December 2014
2014年12月
I've read Villehardouin's chronicle of the Fourth Crusade at least two times, maybe three. And yet if I had to write down everything I remember from it, I doubt it would amount to much more than a page. Multiply this times several hundred, and I get an uneasy feeling when I look at my bookshelves. What use is it to read all these books if I remember so little from them?
我曾經讀過維萊哈杜因的《第四次十字軍東征紀事》至少兩次，也許三次。並且，如果我必須把我記得的每件事都寫下來，我懷疑它會遠遠超過一頁。乘以幾百，當我看着我的書架時，我有一種不安的感覺。如果我對這些書記憶猶新，讀這些書有什麼用？
A few months ago, as I was reading Constance Reid's excellent biography of Hilbert, I figured out if not the answer to this question, at least something that made me feel better about it. She writes:
Hilbert had no patience with mathematical lectures which filled the students with facts but did not teach them how to frame a problem and solve it. He often used to tell them that "a perfect formulation of a problem is already half its solution."
幾個月前，當我在讀康斯坦斯·裏德（Constance Reid）的《希爾伯特傳》（biography of Hilbert）時，我發現了這個問題的答案，至少是一些讓我感覺更好的東西。她寫道：
希爾伯特對數學課沒有耐心，數學課給學生們講了大量的事實，但卻沒有教他們如何構思和解決問題。他經常告訴他們，“一個問題的完美表述已經是它的一半解決方案。”
That has always seemed to me an important point, and I was even more convinced of it after hearing it confirmed by Hilbert.
在我看來，這一直是一個很重要的問題，在聽到希爾伯特證實這一點後，我更加確信這一點。
But how had I come to believe in this idea in the first place? A combination of my own experience and other things I'd read. None of which I could at that moment remember! And eventually I'd forget that Hilbert had confirmed it too. But my increased belief in the importance of this idea would remain something I'd learned from this book, even after I'd forgotten I'd learned it.
但我怎麼開始相信這個想法呢？結合我自己的經驗和我讀過的其他東西。我當時都記不起來了！最終我會忘記希爾伯特也證實了這一點。但我對這個想法重要性的日益增長的信念，仍然是我從這本書中學到的東西，即使我忘記了我已經學會了。
Reading and experience train your model of the world. And even if you forget the experience or what you read, its effect on your model of the world persists. Your mind is like a compiled program you've lost the source of. It works, but you don't know why.
閱讀和體驗訓練你的世界模型。即使你忘記了你的經歷或你讀過的東西，它對你的世界模式的影響依然存在。你的思想就像一個編譯過的程序，你已經失去了它的來源。它起作用了，但你不知道爲什麼。
The place to look for what I learned from Villehardouin's chronicle is not what I remember from it, but my mental models of the crusades, Venice, medieval culture, siege warfare, and so on. Which doesn't mean I couldn't have read more attentively, but at least the harvest of reading is not so miserably small as it might seem.
尋找我從維萊哈德因編年史中學到的東西的地方，不是我記憶中的東西，而是我對十字軍東征、威尼斯、中世紀文化、圍攻戰等的心理模型。這並不意味着我不能更專心地閱讀，但至少閱讀的收穫並不像看上去那麼小。
This is one of those things that seem obvious in retrospect. But it was a surprise to me and presumably would be to anyone else who felt uneasy about (apparently) forgetting so much they'd read.
回想起來，這是顯而易見的事情之一。但這對我來說是一個驚喜，而且可能會讓其他人感到不安（顯然）忘記了他們讀過的那麼多書。
Realizing it does more than make you feel a little better about forgetting, though. There are specific implications.
不過，意識到這不僅僅是讓你對忘記感覺好一點。有具體的含義。
For example, reading and experience are usually "compiled" at the time they happen, using the state of your brain at that time. The same book would get compiled differently at different points in your life. Which means it is very much worth reading important books multiple times. I always used to feel some misgivings about rereading books. I unconsciously lumped reading together with work like carpentry, where having to do something again is a sign you did it wrong the first time. Whereas now the phrase "already read" seems almost ill-formed.
例如，閱讀和經驗通常是在它們發生的時候“編譯”的，利用你當時的大腦狀態。同一本書在你生活的不同階段會有不同的編纂。這意味着它非常值得多次閱讀重要的書籍。我以前總對重讀書籍感到有些疑慮。我不自覺地把讀書和木工之類的工作混爲一談，不得不再做一件事是你第一次做錯的標誌。而現在“已經讀過”這個短語看起來幾乎是不正確的。
Intriguingly, this implication isn't limited to books. Technology will increasingly make it possible to relive our experiences. When people do that today it's usually to enjoy them again (e.g. when looking at pictures of a trip) or to find the origin of some bug in their compiled code (e.g. when Stephen Fry succeeded in remembering the childhood trauma that prevented him from singing). But as technologies for recording and playing back your life improve, it may become common for people to relive experiences without any goal in mind, simply to learn from them again as one might when rereading a book.
有趣的是，這種暗示並不侷限於書籍。科技將越來越使我們重溫我們的經歷成爲可能。當人們今天這樣做的時候，通常是爲了再次享受它們（例如，當看旅行的照片時），或者在他們編譯的代碼中找到一些錯誤的來源（例如，當斯蒂芬·弗萊成功地記住了童年時阻止他唱歌的創傷）。但是隨着記錄和回放你生活的技術的進步，人們可能會在沒有任何目標的情況下重溫自己的經歷，就像重讀一本書一樣簡單地從中學習。
Eventually we may be able not just to play back experiences but also to index and even edit them. So although not knowing how you know things may seem part of being human, it may not be.
最終，我們可能不僅能夠回放體驗，而且能夠索引甚至編輯它們。所以，雖然不知道自己是怎麼知道事情的，但這似乎不是人類的一部分。