Here are two fascinating trends in tech today.

这是当今两个引人入胜的技术趋势。

One is making machines more like people, like we see with the uncanny (and a little scary) language predictor called GPT-3.

一种是使机器更像人 ，就像我们看到的那种叫做GPT-3的奇怪(有点吓人)语言预测器一样。

And the second trend is making people more like machines. This includes obvious stuff like robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons, but also our phones that — if you think about it — are really just an extra limb we use to access the Internet.

第二个趋势是使人们更喜欢机器。 其中包括明显的东西，例如机器人假肢和外骨骼，还包括我们的电话，如果您考虑一下的话，它们实际上只是我们接入互联网所使用的额外工具。

At some point these two trends are going to meet in the middle. The person and the machine will become one. A hybrid. And this week, we had a peak at this future when Elon Musk and his team demonstrated Neuralink.

在某种程度上，这两种趋势会在中间遇到。 人与机器将合而为一。 杂种。 本周，当埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)和他的团队展示了Neuralink时，我们在这个未来达到了顶峰。

“It’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull, with tiny wires.” — Elon Musk

“这就像头骨上的Fitbit，上面有细小的金属丝。” —伊隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)

Neuralink is a coin-sized implant with super thin wires that would let humans connect directly to phones and computers with just their thoughts. The benefits range from restoring memories, hearing and sight to curing paralysis and depression.

Neuralink是一枚硬币大小的植入物，具有超细导线，可使人类仅凭其思想直接连接至电话和计算机。 好处包括恢复记忆，听力和视力到治愈麻痹和抑郁。

Okay, the demo this week didn’t blow anyone away. There were three pigs, with one of them — named Gertrude — causing a display to produce a sound when she touched something with her snout.

好的，本周的演示并没有让任何人震惊。 一共有三头猪 ，其中一头叫格特鲁德(Gertrude)，当她用鼻子吻东西时，显示器会发出声音。

Yeah, pretty underwhelming. However, this is Elon we’re talking about and we know live demos aren’t his strong suit (remember when he brought a Cybertruck on stage and promptly smashed its supposedly indestructible window.)

是的，非常令人震撼。 但是，这是我们要谈论的埃隆，我们知道现场演示并不是他的强项(请记住，当他将《电子卡车》带到舞台上并Swift捣毁了原本坚不可摧的窗户时)。

So we’re going to give Gertrude a break and assume Neuralink really is the future of human-machine interfaces. To find out what this could mean, I decided to click over to Lex Fridman to see what he thinks.

因此，我们将让Gertrude稍作休息，并假设Neuralink确实是人机界面的未来。 为了弄清楚这意味着什么，我决定单击Lex Fridman以了解他的想法。

Lex is an interesting guy. He’s a Russian AI expert at MIT with a black belt in ju-jitsu and an incredibly popular and fascinating podcast despite having the most monotonal speaking voice of any public figure on the planet today.

Lex是个有趣的家伙。 他是麻省理工学院的一名俄罗斯AI专家，身穿柔术黑带，是一个非常受欢迎且引人入胜的播客，尽管他是当今地球上公众人物中最单调的声音。

He’s a little crazy too. In June, he said that for every ‘like’ of one of his tweets he would do a combo of push-ups, pull-ups and running. Of course Twitter responded and he was quickly in over his head, but somehow he still managed to finish over 25,000 push-ups and pull-ups while running the equivalent of 12 marathons.

他也有点疯狂。 他在六月表示，对于他的一条推文中的每一个“喜欢”，他都会进行俯卧撑，引体向上和跑步的组合。 当然，Twitter做出了回应，他很快就头脑清醒了，但是不知何故，他仍然设法完成了25,000次俯卧撑和俯卧撑，同时进行了12场马拉松比赛。

Anyway, back to Neuralink. Lex attended the demo and stuck around to the end for the Q and A with the engineering team, where they outlined their long-term vision for Neuralink over the next 10 or 20 years.

无论如何，回到Neuralink。 Lex参加了演示，并与工程团队一起进行了问答环节，他们概述了他们对Neuralink在未来10或20年内的长期愿景。

This is my summary of Lex’s summary of that session.

