Grey回答他从未被问过的问题：英语精读讲义

Hello internet,

互联网上的朋友们好，

it's Q&A time.

问答时间到了。

First question,

第一个问题，

are memes the future of society?

模因是社会的未来吗？

I think you meant this as a joke,

我猜你是在开玩笑，

but the answer is yes.

但答案是肯定的。

The internet for memes is the perfect Petri dish, 習語

对于模因来说，互联网是完美的培养皿、

gladiatorial theater, and mutation chamber,

角斗场和突变室，

growing, selecting, and randomizing the memest memes to meme in our minds.

培育、筛选并随机生成最能洗脑的模因，深植于我们脑海。

Society has always been a war of memes, 習語

社会一直都是一场模因战争，

but before it was fought with sticks and stones.

只不过以前人们用棍棒和石头来打。

The internet, however,

然而，互联网

has arms raced that fight to trench warfare of meme-driven brains in many areas.

已经把这场战斗的军备竞赛，升级成了许多领域中受模因驱动的大脑阵地战。

They've not yet captured all fields of thought,

它们还没有占据所有的思想领域，

but I fear the meme trenches will only expand.

但我恐怕这模因战线只会不断扩张。

In a previous Q&A,

在之前的问答中，

I was asked what topic I've changed my mind on, 短語搭配

有人问我对什么话题改变了看法，

and the unmitigated benefits of the internet sure is one of those things.

而互联网带来的纯粹好处肯定算是其中之一。

Rate from top to bottom:

从优到劣给这些排序：

pancakes, waffles, French toast.

煎饼、华夫饼、法式吐司。

If you know you're at a great restaurant, 語法

如果你知道你在一家很棒的餐厅，

then the ordering hierarchy is French toast before waffles before pancakes.

那么点餐优先级是：法式吐司优于华夫饼优于煎饼。

If you're at a restaurant of unknown quality,

如果你在一家不知底细的餐厅，

the hierarchy reverses.

顺序就反过来。

Pancakes are more reliably consistent,

煎饼的出品更稳定，

and thus can't reach the repulsive troughs or sublime peaks of French toast. 習語

因此不会像法式吐司那样，要么难吃得要命，要么美味得惊人。

What makes you unique compared to 7 billion people on Earth?

和地球上70亿人相比，你有什么独特之处？

In a world of billions,

在一个数十亿人的世界里，

no one is unique.

没人是独特的。

If you could have a companion animal like The Golden Compass,

如果你能拥有一只像《黄金罗盘》里那样的动物伴侣，

what would you have?

你会选什么？

A chimpanzee daemon.

黑猩猩守护神。

Maximize utility while minimizing inconvenience. 語法

实用性最大化，同时麻烦最小化。

What common life advice do you disagree with?

你不同意哪条常见的人生建议？

Do what you love and her sister meme,

“做你热爱的事”以及它的姐妹模因，

follow your passion. 文化背景

“追随你的激情”。

The word passion here is a disgusting perversion of language

这里的“激情”一词是对语言的恶心扭曲，

if, you know, words mean things.

前提是，你知道，词汇是有意义的。

And yes, there are people who are passionate, gross,

没错，确实有些人对自己的工作充满激情（真恶心），

about their work, but guess what?

但你猜怎么着？

Those kinds of people don't need advice.

那种人根本不需要建议。

They're going to do whatever they're uh passionate about anyway.

反正他们就是会去做他们……呃，有激情的事。

So this advice is useless to those who are its exemplars

所以这条建议对于那些已经树立榜样的人来说毫无用处，

while being anti-useful to everyone else,

而对其他人来说则有害无益，

making most people feel bad about their lives and their work by setting an impossibly high bar. 習語

它设定了一个不可能达到的高标准，让大多数人对自己的生活和工作感到沮丧。

In life, rather than expecting to find a burning passion inside yourself 語法

在生活中，与其指望能在自己内心找到某种燃烧的激情——

that you somehow don't know about already,

某种你居然还不知道的激情，

because it doesn't exist,

因为它根本不存在，

it's better and more useful to think of life like fishing.

不如把生活看作钓鱼，这样更好也更实用。

Some spots are beautiful to you,

有些地方在你看来很美，

and in some spots your skills will catch fish,

在有些地方你的技巧能钓到鱼，

others not.

而有些则不行。

But you can't know where you'd like to spend time until you go there, 語法

但除非你亲自去，否则你不知道自己喜欢在哪里度过时光，

and you can't know how many fish you can catch there until you try.

除非你尝试，否则你也不知道在那里能钓到多少鱼。

The younger you are,

你越年轻，

the more time you can spend sailing to different spots,

就能花越多的时间航行到不同的地方，

and then the older you are,

而当你年纪越大，

the more time you get to spend in places you know you like,

就能花更多的时间待在你确定自己喜欢的地方，

refining your abilities to catch fish there.

