美国NBC新闻网:假设人类聪明两倍会怎样？

美国NBC新闻网:假设人类聪明两倍会怎样？

What if humans could be made twice as intelligence

作者:--SUNRAIN-- 发布日期:2014-04-30 浏览:4703

译文简介:

加利福尼亚大学的名誉教授，神经学家，在欧文市研究智力的RichardHaier说“当大脑的机构学成为智力的基础被充分理解后，那么在理论上从新编排这些机构就可以提高智商。这是人类历史上第一次合理的设想增加智力。”

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原文地址：http://www./id/45998325/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/what-if-humans-could-be-made-twice-intelligent/#.U18Mh3n6gR4

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What if humans could be made twice asintelligence

假设人类聪明两倍会怎样？

You might someday be much, muchsmarter than you are now. At least that's the hope of neuroscientists focusedon understanding the basis of intelligence.

They have discovered that the brains of people with high IQstend to be highly integrated, with neural paths connecting distant brainregions, while less intelligent people's brains build simpler, shorter routes.But no one knows why some brains construct much longer-range connections thanothers.

有朝一日，你可能变得远远比现在更加聪明。这至少是致力于研究智力的基本原理的神经科学家的希望。他们已经发现高智商的人的大脑具有高度的整合性，神经通道连接到远处的大脑区域，低智商的人的大脑构造更简单，路径更短。但是没有人知道为什么某些人的大脑建立了比其他人长得多的连接。

"When the brain mechanisms that underlie intelligence areunderstood, it is theoretically possible that those mechanisms can be tweakedto increase IQ," said Richard Haier, a neuroscientist and professoremeritus at the University of California at Irvine who studies intelligence.For the first time in human history, he said, "the concept thatintelligence can be increased is reasonable."

加利福尼亚大学的名誉教授，神经学家，在欧文市研究智力的RichardHaier说“当大脑的机构学成为智力的基础被充分理解后，那么在理论上从新编排这些机构就可以提高智商。这是人类历史上第一次合理的设想增加智力。”

It's a titillating thought but, considering the aphorism"ignorance is bliss," one might wonder: Would it really be better tobe brainier? What would life and society be like if we all suddenly became,say, twice as intelligent?

这是一个令人心痒难耐的想法，但是，想起那句“无知便是福”的名言，某些人可能会想：变聪明真的更好吗？如果我们都突然间聪明两倍，生活和社会会变的怎样？

For simplicity, imagine that instead of our current mean IQscore of 100, humans had an average score of 200. (Experts say this isn't atrue "doubling" of intelligence because the IQ scale doesn't start atzero — and furthermore, the test isn't actually designed to yield a score ashigh as 200 — but we will set aside these qualifications for the purpose ofargument.)

为简单起见，想象现在的平均100的智商变成平均200的智商。（专家说，这样智力并没有增加两倍，因为智商不是从0开始的，而且，测试也不适合设计成200那么高，但是为了讨论这个问题，我们忽略这些专业要求。）

According to Earl Hunt, professor emeritus of psychology at theUniversity of Washington and president of the International Society forIntelligence Research, approximately one person in 10 billion would have an IQof 200. With a currentworldpopulation of 7 billion, there may or may not be one such personalive today, and in any case, his or her identity is unknown. However, the17th-century genius Isaac Newton, discoverer of gravity, calculus and more, issometimes estimated to have had an IQ of 200 (though he never took an IQ test).

Using him as an archetype, what if we were all a bunch ofNewtons? Would the world be much more advanced than it is today?

据华盛顿大学名誉教授和国际社会智商研究院的主席Earl Hunt所说，100亿人中有一个人的智商可以达到200。现在世界人口是70亿，那么现在是否有这样一个人还不一定呢，无论如何，他或她的身份未知。但是，17世纪的天才艾萨克牛顿，万有引力、微积分和其他理论的发现者，时常被认为有200的智商（虽然他从未做过智商测试）。用他来做原型，要是我们都是像牛顿那样的人呢？世界会变得比今天更加先进吗？

Self-actualization

自我实现

Haier believes greater intelligence, which he defines as theability to learn faster and remember more, would be highly advantageous on anindividual scale.