这是我对Lex的总结。

1.减轻痛苦 (1. Alleviate Suffering)

“Since I’m Russian, let’s start with human suffering.” — Lex Fridman

“由于我是俄罗斯人，让我们从人类的苦难开始。” —莱克斯·弗里德曼

If you slam a door on your finger or get hit by a ball, we would say that the door or the ball caused us pain. That’s true to a certain extent, but not quite what is happening. We feel pain because our brain and nervous system are creating a signal inside our body. Sure the door and ball can cause an injury, but the pain signal is something we create ourselves.

如果您用手指砸门或被球击中，我们会说门或球使我们感到痛苦。 在一定程度上是对的，但事实并非如此。 我们感到疼痛是因为我们的大脑和神经系统正在体内产生信号。 当然，门和球可能会造成伤害，但是疼痛信号是我们自己创造的。

The same goes for psychological pain. If we’re depressed or angry we will blame the loss of a job or betrayal by a partner, but the feelings that arise from those external triggers are created within.

心理痛苦也是如此。 如果我们感到沮丧或愤怒，我们会责怪伴侣失去工作或背叛，但是内在的外部诱因会产生这种感觉。

This is not to say external sources of pain — both physical and psychological — aren’t real and important. They are. But the hope for Neuralink is that we can use the implant to interrupt or ease the pain response from these external causes.

这并不是说外部痛苦(无论是生理上还是心理上的)都不是真实且重要的。 他们是。 但是，Neuralink的希望是我们可以使用植入物来中断或缓解这些外部原因引起的疼痛React。

So you might get in a car accident and break a rib, but your Neuralink kicks into gear and dampens the pain. Or if your partner breaks up with you, then Neuralink throttles back on the monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme that reduces chemicals that make us happy like serotonin and dopamine.

因此，您可能会遇到交通事故并破坏肋骨，但您的Neuralink会加速运转并减轻疼痛。 或者，如果您的伴侣与您分手，Neuralink会抑制单胺氧化酶A，该酶会减少5-羟色胺和多巴胺等使我们快乐的化学物质。

2.意识和智慧 (2. Consciousness and Intelligence)

One of the more (in my opinion) extreme hopes for Neuralink is that it will help us understand where intelligence resides inside the brain. And this will provide hacks that jumpstart IQs and make us all smarter without spending years buried in books or labs.

(在我看来)Neuralink的最大希望之一就是它将帮助我们了解智力在大脑内部的位置。 这样一来，黑客就可以Swift启动智商，并使我们所有人变得更聪明，而无需花费数年时间埋藏在书籍或实验室中。

Then if we can unlock the nature of intelligence, the idea is that we are not far from understanding consciousness. We can finally answer questions like ‘Who am I?’ and “Do I have free will?’ At this point, philosophers hand the keys over to the engineers and philosophy is relegated to a dusty bookshelf next to unread tomes about alchemy.

然后，如果我们能够解开智力的本质，那就是我们离了解意识不远了。 我们终于可以回答“我是谁？”之类的问题。 和“我有自由意志吗？” 在这一点上，哲学家将钥匙交给了工程师，哲学被降到了一个尘土飞扬的书架上，旁边是关于炼金术的未读书籍。

3.增强的身体，思想和现实 (3. Augmented Body, Mind, and Reality)

This is one of the most talked-about and realistic applications of Neuralink. If we can repair or patch certain parts of the brain, we can help people regain the ability to move, walk, see and hear.

这是Neuralink谈论最多，最现实的应用之一。 如果我们可以修复或修补大脑的某些部位，则可以帮助人们重新获得移动，行走，看和听的能力。

And it could potentially go beyond this. If we can restore someone’s sight, who is to say that we can’t enhance our sight to see infrared or other invisible light. Same for hearing. Could we hear what dogs hear, or whales, as we expand the bandwidth of our sensory perceptions?

