聽力課堂TED音頻欄目主要包括TED演講的音頻MP3及中英雙語文稿,供各位英語愛好者學習使用。本文主要內容為演講MP3+雙語文稿:技術如何改變了聾啞人的生活,希望你會喜歡!
【演講人及介紹】Rebecca Knill
作家,商業(yè)系統(tǒng)顧問經(jīng)理
【演講主題】技術如何改變了聾啞人的生活
【演講文稿-中英文】
Translated by Joyce He Reviewed by WantingZhong
00:13
My name is Rebecca, and I'm a cyborg.
我的名字是麗貝卡,我是個賽博格(改造人)。
00:16
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
00:19
Specifically, I have 32 computer chipsinside my head, which rebuild my sense of hearing. This is called a cochlearimplant. You remember the Borg from Star Trek, those aliens who conquered andabsorbed everything in sight? Well, that's me.
確切地說,在我的腦袋里有 32 個電腦芯片,用來重建我的聽覺。這被稱作人工耳蝸。你們都記得《星際迷航》中的博格人(半活體半機械的生化人)吧,那些外星人征服并同化了一切生靈。嗯,那就是我。
00:38
(Laughter)
(笑)
00:40
The good news is I come for your technologyand not for your human life-forms.
好消息是,我想要的是你們的科技 而不是你們的生命形態(tài)。
00:45
(Laughter)
(笑)
00:47
Actually, I've never seen an episode ofStar Trek.
事實上,我一集《星際迷航》都沒看過。
00:50
(Laughter)
(笑)
00:52
But there's a reason for that: televisionwasn't closed-captioned when I was a kid. I grew up profoundly deaf. I went toregular schools, and I had to lip-read. I didn't meet another deaf person untilI was 20. Electronics were mostly audio back then. My alarm clock was my sisterBarbara, who would set her alarm and then throw something at me to wake up.
這是有原因的:當我還小的時候,電視上還沒有字幕。我從小就嚴重失聰了。我去普通的學校上學,但是得觀唇辨意。直到我 20 歲時才遇到另一個耳聾的人。當時的電子設備幾乎還都是以聲音為主的。我的鬧鐘是我的姐姐芭芭拉,她會設好她的鬧鐘,然后朝我扔東西把我弄醒。
01:16
(Laughter)
(笑)
01:19
My hearing aids were industrial-strength,sledgehammer volume, but they helped me more than they helped most people. Withthem, I could hear music and the sound of my own voice. I've always liked theidea that technology can help make the world more human. I used to watch thestereo flash color when the music shifted, and I knew it was just a matter oftime before my watch could show me sound, too.
我的助聽裝置是工業(yè)標準的,音量震耳欲聾,但是它們對我的幫助比對其他人的幫助更大。有了它們,我能聽到音樂和自己的聲音。我一直喜歡“科技可以讓世界變得更人性化”這個想法。我以前會看著立體聲音響在音樂變化時閃爍顏色,我知道我的手表遲早也能通過類似的方式“發(fā)出聲音”。
01:49
Did you know that hearing occurs in thebrain? In your ear is a small organ called the cochlea, and the cochlea islined with thousands of receptors called hair cells. When sound enters yourear, those hair cells, they send electric signals to your brain, and your brainthen interprets that as sound. Hair-cell damage is really common: noiseexposure, ordinary aging, illness. My hair cells were damaged before I was evenborn. My mother was exposed to German measles when she was pregnant with me.About five percent of the world has significant hearing loss. By 2050, that'sexpected to double to over 900 million people, or one in 10. For seniors, it'salready one out of three.
