How do you know it's really yours?

你怎麼知道他真的是你的手

It seems obvious, unless you've experienced the rubber hand illusion.

答案看似很明顯，除非你是在體驗橡膠手錯覺

In this experiment, a dummy hand is placed in front of you

在這個實驗中，一隻模型手放在你面前

and your real hand is hidden behind a screen.

你真正的手則是藏在布幕後面

Both are simultaneously stroked with a paint brush.

兩隻手都同時被畫筆輕撫

No matter how much you remind yourself the dummy hand isn't yours,

不管你在怎麼提醒自己這隻模型手不是你的

you eventually start to feel like it is,

你還是開始覺得它就是你的手

and inevitably flinch when it's threatened with a knife.

然後當模型手受到刀子威脅時，會不可避免地縮起自己的手

That may just be a temporary trick, but it speaks to a larger truth:

這可能只是個短暫的把戲，但它說出了一個事實

our bodies, the physical, biological parts of us,

我們的身體，我們生理上、生物上的一部份

and our minds, the thinking, conscious aspects,

和我們的思緒，我們的想法以及意識

have a complicated, tangled relationship.

有著複雜又交纏的關係

Which one primarily defines you or your self?

哪一個是主要定義你或你自己的呢?

Are you a physical body that only experiences thoughts and emotions

由於腦中生物化學的互動

as a result of biochemical interactions in the brain?

你是一個只會體會思考以及情緒的生理身體嗎?

That would be a body with a mind.

那你就是有著心靈的身體

Or is there some non-physical part of you that's pulling the strings

或者你有一些非生理的部分在暗中控制你

but could live outside of your biological body?

但卻不存在你的生理身體中？

That would be a mind with a body.

那就是有著身軀的心靈

That takes us to an old question

這又帶給我們一個古老的問題：

of whether the body and mind are two separate things.

究竟我們的身體跟心靈是不是兩個分開的東西

In a famous thought experiment,

在一個有名的思緒實驗中

16th-century philosopher René Descartes pointed out

16世紀的哲學家勒內‧笛卡兒指出

that even if all our physical sensations were just a hallucinatory dream,

即使我們所有生理感官都是一場幻夢

our mind and thoughts would still be there.

我們的大腦及思考還是會停留在那

That, for him, was the ultimate proof of our existence.

對他來說，那個思緒是最終我們存在的證據

And it led him to conclude that

這也讓他做出了結論

the conscious mind is something separate from the material body

有意識的大腦跟我們實體的身體是分開的

that forms the core of our identity.

而其 (有意識的大腦) 是組成我們身分的關鍵

The notion of a non-physical consciousness

非生理意識的概念

echoes the belief of many religions in an immaterial soul

跟許多宗教認為靈魂是非物質的信念產生共鳴

for which the body is only a temporary shell.

他們認為身體只是暫時的軀殼

If we accept this, another problem emerges.

如果我們同意這個說法，就浮現另外一個問題

How can a non-physical mind have any interaction with the physical body?

非生理的大腦要如何跟生理身體做互動呢？

If the mind has no shape, weight, or motion,

如果心靈沒有形體、重量或活動

how can it move your muscles?

它要怎麼移動你的肌肉？

Or if we assume it can, why can your mind only move your body and not others?

若我們認為它可以，那為什麼你的心靈只能移動你的身體，而不能移動其他人的身體呢？

Some thinkers have found creative ways to get around this dilemma.

有些思想家找到一些有創意的方式來解決這個兩難

For example, the French priest and philosopher Nicolas Malebranche

例如，法國傳道士、哲學家尼古拉斯．馬勒伯朗士

claimed that when we think about reaching for a fork,

主張如果我們想伸手拿叉子

it's actually god who moves our hand.

其實是上帝在移動我們的手

Another priest philosopher named George Berkeley

另一位傳道士哲學家喬治．貝克萊

concluded that the material world is an illusion,

做出實質世界是一個幻想的結論

existing only as mental perceptions.

它的存在只是心理的想法

This question of mind versus body isn't just the domain of philosophers.

