What then is the work of life? What the business of great men, that pass the stage of the world in seeming triumph as these men we call heroes have done? Is it to grow great in the mouth of fame and t
Well, we chose the second option, and language is the result. 我们选了第二条路，语言就是产物 Language evolved to solve the crisis of visual theft. 语言的进化解决了观察性窃取的危机 Language is a piece of social technology for enhanc
Once we have language, we can put our ideas together and cooperate to have a prosperity 一旦我们有了语言，我们可以分享想法并合作，从而创造繁荣 that we couldn't have before we acquired it. 没有语言这是无法完成的 And this is why our species
Now the reason the chimpanzees don't do that 黑猩猩不那么做的原因 is that they lack what psychologists and anthropologists call social learning. 是它们缺乏心理学家和人类学家所谓的社会学习能力 They seem to lack the ability to learn fr
Language really is the voice of our genes. 语言的确是我们基因的声音 Now having evolved language, though, we did something peculiar, even bizarre. 尽管我们有发达的语言，但我们也做了件特殊，甚至可以说是件奇怪的事 As we spread out around the world
Okay, so what this tells us is that, contrary to the old adage, "monkey see, monkey do," 这与我们所知的，“有样学样”（猴子见什么学什么）的谚语完全相反 the surprise really is that all of the other animals really cannot do that -- a
Each of you possesses the most powerful, dangerous and subversive trait 每一个人都拥有一个最强大，危险并具有颠覆性的特性 that natural selection has ever devised. 这一特性是自然选择前所未有的设计 It's a piece of neural audio technology for r
And so some time around 200,000 years ago, our species confronted this crisis. 大约二十万年前，人类遇到了这一困境 And we really had only two options for dealing with the conflicts that visual theft would bring. 我们只有两种
Mark, one question. Svante found that the FOXP2 gene, which seems to be associated with language, 马克，我有个问题。斯万特发现FOXP2基因，好像它与语言有关 was also shared in the same form in Neanderthals as us. 而尼安德特人也像我们一样有此基
Now I can't speak for you, 虽然我不能完全代表你们 but it seems to be the case that we don't have sex with people we can't talk to. 但可以这样说，我们不会跟无法交流的人去做爱 Now we have to counter that, though, against the evidence
Now think of the absurdity of this situation. 现在试想下这种奇怪的状况： If 27 individuals from those 27 member states sat around table, speaking their 23 languages, 如果27个来自各个盟国的人围坐在桌边，说着23种语言 some very simple mat
Our species can make stuff, 人类这一物种可以创造事物 therefore we prospered in a way that no other species has. 所以我们比任何其他物种都要繁荣先进 In fact, we can even make the "stuff of life" -- 事实上我们甚至可以创造“生命本身的东西”-- as I just
In fact, the Tower of Babel story in the Bible is a fable and warning about the power of language. 事实上，圣经里巴别塔的故事就是关于语言能力的一个寓言和警示 According to that story, early humans developed the conceit that, by us
There are lots and lots of ways of measuring time, 在许多计量时间的方法中 but a really bizarre base 60 system 古怪的60进制制度 known as hours and minutes and seconds is nearly universal around the world. 也就是时分秒计量单位，几乎被