你們知道聽覺產(chǎn)生于大腦嗎?在你們的耳朵里有個很小的器官,叫做耳蝸,耳蝸內排列著幾千個感受器,被稱為毛細胞。當聲音進入你的耳朵時,這些毛細胞就會把電信號傳送到你的大腦,然后大腦會將這些電信號轉譯成聲音。毛細胞損壞很常見:過量的噪音,正常衰老,疾病都會導致毛細胞損壞。我的毛細胞甚至在我出生前就損壞了。我母親懷我的時候得了風疹。全世界大約有 5% 的人都有嚴重的聽力喪失問題。到了 2050 年,這個人數(shù)將翻倍至超過 9 億人,即十分之一的幾率。對于老年人來說,聽覺受損的幾率已經(jīng)是三分之一。
02:43
With a cochlear implant, computer chips dothe job for the damaged hair cells. Imagine a box of 16 crayons, and those 16crayons, in combination, have to make all of the colors in the universe. Samewith the cochlear implant. I have 16 electrodes in each of my cochleas. Those16 electrodes, in combination, send signals to my brain, representing all ofthe sounds in the universe. I have electronics inside and outside of my head tomake that happen, including a small processor, magnets inside my skull and arechargeable power source. Radio waves transmit sound through the magnets. Thenumber one question that I get about the cochlear implant when people hearabout the magnets is whether my head sticks to the refrigerator.
有了人工耳蝸,電腦芯片就會代替受損的耳毛細胞。想象有 16 支彩色蠟筆,這 16 支蠟筆組合起來,要負責生成宇宙中所有的顏色。人工耳蝸的原理與之類似。在我的每個耳蝸中都有 16 個電極。這 16 個電極組合起來,向我的大腦傳輸信號,模擬出宇宙中所有種類的聲響。我的大腦內外都有電子設備以實現(xiàn)這一點,其中包括一個小型處理器,即安裝在顱骨內的一組磁鐵,和一個可充電的電源。無線電波通過這些磁鐵傳送聲音。當人們聽說人工耳蝸會用到磁鐵的時候,問我最多的一個問題就是:我的頭會不會被吸到冰箱上去。
03:41
(Laughter)
(笑)
03:47
No, it does not.
不,并不會。
03:49
(Laughter)
(笑)
03:51
(Applause)
(掌聲)
03:52
Thank you, thank you.
謝謝,謝謝大家。
03:55
(Applause)
(掌聲)
03:56
I know this, because I tried.
我知道,因為我試過。
03:58
(Laughter)
(笑)
04:00
Hearing people assume that the Deaf live ina perpetual state of wanting to hear, because they can't imagine any other way.But I've never once wished to be hearing. I just wanted to be part of acommunity like me. I wanted everyone else to be deaf. I think that sense ofbelonging is what ultimately connects our stories, and mine felt incomplete.
聽力正常的人往往以為耳聾的人處于一種永無止境的對聽覺的渴求,因為他們也想不到除此之外還能怎樣了。但我從沒有過哪怕一次希望能聽見。我只想處于一個與我情況類似的社群中。我希望大家都聽不見。我認為歸屬感才能最終連接起大家的故事,而我沒有這種歸屬感。
04:26
When cochlear implants first got going,back in the '80s, the operation was Frankenstein-monster scary. By 2001, theprocedure had evolved considerably, but it still wiped out any natural hearingthat you had. The success rate then for speech comprehension was low, maybe 50percent. So if it didn't work, you couldn't go back. At that time, implantswere also controversial in the Deaf culture. Basically, it was considered theequivalent of changing the color of your skin.
人造耳蝸最開始投入使用是在 80 年代,手術過程就像弗蘭肯斯坦(科學怪人)造怪物一樣恐怖。到了 2001 年,手術過程得到了很大的改進,但它還是會抹去你原有的全部聽覺。那時人造耳蝸對于理解語言的成功率還很低,大概只有 50%。所以如果它不成功的話,你也無法回到以前的狀態(tài)了。在那時,在聽障人群的圈子里,耳蝸植入還是頗有爭議的。因為人們認為植入耳蝸無異于改變你皮膚的顏色。
05:05
I held off for a while, but my hearing wasgoing downhill fast, and hearing aids were no longer helping. So in 2003, Imade the tough decision to have the cochlear implant. I just needed to stopthat soul-sucking cycle of loss, regardless of whether the operation worked,and I really didn't think that it would. I saw it as one last box to check offbefore I made the transition to being completely deaf, which a part of mewanted.