"Experiencing the world with a higher IQ might be moreinteresting for most people. They might enjoy reading more, might have agreater depth of appreciation for certain things and more insight intolife," he told Life's Little Mysteries.

Furthermore, IQs of 200 would allow us to pursue activities andcareers that most interest us, not just those we're mentally capable of, Haiersaid. We could masternew languages in a fewweeks, for example, or become brain surgeons.

Haier相信按他定义的更加聪明是学得更快，记得更多，那么从个人角度讲将会特别有优势。“体验更聪明的世界对大多数人来讲会更加有趣。他们享受更多的阅读，有更高的鉴赏能力，对生活有更深刻的洞察力，”他对《生活的小奥秘》说。而且，200的智商赋予我们从事更多活动和最使我们感兴趣的事业的能力，不仅仅是那些心理上的能力。例如，我们可以在几个星期内成为语言学家，或者成为脑外科医生。

Smarter humans would also be healthier and longer-living, thescientists said, because they'd have a better grasp of what behavior leads tothese attributes.

更聪明的人也会更健康更长寿，科学家说，因为他们能更好的把握那些有益的生活方式。

"Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and even more, managing achronic illness such as diabetes, can be quite cognitively challenging. That'sthe sort of challenge intelligent people can meet… by definition," Huntwrote in an email.

“保持健康的生活方式，进而处理可能非常富有认知挑战性的慢性疾病，例如糖尿病。显然那是聪明人可以应对的那种挑战。”Hunt在电邮中写道。

Social skills

社交技能

Society would not benefit quite as much as individuals from amass intelligence boost. Although people like to blame social problems on humanignorance and stupidity, the scientists say removing these factors would notlead to the emergence of a harmonious Utopia. Greater intelligence does notcome hand-in-hand with a greater ability to cooperate.

社会交往不会像个体那样从智力大爆炸中获得好处，虽然人们经常抱怨社会问题是因为人类的无知和愚蠢。科学家说排除了人类的愚蠢和无知也不会出现和谐的乌托邦。更聪明并不会让人们手牵手更有合作精神。

"Intelligence is independent of personality and emotion, soyou can have very intelligent people who are also just kind ofcrazypeople," Haier said. "Even if everyone had an IQ of 200,you'd have exactly the same range of personalities as you have now, and becausethat's a determining factor in how good your society is, you won't necessarilyhave a better society."

“智力是不依赖于个性和情感的，所以你可能是那种非常聪明的狂人，即使每个人都有200的智商，可能你的个性还是和现在一样，因为那才是你的社交有多好的决定性因素，所以你未必会有更好社交。”Haier说。

Again, consider Isaac Newton: Along with his off-the-chartssmarts, he was also a notorious misanthrope.

再次思考牛顿的例子：与他爆表的聪明同时存在的是他出了名的极其不愿与人交往。

While petty-crime rates would fall in a society of Newtons, Huntspeculated that white-collar crimes, such as banking scams and cover-ups bypharmaceutical companies, might increase and even grow more sophisticated. Onthe other hand, so would crime-fighting. "The evilcorporate villainswould besmarter than ever, but so would the government officials who were writing andenforcing the safety regulations! Who would win? Who knows?" he wrote.

在全是牛顿的世界里，小偷小摸会减少，Hunt推测银行欺诈和医药公司隐藏内幕，可能会增加，甚至变得更加复杂。另一方面，打击犯罪（也是这样）。“邪恶的企业坏蛋会更聪明，但是制定和执行政策法规的政府官员也更聪明！鹿死谁手还未可知。”

Despite these issues, there's a very good chance thathigher-functioning brains would help us invent technologies to fix some of ourbigger problems. Haier explained that just as a teamof 100 engineers is more likely to come up with a remarkable innovation than ateam of 10 engineers (because there's more total brainpower working on thejob), having 7 billion"geniuses" on Earthwouldlikely lead to solutions to some currently intractable issues. We might figureout a hyper-efficient way to desalinate saltwater, for example, or tap into alimitless alternative-energy source.