精进你在那里钓鱼的技巧。

Did you have a point in life that turned you around productivity-wise? 用詞

在你的生活中有没有某个转折点，让你的生产力发生了转变？

If so, what changed and what contributed to that change?

如果有，是什么发生了改变，又是什么促成了这种改变？

Yes, there was a time and an event.

有的，有一个特定的时间和事件。

I drifted through school without learning how to be organized, 習語

我在学校里浑水摸鱼，完全没学会如何井井有条，

because, despite what schools tell you about preparing you for the real world,

因为，尽管学校口口声声说在为你进入真实世界做准备，

they're mostly a babysitting service obsessed with an endless game of Trivial Pursuit.

它们其实主要是沉迷于无休止的“琐事问答”游戏的保姆服务。

When school dumped me into the real world,

当学校把我丢进真实世界时，

I had no idea how to adult and needed to figure it out fast. 用詞

我完全不知道怎么做个成年人，而且必须尽快搞清楚。

The single thing that changed me the most was keeping a paper notebook in my pocket 語法

改变我最大的一件事就是，在口袋里放个纸质笔记本，

and writing down my thoughts and simply looking back at that notebook on a regular basis. 短語搭配

写下我的想法，并且只是定期去翻看那个笔记本。

That loop booted me into a real human.

那个循环启动了我，让我成了个真正的人。

It's so simple,

这很简单，

but it comes down to increasing communication between the past, present, and future you. 短語動詞

但归根结底，就是增加了过去、现在和未来那个你之间的沟通。

That's how you direct change in yourself over time.

这就是随着时间的推移引导自身改变的方法。

What motivates you to do anything productive when everything is meaningless anyway?

既然一切都毫无意义，是什么驱动你去做有建设性的事呢？

This if we all die, what's the point meme is a bad one for brains.

这种“如果我们都会死，那有什么意义”的模因，对大脑不好。

Like, it's true that in the long run we are all naught but dust, 講解

虽然从长远来看，我们确实不过是尘土，

forgotten forever.

终将被永远遗忘。

But, your present experiences are real,

但是，你现在的经历是真实的，

and they're all you'll ever have.

并且是你所能拥有的一切。

A sunset doesn't need meaning to be enjoyed. 語法

享受日落不需要任何意义。

The enjoyment is the meaning.

享受本身就是意义。

Using productivity to build a life you want to live is intrinsically meaningful,

用生产力去打造你想过的生活，这本身就有内在意义，

despite abyss swallowing us all in the end.

哪怕最终深渊会吞噬我们所有人。

If you're not in a good place,

如果你现在处境不佳，

there's lots of small stuff you can do to start turning that around. 短語動詞

有很多小事你可以做，来开始扭转局面。

Watch this, do the opposite.

看看这个，然后反其道而行之。

What would you do if you became immortal?

如果你长生不老了，你会怎么做？

I'd live a really long time.

我会活得很久很久。

On a Dungeons and Dragons alignment chart, 文化背景

在《龙与地下城》阵营图上，

where would you place yourself?

你会把自己放在哪里？

Oh, D&D alignment charts,

噢，D&D阵营图，

so fun because of the endless disagreements over what the words lawful, chaotic, good, evil, and neutral mean.

这么好玩，是因为对守序、混乱、善良、邪恶和中立这些词的意思存在无休止的争论。

You think it's obvious,

你觉得显而易见，

but so does the guy you're arguing with. 語法

但和你争吵的那个人也这么觉得。

People might think I'm over here,

人们可能以为我在这里，

but I might view myself as over here,

但我可能认为自己在这里，

or depending on how much you want to D&D rules lawyer the word chaos, 用詞

或者取决于你多想用D&D规则去抠“混乱”这个词的字眼，

maybe even over here.

甚至可能在这里。

But the question ultimately presupposes the lie that people are consistent selves,

但这个问题根本上预设了一个谎言，即人的自我是一成不变的，

and in reality our selves are situational,

而在现实中，我们的自我是视情况而定的，

and everyone is everything for a time or under the right circumstances. 短語搭配

并且在特定时间或合适的环境下，每个人都可能成为任何阵营。

But that's no fun.

但那可没意思。

It's easier and memesier to put people on a 2D grid, 用詞

把人放在二维网格里要容易得多，也更有模因感，

and I've yet to see a D&D alignment chart for YouTube. 語法

而且我还没见过YouTube的D&D阵营图。

Who among Tubers is our lawful good,

在YouTuber里，谁是我们的守序善良，

and who is our chaotic evil?