我猶豫了一段時間,但后來我聽力下降的速度太快,我的助聽裝置已經(jīng)幫不了我了。所以在 2003 年,我做出了一個艱難的決定,去植入人造耳蝸。不管手術是否會成功,我只想結束這種令人心力交瘁的缺失感,我也真的沒想到它會成功。我把它看作是我變得徹底失聰前要做的最后一件事;我的某一部分其實渴望自己完全失聰。
05:42
Complete silence is very addictive. Maybeyou've spent time in a sensory deprivation tank, and you know what I mean.Silence has mind-expanding capabilities. In silence, I see sound. When I watcha music video without sound, I can hear music. In the absence of sound, mybrain fills in the gaps based on the movement I see. My mind is no longercompeting with the distraction of sound. It's freed up to think morecreatively.
絕對的寂靜會讓人上癮。如果你曾體驗過感官剝奪箱,【注:在隔光隔音箱子的鹽水中漂浮】你就知道我指的是什么了。寂靜具有開拓人心智的能力。在寂靜中,我能看見聲音。當我觀看一段沒有聲音的音樂錄像帶時,我能聽見音樂聲。在沒有聲音時,我的大腦會根據(jù)我所看到的律動為我填補那段空白。我的大腦沒有了聲音的干擾,具有了更自由的想象空間。
06:20
There are advantages to having bionic bodyparts as well. It's undeniably convenient to be able to hear, and I can turn itoff any time I want.
人體仿生裝置也有它們的優(yōu)點。不可否認的,聽覺能為我?guī)矸奖悖椅铱梢噪S時關掉它們。
06:29
(Laughter)
(笑)
06:31
I'm hearing when I need to be, and the restof the time, I'm not. Bionic hearing doesn't age, although external partssometimes need replacement. It would be so cool to just automaticallyregenerate a damaged part like a real cyborg, but I get mine FedExed fromAdvanced Bionics.
我僅在需要的時候開啟聽力,其他時候則保持關閉。仿生聽覺不會隨年齡增加而退化,盡管某些外部配件有時需要被更換。要是我能像一個真的賽博格(改造人)一樣自動再生損壞的部件,那估計會很酷吧,可我的部件是由高級仿生公司用聯(lián)邦快遞寄過來的。
06:51
(Laughter)
(笑)
06:53
Oh, I get updates downloaded into my head.
對了,那些部件的更新是直接下載到我的腦子里的。
06:59
(Laughter)
(笑)
07:00
It's not quite AirDrop -- but close.
雖然不完全是藍牙傳輸,但也差不多了。
07:03
(Laughter)
(笑)
07:05
With the cochlear implant, I can streammusic from my iPod into my head without earbuds. Recently, I went to a friend'slong, tedious concert ...
有了人工耳蝸,我不需要戴耳機就能用 iPod 在腦子里播放音樂。最近,我去聽了一位朋友冗長而又乏味的音樂會……
07:17
(Laughter)
(笑)
07:19
and unknown to anyone else, I listened tothe Beatles for three hours instead.
沒有人知道,我其實在那兒聽了三小時甲殼蟲樂隊的歌。
07:24
(Laughter)
(笑)
07:25
(Applause)
(掌聲)
07:31
Technology has come so far so fast. Thebiggest obstacle I face as a deaf person is no longer a physical barrier. It'sthe way that people respond to my deafness, the outdated way people respond tomy deafness -- pity, patronization, even anger -- because that just cancels outthe human connection that technology achieves.
科技以極快的速度發(fā)展到了今天。作為一個耳聾的人,我所遇到的最大障礙已經(jīng)不是物理層面的了。而是他人對我耳聾的態(tài)度,人們對我耳聾的那種一成不變的過時態(tài)度——憐憫,屈尊,甚至是憤怒——這些態(tài)度直接抵消了科技進步所帶來的人與人之間的連接。
07:59
I once had a travel roommate who had acomplete temper tantrum, because I didn't hear her knocking on the door whenher key didn't work. If I hadn't been there, no problem, she could get anotherkey, but when she saw that I was there, her anger boiled over. It was no longerabout a key. It was about deafness not being a good enough reason for herinconvenience.
