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我有學者症候群(一種認知障礙), I'm a savant,
更確切地說 or more precisely,
我是具超智商的 a high-functioning
自閉症認知障礙者。 autistic savant.
有學者症的人是很稀少的。 It's a rare condition.
而我的情況更是罕見, And rarer still when accompanied,
因為我還具有 as in my case,
自我認知和 by self-awareness
能掌握語言的能力。 and a mastery of language.
常常當很多人與我初次相遇, Very often when I meet someone
當他們知道我的行情時, and they learn this about me
場面就會變得有些尷尬。 there's a certain kind of awkwardness.
我從他們的眼神中可讀到 I can see it in their eyes.
他們有問題要問我。 They want to ask me something.
通常到最後 And in the end, quite often,
他們不法再忍耐下去, the urge is stronger than they are
於是就會脫口而出的問到: and they blurt it out:
「假如我告訴你--我的出生日期, "If I give you my date of birth,
你能告訴我--我是星期幾出生的嗎?」 can you tell me what day of the week I was born on?"
(笑) (Laughter)
或者跟我討論數學立方根, Or they mention cube roots
或要求我背誦很長的數字或文章。 or ask me to recite a long number or long text.
我希望你們能原諒我, I hope you'll forgive me
如果我今天沒有表演 if I don't perform
這種學者症獨角戲給你們欣賞。 a kind of one-man savant show for you today.
我將要談 I'm going to talk instead
的話題是比 about something
出生年月日 far more interesting
或立方根更有趣-- than dates of birth or cube roots --
帶你們更深入更接近我的內在世界; a little deeper
而不是只看我超智商的表面相。 and a lot closer, to my mind, than work.
我想和你們簡短的談談 I want to talk to you briefly
什麼是認知。 about perception.
安東契訶夫是以他寫的戲劇和 When he was writing the plays and the short stories
短篇小說而聞名, that would make his name,
他總是在隨身 Anton Chekhov kept a notebook
攜帶的筆記本中 in which he noted down
記下所觀察到的 his observations
周遭世界-- of the world around him --
一些其他人 little details
似乎沒注意到的小細節。 that other people seem to miss.
每次當我讀到契訶夫的書, Every time I read Chekhov
與他的獨特眼光來品味人生, and his unique vision of human life,
就再次提醒我自己這也是 I'm reminded of why I too
為什麼我也成了一名作家的原因。 became a writer.
在我的書中, In my books,
我探索認知的本質, I explore the nature of perception
經由各種不同類型的察覺 and how different kinds of perceiving
進而創造不同的知識 create different kinds of knowing
和理解。 and understanding.
我準備了三個問題 Here are three questions
告訴您們我的世界, drawn from my work.
與其要你們試著去解答, Rather than try to figure them out,
我要你們考慮片刻,利用你們的 I'm going to ask you to consider for a moment
立即直覺 the intuitions
和本能的反應, and the gut instincts
就是那種當一入眼簾後,通過你的頭跟心(身體) that are going through your head and your heart
之後的直覺來回答問題。 as you look at them.
舉例來說,這個計算題, For example, the calculation.
是否你可以大約推測出它 Can you feel where on the number line
最可能的數字? the solution is likely to fall?
或是看到這些外國語或聽到它的發音。 Or look at the foreign word and the sounds.
你能感覺到它們所要表達出 Can you get a sense of the range of meanings
的意義嗎? that it's pointing you towards?
在這首詩的章節中, And in terms of the line of poetry,
為什麼詩人用「野兔」 why does the poet use the word hare
而不用「兔子」這個詞呢? rather than rabbit?
我要求你們這樣做, I'm asking you to do this
是因為我認為我們個人對事物的認知 because I believe our personal perceptions, you see,
是我們如何獲取 are at the heart
知識的主要方式。 of how we acquire knowledge.
用對感觀上的感受(審美觀), Aesthetic judgments,
取代依靠抽象推理, rather than abstract reasoning,
引導和塑造的過程來 guide and shape the process
認識學習知識。然後 by which we all come to know
瞭解事務。 what we know.
而我個人就是一個極佳的例子。 I'm an extreme example of this.
