評論
打印
How many of you have seen the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"?
這里有多少人看過阿爾弗雷德·希區柯克的電影《鳥》？
Any of you get really freaked out by that? You might want to leave now.
是不是認為那片子太過離奇了？要是那樣的話，你現在可以走了。
So this is a vending machine for crows. Over the past few days, many of you have been asking,
大家看到的是一臺專門為烏鴉設計的自動售貨機。過去幾天，人們都在問我同樣的問題：
"How did you come to this? How did you get started doing this?"
“你怎么開始搞這玩意的？有什么吸引你的地方嗎？”
It started, as with many great ideas, or many ideas you can't get rid of, anyway, at a cocktail party.
說實話，這玩意就像很多偉大的想法，或者一些你無法在腦中驅散的想法一樣，是從一次雞尾酒派對產生的。
About 10 years ago, I was at a cocktail party with a friend of mine.
大概十年前，我與一個朋友在一個雞尾酒派對上。
We were sitting there, and he was complaining about the crows that were all over his yard and making a big mess.
我們坐在那，他一直在抱怨烏鴉們把他的院子搞得一團糟。
And he was telling me we ought to eradicate these things, kill them, because they're making a mess.
他那時很認真的跟我說，我們得想辦法消滅這些鬼東西，否則我們就不會有好日子過。
I said that was stupid, maybe we should just train them to do something useful. And he said that was impossible.
我跟他說，那才是壞主意呢，咱們為何不訓練它們，讓烏鴉幫我們人類做一點有意義的事情？他丟給我一句“那不可能”。
And I'm sure I'm in good company in finding that tremendously annoying, when someone tells you it's impossible.
我相信絕對不只我一人覺得這極度惱人--當有人告訴你“那不可能”時。
So I spent the next 10 years reading about crows in my spare time.
于是決定用10年的時間在我的業余時間專門研究烏鴉。
And after 10 years of this, my wife said, "You've got to do this thing you've been talking about, and build the vending machine."
現在10年過去了，我妻子說，“好吧，你也該把它做出來了，你不是一直說要給烏鴉們做一個自動售貨機么？”
So I did. But part of the reason I found this interesting is,
于是我就把它做出來了。但我對這個項目感興趣還有部分原因是因為，
I started noticing that we're very aware of all the species that are going extinct on the planet as a result of human habitation expansion,
我開始注意到我們人類已經意識到，有很多物種因為人類無止盡的擴張將會在地球上滅絕，
and no one seems to be paying attention to all the species that are actually living; they're surviving.
但貌似沒人對那些還生存在世上的物種有所關心--它們都還真正地活著。
And I'm talking specifically about synanthropic species, which have adapted specifically for human ecologies,
這里我指的是那些長期與人共處，并適應了人類生態系統的動物，
species like rats and cockroaches and crows.
這樣的動物包括老鼠、蟑螂、烏鴉。
And as I started looking at them, I was finding that they had hyper-adapted.
而假如你仔細觀察的話，你會發現所有的這類動物都已經對人類社會產生了高度的適應性。
They'd become extremely adept at living with us.
并且隨著繼續與人生活在一起，它們的適應性還加變得更強。
And in return, we just tried to kill them all the time.
但反觀人類呢，我們只是一直在不斷屠殺它們而已。