谁又是我们的混乱邪恶？

On the Reddit,

在Reddit上，

I look forward to seeing your 2D D&D interpretations of the multifaceted people on this site. 短語搭配

我很期待看到你们把这个网站上多面的人用二维D&D图来解读。

You are allowed to change the name of the seventh planet in our solar system.

如果允许你更改我们太阳系第七颗行星的名字。

What would you call it?

你会叫它什么？

King George, of course.

当然是乔治王。

I'm still serious about this meme.

我对这个模因还是认真的。

#7thPlanetKingGeorge

#第七行星乔治王

If you could remove a single trait or characteristic from human beings as a species,

如果你能从人类这个物种中移除一个特质或特征，

what would it be and why?

那会是什么？为什么？

Human tribalism is a double-edged sword. 習語

人类的部落主义是一把双刃剑。

There were 14,000 questions submitted to this Q&A on my the Reddit,

在我的Reddit上有1.4万个提交给这个问答环节的问题，

and it's astounding to see how many are really asking,

令人惊讶的是，有那么多问题实际上是在问，

are you part of my tribe or not? 習語

你是不是我们部落的？

And it's disappointing to see how badly people react when the answer is no,

令人失望的是，当答案为否时，人们的反应会有多糟糕，

even on the most trivial of things.

即便是最微不足道的事情也是如此。

However, tribalism is how we develop teamwork, 表達脈絡

然而，部落主义是我们发展团队合作的方式，

and teamwork is how we build civilizations.

而团队合作是我们建立文明的基础。

But tribes are so often motivated by the totem they construct of the other tribe to yell at.

但部落往往被他们为另一个部落构建的、用来喊叫的图腾所驱动。

So, if tribalism and the teamwork it creates could still exist when removing the tendency to build totems to burn in effigy, 文化背景

所以，如果在消除这种构建用来烧毁的替身图腾的倾向时，部落主义及其创造的团队合作还能存在，

I'd do that.

我就会这么做。

Can you wear a hat for the rest of the video?

你能在视频剩下的部分戴顶帽子吗？

Uh okay.

呃，好的。

What's your opinion on whether Balrogs have wings?

对于炎魔是否有翅膀，你有什么看法？

Ah, the great Balrog debate of 2000 lives on. 講解

啊，2000年的炎魔大辩论还在继续。

There's a good reason my Balrog is drawn the way it is.

我的炎魔画成那样是有充分理由的。

The line from Fellowship reads,

《护戒使者》里的原文写道：

Gandalf's enemy halted again,

甘道夫的敌人再次停了下来，

facing him,

面对着他，

and the shadow about the Balrog reached out like two vast wings.

炎魔周围的阴影伸展开来，就像两只巨大的翅膀。

Unambiguous.

毫无歧义。

A shadow that's like wings isn't wings.

像翅膀一样的阴影并不是翅膀。

They're metaphorical wings.

它们是比喻意义上的翅膀。

Yet, not two paragraphs later, 短語搭配

然而，不出两段之后，

Tolkien writes,

托尔金写道：

The Balrog drew itself up to a great height, 短語動詞

炎魔拔地而起，变得极其高大，

and its wings were spread from wall to wall.

它的翅膀从一侧墙壁展开到另一侧墙壁。

Unambiguous wings.

毫无歧义的翅膀。

Or maybe not. 表達脈絡

或者也不一定。

Are these wings the metaphorical wings from but 12 sentences earlier? 用詞

这些翅膀是仅仅12句话之前的那些比喻性翅膀吗？

Well, now this has become an argument about how big the room is

好吧，现在这变成了一场关于房间有多大的争论，

that these real or metaphorical wings must stretch across.

那些真实或比喻的翅膀必须要延伸穿过这个房间。

Asking, did the Balrog have wings?

问炎魔有没有翅膀？

The books have the same answer as,

书里给出的答案就跟这个问题一样：

hey, where did the orcs come from?

嘿，半兽人是从哪儿来的？

Day, month, year or month, day, year? 文化背景

日、月、年还是月、日、年？

Year, month, day.

年、月、日。

What are your thoughts on thoughts?

你对思想有什么想法？

Who knows where thoughts come from?

谁知道想法是从哪儿来的？

They just appear.

它们就那么凭空出现了。

Is the glass half full or half empty? 習語

杯子是半满还是半空？

Why must judgment be passed? 短語搭配

为什么要下判断呢？

The glass is this full.

杯子有这么满。

How would you rule the world?

你将如何统治世界？

With compassion and an iron fist. 習語

带着怜悯心与铁腕。

Am I first?

我是第一个吗？

No, you were exactly 10,044th.

不，你正好是第10044个。