在我的世界裡,文字和數字 My worlds of words and numbers
是混雜帶有顏色,有情感 blur with color, emotion
和個性的。 and personality.
就像關(Juan)所說的 As Juan said,
是科學家們稱之的「聯覺」症狀, it's the condition that scientists call synesthesia,
也就是一種感覺和另一種感覺之間 an unusual cross-talk
不尋常的交際。 between the senses.
這是數字1至12的圖, Here are the numbers one to 12
但我看它們是-- as I see them --
每一個數字有專屬的形狀和特色。 every number with its own shape and character.
1是閃爍的白光。 One is a flash of white light.
6是一個憂傷微小的黑洞。 Six is a tiny and very sad black hole.
呈現你們眼前的這圖只有黑色和白色, The sketches are in black and white here,
但在我心中,他們有顏色。 but in my mind they have colors.
3是綠色。 Three is green.
4是藍色的。 Four is blue.
5是黃色的。 Five is yellow.
我也畫畫。 I paint as well.
這是我的其中一個作品。 And here is one of my paintings.
顯示兩個質數的乘法。 It's a multiplication of two prime numbers.
呈三次空間的形狀, Three-dimensional shapes
而在兩個質數中間的空間中有 and the space they create in the middle
另一個新的形狀, creates a new shape,
也就是解答。 the answer to the sum.
那麼如果是較大的數字呢? What about bigger numbers?
沒有任何數字比Pi(π,圓周率)更無限, Well you can't get much bigger than Pi,
π是數學常數。 the mathematical constant.
是一個無限的數字-- It's an infinite number --
理論上是永無止境的延伸。 literally goes on forever.
在此畫中我畫出的π是 In this painting that I made
直到小數點後的第20位為止, of the first 20 decimals of Pi,
我用了許多色彩, I take the colors
情緒和質感 and the emotions and the textures
一同來顯現出一種 and I pull them all together
滾動的數字景觀。 into a kind of rolling numerical landscape.
對我而言,不是只有數字具有顏色。 But it's not only numbers that I see in colors.
對我來說,字也一樣 Words too, for me,
有顏色,情感 have colors and emotions
和質感紋路。 and textures.
納博科夫知名小說 And this is an opening phrase
「洛麗塔」的開場白。 from the novel "Lolita."
大量利用聯感詞(用某種感覺的字眼表達另一種感覺)。 And Nabokov was himself synesthetic.
你可以看到, And you can see here
在這裡因我對 L發音的感覺 how my perception of the sound L
有助於我瞭解 helps the alliteration
句中的字頭押韻, to jump right out.
另一例子: Another example:
牽扯到一點數學。 a little bit more mathematical.
我很好奇想知道是否在此有些人 And I wonder if some of you will notice
會注意到「大亨小傳」 the construction of the sentence
中句法的結構? from "The Great Gatsby."
一連串有組織的音節---- There is a procession of syllables --
麥,1個音節; wheat, one;
草原,2個音節; prairies, two;
失城記(消失的瑞典城鎮),3個音節-- lost Swede towns, three --
1,2,3。 one, two, three.
很有節奏,讀起來心情非常愉快, And this effect is very pleasant on the mind,
所以句子 and it helps the sentence
很通暢恰好。 to feel right.
讓我們回到我 Let's go back to the questions
剛才提出的問題上。 I posed you a moment ago.
64乘以75。 64 multiplied by 75.
如果你下國際象棋, If some of you play chess,
你就會知道, you'll know that 64
64是一個平方數, is a square number,
這就是為什麼棋盤, and that's why chessboards,
八乘八, eight by eight,
有64個方格。 have 64 squares.
這給了我們一個 So that gives us a form
們可以想像的模型, that we can picture, that we can perceive.
那75呢? What about 75?
就用100來想像, Well if 100,
如果我們認為100是廣場, if we think of 100 as being like a square,
75就是這樣的的大小。 75 would look like this.
所以我們現在 So what we need to do now
只要把那兩張照片 is put those two pictures
在我們的腦海中併在一起 -- together in our mind --
像這樣。 something like this.
64變為6400。 64 becomes 6,400.
而在右下角, And in the right-hand corner,
你不須要計算。 you don't have to calculate anything.
4個格子,上下四個格子-- Four across, four up and down --
所以是16。 it's 16.