我曾經(jīng)有個旅友,有一次她大發(fā)脾氣,因為當她的鑰匙開不了門時,我沒聽見她敲門的聲音。如果我不在場就沒什么大不了的,她會再領一把新的鑰匙,但當她看見我就在屋里時,她突然變得怒火中燒。那已經(jīng)不是一把鑰匙的問題了。她覺得我耳聾并不是造成她不方便的 充足理由。
08:25
Or the commercial about the deaf man whoseneighborhood surprised him with sign language messages from people on thestreet. Everyone who sent me the video told me they cried, so I asked them,"Well, what if he wasn't deaf? What if his first language was Spanish, andeveryone learned Spanish instead? Would you have cried?" And they all saidno. They weren't crying because of the communication barrier, they were cryingbecause the man was deaf.
有一則關于失聰者的電視廣告,廣告里街上的人們都以手語和他交流,這使他感到驚訝與感動。每個發(fā)我那段視頻的人都說把他們看哭了,于是我問他們,“那么,要是他沒有聽覺障礙呢?要是他的第一語言是西班牙語,大家都去學西班牙語,而不是手語和他交流呢?你還會哭嗎?” 他們說不會。讓他們落淚的并不是溝通障礙,而是那個人聽不見的這個事實。
08:55
But I see it differently. What if the Borgshowed up in that video, and the Borg said, "Deafness is irrelevant."Because that's what they say, right? Everything's "irrelevant." Andthen the Borg assimilated the deaf guy -- not out of pity, not out of anger,but because he had a biological distinctiveness that the Borg wanted, includingunique language capabilities. I would much rather see that commercial.
但我看問題的角度和他們不同,如果博格人出現(xiàn)在了那段視頻中,說“耳聾是無關緊要的”。他們總說這種話,對吧?每件事對他們來說都是“無關緊要的”。然后博格人就把那個耳聾的年輕人同化了——并不是出于憐憫或憤怒,只是因為他有博格人想要的生物特性,包括獨特的語言能力。我更寧愿看到那種廣告出現(xiàn)。
09:26
(Laughter)
(笑)
09:28
Why does thinking about ability make peopleso uncomfortable? You might know a play, later a movie, called "Childrenof a Lesser God," by Mark Medoff. That play, that title, actually comesfrom a poem by Alfred Tennyson, and I interpret both the play and title to saythat humans who are perceived as defective were made by a lesser God and livean inferior existence, while those made by the real God are a superior class,because God doesn't make mistakes.
為什么一提到殘障,人們就會感到這么不自在?你也許聽說過這部戲劇,后來被改編成了電影,叫作《失寵于上帝的孩子們》,編劇是馬克·麥多福(Mark Medoff)。這部戲劇和標題其實出自丁尼生(Tennyson)的一首詩,我對它們的解讀是,那些被視為有缺陷的人是由次等神創(chuàng)造出來的,他們的存在低人一等,而那些由真正的神所創(chuàng)造出的人類則是更優(yōu)越的存在,因為神是不會犯錯的。
10:06
In World War II, an estimated 275,000people with disabilities were murdered in special death camps, because theydidn't fit Hitler's vision of a superior race. Hitler said that he was inspiredby the United States, which had enacted involuntary sterilization laws for"the unfit" in the early 1900s. That practice continued in more than30 states until the '70s, with the last law finally repealed in 2003. So theworld is not that far removed from Tennyson's poem.
在二戰(zhàn)時期,大約有 27.5 萬身體有殘疾的人被帶到死亡集中營中處死了,因為他們不符合希特勒對于“優(yōu)秀民族”的構想。希特勒說他其實是受到了美國人的啟發(fā),美國在 20 世紀初通過了針對與優(yōu)生學不符人群的非自愿絕育法,在超過 30 個州實行,并持續(xù)到了 70 年代,直到 2003 年才被完全廢除。所以這個世界離丁尼生的詩歌所描述的也沒有那么遠。
10:49
That tendency to make assumptions aboutpeople based on ability comes out in sentences like "You're sospecial," "I couldn't live like that" or "Thank God that'snot me."
那種根據(jù)能力來對人做出假設的傾向會讓人說出諸如 “你可真特別”,“我要是這樣可活不下去”,或是“感謝上帝,這種事沒發(fā)生在我身上”這樣的話。
11:05
Changing how people think is like gettingthem to break a habit. Before the implant, I had stopped using the voicetelephone and switched to email, but people kept leaving me voice mail. Theywere upset that I was unreachable by phone and not returning messages. Icontinued to tell them my situation. It took them months to adapt. Fast-forward10 years, and you know who else hated voice mail? Millennials.