這個心靈與身體的問題不只是在哲學家的領域

With the development of psychology and neuroscience,

隨著心理學及神經科學的發展

scientists have weighed in, as well.

科學家們也積極參與這個問題

Many modern scientists reject the idea

許多現代的科學家否定

that there's any distinction between the mind and body.

心靈與身體有任何差別的這個想法

Neuroscience suggests that our bodies, along with their physical senses,

神經科學家認為我們的身體和感官

are deeply integrated with the activity in our brains

跟我們大腦的活動緊密連接

to form what we call consciousness.

形成我們所謂的意識

From the day we're born,

從我們出生開始

our mental development is formed through our body's interaction

我們心靈發展透過身體與外在世界互動

with the external world.

而形成

Every sight, sound, and touch create new maps and representations in the brain

每一個視線、聲音、觸感都在腦中形成新的圖像和象徵

that eventually become responsible for regulating our experience of self.

最後變成能夠負責管理我們自身的經驗

And we have other senses, besides the typical five,

除了五感，我們還有其他感覺

such as the sense of balance

像是平衡感

and a sense of the relative location of our body parts.

還有我們身體部位的相對位置感

The rubber hand illusion, and similar virtual reality experiments,

橡膠手實驗，和其他類似的虛擬實境實驗

show that our senses can easily mislead us in our judgment of self.

顯示我們的感官很容易被我們自己的判斷誤導

They also suggest that our bodies and external sensations

他們也指出我們的身體和外在的感官

are inseparable from our subjective consciousness.

跟主觀的意識是不可分割的

If this is true, then perhaps Descartes' experiment was mistaken from the start.

如果這是真的，那麼笛卡兒的實驗可能從一開始就錯了

After all, if we close our eyes in a silent room,

畢竟，如果我們在一個靜謐的房間閉上雙眼

the feeling of having a body isn't something we can just imagine away.

擁有一個身體是很難脫離想像的

This question of mind and body becomes particularly interesting

這個心靈與身體之間的問題在某些時候變得特別有趣

at a time when we're considering future technologies,

當我們考慮到未來科技

such as neural prosthetics and wearable robots

像神經義肢和適合穿戴的機器人

that could become extended parts of our bodies.

他們可能可以變成我們身體延伸的部分

Or the slightly more radical idea of mind uploading,

或者是有點激進的想法—心靈上傳

which dangles the possibility of immortal life without a body

透過將人類意識轉移到電腦中

by transferring a human consciousness into a computer.

產生了沒有身體但長生不老的可能性

If the body is deeply mapped in the brain,

如果身體已經深深根植在腦中

then by extending our sense of self to new wearable devices,

那麼將我們的自我意識延伸到新的穿戴裝置

our brains may eventually adapt to a restructured version

我們的大腦應該可以很快的用新的感官

with new sensory representations.

適應這個重建的版本

Or perhaps uploading our consciousness into a computer might not even be possible

或許上傳我們的意識到電腦裡是不可行的

unless we can also simulate a body capable of delivering physical sensations.

除非我們可以模仿一個可以傳遞感官的身體

The idea that our bodies are part of our consciousness and vice versa

我們的身體是意識的一部份，或倒過來說—我們的意識是身體的一部份

also isn't new.

這個想法已經不新了

It's found extensively in Buddhist thought,

這個想法在佛陀的思想中很常出現

as well as the writings of philosophers from Heidegger to Aristotle.

還有從哲學家海德格到亞里斯多德的作品也都可以看到

But for now, we're still left with the open question

不過現在，我們還是持一個開放的問題：

of what exactly our self is.

我們的自我是什麼呢?

Are we a mind equipped with a physical body as Descartes suggested?

我們是像笛卡兒說的一個配備著身軀的心靈嗎?

Or a complex organism that's gained consciousness

又或者我們是複雜的生物體

over millions of years of evolution

經過上百萬年的演化得到了意識

thanks to a bigger brain and more neurons than our distant ancestors?

由於我們比我們的疏遠祖先腦袋更大、身體有更多的神經？

Or something else entirely that no one's yet dreamt up?

又或者是其他還沒有人想到的想法呢？