TED演讲:你的用词透露了你未来的精神状态?(3)

 And with this, we could analyze¹ the history of introspection in the ancient Greek tradition,  有了这些数据，我们就可以分析古希腊传统中有关于内省的历史，

for which we have the best available written record.  因为有着最完整的文字记录。

So what we did is we took all the books, we just ordered them by time 所以，我们先把这些书按照时间排列，

for each book we take the words and we project them to the space,  然后把这些字投射到字汇空间里面

and then we ask for each word how close it is to introspection, and we just average that. 然后我们问计算机这些字与内省有多少的相关性，再把它们平均起来。

And then we ask whether, as time goes on and on,  然后，我们不断地问计算机问题，

these books get closer, and closer and closer to the concept of introspection. 这些书就会越来越接近内省的概念。

And this is exactly what happens in the ancient Greek tradition.  而这正是古希腊所发生的事。

So you can see that for the oldest books in the Homeric tradition,  各位可以看到在荷马时代最古老的书籍，

there is a small increase with books getting closer to introspection.  与内省的相关性只有一点点。

But about four centuries before Christ,  但约在公元前400年左右，

this starts ramping² up very rapidly to an almost five-fold increase 它快速成长了五倍，

of books getting closer, and closer and closer to the concept of introspection.  这些书与内省的概念越来越接近。

And one of the nice things about this is that now we can ask whether 最棒的是，我们可以问计算机

this is also true in a different, independent tradition. 在不同的、独立的传统文化中，是否也有一样的现象。

So we just ran this same analysis on the Judeo-Christian tradition, and we got virtually the same pattern.  所以，我们用同样的方法分析了传统犹太基督教的书籍，也得到了类似的趋势。

Again, you see a small increase for the oldest books in the Old Testament³,  在最古老的旧约圣经中，你可以看到它缓慢地增加，

and then it increases much more rapidly in the new books of the New Testament.  之后在新约圣经中，它快速地增长

And then we get the peak of introspection in "The Confessions⁴ of Saint Augustine," about four centuries after Christ.  大约公元400年，圣奥古斯丁的《忏悔录》内省达到了最高峰。

And this was very important,  这个方法相当重要

because Saint Augustine had been recognized by scholars, philologists⁵, historians, as one of the founders⁶ of introspection.  因为圣奥古斯丁已经被多位学者、心理学家、历史学家公认为是内省的创始人之一。

Actually, some believe him to be the father of modern psychology⁷. 有些人认为他是现代心理学之父。

So our algorithm, which has the virtue⁸ of being quantitative⁹, of being objective, and of course of being extremely fast 所以，我们算法的优点不仅可以量化，而且客观，当然速度也相当快

it just runs in a fraction of a second 几秒就可以跑完

can capture some of the most important conclusions of this long tradition of investigation¹⁰.  并捕捉到若使用传统方法必须费长时间调查才能抓到的一些重点。

And this is in a way one of the beauties of science,  这也是科学美好的地方，

which is that now this idea can be translated and generalized to a whole lot of different domains¹¹. 它可以可以解读、归纳这想法，然后广泛应用在许多不同的领域上。

So in the same way that we asked about the past of human consciousness,  我们用计算机来分析过去的自我意识发展的方法，

maybe the most challenging question we can pose to ourselves 或许是最具挑战性的问题，

is whether this can tell us something about the future of our own consciousness.  是不是也可以告诉我们自我意识的未来趋向呢？

To put it more precisely¹², whether the words we say today 更精确地说，我们现在说的话，

can tell us something of where our minds will be in a few days, in a few months or a few years from now. 是否可以告诉我们接下来的几天、几个月或几年后，我们的心智会达到什么样的情况。

1 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

2 ramping   

土堤斜坡( ramp的现在分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• The children love ramping about in the garden. 孩子们喜欢在花园里追逐嬉戏，闹着玩。
• Have you ever seen a lion ramping around? 你看到过狮子暴跳吗？

3 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

4 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 philologists   

n.语文学( philology的名词复数 )

参考例句：

6 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

7 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

8 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

9 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

10 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

11 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

12 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。