改變人們思考的方式就像是讓他們戒除某種習慣一樣。在耳蝸植入前,我已停止使用語音電話,轉而使用電子郵件,但人們還是繼續(xù)給我留電話留言。他們會因我不接電話,不回他們信息而生氣。我不斷地向他們解釋我的情況。他們還是花了數(shù)月才適應。往前快進十年,你們知道還有誰也痛恨語音信箱嗎?千禧一代。
11:36
(Laughter)
(笑)
11:39
And you know what they did? They normalizedtexting for communication instead. Now, when it comes to ignoring voice mail,it no longer matters whether you're deaf or just self-absorbed.
你知道他們怎么做嗎?他們把短信變成了普遍的溝通手段。所以現(xiàn)在誰要是不回語音信箱,那他既可能是因為耳聾,也可能是因為他只顧自己。
11:52
(Laughter)
(笑)
11:56
(Applause)
(掌聲)
12:03
Millennials changed how people think aboutmessaging. They reset the default. Can I just tell you how much I love texting?Oh, and group texts. I have six siblings -- they're all hearing, but I don'tthink any less of them.
千禧一代改變了人們對訊息傳遞的看法。他們重置了默認值。你們知道我有多愛發(fā)短信嗎?還有群發(fā)。我有六個兄弟姐妹——他們都聽得見,但我從不會因此看不起他們。
12:21
(Laughter)
(笑)
12:23
And we all text. Do you know how thrillingit is to have a visual means of communication that everyone else actually uses?
而我們都發(fā)短信交流。你知道有這種大家都用來溝通的視覺方法有多令我感到激動嗎?
12:32
So I am on a mission now. As a consumer oftechnology, I want visual options whenever there's audio. It doesn't matterwhether I'm deaf or don't want to wake the baby. Both are equally valid. Smartdesigners include multiple ways to access technology, but segregating thataccess under "accessibility" -- that's just hiding it from mainstreamusers. In order to change how people think, we need to be more than accessible,we need to be connected. Apple did this recently. On my iPhone, itautomatically displays a visual transcript of my voice mail, right next to theaudio button. I couldn't turn it off even if I wanted to. You know what else? Netflix,Hulu, Amazon Prime no longer say "Closed-captioned for the hearingimpaired." They say "subtitles," "on" or"off," with a list of languages underneath, including English.
所以我現(xiàn)在正執(zhí)行一項使命。作為一名科技的使用者,只要一件產(chǎn)品有聲音選項,我就會要求它也具備視覺選項。這種視覺選項的出現(xiàn)究竟是為了照顧耳聾者,還是因為父母不想吵醒嬰兒并不重要。這兩類人希望有這種選項都是很合理的。聰明的設計師會制造多種方式 讓使用者能接觸到科技,而把這種接觸科技的方式 分到“無障礙功能”底下—— 其實是把它們藏到 主流用戶看不見的地方。為了改變人們的思考方式,我們不止需要“無障礙功能”,我們更需要彼此之間的連接。蘋果公司最近做到了這些。在我的蘋果手機上,它會在語音按鈕旁邊自動顯示 我語音信箱的文字版本。就算我想關掉它也做不到。你知道還有什么別的嗎? Netflix, Hulu(視頻網(wǎng)站), Amazon Prime (亞馬遜金牌服務)都不再顯示 “為聽障人士提供的字幕”。而是“字幕”,“開啟”或“關閉”,下面還有多種語言選項,包括英語。
13:38
Technology has come so far. Our mindsetjust needs to catch up. "Resistance is futile."
科技已經(jīng)發(fā)展至此了。我們的思維模式只需要跟上它的節(jié)奏?!暗挚故菬o效的”。(博格人口頭禪
13:47
(Laughter)
(笑)
13:48
You have been assimilated.
你們已經(jīng)被同化了。
13:50
(Laughter)
(笑)
13:52
Thank you.
(謝謝)
13:53
(Applause)
(掌聲)