它有可能超越此范围。 如果我们可以恢复某人的视线，那就是说我们无法增强视线以看到红外线或其他不可见光。 听觉也一样。 当我们扩大感官知觉的带宽时，我们能否听到狗听到的声音或鲸鱼的声音？

4.游戏与虚拟现实 (4. Gaming & Virtual Reality)

Many middle-aged people don’t realize just how popular video games are today. Worldwide, there are 2.5 billion gamers, and many of those are immersed in hyper-realistic, multiplayer games that feel more real than real life.

许多中年人并没有意识到当今的视频游戏如此流行。 在全球范围内，有25亿游戏玩家，其中许多人沉浸在比真实生活更真实的超现实多人游戏中。

So a Neuralink that could stimulate the visual cortex for more powerful imagery, or create virtual reality without the use of goggles, is going to be a game-changer.

因此，Neuralink可以改变视觉规则，可以刺激视觉皮层获得更强大的图像，或者在不使用护目镜的情况下创建虚拟现实。

And if you can create virtual experiences without goggles, then you can do it without drugs too. So Neuralink could potentially mimic and replace psychedelics but do so without the crippling physical side effects and damage.

而且，如果您可以不用护目镜就能创造出虚拟的体验，那么您也可以不用毒品就能做到。 因此，Neuralink可以潜在地模仿和替代迷幻药，但这样做不会造成严重的身体副作用和伤害。

5.科技与生物学的融合 (5. Merging Tech & Biology)

We mentioned at the beginning that Neuralink is an early look at the pending convergence of people and machines. The hope here is that our experience with Neuralink (studies on people are coming soon) will help us figure out how to mesh our soft and messy biological systems with the hard metal and plastics of technology.

我们在一开始就提到，Neuralink是人与机器即将融合的早期观察。 这里的希望是，我们在Neuralink上的经验(有关人的研究即将到来)将帮助我们弄清楚如何将柔软而混乱的生物系统与技术的硬质金属和塑料结合起来。

A second benefit lies in understanding the resilience of our biological systems and applying it to robots. What this means is that damage in one part of our bodies is often compensated by changes elsewhere, like a person with a head injury learning how to speak again. Not so much with robots. If they lose one component there isn’t a way to self-repair or reroute. So Neuralink could provide clues to applying this resilience of biology to the brittleness of technology.

第二个好处是了解我们的生物系统的弹性并将其应用于机器人。 这意味着，我们身体某一部位的损伤通常可以通过其他地方的变化来补偿，例如头部受伤的人正在学习如何说话。 机器人并没有那么多。 如果他们丢失了一个组件，则无法进行自我修复或重新路由。 因此，Neuralink可以为将生物学的这种弹性应用于技术的脆弱性提供线索。

6.心灵感应 (6. Telepathy)

This is fun to think about. The idea is that people with Neuralink implants could communicate wirelessly rather than through voice or gestures. Because as amazing and nuanced our language can be, it’s still quite limiting.

这很有趣。 这个想法是，植入Neuralink的人可以无线通讯，而不是通过语音或手势进行通讯。 因为我们的语言令人惊奇和微妙，所以仍然有很大的局限性。

Lex shared some of his own hopes for this. As an introvert who often struggles to find the right words and tone to express his thoughts and feelings, he explained how wonderful it would be to instead share a visual image or ‘mind map’ with someone so they could experience the true richness of what he wanted to communicate.

Lex分享了自己对此的一些希望。 作为一个内向的人，他经常努力寻找正确的词和语调来表达自己的思想和感受，他解释说，与某人共享视觉图像或“思维导图”，以使他们能够体验到他的真实丰富性将是多么美妙。想沟通。

Think about architects who ‘see’ a building design in their mind, but then have to spend days explaining what they saw via words and shapes. Neuralink could share their vision as they see it themselves.

考虑一下建筑师，他们在脑海中“看到”建筑设计，但随后不得不花几天的时间通过文字和形状来解释他们所看到的东西。 Neuralink可以分享他们自己看到的愿景。

7.记忆与不朽 (7. Memories & Immortality)

“We live in our memories.”

