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Is there external reality? Of course there's an external reality.
外部现实存在吗？当然存在。
The world exists. It's just that we don't see it as it is.
世界是存在的。只是我们没有看到它的本来面目。
We can never see it as it is.
我们永远无法看到它的本来面目。
In fact it's even useful to not see it as it is.
事实上，看不到它本来的面目甚至更好。
And the reason is because we have no direct access to that physical world other than through our senses.
因为除了通过感官以外，我们无法直接接触到那个物理世界。
And because our senses conflate multiple aspects of that world, we can never know whether our perceptions are in any way accurate.
由于我们的感官混淆了那个世界的多个方面，我们永远无法知道这些感官是否在任何方面都是准确的。
It's not so much do we see the world in the way that it really is, but do we actually even see it accurately? And the answer is no, we don't.
问题不在于我们是否以真实的方式看到了这个世界，而在于我们实际上是否准确地看到了这个世界？答案是否定的，我们并没有。
However paradoxical it sounds, if we think of what is visible as just what projects to the eyes, we see much more than is visible.
虽然听起来很矛盾，如果我们把可见的东西投射到眼睛上，我们看到的就比可见的多得多。
Let me give you an example.
举个例子。
I walk into a room and there's graffiti on the wall and imagine it's graffiti that I find really offensive.
我走进一个房间，墙上有涂鸦，想象一下，那是我觉得非常冒犯人的涂鸦。
I look at it, I flush, my heart starts to race, I'm outraged, I'm taken aback.
我看着它，脸红心跳，我很愤怒，大吃一惊。
Of course, if I didn't know the language in which it was written, I could have had exactly the same retinal events and the same events in my early visual system, without any corresponding reaction.
当然，如果我不知道它是用什么语言写的，我的视网膜和早期视觉系统可能会出现完全相同的情况，没有任何相应的反应。
Much more shows up for us than just what projects into our nervous system.
对我们来说，除了投射到我们神经系统的东西之外，还有很多东西显示出来。
Our senses are also making up the tastes, odors and colors that we experience.
我们的感官也在构成我们所经历的味道、气味和颜色。
They're not properties of an objective reality.
它们并不是客观现实的属性。
They're actually properties of our senses that they're fabricating.
它们其实是给我们的感官制造出来的属性。
By objective reality I mean, what most physicists would mean, and that is that something is objective real if it would continue to exist, even if there were no creatures to perceive it.
我所说的客观现实是指，大多数物理学家所说的，如果某样东西继续存在，它就是客观现实，即便没有生物来感知它。
Colors, odors, tastes and so on are not real in that sense of objective reality.
颜色、气味、味道等等都不是客观现实意义上的真实。
They are real in a different sense.
它们在另一种意义上是真实的。
They're real experiences.
它们是真实的体验。
Your headache is a real experience, even though it could not exist without you perceiving it.
头疼是一种真实的体验，尽管没有你的感知它就不可能存在。
So it exists in a different way than the objective reality that physicists talk about.
所以它的存在方式与物理学家谈论的客观现实不同。
We always assume that our senses are telling us the truth.
我们总是假设我们的感官告诉我们的就是真相。
So it was quite a stunning shock to me when I realized that it's not just tastes odors and colors, that are the fabrications of our senses and are not objectively real.
因此，当我意识到不仅仅是味道气味和颜色，是我们的感官捏造出来的，并不是客观真实的，这对我来说是一个相当惊人的冲击。
Space-time itself, and everything within space-time.
时空本身，以及时空中的一切。
Objects, electrons, corks, the sun, the moon, their shapes, their masses, their velocities, all of these physical properties are also constructions.
物体、电子、瓶塞、太阳、月亮、它们的形状、它们的质量、它们的速度，所有这些物理特性也都是建构。
Sometimes it's really difficult for people to understand that the data that your brain is receiving is meaningless because when they open their eyes, they look around, they say, "Well, I see everything.
有时人们真的很难理解他们的大脑所接收到的数据是没有意义的，因为当他们睁开眼睛，环顾四周，或觉得：“我什么都能看到啊。
What do you mean it's meaningless?" A really simple example is color.
你说这一切都没有意义是什么意思？” 一个非常简单的例子就是颜色。
Scientific knowledge of what light is shows us that our natural perception leaves a lot on the table.
关于光是什么的科学知识告诉我们，我们的自然感知留下了很多东西。
The human perception of color is limited really by the principles of quantum mechanics.
人类对颜色的感知确实受到量子力学原理的限制。
It's interesting to compare the human perception of color, to the perception of sound.
将人类对颜色的感知与对声音的感知进行比较是很有趣的。
When you have two pure tones together, like a C and a G a simple chord, that's a fifth.
如果把两个纯音放在一起，比如单音C和G，是第五和弦。
If you hear that, you can hear the separate tones, even though they're played together and you hear a chord, you can also sense the separate tones.
听到这个音的时候，你可以听到独立的音调，尽管它们被放在一起演奏，听到和弦的时候，你也可以感觉到单独的音调。
Whereas with colors, if you have two different colors, say spectral green and spectral red and mix them.
而对于颜色，如果拿两种不同的颜色，比如说光谱绿和光谱红，把它们混合起来。
What you see is not a chord where you can see the distinct identities preserved, but rather an intermediate color.
你看到的并不是保留了各自独特性的混合物，而是一种中间色。
In fact, you'll see something that looks like yellow.
事实上，你会看到一些看起来像黄色的东西。
It's as if in music, when you play to the C and a G together, instead of hearing a chord, you just heard the note E the intermediate note.
就好像在音乐中，当你对着C和G一起演奏时，你听到的不是和弦，而是E这个中间音符。
So at this most basic level, we don't represent even the information we're getting in any accurate way.
所以从这个基本层面上来说，我们没有用任何准确的方式来表示我们所获得的信息。
And the reason is because it was useful to see it this way.
因为这样反而更好。
So what are you seeing the utility of the data not the data.
你看到的是数据的效果而不是数据本身。
Evolution by natural selection has shaped us with perceptions that are designed to keep us alive.
自然选择的进化塑造了我们的认知，这些认知是为了让我们活着。
So if I see a snake, don't pick it up.
因此，如果我看到一条蛇，不要把它拿起来。
If I see a cliff, don't jump off.
如果我看到一个悬崖，不要跳下去。
If I see a train don't step in front of it, we have to take our perceptions seriously, but that does not entitle us to take them literally.
如果我看到一列火车，不要走到它前面，我们必须认真对待我们的感知，但这并不意味着我们有权利按字面意思去理解它们。
