評論
打印
Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a sociology class.
獨白:請聽一段社會學課上的演講
Professor:Have you ever heard the one about alligators living in New York sewers?
教授:你是否有聽過在紐約下水道生活的短吻鱷的故事？
The story goes like this:
內容是這樣的：
a family went on vacation in Florida and bought a couple of baby alligators as presents for their children, then returned from vacation to New York, bringing the alligators home with them as pets.
有一家人在佛羅里達度假之后，給家里的小孩子帶回了幾只短吻鱷作為禮物，回到紐約后這幾只小短吻鱷被做寵物養著。
But the alligators would escape and find their way into the New York sewer system where they started reproducing, grew to huge sizes and now strike fear into sewer workers.
然而短吻鱷成功逃走并找到來到紐約下水道的路，在那里開始繁殖長成大短吻鱷，現在下水道工人們也心有余悸。
Have you heard this story?
你們聽過這個故事嗎？
Well, it isn't true and it never happened.
好吧，這不是真實的，從未發生過。
But despite that, the story has been around since the 1930s.
盡管如此，該故事自 20 世紀 30 年代就已傳開來了。
Or how about the song twinkle, twinkle little star, you know, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.
抑或是這首歌“閃閃的星星”，是這樣唱的：“一閃一閃亮晶晶，滿天都是小星星”。
Well we've all heard this song.
我們都聽過這首歌。
Where am I going with this?
我的用意在哪兒呢？
Well, both the song and the story are examples of memes.
這個故事和這首歌都是用來引出模因的兩個例子。
And that's what we would talk about, the theory of memes.
模因理論就是我們要講的。
A meme is defined as a piece of information copied from person to person.
模因被定義為人與人之間所復制的一則信息。
By this definition, most of what you know, ideas, skills, stories, songs are memes.
根據這個定義，我們所知道的，想法，技巧，故事和歌曲都可以是模因。
All the words you know, all the scientific theories you've learned, the rules your parents taught you to observe, all are memes that have been passed on from person to person.
所有你所學的單詞和科學理論，父母教你觀察的規律，這些都是人與人之間所傳遞的模因。
So what?
那又怎樣？
You may say.
你們可能這樣想，
Passing on ideas from one person to another is nothing new.
在人與人之間傳遞想法已經不是什么新鮮事了。
Well, the whole point of defining this familiar process as transmission of memes is so that we can explore its analogy with the transmission of genes.
將這種人們熟悉的過程定義為模因傳遞的重點在于我們能夠可以將它與基因的傳遞進行類比。
As you know, all living organisms pass on biological information through the genes.
眾所周知，所有生物都是通過基因傳遞生物信息。
What's a gene?
那么什么是基因呢？
A gene is a piece of biological information that gets copied or replicated, and the copy or replica is passed on to the new generation.
基因是不斷復制生物信息，而所有信息會被傳遞到下一代中去。
So genes are defined as replicators.
因此基因被定義為復制器。
Genes are replicators that pass on information about properties and characteristics of organisms.
基因是將包含生物性質和特征的信息傳遞到下一代的復制器。
By analogy, memes also get replicated and in the process pass on culture information from person to person, generation to generation.
通過類比，我們知道模因也是通過復制并把文化信息在同一時代和不同時代的人之間傳遞下去。
So memes are also replicators.
因此模因也是復制器。
To be a successful replicator, there are three key characteristics:
成功的復制器必須具備三個關鍵特征：
longevity, fecundity and fidelity.
壽命長，繁殖力好和準確性強。
Let's take a closer look.
我們進一步看看。
First, longevity.
首先是壽命，
A replicator must exist long enough to be able to get copied, and transfer its information.
復制器存活的時間必須足夠長才能得到復制并將信息傳遞并轉移。
Clearly, the longer a replicator survives, the better its chances of getting its message copied and passed on.
很明顯，復制器存活的越久，其信息得到復制和傳遞的幾率就越大。
So longevity is a key characteristic of a replicator.
因此壽命長是復制器的關鍵特征。
If you take the alligator story, it can exist for a long time in individual memory, let's say, my memory.
就短吻鱷的故事來說，它能在個人記憶中存在很久的時間，比如說我的記憶。
I can tell you the story now or ten years from now, the same with the twinkle, twinkle song.
現在甚至十年后我都可以跟你講這個故事，歌曲閃閃的星星也是一樣。
So these memes have longevity because they are memorable for one reason or another.
由于各種原因我們記住了這些模因，他們因此具有很長的壽命。
Next, fecundity.
第二個特征是繁殖力強。
Fecundity is the ability to reproduce in large numbers.
繁殖力指的是大量繁殖后代的能力。
For example, the common housefly reproduces by laying several thousand eggs, so each fly gene gets copied thousands of times.
比如，普通的家蠅產下數以千計的卵繁殖后代，這樣每只蒼蠅的基因就被復制了上千遍。
Memes, well, they can be reproduced in large numbers as well.
同樣，模因也能大量繁殖。
How many times have you sung the twinkle, twinkle song to someone?
你對別人唱過多少次“閃閃的星星”這首歌？
Each time you replicated that song, and maybe passed it along to someone who did not know it yet, a small child maybe.
通過不斷重復，有時候你可能將歌聲傳到某些從未聽過的人耳里，也許是一個小孩兒。
And finally, fidelity.
最后一個特征是準確性強。
Fidelity means accuracy of the copying process.
準確性指的是復制過程的準確性。
We know fidelity is an essential principle of genetic transmission.
我們知道基因的傳遞過程中準確性是一個核心的原則。
If a copy of a gene is a bit different from the original, that's called a genetic mutation.
如果復制的基因跟原來的基因有一點不同，就產生了基因突變，
And mutations are usually bad news.
而這是不好的事情。
An organism often can not survive with a mutated gene.
如果出現基因突變，生物是不能存活下去的。
And so a gene usually can not be passed on, unless it's an exact copy.
因此基因經常不能傳遞下去，除非是準確的復制。
For memes however, fidelity is not always so important.
然而，對于模因來說，準確性卻不是很重要的因素。
For example, if you tell someone the alligator story I told you today, it probably won't be word for word exactly as I said it.
比如，你對某人講述了今天我跟你說的短吻鱷的故事，你不能做到一字不漏。
Still, it will be basically the same story, and the person who hears the story will be able to pass it along.
但是故事的基本內容不變，因此聽到改故事的人也能繼續傳遞下去。
Other memes are replicated with higher fidelity though, like the twinkle, twinkle song.
其他模因則需要較高的準確性進行復制，比如“閃閃星星”這首歌。
It had the exact same words 20 years ago as it does now.
現在人們傳唱的歌詞跟 20 年前的一模一樣。
Well, that's because we see songs as something that has to be performed accurately each time.
這是因為我們認為歌曲的傳唱每次都一成不變。
If you change a word, the others will usually bring you in line.
如果改變了一句歌詞，其他人會對你說，
They'll say, that's not how you sing it, right?
你唱錯了，是嗎？
So, you can see how looking at pieces of cultural information as replicators,
從這些例子你現在明白了怎么將各種文化信息當做是復制者，
as memes, and analyzing them in terms of longevity, fecundity and fidelity,
即模因來看待，同時按照壽命長，繁殖力強和準確性高的標準來分析模因。
we can gain some inside about how they spread, persist or change.
我們能因此了解到他們傳遞，保持或改變的規律。