“我们活在我们的记忆中。”

Our memories are fundamental to how we think about ourselves. Let me explain. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman says we are happy in two ways:

记忆是我们思考自己的基础。 让我解释。 心理学家丹尼尔·卡尼曼说，我们从两个方面感到高兴：

• we are happy IN our life when we are experiencing something positive now当我们正在经历积极的事情时，我们会在生活中感到快乐
• and we are happy ABOUT or WITH our life based on our memories我们对自己的生活感到满意或高兴

The second is more valuable. Now consider something else that Kahneman says. When we store the memory of an experience, it is the final moments of that experience that determine how it is stored. For example, if Person A has a colonoscopy where the pain appears in the middle of the procedure, while Person B has a colonoscopy where the pain occurs at the end, then Person A will store a much more favorable memory than Person B even though the procedures and pain were identical.

第二个更有价值。 现在考虑卡尼曼所说的其他事情。 当我们存储体验的记忆时，正是体验的最后时刻决定了体验的存储方式。 例如，如果人A的结肠镜检查在手术过程中出现疼痛，而人B的结肠镜检查在手术过程结束时出现疼痛，则即使人A拥有比人B更好的记忆，即使人A程序和痛苦是相同的。

This is a somewhat long-winded way of saying 1) our memories shape our happiness, 2) these memories are distorted by what happened of the end of the experience being remembered, and 3) we would be happier if we could edit how we remember these things.

这有点long之以鼻的说法：1)我们的记忆影响着我们的幸福； 2)这些记忆因回忆的结尾而发生的事情扭曲了； 3)如果我们能够编辑我们的记忆方式，我们会更快乐这些东西。

The idea is that Neuralink could tweak, delete or restore memories to make us happier.

这个想法是，Neuralink可以调整，删除或恢复记忆，使我们更快乐。

Then we could take this further. If Neuralink can store the memories that make us who we are, then there is no reason that all those memories and experiences couldn’t be stored outside the body.

然后，我们可以更进一步。 如果Neuralink可以存储使我们成为我们的记忆，那么就没有理由不能将所有这些记忆和经验存储在体外。

And that would effectively make us immortal. Our idea of self would no longer be tied to a mortal biological body. We would have a digital — and immortal — human.

那将有效地使我们成仙。 我们的自我观念将不再与凡人的生物联系在一起。 我们将拥有一个数字化的，并且是不朽的人类。

8.与AI合并 (8. Merging with AI)

This last point about becoming digital humans leads straight into the existential question being asked about artificial intelligence. AIs are better than humans in some narrow abilities like memory, but one day they could become generally more intelligent. And when that happens, it’s unknown whether they will be an ally or an enemy.

关于成为数字人类的最后一点直接引出了关于人工智能的生存问题。 人工智能在某些狭窄的能力(如记忆力)方面比人类要好，但是有一天它们可能会变得更加智能。 而当发生这种情况时，他们将成为盟友还是敌人都是未知的。

So if we can digitize our intelligence, our memories and even our very consciousness, then we can surf the wave of steadily improving AI and never have to directly compete with it.

因此，如果我们可以数字化我们的智慧，我们的记忆甚至我们的意识，那么我们就可以冲浪稳步提高AI的潮流，而不必与之直接竞争。

This could happen so gradually that we don’t even notice. Perhaps it would be similar to how one culture adopts the cultural characteristics of another. There’s no single moment when it switches over. There’s no set time when the early English adopted so many French words, or when the Chinese in Singapore started using Western cutlery instead of chopsticks.

这可能会逐渐发生，以至于我们甚至都没有注意到。 也许这类似于一种文化如何采用另一种文化的文化特征。 没有任何时刻可以切换。 没有时间设定早期的英语使用这么多的法语单词，或者新加坡的华人开始使用西方餐具代替筷子的时候。

It’s a gradual, almost unconscious, change that just makes sense as time passes.

随着时间的流逝，这是一个渐进的，几乎是无意识的变化。

Could Neuralink be a first step in this change? Time will tell.

Neuralink可以成为这一变化的第一步吗？ 时间会证明一切。