生註定生活在，對恐懼的抗拒和支配，還是我們能夠克服偏誤?，古希臘哲學家伊比鳩魯，認為我們可以克服。他主張我們對死亡的恐懼是天生的，但不是理性的。他說，”死亡對我們來說不算什麼，因為但我們在的時候，死亡不在，而當死亡在這裡的時候，我們不在了。“

Now this is often quoted, but it's difficult to really grasp, to really internalize, because exactly this idea of being gone is so difficult to imagine. So 2,000 years later, another philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, put it like this: "Death is not an event in life: We do not live to experience death. And so," he added, "in this sense, life has no end."

這句話常被引用，但很難，抓住精髓和真正的內在化，因為所謂的(不存在)，是很難想象的。所以兩千年之後，另一位哲學家，路德維格，維根斯坦，這樣說：“死亡並非人生中的大事：我們活著不是為了經歷死亡，所以”他補充到，“從這個角度來看，生命是沒有終點的。“

So it was natural for me as a child to fear being swallowed by the void, but it wasn't rational, because being swallowed by the void is not something that any of us will ever live to experience.

當我還小的時候，很自然的對在空虛中被吞噬產生恐懼，但這並非理性，因為在空虛中被吞噬，不是任何人，會活著能夠經歷到的事情。

Now, overcoming this bias is not easy because the fear of death is so deeply embedded in us, yet when we see that the fear itself is not rational, and when we bring out into the open the ways in which it can unconsciously bias us, then we can at least start to try to minimize the influence it has on our lives.

目前，克服偏誤不是那麼容易的因為，對死亡的恐懼已經在我們心底生根發芽，但當我們瞭解這些恐懼是不理性的，當我們可以在臺面上提出來，這恐懼會無意識的讓我們偏誤，那麼至少我們已經開始，嘗試去減小它，對我們生活的影響。

Now, I find it helps to see life as being like a book: Just as a book is bounded by its covers, by beginning and end, so our lives are bounded by birth and death, and even though a book is limited by beginning and end, it can encompass distant landscapes, exotic figures, fantastic adventures.

目前，我發現可以將生命，視為一本書：書的開頭和結尾，都被書皮包裹著，所以我們的生命被出生和死亡所固定，即便這本書受到開頭和結尾的限制，它能帶我們去遙遠的地方，異國的風情，奇異的冒險。

And even though a book is limited by beginning and end, the characters within it know no horizons. They only know the moments that make up their story, even when the book is closed. And so the characters of a book are not afraid of reaching the last page. Long John Silver is not afraid of you finishing your copy of "Treasure Island."

即便這本書受到開頭和結尾的限制，書裡面的人物，是不會被限制的，它們當下活出他們的故事，即便這本書被合上。書中的人物，不會害怕走到最後一頁。約翰，西弗不會害怕，你讀完《金銀島》。

And so it should be with us. Imagine the book of your life, its covers, its beginning and end, and your birth and your death. You can only know the moments in between, the moments that make up your life. It makes no sense for you to fearwhat is outside of those covers, whether before your birth or after your death. And you needn't worry how long the book is, or whether it's a comic strip or an epic. The only thing that matters is that you make it a good story.

所以我們也應當如此。想象關於你生命的一本書，它的書皮，開頭和結局和出生和死亡。而你只知道生死之間，活出你生命的時刻。這不會讓你，對書皮之外的事產生恐懼，無論是你出生之前，還是，死亡之後。你不必擔心這本書有多厚，無論它是本連環畫還是部史詩。唯一重要的，是你活得精彩!

Thank you.(Applause)

謝謝。(掌聲)