尽管有这些问题，但是更强大的大脑会帮助我们发明更多的技术来解决更大的问题。Haier解释道，就像100个工程师更可能比10个工程师想出更卓越的创新（因为更多的总体脑力），地球上有70亿个天才很可能解决一些现在看起来棘手的问题。我们可能发现更高效的海水淡化方法，发现取之不尽用之不竭的可替代能源。

Because both those advances would produce a greater abundance ofresources, they would likely minimize societal conflict — despite some humansbeing just as nasty as ever.

因为这两样进步可以生产大量的资源，可以最小化社会冲突，尽管有些人就是那么贪得无厌。

Loss of faith

信仰的丧失

According to Hunt, there's evidence to suggestthat many humans, if significantly smarter, would lose their belief in God

据Hunt所说，有证据表明很多人，如果太聪明，就会丧失对上帝的信仰。

"There is a small tendency for people with high scores to bemore liberal in their social attitudes and lesslikely to accept strong religious beliefs. This makes sense; we canknow things by reasoning or we can accept something on faith. If we all becamevery good reasoners, there would probably be a small shift to preferringreasoned over faith-based explanations of the phenomenon of life," he wrote.

Some people would undoubtedly continue to accept faith-basedcosmologies, however, as there have been many examples in history of highlyintelligent and religious people, Hunt noted.

“人们有些许趋势就是智商越高社会观念就越自由，就越不可能接受强横的宗教信仰。这是有道理的。我们可以理性的认知事物，或从信仰的角度接受某事。如果我们都变成非常理性的人，就可能会略微转向理性而不是基于解释生活中各种迹象的宗教信仰。”他写道。一些人可能毫不怀疑的继续接受基于信仰的宇宙哲学，但历史上已经有很多高智力的人和宗教人士的例子了，Hunt指出。

Looking smart

看起来聪明

Confounding the stereotype of the nerdy brainiac with suspendersand thick glasses, Hunt mentioned one other change that would be expected tooccur if we all became smarter. "People would be better looking!" hewrote. A study from Harvard University found a significant correlation betweenpeoples' test scores and how physically attractive other people rate them tobe, he explained, and extrapolating the finding up to people with IQs of200 implies that, in our world of super geniuses, an "average-lookingperson" would move up to the top 15th percentile on our current scale oflooks.

混杂着穿着背带裤带着厚眼睛的书呆子的老生常谈，Hunt提出了另一个变化，如果我们都变得更聪明的话。“人们会更漂亮！”他写道。哈佛大学的一个研究表明了智商测试结果和外表的吸引力之间的显著关系，他解释道并进一步推断，找出智商超过200的人意味着在这个超级天才的世界里，平均相貌就可以达到今天我们15%好看的那些人的水平。

Even if the extrapolation isn't quite accurate — if the correlationbetween intelligence and attractiveness breaks down past a certain range —humanity might at least be better at things like exercising and grooming.

即使这个推论不十分准确，如果智力和吸引力的关系在某个范围内失效了，人类至少会在像健身和打扮自己方面有所进步。

"I think what would happen is that there would be fewerhomely-looking people; especially people who are unattractive because they areslovenly," he explained. "Intelligent people are aware that lookingbadly is a handicap in getting jobs, being invited to parties, etc."

“我认为至少相貌平庸的人会更少；特别是因为邋遢而没有吸引力的人，聪明人会意识到差劲的外表对得到工作和聚会邀请等等是不利的”他解释道。

One final thought: Even when scientists finally do discover themechanism for ramping up intelligence, it is highly improbable that everyonewould be given an immediate IQ boost. The "haves" would surelybenefit from the neuroscience research more than the "have-nots," andthis invites a further line of inquiry. As Huntput it, "Suppose that in some future society, part of the population, say10 percent, became hugely intelligent, while the rest stayed where we are nowor even dropped behind a bit. What would that do to society?"

最后一点思考：即使科学家最终发现了提升智力的机制，也不大可能每个人都立即获得智力大提升。富国能够从神经科学家的研究中比穷国获得更多的利益，这引出了进一步的研究方向。正像Hunt所说“假如在未来社会，一部分人，假设10%，变得非常聪明，其他人则保持我们现在这样甚至还有所下降。那会对社会产生什么影响？”