那麼真正須要計算的總和 So what the sum is actually asking you to do
是16, is 16,
16,16(3個16)。 16, 16.
很簡單吧! That's a lot easier
我相信比學校教的計算方法容易多了。 than the school taught you to do math, I'm sure.
那16,16,16,48(3個16), It's 16, 16, 16, 48,
4800(48x100) 4,800 --
-- 4800, 4,000,
就是正確答案。 the answer to the sum.
當你知道方法就很簡單! Easy when you know how.
(笑) (Laughter)
第二個問題是有關冰島文字。 The second question was an Icelandic word.
我推測在座沒有多少人 I'm assuming there are not many people here
會說冰島話。 who speak Icelandic.
因此,讓我縮小你們的選擇範圍到兩個。 So let me narrow the choices down to two.
Hnugginn: Hnugginn:
這是一個表示高興的字, is it a happy word,
或悲傷的字? or a sad word?
你怎麼想? What do you say?
好! Okay.
有人說是快樂的字。 Some people say it's happy.
但很多人,大多數的人說是 Most people, a majority of people,
悲傷的詞字。 say sad.
它實際上意味著悲哀。 And it actually means sad.
(笑) (Laughter)
在統計學上為什麼 Why do, statistically,
大多數人說這一個字 a majority of people
,在此例,是悲傷的意思, say that a word is sad, in this case,
別的例子可能指強勢? heavy in other cases?
我的理論是:語言的發展是 In my theory, language evolves in such a way
與聲音相襯的方式進行, that sounds match,
加上相對應的主觀感覺, correspond with the subjective,
及聽者個人的 with the personal
直覺經驗 intuitive experience
來演化。 of the listener.
讓我們來看第三個問題。 Let's have a look at the third question.
這是約翰濟慈詩中的一句。 It's a line from a poem by John Keats.
文字就像數字一樣, Words, like numbers,
呈現對於目標,事件之間 express fundamental relationships
的根本互動關係, between objects
驅動組成 and events and forces
我們的世界。 that constitute our world.
這也為什麼生存在這世界的我們, It stands to reason that we, existing in this world,
理所當然的會在此過程中 should in the course of our lives
直覺地承接這些關係。 absorb intuitively those relationships.
詩人們,像其他的藝術家一樣, And poets, like other artists,
細細把玩著對直覺的理解。 play with those intuitive understandings.
像這例子為什麼用野兔這詞, In the case of hare,
野兔在英語的用法有另一個含糊不清的意義。 it's an ambiguous sound in English.
也可指長在頭上的毫毛。 It can also mean the fibers that grow from a head.
那麼如果我們想像一下-- And if we think of that --
--讓我用圖像來告訴您們-- let me put the picture up --
毫毛代表脆弱。 the fibers represent vulnerability.
它們會被任何輕微的風吹草動 They yield to the slightest movement
或情緒所影響。 or motion or emotion.
所以可以創造出 So what you have is an atmosphere
脆弱和緊張氣氛。 of vulnerability and tension.
野兔本身-- The hare itself, the animal --
不是貓,不是狗,而是野兔 -- not a cat, not a dog, a hare --
為什麼用野兔這個詞? why a hare?
想像 這個情景的圖片 Because think of the picture,
而不是字,想像圖片。 not the word, the picture.
過長的耳朵, The overlong ears,
超大的腳, the overlarge feet,
幫助我們去想像,直觀地去感受, helps us to picture, to feel intuitively,
這意味著什麼: what it means to limp
跛腳,顫抖。 and to tremble.
我希望在這幾分鐘裡 So in these few minutes,
我已經跟您們分享 I hope I've been able to share
一些些我視野中的世界, a little bit of my vision of things,
並且讓你們知道 and to show you
文字有色彩和情感, that words can have colors and emotions,
數字,形狀和個性。 numbers, shapes and personalities.
這世界是比我們 The world is richer,
常以為的 vaster
更富麗的,更遼闊的。 than it too often seems to be.
我希望我已經挑起你們 I hope that I've given you the desire
用新的眼光學習看世界的動機。 to learn to see the world with new eyes.
謝謝。 Thank you.
(鼓掌) (Applause)